Reaper of the Martial World

Book 12: Chapter 170: Test (1)

Compared to the foundational stages of Common to Star, the Immortal Grades of alchemy carried a level of complexity that those of the mortal plane couldn’t imagine.

Unique flames. Alchemy techniques. Cauldrons. Hand seals.

Each added a layer of variability that made each and every concoction different from the last even if the same pill was being concocted. For a true alchemist, even the refinement of the simplest pills was a new adventure they had yet to embark upon. This was the truth.

It was safe to say, then, that alchemists of their level were used to seeing the unique, no matter how small and insignificant it might be. However… this was simply too much.

Just touching upon hand seals for a moment, they could be considered one of the most crucial parts of concocting pills.

According to the Ancients, there were two parts of the body most important for interaction with the world: The eyes and the hands.

Compared to the rest of the body, the hands contained the greatest number of meridian pathways per area available. One must remember that the foundation for formation theory are the meridians of the body. Their profundity is the reason such a profession exists at all.

The movement of the hands and the altering of those meridian pathways in space can lead to large changes in the flow of qi. These changes in the flow and nature of qi can have all sorts of novel results during the concoction process.

Every time an alchemist controlled their qi and guided it into their cauldron, the changes in their qi as a result of their hand seals can tweak countless parameters that affect the end product.

So, there should be no problem with what Dyon was doing now right?

Sure, he had slammed his hand into his cauldron, a far cry from Nazaire’s gentle and almost petting-like approach. But, it wasn’t like there weren’t some other alchemist brutes who didn’t do the same thing. In fact, there were some ancient cauldrons that couldn’t be used without overwhelming physical prowess even far beyond Dyon’s level.

However… This wasn’t what Dyon was doing. This wasn’t just hand seals…

They could see it with their own eyes. The rhythm of his body… No, the rhythm of every one of the fibers running through him.

With every resonating strike, his cauldron seemed to sing. Every strike came with a different beat of his heart, a different vibration of his skin, a different position of his body.

After being lost in a daze for a long while, the alchemists finally understood. They didn’t even have the mind to pay attention to Dyon’s weird transformation. Even Nazaire’s couldn’t completely keep them from paying attention to Dyon any longer.

It felt as though their souls were being tugged in two directions… and the direction toward Dyon wasn’t necessarily losing out to Nazaire’s Silencing Dao!

“Body seals… He’s forming seals with his body… Just… What kind of monster is he…”

Even Gilpin was speechless at this point. He might not be an alchemist himself, but as an Immortal God who had even lived for so long, he knew far more about many things than a normal person could boast. He knew the profundity of what he was witnessing and he found it difficult to slow the beating of his heart.

Dyon’s movements were almost like a rhythmic martial dance. Like an ancient master of kung fu before the rising sun of dawn, who stood alone atop a mountain that overlooked the world, executing movements that enraptured the heart.

It wasn’t that no one had ever thought that using the body to form seals could greatly increase one’s control over the situation within their alchemy cauldron… But… Who could actually do it?

Imagine for a moment that you were an aspiring pilot of a high-tech air ship. To control such a large vehicle, one could imagine how many parameters one had to be familiar with. These controls might be able to tweak anything from the direction of flight, the altitude, and even down to something as specific as the climate control of an individual cabin.

As a rookie? How many things would you control on your own? Maybe you would enter an internship and learn under the tutelage of a veteran. Over the years, you would slowly become an expert yourself. Maybe, with your perseverance, you would soon become one of the greatest pilots in all of existence.

But… Even then, how many of those controls would you maintain personally? Wouldn’t you have crewmates? You might even have a new rookie you’ve taken under your wing to take on responsibilities of their own.

Even if you understood everything about how to fly the airship, how much would you know about its thermal systems? The parameters of its engine room? Even about the maintenance of its mechanics?

And, even after your pawn off these things to subordinates you trust and rely on yourself to fly… wouldn’t you have a copilot? And even with your copilot, wouldn’t there be times the two of you used autopilot or cruise control once you felt everything was within a decent margin of control?

Now take this analogy and apply it to alchemy.

Seals were the controls of this airship. Hand seals were what one could generally find acceptable to expect of a veteran pilot to be familiar with. The very best could use them to the peak of perfection, allowing their cauldron to handle the rest and thus enter cruise control… And…

Using body seals was akin to controlling everything down even to the dimness of the lights in the most obscure corner of the airship.