Read Novel Full Chapter 280: My Own Path
Chapter 280: My Own Path
Kyrian closed the door of the room behind him.
The sound of the latch echoed softly in the silence of the stone chamber. He stood still for a few seconds, simply breathing in the familiar air. The scent of dried herbs, old ashes, warm metal, and the faint metallic trace that permeated the entire fortress of the Blood Court.
It was like returning home.
He walked to the center of the room. The cauldron was still there, exactly where he had left it before the mission. Its dark surface faintly reflected the dim light that entered through the narrow window. There was no dust. The servants kept the room clean even in his absence.
Kyrian extended his hand. A soft glow appeared in his spatial ring. The advanced alchemy manuals he had acquired in the Cloud Circle appeared stacked beside the cauldron. Then came the sacks of herbs.
He did not waste time.
He sat cross-legged in front of the cauldron. The gray flame ignited beneath the metal with an almost inaudible whisper. The heat began to spread slowly, controlled.
Kyrian opened the first manual to the marked page. A rank 3 formula. Meridian Purification Pill. Seven main herbs, two volatile auxiliary ones, precise sequence of addition, layered temperature control. High difficulty.
The average purity expected for experienced alchemists was seventy percent.
He began.
The first attempts were... bad.
The first pill came out with forty-one percent purity. The second, thirty-eight percent.
The third exploded inside the cauldron, scattering ashes and a sharp smell throughout the room. Kyrian did not even blink. He cleaned the container with a gesture of Qi and started again.
Failures were not defeats. They were data.
He recorded everything. Exact temperature at the moment of essence fusion. Exposure time of each herb. Order of addition.
Even the relative humidity of the air in the room influenced the result, he realized that on the twelfth attempt.
At the end of the first day, he had already formed seven usable pills. The best with fifty-eight percent purity.
On the second day, it rose to sixty-seven percent.
On the fifth day, he reached seventy-four percent purity.
Kyrian did not stop. He slept little. He ate when a servant knocked on the door with a tray. He drank water. And returned to the cauldron.
Dong Zhen had returned. That meant Bai Zhu, Kai, Yan Ling, Li Fen, and Mei Li were now training under the direct supervision of the leader of the Court. Kyrian no longer needed to divide his time between the courtyard and the room.
He could devote himself completely to alchemy.
And he did.
Days turned into weeks.
Kyrian rarely left the room. When he did, it was only to hand flasks of pills to the servants, who took them to nearby cities and returned with more herbs, more spiritual stones, and more materials.
The cycle was perfect. He produced. And sold, obtaining the profits. He received more inputs. And continued producing.
On the tenth day since he had returned, he achieved the first Meridian Purification Pill with eighty percent purity. Three pills per batch. All above eighty-five percent.
On the twelfth day, he mastered another rank 3 formula. Qi Concentration Pill. Average purity of ninety-one percent.
On the twenty-fifth day, he reached ninety-three in five different rank 3 formulas.
And then, when three months had passed since the limit of his eyes.
...
Kyrian was refining a batch of Healing Pills, a specific type of pill and one of the most difficult among rank 3.
Nine herbs. Three of them with opposite properties that needed to be balanced at the exact moment of fusion.
The gray flame danced in perfect layers. The internal temperature of the cauldron was maintained with millimetric precision. The essences rotated in absolute harmony, without resistance, without conflict.
Kyrian watched without blinking. His gray eyes recorded every micro-change in the energetic structure.
Then... the fusion ended.
Three small, dark-green pills formed at the bottom of the cauldron. They fell with a soft clink, almost musical.
Kyrian opened the lid. A pure and refreshing aroma spread through the room, clean, deep, without any perceptible impurity.
He picked up one of the pills between his thumb and index finger. His eyes analyzed.
The surface was impeccable. Uniform color. Stable and dense spiritual energy. No cracks. No stains.
Ninety-five percent purity.
Kyrian remained motionless for long seconds.
Then... a slight smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. It was not one of exaggerated pride.
It was pure satisfaction. The feeling of having mastered something that, for most alchemists, would take years.
He stored the three pills in a jade flask. Then he looked at the empty cauldron.
Three months.
Almost three months of incessant practice. Of failures. Of adjustments. Of mental and technical refinement.
And now... he had reached the practical limit of rank 3 pills. Ninety-five percent purity was considered the peak for most formulas at that level. Above that, it would require not only technique but also a better cauldron and higher-quality herbs.
Kyrian stood up slowly. He felt his joints crack after hours in the same position. He walked to the narrow window and looked outside.
The dark clouds of the Blood Court continued to move slowly across the sky. The air was cold. Heavy.
He calculated mentally.
Three months had passed since the absorption limit of his eyes had returned.
That meant there was still one more month before the internal dantians would accept spiritual energy from stones again.
No rush.
He felt no anxiety. He felt no emptiness. On the contrary.
Alchemy filled him in a way that pure cultivation never had. There was creation. Control. Precision. And, above all, independence.
Kyrian returned to the cauldron. He picked up a new sack of herbs, high-quality rank 4 herbs, freshly delivered.
He murmured to himself, voice low.
"Rank 4... will be next."
The gray flame ignited again.
The room was once more filled with the subtle sound of fire and the aroma of herbs being refined.
Outside, the fortress continued its routine.
Dong Zhen trained the five. Servants walked through the corridors. The Blood Core pulsed at the center of the structure.
But inside that small and simple room... Kyrian continued on his own path.