Chapter 2165 — A Question with No Answer
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
His showing in the Hidden World Families Summit's alchemy contest had been pure luck. If the secretive You family hadn't been so paranoid as to raise the bar to third-grade pills, they might well have been the victors. But being unable to refine pills was, after all, a weakness. Remembering his promise to the little Bingtang girl, Wei Zhao calmed himself and began condensing alchemical fire according to Han Jingyi's method...
He had to admit it: Han Jingyi was a genius. She had applied modern medicine and a number of physics formulas wholesale to the mnemonics for condensing alchemical fire, trimming Zhang Lifeng's original verses into something short, lean, and potent.
Following Han Jingyi's mnemonics, Wei Zhao condensed first-grade alchemical fire with ease—faster than before, even. But when he tried to alter the fire's intensity and temperature, something happened that nearly moved him to tears: the alchemical fire went out again!
Wei Zhao frowned, unwilling to accept it, and began a second condensation. This time he made an adjustment. It was still first-grade alchemical fire, but this time he condensed a flame of greater intensity and higher temperature.
To his delight, this time it condensed just the same, and the flame burned perfectly steady, the temperature meeting his requirements. So he tried lowering the fire's temperature—and this time, too, tragedy struck: the alchemical fire abruptly snuffed out the moment he lowered the temperature.
Both times the fire had died without the slightest warning, as though the mnemonics left him with no staying power once the flame was lit. If he kept it running smooth and even, there was no problem at all; but the moment he changed the manner or speed of the operation, the fire went out. Faster or slower, stronger or weaker—none of it worked.
In other words, if he maintained a constant rate, a fixed temperature, and a fixed intensity, the condensed alchemical fire was perfectly fine. Change anything, and it failed.
This strange state of affairs left Wei Zhao utterly baffled, and yet there was nothing he could do about it. Condensing the fire was certainly no problem—he simply couldn't sustain it. And alchemy was impossible without changing the flame's intensity and temperature; even refining a first-grade pill required adjusting the fire several times along the way.
He tried the same with second- and third-grade alchemical fire, with identical results. He could condense them steadily; so long as he did not alter intensity or temperature, the flame was even and fine. But change anything, and it was sure to die.
Ah—was he really not cut out for alchemy? Wei Zhao shook his head in disappointment and took out the jade bangle for calming the spirit and quieting the mind that he had prepared in advance, and slipped it onto his wrist.