by A P Gore
A servant rushed in his room with a fearful face. “My lord.”
Du Lufang wanted to kill all of these pieces of trash. How a mere servant dares to rush into his room? First that motherfucker steward Chin and now a servant. His hand went to his whip, and he almost lashed out at the servant before he could deliver his message.
The clan patriarch had sent a message to him, and it was urgent.
Dropping his whip, he rushed outside. Once this was over, he would find the culprits and wipe out their whole families.
***
Golden Ginseng, Green Venom Tree, Red Blood Fruit, One Leaf Lotus.
Li Wei placed all the rare ingredients on a clean white paper. A mix of sweet and bitter scents wafted in the air, making his mood tranquil. These ingredients were all precious, ten years old, and they contained enough heaven and earth’s essence to make one feel elated.
Cutting them in five parts, he placed one part of each in a stone pot. The recipe was simple. He had to cut them and turn them into a pulp and let them dry for an hour. Although it was simple, the ingredients were costly, being ten years old. In those ten years they required a good amount of care—too much for a common family to try in their backyards—so only specialized herb gardens or pharmacies grew them.
After putting them in a pot, he started crushing them. He had bought enough to make five portions, costing him thirty gold. He only had sixty gold left.
After half an hour, a brown pulp formed in the stone pot, and he set it aside. The brown color meant it had reached the required state.
Now he had to wait an hour for the pulp to turn into a powder.
While waiting, he went through his pouch and found one Yin Yang Fruit lying there. This was one of the fruits he’d found in the secret stash of the Inheritance Chamber. The remaining fruits were inside the storage ring, so he didn’t have access to them, nor could he put this one with the rest.
Hmm. Once Fei’er’s issue was resolved, he must cultivate qi. This was one of the issues with body cultivators. They couldn’t access storage artifacts, so they had to practice qi cultivation.
Looking at the Yin Yang Fruit, a thought came to his mind. Should he try Yin Yang Liquid art? It was an auxiliary art recorded with Yin Yang Hands, divine art. To cultivate this divine art, he needed to reach Houtian Realm in body cultivation, but he could still use this auxiliary skill, as his hands had already become Yin Hand and Yang Hand.
However, he needed an external source to form Yin Yang Liquid, and such a source lay on his palm right now.
With a thought, the auxiliary art cultivation technique and usage flashed in his mind. First came chaos and then came yin and yang. They made everything else. The five elements, sun and moon, male and female. They were the primary source of everything else. This liquid required one to find a harmony between yin and yang, and it was the highest-grade spiritual liquid found in any Realm. At the highest level, it could bring the dead back to life or give birth to a spiritual soul.
Of course, Wei didn’t believe the liquid he formed would do this at all. There was a peculiar line mentioned in the usage notes, and that was about increasing the proficiency of medicinal herbs. Maybe he should try it on the four remaining portions he had and check the effects.
But there was a limit to this auxiliary skill. At the lowest level, he could only use it once a day, and it would only form a few drops if the highest quality yin yang source was used.
His fingers rubbed the Yin Yang Fruit, feeling small crevices marked on the green skin. It wasn’t the highest quality fruit. It was a mid-tier Silver Grade herb, and he had seen it in auctions a couple of times. He had seen many low-tier Gold Grade yin yang sources too, but they were scarce and costed a fortune. If he’d needed to get a Yin Yang Fruit in his previous life, he would have had to look around and borrow money from others.
But he would have a different path this time. He would earn so much that he could just be lazy and enjoy his life without worrying about it much.
Firming his resolve, he cut the fruit into two halves, held one in each of his palms, and started cultivating Yin Yang Liquid.
A warm current rushed through his palms and connected to his heart, giving birth to a wonderful feeling as soon as he started the chant.
Wow! He exclaimed in his mind and repeated the chant while observing the whole process with his divine sense. Having a divine sense helped a lot. Although he hadn’t reached the manifestation stage with his divine sense, as it had only been born recently, it was useful enough for him.
