Carefully Jack placed the flower pot onto the kitchen table. Three weeks had passed since he had gathered the herbs in the forest and finally they were ready for use, so he had decided to try his hand at alchemy. He would first try to create a batch of Body Tempering Fluid.

Body Tempering Fluid was one of the most common supplies for those who had just started body refining. Once drunk it would break the body down from within and then cause it to grow stronger and more durable afterwards. Sadly the effect would become less and less the more often the Fluid became consumed, but it was enough to easily double a normal humans strength.

And that was something Jack needed direly. Looking at his body he could see the new muscles his body had started to develop after only a few weeks of training with Sam’s grandfather. That however didn’t change the fact that till now he had managed to lose every single spar against Sam. A several thousand year old cultivator was losing against a 10 year old boy. That was something that went completely against Jack's pride as a cultivator.

Was it unfair to use the Body Tempering Fluid to become stronger and defeat Sam? Probably, but Jack didn’t care, he just wanted to win.

With a critical looked Jack looked over his new workplace. He had been able to gather the herbs he needed a few weeks ago, which wasn’t difficult, most of the ingredients were rather common or could be easily exchanged to other herbs. However he did lack in an alchemistical pill furnace. One of those was stored inside his Dantian, but he couldn’t access it. As such he had to use the next best thing. The kitchen and a pot filled with boiling water. Honestly, if anyone from his past life could see him right now they would probably die from laughing. Especially the professional alchemists that always prided themselves in their equipment and their achievements in the art of Alchemy.

Alchemy was in fact a very delicate art. Alchemists had to know the exact properties of the herbs and plants they were using and how they would interact with each other. Some of this knowledge came from the gathered knowledge of their ancestors and teachers, but most of the time alchemists would try to test new recipes, searching for useful results. There was nothing an alchemist would find more pride in than having invented a new kind of medicine and most of them would protect their recipes with their lives.

Jack himself was only a dabbling alchemist at best and could only use what he had learned when he was still visiting the Heavenly Arts School. So it couldn’t be helped that he was a bit rusty. But for Body Tempering Fluid, which was one of the easiest alchemical concoctions his abilities were more than enough.

With a quick movement of his hand Jack picked a scissor and cut a few pieces out of the Starlight moos. Afterwards he carefully separated the leaves from the stem before he threw the leaves into the pot. After a few moments he started to concentrate. Carefully he moved his Qi through his Spiritual Veins and influenced the Qi rich medical essence that had been stored inside the leaves to diffuse and gather in the water. As a result the leaves dried up and their wrinkled remains floated on the surface before Jack used a spoon to take them out.

Next he cut off the stem of the small Tranquil Flow Flower with his scissor. Carefully he pressed out the inner fluid before adding it into the pot. Instantly the boiling water became coloured in a soft green tone. As soon as it did, Jack started to move the Qi inside the pot in a special pattern, forming a small rune inside the pot. Slowly the Qi from the leaves as well as that from the Tranquil Flow Flower fluid started to move in a circular movement. And when it did, the two different Qi infused liquids started to fuse. The liquid in the pot changed into a bright aquamarine colour.

Content Jack nodded, then he lowered the heat inside the pot. Quickly the liquid stopped boiling. Then he took the next plant, the Live Vine. This ingredient was in fact the most important part of the Body Tempering Fluid. While the others were interacting to break down the body, the Live Vine would transmit a powerful vital energy, which would be used for the rebuilding.

Taking out a small kitchen knife Jack cut the Life Vine into small pieces. Then he scrapped out the bright green coloured inner part of the vine. It was much too potent to use. That was the only problem for the Body Tempering Fluid. The destructive effect and the restorative effect had to be balanced out. If it wasn’t in balance, drinking it would either do nothing or even harm the cultivator. So Jack had to be careful about the dosage.

Jack took the pieces of Life Vine and threw them into the pot. Carefully stirring the liquid he waited for a moment. But nothing happened.

Jack frowned. Why didn’t it react properly? By now the pieces of the Live Vine should have started to dissolve and mix with the rest. Instead they were simply floating atop of the liquid. Maybe the Qi inside the pot wasn’t enough to fuel the changes?

After a moment of hesitation Jack focused on the air around him. Even here, outside of his room, was a very slight amount of Qi in the air, so he took a bit of it and carefully infused it into the pot, trying to not disturb the already existing Qi inside of it.

For a few moments nothing happened, then the pieces started to dissolve and the liquid became coloured in a dark turquoise.

Jack grinned. It worked, perfect. More power was sometimes the best solution. For the next part Jack plucked the petals of the ten year old Silver Leaf Flower and chopped the Fog sprout, a small grey mushroom, into pieces. One by one he threw them inside the pot and watched how they dissolved, changing the colour bit by bit into a dark grey.

Seeing this Jack nodded in satisfaction. It was ready. Now all he had to do was concentrate the fluid. He pressed a button on the stove to maximize the heat while using his Qi to press the outside air into the pot. The liquid began boiling again and began to quickly lose volume. It also became more and more viscous and turned into a paste like substance. All was good, but then Jack began frowning.

The Qi inside the pot was rapidly vanishing. Unsure what was happening Jack looked a bit closer. Small red points had started to appear on the surface of the paste. Perplexed Jack scratched his head. Why did this happen, he had followed each step of the recipe, so it shouldn’t -

*Boom*

With a deafening sound the paste inside the pot suddenly exploded, showering Jack in boiling liquid.

Coughing Jack tried to clean his eyes to see what had happened. But the jelly like consistence of the liquid hindered his efforts. Only after several minutes could he finally open his eyes again. As soon as he did he gulped.

The kitchen was ruined. The slowly hardening jelly was everywhere. Even the ceiling was covered.

‘Shit. Mom will go berserk.’

Frantically Jack tried to think how this disaster happened. What he did was done without the proper instruments, but that should at most lower the quality of the body tempering fluid, not turn it into a strange jelly.

In the end he concluded that it was probably the plants. The first problem, the pieces of the Live Vine that didn’t dissolve was already a sign for that. Even though they looked like the ones he had used in his past life he couldn’t be sure that they had the same medical properties. Alchemy was a difficult art and even the slightest variations could have disastrous outcomes. Just like he had seen right now.

With a sigh Jack decided to bury his plans to use Alchemy for now. If even something as easy as the Body Tempering Fluid became a failure, then the more difficult ones would surely be impossible. Luckily he knew a few techniques that would allow his inner Qi to inspect the exact properties of herbs. Then he could compare them to what properties the herbs had in his old world and try to change the recipe to counterbalance the differences. But that meant that he had to wait until he regained his cultivation to try again.

Sadly most other crafts he had used in his past life like the Inscription of weapons or the creation of talismans would also require him to become able to use his internal Qi. Others, like blacksmithing for example would need a workplace and equipment, both currently impossible. So Jack had no other choice than to give up on his crafting fantasies. For now that is.

Instead he would try to gather as much plants and materials as he could and store them in his room. Who knew what use some of the plants of this world could have if they were properly infused with Qi. So when he finally could begin crafting in earnest he would have enough materials to experiment. Given that many ingredients became stronger the longer they had been immersed in Qi he should start as soon as possible.

‘After I finish cleaning this mess that is’

Quietly Jack started to clean the kitchen. However he didn’t manage to clean it all before his parents came home. That day he saw hell.