When Leon had used Mothtails in the past, he hadn't really paid much attention to their colouring; too concerned with making pills. If it were not for him worrying about the side effects and impurities of his average pills, he likely would never have concerned himself with these variations nor the differences that could be found in other types of herbs.
Partially from Leo's notes and partially from the meagre details in the books he'd read at the library, he knew that mothtails did not grow particularly tall, it's slightly curled leaves would form in clusters at the end of each tender stem or branch from the main shoot and it's flowers were dusty red, caterpillar-like buds growing at the stem's tip. And from what he could see with his own eyes, the flower only developed when the clustered leaves were also red. It was like the whole leafy bunch represented the flower... no he rather thought that it was the flower converted from its leaves and that the 'flower' was a stamen covered in pollen like with lilies!
But would that not mean that alchemists had been mixing petals into the burning energy and burning blood pills?
He thought about this for a moment, then looked at the root crop of the plant. They varied from plant to plant, thick and almost woody to tender white roots, the former were probably older roots, developed as the herb aged, while the white roots were newly formed. The mostly green herbs had more white roots, even if they had a lot of woody roots also. But he wondered if the type of root used in the clear and cloudy Spiritual pills would alter the resultant pill slightly.
With this in mind, Leon arranged the herbs even further; cutting root crops from the plant and dividing those plants with the most tender, newly formed roots from those with a large outcrop of old roots and those with a little of both kept to one side. With these, he would create a batch of Cloudy Spiritual pills as was his task.
Before he began making pills, he took a moment to stir the Serene Milk Salts potion, noticing it was more difficult than last time and hard clumps were forming in the liquid. Then, he set his cleaned cauldron onto his iron stove and made three batches of Cloudy Spiritual pills with four or five pills in each batch, taking breaks in between to turn attention to the potion. Serene Milk salts had no set time in which it took to be complete, it was more once most of the liquid had vanished and large fist size crystals could be removed from the keg. The crystals were ground coarsely and stored, ready for use.
Leon found that he had a fair amount of pure white tiny salt crystals at the end of the 'potion' making. However, unlike what he expected (and maybe hoped) the refined salt didn't have the same taste as the condiment he craved, it was much more soapy, floral, totally unsuitable for consumption. It could only be used as it was meant to be used; for making pills and bath soak. In this case, for making Still Mind Pills.
The Still Mind pill used the salt and four herbs, only one of which he was familiar with; silver nettle tea. The others were five-petal radiant knotweed, nibblet-bane, and concubines jade-beads. He frowned at the name of the last herb, it was strange and therefore memorable.
Later, a trip to the library would uncover a myth about a low ranked concubine of the Dragon Emperor's who loved her husband, but was not treasured in return. Her tears would water her favourite jade bead bracelet every night and the string that held them together became worn from where she played with the bracelet in comfort. The bracelet broke in the palace gardens and the beads planted themselves, thus becoming a new herb. Leon thought the story sappy and thought the concubine very pitiful, but his logical mind still couldn't understand the name of the plant. It looked nothing like a broken bracelet of jade beads.
Regardless, it was a succulent, thus had small, fat oval leaves filled with liquid. He had to smash these small leaves until their watery sap pooled in his bowl, then the liquid filled the bottom of his cauldron and was heated gently. After it began to simmer, he then added a measurement of the salts, waited a minute or so longer before adding the nibblet-bane and knotweed herbs, though just the leaves of each. The leaves slowly dissolved and he used his spiritual energies to slowly stir the mixture, using a strong tea made of silver nettle to prevent it from drying out and burning, until it began to form into clumps. These clumps were then focused upon, spinning by themselves as they absorbed the rest of the mixture and formed pills. With his already practiced control, he did not find this step difficult. He produced six pills that could be considered slightly above average in quality, surprising himself.
But he didn't think too much over it as a yawn overcame him, just bottled the little pale green pills and retired to his bed, calling it a night.
Author's note; I promised a double update, but it likely won't satisfy lol