Chương 56: The Hidden Wine Stash

Hmm... even the scar is gone.' Sitting on the branches of a tree only a hundred meters from the group, An took off his shirt and watched the wound on his chest heal rapidly, carefully destroying every single drop of his blood. When Shepor Dunt struck him and his external membrane burst, he had created a new one, using it as a containment field so that neither his blood nor the gorilla's blood he was covered in would fall off him and leave a trail.'

Less than a minute, and a three-centimeter-deep cut has completely healed.' Putting his worn shirt back on, An watched the group below. He wanted to wait and see which direction they would go, and then head in the opposite direction so that there would be no chance of crossing paths with them again.' Was that an artifact or a talisman?' He threw a glance at Mi Mili and began studying the energy flows emanating from her.'

If it weren't for the disruptions in the environmental Qi, I wouldn't have thought there was a whole group of five people behind me...'' Oh! Interesting... she's starting to feel excited and slightly aroused when she's next to him. Even though this emotion is very weak, it's present...' He noticed that the injured girl, when next to the heavily wounded guy or when speaking to him, began to experience a slight change in her emotions.

He could pick up a huge spectrum of emotions from her, all because her cultivation was very weak compared to his, even though they were both at the eighth layer. The only ones from whom he couldn't read anything beyond their cultivation were Mo Fan and Mi Mili. Even from Shepor Dunt with his ninth layer An could read superficial feelings such as anger, fear, uncertainty, and shame.' I need to remember that Mo Fan has a system, and I doubt granting breakthrough rewards is its only function...

And as for Mi Mili, with her stash of artifacts and talismans, it's no surprise if she has something that can block me...' Watching them go further and further away, he exhaled and, with Qi Silence constantly active, decided to do a cultivation cycle before moving on. …. Inside the dark room.

"Disciples 2490, 1832, 902 have passed the initial screening. Is everyone in agreement to place them on the Candidates list?" A quiet male voice echoed from the darkness.

"Aye!"

"Agreed."

"Support." Several voices immediately sounded from the darkness." Heh, friend, I heard you spent so much effort and time on getting disciple 2302 approved. And what came of it? A waste of time and resources. Hahaha... I never would have thought that you, a staunch supporter of barring pests like him from joining the sect, would suddenly support this filthy commoner..."

Standing in a dark corner, a man turned his head toward another man standing next to him, deliberately avoiding mental speech and speaking aloud in a quiet voice. Several silhouettes turned toward the second man, watching for his reaction.

"Indeed… a waste of time..." The second man only nodded, releasing a barely perceptible killing intent as he looked at the teenager in the projection on the tree branches.' If it weren't for that old hag, you would have walked around with a second brand from the very first day... But now that even the Sect Leader is sticking his nose into my affairs, when all my plans are falling apart at the planning stage! Damn it!

This screening was my last chance to push him into the public eye of the sect, and, using that, strengthen his dependence on me!'' But in the end, he was removed from the list within the first few days! Why? Why?! Where is his youthful arrogance? Where is his need to stand out, to be the center of attention! Why did he immediately start hiding in corners and cowering! A laughingstock that ruined all my plans…' His eyes began to radiate more and more killing intent.

The silhouettes of people, feeling this, turned toward him. And most of their reactions were mockery, they were pleased to see that the schemer's plans had finally fallen apart.' I need to act. If I do it quickly, the old hag and the Sect Leader won't be able to do anything when it's already too late. Time to change the plan… you won't escape me!' Looking at the teenager cultivating high up in the tree, the man closed his eyes, calming himself as he plotted his next steps.

"Everyone calm down. Behave according to your status. We still have a lot of work ahead, don't get distracted," said the quiet male voice. The silhouettes in the darkness nodded and once again focused on the projections. …." Roar!"" Gragh! Gragh!" Sitting in the dense foliage of a tree, An watched as a huge lizard, somewhat resembling a low-slung dinosaur, with a blunt snout and a thick tail, stood under a massive waterfall, in the middle of a stone path leading to a cave that was located right at the base.

Standing guard, it was defending itself from a huge bird with four multi-colored wings. When it waved its massive wings, drops of water rose everywhere and created many rainbows. Watching their fight, he noticed that the lizard was guarding the entrance for a reason, inside the cave, he felt very weak Qi flows matching those of the beast.' There's clearly a nest inside... But with eggs or already hatched little lizards?'

