When Immortal Ascension Fails Time Travel to Try Again-AFS 2: Strange Flame Strangeness - (13) - Strange Perfection

“Fairy Lin, are you sure this will work? Your strange flame looks…”

“Intimidating? Don’t worry…” I glanced at Spring and used my spiritual energy to toss the mushroom into my cauldron. Instead of smelling cooking mushrooms, the fungi melted into a pool of energy. “Because it works! My strange flame is the best.”

I used a hand gesture to calm it down and set it to simmer before clearing my cauldron out with a cleaning technique.

“Now to start on the real pill!”

I split my mind into two. One was focused completely on the pill I had to create. With a hand seal and a mental request, I turned my strange flame up. I threw in the first ingredient, the Glimmering Wind Spiral Mushroom I collected from the mothership a while ago, and preserved in special jade boxes. It vibrated inside the bowl as if dancing before it slowly began melting into the base for the pill. Its wind properties brought the concept of natural change to a concoction. Using it in the pill would allow me to carve my final symbols into my Golden Core as long as I boosted the energy of the pill. To do that, I had to follow the 5 elements.

At the count of 75, the wind mushroom finished melting. I added a Verdant Tyrant Leaf with wood energy. Next was the Red Incontinent Mushroom, which added a fire element to it.

With the other part of my split mind, I continued the conversation with Spring. “So, have you finished the homework I assigned you?”

He coughed. “Fairy Lin, you basically assigned me seven textbooks worth of information.”

“So you’re saying you haven’t started?”

“I’d have to be some kind of impossible genius to read and understand all of those during the past few days.”

I finished counting to 127 and threw in a Twisted Dirt-Eating Ginseng, which had the earth attribute.

“Hah. You definitely aren’t the main character of this universe. Maybe you were too lucky in your past life, and you have bad luck now to make up for it.”

“I think it’s the opposite.”

“Oh?”

“I must have been too unlucky, so the universe brought you here to make up for it.”

I tried to keep a straight face, but the corners of my lips curled up. “Well, you definitely would have died without me here. Also, I am a genius, so I’m definitely a brilliant teacher. You’re lucky you get to learn under me.”

With a gesture, the Enchanting Golden Orchid flew into the cauldron and started to melt from its delicate petals. It also added a metal element to the pot.

Next was the Flat Armed Cactus. Even though it was a desert plant, it had a water attribute. “And speaking of students. I need to come up with a Daoist name for your sister, that is, if she’s still interested in learning from me.”

I was considering something along the lines of Winter to go with Spring but I’d have to think more about it.

After counting 27 breaths, I cut off the tips from the Vibrant Purple Stem and threw the stalk into the pot.

I focused on adding the next seven ingredients until the liquid energy inside began to bubble uncontrollably. Fuck. I only had one batch of herbs. I couldn’t fuck this up.

“Not today!”

I used a hand seal to lower the temperature, but it wasn’t fast enough. Then I remembered how, after my strange flame vanished, the surrounding area rapidly cooled. With a grabbing gesture, I brought my strange flame into my hand, then into my soul space.

It was like the sudden disappearance of wormholes caused the atom activity in the area to decrease significantly. This forced the concoction to get under control. I swiftly returned the flame and used a hand seal to normalize the temperatures. Then I put in the last ingredients after warming them by having them fly by the side of the cauldron first.

As soon as they melted and mixed properly, my cauldron shook. That wasn’t supposed to happen, not with the materials I made it out of. I had the vague sense that the universe wanted my style of alchemy to not exist. But, it was too bad, because it had something close enough built into its protagonist. It was like her not being in the room with me while I created pills aggravated the laws of this universe.

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Well, like fuck would I allow that to stop me.

Laughing madly, I sent a request to my strange flame to surround my cauldron with wormholes. If the universe wanted to ruin my pill, it would have to get through my distortion of it first. The cauldron stabilized! It worked!

I formed the hand seals to condense the energy into pills. I sensed them become round solid orbs then ping onto the bottom of the pot.

