"What do you mean by it should have stopped, sister? Is this phenomenon supposed to stop after the first few times?" he asked.
Hannah said, "Yes. At first, you fall asleep a few times, but after a while, you get used to it and can start staying awake during cultivation."
"But, I have never been able to do that sister. I have always fallen asleep. Am I doing something wrong then?" he asked.
"Uhh… I don't think so. I don't think it has anything to do with you since it's supposed to stop of its own. Maybe it's your cultivation technique? Or maybe you are just an outlier. In any case, make sure you're in a safe place when you cultivate then."
"Okay sister," he replied.
"Alright, eat some food. It's in the fridge. Put it in the microwave for 2 minutes, and it should be okay. Also, don't forget, tonight you have to go with me, ok? I hope you won't end up cultivating and forgetting to wake up." Hannah put her dish on the dishwasher and left.
Alex ate the food alone and put the dish in the dishwasher after finishing as well. He waited for the dishes to be cleaned and reorganized them into their original places in the kitchen. Only after then did he leave.
He didn't immediately go to the game and instead used his new phone and laptop for some time. He needed to get used to them if he wanted to use them. After an hour or so of using them, he logged back into the game around 12 pm.
Just as he logged in, he felt a sort of vibration from one of his storage. He looked inside to find that it was his communication talisman from his master. He picked it up and looked at the message.
"Come to my place as soon as you can."
Without hesitation, he left for his master's building. As he arrived, his master was also about to leave.
"Oh, you're here. I was about to go find you since you didn't respond at all," she said.
"Oh, sorry master. I was kind of busy and didn't see your message in time. But I have some questions so I came rushing."
"Come in, I also have something to talk to you about," Ma Rong said as she walked back inside. Alex followed her and walked into one of the rooms as well.
"What do you want to talk about, master?" he asked.
"Alright, your exam date for Core disciple has been set. It will be tomorrow morning around 8 am. Make sure you are at the Elder's hall in time tomorrow," she said.
"Oh, alright. Thank you, master," he said.
"Alright, tell me. What do you want to talk about?," she asked.
"It's regarding these,' he said as he pulled out 3 pill bottles. Ma Rong wasn't sure what was happening, but she took the pill bottles and popped the stopper for one of them.
Immediately, a strong medicinal scent escaped out from the bottle. With just a single smell, Ma Rong could tell, this was not a simple pill. She immediately took out a pill tester and tested the pill.
57%
Her eyes turned wide seeing the absurdly high harmony percentage. "Wha— how?" she asked, shocked that her disciple was able to make this so fast.
"This is what I wanted to talk to you about, Master. Check the other two pills as well," he said. Ma Rong followed his suggestion and took the stopper out of the remaining two bottles. Similarly strong medicinal scent escaped from both of those bottles.
Her hands started to shake a little as she put the pill into the Pill tester. Both of them resulted in 58% and 59%. This just caused her to have more shock.
"What is going on? Did you make these?" she asked. As the harmony levels got higher and higher, the more difficult it was to make the pill. An alchemist could only have so much energy in the cauldron after the intense process.
Due to the multitudes of minor mistakes, the energies released would always end up in some ways not mixing together. That would make the total energy in the cauldron have less than ideal amount of the resulting energy.
This energy would then have to be absorbed by the powder before forming the pill, which was another place where the energy would be less. All in all, an Alchemist would have a very hard time making a pill with high harmony. Especially, once it got above 40%.
And yet, her disciple in front of her had 3 pills all with harmony above 55%. This was something unprecedented to her.
"Yes, master. I made these yesterday night," he replied
"How did you do this?" she asked. Suddenly increasing your ability as an alchemist, at this level was not an easy task.
"That is what I wanted to talk to you about master. In the tiger sect, I accidentally took in an unknown blood essence, and ever since then my ability towards anything Metal aligned has improved significantly. "
"I can use metal aligned skills with damage behind them, and make pills where the final energy is Metal at Heaven grade quite easily. Do you have any idea why a blood essence would do this?" he asked.
"What do you mean unknown blood essence? explain thoroughly," she asked.
Alex explained all the circumstances surrounding the blood essence and the resulting effect as much as he could.
Ma Rong fell into deep thought after hearing that the essence had targeted her disciple on her own.
"I do not know the answer to this. I have never heard of someone directly taking in blood essence without putting it through a pill or something. Go and check if there are some other things that have changed in you. Since we don't have any records about this, the only thing we can do is wait to get to the Cardinal City and look through the library ourselves," Ma Rong said.
"I see, Master. Let's do that," Alex said.