Celestial Peak

Chapter 46: Going through libraries

[Alchemy Hall] the area of study where students who pursue the art of concocting pills seeks. Wang Ling came here to see if he can get a book that can give him a few insight in concocting pills.

"This place is quite nice." Wang Ling remarked as he smelled the alluring aroma of the spirit plants. Wang Ling entered the Alchemy Hall and he was greeted by a male staff that saw him.

"This is my first time seeing you here, are you a student who wants to study alchemy? Or do you wish to request for someone to concoct you a pill?" the male staff asked Wang Ling upon seeing his face.

Alchemy Hall was a peculiar place. Although this place is where all pills of the academy comes from; they don't actually sell them and only accepts request. The Alchemist students here earns their points by doing transactions with different students.

Student Alchemist will take on a request of concocting a pill and compromise to a certain price. The currency is points or anything that is considered fair by the two parties. The student Alchemist may also help the academy in concocting pill to earn some points.

The academy values the improvement of students more than having them focus on doing business. Because of this, the academy leans on asking for the service of Alchemists rather than the final product. Although the final product is really important, improvement in skills is still looked highly.

"Does the Alchemy Hall have a library? I wish to browse through some books regarding flames and refinement of spirit plants." Wang Ling explained his intentions.

The staff nodded his head in confirmation and started leading the way. He had no qualms on leading Wang Ling as every student who manages to enter the academy have the right to browse through the books of the Alchemy Hall.

Browsing through books is something that is highly important for every student. One can have an enlightenment while browsing through books so doing so is highly regarded. This is especially so for students who has yet to know the dao they seek.

The dao is the path they would take in the future; it was the path they will traverse. Wang Ling's dao is the straight line that leads to the peak and the true apex of all world. This has not change since his reincarnation.

Wang Ling was led into a room in the Alchemy Hall where hundreds of books were neatly kept in bookshelves. Wang Ling said his thanks to the staff and started going through the books that has anything to do with pill concoction.

Wang Ling's reading habit to gain information has yet to change and because of his spirit sense has yet to awaken. He has to read this books one by one. For most people this action is boring, but for Wang Ling, it is a necessary part of cultivation.

If he accumulates knowledge he will learn, and if he learn something new, he will be able to gain insights on new things and broaden his horizon. Wang Ling has a good idea of Beast Taming and Refinement of both weapon and the body, but he has no idea how to concoct pills.

Pill concoction needs the presence of flames. He had not cultivated any flame attribute method in the past so he had no interest on the act of Alchemy. Although he had countless pill recipe that he had inside his head, Wang Ling never really used them for anything other than making an exchange with other peak cultivators of the past.

Pill recipes are important are as valuable as a legacy or inheritance. Without knowing the proper recipes one will not know how to concoct a proper pill. The higher the grade of the pill, the higher its value.

Wang Ling browse through multiple books and began comprehending the mysteries of pill concoction. The more he read, the more he understood. With his comprehension that belongs to a peak expert, Wang Ling managed to quickly grasp the basics of pill concoction.

With this newly gain comprehension of his, Wang Ling now had a few insights on the practice of Alchemy. The more he read the more entrance he became in the information that continuously flowed in his head.

'Refinement Method', 'Pill Concoction Process', 'Importance of Temperature', 'Legends of Pill Concoction', 'Theories of Pill Concoction'. This kind of information was being process in his head without delay.

After half a day reading dozens of books and understanding different theories regarding Alchemy. Wang Ling finally stopped and sighed.

"I was already aware that the process of pill concoction is complicated but I never thought that it was this complicated. Now I understand why those old geezers chose to seclude themselves and burrow themselves in their own research. If I don't have the research of different Alchemist who ascended to celestial; there's a good chance I won't be able to advance my pill concoction skill unless I devote myself to it for centuries."

Wang Ling lamented at the fact that even he was slightly overwhelmed by the amount of work put into concocting a single pill. From what he had read, pills had to go through three different process in order to be concocted.

'Purification', 'Extraction', and 'Formation'. These three process are interconnected and had to be followed.

Purification means the spirit plant that will be used needs to be purified through fire and take out every impurities. In this process, the presence of flame is needed and depending on the type of spirit plant that is being purified, the temperature of flame varies.

If the flame is stronger than what is needed, the spirit plant will die. If the flame is weaker than what is needed, the impurities will become present in the essence of the spirit plant that will later invade the body of the user.

The first part of the process was already complexed but it only get more complex from here on. After the process of purification, the next step is going to be extraction.

Extraction means that the spirit plant's essence has to be taken away from the spirit plant. The efficacy of the pill and effectiveness of the pill will depend on the amount of essence an Alchemist will be able to draw out from the spirit plant.

With spirit qi acting as the hands that shall extract the essence out of the spirit plant, precision and exquisite control will come into play once this step is reached. The spirit plant that had just been purified by the flames will be subjected to extraction as soon as possible.

