Enlightenment: Beginning as a Disposable Warrior-Chapter 95 - 86: A Sound Worth Ten Thousand Gold, The First Inscription (First Update)

One cannot recognize the true face of Mount Lu, only because one is in the midst of the mountain.

With an unintentional remark, the Little Doctor enlightened the Pharmacist who was involved—compared to decoctions, medicinal wine is more suitable for Su Mu.

Wine can circulate through one's own qi and blood, accelerating the body's absorption of medicinal components. In this way, absorption becomes faster, maintaining the medicinal effects. In fact, medicinal wine can take effect several times faster than decoctions.

"As for not leaving toxic residues and controlling retention time… Once wine enters the body it's easier to expel; A Martial Artist can at any time use power to force it out from the body. These two points can both be controlled by the Martial Artist themself."

The Pharmacist's eyes flashed with a sharp light. Moreover, the dosage of medicinal wine is more easily controlled compared to painstakingly boiled decoctions. This also lends itself to adjusting doses as needed, flexibly applying the right medicine for the patient.

After considering all this, the Pharmacist decisively chose to replace decoction with medicinal wine, setting this as the direction for future research.

At that moment, the Pharmacist strode eagerly toward the medicine room.

The three in the medical clinic went about their own business, enjoying themselves—thus the long night passed in silence.

"Master Chen!"

After five days of rest, Su Mu returned to the Forging Workshop. He greeted Zhao Ju, who acknowledged him with a faint nod, not asking about Su Mu's progress in recent days, allowing Su Mu to proceed at his own pace.

Su Mu quietly transcribed the anonymous manuscript, brush in hand.

Today, Zhao Ju would occasionally glance outside, as if waiting for something. Before long, Su Mu felt something stir in his heart—outside, the footsteps of Master Chen Yuntian and Lin Ruoshui approached.

Their soft whispers could be heard clearly as well.

Soon, Zhao Ju welcomed the two master blacksmiths into the room. Chen Yuntian and Lin Ruoshui handed over an iron casket. "Old Zhao, time is tight. We'll leave the inscription to you."

Zhao Ju opened the casket. Inside, resting quietly, was a three-foot-long sword glowing with blue light and an antique design. At present, it was only the sword blank, not yet complete, but the moment the casket was opened, a burst of sword energy surged forth, struggling to escape the box.

"Alright, leave it to me."

As Chen Yuntian and Lin Ruoshui left, they glanced at Su Mu, both seeming to want to speak yet holding back under Zhao Ju's gaze. In the end, they departed from the forging room awkwardly.

The three had a prior agreement—when it's one's turn to instruct, the other two must not interfere. Zhao Ju had his own methods of teaching.

The door to the Cyan Blade Forging Room closed once more. Zhao Ju immersed both hands in a basin of clear water, regulating his breath, waiting to enter the proper state.

Zhao Ju retrieved a box of ink contained in an exquisite White Jade Bottle, then took out an Inscription Pen, wholly forged from Iron Essence and engraved with inscriptions.

Upon unsealing the White Jade Bottle, a salty, fishy odor filled the air.

"Inscription requires demon beast blood specially treated as a medium… so this is demon beast blood?"

Silently, Su Mu felt a cool flow at his brow, splitting his attention and quietly entering the state of Soul Incarnation.

Hmm?

As soon as Su Mu entered the incarnated state, he keenly noticed something unusual. Previously, in this state, he had no senses, but today—even in Soul Incarnation—he could still smell the blood scent of demon beast blood.

Though faint, this discovery still surprised Su Mu inwardly.

"After five days of copying and studying medical books with the Little Doctor, my once impatient heart has calmed… My five senses have become even sharper, and even my incarnation state has improved."

The brush in Su Mu's hand paused slightly. His eyes brightened, and he continued copying. Meanwhile, his incarnation quietly observed Master Zhao Ju's inscription process.

The Inscription Pen was dipped in demon beast blood.

The moment Zhao Ju grasped the pen, his aura suddenly changed. His usual expressionless, paralyzed face revealed a trace of intoxication, his entire being completely absorbed in his work.

Chii—

The sharp pen tip began outlining the inscription at a point on the sword edge, just below the blade's ridge. He inhaled, lifted the pen, exhaled and dropped the pen, guiding power as he wrote. Completing the stroke, Zhao Ju entered a breath-holding state.

"Sturdiness is the bone, sharpness is the tendon… But the material for a Grade-Entering Treasure Artifact far surpasses ordinary blade soldiers. If one writes the sturdiness inscription of the sword bone first, it becomes very difficult to inscribe sharpness later. Therefore, the process is usually reversed—sharpness first, then sturdiness."

As Su Mu observed, key points about inscriptions from the manuscript quickly surfaced in his mind.

Zhao Ju's hands were exceptionally steady, especially his wrist, as if fixed on an invisible thread—neither too high nor too low. Only when he completed the stroke did he let out a slight breath.

Repeating this, nearly an hour passed before the first inscription was completed.

Su Mu identified it as the sharpness inscription. As the inscription formed, the demon beast blood seemed to come alive, causing the inscription to light up.

Buzzz!

The inscription was complete, and the ancient sword's sharp aura grew by half a degree.

This is what Zhao Ju could sense with his own eyes, but in Su Mu's view, it was an entirely different world.

This time, Su Mu saw a massive gray rabbit, half a man tall. Its fur gleamed oily, with a pair of terrifying sharp claws a foot long, and it exuded a powerful aura.

"Gray Claw Rabbit, ninth-grade demon beast, its blood is gentle—a fine medium for inscriptions…"

The features of the demon beast allowed Su Mu to recognize its identity, all of which were described in the anonymous manuscript.

One, two, three.

