The Science of Cultivation [Xianxia]

Chapter 89: The Use of Ruby in Brushweaving

A month quickly passed ever since the incident with the Bloodwave Conclave.

Li Lang had been making decent progress in all his studies.

In alchemy, the success rate of his pill-refining has been steadily going up. It was only one in three tries, but it was unmistakably an improvement. As a result of all the refining he had done, his Qi sense had improved as well.

He was now able to monitor the situation in the furnace with more clarity. It allowed him to really observe the difference between his new techniques and his old methods. When he did personal practice, he didn’t forget to use his Qi sense to observe the inner workings of how his old technique worked.

Li Lang had dubbed his old technique the mass-production technique. From his observations, he found that the pill furnace was much more tame throughout the entire refining. That was because he had already processed the materials. They were already powdered or cut into uniform pieces. It was as if the material had been neutered.

This meant the reaction when the materials combined was more predictable. No interference was needed for the pill to form. However, the quality was sacrificed as a result.

His new traditional alchemy techniques did the opposite. He did not prep the materials ahead of time. Instead, he closely monitored how the materials were doing in real-time, and adjusted accordingly. This allowed him to produce pills of higher quality by making better use of the materials.

“Congratulations. You have succeeded in refining a Recovery Pill of good quality,” Zhao Longwei said with a grin. “Your success rate is decent as well. I would have you go take the apprentice alchemist exam with the guild now if you hadn’t done so already.”

“Thank you for your guidance, Senior Zhao,” Li Lang clasped his hand to his mentor.

“No problem. It is what I should do. Now then, you should try to refine another type of pill yourself this time. The techniques are all the same, but you will have to learn the characteristics of the new recipe yourself.”

“Understood. I will definitely take your teachings to heart.”

After asking a few questions to his mentor, Li Lang departed.

He then once again went to his Brushweaving mentor for the rest of the day.

Even in Brushweaving, Li Lang had taken decent strides. He had learned how to inscribe various basic talismans. He had also taken the time to dye another inkstone with his Qi and stuffed it into the auto-analyzer.

As with the talismans, the results were only on the material makeup and Qi signatures. In the future, Li Lang planned to take a more thorough look at the material composition and how it affected Brushweaving, but that would have to wait until he had more time. He would also need to learn more about the art first, to find various alternative materials to test.

“Now that you have a basic foundation in inscribing, it is time to move on to the harder parts of inscription,” Yi Lin said. “Until now, you have only inscribed basic talismans. It is good training on the basic techniques, but most talismans aren’t this simple. Most useful talismans mix and match various runes together on the same surface.”

Yi Lin took a pause to allow for any questions. Seeing Li Lang had none, he continued.

“Mixing of different runes may result in them interfering with each other, and could even result in the talisman activating prematurely. I’m sure you know, but that could have fatal consequences depending on what you’re inscribing. Make sure you take into account your surroundings before you inscribe. You don’t want to inscribe any fire element talisman somewhere that can easily burn.”

Li Lang nodded at the explanation. He was amply familiar with his work blowing up if he made a mistake. Even when practicing alchemy using traditional techniques, a small explosion may happen in the furnace if he messes up. Luckily, there weren’t any real consequences as the level of power was low. However, Zhao Longwei had warned him that wouldn’t be the same when working with Earth-grade materials.

There was a reason why most pill-refining rooms had heavily reinforced doors. They were there to keep the damage of any alchemy incidents contained.

As Yi Lin finished explaining the points to watch out for, Li Lang struggled to contain his grin. He realized this was the part where Ruby would finally shine. He could make use of Ruby’s artifact space to practice all he wanted, without fearing repercussions. After all, his physical body wasn’t there, so any accidents wouldn’t result in any damage.

“Yi Lin, do you think I can have some more of those materials I used to craft my Moon Brush?”

“Hmm? Elemental Serpent’s fang and Silver Thorn Lion’s mane? Why?”

“I wanted to have a spare, in case something happened to mine. I don’t exactly have the wealth to buy those materials…”

“Sure…if it’s just enough for a brush. I rarely use that stuff anyway.”

“Thank you! What do you use it for, anyway? Aren’t they too low-level for you?”