When the energy from the fruit entered his palm, a peculiar thing happened. Golden and black threads emerged throughout his arms and guided that energy on a certain path. With his divine sense, he could feel the energy nourishing the threads and getting smaller and smaller as it traversed toward his shoulders. By the time it emerged out of the golden and black threads, the energy current had only retained one hundredth of the original power.
Yet it sent his remaining body in turmoil as it passed through his blood vessels and settled in his heart. When it reached his heart, it mixed with a tiny white drop formed inside his heart chamber, and the white drop grew from one tenth of a tear drop to one eighth.
But there was something else happening inside his body too. His blood flow had increased, and new blood pearls were constantly condensing inside his Yangming meridian.
What a pleasant surprise. Cultivating an auxiliary skill had influenced his body cultivation.
How awesome.
Elated, he started absorbing more energy from the Yin Yang Fruit, and his cultivation level kept increasing slowly. By the time he absorbed a fifteenth cycle of energy from the fruit, the white liquid in his heart had grown to ten tear drops, and his blood pearl count had increased by forty—almost reaching the next layer of cultivation.
Wasn’t that awesome? If he had to go through the normal cultivation route, it would take him a whole day to condense fifty blood pearls, and as he advanced that speed decreased. But with this auxiliary art, he condensed same amount of blood pearls in just half an hour. If he could do this each day, he would reach Foundation Realm in a day’s time, and Blood Baptization Realm in the next few days. He might reach Houtian Realm in a month’s time.
No. It was wishful thinking. Cultivation was never a straight path. The more one traveled on it, the more difficult it became. These earlier realms were easy to traverse, but each layer in later realms was like climbing the highest mountain of the world and then finding another mountain waiting ahead.
It was that difficult.
Then there were large boundaries when one crossed a major realm. That was a headache in his previous life because of his Bronze Grade Spirit Root.
Anyway, he had gathered fifteen drops of white liquid in his heart, but how would he get them out? By stabbing his heart?
Chapter 43 Godly Liquid
Ten minutes. Li Wei spent ten minutes sitting inside his room, concealed by an array, thinking about how he would stab his heart to get the damn liquid out.
Couldn’t it just appear out of his heart on its own?
A single thought, and the liquid appeared in his mouth.
What? What a stupid skill. It didn’t even provide enough information.
He tasted it with his tongue, and it felt like nothing. There was no taste to it, no smell either.
Confused, he picked up a white ceramic bowl he used to drink chicken broth from the corner of his shabby room and poured the white liquid in it.
Fifteen drops that looked like white pearls floated over the ceramic base as if they were disgusted to touch the filthy ceramic bowl. They didn’t even mix with each other.
What an arrogant attitude!
Staring at the liquid for a moment, he selected the Golden Ginseng and dropped a single drop on it.
For a minute nothing happened, and he thought it was a waste. Maybe he needed to reach Houtian Realm to make it work. The actual divine art needed him to be at Houtian Realm, so it was quite possi
ble that the auxiliary skill too required him to be at the same realm. After all, that stupid information forgot to mention he just needed to wish to get that liquid out of his heart.
Even if didn’t work, he would still practice the auxiliary skill to improve his body cultivation. With the half-hour practice, he had already touched the fifth layer of Refinement Realm.
When he was about to drift his gaze away, something happened. The Golden Ginseng moved.
No, it didn’t move but actually grew.
His jaw dropped to the ground with the next change he spotted. No, it went under the ground.
It was changing color to golden brown.
How was it possible?
Although called Golden Ginseng, the herb had a different shade of gold with maturity. Only when it was planted and attached to a living stem would it have a golden color. A ten-year-old Golden Ginseng would have a golden-red color. A fifty-year-old Golden Ginseng would have a brown-gold color. A hundred-year-old Golden Ginseng would have a golden-white color. For a five-hundred-year-old herb, he didn’t know the color. No one was foolish enough to raise it beyond one hundred years. Its medicinal value stopped at that age.
