Chương 38: Back to the Routine and Alchemy Success

Stepping out of the Coliseum, An decided to walk through all the trading tents on the shopping street that sold techniques. But first, he wanted to buy a huge number of spirit plants.

"What's this? And this? What about this? How much? Oh, what's this one?" Approaching the first tent with spirit plants, An began pointing his finger at every plant that interested him.

"Drokril's Tail, Flytrap, Drabodur Root, five stones per dozen, Murian Root..." The seller behind the counter could barely keep up, shouting out names and prices, quickly moving to the next ones the boy pointed at.

"If I take two dozen of each, will you knock off a third of the price?" An's whole demeanor showed that he was serious about buying.

"A fifth, I can't do more!" The seller started shaking his head.

"One quarter, and I can't go lower!" An showed four fingers. After parting with 24 spirit stones, he left this tent with more than forty bundles of spirit plants, each bundle containing a dozen. Just as he left the tent, An entered the next one. After several hours of wandering, he had spent, including the previous ones, 165 spirit stones, stuffing his pouch almost to the brim with spirit plants. Satisfied, he turned around and went to the tents selling techniques.

"Do you have universal techniques?" Entering the first technique tent and waiting for his turn, he approached the seller and got straight to the point.

"Good evening, young man, of course... Just let me get them." The seller wrinkled his nose, hearing how rudely, without even a greeting, the potential customer had behaved, but still went to get what was asked. Taking out a wooden box filled with thin, dusty books and scrolls, the seller took a scroll lying on top of the pile and handed it to this ill-mannered fellow. Taking the scroll and opening it, An saw that it was a list of techniques and their uses.

Scanning the entire list, he found only one technique that caught his eye: Quiet Breathing. A technique for hiding one's breathing. The concept of this technique was perfect for him, after the modification of his body by the Sharpness aspect, his lungs and heart had begun working much more slowly. Watching the battles in the Coliseum, specifically Ruste Zen and his old man in the ring.

Thinking about them, An involuntarily focused on stealth, seeking a technique that, combined with his altered body, could make him more invisible to his surroundings. And if he could use concepts from techniques like Quiet Breathing, perhaps he could come up with something truly valuable for himself and his safety. After haggling, An bought the technique for three spirit stones, receiving a rolled-up scroll covered in dirt. After checking it, he put it in his pouch and went to the next tent.

This time, he spent even more time buying various techniques. Leaving the last tent, An looked at the sky and realized that deep night had already fallen. Expecting there to be fewer people on the street, An was proven wrong. The number of people walking from shop to shop had increased several times. Now even some stalls selling sweets and treats had queues forming on the street itself. Putting the last scroll into his pouch, An turned toward Hope Peak and headed home. BOOM! BAAHM! BAAAHM!

Turning around, he saw the entire sky lit up with fireworks. Multi-colored and of different shapes: dragons, turtles, various birds flying through the sky, a cauldron, even a few shaped like someone's wrinkled face. An stood rooted to the spot, his head tilted back to the sky. For the first time in this long day, he genuinely smiled, watching as the color-saturated fireworks covered the entire sky, right above him.

After watching the last firework, shaped like a huge four-headed dragon shooting smaller fireworks from its jaws, he turned and slowly walked toward his home.

"Did you?! Did you hear? We won the Champion Tournament!"

"What?"

"One of our brothers, Mo Fan, managed to take first place in the Tournament!"

"One of us?! Ha! Victory in this Festival is ours!! Hahaha!"" You have no idea how spectacular it was! The entire stands were screaming as they watched the final match!"

"Ah! I can't believe I missed it all… Wait, who took second place?"

"The young genius with the Immortal Flame, Ruste Zen!"" Oh, and what about the third one, with the face of a hungry White Hyena? Hehe!" As An walked toward Hope Peak, outer disciples ran past him, talking about the Tournament finals and the main winners. Shaking his head, not surprised by Mo Fan's victory, he continued walking.' Looks like the System beat the Gramps in the Ring…' After almost two hours, An finally reached the Outer Platform. It had taken him so long because he was in no hurry.

Stepping onto the platform from the stairs rising from the base of the peak, he walked straight toward the Gates leading through the forest to his home. After walking for no more than ten minutes through the forest, he suddenly sensed that two people were standing ahead of him, and two more were circling around behind him.

Not slowing his pace, he realized they were surrounding him. Soon, he saw two outer disciples from his own sect in front of him, a guy and a girl. Stopping, he waited for them to completely encircle him. He hadn't expected to see two girls and two guys, usually, in groups like that who like to rob others, there were only men.