Sitting and watching the battle, he noticed how from the bright red thickets next to the pool into which the waterfall fell, two huge hedgehogs with red writhing spines emerged.' Oh! I'm already familiar with you... And I'm sure, the Rainbow Eagle clearly noticed them long ago, otherwise, there wouldn't have been anything left of that lizard by now.' Watching the hedgehogs approach carefully, he saw the eagle throw a few glances at them, but not show any sign of it." KRAAAH!"

As soon as the hedgehogs took a stance and prepared to attack with their flexible spines, the eagle sharply turned around and, waving its wings, sent a huge number of feathers at the hedgehog closest to it.

"Gyaah!" Not expecting the attack, the hedgehog took most of the feathers, which pierced its flesh at tremendous speed and began to melt it from the inside." GyaaH! SKREE!" Trying to pull the feathers out of its body, the hedgehog began using its spines to try to grab them, but the moment they touched them, the feathers' defense mechanism activated and the temperature rose even higher, frying it from the inside even faster. Stolen story; please report.

The second hedgehog, seeing its friend screaming in pain and thrashing from side to side, without hesitation, turned around and fled back into the thickets." Hiss!" Seeing what was happening, the lizard realized that the eagle was distracted. Seeing its chance, it immediately dove into the cave where its nest was. The slimy beast perfectly understood that the eagle wouldn't risk fighting in a narrow space where the advantage was not on its side.

Hovering in the air, the massive bird realized it had missed its chance with the lizard, and threw a glance at the hedgehog's body lying on the ground. Flying down to it, it grabbed it in its claws and, lifting it off the ground, flew even higher, toward the peak of the mountain where the waterfall originated.' The eagle is clearly on the verge of the second rank... Even the instantly killed hedgehog was close to the peak stage.''

Up the waterfall, that's already the border of not only the sector but also the outer region itself, judging by the map given in the plaque.' Sitting on the branches, An perfectly understood that there was no point in going further, climbing somewhere up the mountains, he was already at the border of their group's sector.

"A little over three days until the end of this... whatever it is... I think staying here until it's all over is a pretty good idea." Jumping down from the tree, he, without hiding, walked toward the lake. His entire body was still covered in blood, but no longer fresh. It had long since dried, yet it was still doing its job. BOOM!

Right in front of him, several beasts resembling a cross between scorpions and spiders sensed him, suddenly emerging from the ground to run in the opposite direction, toward the forests.' Heh! It's still working!' Laughing, he examined himself, completely smeared with gorilla innards. Even though a few days had passed and all the blood on him had dried, when he allowed the scent to spread around, it still worked, even if not as effectively as on the first day.

As he walked, he constantly scanned the area, searching for any Qi flows belonging to spirit plants. Roaming between the trees and bushes, sometimes activating Qi Silence to its maximum, masking even the gorilla's scent so as not to attract the attention of a high-cultivation beast, and sometimes deactivating the technique, scaring away small annoying things.

After spending several hours like this, wandering and searching, he finally found something interesting, specifically a stash hidden in the deep hollow of a dead tree. Approaching the tree, he checked if everything was in order around it. Making sure everything was fine, An flew up to the level of the hollow and stuck his head inside." Ho... Ho!" Seeing wooden bottles, clearly handmade, at the bottom of the hollow, he was first disappointed, but when he realized what they were, his joy knew no bounds.

Jumping inside the hollow, he took a bottle in his hands and removed the cork inside its neck. Pop! Uncorking the bottle with a satisfying sound, the entire hollow was immediately enveloped in a strong fruity aroma. Standing at the epicenter, An closed his eyes and enjoyed the scent.

"I've never been a fan of the smell of alcohol specifically... but this... this is something incredible..." Bringing the neck to his nose, he tried to catch the smell of alcohol, that irritating bitterness, but all he could feel was a rich fruity aroma. Looking at the bottle, he made up his mind and took a small sip first, immediately followed by two large ones." Hoo..." Sitting down next to the bottles, he continued taking sips with a satisfied face.

"That piss I bought at the tent doesn't even compare to this!"' Unfortunately, I still don't feel any intoxication, only relaxation... as if I've spent a few hours in a hot bath with foam and bath salts... Hehe.' Sitting in a lotus position, he relaxed so much that he leaned his back against the hollow's wall and continued taking sip after sip. The only thing that disappointed him was the strength of the alcohol.

