Despite his strong desire to grow stronger, Chongyang didn't immediately start learning the new fire magic that the Flame Demon had mentioned. He slept soundly through the night, and by the time he woke up in the morning, the memory of the attack had mostly faded. After a simple breakfast, he began working on refining his Heart-Nourishing Potion.
…
Smoke wafted above the alchemy table.
In the center of the table was a cauldron, boiling the core ingredients of the Heart-Nourishing Potion. Despite the intense reactions happening among the various materials inside, the thick greenish liquid remained calm on the surface, without even a single bubble.
Chongyang stood before the cauldron with his eyes half-closed, holding his hands steady about ten centimeters from the pot. He focused intently, sensing the reactions between the ingredients inside.
He could almost see it: the powdered bones of the Twilight Fox were colliding with the sap of the Angelica leaves. Meanwhile, the concoction of Ferret Scent Cream, the skin of the Uru Beast's tail, and the blood of the Green Smoke Snake worked together to absorb impurities. At the same time, the mix of Ice Flowers, Lightningroot, Golden Olive seeds, and Deadly Nightshade roots formed a film that settled at the bottom of the pot, growing thicker with each passing moment.
"Almost ready," Chongyang muttered as he opened his eyes. He picked up a beaker on his left, filled with the mashed pulp of Frost Hooked Ivy, and poured it into the pot. Then, with his right hand, he grabbed the staff leaning against the wall.
Stepping back five paces, he raised the staff and pointed it at the cauldron. Mentally, he began counting down: "Ten, nine, eight, seven…"
At zero, he flicked his wrist, directing a stream of magic from the tip of his staff into the cauldron. Boom!
A small mushroom cloud of blue vapor slowly rose and blossomed.
The pungent, medicinal smell that had filled the room was suddenly replaced by a light, lotus-like fragrance. As the vapor dissipated, the thick potion in the cauldron had reduced to a thin layer of green liquid at the bottom.
Chongyang exhaled in relief. He stepped forward, picked up the cauldron, and carefully poured the jade-like green liquid into a large beaker that had been prepared. He mixed it with pure water that had been distilled ten times, gradually diluting it into a semi-transparent potion.
Leaning close, he sniffed deeply, enjoying the cool, soothing aroma.
"Success…" Chongyang clenched his fist and made a few triumphant air punches, expressing his excitement over the breakthrough. He filled a clean test tube with the potion, raised it to his lips, and downed it in one gulp.
The cool, slightly bitter liquid slid down his throat, and soon he felt a warm, gentle sensation spread from his heart, making it beat stronger and more steadily.
"Not bad," Chongyang said, licking his lips. "Too bad I can't add sugar."
With his research breakthrough, Chongyang was in high spirits. Humming a cheerful tune, he carefully filled a series of small bottles with the new potion and placed them into a box padded with cotton and straw, sealing it meticulously.
He then sat at his desk, placed the potion box aside, and took out a pen and paper. After a moment of thought, he began to write a letter to send back home.
...
"Heh heh heh—have you finished dealing with your family matters?"
"Yeah, I've sent everything off. Now, I just need to wait for a reply from my family," Chongyang sighed. Truth be told, he didn't really want to ask his family for money, but the five rare medicinal ingredients required to treat his condition would cost several thousand purple crystals in total. There was no way he could gather that amount on his own in a short period of time.
In the letter, he explained that he had encountered an exceptionally skilled healer and, fortunately, had a chance to be cured of his long-standing magic deficiency. However, he would need to procure the ingredients himself.
"To ask for more than five thousand purple crystals in one go… Can my family afford to help me with such a huge sum? It's been years since I last went home. I don't even know what the current situation at home is like," Chongyang's thoughts drifted back to the homeland of his current life. Although he had been exchanging letters with his family, they rarely mentioned the state of their territory, possibly to avoid distracting him from his studies.
"Stop daydreaming, kid. Since you've settled your family matters, it's time to start learning the new magic," the raspy voice of Flame Demon interrupted his thoughts.
Chongyang snapped back to attention and nodded.
The core of the new fire magic lay in combustion. According to Flame Demon's theory, fire existed in all things, and the job of a fire mage was merely to draw that fire out. To guide this fire using one's magic, the mage first needed to understand the structure of the object and then create a specific magical structure within themselves that could react with it.
Magic training, like eating, had to be done step by step. Chongyang's first task in mastering this new magic? "Burn" the air!
"…The composition of air includes not only the 'breath of life' that animals inhale but also the 'waste gas' they exhale, along with another substance that only certain life forms can absorb, called 'vital gas.' In addition to these, there are also some other rare gases. Traditional fire mages have only been utilizing the 'breath of life,' which makes up about one-fifth of the air," Flame Demon lectured at length.
"What we need to do is shift the focus of fire magic's power. Instead of relying solely on magic, we should use our magic to trigger reactions between the 'breath of life,' 'vital gas,' and 'waste gas,' igniting the hidden flame within them! The magic that stems from this principle forms the foundation of the new fire magic!"
So it's all about chemical reactions… Chongyang thought to himself, intrigued as he mentally compared Flame Demon's theory with the science from his previous life.
Following Flame Demon's instructions on magical structure, incantations, hand seals, and casting techniques, Chongyang gripped his staff in the study, fully focused. Sometimes he moved his hands in complex gestures, other times he recited spells, and occasionally he sat silently, concentrating all his mental energy on constructing magic.
The process was far more difficult and tedious than he had imagined.
Even a basic level-1 spell from this new magic was more intricate than a traditional level-3 spell. And the crucial part—forming the magical structure—even though Flame Demon had provided the exact model, the difficulty of executing it was overwhelming.
Chongyang closed his eyes. In his mind, against a pitch-black background, tiny white particles floated, stacking and assembling like building blocks. Slowly and painstakingly, they formed a complicated, interlocking 3D diagram of two pentagrams.
Just forming a single drop of magic power for this new magic was this arduous.
"The speed is too slow," Chongyang sighed during a break from his training.
The new magic might have a promising future, but in its early stages, even gathering a single drop of magical energy was mentally exhausting. He wondered what the actual effect would be when he finally used it.