With a grasping gesture, I brought my beautiful strange flame back into my palm.

I grinned down at it. “You are the best flame ever! How can you be so perfect?”

Even though it was yellow with yellow and blue lines, it started to emit a pink light, as if blushing.

“Should I give you a name? Circuit Board?”

It drooped.

“Yeah, that’s a bit too on the nose. Doesn’t suit your perfection at all. Strangey McStrangeFace? You’re right, you’re right, that’s too much.” I smiled at the little flame. “Ah-ha! Because you bend spacetime to make wormholes, I’ll call you, Spencer!”

Its yellow flame went straight up, as if in shock. “Keep up the good work, Spencer. You and I are going to be making a lot of concoctions together. Now to find a place for you...”

I put him on top of my head like an ancient crown. Yeah, that wasn’t going to work. On my shoulder? Oh! I had Spencer circle my right ring and middle fingers while controlling its heat to not affect me. That worked.

Spring cleared his throat. “Fairy Lin. Can I see the pills now that they’re finished?”

Ah shit… he saw that, didn’t he? Well, whatever. If he could pretend that didn’t happen, so could I.

I grabbed a bowl and used the hand seal that summoned the pills from my cauldron. They flew right into the bowl. I spun them around to see their glittering translucent gold color and incandescent surface. After scanning them with my divine sense, I shockingly found no impurities. These were perfect-quality pills yet they weren’t hit with a pill tribulation! The heavenly laws that used to penalize perfection didn’t exist anymore!

Spring leaned over the bowl, his eyes wide. “I know I saw you make them, but I can’t believe they’re real.” His hand slowly reached toward a pill, but I grabbed his wrist. “Don’t touch them. You’ll contaminate them with your germs.”

“I wash my hands.”

“That’s not as good as my cleaning technique.”

He sighed. “So, once you take these, you’ll be able to fix your golden core that I accidentally made you mess up?”

“They’re called Perfected Core Dan. And I just need one of them. I’ll save the rest for any students I have that need it.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. He seemed really remorseful. And he was like a human spiritual energy gathering formation...

“After I’m done, sit behind me while I cultivate. That will help make up for your mistake. But, in the meantime, act as my protector by standing outside and not letting anyone in.” I handed him my light brain. “I need to have no distractions.”

He nodded and left.

I sat in the lotus position in the middle of my sanitized workshop. I took a pill. It melted in my mouth and turned into energy, which I directed into my dantian’s imperfect golden core.

When I didn’t finish my final phoenix symbol, it left a scar on the perfect golden surface. I used the energy first to clean it up and repair it. There were also a few cracks here and there that I only noticed after the fact, which I also smoothed over.

The surface of the core was softened and ready for editing. I briefly examined my symbols. Yeah, they all needed an update to match my current SciFi universe. One pill wasn’t enough for what I planned, so I took a second. Slowly, I updated each symbol, aside from my sword, to have various additions, like circuits, wires, or advanced SciFi tools. For example, on my Dao of Rock symbol that looked like me playing the guitar, I added a drone in the corner, recording my performance. It looked exactly how Steve used to.

Then it was finally time to carve the phoenix symbol that represented the core of who I was. The issue was that after living here in this time period, I’d changed. I would continue to change. This meant my phoenix would have to change as well. Perhaps a strange change matching my strange flame?

I carved every line meticulously. For the fire underneath my beautiful bird, I included the circuit-like lines Spencer had and a warp in space. I finished it off with an analog clock frame in the background.

There, my avatar—the phoenix that bends time and space. It was me.

The energy from the pill ran out and my golden core solidified. The spiritual energy in the air flew into it rapidly. It began to sparkle with completeness and perfection.

Each one of my symbols became projections and surrounded me as illusory animations. My Dao of Rock symbol that showed me playing the guitar while singing. My sword symbol pierced through the heavens. My phoenix raised its wings while in the center of a warp in time and space as if it was its master.

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It was the most beautiful and perfect core I’d ever seen. Much better than the flawed one from my past life.

The illusions returned to my dantian.