But right now, he was seeing a miracle. The one-fifth portion of the herb had grown twice its size and gained a color that leaned toward golden brown.
With a thumping heart, he poured another drop on the herb.
As expected, it grew another part, and its color turned browner.
What the heck? Was this liquid adding ten years to the herb? How was that possible? Could he really make it a one-hundred-year-old Golden Ginseng if he kept adding liquid to it?
Another drop, and the color changed again. After four drops, the Golden Ginseng regained its original shape, and it was smooth as ice and radiated a vitality that he could feel from a foot away. Of course, it had gained a brown-gold color indicating it had reached fifty years of age.
It was inconceivable. Each drop added ten years to the herb’s age. Shouldn’t this liquid be called Godly Liquid instead of Yin Yang Liquid?
Curiously, he dropped another drop on the Golden Ginseng, but nothing happened even after ten minutes.
So, this liquid stopped working after reaching fifty years of age. In fact, if it didn’t, he would have freaked out. How could there be something that increased an herb’s age without any restraint?
Now he was curious how it would affect living plants. Could he really increase their age like this?
But before that, he had something important to do. He had to increase the age of the One Leaf Lotus, and he only had five drops left. Poison Repelling Powder was a common medicine, and its quality increased with the age of two herbs used: Golden Ginseng and One Leaf Lotus. If he could, he would have bought fifty-year-old herbs to help Fei’er, but that would have cost three hundred gold, and he’d had only hundred on hand.
So, without worrying about anything else, he poured four drops on the One Leaf Lotus one by one. The lotus stem he had cut apart grew rapidly, reaching its original height. Its color turned greener, and vitality exuded from it that enthralled his mind. It had reached fifty years of age. If he hadn’t cut these herbs, he might only need three drops to make them fifty years old. Or two maybe. But after cutting them, he could create multiple fifty-year-old herbs.
Now he had six drops left, but he didn’t use them right away. He would cultivate the skill the next day and then experiment a little with living plants. In fact, he would get out tonight and buy living plants, and he had his eyes set on a particular plant that would be useful for him.
With that herb in his hand, he could be rich in no time.
Putting all the thoughts aside, he cleaned the stone pot he’d used, collecting the powder in a small pouch. Although he could throw it out as he had newly aged ingredients, he didn’t. It might be useful someday.
After crushing the new ingredients, he smashed them into a pulp and removed excess water and let it dry out. He had to wait one more hour to get improved Poison Repelling Powder.
Meanwhile, he recharged the Lesser Isolation Array once more. It only required one thousandth of the energy from the low-quality Qi Stone.
While waiting for the powder to form, he pulled the green dagger out of his pouch and scanned it carefully. It was a cursed item, and he could feel the itch. But surprisingly, it didn’t affect him. After knocking out Du Fang, he’d touched it once to study and found the poison didn’t affect him. It did try to suck his life force, but his strong life force resisted it easily.
His eyes lit up when he pondered the dagger. It could be useful for him. This curse didn’t affect him, but it would definitely affect his opponent. Then this dagger was made up from Green Scorpion’s Middle Bone and dipped in Blood Sucking Poison. No one should recognize this forbidden poison in Mortal Realm.
In fact, he could carve a couple of arrays to conceal its aura and improve its powers. Current him still couldn’t do it, but he had Wu Xiodia who he could ask to do it for him. With a brush and bit of care, the old man wouldn’t need to touch the dagger at all.
It made perfect sense.
After an hour, the pulp dried out and a golden-green powder accumulated in the bottom of the pot. Collecting half of it, he poured it in Fei’er’s mouth with the help of water.
Then he sensed someone entering his array, and his whole body tightened.
Chapter 44 Daughter in law
With long strides, Li Shua headed to the old cabin built by his daughter in her childhood. She’d loved to have a house of her own, and then she . . .
