Over the last couple of days, Leon had never left the inner palace. He had been stuffing himself with beast meat provided by the royal palace, while cultivating and managed to advance to peak 6th layer. With each advancement in his cultivation, the energy required to break through to the next level would only increase exponentially.
He was cultivating a technique that required five types of energy to begin with. Each strand of pseudo-Grandmist energy produced, required five strands of energy of the five elements, meaning he needed fivefold the amount of energy normally required to advance his cultivation.
With the 7th layer being a bottleneck, he needed an even large amount of energy to break through the bottleneck. The energy from the beast meat wasn't enough to give him the strong push he needed, and it was even more so for the energy from heaven and earth. The rate of gathering energy from the world was too slow without a special body constitution designed for it or an energy gathering array.
Unfortunately, he had neither a special energy gathering body constitution nor was he an array master, who could set up an energy gathering array. He also did not want to go through the slow process of whittling down the wall to the 7th layer. He wasn't afraid of hard work, but time and energy weren't something he had plenty to spare. He can only look for an alternative solution to speed up his cultivation.
"It seems that I still have to rely on pills in the end. However, the Book of Life did not record any knowledge of 5-element pills." Leon mused with a frown.
"Haih… the [Hegemony of Primal Chaos] was described to be an unparalleled technique aimed to recreate the most primordial energy that formed the universe. I am the first to walk this path as none had been successful before me."
"There is no doubt that the Being who created the [Hegemony of Primal Chaos] was a peerless figure of his time with great ambition and aspiration. It is too bad that I only have the incomplete version… or perhaps the technique was never completed to begin with…"
"Whatever the case is, the incomplete technique is enough to reach the Divine King realm. It's not something I need to worry about at present, but one thing is clear. If I want to walk far on the road of cultivation, I cannot conform to the normal standards and must forge my own path ahead."
"Techniques weren't born from nothing. They were created by the people. If others could do it, why can't I? The framework has already been laid for me. I just need to fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle."
"Since there is no 5-element pill, I will create one. Let that be the first step to forging a path that I can truly call my own and not one that has been treaded by others."
Leon had briefly searched the Book of Life and no 5-element pills were recorded. There were only single-element pills like fire enhancing pill, water enhancing pill, earth enhancing pill, etc.
"I only have one set of 5-element spirit herbs. I can't expect to succeed on the first try. I should divide the herbs into 10 portions and give myself more chances to work with."
The herbs were already inside his room. They were brought there by the palace maids since he didn't have any chances to bring them into his world space since his mother around at the time. The Book of Life was his most guarded secret and he would not let anyone know about. Not even his closest kin.
He might have been a self-indulgent and profligate young master living under the halo of his father in his past life and was ignorant of many things. But he was at least aware that even one's closest kin could betray each other, should the incentive be great enough to invoke their vices and blind their morals. He had seen it happen too many times among the mortals.
Leon unsealed the jade boxes and took out the spirit herbs. They were exactly the Heart Blazed Lotus, Golden Ganoderma, Misty Petal Flower, Spirit Cleansing Grass and Rupturing Drystone Flower. As for the rosewood boxes with the other spirit herbs, he stowed them in the world space for later use. The life energy of the world space should halt its leakage.
Leon cleared the table and laid out the 5 special spirit herbs on it, before dividing each one into 10 equal pieces. He stowed away 9 portions, leaving behind one portion before whipping out his pill cauldron.
He quickly got to work and preheated the pill cauldron with one hand, while burning the spirit herb portion with the other, leaving only the purest form of liquid medicinal essences behind. Normally, Leon would focus on one task at a time, but ever since he awakened his memories, he had the feeling he was able to multitask two things at once.
The five liquid medicinal essences swam in his flames separately as he could not allow any of them to touch each other before the fusion. There was bound to be clashes and he would immediately fail his attempt if that happens.
"This is it. Here goes nothing." Leon thought.
The five liquid medicinal essence was tossed into the pill cauldron simultaneous as he controlled his flames and forced the 5 to merge. A violent reaction was immediately detected the moment the 5 contacted each other as they refused to bond.
Leon increased his strength and forcefully brought the 5 medicinal essence closer together, but the more he tried to force it, the more violently they reacted. Leon felt himself expending a lot of his mental strength to not loosen the control.
"This is bad! I won't be able to keep this up for long! If they don't fuse soon, things are going to get ugly!"
Leon wore a serious face as he focused all his attention on the medicinal essence inside the pill cauldron. He was unable to continue increasing his strength to force the merge, but the violent activity didn't stop increasing. The pill cauldron couldn't remain still and started shaking with a rumbling sound.
"Not good. It's going to explode!"
Leon sealed the lid on top of the pill cauldron hurriedly to contain the explosion, but it was a futile effort! The pill cauldron couldn't contain the force within and exploded.
BOOOM!
Leon wasn't stupid enough to stay in the exact spot. He had abandoned the pill cauldron and rushed for the doors, but the force of the pill explosion still hit him and flung him outside.
"Your Highness!"
The guards outside was immediately alarmed!
"Enemy attack! Protect his highness!"
The palace guards surrounded him and guarded against whatever was inside the prince's room. The doors were flung wide open, but they couldn't see anything as fumes of black smoke oozed outside the room.
"Cough* There is no enemy…" Leon coughed awkwardly in a sorry state. His back was on fire, but he quickly brought it under control, before snuffing it out.
"Haih… that was dangerous… luckily I was quick on my feet, otherwise I would have been injured if I was any closer…" Leon inwardly sigh at his failure.
The palace guard's vigilance dropped as it made sense since no one should have been able to bypass their watch to harm the prince. However, they were confused as to what had happened inside.
"My pill concoction failed."
Leon quickly owned up to his own failure despite the embarrassment it brings. It wasn't like he never blew up a pill cauldron before. Back in the Divine Realm, it was a common occurrence among the people walking the path of alchemy.
"May this one suggests your highness to carry out his pill concoction outside in the likelihood of another explosion?"
The palace guard suggested humbly with a fist-palm salute.
They were proud, but Leon was the crown prince. Anyone who serves the queen would know of her fearsomeness and wouldn't dare to slight her in any way. Besides, Leon was an alchemist and was worthy of their respect. They wouldn't look down on him because he was weaker.
Seeing Leon's thoughtful frown, the guard immediately thought he said something wrong and dropped to his knees.
"Forgive this one's impudence for speaking freely, your highness! This one is not trying to spy on your pill concoction techniques and simply wanted to protect your highness better!"
With the way the queen is, even if they weren't to blame, their heads might roll in the case that the prince suffer a mishap. They didn't want to take chances.
"Stand up, there is nothing to forgive. Your suggestion is very reasonable"
Leon nodded and gestured the guard. There was nothing wrong with what the guard said. He was just thinking of the cause for his pill concoction failure.
There's bound to be more failure and it was only right to move outside to experiment.
"Please get someone to fetch me another pill cauldron… the sturdier, the better… and have someone to come clean up the room. Thank you."
Leon said as he looked back at the blackened mess he caused.
"Yes, your highness!"
The palace guard answered happily.
The prince was not haughty and was very easy to get along with.