“Yes, but I can use them to add to the ink. It helps empower the talisman if you use materials of compatible elements. Still, mortal-grade materials are only good for mortal-grade talismans. Only every so often do people order these lower-level talismans for their juniors.”

“Hmm, interesting.”

Seeing Li Lang’s thinking intently on the matter, Yi Lin quickly warned his pupil.

“Don’t think about it too much for now. Only after you can inscribe most talismans normally, should you think about changing up the ink. The consequences of failing a normal inscription are already a pain to deal with. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.”

“...”

Li Lang then spent the remainder of the day learning from Yi Lin before returning to his inn.

He would truly start practicing after dinner.

“Ruby, you are sure that no matter how much damage my inscription causes, it won’t affect the auto-analyzer?”

“Yes, master. Like I previously said, this is all really just like a simulation.”

Li Lang breathed in deeply as he nodded. He had known that the artifact space was special. He couldn’t absorb any Qi, or even feel his Qi while in it. It was like only his consciousness was in the lab.

“Change this table to one like Yi Lin uses.”

“Master, can I examine your memory again then?”

“Go ahead.”

Very soon, Ruby replicated the same setup Yi Lin used in his home office in a corner of the lab. Li Lang’s Moon Brush and other tools were perfectly recreated too, having donated his new gadgets to Ruby.

Li Lang didn’t hesitate and tried to put everything he had learned to use.

He carefully inscribed the talisman like he had always done. This time, he would create a talisman with two different runes. He needed to be a lot more careful.

The Earth Wall Talisman he was working on did exactly as its name suggested. It erected a wall where the user threw the talisman. While it sounded simple, it required two different runes to create. One for generating the hardened earth for the wall, then one for the upward movement to form the barrier.

It was still one of the simpler talismans, as it combined an earth element rune with a neutral rune. The chance of interference was much lower.

As Li Lang’s hand continued to inscribe, he soon arrived at the trickiest part. It was the section where the two runes almost touched. While there were advanced techniques to overlap them, Li Lang wasn’t there yet.

As he drew the second rune only a millimeter away from the first, Li Lang accidentally let his brush stray a little too far. As soon as the ink touched the first rune he had drawn, the talisman began to glow.

A moment later, a wall of stone suddenly materialized above the desk. Its weight easily buckled the desk, splintering it. The desk was created from Li Lang’s memories, not the actual article. It meant it was only as strong as a normal desk that he imagined it to be. Unbeknownst to Li Lang, if it were Yi Lin’s actual desk, it could’ve easily withstood the weight.

“Ruby, reset!”

Thankfully, Ruby was able to quickly clear away the entire mess and revert everything to how it was before the incident.

Good thing I didn’t try practicing in the real world yet. I’d rather not cause a mess at this inn…

Li Lang didn’t rest and made another attempt.

Like this, Li Lang trained for another few weeks. He even used up the winnings from the tournament betting to buy another pill furnace to add to the artifact space. He wasn’t working on a particularly difficult recipe yet, but he was able to practice without caring about resources.

Still, his focus was on Brushweaving, since he could already refine what he needed with his current alchemy skills.

It allowed him to progress at such a fast pace that even Yi Lin was surprised.

“Hmm…Not bad at all. It took me more than half a year to even inscribe the simplest compound talisman back in my days. You seem to have a talent for it…Should we move on to the next step? What do you think?”

“Yes, we can move on. I won’t forget to keep practicing the basics. Don’t worry.”

“Very well. Let’s get started on how to inscribe on other surfaces then. I think the one most useful for you is enchanting; the art of inscribing on artifacts to empower them.”

“Yes! I’ve been wanting to learn more about that. Can I empower my spear with the inscription, too?”

Li Lang was immediately excited about the new research direction. He currently planned to look into mass-producing talismans somehow. Over practice, he realized how complicated the degree of Qi control was needed to inscribe. He believed it was possible to make a printer of some sort. It would only be able to print one specific type of talisman, as the detailed processes each required its separate machine, but he felt confident he could realize it.

However, now he had to weigh which research direction he wanted to proceed in.

Yi Lin shook his head.

“I’d advise against it. Mundane weapons likely won’t be able to handle anything but the simplest rune.”

With that, Yi Lin began to explain the requirements and intricacies of artifact enchanting.