Chapter 362

Ghosts of the Mine (VIII)

... right.

System, hah. I could weep.

I don't know whether to be flattered that it thinks so highly of me it'd give me a quest whose FIRST leg of the journey is interacting with the most powerful man in the world or whether to be utterly stupefied by its seeming insistence that I just fucking die.

I'm going to go with the former just for my own sanity's sake, but I have fewer than zero plans of ever heading to that accursed place. Maybe, maybe, Mr. Yuan over there is a benevolent little stitch who would bend over backwards to aid me in restoring some godforsaken pill, but knowing what people in power tend to be like, I will assume he is a power-hungry, arrogant, brutally apathetic sycophant who would twist my innards out if I ever showed my ugly face in front of him.

"Why do you ask about him?" Lao Shun prodded.

"Curiosity," I replied simply. "Is it a taboo among your kind?"

"My... kind?"

"Alchemists and such."

"... wow. You really hold me in little regard, do you?"

"Nonsense."

"What's coming next--"

"Why would I hold you in any regard?"

"There it is," he chuckled. "To answer your rather unpleasant question, no, it's not a taboo. If anything, every Alchemist of any ambition dreams of one day meeting Senior Yuan, even for just a second. My Master once caught a fading glimpse of the man and immediately obtained enlightenment, raising his rank as an Alchemist. You know how you have a tendency to pull out recipes that have been extinct for so long we measure the span in eras rather than years without any fanfare or logic?"

"I do that?"

"Hah. The point is, he's the most renowned figure in the world of Alchemy not just because of his rank, but because of the sheer volume of ancient recipes that he's restored. Unlike you, however, he labors for decades and doesn't pull them out of thin air."

"Who's to say? Maybe he's just pretending he's laboring for decades and is also pulling them out of thin air."

"Hm. If the world had more than one you, it would have collapsed by now."

"Right," I shrugged. "Let's go eat some breakfast."

"Yes... let's."

Under his scrutinizing gaze, I exited the tent first; by now, Long Tao was slicing some morning-meal things, the kids were pretending to be weak but were still beating each other up a bit, and, in the distance where the group of six set up their encampment, I smelled... blood.

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Curious, I walked over and saw that two of the men had strange, black bandages over their exposed torsos, while the camp itself reeked of the rather rancid stench of corpses, with quite a few misshapen carcasses of the beasts lying about.

"Everything alright?" I asked the woman that was currently in the process of skinning one of those carcasses.

"Ah, good morning, Fellow Daoist. Yes, everything's fine; we just had a minor mishap during an attack last night." Hm? Did the beasts attack? Or... did you attack them?

"Oh, no. Did anyone get hurt? I don't know if it'll be of any help, but Brother Lao is an Alchemist. Would you like me to ask him to take a look at them?"

"Thank you for the offer, but it's fine; they are strong and bulky, and I've already applied healing cloth," she said, wiping her forehead. "Hm? Ah, is your Disciple making breakfast?"

"He is, indeed," I said.

"I'm just in time, then," she grinned, which, coupled with the sprayed blood on her face, made her look rather ominous. "You think he has the skills to curate demonic meat?"

"... let's find out."

As it turned out, Long Tao did, indeed, have the required skills; he did it rather swiftly, and though I didn't initially understand why everyone appeared rather excited to eat what looked absolutely awful, taking a bite convinced me otherwise.

It wasn't tasty, I wouldn't say; the meat wasn't tender but the sort that you had to chew for a few minutes before giving up, taking it out, and then ripping off smaller pieces before just swallowing them, but the moment I went down my throat, and the moment I felt Qi surge from those tiny pieces... I got it.

Eating properly prepared demonic meat increased cultivation. Not by a lot, of course, but I imagine if you ate it every day for a long while, it'd add up.

Following breakfast, we waited for a little while for the group of six to pack up before resuming our ascent. It wasn't particularly steep, and as the weather was quite some ways warmer today than it had been in weeks, it actually turned out to be a pleasant hike.

... until a pack of wolves, each as big as a freakin' cow, jumped from seemingly nowhere, growling and blocking the path. Though they looked scary as all hell, what with saliva dropping off the corners of their maws where each tooth was about the size of my hand, once I got over their appearance, I realized they were all merely at around the Foundation Establishment Realm.

"Ah! They're so cute!" ... huh? Light? Are... are you okay?

"They really are!" Dai Xiu, ah...

"Do you think they'll let us ride them?" Et tu, Xi Zhao?!

"They're Demonic Beasts," That's right, Long Tao. Educate them, please. "If you beat them hard enough, they might let you ride them."

"..." Nah. I give up.

I caught the woman's gaze from the corner of my eye; she must have overheard everything and was looking at me with a rather peculiar smile.

I get it. I get that my Disciples are made of their own cloth and that this is just the way things will be. It's a bit too late to ask for normalcy from them, so I may as well just ride the tide.

"Instead of that, how about you go and fight them?" I voiced out.

"Yes, Master!"

The woman pulled back the men from acting and parted to the side, giving way to three who charged forward: Wan Lan, Dai Xiu, and Rayce.

Rayce currently had the 'capacity' of drawing up to 5 Words a day, oftentimes fewer if they were more complex. And though their effects varied, honestly, it made me want an entire army of Shamans. It'd be like having a factory of Talismans, except the effects of Words were much higher.

Just as they approached the band of beasts, he ripped a sheet of paper apart as silver streams of light shot out and latched onto Lan and Xiu; both glimmered in a faint sheen, and I immediately recognized that it was 'Word of Swiftness'. Mathematically, from how it felt when I had it cast on me, it felt like my general agility, movement, and nimbleness were increased by about 25%--a rather absurd amount. To be fair, it took him four days just to draw one, so it's not like he could mass-produce them.

However, I had about four of them in my spatial ring, and he swore that he'd work hard so that everyone would have at least one. How was that going? I wasn't too sure.

I was sure about the effects and kinda looked forward to seeing how they'd 'play around' with such a boost to convince the woman they were--

--nope. Those idiots straight-up forgot.

Haah.

Life truly is unfair in so many ways.