Alex was excited when he decided to see how the Pill Splitting Qi worked. So, he made more pills, using it each time to split the pill into 2 and see the result.
2 weeks later, his excitement turned to disappointment. He couldn't be more disappointed at the fact that he couldn't extrapolate any information from the technique at all.
He had focused on the skill from the movement of Qi, to the formation of pills, and yet, he understood nothing.
In fact, halfway through the process, he could already see the problem with himself.
He didn't know how techniques worked at all. How did they function? How did moving your Qi in certain ways through your body do something when it came outside?
Those skill books he read all talked about the path through the meridians the Qi should move in, the requirements for that technique, and what the technique did.
Sometimes, they also talked about how one could improve on the technique as well as the advantages and disadvantages of the technique.
However, never did they talk about HOW the technique worked at all. How did moving your Qi through your body in certain ways produce a unique result at all?
Did it even actually produce a result? Alex decided to try it out.
He remade the pill all over again, and instead of using the technique this time, he instead just manually did the entire thing himself.
From the moment the Qi in his body stirred to the moment they arrived and left his hands, it was all done by him, manually. However, when the Qi appeared outside of his body, it simply dissipated into the air.
'What?' he thought with surprise. 'But I followed the way perfectly,' he thought.
He quickly had the real pill splitting Qi come out and make the two pills, each with 44% harmony.
Then, he started thinking once again about what had just happened or rather didn't happen.
'Did I make a mistake anywhere?' he thought and reviewed what he did, but he saw that he made no mistakes. That or, he made mistakes he couldn't see.
Once again, he had to wonder what was going on.
"Hmm…" he started thinking, but he wasn't making progress. So, he decided to go and get some of those mangoes that helped him focus and understand more.
After all, they had helped him understand how explosions worked. So, he hoped they helped him understand how this thing worked as well.
Alex returned 2 hours later, all bloody and battered. This time, he had thought he would win, but the BlueFlame monkey's explosion was still very strong. Way stronger than his explosion.
And worst of all, the monkey could explode it at a distance from itself, causing the damage to mostly falling on Alex.
'Is my understanding incomplete perhaps?' he thought. Maybe there was more to explosions than he thought.
'Later,' he thought and tried to forget about the explosions, but the thought still lingered in his mind.
He cultivated for a few days, bringing himself back to the top condition before proceeding with his meditation.
He made one more pill, trying to do the exact same thing he did earlier, and failed.
Once he fully understood his failure, he took a bite of the mango. The cool energy from the mango flowed to his brain and washed it like a cold splash of water to the face on a hot, sunny day.
Alex's mind was alert and awake, and he put all the focus on the problem and started thinking about it.
He immediately understood another problem with what he was trying to do as well that he hadn't even thought of because he hadn't reached that part of the problem yet.
The Pill Splitting Qi was essentially 3 minor techniques, fused together. So, the Qi path he followed would have no use whatsoever.
Alex realized, that he needed to learn 2 of the 3 minor techniques, which to be more accurate were equal to 2 of the 5 minor techniques.
He needed to learn the technique that formed the pill. This was the most important one right now to him.
The other thing he needed to learn was the technique to create the vortex that pulled in the Qi.
Alex could forget about the vortex for now as Elemental Guidance did the same thing it did, just worse. However, he really did need to learn the technique to form the pill.
It was not just forming the pill either. It was forming the pill with almost no gap in between the individual specks when they stuck together and had perfect symmetry in between them.
After checking the two pills that formed from the pills, he had learned that despite having a lot of gaps, having perfect symmetry made the pills devour as much energy as they could.
As he thought about it, his thoughts went towards the moment when he failed to even use the pill splitting Qi manually. That was what he had sat down to learn in the first place.
As he thought about it, he frowned a little. He quickly compared the Qi that was released from his hands when he let his body do the work, compared to when he manually cycled the Qi.
They were obviously the same. So what was different?
As Alex took another bite of the mango, he was reminded of the explosion he suffered to get this fruit.
The explosion was bad, but he tried to shake the thought away for now. As he did, he was reminded of his own understanding of explosion, and how with a single thought, he could make a tongue of fire explode.
A single thought.
A thought.
Alex immediately stopped cultivating as he activated the fire Formation again and heated his cauldron. Then, he proceeded to turn the ingredients into powder.
He had done this part so many times, that he thought he could do it with a complete lack of vision inside the cauldron.
He wasn't going to be stupid right now.
Once all the ingredients were powdered, with a thought, he pulled out the Qi from his naval area.
As the Qi passed through his meridians, with him consciously moving them, he thought about why he was doing it in the first place.
He thought of splitting the Qi, forming the pill, and finally collecting the energy in the cauldron down to the pills.
As his Qi escaped his hands, exactly what he had thought of happened. The powders were split into two portions, each portion formed into balls, and a vortex appeared to collect the energy.
He successfully made the two pills.
Then, he the pills another 2 times. The first time, he moved the Qi around his body through the same route, however, with only intended to form the pill, and not split or collect energy.
He failed.
Then, he tried it a second time, this time moving the Qi in a different route, one he created himself, intending to only form the pill once again.
He failed this time as well.
Alex then stopped making pills altogether and went outside the cave. He thought he was learning something, so he decided to try what he was thinking with the other techniques he knew of.
The Iron Fist Punch technique was the first one he tried with. He moved the Qi through his body, which his body did on its own as it had become muscle memory at this point.
When it reached his hands, he let it out in the shape of a first. The technique struck down a tree in the distance.
Alex took a deep breath and moved the Qi once more. This time, only moving it around and not focusing on the attack itself. When the Qi came out of his body, it dissipated as if nothing.
Next, he tried a different route but wanted to throw a fist. The energy he released did take the shape of a fist, but it dissipated not long after.
Alex tried the same thing with several of his other techniques, and finally realized something.
"You need both the proper path for the Qi and the proper intent of the action to use a technique," he said to himself and went back into the cave, not thinking about it any longer.
Out in the distance, Shen Jing looked towards Alex's location with a horrified look on his face. The worldly laws had stirred for a moment, catching his attention, before calming down again.
'That kid,' he thought with nothing but shock on his face. 'He was so close to learning another Dao.'
