The next morning, the sun was bright over the ocean.
Sam flew to Tony's Malibu mansion and walked straight down to the basement lab.
Tony was already awake. He was holding a cup of coffee and looking at a glowing blue hologram. He looked happy and full of energy.
"Sam! Just the guy I wanted to see,"
Tony said, raising his coffee cup.
"Pepper drank the herbal soup you prescribed. She slept like a baby, and she looks like she could lift a car today."
"I am glad to hear that,"
Sam smiled.
"But I am actually here to ask for your help today, Tony. I need some things."
Tony clapped his hands together.
"Name it. You saved my life and you're the godfather to my kid. You want a private jet? A small island? A solid gold watch?"
"I need a cauldron,"
Sam said simply.
"A big metal pot. It needs to be made of the strongest metal you have. It has to handle extreme heat without melting."
Tony raised an eyebrow but nodded.
"Easy. I can make you a titanium-vibranium alloy pot by lunchtime. What are you cooking? Chili?"
"Heavenly Pills,"
Sam explained.
"I have reached a bottleneck in my power. Just breathing the air is not enough anymore. I need to make medicinal pills to give me a massive boost of energy."
Sam sighed, looking a little worried.
"But the cauldron is the easy part. The hard part is the ingredients. I need rare medicinal herbs. And they can't just be normal plants. To make these pills, the herbs need to be old. Very old. Things that have absorbed the sun and earth for hundreds of years."
Sam shook his head.
"In this modern world, finding a hundred-year-old ginseng or a sacred lotus will be very hard. It might take us months, or even years, to find them all."
Tony stared at Sam for a second. Then, a slow, proud smirk spread across his face.
He didn't look worried at all. He looked like he had just won a game.
"Months? Years?"
Tony laughed out loud.
"Sam, you are a genius with magic energy, but you really underestimate modern science. JARVIS, show my personal doctor the 'Farm'."
"Right away, Sir,"
The polite AI voice echoed in the lab.
A large metal wall at the back of the room suddenly slid open. Behind it was a massive, bright greenhouse made of thick glass.
Sam walked over and looked inside.
His eyes widened in shock.
Inside the room were rows and rows of dirt beds.
Growing in the dirt were all kinds of rare herbs, roots, and flowers. The air inside the greenhouse was thick and smelled incredibly fresh.
"When you gave me that recipe for Pepper's soup yesterday,"
Tony explained, walking up next to Sam.
"I wanted the absolute best ingredients. I bought every rare seed and root on the market. But waiting for them to grow naturally? That's boring."
Tony tapped the glass.
"So, I invented a little something overnight. I used the energy from my new Arc Reactor and some special UV radiation. This room accelerates the aging of organic plant life by a hundred times at least."
Sam just stared at Tony, his mouth slightly open.
"A hundred times at least?"
Sam repeated.
"Yep,"
Tony grinned.
"A plant that takes a hundred years to grow in the wild? I can give it to you in a fraction of the time. You want a century-old ginseng? Just give me the seeds, and I'll have it ready for you before the weekend."
Sam was speechless. In his past life's memories, ancient cultivators fought wars and killed each other just to get a single hundred-year-old herb.
They spent their whole lives searching mountains and caves.
And Tony Stark just grew them in his basement with a glowing blue battery.
The combination of ancient Cultivation and modern Science was terrifying. It was completely overpowered.
A loud laugh escaped Sam's chest. He couldn't help it.
"Tony,"
Sam said, clapping the billionaire on the shoulder.
"You have no idea what you just did. With this farm, we are going to be unstoppable."
By lunchtime, Tony kept his promise. He built a heavy, dark silver pot.
It was a titanium-vibranium cauldron, tougher than anything ancient cultivators ever used.
Sam stood in front of it.
He had a pile of hundred-year-old herbs from Tony's fast-growing greenhouse.
"Normally, making Heavenly Pills is a nightmare,"
Sam told Tony, who was watching from a safe distance.
"In the ancient texts, a grandmaster would spend a month cooking. The heat has to be perfect. If the fire is too hot for even a second, the herbs turn to ash. The success rate is usually one in a hundred."
Tony just smiled and took a sip of his coffee.
"JARVIS, scan the cauldron. Monitor the internal temperature down to the decimal."
"Yes, Sir,"
JARVIS replied.
Blue laser grids appeared around the metal pot.
Screens popped up, showing the exact heat, humidity, and chemical changes inside the cauldron in real-time.
Sam placed his hands on the metal. He pushed his pink Qi into the pot, acting as the fire.
"Temperature is fluctuating,"
JARVIS announced calmly.
"Reduce energy input by three percent on the left side, Mr. Sam."
Sam listened. He adjusted his Qi exactly as the AI told him.
"Perfect balance,"
JARVIS said.
"Maintain this for exactly four minutes and twelve seconds."
In ancient times, a cultivator had to guess. They had to rely on feelings and luck.
But with JARVIS, there was no guessing. It was pure math combined with Qi.
When the time was up, Sam lifted the heavy lid.
A bright, golden light shined out of the pot.
The smell of the herbs was so strong and sweet that even Tony felt a sudden rush of energy just standing in the room.
At the bottom of the cauldron sat ten perfectly round, glowing Heavenly Pills.
There was no ash. There was no failure.
The success rate wasn't one in a hundred. With Tony's technology and JARVIS's perfect eyes, it was almost one hundred percent.
Sam picked up one of the warm, golden pills.
He could feel the massive amount of Qi locked inside it. This one pill held months of hard training.
Sam started laughing again.
He looked up at the ceiling where JARVIS's cameras were.
"Tony,"
Sam joked, putting the pills in a small wooden box.
"I think I need to steal your butler. How much do you want for JARVIS? I want him to be my alchemy assistant."
Tony didn't look surprised. In fact, his smirk just grew wider.
"I expected you to say that,"
Tony said, walking over to a nearby desk.
"And as much as I love you, Sam, JARVIS is mine. He runs my house and my suits."
Tony picked up a sleek, black watch and tossed it to Sam. Sam caught it easily.
"But,"
Tony continued, pointing at the watch.
"I know how useful a smart voice in your ear can be. So, I spent the morning coding. Sam, meet your new best friend."
Sam tapped the screen of the watch. A small, soft blue light blinked on.
"Good afternoon, Boss,"
A smooth, calm voice spoke from the watch. It didn't sound like JARVIS. It sounded new and ready to learn.
"I am online and ready to assist you."
Sam was touched. Tony hadn't just given him a greenhouse and a cauldron; he had given him a partner.
"What's his name?"
Sam asked, looking at the glowing watch.
"That's up to you, Cultivator,"
Tony smiled.
"Welcome to the future."
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