Journey Towards Dao

There was a short list of things about this world that Auslen had never found particularly enjoyable.

The lack of internet had a special place at the top of this list. It wasn’t as though he had lived the majority of his previous life with such an entertaining convenience, but it could be frightening how quick humans acclimated to new experiences. Deacclimation, however, proved to be quite the challenge for Auslen.

But closely following criticism number one was the grievance that just so happened to be the basis for Auslen’s current plight.

Air conditioning. There’s absolutely no fucking air conditioning.

Frustrated, Auslen unbuttoned the tall collar of his Outer Sect robe, internally grumbling a flurry of expletives. He then placed his cheek directly onto a huge block of ice sitting in front of one of the training room’s natural air vents. A deep satisfying sigh escaped from his lips.

An ice-condensing Mystic Artifact was one of the amenities included when they arrived, and on this rare, hot summer day on the mountain, it was Auslen’s only source of relief within this muggy cave.

“Lower your knees more.”

Practically hugging the ice, Auslen’s eyelids drooped while watching Vincent obediently sinking deeper into his horse stance. The boy’s face was frowning with salient exhaustion, but he did not stop methodically slashing the wooden saber with both of his hands. Over a meter in length, the crossguard saber had a slightly curved, single-edged blade.

“Like this?” Vincent asked breathlessly, eyes remaining closed and sweat trickling down his face.

“That’s good," Auslen replied, a bit of sympathy in his eyes. "I know you’re tired, Vincent, but keep at it for just a little while longer. Father tells me that exhaustion helps quicken the process!”

Whether the man was serious or not, Auslen did not know. It had worked for him though.

Once several more minutes passed, Auslen pushed himself away from the ice before standing.

“You can rest now,” he spoke, wiping away some of the cool condensation on his cheek.

At Auslen’s authorization, Vincent immediately stopped his movements and the wooden saber disappeared into his spatial ring, revealing his trembling hands and callused fingers. He fell down onto his bum, deeply inhaling warm air that only succeeded in making him sweat more.

Vincent stood back up only after taking one last shaky breath.

Once he arrived beside Auslen, his hands were already carrying a glass pitcher of spring water that was kept cool within his spatial ring. He quickly poured some water into an empty cup he retrieved as well before extending it out to Auslen.

Auslen merely took the cup from the visibly thirsty and exhausted child.

“Thank you, Vincent,” Auslen said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Instead, he drank and closed his eyes, enjoying the crisp refreshing sensation flowing into his body.

Seeing Auslen drink, Vincent took two steps back with a nod. “It’s my duty.”

Auslen tossed him the empty cup as he considered how much time had passed.

“Stay here. I need to go pick up Nathaniel from his tutoring session. Get yourself cleaned up in the mean time.”

…

Elixir Refinement Hall.

‘Why can Auslen do it, but I can’t? What am I doing wrong...’

Within the Refining Chamber, Nathaniel was splattered in soot and sweating profusely. His gaze sat straight on the concoction that he was stirring with one hand, but the majority of his mind was focused on the combusting Ignition Plate. The growing minority, however, was upset and tired.

“Concentrate on the flame, Nathaniel!” Irene instructed. “You're almost there. There’s no need to rush.”

'Really?' Nathaniel couldn't quite bring himself to believe her.

Regardless, Nathaniel listened to Irene’s instruction, constraining the heat to a slightly lower temperature.

After failing once already today, he had been the one to beg Irene to let him continue. He was over two hours into this second concoction. The previous thought of his cousin had generated a slew of uncomfortable, self-deprecating emotions within Nathaniel, which agitated the flame slightly.

But with Irene’s reminder, Nathaniel sucked in a deep breath before shaking his other thoughts away, recommitting to this Elixir refinement. He was desperate to succeed this time.

Time continued to drag on, each second feeling like dozens to Nathaniel.

Eventually, a strong herbal aroma emanated from the cauldron, causing his brows to shoot up in surprise and disbelief.

