'It's really difficult.'
Yasenia's entire focus was on the alchemy process in front of her. Her spiritual sense clearly revealed the internal workings of the cauldron, and she utilized that to ensure that all the herbs were properly burned and vaporized, keeping all impurities at bay.
'But… Ugh.' As she was trying hard to avoid mixing the volatile impurities, Yasenia failed for a second, and some of them got mixed in with the other process. 'How can Honey do all of this so easily?'
The number of times she helped Kali during alchemy was plenty. She had acted as her assistant many times and saw Kali manipulate the energy clouds inside the cloud as if she were their ruler. In comparison, Yasenia felt like a child trying to manage a complex army.
'Go slowly; don't be hasty. Otherwise, you'll make the ingredients go to waste.'
Taking a deep breath, Yasenia moved her hands fluidly and manipulated the fire and energy down to the decimal degrees.
'Alright… It is starting to accelerate. Now, only the two main herbs are left.'
With swift motions, Yasenia opened the cauldron and threw the two spiritual herbs into it, closing it right away. The rose and orchid instantly mixed with some impurities, making Yasenia grunt in annoyance. Nevertheless, she didn't let that distract her.
'Slowly, burn them and soften them. Separate the gases between the impure and the essence, mixing everything into large clouds you can then manipulate.'
Inside the cauldron, the essence of the several hundred herbs mixed and moved as one, following Yasenia's will and slowly spinning faster and faster. The process was slow and tedious, but thankfully, Yasenia didn't lack concentration.
After who knows how long, the cloud of essence was spinning close to the center, while Yasenia's spiritual sense was keeping the dark impurities at bay on the outer edge of the cauldron.
"Faster."
Yasenia muttered, her hands circling in front of her as if she were caressing a miniature of the cauldron.
"Tighter."
Squeezing her hands, the clouds in the middle got compressed further. Sadly, at this point, a little bit of impurity was affected by her command and mixed again in the pure essence. Yasenia tightly pressed her lips, but her concentration didn't diminish; it only strengthened.
"Again. Compress further."
As the radius of the cloud of essence became smaller, its rotational speed increased multiplicatively. All the momentum it had gathered during the entire process was now bearing fruit, helping Yasenia squeeze out all the essence.
"And… Fuse."
When she said that, Yasenia could feel a terrifying mental pressure. Clearly, the essence didn't want to get together, so it was trying to expand. At the same time, like a caged beast, the impurities tried to escape her control and merge with the rich energy in the middle.
Her body perspired, but after a bit of effort, Yasenia slapped the cauldron and shouted lightly. "Completion!"
The lid instantly shot to the sky, and right after, an explosion occurred inside the cauldron. The shockwave gathered the impurities and pushed them up in a cloud of grey gases, while behind those gases, a single circular pellet shot to the sky.
Rumble!
Above Yasenia, a small tribulation cloud manifested, its color light grey. Yasenia was not surprised. After all, to create a pill beyond Heaven-ranked was an act of going against the Heavens. Therefore, pill tribulations were a standard when creating pills at this level.
Looking at the number of lightning bolts in the cloud, Yasenia's eyes were complicated. 'Only three bolts? That's barely acceptable. Now, I need to protect the pill and guide the small tribulation energy into it for a successful completion.'
Her eyes easily caught the tribulation lightning descending and moved her own energy to cover the pill.
BANG!
The first lightning bolt struck strongly, but Yasenia's barrier was unharmed and sturdy. The dragoness didn't even feel a trace of tension.
BANG!
The second bolt fell, creating a very light ripple on the defense around the pill. The dragoness looked calmly as the third bolt prepared and fell down with might.
BANG!
The pill survived, Yasenia's shield practically unscathed.
"Absorb."
With a light move of her hands, the tribulation energy swirled into the pill and nourished it, completing the low-level Transcendence Ranked pill.
As the pill fell, Yasenia floated up and caught it inside a wooden box with red padding. Her pill quality was not high enough to give the pill a semi-consciousness. But just in case, she caught it quickly. The last thing she wanted was for her pill to go flying into the void.
Looking behind her, she noticed Soluna, Draheart, and Dramel looking at her with big smiles… Well, in the case of Draheart, it was a very faint one, but one full of feelings.
Soluna trotted to her side. "Well done! You did it, Yasenia!"
The dragoness laughed and landed on the ground, extending her arms to hug her pretty spirit. "So, how long did I take? Did you all wait too long?"
Dramel approached, hugging her arm with a smile. "Not too long! You took four months to create that pill!"
"Four months…" Yasenia hummed, her gaze a bit worried. "There were around seven years left when I arrived at the garden, right? If that's the case, I need to complete four challenges at a rate of at least one per year, and I have one year free."
