Chapter 18 It Also Tastes Great
“Kaa!”
After being infused with the power of a martial spirit, the steel sword became as sharp as a G.o.d-tier weapon. A flash of light sliced through the air as the Stranglethorn screamed in anger and little by little collapsed onto the ground. Lin Mu Yu was standing right before its head and in the next second, the Stranglethorn’s beast spirit collected into a green ball hovering above its head.
“Right now!”
Qu Chu lowered his voice and said, “Sit down and use your Green Gourd to absorb this Stranglethorn’s spirit. Even if this can’t improve the strength of your martial spirit, it should be able to increase your physical strength. Right now, your body has just entered the chaotic state so you lack clear measure of power. But after the martial spirit’s first evolution, it will surely confirm the true measure of your strength!”
Lin Mu Yu rejoiced happily and sat down cross-legged next to the Stranglethorn’s corpse to summon the Green Gourd. When the martial spirit made contact with the beast spirit, the gourd had already begun to ferociously engulf the Stranglethorn’s spirit energy. Because they were both plant type spirits, their compatibility ratio was higher than average.
The Green Gourd’s glow thickened little by little while Lin Mu Yu simultaneously felt that his energy level was increasing as well.
Standing nearby, Qu Chu joked, “If this kid is lucky enough, perhaps he might even obtain one of the beast spirit’s innate abilities.”
Tang Xiao Xi blinked her eyes and retorted, “But Grandpa told me before that when one is refining a beast spirit, the chance to successfully obtain a special skill is no more than a fifth. My Firefox has advanced twice, but I was only able to gain a Flame Wolf’s Fire Spitter…”
Qu Chu looked away and said, “These matters are all out of our hands. My Flame Cauldron has a total of 9 stages right now, meaning that it had advanced 9 times, I still only have but three skills. Whatever happens will depend on this kid’s luck.”
……
Although Lin Mu Yu was focusing on refining the beast spirit, he was still able to hear their conversation.
Unexpectedly, a sultry voice appeared in his mind. Lulu the system fairy had actually woken up once again with great timing! Her form materialized before Lin Mu Yu and she stretched lazily as she utter with a smile, “Hehe, that was a great nap…”
“Lulu!”
Lin Mu Yu couldn’t be happier to hear her, “I’m refining the spirit of a wild beast right now. Help me bring up the Alchemy Cauldron, quickly!”
“Aye.”
When Lulu summoned the alchemy cauldron, a barrier of light enveloped Lin Mu Yu within. Qu Chu and Tang Xiao Xi could not clearly see what Lin Mu Yu was doing and only knew that he was still absorbing the beast spirit. However, an illusory cauldron appeared before Lin Mu Yu’s eyes with the Green Gourd rotating rapidly inside.
Since Lulu was a system fairy, she was seemingly able to see through everything. Smilingly, she explained, “The skill contained in this beast spirit is called Binding Roots. It can provide your Green Gourd with an ability to use constricting vines, but the cauldron will need a bit of materials as well.”
“What kind of materials?”
“A liter of water, two gold coins, and a bit of soil to nourish the green gourd vines.”
“That sounds easy enough!”
Lin Mu Yu couldn’t help but laugh. There was a pond nearby for water, while he himself had a few gold Yin coins in his pocket. Aside from those, he was already surrounded by soil. Accordingly, he took a few handfuls of water along with a bit of soil and poured both into the alchemy cauldron. Following that, he carefully took out two precious gold coins and tossed them in as well. Immediately, Lulu closed her eyes as a satisfied look appeared on her face.
Mixing the ingredients together, the cauldron glowed even more brilliantly and quickly smelted down the two gold coins. Turning into streams of fine powder, the gold dust along with the water and soil were all absorbed into the Green Gourd.
After continuing this process for about 10 minutes, the refinement was finally completed!
……
“Buzzz!”
The green gourd was frantically shaking as rows of green entwining vines grew out of the gourd’s crown. It looked like something that belonged in a garden. Yet the nearby Qu Chu and Tang Xiao Xi were both stunned.
“Idiot Mu Mu actually awakened a spirit ability…” Tang Xiao Xi mumbled under her breath.
Qu Chu laughed aloud, “This kid… I suppose it is true indeed that even a simpleton gets lucky sometimes!”