“Quick, Nathaniel!” Irene hastily cut in. “Shut off the Ignition Plate. You did it!”

‘I… I did it?’ Nathaniel didn’t know what to do after he involuntarily lifted his left hand, causing the gyrating flame to disperse.

He had never made it this far and his mind was addled, causing his movements to stall.

Laughter echoed inside the chamber as Irene helped guide the absentminded boy through the following steps.

And in the end, Nathaniel was left with two bottles of Qi Refinement Elixirs and a small box of Pseudo Spirit Plant dregs.

“There you have it.” Irene’s lips quirked into a beautiful smile, praise hidden in the blue depths of her eyes. “Two fully stable Qi Refinement Elixirs! I knew you could do it, kid.”

A few quiet moments passed, however, the joy that she was expecting to take over Nathaniel’s face did not come. Instead, his expression twisted into a moping frown, only staring at the two bottles of Qi Refinement Elixir in defeat.

Irene sighed as she sat down on a stool that she just removed from her spatial ring.

Understanding the boy’s depressed behavior was not a difficult matter for her.

“While comparing yourself to others is normal," Irene began, voice soft with calming tones, "you shouldn’t let those comparisons affect your emotions negatively, especially when you’ve just achieved something so incredible.”

Irene smiled consolingly before noticing some particles of soot coating strands of her red hair. She took a moment to remove the blue ribbon holding her pony-tail up, allowing the curly hair to fall down to the curve of her back.

Fingers raking through her curls, she continued, “You just refined a Spirit Elixir at the age of seven! That’s nearly record breaking, Nathaniel! I didn't even refine my first Spirit Elixir until the age of 11.”

Nathaniel’s almond-colored eyes were still downcast. “But Auslen could—”

“What did I just say?” Irene fixed the brown-haired boy with a piercing gaze.

Nathaniel immediately shut his mouth, afraid of getting smacked like Victor.

Shaking her head, she finished retying her clean hair before she continued. “Your cousin only successfully refined a Spirit Elixir two days before you. But you may very well concoct your second batch of Spirit Elixirs before Auslen can. Your timings are so close, its inconsequential.”

Nathaniel pouted, seeming to struggle with his vexed thoughts for a long while. Before long, he just decided to blurt his feelings out anyway.

“But Auslen’s Technique is harder than mine!” Syllables shot out of Nathaniel’s mouth in a jet of barely intelligible words, stubbornly determined to voice his burning grief before Irene could interrupt.

Nearly crying from his built up frustration, Nathaniel finished, “I really thought I’d beat him this time, but I still lost. Auslen cultivates faster than me, he’s stronger than me… He’s just better than me at everything!”

The echoes of his immature exclamation began to fade while Irene watched Nathaniel huff and puff from behind the messy work-station.

‘Well, he’s at least partially correct,’ Irene thought.

For a while now, she had been hearing loads of positive things about Auslen from Michail and several others that frequented the Elixir Refinement Hall.

However, she had still assumed Auslen to be both immature and overconfident when he ignored the advice of his seniors and willfully chose the Five Aspects Convergence Elixir Refinement Technique, which was among the most difficult of Elixir Refinement Techniques within Tier 1.

But who knew that it wouldn’t even take half a year for the boy to grow so familiar with the Technique before her very eyes, to the point where he could even successfully refine his first batch of Qi Refinement Elixirs! Although she had watched him do it, she still couldn’t quite believe it.

She was familiar with Apprentice Alchemists her age who still couldn’t manage to practically implement that Technique.

Fascination returning, Irene blinked slowly while her thoughts spun extraordinarily fast.

‘The amount of focus and dexterity needed to concoct an Elixir with five Pseudo Spirit Plants is not something a child should be capable of, especially one with a Pure Water Elemental Affinity.

