Chapter 57: The Alchemist (1)

Yue Kai was never one for affectation; after collecting his thoughts, he made his way to the stone house in the center. This was once the dwelling of the Pill Sage. That fiery red bed, glowing like a slab of heated iron, was where the Pill Sage used to meditate and train. From the information passed down by the Pill Sage, Yue Kai knew that this bed, which appeared no different from the surrounding stone walls, was actually a rare treasure.

To create his unparalleled divine elixir, the Pill Sage had drawn upon the spiritual energy of the entire planet. The place he chose as his alchemy chamber could never be ordinary. The huge, fiery red bed was, in fact, a Flame Stone—formed over countless years by the condensation of endless fire-element spiritual energy.

As its name suggests, the Flame Stone is composed of fire itself. Its extraordinary nature was hidden from Yue Kai for two reasons: first, his cultivation was too low to perceive its wonders; second, the Pill Sage, being an alchemist, had masked its aura using special means. Anything left behind by such a master could never be a mere trinket.

The Flame Stone, forged from pure fire-element energy, was long considered a legend. In the outside world, even a palm-sized fragment would spark a bloody frenzy, yet here was a slab three meters long, two meters wide, and one meter high, lying in lonely silence at the heart of the stone house, casting a cold, watchful “gaze” on its new master.

Yue Kai approached the bed uncertainly, reaching out to touch it. His brows furrowed slightly. “Something’s not right. Didn’t Master say this was condensed from pure fire-element energy, the purest yang object in existence? Then why does it feel so cold to the touch? Has it lost its power over time?”

The chill seeping into his palm made Yue Kai doubtful. The Pill Sage’s message had praised the Flame Stone as a treasure second only to the alchemy furnace for an alchemist—a vital aid for meditation and recovery. Yet, at this moment, it seemed rather unremarkable.

According to the Pill Sage, Yue Kai’s constitution was attuned to fire, but he was only a novice, having barely touched upon true energy, let alone spiritual energy. Without spiritual energy, he could not sense the marvels of the Flame Stone.

Regardless of its effectiveness, Yue Kai decided this would be his bedroom for the next two months. He had inherited a sea of memories from the Pill Sage, and it would take time to organize and fully comprehend this knowledge before it could truly become his own.

Although a true alchemist needed to reach the so-called Golden Core stage, Yue Kai was not discouraged. Given his unique situation, the Pill Sage had specifically expended spiritual energy to craft a tailored training regimen for him.

In the present world, true alchemists were as rare as phoenix feathers—precious beyond compare. Most martial artists had never even heard of them. Yet, through history, humanity had produced its share of peerless geniuses. Although the threshold for becoming an alchemist was daunting, a lesser path remained: that of the Apothecary.

Though both professions involved concocting medicines, the difference between them was immense.

An alchemist wielded the highest level of spiritual energy, a feat reserved for supreme masters. Apothecaries, by contrast, were much more accessible—any martial artist who possessed true energy and reached a certain level could aspire to become one.

The Pill Sage’s training plan for Yue Kai began at his current level—something previously unimaginable. Even the lowest apprentice in the field was a master of spiritual energy or power. For someone like Yue Kai, already of age yet barely initiated in true energy, it was a source of great frustration for the Pill Sage and embarrassment for Yue Kai himself. In his professor’s eyes, he had been a prodigy among prodigies, but here, under his master’s scrutiny, he was little more than a hopeless case.

But the Pill Sage truly deserved his reputation as a genius. Though he had never experienced such a meager stage himself, the plan he devised was perfectly suited to Yue Kai.

He called it the Mundane Path.

This path was divided into nine distinct ranks, each clearly defined, corresponding not only to martial strength but also to the skills of medicine-making. Its complexity left Yue Kai wondering whether his master had prepared it long ago just to show off, or if he was indeed an unparalleled genius.

The nine ranks of the Mundane Path:

The first: Novice Disciple—entry level, utterly uninitiated, requiring vast amounts of study.

The second: Apprentice—gaining some understanding of apothecary work, able to begin experimenting and combining different agents.

The third: Student—able to use a basic alchemy furnace to refine medicines.

The fourth: First-grade Apothecary—capable of channeling true energy into medicinal liquids, enhancing their effects beyond those of ordinary concoctions.

The fifth: Second-grade Apothecary—greater skill and precision in technique.

The sixth: Third-grade Apothecary—able to use superior furnaces, producing more potent medicines.

The seventh: Grand Apothecary—able to use spiritual energy in pill-making, infusing it into pills to further augment their efficacy.

The eighth: Apothecary Master—able to craft a greater variety and quality of worldly medicines.

The ninth: Apothecary Grandmaster—standing on the threshold of true alchemy; once spiritual energy transformed into spiritual power, one could channel the forces of heaven and earth into the pills, vastly increasing their potency.

Only upon reaching this final stage would one barely qualify as an alchemist. It was clear just how rare and precious true alchemists were.

Yue Kai harbored no illusions of instant success. For him, everything was only beginning, yet he was fortunate to have encountered both his university professor and the Pill Sage, each illuminating his path. If he could not make good use of such guidance, he would be letting them down.

His first task was to organize the ocean of knowledge left by the Pill Sage—identifying herbs and learning the details of countless rare plants and treasures. Do not underestimate this step; the sheer volume of information would terrify the average person. Were it not for Yue Kai’s extraordinary memory and special abilities, this flood of information alone might have reduced him to a mindless husk.

The Pill Sage had likely valued this ability most—the capacity to process and analyze vast amounts of information.

Though the great hall next door was filled with tens of thousands of rare medicinal herbs, compared to the knowledge left by the Pill Sage, they were but a drop in the ocean.

Even Yue Kai couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed, wearing a wry smile. For an ordinary person, even a lifetime might not suffice to master a tenth of this herbal lore.

It was simply too much, too complex!

But Yue Kai’s advantage lay in not needing to memorize it all by rote. Instead, he stored the information in his mind, like a library, systematically categorized. When needed, he would retrieve the relevant knowledge—an immense time-saver.

Of course, had he not eaten the strange fruit as a child and gained such enviable abilities, he could never have managed such a feat.