Lin Mu Yu retorted in his mind: Wait, I’m not a simpleton! I’m an alchemy master for G.o.d’s sake!
If he was to boast about taking only 10 minutes to refine all of a 500-year-old Stranglethorn’s beast spirit, he would have probably been labeled a madman. Lin Mu Yu stood up with glowing spirits as if the whole quality about him had changed significantly. Qu Chu smiled, “Kid, why don’t you show us your new spirit ability?”
“Yes, Elder Qu.”
Focusing his thoughts, Lin Mu Yu materialized the green gourd spirit in front of his chest. Tendrils of green vines shot out and wrapped themselves around a small tree. It was so tightly constricted that with a single thought, Lin Mu Yu was able to forcefully snap the small tree in half.
“Wow, that looks fun!” Tang Xiao Xi cheerfully said, “Mu Mu’s spirit ability looks really interesting!”
“Princess, you’re praising me too much…” Lin Mu Yu responded shyly.
Tang Xiao Xi immediately shattered his feigned humbleness with her heartless statement, “I didn’t praise you. I just thought it was really interesting. This kind of ability is just a child’s play, so it is basically useless in actual combat.”
Lin Mu Yu was petrified, “…”
“It’s better than nothing.” Qu Chu comforted.
Lin Mu Yu nodded in agreement.
“Alright, let’s use the measuring crystal to see your current power level!”
……
After taking out the measuring crystal from the horse’s pack, Lin Mu Yu pressed his palm onto the ball. With a shout, he increased his power to the maximum as his martial spirit also simultaneously glowed in bright light. The reading inside the measuring crystal rapidly increased and after several jumps, one long line and 7 short lines appeared on the crystal.
Qu Chu faintly smiled, “Level 17 Battle Warrior. Not too shabby. In any case, you’ve already stepped into Human realm’s second stage. If you train well for the next few days, you should probably have a chance against Hua Wan.”
“Aye. Much appreciated, Elder Qu!”
……
The evening came as the heavy rain finally stopped. The whole Seven Star Forest became a mess of mud and dirt. There was probably no one living or hunting so deep into the mountain, as no one wants to wake up to a thousand year spirit beast munching on their head. As such, the three travelers could only camp out in the mountain for the night.
After gathering a bunch of dry firewood, the three decided to stop at a small cave in the side of the mountain. Using Tang Xiao Xi’s Firefox to ignite the fire, the three roasted some buns for dinner. Bathing in the light of the fire, Tang Xiao Xi sat cross-legged to meditate while hints of fire energy enveloped her. This girl not only trained in the usage of hot flames, but her figure was also quite alluringly hot.
Watching her, Lin Mu Yu decided to meditate for a bit as well. He was already able to perfectly circulate energy throughout his meridians, so it could be said that he broke the legend of the heaven sealed physique. However, the intensity of his energy was not able to rapidly increase. Standing up, he took out the throwing knives from Qu Chu and decided that it was time to practice some knife throwing techniques. Bows can neither be considered a hidden weapon nor be easily carried, so it was difficult to catch an enemy off guard with it.
Afraid of accidentally hurting Tang Xiao Xi, he walked away from camp and climbed up a small hill. Using the moonlight to inspect these 4 throwing knives, he noted that they were exquisitely made and shone with a glowing radiance under the moonlight.
Let’s throw it!
Sshha!
The blade flew to into the distance as a shrill whistle sounded in the wind. In the blink of an eye, the blade had returned but Lin Mu Yu did not try to catch it. He simply did not want to die.
With a bang, the throwing knife stabbed itself into the nearby tree. Lin Mu Yu pulled it out and threw it again, while continuing to observe the movement for the next hour.
In the darkness, another had been watching him intently for a long time. Unable to hold back his question, the shadow asked, “Why don’t you try to catch it?”
Lin Mu Yu turned to look and smiled, “Oh, it’s you, Elder Qu. It’s not that I don’t want to catch them, it’s just that I need more experience with the knives. I have to know how the knives perform with different variations of power and the angle of its returning path. Otherwise, perhaps I will have to bid farewell to these hands.”
Qu Chu couldn’t help but laugh, “Smart kid. I certainly didn’t make a mistake in choosing to train you. This set of throwing knives will definitely be of great use in your hands. But perhaps you’ve been observing for too long. Give catching a little try. As a martial artist, it is near impossible for one to practice a lost skill to perfection without getting a little hurt.”
