Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Momo opened her eyes.

Actually, her eyes were still very much closed. And yet, she could somehow see. She could touch her master’s face with her imaginary hand, and remember how it curved. She could feel the soft fur on Whisker, and notice the fine hair that was his Whiskers.

She could touch Pearl’s fluffy hair, and feel the domineering, and yet somehow comforting, aura that surrounded his body.

She saw more. She saw the threads that made up the rug she sat on, saw the interlacing red and golden colors. She saw and felt the hard wooden floor, all of them made by a master craftsman, cut to such an exact size that there was no gap left between them as they stayed together.

She felt the coldness in the air, no doubt from the Mistspawn mountains that blew into the city overnight.

She could see and feel so many things that it was amazing.

She opened her eyes finally, looking at the world with two different senses. Her eyes seemed to be outshined by the new sense she had just gotten from the flower that was no longer in her hands.

“Is this… am I…”

“You’ve unlocked your Spiritual Sense,” Alex said from the side. “Congratulations.”

Momo felt as though she was close to being in tears. Her newly unlocked sense made her feel as though she had been disabled before, finally healed from her disability.

She believed every person should have, this wonderful sense.

“Are you okay?” Whisker asked, jumping onto her shoulders. “It can be overwhelming. Try and take a minute to get used to it.”

“Hey, you got through the main part. Now get used to this one and your master can finally teach you alchemy,” Pearl said from the side.

“Alchemy!” Momo said loudly, her eyes looking toward Alex. “I can learn Alchemy now.”

Alex smiled and nodded. “Let Whisker teach you a bit about Spiritual sense,” he said. “It’s still not yet morning, so we will go back and cultivate ourselves. Around morning time, we can begin your lessons.”

“Yes!” Momo shouted in happiness. “Thank you, master. I cannot wait.”

“Of course,” Alex said. “It’s been a month. You had to start someday.” He rubbed her head and left the room along with Pearl, leaving Momo to learn all she could from Whisker and continue her cultivation.

A few hours later, Alex returned to begin and start Momo’s first true Alchemy session.

Alex sat before Momo, a cauldron between the two of them, and a fire underneath it. “Whisker taught you everything that comes with Spiritual sense and opening your Spiritual sea, right?” he asked.

“Yes, everything,” Momo said. “I had no idea that I could have memories that I will never lose. That sounds incredible.”

“It’s not that you can never lose them,” Alex explained. “It’s just that instead of being stored in just your mind, your memories are now stored in your spirit as well. So as long as your spirit isn’t majorly wounded, you won’t lose any memories.”

“Oh!” Momo said although she didn’t understand most of what Alex just said.

“Anyway, let us begin your Alchemy lesson,” Alex said. Even as he was bringing something out from his storage bag, Momo was already clapping happily. She was beyond excited about this.

Alex smiled and brought out many ingredients, laying them before Momo. Momo looked at it all, not sure what they were exactly besides ingredients for a pill. She didn’t know the name of any of them. Hell, she didn’t even know what some of them were.

Alex let her take each one, feel it with both her hand and her spiritual sense, and try to memorize it by heart. She nodded, doing as she was told. He took it all, learning each ingredient one after another.

As she learned the shape, size, sight, and scent of the ingredients, Alex explained to her what each of them was and what they did. Since they were all common-rank ingredients, they didn’t do a whole lot. But even then, they were enough for Momo.

She took in every bit of information Alex gave her, earnestly learning it all. About 15 minutes later, they were done learning all the ingredients.

Alex took back all of the ingredients, hiding them in his storage bag. Then he asked, “Tell me everything about every ingredient you just learned about.”

“Everything?” Momo asked at first. But once Alex nodded, she started going through her memories and began reciting what she had just learned. To her genuine surprise, she remembered every image, every word, every information that Alex had just given her, missing none at all.

Knowing she had a perfect memory was one thing. Understanding what it was like to have it was something entirely different. As she blurted out word after words, all of which she understood now by heart, her eyes widened in shock at her own self.

Once she was done, she remained speechless as she couldn’t believe she had just spoken everything that Alex had told her for the past 15 minutes without missing a single word. Alex smiled at her shocked expression. “Amazing, isn’t it?” he asked. “Do you think you could have been this good had you begun learning earlier?” he asked.

Momo had to shake her head. There was just no way she would have learned this much. There was just too much to learn.

“That’s why I had you wait,” Alex explained. “I would’ve started teaching you way earlier had I found the Spirit Cleansing Lily. Unfortunately, probably on purpose, the Spirit Cleansing Lilies were available nowhere back in the other continent, so your training had to be delayed too.”

Momo nodded, still speechless. But she wasn’t missing any words. She took it all in.

“Now that you have it, we can start,” Alex said, bringing out a talisman. “Here’s the recipe for a cultivation pill that can be made from the ingredients you just learned about. Read it and learn it.”

Momo took the talisman and began going through it all. All the recipes, all the detailed instructions on the temperature and the motion of the ingredients. She went through it all, memorizing it in seconds. It took her a few times to go through the words to understand the meaning behind it, at which point she nodded. “I’ve learned it, master,” she said.

“Now, watch me make the pill first. Use your spiritual sense,” Alex said and began making the pill by himself. Momo used her spiritual sense, to see everything that went on inside the cauldron. She could feel the air heat up inside and could tell when the temperature was right for the ingredients.

“Normally,” Alex said. “A young cultivator like you would be forced to do this with an open cauldron to see what is happening inside, which majorly reduces the quality of your pill as you let the energy leave the cauldron.”

“Having spiritual sense, however, completely changes that dynamic surrounding pill making. You can now make pills without even having to open the lid of the cauldron, and that is a major advantage.” Momo nodded, more or less understanding what Alex meant.

“Now then, watch carefully as you will have to repeat everything I do after this,” Alex said and began making the common-rank pill for Momo to watch and learn.