Alchemy with a Sow

Inside the quiet chamber, the scent of medicine drifted through the air. Light filtered through the patterned window, sliced into strips that lazily fell across Nangong Wan's focused profile.

Before her, the waist-high crimson alchemy furnace had begun to warm. The flames within were precisely controlled at an almost transparent pale blue, emitting a low hum like some ancient beast grinding its teeth in its sleep.

"Three stalks of Focusing Grass, each at least twenty years old. Any more, and the medicinal properties become too dry; any less, and the heat won't be sufficient."

Nangong Wan murmured to herself, holding several lush green Spirit Herbs between her fingertips. Her movements were as gentle as if she were dismantling a bomb.

She carefully dropped them into the opening left at the top of the furnace. Then, forming hand seals with both hands, she sent spiritual light flowing from her fingertips like woven threads. A thin yet condensed strand of spiritual power entered the furnace precisely, carefully guiding the Spirit Herbs downward and away from the fiercest core of the flames.

(TV drama version of Nangong Wan, played by Jin Chen)

Fang Yu huddled in the shadows of a corner, his back against the cold wall, his empty sleeve hanging limply.

His eyelids were half lowered, as though he were neither awake nor asleep. Yet his Rinne Sharingan was like a precision scanner, breaking down, analyzing, and reconstructing every tiny movement Nangong Wan made, every trace of spiritual energy circulating within the alchemy furnace.

The fire's too hot. Her spiritual power guidance is too conservative; she took a huge detour. The third turn of that fire-control art was half a beat too slow, and the medicinal power has pooled in the southwest corner.

*The steps are cumbersome, the efficiency is low, and