Book 3: Chapter 9: If We Could Start Over Again
Book 3: Chapter 9: If We Could Start Over Again
Lin Xi immediately became speechless.
If it was anyone else who told him ‘I trust you’, he wouldn’t think too much of it, but with this female associate professor’s nature, she was as clear as a black and white book. Moreover, she really did just sit here for a day and night, all because of her trust in him.
This, was true faith.
In one’s life, just how many people would truly completely trust you?
Originally, Lin Xi already felt like he shouldn’t mess up the things recorded on the small sheepskin scroll, but when he gave An Keyi a look, he seriously nodded and said, “I’ll read it over again.”
An Keyi wasn’t in a rush either. She gathered her somewhat messy beautiful hair, nodding and saying, “Okay.”
After carefully reading it again, making sure that there were no issues with completing his portion of the medicinal liquid at all, Lin Xi looked at the ceramic glaze medicine bottle An Keyi produced, looked at the pearl in the sticky black liquid, and then couldn’t help but ask, “Just what exactly is this thing?”
On An Keyi’s small sheepskin scroll, it was recorded that once both of them prepared the medicinal liquid, it was also Lin Xi who would transfer a drop into the bottle to test the medicinal strength.
“This is the qi and blood, the soul core of cultivators from Great Mang Dynasty’s Purgatory Mountain.” An Keyi calmly raised her head to look at Lin Xi, explaining, “Purgatory Mountain is a cultivation land similar to Green Luan Academy in Great Mang Dynasty, their normal cultivation method not that much different from ours. However, they have a special technique called Demonic Transformation. When we looked into this, we presumed that it is most likely the result of altering some characteristics in their own blood and qi through some spiritual medicines or spiritual beasts’ blood. In battle, through stimulating their soul force, they can trigger a demonic transformation, allowing themselves to have fighting strength much greater than normal. Even though it can’t be maintained for a long time, in a few minutes of time, a State Knight level cultivator from Purgatory Mountain, can even raise their strength to a State Master level. Moreover, this demonic transformation seems to only be related to one’s soul force nature and body’s tolerance, unrelated to cultivation, even some Soul Expert level Purgatory Mountain cultivators are capable of demonic transformation. However, after the demonic transformation, the energy channels and flesh within one’s body would also suffer some damage, becoming weaker for a long time, needing several days before they can fully recover.”
Lin Xi immediately became stunned. “Isn’t this just a berserker?”
“Berserker?” An Keyi’s beautiful brows furrowed slightly, “Even though your term seems to be fresh, it indeed seems rather fitting. When Purgatory Mountain’s cultivators use this method, they indeed seem to go crazy, not even pain having much of an effect on them.”
“It seems like what he said really was true. The amount of unknown places, the amount of unknown experts in this world really is great.” Lin Xi frowned slightly, muttering to himself. Before he said anything, An Keyi used her calm reading voice to continue. “My research project is precisely to see if I can use some medicinal substances to offset the medicinal strength within their bodies used to trigger demonic transformation. This way, when facing them in battle, they will become much easier to deal with.”
“They are like infected people… while what we are researching is an antidote. It is best if we can use medicinal strength to prevent them from continuing after they’ve already demonized. This way, they won’t have the power granted by the demonic transformation, yet they will still suffer the repercussions of undergoing demonization, causing their strength to decrease substantially. Teacher, is my way of understanding correct?”
“This was precisely our academy’s basis for this project. During these past few years, Purgatory Mountain has produced many powerful cultivators.”
Lin Xi nodded, asking, “However, previously, didn’t you say that you couldn’t tell me the contents of this project? Why did you suddenly tell me everything today?”
An Keyi spoke in an extremely natural manner, “Because Vice Principal Xia has stated that I can tell you these things, let you understand a bit more… moreover, if the compounding is successful, apart from two course credits, the medicinal elixir that is compounded can also be granted to you as a reward. However, this matter is something you must keep in absolute secrecy, you cannot tell anyone, including other academy teachers.”
“Even the medicinal liquid compounded this time will be given to me as a reward?!” Lin Xi was stunned once more.
An Keyi’s reply was simple and calm. “It should be because Vice Principal Xia views you in a favorable light, just that I do not know why.”
“Could it be because I might become a Braveslayer?”
Lin Xi didn’t think about these things he couldn’t obtain an answer for, instead couldn’t help but look at the soul core soaked in the black blood.
He now already understood extremely clearly that once cultivators produced a Soul Core, they would become a State Knights, already the finest experts on the battlefield, extremely rare existences. Soul Knight, Soul Expert, Soul Master, State Knight, right now, the difference between his initial stage Soul Knight cultivation and State Knight level was like heaven and earth. When he just thought about how a Soul Expert was just a bit higher level than himself, their four hundred something jin of strength able to easily send him flying, and then how this Soul Core that was like a rock, flickering with faint yellow light, came from an existence who could easily send that Soul Expert flying, while filled with curiosity, he still couldn’t help but shiver slightly.
In this world, it was still great strength that earned others’ respect after all.
…
Lin Xi carefully removed the medicine bottles with different memos attached from the surrounding shelves, and then based on their order of use, arranged them in front of An Keyi and himself in an organized manner.
An Keyi’s faith in him exceeded that of his own, the preparation work was all completed by Lin Xi.
