Although Leon had only been away for five days, his little hut and garden were showing the first signs of his neglect. For example, there was a thin layer of dust coating the shelves inside his home, where the air smelled a little musty and the soil of the planted bladed thistle bulbs was a little dry, despite being watered well (but not overly) before he left them be. The garden had sprouted several new weeds and a handful of them had grown quite big in that very short time.
With a sigh, Leon rolled up his sleeves and grabbed his bucket and cleaning cloth. As it had rained a fair bit over the past couple of days, the barrels outside his home had accumulated a good amount of water, so he did not need to travel to the lake this time. Cleaning took the best part of the morning, especially as he decided to wash his bed sheets in the tub, before leaving them to dry in the brisk air. The weeding took much longer. One of the weeds had extremely firm roots and had buried deep into the soil. Another had a perfumed scent as he tugged it from the soil. He placed these aside, wondering if they were more than just simple weeds.
After a long, arduous day, Leon didn't wish to cook anything complicated and simply made rice congee with peas and herbs before settling upon the floor, basking in the remnant heat of the stove. It had been quite a while since he had last carved and on seeing his knife upon the shelf as he cleaned, his fingers had been itching to grab it. The moment the sharp blade sliced into the piece of wood, Leon felt his whole body relax and his thoughts wander.
Jin Li had been quite strange this morning with his deeds and words, not only pressing for something that Leon could not give him (as he wasn't sure what he wanted), but also reluctant to let him leave the martial arts school. Sun had even questioned him.
"Jin Li, What are you thinking?" The youth had asked. "Leon's not a martial artist, he can't stay here. And besides, Jin Li, is he not at the alchemist school to make pills to help improve your growth and strength? How can he do that if he is here?" Sun had not yet figured out that Leon was not Jin Li's servant, but he was not wrong that Leon would make him pills. "We'll visit when we have time, okay, Jin Li?" Leon had agreed, even though the suggestion was not directed at him and Jin Li had finally given in.
"Don't think that I will forget," he had murmured into Leon's ear as he made to leave, causing the colour to flare in the alchemist's face.
Leon sighed as the leaping koi fish slowly appeared in his hand. It was different to what he usually carved, which were more two dimensional in appearance. Even though it had been a while, he seemed to have not only not have lost his touch, but improved upon it. Though the fish was small, its fan like tail seemed delicate, its beady eyes alert and its body defined with scales. And just beneath the fin upon one side, Leon carved a symbol of prosperity, while on the other side, he carved an 'L' to represent his name on a whim.
After he was done, he yawned heavily and crawled into bed, falling asleep within minutes.
*****
A few of days later, Leon was making his way to the Herb Hall to hand in a large batch of clear spiritual pills, one heart pills and a few blood pills. As he had a fair bit of purple spirit grass in an interspacial bag in the trunk beneath his bed from his experiments, he had decided to use it to test whether the same reduction of impurities occurred in not only one heart pills and blood pills, but their improved counterparts as well. He had not used any of the grass from the Southern Grassy Plains though, not wanting to produce inferior pills anymore.
The result had been much the same with the pills improving in quality even if they were the standard version of the pill. The improved pills had been of good quality to begin with, those made with the grass from White Jade Crystal Mountain or even the little remaining for harvest in his own garden were now on the cusp of high quality, only lacking in the spiritual concentration that would improve Leon's standard pills to above average.
The improved pills were naturally tucked away, the best ones Leon would save for his own use, while the others could be sold for more silver. But Leon hesitated in taking the better quality pills, not wanting to stand out, especially as the higher quality was not due to his talent, but to his source ingredients. So he decided that, for now, he would just take the pills he had made as a base for the experiments. He never considered using the poor quality pills at all, leaving those upon a shelf.
Author's note; I apologise that after enticing you with dog food, I now must remove the bowl. But as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder x x x