Pictured on the scroll was a large almost tea pot like item, Shu He had seen many things like this flying around as antiques in his old world, of course back then they served as nothing more than decorations with myths and legends flying around about their uses.
'This should be a pill furnace, right?' He though as he saw the label on the picture describing it as an 'Alchemy Furnace'.
It was round in shape with a smaller, round chamber isolated on top of the larger sphere, there were holes in a few places around the furnace and a couple of tubes with separate chambers linking in and out of the main chamber.
It was far more complex than the ornate 'pill furnaces' that he had seen in history or antique books, clearly it was designed to be practical over being visually appealing.
There was a description below the label that read:
The modern alchemy furnace is an achievement created from generations of planning and iteration, the main chamber is where the ingredients are processed, merged and transformed, the large area allows for greater and more free control, the side chambers are for separating essences and side-processing allowing for a much higher degree of flexibility when creating a pill, the upper chamber is where the pill is formed, the smaller area combined with special formations allows the user to focus the control and tighten the pills final form, as well as allowing a closer final inspection before the pill is formed; As with any alchemy furnace as well it can be used for other things than pills including the processing of pastes, elixirs and simple oral medication like powders and tablets, the circular vents assist in the production of these products allowing impurities to escape.
'I wonder how much one of these costs…' Shu He could imagine the sound of coins piling up in his mind as he thought this, based on the description it sounds like an expensive instrument, not something he would be able to buy with his pocket change.
He went to read the next section before he saw the title and started to become a little giddy.
"Basics of performing alchemy to form a pill" He grinned as he read the title.
'Here we go!' His eyes began trawling through the text that read:
Creating a pill through alchemy is process of extracting the essence of the world, combining, and transforming them as fit and then embodying them in the perfect form known as a pill, it may sound both simple yet confusing; but it is a skill that requires deep understanding, yet once that understanding is reached it becomes clear as day.
There are two key skills that are required of an alchemist, the ability to emit Qi beyond ones body known as Qi externalisation, and sufficient control over said QI. Contrary to popular belief, Alchemic Qi is NOT required to perform alchemy, after all Alchemic Qi was a creation of alchemists, how could they perform alchemy if that was a requirement?
The first and largest hurdle of an alchemist is attaining the ability to take a resource and convert it into essence, this usually takes a lot of practice because of this.
Everything in this world can absorb Qi, it can grow and evolve because of Qi, and this is what we as alchemists take advantage of; Our bodies contain Qi that is produced by our Core Flames, however that Qi is produced by taking in the essence of the world either through consumption or cultivation, however the Qi in the world is not the same as the Qi in our bodies.
What is this difference?
Will.
Our Qi contains our will of cultivation, the will of our Core Flame, our will, and as alchemists we take advantage of that by carefully feeding our Qi to a resource, carefully examining it with our Qi before steadily disassembling it down to its purest form, this is the first process in forming a pill and it is known as 'Extraction'.
To master this there is only one method: Practice.
Take some resources, deluge them with you Qi until you can perform an Extraction, there is no other way; Some people will pick it up faster than others, some people will never succeed, so you must know when to stop or you'll waste your entire life succeeding in nothing.
When you have succeeded in Extraction, then you will have to move on to the main process, you must use an Alchemy Furnace for this since it will assist you greatly, do not be so foolish to believe that you can do this without one, many have tried only to waste their entire fortunes.
Obtaining an Alchemy Furnace is not easy since it needs to be specially made, however the facility providing this scroll will allow use of theirs providing there is no destructive behaviour of the one borrowing it; They are VERY expensive to repair.
The use of a furnace is in essence simple, you use it to channel and amplify your Qi control by placing your hands on it and channelling Qi through it, it is important to remember that the furnace is but a mere tool that supports you, in the end you are the one that controls everything.
There are three steps to forming a pill inside the furnace.
Firstly, Synthesis – Steadily feed the essences that you have extracted into the furnace, using your Qi, order them so you have them in whatever position you need, then one by one merge the essences by steadily bringing them together, you need to be careful as a lot of essences can be volatile, and others will become ruined if you are too hasty or too slow.
A lot of pills will require multiple layers of Synthesis to happen, you should use the side chambers to store processed essences while you are working on others, the side chambers are made specifically to hold them, so their quality won't be affected.
Then, once the Synthesis process is completed you can move on to the next step.
Imbuement – Now that you have you basic set of essences refined and ready, you must begin to imbue them with instructions; This process is similar to knitting, the essence is the thread and your Qi is the needles, you must imbue the essence with the will to do what you want, instructions on how the pill will function and what it will do, if you mess this up the pill will be a dud that can't even do what It needs to.
This process is similar to moulding your qi to use a technique, but instead you are created a delayed instruction in the Qi; Once the process is finished you need to remove your will from the Qi, this is quite simple to do; As long as you isolate the Qi in the newly formed knitting of essences from your own the will naturally dissipates, but it's important that this happens before the next step.
The next step is Formation – You must carefully move the essence bundle in to the upper chamber, once there use the smaller area and assisting formations to fold the essences in on themselves being careful not to destroy the Imbuement, the goal is to create a perfect sphere and then compact it like one were folding paper to create origami, this is usually one of the longest processes since it requires a careful and fine touch.
After that is the final step.
Sealing – Now that we have what is essentially an embryonic pill, we must encircle and protect it to complete it, this step is one of the most simple steps and yet it is easy to make a misstep, in order to form the seal around a pill extra ingredients are required, these ingredients can be a mix of various things formed down to a powder, this powder is known a 'Pill Sealing Formula' and its one purpose is to contain a pills essences and preserve them as long as possible, the formula will differ from pill to pill as the type of essences contained inside have different effective materials for containment, and for higher tier pills, higher tier resources will be needed in the formula.
To perform the sealing the formula is fed into the furnace and then one must carefully gather it around the embryonic pill, you must make sure NOT to intersect with the essence during this process or the entire pill will be ruined. The formula is designed so that when it comes in contact with Qi during concoction it will combine and harden with the surrounding particles, so bit by bit you must build a solid and smooth wall around the pill, any inconsistency in the seal will affect the pills lifespan as well as effectiveness so be careful.
And once that process is done, the pill is complete.
Please remember this information, the test to join the Alchemy Division will contain this knowledge, and once you can, you should also practice Extraction since it is the first step that you can take yourself.
"That's far different than I had expected…" Shu He thought as he tried to memorise what he had just read.
'When it comes to making medicinal pills, it's basically just preparing the ingredients and then compacting them, I've done it myself, so I was expecting this to be a fancy version of that, but it's not at all similar; Using essences to form a pill… how mystical'.
'It also sounds incredibly hard though… I haven't reached Meridian Awakening so I haven't really experienced true Qi control, but all of this sounds far more advanced than that, and this is what all alchemists must to do create a pill?' He laid back in his chair and breathed the stagnating air out of his lungs, he hadn't breathed much while he read away.
"No wonder not many people want to become alchemists" A tinge of reluctance began to creep into the back of his mind, but he shook it away.
'I need to do my best first, there's no point giving up before I even start'.
"Though…" He stood up and looked around his room while stretching his stiff body.
'I need to improve my cultivation first!'