Alex was shocked after sensing the sheer difference in the quality of the energy as well as the density of it. The overall strength of the True rank ingredient's energy was starting to easily overwhelm the energy that already existed in the cauldron.
He also sensed his Qi during that time and saw that with almost half of the ingredient's energy released, he had also done about 30% of his own True Qi.
He was confident in fully turning the ingredient into power and mixing it with the other ingredients, but then he wondered what he was going to do with the other 2 ingredients that came towards the end of the recipe.
'Hmm… master did tell me not to worry about it,' Alex thought.
"Switch to normal Qi," Ma Rong suddenly said.
"Sorry?" Alex was taken off-guard by the command. He even thought he heard wrong.
"I said, stop using True Qi, and just use your normal Qi now," Ma Rong ordered.
"But master, there is still a bit of the ingredient left. It's still releasing energy," Alex said.
"I know. Just do it," Ma Rong said.
Alex was still confused a little but decided to do what she said. His flow of True Qi stopped and his normal Qi once more started releasing from his hands.
The remaining True Qi he had already sent out did what they could towards the end of the ingredient's energy-releasing process.
Everything worked fine with True Qi. But once it ended, and the normal Qi touched the ingredient, the still releasing energy of the ingredient suddenly fought with his normal Qi.
Alex's Qi was dense enough to Turn into True Qi, but they weren't as strong as True Qi themselves. So, while he struggled against releasing energy to control the ingredient, inevitably, he lost.
Suddenly, he lost his connection with his Qi, and the whole Alchemy process came to a staggering half.
Alex panicked. He immediately sent back more of his normal Qi, but the hot ingredient was constantly releasing the energy, and his normal Qi couldn't fight against it.
The energy inside the cauldron started going into instability. Alex realized what could happen next, so he immediately sent out his True Qi to control the situation.
However, it was all too late. Even with sending in his True Qi, the energy was reaching the limit of instability and was moments away from disaster.
Just then, cold energy flowed towards the cauldron. It entered the fire, the cauldron, and the energy inside of it. Suddenly, all of the energy that acted agitated inside, had calmed down to a level that Alex couldn't even believe.
The cauldron was now as good as unused, even though it had been sitting on the fire for the last few minutes.
"Thank you, master," Alex said.
"You realized what the difference between True Qi and normal Qi has when it comes to making True rank pills?" Ma Rong asked.
"Yes. The energy in the True rank ingredients of True rank pills are hard to control, and without True Qi, I shouldn't even try. Only the True Qi can fully control the energy from True rank ingredients," Alex said.
"Yes, you've understood the most important part. Taking that logic, can you guess why a True realm person might not find a common rank pill very useful?" Ma Rong asked.
Alex thought for a moment and said, "is that because their True Qi naturally suppresses the energy in the common pill, so it becomes not very useful?"
"Uhh, you're not wrong, but you're not right either," Ma Rong said. "A True realm person does in fact show those signs, but what about if the True realm cultivator has suppressed his cultivation base? What then?"
Alex fell into thought again, only this time the answer was taking longer and longer to find out.
"Don't think so hard. The answer is actually much simpler than you think," Ma Rong said.
"Uh… it's not because their body is used to True Qi, so anything lesser doesn't affect them, right?" Alex asked. That was the first answer he had thought of but disregarded it because it sounded… simple.
"That's exactly it. Due to cultivation day in and day out, a normal True Realm Cultivator's body is used to having True Qi in his body. So even when the True Qi leaves his body, he cannot fully make use of the common pills anymore."
"If you truly want to give a pill to such a person, then make sure it's a True pill. Of course, if you have Saint pills or higher, they also work very easily," Ma Rong said.
"I see," Alex said.
Ma Rong went on to teach him about making True Pills for a little while longer. Alex attentively started listening to everything Ma Rong said.
The amount of information was honestly not even a fraction of what he had learned from the books in the capital and other libraries. However, none of them ever gave such important information directly for free.
After an hour or two of teaching, Alex's Alchemy lessons were finally over.
"That's it. That's all I can teach you today… or maybe even forever," Ma Rong said. "Come find me if you have trouble. Aside from that… I don't think I have anything else to teach you that you don't already know," Ma Rong said.
"Don't say that master. No matter if we don't have lessons anymore or if I ever get better than you, you will still be my master," Alex said.
Ma Rong smiled. "That's all I needed to hear," she said. "Sigh, alright, you can go now."
"Okay master," Alex said and got up to leave.
"Oh yeah, wait," Ma Rong said.
"Yes?" Alex stayed behind and waited for her to continue speaking.
"Your other two requests. You can go do them both today," Ma Rong said.
Alex's eyes immediately went wide. "Thank you, master. You've no idea how long I've waited for this," Alex said.
"Are you confident though?" Ma Rong asked.
"Yeah, quite a lot. I had less confidence for the second one, but with you around, it should be successful too," Alex said.
"Alright," Ma Rong said. "I will let the elders know. You can take their help if you want later on."
"Thank you, master," Alex said. "By the way, which mountain did you decide to give up on?"
Ma Rong shook her head and said, "I couldn't decide, so I went to discuss it with master. He said that it would be better to use the one on the right."
"Any specific reason?" Alex asked.
"Yes. The mountain on the left is surrounding by the Elder's quarters in between that mountain and ours, Pill testing Swine stable to the back of it, and Core disciple mountain to the other side."
"I cannot sacrifice a mountain that has such a great amount of life around there. If something goes wrong, we will need those elders and students and swine to have their home," Ma Rong said.
"I see, that's understandable. Since the one on the left is next to only Inner mountain, but that too is very far away. So, even if something goes wrong on that end, it will be safe for the others," Alex said.
"Ok then, I will go clear it out later on just in case. Goodbye, master."
Alex left. He went back to his home and after spending a bit of time understanding what he was taught, he logged out.
He was out of the game at around 9 pm. He wasn't hungry at all from the massive dinner he ate last night, so he returned back to the game after a very light breakfast.
Alex debated on whether to do what he needed to do right now or not but thought that it would be better to do it in the veil of the night when most of the disciples would be back in their houses, unknowing of what he was doing.
"Alright, let's prepare for now," he thought and brought out some formation flags and started messing with them. He checked if they had any imperfections or anything that was out of place in those flags.
Once he was absolutely sure nothing was wrong, he moved on to different things to pass his time. He made some more pills during this time.
He now had 3 Mind Elating pills, the pills he had created that gave someone increased intelligence. He had decided on naming them Mind Elating pills on a whim.
These 3 pills were some of his best works amongst his self-made pills. Two of the pills were of 54% Harmony, while the third one was of 57% harmony.
He had practically given up after that. Unless he fundamentally improved his understandings of how pills worked, he didn't think he could rely on anything other than luck to improve the pill now.
He spent the next portion of his day making different formation plates and formation flags that he still had. By the time he was done, he had a few more formations he could sell.
He even tried a few with his remaining True Qi and was very surprised with how well they worked.
Once night came around, he finally left his home and walked down the mountain to the sect valley.
The valley was as festive as ever with the people happily going about their night. Alex looked around and decided to go towards the right.
He soon found someone elders and spoke to them.
"Good evening, elders. Master must've told you what I'm here for, right?"
