Chapter 108 - Catch The Culprit

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

Qian Ran and the others’ faces turned pale. One had to know that the rules and regulations compiled together was as thick as a big book.

Even if they did not eat, drink, or sleep, it would take at least three days to copy them all. If they copied them ten times, they might even break their hands. Such a punishment was far more terrifying than beating them up.

Qian Ran revealed a smile that was uglier than crying. “Elder Zhou…”

Zhou Zhengqing had made up his mind. He looked at him calmly. “What? Do you think ten times is too few? Do you want to copy twenty times?”

“Thank you, elder.”

Qian Ran and the rest did not dare to say anything more. They were afraid that elder Zhou would add more, so they could only leave dejectedly. Zhou Zhengqing did not say anything more to Lin Bai. He only looked at him deeply before his gaze fell on fool Li. Then, he left without saying a word.

Lin Bai felt that his gaze was a little strange, but he could not put his finger on it.

Looking at the damaged herbal field, if it was not Qian Ran and the others, who could it be? Lin Bai took a closer look and saw that there were a few small black holes on the soil. If one did not look carefully, it was very easy to overlook them.

If he remembered correctly, there seemed to be a similar small black hole on Chen Yan’s herbal field. However, other than that, there were also traces of Little Black crawling. Little Red’s marks were not obvious.

However, Qian Ran’s place only had a small black hole here. There was no other interference, so he could see it very clearly.

“What exactly is this small black hole?” Lin Bai seemed to be deep in thought. He stared at it for a long time and suddenly remembered that fool Li had done the same thing earlier. It seemed that there was something inside the small black hole. However, he took a closer look for a long time and didn’t find anything strange.

Lin Bai looked at the other herbal fields. There were no such small black holes. It seemed that only damaged herbal fields would have such a small black hole. This made things even stranger.

A black shadow flashed past him. Lin Bai looked over and saw that there was nothing there. It was as if what he had just seen was just an illusion.

A gentle breeze blew, and the grass that was half the height of a man swayed. It was as if something had indeed passed through it. Lin Bai narrowed his eyes and left the herbal field.

Everything would leave behind a mark. No matter what it was, no matter how well it disguised itself, there would always be some traces left behind.

Not long after Lin Bai left, a small figure emerged from the black hole. The hole was neither too big nor too small for it. It was just enough to completely accommodate it. It sneakily followed Lin Bai and left.

The incident with Qian Ran had spread throughout the Alchemist Association. They knew that Lin Bai was a tough nut to crack, but no one dared to find trouble with him. After all, even Qian Ran had suffered a setback. He had been locked in his room for the past few days to copy the rules.

His hands were trembling when he picked up the chopsticks. It was estimated that he would not be able to stir up any trouble for a while.

Lin Bai stayed in the refining room and refined several batches of spirit qi pills. The air was filled with a rich medicinal fragrance and spirit Qi. The three little ones stood by the side with burning eyes. Every time at this time, they knew that Lin Bai would transmit his strength after taking the pills.

As expected, after Lin Bai took the pills, he waved at them. The three little ones ran over eagerly. They chased each other. Little Green was the most agile and suddenly jumped to the front like green lightning.

The one who suffered the most was Little Black. Its body was heavy and its speed was slow. It was so anxious that it stretched its neck. However, even so, it was still a distance away from the two at the front.

Little Red followed closely behind Little Green. Its beak gave Little Green a sharp peck and pulled it behind. Little Green was like a noodle being pulled. Its green eyes were wide open, like a grape hanging on a tree. It was as though it did not expect Little Red to be so scheming and play tricks.

Then, it did not want to be outdone. It wrapped itself around Little Red’s body. The two little ones went back and forth. They were equally matched. They blocked each other’s footsteps, giving Little Black an opportunity to catch up and run to the front. By the time the two little ones realized what was going on, it was already too late.

[ Ding! ]

[ The host has passed on thirty days of cultivation to Little Black. ]

[ Twenty times return has been successfully triggered! ]

[ The host has received six hundred days of cultivation! ]

Seeing that Little Black had taken the lead, Little Green and Little Red were chattering and blaming each other. If Lin Bai didn’t split up the two of them, they might have even overturned the ceiling when they fought.

Lin Bai laughed and said helplessly, “Don’t worry, you all have a chance.”

[ Ding! ]

[ The host has passed on twenty days of cultivation to Little Green. ]

[ Fifty times of return has been successfully triggered! ]

[ The host has received a thousand days of cultivation! ]

…

The pills that Lin Bai had refined this time were not as high grade as the ones that fool Li had given him, so the three little ones did not undergo much change. To refine such a extreme-grade pill, dozens of precious medicinal ingredients were needed and they were in high demand. Therefore, Lin Bai was currently unable to refine them.

However, the pills he refined weren’t too bad. At the very least, it was better than nothing. The combined returned cultivation given to him by the three little ones was not bad. Lin Bai casually refined a few bottles of pills that were beneficial to pets and placed them on the shelf.

Lin Bai looked at the pill bottles on the shelf and suddenly frowned. “That’s not right.” He clearly remembered that there were a total of fifteen bottles on the shelf. Now that there were only ten bottles left, where did the remaining five bottles go?

His gaze fell on the three little ones. “Could it be that you guys ate them secretly behind my back?”

The three little ones instantly shook their heads in unison like cats whose fur had exploded. Seeing that their expressions did not look like they were lying, Lin Bai could not help but fall into deep thought. “If it wasn’t you guys, then who could it be? Could it be one of the disciples?”

Ever since Lin Bai had been refining pills here, very few people had come. Moreover, the pills that he had refined were all prepared for Little Green and the others. Pills that were biased towards pet beasts were not of much use to people.

Lin Bai secretly had a plan. He had not noticed it before, but from now on, every day he would look at the shelves and there would be a bottle missing mysteriously, as if it had disappeared into thin air.

This day, as usual, he refined a few bottles of pills. Lin Bai placed them on the shelves, as if he did not notice the abnormalities of the past few days, he muttered to himself, “These few days, the medicinal herbs are almost used up. I need to make a trip to the herbal field. I would be coming back earliest tomorrow morning.”

After saying that, he walked out of the room and closed the door.

After Lin Bai left, the alchemy room was silent. After an unknown amount of time, rustling sounds came from the corner. A small black shadow poked its head out and walked out.

The light in the room was dim, so it was difficult to see what it looked like. It was just small, and its body was very agile. It easily walked to the shelf. 

Just as its small claws were about to grab a medicine bottle, a male voice suddenly sounded. It was Lin Bai’s voice. “I’ve finally caught you..”