Chapter 8: Isekai Alchemist

---D-Day+121, Dherus 28th, 2nd Wednesday Afternoon---

---Jinshibo, Gym---

“““Hup!”””

‘I’m turning luyanese, I think I’m turning luyanese, I really think so.’1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGy9uomagO4

Or.

‘Wo zai zhuan luyan, wo xiang wo zai zhuan luyan, Wo zhen de zheme renwei.’

Ever since angel tits gave me those cheats?  Been pretty good with languages.  Thanks, I think, to my brain getting rewired to use [Recovery Magic].  But yanese?  A pain in the ass.

“““Hiyah!”””

Thousands of characters instead of dozens of letters.  And tone gives the same pronunciations very different meanings.  Unlike with tourinese and aquecian where tones are mostly just sentence enhancers.

Back home I had, sometimes, thought of my mothers-in-law as horses.  Well, in yanese, they can be!

According to Hitomi, yanese is very similar to chinese.  But nothing like japanese.  The dirty look I got when I said they sounded similar to me?  Yeah, we'll just let that sleeping dog lie.

Anyway…  The tone stuff makes the language much more challenging but my women and I are picking it up relatively quickly.

Sayuri’s been learning yanese for a month and is no slouch in the brains department.  She can now handle simple generic conversations, mostly.  Well the rest of the harem and I?  Have already caught up to her.

Daily we quiz each other on characters and words.  Even include the servants.  Helping us get used to tonal inflections.

Maybe the girls’ aptitude is more of that body molding spirit thing?  Though it is common for the upper class tourinese to know two or three languages.  So maybe they are just better at it.

Well whatever it is, the harem and I have spent the week cramming every bit we could into our brains.  Including reading.  Luyan has printing presses so books are a lot cheaper and much more available.

“““Ha!”””

And all those books?  Are in yanese.  Including all the stuff I need to know about cultivation arts, martials arts, etc…

Was okay when Li and Ji would read and translate for me back in Lions Keep.  But if I’m going to progress and branch out?  Learning those weird overpowered moves from strange scrolls I find during fortuitous encounters?

Gotta be able to read the fucking things.

It's a second wednesday and we are sailing north again.  Sunny, but getting colder and colder outside.  Still pretty toasty inside though.  So much so that we’ve opened portholes and windows.

Dozens working out, in here, means B.O. competes with the smell of wood and sea.  Shouts, kicks, punches, and bodies hitting mats drown out creaking lumber and crashing waves.

Yep, we are back in the kung fu gym.  Used by the sect as their “classroom.”  Study all day and fuck all night?  A man could get used to this.

Goddamn sweet not having the noble crap to deal with.  Nor the constant pestering by the guild to heal somebody.  Nobody poking and prodding at my healing spells.  Or dealing with the church’s shit.

Hell, even have time to play Cheri daily.

♫ I've been busy counting. Every drop of rain. And I ain't scared of drowning. Cause I told you once, I told you twice, I swear I must have said a thousand times…2https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPr1JR1Iu3w♫

And now I’m able to read some of these banners.

…

‘These guys really have a thing for dragons.  Can’t be good for their health.  Would say they just need to get a girlfriend mate.  But there are chicks here too.’

“““Hiyah!”””

Group wise we’re all doing the usual.  Four elders.  Four corners.  Each elder has their own disciples and trainees.  Learning yanese, cultivating, sparring, hand to hand, weapons training, etc…

All to get the newbies ready for the sect trials.

We are in Core Elder Baiyu’s corner.  She’s claimed me and the girls as her “recruits.”  And with Core Elder Qinxin declaring me his apprentice?  We are pretty much untouchable.

Even inner elder old dirty bastard is leaving my ladies alone.

Right now Gan and Xin are teaching Yulongyan, Jade Dragon Flame.  The sect’s main hand to hand fighting style.  Focuses on punches, kicks, and sweeps.  Including some weird “claw” strikes.  Really likes knocking the other guy down and then kicking them, literally, when they’re down.

“““Hup!”””

My black robes ripple and banners flap as air gusts past me.  My ladies may mostly just be Body Refiners, the 1st Mortal Realm.  But they've been getting my rich yang qi injections for weeks, even months.

So, body and qi wise, the girls are more like 2nd Mortal Realm Qi Gatherers.  Putting so much power behind the martial arts exercises and techniques that their moves set off little air bombs.

Even the ones I hadn't been fucking?  Were regulars for my mana cultivation sessions in Room 152.  Meaning Auri and Maty are the only two with major catching up to do.  Knight chick because she was guarding instead of meditating or fucking.  And glasses didn’t get to Lions Keep until right before we left.

Of course Milti can't do as much with the martial arts yet.  So she stays on the sidelines focusing on learning yanese.  Really need to restore her legs.

Shame on me for pondering golem legs for her instead.  Yeah, fantasy cyberpunk.  But no, she deserves flesh and blood.

"""Hyah!"""

Don’t get the point of all this shouting but, according to Jin, this group training stuff is an outer disciple thing.  Inner and Core Disciples solo a lot more.  Only gathering for tasks and classes.

Now we are only getting the basics, so far.  Higher level moves need the features of particular cultivation realms to pull off.

The same goes for the weapon arts.  The sword one, Xinglongjian, Star Dragon Sword, can do some pretty freaky shit.  But since I prefer two swords?  They are also teaching me Shuanganglong, Twin Steel Dragons.

The twins are very good at it but switch to Xinglongjian when they are using one sword to fly.  Shuanganglong and “Storm of Steel,” the dual sword art I learned at Lions Keep, are very different.

