Story 3 - Spiritual Vines and a Smokey Pill Cauldron (25)

Story 3 - Spiritual Vines and a Smokey Pill Cauldron (25)

Employee Stone collected me then Little Spring. He escorted us to the same private meeting room we used last time.

On our way, I informed him about the incorrect spiritual herb that I’d noticed and pointed out that other boxes also had to have contained some of these for the explosions to get so large. He promised to look into it. I had no energy left over to deal with it myself so I decided to throw the problem at the guild’s employees.

After that short conversation, I settled into the room and activated the privacy function. We didn’t have much time, only an hour so I set up the simple array and jumped directly into the spiritual spring... I kind of wanted to call it Lake(in Mandarin) Lake(in English), but that was my good ol’ earth-human naming sense coming in.

“Have you decided on what you’ll call this lake yet?”

Little Spring, who had been practically vibrating with restless and nervous energy since I finished the last round glared at me. “Fairy Lin. You don’t have a lot of time. And you’re still injured.” Then he bit his lip. ”Please focus on healing yourself.”

The kid practically threw himself down into the lotus position on the shore. He let out a frustrated sounding breath then started cultivating. He pulled in spiritual energy like crazy.

Fuck, was he trying to break into the third layer, already? No wonder he was so restless.

He also wasn’t wrong. I needed to heal what I could immediately.

I lowered myself into the shallow part of the lake, popped one of the few remaining healing pills we had, and began to slowly cultivate myself. I let the energy run through me and heal some of the internal damage that the backlash from using the shield had done to me. As it did this, it left some nasty impurities in my body. Fortunately, since I was in the spiritual spring, those impurities were immediately leached out.

After a while, I was still worse off than where I had been when I started the day, but better than I was after the second round.

My body was starting to worry me. The constant headache that I lived with was the least of my troubles at this point. My side hurt like a bitch while my internal organs felt like they’d taken several jabs.

I sighed. If I could just win this, I’d get a new cauldron. Then I could quickly succeed in making my needed pill. Well, considering that concocting it would normally be difficult for someone in Foundation Establishment, I had my work cut out for me.

Fuck. I wish I could break through to the fifth layer without harming myself further. An increase by a small realm would help.

I glanced at Little Spring who had just finished breaking through to the third layer. Maybe I could get him to assist me in concocting it. I could use some main character good fortune right about now. Making it in one shot might be too difficult otherwise.

Perhaps I could find more Vines of Stellar Rebirth nearby, or find a way to purchase some for cheap (from someone other than that bitch Violet). Otherwise, we would only have one chance at it.

I stood up, the aches in my body unexpectedly caused the world to dim for a second. I sighed. It may have come out as a groan.

The hardest part about living with pain was starting. The easy part was keeping momentum. As long as the momentum didn’t cause me to crash and burn, then I was fine.

I grinned. With a thought, I appeared dry and next to my junior brother. “Let’s go!”

Little Spring, slowly stopped consolidating his new realm and opened determined eyes. “Fairy Lin.”

“What?”

Damn. The difference between first and second was massive.

“Now, to begin I’ll tell you the rules. Each participant gets to choose one topic about pill making. This topic has to be about unusual problems in the concocting process. Or normal problems that have yet to be addressed but the participant has a theory on how to deal with it.

“Once both participants have presented their theories. One of the judges will test it out, and if needed we’ll use a pill testing beast to provide evidence.”

“If there is no clear winner, after two topics provided by the participants, then Pill Master Ruthless Divine Medicine will choose a topic.”

That Pill Otaku? I wanted to see what he’d choose but I also didn’t think poor Violet Pill Fairy would have the chance to even get close.

”Apprentice Lin. Since you’re the youngest, you may go first. Please propose a topic.”

Let’s see. A topic. The thing is, I had too much knowledge of the future. It would be easy to just pick something impressive from the millions of facts and discoveries over the years. What I needed was a nearly harmless fact that hadn't been discovered yet.

I glanced at the judges and my eyes stayed slightly longer on Pill Master Burning With Too Much Lust.

Or I could try to appeal to judges.

”Everyone knows that taking pills often leaves a buildup of residue that can be harmful to the body. But one of the more serious residues is left by, none other than the various aphrodisiac pills, especially the Happy Pulse Auspicious Dan. It causes kidney damage, heartburn, headaches, nausea, and if taken too much, it could even limit the potential of a cultivator, lowering their chances of ascending to the next realm.

”I would like to propose a theory on how to decrease the impurities in the Happy Pulse Auspicious Dan so that cultivators who take this medication will no longer have to worry about the impurities lowering their chances to ascend to a higher realm.”

The manager, whose face was bright red, coughed a bit. “Apprentice Lin! Isn’t that topic a bit inappropriate for a contest like this? Especially coming from someone your age?”

I tilted my head and blinked at the host like I had no idea what he was talking about. “I don’t understand. Aphrodisiac medicines, when used appropriately, are there to help cultivators who desire it, have cute little babies.” I blinked my big watery and innocent nine-year-old eyes again. “At least that’s what my master told me,” I lied cutely.

With his face still bright red, he nodded. “Right, as you said. When used appropriately, it is a medicine.”

I blinked again. “I don’t understand that part either. Why would anyone use it inappropriately?”

He swiftly turned to Violet Pill Fairy. “Do you have a problem with the proposed topic?” His eyes seemed to tell her that she should.

She smirked. “I don’t.”

Then he turned to the judges as if desperate. “How about our esteemed panel of judges?”

“We do not.” White Lily said. “As Apprentice Lin said. It is a legitimate medicine... when used appropriately.”

As if giving up, the guild manager said, “Then, Apprentice Violet Pill. Have you thought of a method to decrease the impurities?”