The Silly Alchemist

Reanimation (2)

“Ah...A thousand miles away, your lone grave lies; My deep sorrows, to whom I can confide?” sighed Ye Lang. [Translator’s Note: 千里孤墳，無處話凄涼 is a line from a poem by Chinese poet Su Shi] Although its use here didn’t seem right, we all know what he meant.

“Then what should we do now?” Coldblood Five stared at the ‘giant’ Coldblood Thirteen, frowning.

“It’s alright, just wait for me to finish his journal. I think the effects would’ve worn off by then,” he said casually. To him, shrinking was a small problem. He’d met way bigger problems than just being small in the past.

“You still want to wait? What if we can’t recover?” Coldblood Five asked. She seemed to be talking more now.

“Then so be it. It’s no biggie,” Ye Lang thought it was quite fun too. They could get help for anything too inconvenient.

“You really don’t care about much, do you?!” Coldblood Five frowned, exasperated. Looks like it’d be too difficult to get Ye Lang to solve the problem. She’d solve the problem herself. Then again, why was he the one doing the thinking? Was he even capable?

Coldblood Five suddenly realised it was a problem. She shook her head, feeling so stupid for putting all her hopes on an idiot like that. She left Ye Lang on his own to rest. She was preparing to look for help later, surely someone in the Coldblood Group would be able to help.

Ye Lang himself was still reading Coldblood Thirteen’s journal. He quickly skimmed through the book, memorizing its contents. Then, he sat cross-legged on the journal to focus on the details.

After reading the journal, Ye Lang confirmed that his speculations were indeed true. Coldblood Thirteen indeed knew a very specific section of alchemy, the kind that caused his soul to fly towards the western sky. [Translator’s Note: 魂歸西天; spirits flying west refers to death]

This sect was the most peculiar kind--- Reanimation!

Reanimation meant raising spirits there were not only useful but also very powerful.

Legend has it that there were once four great Reanimators so powerful they could destroy the earth and shatter the skies. They could easily destroy cities, an annihilate armies of millions.

Although it was only a legend, it rings truth: Reanimation has powerful potential.

However, it’s not enough to only know how to create a spirit. You have to gather the materials, and piece the parts, then finally assemble a complete spirit.

This process can’t be completed within a day or two, maybe not even two years.

Also, some processes had been lost through the generations. Without these core mechanisms, it was very difficult to create a complete spirit.

And that is why reanimation researchers all hope to discover these lost practices in an ancient text one day.

Of course, it’d be good if a corpse walked out of the ground now…

According to Coldblood Thirteen’s journal, Ye Lang knew he was very fortunate to be able to collect a complete set of materials. The part he kept and produced in Ye city was one of them.

Initially, he did part of the assembly in Ye City because he feared people finding out about it. Then, after the arrival of the Ye family, he had to shift his base. Fortunately, he’d completed his work there.

Despite that, since the formations and materials used for assembly could not be stored in space devices, he could only hire mercenaries to deal with them.

Why didn’t he do it here? The journal mentioned that the assembly required conditions unique to Ye City. One of the ingredients had to be processed locally or it would lose its functions.

Ye City wasn’t the only city of origin for that material, but it was the most suitable place. No one took any notice of Coldblood Thirteen’s presence there.

Now, Ye Lang wanted to disassemble all the parts for research. He wasn’t afraid of ruining them, because if he could only get one spirit, he’d rather have none.

The only way to get the best results was to master the technique.

Before that, Ye Lang needed to read all the books in Coldblood Thirteen’s space ring. He’d have a higher chance at mastery with the knowledge. Yet, there was something else he had to deal with.

“Ahhh…”

Suddenly, Coldblood Five came running towards Ye Lang, screaming all the way. She hid behind him like a frightened child- and this was something you don’t see often from Coldblood Five.

“?!” Ye Lang didn’t notice that. He only wanted to know, what did Coldblood Five fear so much?

“There’s a bug!!!” Coldblood Five pointed.

“What’s so scary about a bug?” Ye Lang didn’t treat her like an assassin, nor like a regular girl either. He’d seen Coldblood Five kill many flies in a row.

“But it’s huge…” she said, embarrassed, “it’s disgusting…”

“How big can it be? Oh fuck, that’s huge…” Ye Lang wasn’t prepared when he saw the fly, he thought it was a monster. Soon, he realised everything was normal…

“That’s because we are small. Pretend they’re monsters, slay them! Apparently, they’re edible. High in protein…”

These bugs were flies from the decaying corpse. Ye Lang and Coldblood Five were very small, so they thought the bugs were gigantic.

“Go to hell, how about YOU eat them!!” Coldblood Five finally recovered. She was used to insects, but the sudden changes in size made her uncomfortable. She didn’t expect the revulsion to increase proportionally to the insect’s size.

“I said they’re edible, that doesn’t mean we should. I’m definitely not interested! Go clean them up, don’t disturb me,” Ye Lang said offhandedly. To him, Coldblood Five would never be afraid of things like that.

“No, YOU think of a way to get rid of them!!” Surprisingly, Coldblood Five refused. If someone else heard this, their jaw would’ve dropped.

“Get rid of what? As long as Coldblood Thirteen’s corpse is still here, there’ll be flies, probably even more. I don’t understand how these flies got in…” Ye Lang remarked, still not getting up.

Coldblood Five thought for a moment, then dragged Ye Lang along, “Then let’s leave now!”

“Stop, stop. To where? I have unfinished matters!” he struggled.

“What matters? Let’s leave, call for help, and you can play as long as you like in here in the future. Yes?” Coldblood Five began coaxing Ye Lang, wanting to leave this disgusting place. She’d suddenly noticed the awful smell.