In fact, every weapon has multiple martial arts that focus on it.  So each of my ladies are getting one on one time with Gan, Xin, or Jin.  And maybe I’m just a freak?  But nothing in this world looks hotter than a woman showing off her weapon skills.

Think the harem has noticed how much more, uh, proactive I get on weapon days.

There are many weapon arts, like Shejiafeng, Divine Arrow Wind, for bows and Lianhuamao, Lotus Petal Spear.  Princess Isa’s skill with bows translates well to the former and Viscountess Ymi’s expertise with spears fits the later.

It's made me revisit the ladies personal defense skills and weapons.

Jin has begun teaching the less combat focused girls Wanwei, Bending Reed.  A hand to hand martial art using redirects, takedowns, and counters.

Hitomi’s taken the lead integrating Sayuri into the harem.  Subtly grilling her about home at the same time.  The more she learns?  The more she's convinced it's japan's analog.

Jealousy from the other disciples is getting worse.  Dudes hate me for having so many hotties.  Dudettes hate me for ignoring them.

Again I'm spoiled for choice and have two babies on the way.  I will protect my son but not going to abandon my new kids either.  Family is everything.  Mine's just getting… bigger.

This inner Vin Diesel moment gets interrupted by a too high voice.

"Junfei?  What are the recipe nianji, grades?"  The towering Core Elder Qinxin, Lurch, is quizzing me while having his disciples train the rookies.

Count them off.  "Elementary, profound, spirit, earth, and uh… heaven."

Lurch nods.  "And the ceng, tiers, in each?"

"Umm… low, high, and peak."  I answer.

Recipes are graded by complexity and impact.  The result is tiered by purity.  With so many possible points of failure?  Even a good enough pill may not be as good as the last one you made.

Or it might be better.  Consistency is one of the ways alchemists are ranked.

Lurch leans forward like Pisa and claps his hands together.  "Very good, and what grade is the Blue Lotus Pill for breakthrough to Core Formation?"

So.  Many.  Formulas.

"Profound."  Pretty sure on that.

Elder Qinxin nods again.  "Correct, junfei."

Yes!  Baby fist pump meme.

Been memorizing ingredients and recipes too.  And I am stating, for the record.  Will never make a prescription using flying squirrel poop.  If you need that to live?  Y'all gonna die.

In fact, let's just blacklist all the gross bodily excretions now.  Crocodile dung, unicorn spunk, human placenta…  What the fuck is wrong with these people?

How do you even get to the point of believing, "Dang, can't sleep.  Hey!  Anyone got some dried human placenta?!"

So…  Yeah…  Gonna revisit some of these formulas.  See what actually works.  And what's superstitious bullshit.  Though it's fantasyland so it may all work here.  Inquiring minds.

The master alchemist continues.  “Remember, junfei, alchemy covers all aspects of cultivation.  As a daoist you are already practicing neidan, inner alchemy.”  Sweeps with a big sleeve.  “I am merely guiding you on the path of waidan, outer alchemy, as well.”

There's a question I've been meaning to ask.

"Elder, why do you want me to be your apprentice?"  The more I think about it the weirder it seems.  Yeah I’ve got lots of mana-er, I mean, qi.  But also know I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed.

The elf elder gives me that angular grin.  "You are familiar with the [Mana Manipulation] skill?"

"Yes."

"Well we call it [Qi Control]."  He holds out his long fingered hand and flames ignite above it.  "Each ingredient in a recipe requires its own preparation."  His other hand opens to unveil a pile of powder.  "Different levels of refinement.  And if cooked?  Different temperatures.  Different times."

"I'm aware."

Seriously aware.  Even simple recipes can take hours.  The complex ones?  Days, weeks, months.  High failure rates and any fuckups can turn into do overs.

"Wuhuo, the Five Flames, is the most difficult of the alchemical arts because it requires great [Qi Control] and vast amounts of qi."  Points a lengthy finger at me.  "Both things you have an abundance of."

There are multiple alchemical arts just like martial, cultivation, movement, etc…  Five Flames is Lurch’s trademark and a big part of why he's a famous pill maker.

Arts turn the medicine making process into a series of techniques.  Basically, dragon magic spells.  Grind a certain way for one incantation.  Stir a particular pattern for another.

Turning alchemy from a, "if the corpse smells sweet he became immortal," literal dead end.  To an actual magic science.

He continues at his typical high pitch.  "With your abilities you may elevate the art.  And through observing your growth, refine my Dao of Alchemy."  Raises and spreads big sleeved arms.  "Speeding my way to immortality."

Hooray…

Mickey Mouse, the cultivator years.

Alnus, Miltinnia (female, human, aquecian)

Angelles, Isabeau Manel (female, human, tourinese)

Baiyu, Jingi (female, human, yanese)

Baramont, Ymanie (female, human, tourinese)

Barton, Alote (female, human, tourinese)

Barton, Clari (female, human, tourinese)

Barton, Edelys (female, human, tourinese)

Barton, Hitomi (female, elf-human, japanese)

Barton, Lilias (female, human, tourinese)

Barton, Odaline (female, human, tourinese)

Barton, Simone (female, human, tourinese)

Barton, Ushinua (female, elf-human, tourinese)

Carter, Elizabeth (female, human, british)

Chastel, Luliene (female, human, ukuxhan)

Chastel, Melicent (female, human, tourinese)

Lianlaf, Aurai (female, human, tourinese)

Luo, Ganyue (female, human, yanese)

Luo, Xinyue (female, human, yanese)

Jouveral, Matylda (female, human, tourinese)

Tiang, Li Zexi (female, human, yanese)

Tiang, Ji Ping (female, human, yanese)

Yamabe, Sayuri (female, beastkin(fox(huyao)), nandao)