Alchemist In A Cultivation Realm

Chapter 2: Transmigrated II

“Open your mouth Yuan. Swallow the pill and let it mix with your Qi.” The old man said, as he placed a pill near his mouth. He opened his lips, stinging pain coursing through them at the movement.

He ignored the pain as he swallowed the pill, feeling it travel through his chest before it soon began to dissolve. A cool sensation formed in his gut as the Qi from the pill began to spill over, flooding what could only be his pathways. For a moment he panicked, the foreign sensation making him tense, but ingrained memory in his body began to circulate the energy on its own, moving it in circles through his dantian.

A mint like smell tingled his nose as the energy started to dissipate throughout his body, his wounds starting to itch. He felt a surge of Qi pulse through as the pain he’d been feeling began to fade.

“You should be able to walk soon, but don’t channel your Qi or stress your Dantian for a couple of days. I will try and get the sect to let you take a leave for a couple of days,” the old man said with a gentle smile.

He stared at the man, who saved him from death, or a life as a cripple, the only person who’d been there for him. The words that Yuan had never said out loud, he felt them fill his chest. Perhaps it was his last wish, or whatever remained of him, but he felt compelled to give it voice.

“Thank you.”

The old man stared at him, his brows rising in surprise for a brief moment before he laughed gently. “No need to thank this old man Yuan, I am just doing my duties. You have a bright future in front of you, you should be careful not to squander it in quarrels.”

His lips trembled as emotions not completely his own filled him. The grief of loss, the frustration of being insufficient. Anger at himself. To have died like this. But then… grateful. To be able to say what he had never had the heart to.

He closed his eyes, feeling the Qi swirling in his dantian as the emotions passed by.

May you find peace Yuan.

“Yeah this is bullshit” he muttered out loud. In whatever language the people spoke here. Azure-Jade script. The thought came to his mind, alongside the context behind why the language was named such. He was too busy marvelling over his body to care though.

“Fucking Qi magic bullshit. I know I had a concussion and at least a couple broken ribs. All healed in a few hours.” He said out loud, this time in English. Glad he hadn’t forgotten how to speak it at least.

The pill had sent him into a strange haze induced state, where his mind had drifted through his thoughts, as the Qi within him had silently cycled itself over and over. He felt his dantian, now healed from the pill’s effect, and he sensed the Qi filling it.

A meagre amount compared to all but the newest of disciples joining the sect. But even the weakest of cultivators were stronger than the average farmer. Super human strength and speed were just the beginning of their abilities.

He was not going to stick around these murderous drug addicted supermen and women. That’s just asking to get killed.

He flexed his fingers, and moved his feet. The lack of pain was surreal. No medicine, no matter how advanced back home could have achieved what this simple low grade healing pill had done in hours.

He shifted his feet back onto the wooden floor and pulled himself up. The small room he was in was filled with book shelves. A small cauldron sat at one corner of the room, the remnants of the contents of the concocted pill sitting in there.

From what he could tell from Yuan’s memories, Alchemy wasn’t a noteworthy profession in this world. The alchemists, while respected by the lower end of society, worked mostly in service to some sort of lord or governor, and even the most famous alchemists were under the thumb of powerful cultivators.

They needed to have Qi, yet they didn’t use it to focus on cultivation but instead used it to hone a different set of skills. The very concept was foreign to most cultivators. Why wouldn’t you chase the eternal heavens and immortality through trials and tribulations and be the big dick chad god?

He walked up to the cauldron, picking up the little leather book lying on a table nearby. The script was foreign to him, but as with the language he could speak, he could also read these texts. It seemed Yuan was an educated man.

The book opened up to show a list of herbs, denoting their names, common locations and their properties. Flipping through the pages he found various texts explaining how to process these herbs, and various mixtures to form balms and salves to help heal wounds.

The texts were somewhat primitive, yet the content within was still valuable. There were many plants that, he noticed, deviated from their natural properties. One plant was straight up made of fire. A Seven-Poison Flame grass that turned to fire when Qi flowed through it. There were several such strange spirit herbs listed in the book and quite quickly, he found himself sucked into the text books, as it guided him through the basics of Alchemy.

Time flew by, as the further he read the more entranced he became by the things he saw. Everything in this book flew right in the face of all that he knew. It broke laws of physics and chemistry for breakfast, and would munch on the laws of Thermodynamics as a snack. Some pills had downright ridiculous procedures like, perform the dance of the Blood Lotus, and channel your spirit. The pill shall take the shape of your desires like what the fuck.

Yet, the ideas sparked something in him. He’d always enjoyed learning, it was one of the things that had stuck with him since his childhood. His desire to better understand the world around him. To discover the mysteries that may have been hidden right in front of his eyes. The harsh droning classes at university may have at times dulled that enthusiasm, but the desire had never really gone away completely.

Now, it seemed to have returned stronger than ever before. He was in a fantasy world. A world with mythical forces and pills that could save hundreds of lives. From every cultivation novel he had read, the setting had been historical, and backward in technology, but there was no need for things to be that way.

They already had medicine so advanced it could heal people in a day or two. If he could understand that, if he could find out what made this world tick, then perhaps he would not have to worry about some random young master being his doom. After all, science was just the understanding of the world around them. If the laws of his world did not apply, then he would just have to learn the laws of this one.

Alchemy could also serve as a way to earn money and save enough up to live on his own outside the sect. And possibly find some quiet corner where he could try and break down the magic behind this world.

It was as good a plan as he would have, of leaving behind the politics and cultivators and their squabbles. He did not want to live as a peasant. From what he could see in Yuan’s memory, they had extremely simplistic lives, and lived in poverty. Not having the internet is bad enough, but having to work on some farm to survive may just kill him out of boredom. No, he’d much rather get a quiet mansion in a town, and sell alchemical potions and live a comfortable life.

He let out a breath, closing the book on his lap. The door creaked behind him, and he saw the Old Man, standing at the doorway, staring at him.

“W-what are you doing Yuan?” the old man said, a look of surprise on his face.

“I- umm. I just…” he murmured but his voice was caught in his throat. He paused for a moment, shuffling. Delaying would do nothing. This would have to be his chance. He took in a deep breath, as he looked up at the Old Man.

“I want to learn Alchemy.”