576 Symmetry

Lai Qing was just a young man that had been sent down the path of cultivation without any wishes of his own.

He wasn't the best at it and had to try his hardest to even reach Bone Tempering realm.

One day, in the forests that were still present where the desert had formed, he was hunting for weak beasts as he should and found the book that contained information about alchemy.

He dismissed it at first but was soon intrigued by the information and decided to check it out.

That was at the age of 29.

He didn't join any Alchemy sects, or take any teachers and simply tried on his own.

He bought books about ingredients and recipes with what little information he had and used the superior information of the coverless book to augment his understanding of Alchemy.

He spent decades upon decades trying to learn alchemy. When he realized that the book was truly incredible, he started showing it off as well.

Soon, people started noticing him. Some called him to teach them alchemy, some called him to lecture in theirs.

Even the ministers called him to write an alchemy book for the royal library. Afterward, he was given the title, the Royal Alchemist of Crimson Empire, making him someone with a status that was only lower than the Royal family themselves.

Now, he was one of the most well-respected people in the entire Crimson Empire.

And it all happened because of the colorless book he was holding at the moment in front of Alex.

"How much do you know about Structure and Composition again?" the Royal Alchemist asked.

"As much as you've written in your book. I know that Composition has to do with the ratio of the powders in the final product so that it can absorb the most energy."

"As for Structure… I'm a little confused about that. It has to do with the shape of the powder's particles themselves which I will be honest, I don't understand much of," Alex said.

The royal Alchemist nodded his head when he heard it. "You are not far off on Composition."

"Every time you make a pill, you put in the ingredients and turn it into powder right? Forget about the temperature and movements. The most fundamental truth of making pills is that you have to turn an ingredient into powder."

"Do you know why we do that?" the Royal Alchemist asked.

"Yes, to release the energy within the ingredient," he said.

"Yes, but then why is there a focus on keeping the powder in there? Can't you just put in other powders you had maybe prepared beforehand? Why do alchemists insist on keeping the powder of the ingredient the energy came from?" the Royal Alchemist asked.

Alex cocked his head in thinking. He had never given this aspect of alchemy much thought.

"That's because only that ingredient's powder can be used in absorbing the final resulting energy?" he asked.

"Close," the Royal Alchemist said. "You seem to have a very fundamental misunderstanding of the Alchemy process. You seem to believe that energies disappear when you mix ingredients, but that is not so."

Alex knew that already, but he kept quiet and let the Royal Alchemist speak as he listened with full attention.

"When you mix the energies, they interact with each other, and out comes a single type of energy from the two. However, even though you only see one type of energy, there is in fact both of those previous energies in that resulting energy."

"They are only hiding because the weaker of the energy interacts with some of the stronger energy and brings it into equilibrium, thus leaving only one type of the energy to be seen by the observer."

"Also, if an energy comes from one ingredient, only its powder can hold that energy in the end."

"So, if you make a pill with 14 different ingredients, even though the final resulting energy will be of one type, they will still have all the 14 original energy. They are only hidden because they are in harmony."

"Since you have 14 types of energy, you still need 14 types of powder to hold it. This is why you cannot throw away the original powder. That is where Composition comes in."

"If you lose even the tiniest bit of powder, it cannot hold energy that belonged to it. And since all energy is in a harmony, if there is no room for one, there is no room for any."

"This is one of the major reasons why alchemists end up making low harmony pills," the Royal Alchemist said.

Alex nodded. He had truly come to learn something. 'So the best course of action is to start with the appropriate amount of ingredient, and never lose any bits of powder,' Alex thought.

"I believe I understand, senior Lai," Alex said.

"Good," the Royal Alchemist said. "Now let's move on to Structure."

Alex waited for him to start speaking, but the Royal Alchemist didn't speak at all.

"Senior?" he called out.

"Ah, sorry. Structure… is a difficult concept to explain," he said. "You see there are more than one ways to turn an ingredient into powder while releasing the same rate of energy."

"Ah, yes. I know about that," Alex said. "I came to know a lot about it when I made my own pills."

"Yes, so when you do the things differently, you end up creating the different shapes of powder. It is those powders that you put together in such a way that there is no gap in between the powders," he said.

"Sorry, gap?" Alex asked.

"Yes," the Royal Alchemist said. "Having gaps in your pill is one of the worst things you can do. Well, it's less of a gap between the powders being the problem but more of the chaos gaps can bring to the overall structure of the pill."

"Let's take the 14 ingredient pill from before as the example. When you finish making the pill, you will need all 14 of those different powders to form a clump such that there are as less gaps as possible."

"Since you can't individually make them, you will have to rely on shapes that more or less fit together perfectly. That way, you get rid of the gaps in the pill."

"So what you are actually doing with structure is removing the gap as much as possible. A compact pill is always a better pill," The Royal Alchemist said.

Alex was very confused. He understood why having more powder helped gather more energy, but how did gaps have anything to do with it?

"Shouldn't just having all the powders be enough? That should do it even if there are gaps, right?" he asked.

The Royal Alchemist smiled. "You would think that, wouldn't you. Logically it makes sense for pills to contain energy like that. Except, it turns out that isn't the case."

"After all, our world is way more magical and mystical than even what we've come to learn," the Royal alchemist said.

"I've told you about composition and structure, but those two are merely two parts that come together to make the most important aspect of a pill's formation," the Royal Alchemist said. "That is… the Symmetry."

"Symmetry?" Alex looked confused. "Symmetry of…?"

"The powder in the pill. Depending on how symmetrical the structure of the powder in the overall pill is, the amount of energy it can store is the same as well," the Royal Alchemist said.

"This is why you don't want gaps. Having solid clumps of powder make it easier for a pill to be symmetrical," the royal Alchemist shape.

Alex was still a little confused. "What does symmetry have anything to do with it though?" he asked.

"I don't know," the Royal Alchemist said. "But that's what this book tells me to do, and ever since I did, it's been working for me. So, it should work for you too."

'Symmetry? How does that help a pill with keeping more energy in it?' he wondered.

As he thought that, he remembered something else. Something that felt so obvious to him by now that he didn't even think of it the first time he heard it.

"Symmetry… formations have that too. When you make a formation, you have to make straight strokes at correct angles so that the overall formation comes out symmetrical. The better the symmetry, the better the formation's efficiency," Alex said as he remembered about it.

"Ah yes, I've heard about that too," The Royal Alchemist said. "Not only that, for Talismans, all the runes are symmetrical and the final drawn bigger run has to be in symmetry too."

"Similarly, Artifacts that usually have skills in them need to have symmetrical Qi lines too," the Royal Alchemist said.

"What is this fascination with Symmetry for all production skills?" Alex asked.

"Don't ask me, that's just how things are. I don't make the rules, I just follow them," the Royal Alchemist said.

"I see," Alex said. "I guess I understand everything you said today. Although, I might have to dwell on them for a bit."

"Take as much time as you need. These… are not simple concepts that you can understand in a sitting. Even if you do understand what they mean, putting them into work will take years," the Royal Alchemist said.

"Yes, I will try my best," Alex said.

"So, was that all you wanted to ask?" the Royal Alchemist asked.

"No, actually. There is one more thing I wanted to ask," Alex said as he pulled up his robe's sleeve to show the stub of his left arm and asked, "Can you help me with this?"