The tension in the room was almost palpable; Elder Miao's incoherent babbling to himself the only sound as we all read the analysis over and over again.

"Well… that doesn't sound very good, wasn't that one of the better alchemy recipes, Elder Miao?" Rin asked, rousing the man from his frantic babbling. He looked over at her, his eyes wide and wild.

"No! It's not very very good at all, miss Xiong I-"

"Everwood." Rin said, her face tight, the Elder's incoming tirade interrupted by the steely glare Rin was giving him.

"Erm..w-what?" He asked, clearly confused at Rin's interjection.

"It's Rin Xiong Everwood now, Elder Miao." She said, her tone growing softer after remembering Elder Miao hadn't greeted us and gone through this already.

He blinked a few times before nodding.

"Ah, that's very very good then, I apologize, miss Everwood, but back to the main issue at hand! This is preposterous! That recipe was one of the pride of our sect! One of the most effective pills we have for assisting body cultivation! It can increase viscera forging progress by 0.1% for nearly half a day! That's unheard of! How helpful would this pill be at any rank higher than lowest? Why…it's preposterous that pills could be more effective. The recipes have been perfected over a very very long time! Why it's-" He rambled before the screen changed and the analysis for the second recipe finished.

"Aha! See this recipe is high-" Elder Miao started before his words died on his lips, the full reading of the analysis killing whatever hope he had gained from the first two words.

"Analysis completed.

High quality - Core Rank - Foundation breaking poison pill recipe

High quality pill recipe for a poison designed to stimulate a cultivator's dantian past safe limits.

This recipe combines various herbs, materials, and natural treasures together to create a potent poison that permanently damages the cultivation foundation of anyone who ingests it.

As a byproduct of the cultivator's stimulated dantian, anyone who ingests this poison will be forcibly raised at least two stages within their current realm or, in extreme cases, forcibly advance them to the next realm. This process damages the cultivator's foundation in such a way that their maximum attainable realm can never exceed the nascent soul realm.

Due to the nature of this poison, it has no effect on any cultivator at the nascent soul stage or above.

Suggestions for improvements have been collated.

VIEW MORE."

"By the heavens…" Elder Miao whispered, barely audible despite the pure silence within the room. Then he looked to me.

"A-and you're sure this information is accurate?" He asked and I nodded, my mouth a thin, stretched, line. He looked back to the hologram, his face turning pained and grieved.

"It cannot be true…we have given that pill to so many young disciples…please tell me this is a lie, please!" He pleaded, his voice rising with a deep anguish as he looked to the sect leader and then to Alice and I. I couldn't meet his eyes, but the raw pain in his words shook me.

Alice moved back to the terminal and clicked a screen a few times before the pill popped back out and she inspected it.

"This pill is indeed a Foundation Breaking pill. It is quite well made." She confirmed even as a screen popped up confirming the effects of the pill, her quick and brutal analysis combined with the information on the hologram causing the Elder to hang his head.

Elder Hazeon walked over to the man, crouching down and laying a hand on his shoulder to help calm him. He looked up to my master, sorrow clear in his tear filled eyes.

"Hazeon, what have we done? How many precious disciples have we harmed with this…poison?" He spat, the final word like a curse. Elder Hazeon shook his head.

"It isn't your fault, Gaiguo, we're all to blame for not figuring it out before now. We must do everything we can to destroy any existing pills and find those who have taken them." Elder Hazeon said, doing his best to console Elder Miao. The pill hall master's eyes lost the streaks of tears then, his gaze growing more solemn before he nodded.

"That's true…we must right this wrong, no matter how long it takes. But…these pill recipes have been very very well known for centuries, if not longer. How did they get to this point? Why has this recipe's true purpose as a poison been hidden for so long??" He asked to the room, looking around, his eyes begging someone to make sense of the paradigm shattering situation he found himself in.

I cleared my throat, hoping I could add some clarity to the situation, and drew the attention of everyone in the room, Elder Miao's hopeful gaze turning to me.

"I think I might have a theory about what's happening. We know, thanks to Alice, Jia, and I, that spirit and body cultivation can work together, and that it was much more common during the time the Aurion sect was active. And now we're finding out that pills and alchemy in general have regressed since that time as well. Even if most of the knowledge from the Aurion sect's time was lost when the demon's were sealed, I wouldn't expect the rest of the universe to also have lost that knowledge. Even if they did, it's been so long since then, so research into alchemy and recipes should have progressed alchemical knowledge, not regressed it.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Instead, we're seeing that a recipe for a poison is thought to be a beneficial pill, and a recipe we considered to be high level and very effective turns out to be of the lowest rank according to the Aurion sect's standards. It's hard to believe that both of these separate facets of cultivator culture both languished so much over time considering how much they help in the paths and growth of cultivators. It's almost as if something or someone has purposefully been twisting and manipulating this information to weaken humanity." I said, hoping someone would come up with an explanation to refute my idea. It had been building in my brain since hearing that spirit and body cultivation used to be the norm, and after the events in the trial, but I was hoping it wouldn't be true.

To my dismay, no one said anything to counter my conclusion. Instead, Elder Hazeon came to the defense of my theory.

