Chapter 18 18 – Researching Strengthening Pills
Ken was pumping out pills of different ranks one after another while Sol was watching him with curiosity.
"Young Master, did you really learn how to do all of this in under a week?"
"Did I practice it before?"
"Hmm, no."
"Then you have your answer."
He took out four bottles made of jade and placed 3 pills inside each one of them. He gave the bottles to Sol who already waited naked since she knew what was happening next.
\'I think she has been turning into an exhibitionist lately.\'
Ken thought to himself before focusing back on Sol.
"The gray pills are for your bones, the reds are for your blood vessels, the whites are for your skin, and the blues are for your organs."
He instructed her on the uses of the pills he gave her and sat on her lap after taking off his clothes. Those pills were Advanced Strengthening Pills, and each color represented the pill\'s target. All of them were third-grade pills that he invented himself after changing the recipes he had read to maximize their gains.
Sol swallowed the gray pills first and started strengthening her bones by using her Qi to absorb the effect of the pills and assimilate them into her bones. The pills started entering her bones, and a painful sensation enveloped her.
However, it was nothing compared to the times she cultivated without pills. She already reached her limit in her cultivation, yet the pills kept strengthening her body beyond the maximum she once thought was impossible to cross.
3 hours later, she finished absorbing the effects of the pills and consumed the ones for the skin. Her skin was getting much more durable, and normal weapons made without Qi would probably only leave shallow wounds on her now.
·ƈθm Ken followed the Qi\'s movements after consuming a pill and the way it reacts to the cultivation manual he had made for Sol. He noticed it worked slightly differently than normal cultivation, and there were many optimizations to do instead of just following the normal cultivation manual with the Qi absorbed from the pill.
Sol soon took the red one for the blood vessels and consumed it, and the same process took place. Ken sat on her lap for additional three hours and waited for her to finish absorbing the pills\' effects.
"Young Master, it\'s amazing! I feel like my power soared! I feel like my strength rose by 33% compared to before."
Ken nodded and smiled at her. He was sure that after his customizations, the pills will raise his power by at least 50%, which was significantly higher, especially in the long run when this difference keeps getting multiplied.
"Take another gray pill."
According to his calculations, the fourth pill shouldn\'t be very effective. When he followed the way she channeled her Qi, he saw it only had 5% of the previous effect, meaning that while the other pills increased her powers by 11% each, the next three would increase it by 0.55% each or so.
He figured the effect would be reduced exponentially every three pills. Despite the pills\' reduction in effect, it was still worth taking up to six pills. After the sixth, it was a waste of time and resources.
"I need to take a nap."
He was getting annoyed at his own body for needing so much sleep, but he understood there was nothing he could do about it. Cultivating as a young child had both advantages and disadvantages.
He got up an hour later and found Sol still cultivating, although she didn\'t consume the other pills. He sat on her lap and gave her the next pills, the white ones for the skin.
3 hours later he had a few ideas on how to improve both the pills and the cultivation manual for himself. The goal wasn\'t to make the pill as powerful as possible but to make the interaction of the pill with his body and his cultivation manual as powerful as possible.
Already trained after doing it repetitively, they got up in sync and went to the shower to wash away their sweat before Ken\'s parents returned home. Although it wasn\'t a problem now that they knew he was cultivating, it was already a habit. Besides, being clean is important.
The next day was the most important test; the test for the Brain Strengthening Pill. He wanted to optimize it to the maximum since it was his most important strength.
As he would advance in his cultivation, the concepts would become much more complicated, and even with amazing intelligence, he would still need to spend hours to understand them.
But if he strengthens his brain to the maximum, his thinking speed will increase, and he will save a lot of time later.
Ken held Sol\'s head directly with his palms and concentrated to see the results as soon as she took one of the pills.
"AHHH!"
Sol screamed with pain when she felt her head being split open as the pills started to take effect. She was suffering excruciating pain and was losing control over her Qi.
"Sol, focus! You can\'t let go of your Qi or you will die. Do you want your body to be tossed away from the sect for the dogs? What will happen to your family who spent all they had to get you into the sect?"
Sol clenched her teeth and started focusing on her Qi. She let go of her body completely, letting it fall from her sitting position to the ground. She could only wriggle in pain while doing her best not to let her Qi deviate in her brain.
Ken held her body to prevent her from moving too much. The reason everyone cultivated while sitting or lying was that those positions were the most comfortable for channeling your Qi during your cultivation.
Over the next hour, the pain subsided gradually until Sol could sit back and channel her Qi. Overall, she wasted half of the pill\'s effect because of her pain.
"Young Master, maybe I can just give up on the brain pills. You\'re the smarter one between us anyway, so I just need to follow you, right?"
"No, I don\'t need subordinates who can\'t think for themselves. This will help your cultivation and your future, don\'t give up on it. you will take 6 pills just like the other ones. Don\'t worry, only the first one hurts that much. You\'ll barely feel the next one."
"Young Master, are you tricking me into taking the pill?"
"No, did I ever trick you?"
\'You tricked me into taking this job as your babysitter with games.\'
She thought to herself but stayed quiet. She smiled sweetly instead and answered differently.
"Of course not, Young Master, you\'re the kindest and most honest person in our sect. That\'s why I\'m saying I don\'t need to take this pill, I can just trust you."
---
"AHHHH!"
Sol was wriggling again on the floor after a 30-minute break Ken gave her. Apparently, the second pill was also painful to absorb, although slightly less, thanks to the enhancement of the previous pill.
"Young Master, you lied to me!"
Sol pouted as she lay on the floor, covered with sweat and trying to catch her breath after the agonizing process of taking the pill.
"Didn\'t it hurt less?"
"It was negligible!"
Ken shrugged and gave her the next Brain Strengthening Pill.
"It\'s for your own good, now take this after a 30-minute break."
Sol snorted lightly when she heard a kid telling her he is doing something for her own good but obeyed. A few hours later, Sol was lying on the floor which was already wet with her sweat and breathed heavily.
"Finally, we\'re done."
The pain was so tortuous that she had a trail of blood from her nostrils, and she could even feel the metallic taste in her mouth.
Ken just let her rest and sat down with his eyes closed. He was calculating the effects the pills would have on his body and tweaked his manual to optimize the absorption process. He didn\'t care about the pain, but he didn\'t want to lose a single drop of the pill\'s effectiveness just because he couldn\'t focus on absorbing it.
He was preparing everything to the minute detail, running mental experiments, and changing the manual again. He even changed some aspects of the concocting techniques for each pill, making them slightly weaker for other benefits.
Although the short-term gains would be reduced, he wanted to integrate the effects with his constitution, so the effects will grow with him.
By the end of the third day since Sol finished absorbing the Brain Strengthening Pill, he felt he was ready to maximize his body\'s cultivation.
\'Let\'s go.\'
Sol sat by his side and watched him cultivate. Even now, she still insisted on being by his side when he was cultivating in case he needed help. Ken took the first gray pill and concentrated on it.