The extraction must be executed with patience. The concentration required to this is unimaginable as a lapse of concentration may lead to failure. One's [Spirit] must be strong in order to bear the burden of this exhausting process.

After purifying and extracting the essence of spirit plants that is used in the concoction of the pill. It would be time to form the pill. In that process, the intensity of the pill must become present.

The higher the grade of the pill, the higher the temperature it must have.

Wang Ling had fought with dozens of Alchemist; every Alchemist he had fought had domineering flames that can burn the heavens asunder. The True Chaos Flame was not a flame used in pill concoction as it is too tyrannical and was hard to control.

The True Chaos Flame that Wang Ling wants to cultivate is something comparable to a wild ox. It will fight and fight and will never give in, it is unstable and full of power making it the strongest offensive type of flame attribute technique in the entire Celestial Spirit Realm.

Wang Ling coming to the Alchemy Hall is not just him browsing through the books to become an Alchemy but to also find a suitable way to train the True Chaos Flame. If the True Chaos Flame is too hard to control he will make it submit to him with force and elegance.

"If I can train the True Chaos Flame to the point where it can be used in concocting pills, I'll have the ability to control without trouble. Also, if I can use that flame to concoct pills, what heights will my Alchemy is going to reach in the future?"

Wang Ling jested as he stretched his body before coming out of the library. He saw the staff that led him to the library and said his goodbyes. The staff was just about to inform Wang Ling about a lecture that is going to be conducted but Wang Ling already left before he could say anything.

Wang Ling left the Alchemy Hall at high noon and went to another place called [Beast Taming Hall]; just like what he had done at the Alchemy Hall, Wang Ling started reading their books.

He left the Beast Taming Hall after three short hours. After that, he went to the [Blacksmith Hall] to browse some books. He finished browsing through their books about 5'oclock in the afternoon.

Finished his tour at a place called [Academy Library] it was a place where common knowledge and information regarding the continent and the central region is held.

He entered the library and quickly gathered every book that has any kind of relations or comparison to the previous era and current one. He also went ahead and gathered books that contains about the current powers and geography of the Realm.

After looking around the library. Wang Ling managed to find a total of five books. Two books contained the difference of the eras while the remaining three contains the geography of the continent and some bits of the central regions.

He easily went through the first two books about the differences of the two eras before going through the three other books.

"The two books is basically just proving my earlier assumptions about what has changed, but there are indeed a few points that is interesting."

Wang Ling said as he closed the two books. His earlier assumptions about the difference between the two era lies on the spirit qi being denser than before and the realms being connected to higher planes of existence.

Also, there were a few points about the current martial techniques is constantly improving as the current era derives from the already set rules while also thinking out of the box. Although he was unsure about this, Wang Ling was speculating that just as he opened the path to a higher apex, something happened that caused various geographical reformation.

The Celestial Spirit Realm of before only have one land and various nearby islands out on the sea. However, the current era is split into four massive chunks of lands.

The continent that is mostly dominated by humans: Blazing Wing Continent. The continent that is mostly dominated by the [Elves] and other [Children of Nature]: [Green Haven Continent]. The continent where the [Beastmen] gathers: [Emperor Beast Continent]. The continent that is many times bigger than the other combined and the place where the strong gathers: The Central Regions.

Wang Ling was pretty sure that something cause such a massive upheaval to create such mass destruction that what used to be a united continent broke apart.

Did a massive war occur? Or did someone single-handedly do this? Wang Ling had no way of knowing as the book never really went deep into explaining why there are three continents and one central regions.

"The books about the eras is too little. There are no information regarding what happened in between the eras so I am still in the dark." Wang Ling frowned as he could not understand the Abyss.

Even the books that deals with geography of the Realm contains very little information about the Abyss. Aside from the little fact that says: "The Abyss will open a portal from time to time in random areas of realm.' there was nothing else.

This put Wang Ling in a bad mood. Thankfully, he got the information regarding the White Dragon Valley he needed. Wang Ling was going to head to the White Dragon Valley in order to investigate something, it would be best if he had a background knowledge regarding it rather than heading in alone.

The White Dragon Valley has a lot of spirit beasts. There were the [Ferocious Alligator], [King Battle Ape] and [Regal Python] to name a few. However, Wang Ling wasn't interested in any beast. What he was interested is the weird happenings of the White Dragon Valley.

Missing cultivators, roars that shakes the earth, and even the sightings of strange and dangerous beast that was not supposed to be found in the White Dragon Valley; or the Piercing Heaven Empire territory for that matter.

Wang Ling intrigued, just what kind of mysterious event was happening in the White Dragon Valley. If he goes there, will he get something good? If he ventures into the White Dragon Valley, will he be able to get good results? Wang Ling did not know.

A mouth slowly curved into a smile as he said.

"It's been a while since I ventured out to the world of cultivation. Will I be able to control myself in this era?" a mysterious jest escaped his mouth as a frightening light escaped from his eyes.