After she inspected them once more to make sure there was no mistake, with her brows slightly furrowed, she removed the ceramic glaze bottle that sealed a Purgatory Mountain expert’s blood, qi, and Soul Core, first removing the sealing wax. She clearly understood that an extremely great price must’ve been paid to transport this item so quickly to the academy, moreover, the things she was doing inevitably carried extreme significance to the academy. To the extreme south of Green Luan Academy, in those mountain forests, the border wilderness even she herself hasn’t explored, the ones facing Great Mang’s cultivators, a large portion of them were students from this academy. However, when she thought about how these were things extracted from the body of a cultivator like herself, she still couldn’t help but feel a bit of discomfort… Even so, because removing the seal of this bottle that stored blood even made her feel uncomfortable, she felt like Lin Xi would definitely feel uncomfortable as well, and thus, she didn’t have him do it. She felt that this was something only natural, completely unaware of just how precious this type of intrinsic quality was.
After completely removing the wax seal from the ceramic glaze bottle, and then placing it in front of Lin Xi, An Keyi discovered that she herself was actually extremely nervous. She knew that this was because she had invested just too much time and care into this project, only when she stopped to wait for Lin Xi yesterday did she discover that several years of time had passed just like that. “I have to succeed.” After giving herself a bit of motivation in a bit of a childish manner, An Keyi slowly took a deep breath. She nodded towards Lin Xi and said, “Alright, we can begin.”
Lin Xi didn’t know that An Keyi had such a soft side within her external bookworm appearance, but because he understood the significance of this matter, he didn’t say too much either. He nodded, and then steadily picked up a medicine bottle.
Just like a chemistry experiment back in his other world’s college, drop after drop of various medicinal substances were separately combined by Lin Xi and An Keyi.
The grasp over time wasn’t difficult at all for Lin Xi, which was why he completed each part extremely well. After roughly five minutes, a dark red viscous liquid was transferred by him.
Meanwhile, An Keyi also finished at the same time, producing a bottle of dark green medicinal liquid that was three times the volume of Lin Xi’s.
Lin Xi mixed these two medicinal liquids into an even larger crystal bottle in an extremely steady manner. Then, according to the method recorded clearly in the small scroll An Keyi previously showed him, he continuously rocked it. These two types of medicinal liquid quickly mixed together, becoming a strange dark blue color. What was even more strange was that the volume was also continuously shrinking, becoming even more viscous, ultimately turning into a translucent dark blue, rubber-like substance.
“I must succeed.” An Keyi told herself once more. She moved the few strands of her hair that had dropped in front of her forehead behind her pretty ears, and then nodded firmly towards Lin Xi.
Lin Xi poured the medicinal liquid into a special crystal bottle, and then opened the sealed ceramic glaze bottle containing Purgatory Mountain expert’s blood, qi, and Soul Core in an extremely steady manner. Just as An Keyi wrote on the small sheepskin scroll, he poured in the three drops of dark blue medicinal liquid.
Sizzle!
In that instant, a wave of scorched-like clear smoke rushed out from this ceramic glaze bottle opening, the black blood almost coming to a small boil. The instant the three drops of medicinal liquid dispersed, blotches of bright red color appeared. However, in just a few breaths of time, the bright red color completely vanished, devoured by the black color, no smoke coming out anymore, only that Soul Core’s luster growing dim.
An Keyi’s expression immediately turned pale.
Lin Xi’s mind suddenly sunk. Even though he didn’t know what the medical reasoning was, looking at An Keyi’s expression, he immediately felt as if a massive, heavy stone now crushed down on his chest, making it a bit hard for him to breath.
“We failed just like that?”
The pit of An Keyi’s stomach felt empty. Several years of time passed, just like that, yet the end result was still like this? She thought about how if she added just thirty percent more Seven Star Herb, the chances of success might be greater, just how long would it now take to gather all of these ingredients again?
“Lin Xi, I’m sorry, these two points cannot be rewarded to you.”
She subconsciously buried her head in misery, releasing a downcast voice.
“Is it because the medicinal strength isn’t great enough? Should we try and add a few more drops?” Lin Xi felt even more overcast, quietly asking while looking at An Keyi.
“There’s no need, it won’t work even if more is added. This medicinal liquid has also lost its value, we can’t just waste more medicinal liquid .” An Keyi shook her head, her complexion becoming more and more pale.
Lin Xi frowned. This was tied to his own course points to begin with, and now that he saw An Keyi’s current appearance, it made him feel even more strongly that he had to do something to help this female associate professor. “Teacher An, since you said that these ingredients are rare, then why must we prepare so much of the medicinal liquid at once? Is there some special reasoning behind this?”
“Medicinal theory is an extremely deep and profound thing. Before I took over this research project, I have already examined the information left behind by many professors before me. There have already been many experiments that had been conducted… even though the ingredients are precious, for many of them, a set amount must be used before they can be used with other medicines, and they’ll only have a reaction if the procedures are completed step by step, and then added to other medicinal liquid. That is why there is no way of saving ingredients by proportionately reducing them.” An Keyi hung her head in misery, slowly explaining with a voice that was even more downcast. “This bit of medicinal liquid, is already the smallest single dosage. There are two main ingredients among them… because of the difficulty in obtaining them, we are already using the least amount we can.”
Lin Xi took a deep breath. Even though An Keyi explained everything extremely clearly, she was still a bit more talkative than normal, making him understand even more so just how disappointed and dejected this female associate professor felt.
“Teacher, if these ingredients were still here, if we could repeat this process once more, can we do anything better?” After taking a deep breath, he looked at An Keyi in an extremely serious manner. “Do you feel that if we made some adjustments, it would make our chances of success higher?”