66 Put a lid on it

Ma Rong had just succeeded in making a pill. She took a pill tester out of her bag and put her pill inside it. She looked at the pill tester with full attention, hoping for the fog that slowly rose up the side of the glass to never stop.

As the fog kept on going, her eyes got wider as well. It kept going on and on and on until it finally stopped. Her hands started trembling as she looked at the number next to the black line where the fog had stopped.

45%. She had a massive smile on her face as she took the pill out of the pill tester and kept it in a pill bottle.

45% wasn't that high when one thought about it. A sect leader of an alchemy sect only being able to make 45% harmony pills would usually lead to ridicule.

However, these weren't just any pills. These were True pills. Unlike Common pills, True pills were ridiculously hard to make. Just the amount of energy one had to keep in control and make sure they didn't violently explode every single second was incredibly high.

Even making a 25% Earth Grade True pill as an alchemist meant one was a rather talented person. Ma Rong had just managed to make a 45% Earth Grade True pill.

This meant she was beyond talented and very much deserving of the sect leader title.

'This is all thanks to the spiritual sense, which is all thanks to Yu Ming,' she thought. She was about to start another batch when she realized something was making noise in her bag.

She quickly took out a medallion which she immediately scanned with her spiritual sense. She read the message that had been sent to her.

'Oh, the elders are back from the trip, huh. I should go and learn what they got back about the upcoming competition,' she thought.

She stored her cauldron back into her bag and walked out of her residency. She started walking down the mountain towards the sect valley when she realized Alex was still in his home.

She walked in and scanned the house with her spiritual sense. For some reason, her spiritual sense could expand to about 50 meters. 30 meters more than Alex's.

'Oh, is he still making pills?' she thought. The time was well past noon, so if he really was still making pills, then he would've been going on at it for about 5 hours now. That was some dedication.

She walked into his alchemy room making as little noise as possible to not disturb him. When she got in, she was surprised.

Alex was in front of the cauldron, moving his hands in the air, presumably controlling the ingredients inside the cauldron. But the thing that she was surprised by the most was that the cauldron had its lid on top of it.

She knew of absolutely no one that performed alchemy with their cauldron's lid closed.

'How can he see if— Oh, that's right. Spiritual sense. But why put a lid on it at all ?' She couldn't understand the reasoning behind it. She did nothing but stand by the door and watch.

Alex had already noticed her entering his room and had decided to ignore her for now. He was in the final stages of forming the pill. Thankfully, the pill-splitting Qi did not rise from inside him. Otherwise, he wouldn't know how to explain her.

As soon as he finished making the pill, he opened the lid. He could feel the strong energies in the cauldron leak away as soon as he opened it.

'I should quickly learn some method to do something with those energies,' he thought.

He was about to take out his pill when suddenly, it flew off on its own. He looked to the side and saw his master holding it. He hadn't looked at the pill himself and was waiting to learn what its harmony level was.

Ma Rong took out her pill tester and put the pill inside it. She watched as the fog started rising from the metal plate and go up the glass beaker.

The fog steadily rose along the outside of the glass. The fog ended up stopping quite a bit higher than what she had been expecting which surprised her a lot.

'33%? From an outer disciple? did unlocking spiritual sense help him or is he just that talented?' her jaw dropped as she saw the harmony level of the pill he had just created.

She took the pill out and looked at it carefully. It was a slight blue pill around the size of her thumbnail.

'A 33% harmony Swift Feet pill? How did he even reach to be this good at making this pill, when this is his first day of making this pill?' she was amazed.

Alex stood from the side with a wide grin. He had seen the 33% harmony level on the pill tester as well.

"Master, I discovered something amazing." He said.

Ma Rong looked at him and gave him a questioning look.

"Did you know that using a cauldron with a lid always makes your pill come out with higher harmony levels? I saw the energy always leaked from the cauldron, and tried to keep it in with the lid, and it worked. When the pill is formed, it gets a little bit more energy overall and has higher harmony." He said

Ma Rong stood there dumbfounded. She had just realized a few hours ago that most of the energy leaked out of the cauldron. She had some idea as to how to redirect energy and keep it inside the cauldron.

But that was still not a very efficient method, as redirecting energies wasn't the same as controlling them and keeping them inside the cauldron.

Now that she heard Alex's discovery, she felt stupid for not using a lid. She could've increased the harmony of her most recent pill, and maybe even end up with a Heaven Grade True pill.

That would've been something glorious.