Even though what he was drinking now was many times stronger than that swill from the barrel, it still wasn't enough to overcome his physical body. Slowly enjoying the drink, savoring each sip, he tried to read the recipe from the Qi emanating from the bottle." Uuu... hmm. Now I understand… they clearly used something to age the fruits to get the perfect starter, and then diluted it with plain water? And after that, filtration? But what exactly did they use for aging?"

The last two processes An had pulled from his memory, from what he recalled from his past life. Having understood roughly how this wine was made, he ran into one problem: he didn't know how to quickly age ingredients through Qi. Sitting and racking his brain, he continued drinking this wine.' Hmm, what if I use Death Qi?' A stupid idea came into his head.' It's harmless in theory, and it could be used for aging, say, an ordinary fruit, right?' The only normal way he could think of was to use Death Qi.

But there was another problem: he couldn't convert his Qi into Death energy. He wasn't sure he could do it, even though he hadn't tried. Sitting and thinking of what could replace Death Qi in this process, he took a few fruits from his pouch and placed them in front of himself.

Enveloping his hand in converted Earth Qi, An began using this energy on the fruit. In the end, after experimenting, all he could get was a completely dried-out fruit. Enveloping his hand in Wood Qi, he began giving energy to the fruit, which began to mutate, but, as he expected, the fruit didn't age or wither; it only destroyed itself, turning into an over-dried and overgrown fruit with many mutations. This actually greatly confused him; he didn't understand why his natural Qi worked exactly like that.

What he did notice was that inside his inner world, the green puddle, specifically the Dao of Wood, had slightly stirred when he used Wood Qi, his natural energy. Taking another fruit, he closed his eyes and concentrated, mentally trying to make the energy from that puddle react and merge with his." Ha!"

His body shook slightly, and he felt how the mass of energy in his hand suddenly became purer and denser, but at the same time, he felt that his body and mind were under great strain, as if he were doing something very wrong. Concentrating, he directed this Qi, which had taken something from the Great Dao, onto the fruit. The fruit began to mutate, just like last time, but reaching a certain point, it began to darken and emit Death Qi.

More and more black flows began to emerge from the fruit, and suddenly, it lost its form. The fruit began to spread over his hand, it had rotted, turned into a black thick mass. He couldn't intervene in the process to stop it at any stage." Khh!" His head was splitting, even moving his eyes was painful. He threw away that rotten mass, which had neither smell nor weight. Closing his eyes, he began to recover, but all his thoughts were concentrated on this experiment.

He had felt something, as if something inside his inner world was itching, ready to burst through. At the same time, he felt agitation in the puddle of the Dao of Wood, an agitation like a call of something familiar and very close, a piece that would complete him. Opening his eyes, he couldn't get these thoughts out of his head. Completely disregarding the fact that his head was still splitting, he suddenly stood up.

"I need to find some beast and conduct an experiment." Putting all the bottles into his pouch, he took one last big sip, closed the bottle, and put it into the pouch with the others." Ugh..." Shaking his head and squeezing his temples, An pulled himself together and climbed out of the hollow. Jumping down from the tree, he saw through the Qi flows how a massive pack of beasts had surrounded him, but sensing the smell of the gorilla on him, they were afraid to come closer than a hundred meters.

Understanding their cultivation, he jumped back onto the tree, only this time to the top, and looked around to see where these flows were coming from." Hmm, just as I thought, these are monkeys... According to all the novels I've read, the wine I just drank is most likely their handiwork." Looking through the foliage, he could see several monkeys sitting close to each other: two adults and two infants. They looked very similar to chimpanzees, but more human-like, and with different bright colors.

One adult was bright orange, the second covered in thick, bright green skin, and their two infants were almost identical, red and yellow. Looking at them, at their human-like eyes, in which intelligence could be seen, An took a deep breath, jumped down from the tree, and headed toward the lake in search of a beast for his experiment.

Sitting in the thickets, surrounding the huge hollow, the monkeys saw how the strange and terrifying creature jumped down from the tree and began walking in their direction, right toward several monkeys unfortunate enough to block his path." Ghoo! Ugh!" As soon as the low monkey rumble sounded, An felt the beasts in front of him part, opening a path for him to exit their encirclement.

Smiling, he continued on his way toward the huge lake, into which hundreds of streams flowed, including the one he had been following from the waterfall itself.