Wun Fan sat on the ground sobbing without stopping. He looked at Old Lei resentfully, with pain in his eyes, like a poor housewife being divorced by her husband who had struck it rich.
Like Old Lei had done something unspeakable to him.
However, what Old Lei said was true. Alchemists were a profession that demanded a lot out of a person’s mental energy. Mental energy had a very subtle and nuanced relationship with aether.
When an individual actively combines a minuscule amount of mental energy with aether, it gives rise to soul energy. Soul energy was used for martial techniques, regeneration, enhancement, or controlling the body’s functions. Sometimes, you will see martial artists using soul energy to examine the condition of another person’s body. That is precisely because soul energy contains trace amounts of mental energy, which grants it the ability to probe and survey.
However, when an individual’s mental energy is strong enough, they would be able to split out a portion of it and extend it beyond their own body. This is known as mental sense and could be used for surveying the terrain or concocting pills. Those with even more powerful mental energy can even separate it completely from their bodies and become spirit bodies. However, consumed mental energy could only be recovered through passive absorption of aether.
The recovery process took a long time. This was why Old Lei had been constantly absorbing the aether in Wun Fan’s body. He needed to recover his mental energy. It took Old Lei a long time to recover for two reasons. On one hand, Wun Fan’s aether capacity was really low. On the other, the injuries to his own spirit body were quite severe.
Even so, after three years of drawing aether from Wun Fan, Old Lei’s mental energy had only barely recovered.
Back on the topic of alchemy, an excellent alchemist would have to possess a tremendous amount of innate mental energy. Every person was born with a base amount of innate mental energy. In particular, Wun Fan had tremendous innate mental energy because he had experienced two lives and his soul had been torn apart and restored countless by the powers of the void while he was experiencing his reincarnation.
That was why Old Lei had been amazed by Wun Fan’s innate mental energy the first time he came into contact with it. As such, Wun Fan did in fact fulfill this particular requirement to being an alchemist.
However, to be a qualified alchemist, your innate mental energy must contain a trace of fire energy. Fire energy is needed to catalyze the medicinal effects of the herbs.
However, Old Lei had already had plenty of contact with Wun Fan’s innate mental energy and it did not contain any trace of fire energy. In fact, he even vaguely sensed death intent and murder intent within his mental energy. This fact alone meant that any herbs that came into contact with Wun Fan’s mental energy would be hazardous to use for alchemy. It would be impossible for him to become an alchemist.
Wun Fan refused to accept this situation even after Old Lei explained it to him thoroughly. It was as if his perfect bubble of a dream had been popped before it had even begun. He shouted angrily, “Then why did you tell me to watch while you made the pill?”
“I was telling you to watch for any intruders. I can’t divert my attention while I’m concocting the pills…” Old Lei shrugged impassively, with a face that said that it was Wun Fan’s own fault for misunderstanding.
Wun Fan was speechless, but there was nothing he could do.
Old Lei couldn’t be bothered by Wun Fan’s feelings. He approached Wun Fan and touched his right thumb. He took two jade bottles out of the Spiritstartler Ring. He took out the jade stopper and placed four Pills of Meridian Fortification into one of the bottles, and only one into the other one. Old Lei looked exhausted as he said softly, “Kid, that whole process made me really tired. Take this pill only once I’ve recovered in two days and can help watch over you.”
“As for these four pills? Take them to the Chan Clan’s auction house,” Old Lei warned Wun Fan solemnly, “But remember, kid: a secret that more than one person knows of is no longer a secret.”
Old Lei was hinting at something and Wun Fan knew what he meant. Things would probably become more troublesome moving forward. However, relying on the Chan Clan’s influence was the fastest way to accumulate resources.
Just as Wun Fan thought everything was over, Old Lei suddenly stopped him and flashed him a nasty smile, “Kid, do you still remember the mutesoul metal you bought this morning?”325Please respect copyright.PENANAgUCrNK11ZV
The lone moon hung in the skies above, pouring light through the two windows. Four bedposts and a bed curtain obscured a beautiful silhouette.
