Chapter 305 - One Hundred and Five - I create a mirage

The mirage pill itself was not a difficult pill to begin, although three of its five herb ingredients were uncommon or rare, so it could not be considered an inexpensive pill. 

Two of the herbs were also weak hallucinogenics, one causing illusionary distortions when smelled, the other sensory distortions when ingested.  However, one would have to be very close to the flowers during the first herbs peak season or eat a lot of the second for it to take affect.  Plus these two were not common herbs, could even be considered borderline rare as they took many years to reach maturity in their favoured habitats.  However, they were quite difficult to get rid of once their roots were established hence they were not fragile enough to be considered rare.  These herbs were known as Mountain Charm Brush and Idle Sea Grass.  Leon had these herbs in his inventory as they happened to also be used in a couple of combat and transformation pills as well as the more advanced version of a Still Mind Pill; the Tranquil Mind pill.

The common elements of the pills, one happened to be purple spirit grass and the other was known as Triple Fall Ivy, Leon had used the former in many recipes, but the latter not so much.  As he learned more about pills from books and experience, as well as slowly reforming memories, he believed that the purple spirit grass may have some activation or enhancement qualities which was why it was found in a multitude of basic pill recipes.  The Triple Fall Ivy happened to have been a housewarming gift from his elder brothers; it liked to hang in a shady place as it grew, hence it was growing from a hanging pot in the storage room until Leon found a use for it.

The last herb was, by some coincidence, Celestial Tear herb, or rather it's leaves. Leon had kept one of the grown plants, one that had wilted and looked too unhealthy to sell whole. As most alchemists worked with the long, fresh roots, new shoots and on occasion, it's fluffy seed pods, it had little value being half dead. So Leon had claimed it along with a stem of its counter part, the common Twice Crescent Elderwort. They were growing entwined in his greenhouse in a pot made for two. Apart from shedding a few leaves, the difficult to grow herb seemed to be adapting to its change in circ.u.mstance and looked a little more healthy than when he'd first taken it home. Fortunately, the quality of its leaves did not change much as they fell from the main body for they took many years to dry out and break down, so could still be utilised.

Four of these herbs were placed altogether into the cauldron to breakdown gradually over a high heat creating a coarse powder.  The powder then needed to be removed and ground down further by hand in order that all the mixed grains from the herbs were fine and even in texture like refined flour.  It was hard work, but it was not difficult work.  Once Leon had worked up a decent sweat, the powder was good enough to be placed back into the cauldron, ready for its trickier step. 

Using his spiritual energy, Leon cooled the pot in order to warm its content without burning it and beside the ashy pile, he placed a single burning energy pill.  Pills usually required saliva or spiritual energy to break them down, so heat alone would not be enough, Leon could only split his energies to begin the process of crumbling down the host pill.  While he was doing this, he also had the Celestial Tear leaf placed in a third location within his cauldron to begin processing it.  The leaf was subjected to a mix of heat and spiritual energy and soon succ.u.mbed, turning into a gooey substance rather than a powdery one. 

Leon mixed this substance first with the powered pill; the leaf goo would become the bridge between the old and new pill, forming a core that retained certain qualities that only the burning energy pill had.  The other four powdered herbs would form the pill's final shell and would reflect those retained sensory qualities of the host pill.  However, the host pill would lose it's original function otherwise, thus if anyone ate this pill, they would literally not gain anything from it.  This gave the trick pill a secondary usage of sorts, fooling the ignorant into thinking they were gaining something that they would not.  However, who would use a decent pill up in order to utilise this usage to its greatest potential?  The cost was too much.  Yet it did make Leon wonder if there were advanced versions of the pill that would create such dummy pills without needing to use an actual pill in its creation...

With that, the pill was formed.  Visually, it had the reddish-brown colour of a lower quality burning energy pill as well as its slightly rusty scent.  If Leon had not known better, he really would believe that this pill was exactly as it appeared.  He reached for the jade bottle containing the vivid crimson Bursting Energy pills and added this dummy pill inside.  Suddenly, it appeared as if all of his original efforts had been in vain and the bottle only contained poor quality burning energy pills, which were frankly valueless.  He could not tell the mirage pill apart from these.  Only by tipping them out onto a surface and spreading them out could he find the deviant pill and rescue his precious Bursting Energy pills.  He quickly collected them back up and placed them inside their bottle less they lose some of their efficacy.

Following that, he picked up the mirage pill and placed it inside its own bottle before looking at it with consideration.  In truth, he didn't think he had a use for it at the moment, but he also didn't think it was without use in the future.  Jin Li had made it quite clear as well as he knew it himself; they would leave the Institute in the future and travel to the distant higher realm, Jin Li's home. 

It was not always good to be lowkey, but there were times it was necessary.