Just three inscriptions took the entire morning. After finishing, Zhao Ju's chest heaved violently and his face turned paler. He'd obviously exhausted his mental energy.

By the end of the day, five inscriptions in total had been completed.

Su Mu returned home, grinding ink as his mind replayed scenes of Master Zhao Ju inscribing. Each time through, Su Mu's eyes brightened a little more.

After a long time, he lifted his brush to write.

Two quarter-hours later, a sharpness inscription leapt onto the paper the moment he finished the last stroke.

Buuuuzzz-------

A sound so fine it was like a spider's web snapping echoed, making Su Mu's heart burn with excitement. This nearly inaudible sound was proof the inscription had succeeded. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Su Mu tried plucking a hair and suspending it above the inscription to test. As he let go, the strand landed atop the script—only to suddenly break in two.

"It's done!"

Within the Martial Dao, they say, 'A thousand gold cannot buy a single sound'—referring to power. So it is with the path of inscriptions. Cultivating a blacksmith who can forge Grade-Entering Treasure Artifacts requires an enormous amount of resources and time.

The inscription path is worth not thousands, but tens of thousands of gold for a single sound!

With Hidden-Dragon Level comprehension, Zhao Ju's inscription manuscript, and the Little Doctor's wholehearted assistance—

After transcribing it for nine days, then carefully observing Zhao Ju's inscription process for a day, Su Mu, on his first attempt, succeeded in writing a sharpness inscription in one stroke.

Back then, it took Zhao Ju a year of copying in Calm Heart, then two more years before he barely managed to inscribe his first inscription—a total of three years spent.

Artifact Refining (entry-level 11%)

At this moment, the refining skill that had been stalled for days began to progress once more. Su Mu stepped onto the proper path for inscriptions in artifact refining.

Three days later—

A tidy, detailed manuscript of sixteen thousand five hundred seventy-two characters was copied without error. Su Mu showed no change in expression, did not flip the manuscript; instead, relying on his photographic memory, he started copying the manuscript in reverse.

He intended to observe Master Zhao Ju's inscription process a few days longer.

This time, Su Mu also drew from lessons learned with the Melting Gold Technique taught by Master Chen Yuntian—this time, he planned to stretch it out for two or three months.

On the fifth day, a reversed copy of the manuscript was also completed, not a single word off.

The setting sun slanted, and with a few 'seal the furnace' shouts, the Forging Workshop, busy as a storm during the day, grew silent. Apprentices, craftsmen, and blacksmiths filed out, leaving the workshop one after another.

Su Mu, still lingering in excitement, put down brush and paper, tidied the forging room, and left.

Today, he first visited a market and spent nearly fifty taels of silver for a full set of alchemy vessels—including an alchemy cauldron, stove, stone mortar and pestle, etc.

"Customer, a few items in this set are temporarily out of stock. If you'll leave an address, once we have them all, I'll send someone to deliver them together tomorrow."

"Much appreciated. Please deliver to the manor at the end of North Yanque Street."

After buying his alchemy tools, Su Mu visited a pharmacy in the market. He'd divided the ingredient list for the Black Jade Tiger Bone Ointment into three small lists, buying each separately at three different pharmacies.

First, buy ten batches for practice.

"Do you carry all the herbs on this list?"

Seeing Su Mu's ordinary linen clothes, the medicine boy had been casual at first, but after receiving the list, he was startled and immediately put on a broad smile. "Yes, our shop carries all these. Right this way, please."

Su Mu was surprised. There were several herbs in the Black Jade Tiger Bone Ointment formula he'd never even heard of. He was already prepared to visit Black Heart Pharmacy, but unexpectedly all could be bought directly here.

"Young man, these herbs come to sixty-two silver. Since this is your first visit, I'll waive two taels, just charge you sixty."

He'd acquired the first set of herbs on the list and, after paying, headed to the next shop. In the end, Su Mu found that the ingredients for ten batches of Black Jade Tiger Bone Ointment cost just over two hundred taels of silver.

So, each batch was twenty taels. That's far more cost effective than the Eighty taels a box for White Jade Barbarian Bone Ointment at Hundred Elixir Tower.

One quarter the price per batch, not to mention the White Jade Barbarian Bone Ointment's efficacy couldn't match the Demon Slayer Bureau's Black Jade Tiger Bone Ointment.

Having purchased the herbs, Su Mu then visited the medical clinic again.

"Little Doctor, I'd like to borrow some books on alchemy."

"Alchemy?"

The Little Doctor tilted his head, but soon found Su Mu a copy of the Hundred Herbs Scripture. "Master says this Hundred Herbs Scripture is perfect for entry-level alchemy or medical skill. It even contains many of Master's own annotations."

Now, all the medical books at the clinic were open to Su Mu. He'd begun to truly intend to study medical skill, conveniently preparing for the third bone forging. Thus, alchemy was his starting point.

With the books in hand, Su Mu returned to his manor and began to delve into them, page after page, his eyes growing brighter and more focused as he read.

An hour later, Su Mu closed the Hundred Herbs Scripture.

"So alchemy has such profound mysteries…"

Without a vast amount of medical study, ordinary people would struggle to truly step onto the path of medical skill. Even if lucky enough to enter, further achievement would be rare—skills like Pharmacist Lin's were absolutely out of reach.

Sighing, Su Mu closed his eyes to digest what he'd learned. Since his alchemy tools would arrive tomorrow, for now he continued to read attentively.

Read a book twice, and its meaning appears on its own.

Read a book three times, and Su Mu formed a framework for alchemy in his mind. He also grew to understand the medicinal properties of many common herbs and the pharmacology behind their use—insight flooded forth like a spring.

Alchemy (Small Success 38%)

Medical Skill (Small Success 31%)

His long-stagnant alchemy and medical skill both advanced significantly at this moment.