“Right.”
However, this is going to put Lin Mu Yu’s sight to the test, especially with only the moonlight to guide his eyes.
But Lin Mu Yu still obediently attempted the catch. Abruptly throwing out the knife, he quickly calculated its return angle as well as the trajectory of the handle and the blade. What he needed to catch was the handle, and not the sharp blade.
Pah!
Suddenly reaching out, he was able to catch it. However, he did not have a firm grip on the handle with his fingers; rather, his hand had been swept by the blade before he was able to catch it. Instantly, a searing pain shot through his hand while fresh blood spilled ferociously out from the long gash in his index finger.
“Luckily, you’re an alchemist so we have an endless supply of Gold Sore ointment.” Qu Chu jokingly laughed at the boy’s misfortune.
Lin Mu Yu wasn’t in the mood to retort to this inhumane teacher and applied some Gold Sore cream onto his wound. Following that, he attempted several more catches. He had to quickly dodge out of the way the second time when he failed the catch, but the rest were all successful attempts. In doing so, he had grasped the basics of receiving the knife, so the next step was to test his ability to determine the trajectory when the knife returned after hitting a target.
At midnight, Lin Mu Yu’s hands were covered in wounds from his practice. But it was a good thing that he knew the appropriate procedure so as to not injure his bones and tendons, or else it would have definitely impeded his training. Still, even though he was careful, he was running out of Gold Sore ointments, which is slightly remedied by the fact that he could alchemize some more on the spot.
Silver String gra.s.s and Long Night flower were both common herbs so they were easy to find. After looking around some more, he finally found an Iron Pear flower plant.
Hua!
The light of Lin Mu Yu’s Essence Purification Technique appeared over his open palm as he began removing the Iron Pear flower’s medicine cores.
TL Note: Sublimation Hands=confirmed MTL. Changed to Essence Purification Technique.
Qu Chu rested on the stone wall while pretending to be dozing off. Secretly, he was watching Lin Mu Yu alchemize medicine. And right as Lin Mu Yu was about to pour the Iron Pear flower powder into the Gold Sore ointment, Qu Chu finally could not hold it any longer. Sitting up in a swift motion, he asked with his eyebrows raised, “Kid, in the medicine index’s records, a Gold Sore ointment only requires Silver String gra.s.s and Long Night flower, so why exactly are you adding Iron Pear flower?”
The corner of Lin Mu Yu’s mouth lifted into a smirk and he puffed up his chest in pride, “Although the core powder of the Iron Pear flower can’t heal wounds, it can actually increase the healing speed of wounds. Furthermore, Silver String gra.s.s and Long Night flower are both warm natured, whereas Iron Pear flower is cool natured. The product of a balanced nature is a lot more potent.”
Qu Chu’s eyes widened greatly and asked, “You…you’re not lying to me, are you?”
“What would be the point of that? I guarantee that my Gold Sore ointment will definitely be first tier. Would you believe it?”
Qu Chu took a sniff of the newly alchemized Gold Sore and his face grew pale, “It really is a first tier spirit medicine…”
Lin Mu Yu continued minding his own business and finished up the rest of the potions. Taking out an apple from his bag, he crushed it to get a bit of apple juice. Following that, he submerged a small portion of Swift Wolf blood and some soft Blue Silver gra.s.s cores in apple juice.
Qu Chu was surprised once more, “Why are you adding in apple juice now?”
Lin Mu Yu smiled, “Swift Wolf’s blood is extraordinarily violent and has an intense nature. Adding a bit of apple juice can help soften its intensity, which will make the Haste potion’s speed boost even stronger. It’s also…”
“It’s also what?” The Saint realm expert’s eyes were as wide as copper bells.
Lin Mu Yu faintly smiled, “A Haste potion with the addition of some apple juice also tastes really great!”
“Tastes…great…”
Qu Chu’s eyes were about to burst out of their sockets. His whole understanding of the workings of the alchemy world was instantly changed by this youngster before him. Qu Chu had been an expert in the field of martial arts, but he was a mere newbie in alchemy. Thus, after meeting an alchemy master like Lin Mu Yu, he felt as if he had never learned alchemy in the first place!