Chapter 136: Medicine: 9th Grade
As soon as he saw the description, Xiang Yu realized his experiment had succeeded. The Lightwell Flower, inherently aligned with the light element, had been fundamentally transformed by his Yin-Yang Harmony divine ability. Where once existed a plant that radiated healing light, he had created its perfect inverse—the Midnight Flower, a dark element herb that absorbed Qi rather than emitting it.
Even now, the midnight-black blossom in his palm seemed to pull in the ambient energy around it, creating a subtle vacuum of spiritual power.
"This should counteract the Qi poisoning perfectly," Xiang Yu thought, examining the flower with satisfaction.
His breakthrough to sixth-grade alchemy had increased his success rate for seventh-grade pills to eighty percent. Although the odds were high, there was still room for failure, especially since he was attempting an entirely new recipe. Cautious by nature, Xiang Yu decided to prepare a backup flower in case his first attempt at crafting a pill failed.
He waited patiently for his depleted energy to recover. Thanks to his soul infant working diligently in his spiritual sea, replenishment came swiftly. When his power had restored to acceptable levels, Xiang Yu activated the Yin-Yang Harmony divine ability again, carefully monitoring the timing to use precisely the correct amount of energy needed. With practiced control, he successfully created a second Midnight Flower without collapsing from exhaustion.
Xiang Yu positioned his alchemy furnace and began preparing the pill. Creating a seventh-grade pill demanded considerable skill and concentration—even with his high success rate, each pill required approximately ten minutes of intensive focus.
Despite the complexity, his first attempt succeeded flawlessly. Given his eighty percent success rate, this wasn’t entirely surprising, but considering he was working with an entirely new recipe, the smooth process exceeded his expectations. He had needed to modify the standard healing pill formula to accommodate the Midnight Flower’s unique properties. He had anticipated some complications but it seemed he was overthinking it.
Already familiar with the formula, the second pill took only eight minutes—still lengthy by normal standards, but notably faster than his initial attempt. His hands moved carefully through each step of the complex process, his spiritual energy flowing precisely where needed.
"Time to take your medicine," Xiang Yu said, turning toward the boar whose condition had deteriorated even further during his pill refinement.
The animal’s breathing had grown shallow and labored, the blue discoloration now covering most of its body in web-like patterns. Xiang Yu carefully approached with one of the dark pills he had mentally designated as "Qi Absorption Pills."
With gentle but firm movements, he pried open the boar’s mouth and helped it swallow the medication. The response was immediate and dramatic—the blue pigmentation that had spread across its body began receding at a visible rate. The process started with the fainter areas around its back, gradually working inward toward the brightest blue concentration in its belly. Within seconds, the unnatural coloration had completely disappeared.
"A success," Xiang Yu thought triumphantly as he inspected the now-normalizing boar.
As if responding to his accomplishment, a new entry materialized in his system interface:
[Medicine: 9th Grade (10/100)]
...
Xiang Yu had almost forgotten about the Medicine profession, having struggled to find a way to acquire it for so long. But now, seeing it appear in his system interface, he understood the logic perfectly—he had successfully diagnosed and treated a patient. Like his other self-acquired professions, it arrived without the comprehensive insights that would come from a system-assisted breakthrough. He’d need to wait until the next reset when his experience doubled to gain the complete understanding of its capabilities.
As he contemplated this new development, sudden movement caught his attention. The boar, which had just been healed of its Qi poisoning, began thrashing about in distress. Its stubby legs kicked frantically, and distressed grunts filled the cavern.
"What now?" Xiang Yu muttered, immediately activating his appraisal ability. Surprisingly, the results showed the creature was healthy, contradicting its obvious discomfort.
Moving closer with cautious steps, Xiang Yu observed something extraordinary. The boar was actually absorbing Qi. Actually, it was the Qi Absorption Pill in its stomach that continued functioning even after clearing the toxic energy.
Having depleted the poisonous Qi within the animal, the pill now drew energy from outside the boar’s body, causing external qi to flow into the creature.
"The pill has no off switch," Xiang Yu realized, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
He understood there must be a limit to how much qi the pill could absorb, but simply waiting presented a problem. If he allowed the process to continue until the pill reached capacity, external qi would still enter the boar’s body on its way to the pill. Without proper pathways to handle this energy, the creature would inevitably develop qi poisoning again, requiring another absorption pill, creating an endless cycle.
One solution would be to let the poisoning recur, then treat it with a lower-grade absorption pill that would absorb less qi. This would indeed solve the problem but Xiang Yu had an even better idea.
He harvested another seventh-grade Lightwell Flower from the spirit vein and began refining a seventh-grade healing pill.
After the pill completed its formation, he approached the distressed boar and gently coaxed the medication into its mouth. The animal swallowed reluctantly, its body immediately going still as the pill’s effects began working.
For several seconds, the qi absorption ceased completely. Xiang Yu held his breath, watching intently. Then, to his satisfaction, the absorption resumed—but at a noticeably slower, more controlled rate.
"Did it work?" he wondered, immediately activating his appraisal ability to confirm his theory:
[Name: Zero]
[Realm: Level 1 (Early)]
[Species: Spirit Boar]
[Status: Healthy]
[Info: The first spirit beast made by Xiang Yu. A boar that has evolved to handle spiritual energy]
A triumphant smile spread across Xiang Yu’s face as he read the information. His experiment had succeeded.
His solution had been brilliantly simple in hindsight. Since the absorption pill continued drawing external qi through the boar, he had introduced a healing pill to counterbalance this effect. The healing pill provided energy to satisfy the absorption pill’s demands, but since the pill had already been filled to some extent, some qi still remained. The remaining healing qi then repaired the boar’s internal structures.
As external qi continued flowing through the animal toward the absorption pill, the healing energy restructured the boar’s body around these channels, effectively creating permanent qi pathways. Once the healing completed, the boar retained these new pathways—natural conduits that allowed it to absorb spiritual energy instead of being poisoned by it.
The boar was poisoned earlier because it had no way of refining the qi. But now that there were qi pathways, it just needed to imitate how the pill absorbed the qi earlier, since the absorption happened on its body, it wasn’t hard for the boar to imitate it while trying to free the qi stuck in its body.
The creature had effectively evolved, transforming from an ordinary animal into a genuine spirit beast capable of absorbing and utilizing qi.
"Quite smart, if I do say so myself," Xiang Yu thought, unable to contain his satisfaction.
Just as he was savoring his success, a system notification materialized before his eyes:
[The [Farmer] profession has evolved into [Spirit Farmer]]
[You have discovered a lost profession, choose a reward]
[1: Upgrade an existing system function]
[2: Unlock a new system function]
...
Author’s Corner:
What do you guys think of this? I think it’s quite reasonable.
Although I didn’t put it nicely into words, it works. Trust
Am I cooking or should I just leave the cooking to professionals?