‘Was it a lucky fluke? No, luck has little to do with Spirit Elixir refinement. His Soul Force is spectacular for his age, but realistically, that should‘ve made things much more difficult for him, considering his Elemental Affinity is unsuited for Alchemy. Then, could it possibly be his Willpower? Or maybe even…’

Although tempting, Irene pushed her curiosity aside and resisted thinking anymore about Auslen. Whatever the reason may be, the boy was surely a genius. However, she had seen her fair share of geniuses.

She returned her attention back to the sulking, brown-hared boy in front of her.

As a matter of fact, she had always looked upon Nathaniel much more favorably than his cousin, ever since Michail had asked her to tutor Nathaniel, Auslen, and Mia after they became Apprentice Alchemists.

While Auslen was a beautiful child and a fantastic student, she often thought the kid a bit too disciplined or... perfect, for lack of a better word. Nathaniel was much livelier, which she found herself more comfortable with.

Additionally, Nathaniel's Pure Fire Elemental Affinity provided him the potential to be a rare genius Alchemist!

When it came to true Alchemy, possessing a decent Fire Elemental Affinity was a deal breaker. And within the entire Sect, the number of disciples who possessed Pure Fire Elemental Affinities was less than five.

When combined with his Soul Force strength and young age, it didn’t need to be said how valuable Nathaniel’s talent was in the Alchemical field. As long as he was molded well and chose an appropriate Cultivation Method, his future prospects would be sky-high!

'Should I show off a bit for the kid?'

Irene lifted her left hand up, the movement drawing Nathaniel’s attention.

Suddenly, over a dozen sparkling strands of Profound Qi slithered out of her fingertips, hovering just above her face up palm. With a small twitch of her fingers, the floating strands wriggled before shaping themselves into a small, circular formation of glyphs, their white radiance slowly infected with a scarlet hue.

Irene closed her eyes as a floating body of fire ignited above the Spell Formation.

Before long, Nathaniel’s eyes widened as the flame began to split into six ovular segments, slowly curling away from one another until they resembled a flaming lily flower that just barely eclipsed the size of her hand.

With the wave of her right hand, a cauldron, much smaller than the one Nathaniel was familiar with, appeared from her spatial ring. It flew ever so gently until it levitated above the flower-like flame.

“This is a portion of a Tier 1 Pill Refinement Technique,” Irene explained, eyes still closed as the flaming petals began contracting towards the cauldron. The tips of the petals then gently tapped against the bottom of the cauldron independently, each touch releasing visible waves of heat along the black metallic alloy.

She continued, “There are three requirements in order to operate such a Technique.

"First, the Alchemist must be at least a Foundation Establishment realm cultivator. Second, the Cultivation Method they practice must be at least Earth Tier. Third, the Cultivation Method must place a significant focus on the element of fire.”

Smirking, Irene opened her eyes as she continued operating the Technique, as if it were just a casual exercise. However, the collar of her Outer Sect robes hid a layer of sweat, brought about by the taxing intensity at which she was manipulating her Soul Force and Profound Qi to perform such precise actions.

“I can’t promise much else, Nathaniel," She began, the faint freckles bouncing on her cheeks as she laughed mischievously. "But at least in the field of Alchemy, I can assure you that there will come a day where you will achieve things that Auslen, and many others without your talents, could ever only dream of.”

Each of Irene’s words penetrated directly into Nathaniel’s young heart, his eyes locked on the flower-like lily in wonder.

Depression quickly fell away as confidence began to burn once again. ‘Yay! Something Auslen can’t do! But, do I really gotta wait until Foundation Establishment? That’s so far away…’

"Now, reset for another refinement!" The flaming flower dispersed as Irene reabsorbed her dimming Profound Qi. Grasping her small cauldron out of the air, she smilingly continued, "The best time period to concoct is after your first success of the day!"

‘But, it’s lunch time… I haven't eaten yet...’ Nathaniel muttered underneath his breath, too afraid to openly contradict her.