After the cauldron was heated up, he started putting the herbs into the cauldron one by one.
Going by the information in his memories, he started by putting the rejuvenation flower. The flower slowly liquified under the heat in the cauldron. Then he started using his spirit energy to form a spiral.
After the medicinal essence had been extracted and the impurities burned away, he added the numbing herb after and repeated the previous process.
However, it seemed he had underestimated the difficulty of the ancient alchemy method because by the time he needed to add the third herb, his spirit energy had already been depleted by three-quarters.
By the time he had extracted the medicinal essence of the herb. His spirit energy had already been depleted.
This caused instability with the pill concoction causing the cauldron to explode.
Seeing the smoke rising from the cauldron, he knew that this attempt was a failure.
However, he wasn't disappointed.
He wasn't expecting to be successful on his very first attempt. However, he wasn't expecting such a rapid failure as well.
He had the experience from the inheritance so he was just trying to follow what was in his memory but apparently, it wasn't that simple.
It was as if he has forgotten how to do something he was originally proficient in.
He wouldn't act like a novice but he wasn't an expert either.
Just the exhaustion of his spirit energy made him realize that this wouldn't be so easy.
He consumed a pill to replenish his spirit energy. Spirit energy was harder to replenish than qi and it would probably take the whole day if he tried to do it by himself.
As he sat down, he started to ponder on his mistake.
The first mistake was the speed of the vortex in the cauldron. It was too fast and therefore consumed a lot of his spirit energy in order to keep it at a consistent revolution.
His second mistake was in the use of his spirit flames.
Because he had to split his concentration between the vortex and the flames, he couldn't extract the medicinal essence fast enough.
After sorting out his thoughts, he decided to try again. He lit up the flames and picked up another set of herbs.
Now, with his previous experience, he slowed down the vortex to an appropriate speed. This reduced his burden and enabled him to be able to pay attention to the temperature of the flames.
This time, he was trying to conserve his spirit energy as much as possible.
He was able to reach the fifth herb before he finally depleted his energy reserve.
The cauldron exploded again causing another plume of black smoke to be emitted when he removed the lid.
Adrian laid on the ground and tried to access his performance once again.
This time, everything seemed to go well but he was again limited by his lack of spirit energy.
However, this was not a problem that could be solved easily.
In order for an individual to increase their spirit energy, they could either consume pills or become practitioners of the soul.
An individuals soul resided in their sea of consciousness. The bigger the sea of consciousness, the more spirit energy they have.
Spirit energy is only a residue emitted by soil into the sea of consciousness.
Only after reaching the soul formation realm would an individual be able to use the true power of the soul known as,'soul energy'.
As one's cultivation increases, the sea of consciousness also expands along with it.
However, there are some special practitioners whose cultivation techniques mainly have to do with the soul.
They prioritize the increase in their spirit energy and their attacks mainly have to do with the soul.
They are usually feared because of their terrifying prowess.
An injury to the soul isn't a simple injury.
Without special pills, such an injury could take years to heal depending on the severity of the attack.
This also makes them proficient in alchemy. They have they necessary power and control needed for alchemy.
However, what Adrian hadn't realized was that his soul was already much stronger than any cultivator at his realm.
When he obtained the inheritance of the sage of slaughter, his soul was continuously tempered by the large amount of information and had grown stronger rapidly.
His current spirit power could probably rival someone at the initial stage of the Golden core formation realm.