She had to return to the entrance, so leaving a few months free was necessary.
With a time frame in mind, Yasenia took the pill and went in front of the door. "Here it is. A [Star Limb Pill] with 62% purity and three tribulation marks."
A pill at this level was considered low-quality in standard shops. Still, it was not so bad that it couldn't be sold. If someone were in a tight place, they would probably buy something at this level. Moreover, this was Yasenia's first concoction of this pill.
The fact that she was successful was a great deal. Even then, Yasenia didn't think so; after all, her reference was Kali, a super genius in the alchemy path.
After presenting the pill, the door glowed for a second, light enveloping the pill. And then… Nothing happened.
Yasenia blinked twice, looking between the door and the pill enveloped in white starlight with a few black dots on the surface. "Is it… not enough?"
A troubled expression appeared on her face. Still, to make sure of it, she took a step forward and tried to open the door.
Click.
"Oh?" Yasenia's eyebrows jumped, and when she was about to push the door open, a voice reached her. "Do you want to take 10% control of the garden by opening the First Door?"
The dragoness instantly stopped her motions, her forehead covered in cold sweat. "No, I don't. I want to take over more of the garden."
When she said that, the recorded message activated. "Then, let go of the Trial Door number one."
After she did so, the door forcefully closed in front of her face.
BANG!
Yasenia blinked a few times. "Thankfully, my chest was separated enough for the door not to slam back on them. It would've hurt so much…"
Gently caressing her bosom, Yasenia turned around and spoke aloud, annoyed. "Sui Xing! I almost lost the opportunity because I was hasty! Can't you warn me beforehand the next time?"
Sui Xing spoke awkwardly. "That… Would you believe me if I told you that I didn't know about that?"
Yasenia frowned and harrumphed. "I would believe you… But I am still annoyed!"
Seeing the childish annoyance in such a seductive face almost provoked Sui Xing into laughter. "Alright, this was my mistake. I should've known beforehand."
The dragoness's expression relaxed, and she nodded twice. "That's right. You should've." Then, she sighed and looked at the second smallest house. "Anyway… Let's read the second pill recipe, shall we?"
Draheart spoke lightly. "Now you have a standard of acceptance. If you manage to create a pill 62% pure and with three bolts, you are guaranteed a pass. Perhaps something less is even acceptable. Although I doubt that below 60% purity will pass as a success."
Yasenia agreed with her words. She probably barely scraped the acceptable level to be considered a "Successful" alchemy pill by the trial standards.
'If the trial was not about success but quality, I would've needed to give up on the garden.'
Relieved that she had a chance, Yasenia read the second pill recipe. "Let's see… The second pill is a [Star Mind Pill]. Hm." Yasenia blinked and instantly found a pattern. 'Star Limb, now Star Mind… I guess these five pills are part of a single set, which, when eaten together, increases strength by quite a lot.'
With that in mind, Yasenia checked the recipe for the second pill. "As expected… I am lacking one 500,000-year-old herb." Still, she was glad that her previous consideration to gather extra herbs wasn't for nothing.
"This pill also needs the [Star Arm Rose] and [Star Leg Orchid] spiritual herbs. The one I lack is the [Star Brain Daisy]... Such a strange name."
With a weird face, she checked the map of the garden and quickly memorized it. "Alright, let's go get it."
Yasenia put on the dark mantle again and quickly traversed the stone path. She had taken it off during her pill concoctions so that it wouldn't bother her. While it didn't restrict her movements, not having it was preferable to having it on.
As she traversed the second closest layer to the central area, Yasenia noticed quite a few more groups gathering herbs in the garden. 'Hm… Thankfully, this place is large and has many herbs. The chances that one of the materials I will need is harvested entirely are quite slim.'
Taking no longer than a week, Yasenia found, collected, and returned to the central area. Since there were no obstacles this time around, Yasenia was able to go unnoticed.
"Alright, time to create the [Star Mind Pill]."
The process was more complex compared to the [Star Limb Pill]. Nevertheless, it wasn't outside of Yasenia's skill level. Moreover, after concocting the [Star Limb Pill], Yasenia's proficiency in the process had increased. They were, after all, somewhat similar.
'It's rather lucky that the pills are part of a set. If they were random pills with escalating difficulties, the trial might've been too difficult.'
Using six months, Yasenia managed to concoct the [Star Mind Pill] once. Sadly, the quality of the pill was 54% due to a mistake during the last phases. She had not expected the energy inside the [Star Brain Daisy] to attack her soul at the last second.
"Hmph…" Yasenia frowned and looked at the [Earth Refining Cauldron]. "Let's hope that you can cleanse the pill to an acceptable level…"