"I'll get straight to the point! Hand over your spatial pouch, and you won't get hurt!" The guy in front, stepping closer and tightening the encirclement, shouted, trying to make his face as fierce as possible. An looked around, seeing that only two of them had crossed into the fourth layer of cultivation. The remaining two were only at the third. Realizing they posed no threat to him, he was just about to release his Qi to scare them off and simply leave, but was stopped.

"Are you an idiot? When they put that crooked brand on you, did they screw up your brain too? Hand over your pouch, or we'll break your dirty arms!" The girl standing beside the front guy snapped. The two behind him started laughing. Exhaling, An activated his Qi and turned his head back." A-aaAAH!" Without even letting the guy behind him blink, he was right in front of him. Grabbing his arms, he snapped them with one sharp movement." Ah! AGH!" Seeing the bones sticking out of his arms, the guy screamed in pain.

The others hadn't even seen how An had gotten next to their friend and broken his arms. The girls' faces went especially pale, since only the two guys were at the fourth layer. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Not giving them time to react, An was already next to the girl who had been just a few meters away. He grabbed her arms in a death grip.

"P-ple..." Trying to say something, she felt the grip around her arms tighten. CRACK!" AAAAA!" A ringing crack was followed by a wave of pain, which caused her to immediately lose consciousness.

"S-stop! W-we're guilty, we admit it! You don't have to! We realize our mistake! W-wai..." Before he could finish, An had already grabbed both arms of the third person, who had been standing almost forty meters from the now unconscious girl. With one movement, accompanied by a loud crack, he twisted his arms the opposite way." Aaaa!" Falling to the ground, the guy covered himself with his now-broken arms.

"N-no! Senior Brother! Please! I'll do anything! I'm ready to serve you if you spare me! Please!" The girl who had started the talk about broken arms, seeing what was happening, tried to run and simultaneously beg for mercy. Before she could take even a few steps, right in front of her face, she saw green eyes radiating coldness. She didn't even have time to understand how or when he had gotten right in front of her. She only heard the crack, the crack she had been so afraid of hearing." Ah! Aaa!"

An threw her aside and turned toward a thick tree. Behind it, he could feel someone hiding, trying to hold their breath and stay quiet.

"Come out..." An took a step forward and ordered in a quiet voice. After hesitating only briefly, holding onto the tree to somehow hide his legs trembling, a guy in the standard robes of an outer disciple of the Five Sacred Lives Sect stepped out. Adjusting his bluish robes, he stood with his back to the tree and stared directly at him. An immediately recognized this disciple.

"Just try touching me! You'll regret it twice over! My father... my grandfather won't leave a single piece of you intact!" Pressing his back against the tree trunk, the disciple began threatening in a shaky voice. An listened to this, clenched his fists, and was just about to take a step forward when he stopped. Looking at the disciple before him, he suddenly averted his gaze and took a deep breath.

"This humiliation! Do you think you'll get away with everything you dared to..." Continuing to slander and threaten An, the disciple tried to do everything to avoid getting hit in the face.

"I apologize for my behavior..." Hearing these sudden words, the disciple fell silent and stared at An with huge eyes.

"For what I said during the tournament... for being rude to your craft and abilities, for threatening you and shaming you in front of a big crowd just because your cauldron exploded... I apologize for my behavior." An looked directly into his eyes, pronouncing each word clearly. Suddenly, the disciple looked into his green eyes, and immediately felt uneasy. He audibly swallowed. In that gaze, he saw nothing but a strange emptiness. A frightening emptiness.

"W-what do you want?! Y-you... What are you plotting?!" The disciple barely managed to stay on his feet. For some reason, he was getting more and more scared.

"I want you to accept my sincere apology. And in return, we will end our conflict here and now... So, once again, I apologize for my behavior." An continued to look into his eyes, forgetting even to blink. The disciple stared back at him silently. Only after almost a minute did he nod.

"Fine... But! If you cross my path again! Or if you open your mouth about today or mention me in any way! You're finished! Do you hear me! You're finished!" Finding a shred of courage, and remembering who he was, he puffed out his chest, but still held onto the tree behind his back, afraid to let go. An turned around and had just started to walk away when he turned his head back, "By the way, how did you know where I would be?"" H-hm? Oh, one of the officers in the Coliseum sold your information."

Just as the disciple was about to quickly run off, An's words stopped him in his tracks. Answering quickly, he hurried his step.' The officer… He might have also sold my information to Yan Eli… No. The officer could only say that I was assigned to Hope Peak. There's no way he could have found out exactly where I live, not even from my plaque.' An continued walking unhurriedly along the wide path through the majestic forest, straight toward his home, not forgetting to kick the burnt sandals off his feet.