"That seems likely, actually. If some malicious actor took control after the demons were sealed and modified or spread false knowledge then it could have resulted in that information being passed down in that way. Though I'm unsure how the natural inquisitiveness of alchemists wouldn't have resulted in the natural rediscovery of the correct alchemical formulae." He said.

At his words, Elder Miao stood, the bleeding of his hands having stopped, though they were still stained red, and looked to Alice and I.

"Are there existing research notes and alchemy recipes within this ship?" He asked, a solemn and serious air around him now.

I nodded.

"Alice, can you show Elder Miao how to use the terminals and show him how to find any of the alchemy information?" I asked the girl who nodded. She walked over to the terminal nearest the elder and showed him how to interact with the screens and where to find the information. I was surprised at how easy to understand and follow the instructions she gave the elder were. Soon enough she had everyone standing behind her, hanging on her every word.

Once she had finished explaining everything we all watched as Elder Miao slowly, but confidently, navigated to the correct sublevel and clicked on one of the myriad icons that showed up.

When he did, a screen popped up with information about alchemy, though it seemed to be basic level information. I couldn't understand much of it, despite it being called an introductory text on the subject, but the elder seemed to be having no trouble. The opposite was true in reality, his eyes darted from side to side as he read more quickly than I realized was possible, the text on the screen moving upward and bringing more words with it. Once he finished reading, he moved to another, and then another, none of the screens taking him more than a handful of seconds to fully read through. We waited for a couple of minutes as the elder read, and when another screen finally disappeared, Elder Miao sighed and turned to us.

"I'm going to need to read more of this information to know for sure what all common alchemical knowledge has been tampered with, but from what I've read so far it would have been…unlikely for alchemists to discover these alchemical principles. Each of them is so antithetical to our current understanding of alchemy, and the universe at large, that even now, knowing they must be true, I'm finding it hard to believe we could make pills and elixirs using this knowledge. If what is in this research is true, I am entirely convinced that someone purposefully tampered with knowledge on a massive scale. This is not something that could have happened without intentionality." He said, adding weight to my theory being correct.

"It seems pretty likely that this all was done intentionally, but is that really important right now? I doubt whoever did it is still alive, so shouldn't we focus on what we can do to fix it instead of worrying about if someone did it on purpose?" Rin asked, somewhat impatiently, but she had a good point. The sect leader seemed to agree as he nodded.

"Young miss Everwood makes a good point. This information changes nothing. We still need to rally our forces to combat the demons. Elder Miao, do you think you can use this alchemy research to bring alchemical knowledge back on the correct path?" He asked, turning to the wizened elder who turned to look wistfully at the hologram still floating within the room.

"I believe I can. Just the knowledge I've read so far would be considered an alchemical revolution once it's known to the wider universe. Though from miss Alice's explanation, I will need to be granted additional access to view more detailed information." He said, turning to the terminal he stood at and pressing on another icon, a large red screen popping up reading 'Access Denied'.

I turned to him.

"I'll give you access under two conditions." I told him, to which he raised an eyebrow, though I smiled.

"One, you have to make all of the discoveries you make to improve alchemy available throughout the universe. We're going to need all of humanity to become stronger if we're going to be able to fight off against the demons." I saids, holding up a single finger.

"Well that's simple enough. Of course we're going to make all of this research available to everyone. This incredible knowledge should be shared, not hidden. Additionally, I cannot allow that…poison to be given to any more cultivators." He said, a grimace on his face.

"That brings me to the second condition. I'll give you access if you promise to work on creating a pill or elixir to reverse the effects of the Foundation Breaking pill, and any recipes like it." I said.

Elder Miao smiled.

"I can promise you I'll dedicate the rest of my life to that goal. What we've done to our poor disciples is…awful.. And I'll do everything within my power to rectify this grave error." He said, solemnity and conviction in his voice.

I nodded and gave Alice permission to give elder Miao unrestricted access to the alchemy research information and soon enough he was once again flipping through screens, mumbling to himself as he read through the various documents.

With the alchemy issue settled, the sect leader sent us all on our ways with orders for everyone to make the necessary preparations we spoke of before.

Rin went off with Elder Yang while Alice, Yin, and I followed Elder Hazeon back to his office. Once inside, Alice and I sat down across from Elder Hazeon, while Yin took her spot behind him.

"Well, You've had quite the eventful first mission in the sect, Astra. What are your plans for now? It will be some time until any of the preparations are completed. I suppose it might be time for me to properly do my job as your master and help with your body cultivation? I can feel it's far behind the level it should be if balancing it with your spirit cultivation is the goal, so you have your work cut out for you." He said, but I had something more important on my mind.

"I do need to focus on my body cultivation, but before I focus on that, I need to go see Jia. I've…felt our bond weakening, and I'm worried about her. I know I've just returned from a mission, but can I make a trip to where she is?" I asked, hoping he wouldn't force me to stay here and cultivate.

To my dismay, he frowned before sighing.

"Unfortunately, I can't let you go to the Rimewood for at least a year." He said, dashing my hopes away.

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