Alchemist In The Cultivator World

Chapter 8

Xander looked down at the little rat in his hand. “What should I do with you now?” he asked. He doubted it could understand his words. The creature barely had any Qi in it, nowhere near enough to have a mind capable of proper thought.

He knelt on the floor and lowered his hand, setting the rat down. The rat squeaked once, shivering in place as it stared at him. Perhaps it was surprised it was still alive. Careful not to make any sudden movements, Xander took out his Qi refilling pill and brought it close to the rat.

“I know you like this. Go on. Take a bite,” he said, even though he knew it could not understand him. Still, seeing the fuzzy little creature terrified for its life made him want to speak in a calm, gentle way.

The rat’s nose twitched as it inspected the pill for a moment before it began to nibble at it. He released the rat fully, keeping his hand close in case it tried to run.

“Stay there. Got it?” Xander said, pushing a bit of Qi into his voice. It was a simple trick he had learned while studying. The rat’s Qi pulsed faintly in response, and he took that as agreement.

He moved aside and picked up the textbooks the Old Man had given him. After a short search, he found the one that mentioned spirit animals. A quick read confirmed his suspicion. The rat was a spirit animal.

Xander glanced back at the rat, which was still eating the pill. From what he knew, animals could sometimes gather Qi and form a core within their bodies. Most spirit animals were born with Qi, but some gained it later in life. At high enough realms, they could even take human form.

Standard cultivation logic.

Xander, however, did not care much about the human part, though the process itself was interesting.

What truly caught his interest was something else entirely.

Their ability to sense spirit herbs.

Spirit animals were extremely good at finding spirit herbs and were often found living near them. And this one was a rat. If he could tame it, it could solve his spirit herb problem entirely and remove his need to rely on Su Lin.

“I wonder if you’ll stick around,” Xander muttered. He reached into his pouch and pulled out a few failed pills. They still contained Qi and were made from herbs, nothing harmful. The rat’s nose twitched again as it rushed forward, grabbing the pill and devouring it eagerly.

He smiled and gently patted the rat’s furry head. It squeaked once, then went back to eating like the greedy thing it was.

“You wouldn’t happen to know how to shoot lightning, would you?” he said. The rat paused and looked at him briefly before returning to its food, clearly unsure what he meant.

Xander shook his head and dropped the joke, turning his attention back to his notes.

His current project was a standardized refining process for Qi refilling pills. His first goal was reducing the refining time, which ranged anywhere from fifteen minutes to half an hour. That kind of variation was absurd. You could not cook something for fifteen extra minutes and expect the same result.

So he stopped focusing on the physical process and shifted toward the magical side instead. That was where things became difficult. To understand alchemy properly, he needed to understand Qi itself. And he knew almost nothing about how Qi truly worked. Xander could feel it in his dantian. He could draw it out and use it. But that was it.

The only technique Yuan knew was the basic one given to all outer sect disciples of the Cloudy Peaks sect.

It was called the Serene Mist Arts, a lesser form of the Celestial Peak Arts. It was mostly about sitting still, meditating, and slowly gaining power. For something practiced so much, one would expect cultivators to gain wisdom along with strength. But reality disagreed.

The art was mostly useless to him. It focused on light movement and martial skill, both of which he lacked. What was useful was the ability to reinforce his body with Qi. And more importantly, to reinforce objects with his Qi as well.

Strengthening his body was easy. He could move faster, jump higher, and sharpen his senses without much effort. It fascinated him. He wanted to understand how a human body could produce such strength without tearing itself apart. Muscles should fail under that strain, yet cultivators could fire light and bend reality—

The rat squeaked, breaking his thoughts. It had walked closer and was staring at him expectantly. It stood on its hind legs, stretching its front paws toward him as if begging.

A smart rat.

He smiled and pulled out a spirit herb this time, plucking a tiny leaf and offering it to the rat. That would be its last treat for the day.