He sighed in his old heart, remembering her face before she’d vanished from his eyes. It was one of the reasons he’d shifted the Li clan’s main business to Bright Maritime City, one of the biggest cities in North Providence. Although it only had the backing of a small sect called Maritime Sect, it had great financial prospects for their clan. But the city had already had the Du clan, and they had marital relationships with the Wang clan—overlord of Herb Fragrance City—so the Li clan had had to remain dormant.
But things were about to change. The Earthly Fruit Tree had emerged in their clan territory, and it would either change their fortune or bring calamity. It was a Silver Grade herb used in Marrow Cleansing Pills, so every clan wanted to have one tree in their territory, but it was a nature’s herb, so no one could plant it in their herb garden. Whenever a new tree was discovered, bloodshed followed. Although he had brought all his clan elites to Old Martial City, he knew he couldn’t protect the plant and prosper with it, so he had sent a message to Divine Fragrance Palace declaring his request to surrender the plant to them for some benefits.
After the deal was done, and elites from Divine Fragrance Palace took charge of the tree, he could sleep well.
As if this wasn’t enough tension, that Du Lufang had barged into the clan compound and demanded Li Wei be handed over. Although he’d rejected the request, he had to know the reason behind it, so he came here.
Seeing the poor condition of the cabin, his heart quivered. How could that bastard Li Sua make his grandson live in such awful conditions?
“Brat, what are you doing?” He barged into the small cabin without a thought.
“Grandfather,” Li Wei got to his feet and bowed his head.
At least the brat had learned to show some respect. The last time he saw this brat, he had showed no respect whatsoever. If his mother wasn’t Li Shua’s favorite daughter, he would have beaten this brat to half death.
“What did you do with Du Fang?”
“I knocked him down when he tried to kill me,” the brat replied with a plain face.
Li Shua chuckled. “You don’t even have an ounce of cultivation, and you knocked down a brat in layer three of Refinement Realm?”
Li Wei arched his brows. “Was he that strong? It didn’t feel like that. I just punched him once, and he fell on the ground. Did he die or what?”
Li Shua rubbed his chin. Du Lufang must be hiding something. There was no way a brat wit
h no cultivation could contend against a layer three Refinement Realm cultivator. If Li Wei was in the first layer, Li Shua might have given it a thought, but this brat had no qi in his body. His dantian was damaged at birth, and there was no way it could recover.
“No, he isn’t. But he is poisoned, and in terrible condition. If he dies, you’ll be in big trouble, brat. What were you doing inside Master Wu’s shop?” He played with the ring on his finger.
“I was just coming back from market and saw a nice axe. I thought it would be useful for wood cutting.”
Li Shua almost spurted blood. An artifact for cutting wood? Did he eat some bad fruit?
Master Wu was an Array Apprentice, and every weapon in his shop was an array artifact. The cheapest weapon would cost at least five hundred gold, and cultivators would die to have one. And this brat wanted to use an artifact to cut wood?
“Brat, stop messing around. If you trouble Master Wu, even I can’t save you.” Even a Bone Baptization Realm cultivator had to give face to Master Wu, and who was he? An ant?
While scolding Li Wei, Li Shua’s gaze fell on the stone pot. It shone with a strange vitality. “Is that Poison Repelling Powder?”
Li Wei twitched and glanced at the powder. “Yes, grandfather. I bought it with money you gave me.”
“But how did—”
Suddenly, the girl opened her eyes and a strong aura swept out of her.
Li Shua’s heart trembled. This girl. She was in the seventh layer of Refinement Realm.
“Brat, this is your maidservant, right?”
Li Wei nodded.
“Then why is she in the seventh layer of Refinement Realm? How could a maidservant be this strong?” It was indeed a surprise. A maidservant would be so poor that stepping into the first layer would be impossible for them. However, this girl had already stepped in the seventh layer of Refinement Realm. In five years, she would cross the Refinement Realm and turn into an asset eyed by every clan in Old Martial City.