Returning home, An entered the gate and walked straight to the stove. On the way, he felt, and even heard, Baldi snoring in his burrow. Continuing toward the shore, he took out four fruits and, enveloping them in Qi, delivered them directly to the entrance of the hole in the ground. Sitting down by the stove, he first took out his new cauldron, the one he had bought from the yellow-toothed old woman, and examined it carefully. The entire surface of the cauldron was faded.

In some places, there were cracks, but they were not deep. What pleased him, however, was that the inside was intact, no chips at all, perfectly smooth and polished inside. Turning it over in his hands, he found no patterns on its surface. Usually, cauldrons are decorated with patterns on the outside indicating what ingredients were used in their manufacture.

The absence of any patterns indicated a few things: either this cauldron was produced in a large batch, for situations where they constantly explode and need quick replacement. Such cauldrons are typically used by new disciples or small children inside their clans or families. Or this cauldron was made by an artifact master and alchemist simultaneously, for personal use. But he immediately dismissed the second option. That meant he had spent forty-two spirit stones on a used, and very unreliable, cauldron.

"Damn yellow-toothed old woman... I hope you get hives that you can't get rid of for the rest of your days!" Muttering one curse after another, An set the cauldron aside and began taking out all the spirit plants he had bought. After laying everything out and arranging it, he put the second-rank spirit plants back away, deciding to leave them for later. After a moment of silence, he decided to start by pushing his three pills to at most 10% loss of effectiveness, or even less.

Those pills were: Golden Body Qi, Summer Dew, and Beginning of the Body Qi Path. Leaving only the spirit plants and Kavana fruits for these three pills in front of him, he put everything else back, creating two separate piles with first-rank and second-rank plants.

"Well then, here we go..." Feeling a sudden internal relief, An snapped his fingers. Instantly, water appeared at the bottom of the cauldron, and a fire hovered in the air inside the stove. Six days later, An used up all the spirit plants he had set aside for the Summer Dew pill." Heh! Only 4% potency loss! Almost Peak quality... Haaa..." He held the pill in his hand and lowered his head.

"I was missing just one percent!" An raised his head and hands to the sky and shouted. After a few minutes of grumbling at the heavens, he accepted the result and put the pill into a flask. Putting the flask into his pouch, he decided it was time for cultivation. During these six days, he had finally managed to strengthen and fully master the advantages he had gained from the Sharpness aspect. His soul strength had increased by a full 2%, equivalent to two hundred days of cultivating his second-rate Soul technique.

This 2% increase had given him a significant leap in his control over Qi and even over his emotions. An realized that one of the reasons he had been thrown back and forth from panic to calm and back again was that he hadn't yet adjusted to the changes from the modification of his physical and mental body. Now, almost a week later, An had become much better at controlling his emotions, without any problems or mood swings. His Qi control had increased, and his body had become closer to Qi itself.

The reason for this was that the foundation of his organ system and his physical body had become his dantian, which had partially replaced most of his internal organs. The walls of his dantian had strengthened. He assumed that his walls should be roughly those of a cultivator at the late stage, that is, the seventh layer, but these were just his assumptions. His cultivation itself had not increased due to the modifications from the Sharpness aspect; it remained as before, at the early stage of the fifth layer.

But during these six days, he had managed to significantly advance his cultivation. It even seemed to him that filling his dantian was now much faster than before. Without thinking long, he understood that this too was related to the strengthening of his dantian walls and the changes to his physical body, thanks to the Qi's aspect. Constantly eating fruits during these days, he noticed that they were no longer able to help him increase his physical strength.

Their only use now, aside from feeding the bird, was for preparing Beginning of the Body Qi Path pills. After finishing a cultivation cycle and Qi training, An decided to move on to alchemy. Two weeks later. An took a pill out of the cauldron, brought it closer to his nose, and blew the residue off its surface. Raising the pill above his head and examining it carefully, he nodded several times and, with a satisfied smile, put it into a flask and tossed it into his pouch." Ha! 3%! 3% potency loss… Peak!!

Peak quality!" An jumped up from the ground and began jumping and running around the still-hot stove, releasing the stress that had accumulated over these weeks." Cluck…" Poking his head out of his burrow, Baldi watched An, quietly clucking to himself. He decided it was best to wait it out and hid back in his burrow." Hahaha! Peak quality! Finally!" An fell onto his back and began looking at the sky, trying to find even one star in the evening sky.

Closing his eyes and exhaling, An began a cultivation cycle without getting up, lying down, without even a thought of breaking his established routine.