Mei performed the advanced technique in front of Ken who observed carefully. Ken thought for a few moments and tried to execute it, but despite remembering it perfectly, he didn't get it completely right. Sometimes knowing how you should do it doesn't help you get it right without practice.
However, it still worked, albeit with low efficiency. Mei looked at the results gaping for a moment but quickly gathered herself together and closed it.
"Ahm, although it worked, it's not good enough for my standards. You will have to practice it for some time."
She nodded seriously, pretending he was just average. Ken just rolled his eyes; he knew himself and had enough confidence not to believe any genius could get it right faster than him.
A few attempts later, he already executed it perfectly and improved the technique like always. Even his muscle memory was special; he'd get used to movements after repeating them once or twice rather than after dozens or hundreds of times.
"Let's move on."
He said to Mei, who nodded absentmindedly and did the next move without thinking. She started feeling like she wasted her life learning alchemy so slowly.
Ken wasn't 5 years old yet but already was more proficient in those techniques than she was when she was 16. From her short quiz earlier, even his theoretical knowledge was off the charts.
An hour later he finished learning the other 4 moves. Together, they formed a sequence that allowed an alchemist to concoct his pills.
The sequence consisted of the technique to separate the unwanted parts, the one to condense an herb into essence, one to combine the essences of different herbs, the one to control the fire, and the one to channel the Qi inside the cauldron.
"You are capable of performing the steps separately, but it's time to combine them all. We will start with a rank 1 pill for strengthening the body, the Basic Skin Strengthening Pill. The first step before being able to combine them is to use those techniques on a large number of herbs."
For the practice, they only used one or two herbs for each technique. However, all pills required at least a set of 4 ingredients, and often even more. Mei, still trying to make him fail for once, just gave the whole amount needed for the pill at once, instead of practicing on half products first to keep the task simple.
'I didn't expect her to realize I didn't need to take it in steps.'
He pondered when he saw her put everything in front of him. With his great mental capacity as well as his perfect memory, he had no problem at all performing the technique a few times simultaneously. It didn't feel much different to him than doing it on one herb only.
Ken started with the first step. He didn't have much common sense, but he saw his mom practices alchemy and read the experiences of others in the book. He understood the limit, and only performed the technique on two ingredients.
After extracting their essence and combining them, he used his Qi to keep them in the air and then extracted the essence of the third ingredient and combined it into the mix. He made sure to only control two things at a time, as it should've been impossible for a new alchemist to control more.
It was already amazing that he could combine those steps one after another successfully on his first try without failing even once, and the desperate look on Mei's face was enough to testify it.
A few minutes later, a white pill with a few light brown straps on it came out of the cauldron and levitated above Ken's hand. He didn't forget that he shouldn't touch the pill with his hand, or it will start rotting.
"It's not too bad for a first try, but there's room for improvement. Watch me when I make this pill."
His mom said with a condescending tone and concocted the pill in front of him. When she finished, a completely white pill emerged from the cauldron and levitated above her palm.
"See? No brown straps. This pill should be completely white, and the brown straps represent its impurity. Since my pill is perfect, it has none. Judging by the brown straps on your pill, it's around 80% purity only."
ƥαṇdαs ηθνε| Ken already read about the purity issue. After consuming the pill, all those impurities had to be discharged from the body, and the pill would lose twice the impurity's quantity.
For instance, his pill would only have 60% of the effect of the pill Mei concocted, and he would have to discharge the 20% impurities from his body after digesting it.
"But Mom, you didn't use the techniques you showed me earlier. Those were completely different techniques."
Ken pointed out her bluff and she coughed awkwardly when she realized he paid attention to her concocting process. She tried to hide that she used a different technique, but apparently, she failed.
"Ahm, you must always do your best. Just because you don't know something, doesn't mean your opponents won't know it."
She spoke like an elder teaching his wisdom to his disciple. Ken just nodded and agreed with her.
"You're right."
He then performed the same sequence he did earlier, but this time improved the techniques further, bringing out better results.
"That's 90% purity! You're improving so fast, Kenny!"
His mom clapped excitedly when she saw the result. She then thought about it for a moment and spoke again.
"But those results shouldn't be possible to achieve with higher basic techniques. Although it sounds impossible, I think you've improved the technique to the lower Sky rank."
It was the only option she could think of. 80% should be around the limit of a higher basic technique when executed to perfection and mixed with a bit of luck.
"You will have to learn many more techniques to be a proper alchemist. Although all of them follow the concept of the five steps procedure, you can't process a large variety of herbs with only one technique."
She didn't even mention the fact that almost no pill can be made with only herbs like the Basic Skin Strengthening Pill. Most of them also require beasts' parts, stones, and different natural objects. Those materials required different techniques as well.
"Just teach me all the techniques."
For someone else, it'd be a waste of time to learn lower-tier techniques when they had access to techniques of a higher tier. But not for Ken; those so-called lower techniques had data that might add a surprising effect when applied with data from other techniques.
A long day ensued in which the mother and son duo practiced alchemy together. They stopped once to eat lunch, once for Ken to take a nap, and once for dinner. Because Ken was controlling his Qi so well, those 3 breaks were enough to replenish his lost Qi.
When the night fell, Ken and Mei returned home and discussed alchemy subjects. Both were excited; Ken finished mastering dozens of techniques during that day, and if he could keep up this pace, he'd finish learning all the basic techniques in the sect soon.
"But you might forget them and confuse them if you learn too many at once."
Mei told her son worriedly. She was glad to find out her son was a genius, but it seemed too surreal to learn so much in a day. She didn't forget her son wasn't even 5 yet.
"My memory is good, I think I can manage. If I start forgetting, I will review the techniques."
Ken calmed her and insisted on continuing to learn new techniques rather than practicing for a few days those he already mastered first. He already wasted much time without learning alchemy, and he didn't want to delay it even more. He believed he could trust his mother with some of his secrets after seeing her behavior for a few years.
Sol got a week-long vacation from babysitting Ken, and he accompanied his mom every day to the alchemy lab to concoct pills. By the end of the week, he finished learning all the techniques of the Sky rank as well.
"You can't learn the Earth-rank techniques yet, they require you to be on the next cultivation stage, the Soul Strengthening Stage. However, those should be enough for you to make your pills 100% pure if they're still in the first three ranks. Well, the third rank only if you're lucky."
Ken didn't read much about the Soul Strengthening Stage, but he didn't really plan on advancing there before maximizing his first two stages. Now that he could concoct pills, he was ready to take this cultivation to the next level.
Mei prepared a concocting room in the alchemy division, especially for Ken, and she made sure to place protections against explosions. Now Ken could finally concoct almost freely; Mei had one last condition. He had to have someone with him who can call for help in case something happens. Luckily, he had Sol.
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