The bedroom was neat and tidy, with no extraneous items anywhere. A naked body with perfect skin lay on the bed, also with no extraneous items anywhere.
The beauty was sprawled over the bed, reading diligently.
Coo-coo! Coo-coo!
A pigeon dove down from the night skies and landed on the dressing table. A maid walked over, gently caressing the pigeon while removing a small scroll tied to its leg. She walked by the bed, blushing as she respectfully handed the scroll over to her master. She didn’t dare look directly at her. The beauty unscrolled the document. A light smile flashed across her lips as she read it aloud, “Request permitted. However, verify authenticity as soon as possible.”
Sizzle.
The rolled the scroll into a small ball and flicked her finger, accurately sending it into a candlestick, where it burned to ashes.
“Help me massage my shoulders.”
“Yes, mistress,” the maid couldn’t help but breathe a little heavier. Her eyes even grew a little red. She was very nervous. When she touched the snow-white skin, it felt as if her hands had been plunged into milk. The sensation was incredibly soft, smooth, and excellent. It was hard for her to massage her mistress. Her fingers would slip often and go all over the place.
“Ooh, that’s the spot. Press harder! Harder!”
“Miss, could you not be so loud…?” the maid asked in a voice as soft as a mosquito’s buzz.
“Hahaha,” the beauty laughed several times, her shoulders and breasts shaking as she did so. It seemed like she very much enjoyed teasing her maid.
She put down the book in her hands, a book titled ‘Seducing Men’.325Please respect copyright.PENANAsUfFG4pHkf
The sixth day of the new year. The back mountain was still as quiet as ever. Setting aside the fact that the Enforcer’s Hall had been standing guard at the entrance on the second night of the new year, very few people were crazy enough to stay the whole night at the mountain, as Wun Fan did.
That was why most of the time, the mountain was Wun Fan and Wun Siu Lan’s safe haven.
Wun Fan wasn’t on the top of a tree today. Instead, he sat cross-legged on the ground while he absorbed purple energy. The whole process was quiet and without sound. Wun Fan easily absorbed the purple energy and channeled it to the Spiritstartler Ring. He slowly started to get up. When he pressed his arm against the ground and tried to prop himself up, he suddenly started sweating profusely, as if he was having difficulty getting up.
Wun Fan barely managed to get on his feet and his chest was rising and falling a lot. He breathed heavily and couldn’t help but bemoan his situation in his own mind. He slowly started walking, but the movements of his hands were unnatural, as were his steps. At a single glance, he looked like a doll trying to move.
In strands like silk the soul binds,
In plates and weight the armour grinds.
Mutesoul armour was like cotton. Where cotton would absorb water, mutesoul metal absorbed soul energy to increase its own weight. As such, armor made out of mutesoul metal wasn’t for the purpose of protection, but to serve as training weights. Mutesoul armour was more convenient than sandbags. Not only were they less clunky, you could even adjust the actual weight of the armour by adjust the amount of soul energy placed into them.
That was why Old Lei took out the set of armour with two handguards, two shin guards, and a breastplate and made Wun Fan wear them. He then decisively charged it with a trace of soul energy. The already heavy armor became even heavier. It reached a shocking 50 kilograms in weight. Wun Fan was having trouble just lifting his hands and feet.
Wun Fan’s power had increased drastically in the past few days. Although he was already always training, Old Lei had to resort to some more traditional methods to make sure that Wun Fan would be able to freely control his newfound strength.
Wun Fan was a little confused when he recalled how Old Lei had charged the mutesoul metal with soul energy. An ordinary martial artist could store soul energy within their body, but Old Lei was a spirit body. Where did his soul energy come from?
The martial path was a long and profound one. There were still many things he needed to learn.
Old Lei materialized himself again. He was satisfied to see Wun Fan’s clumsy movements. This was the effect he was hoping for. Green flames flashed once again and Wun Fan’s body started to dash across the skies once more.
Knock knock.
Not long after Wun Fan returned to his room, a servant knocked on his door, bringing toiletries and a washbasin for him to brush his teeth. The servant greeted him respectfully, “Good morning, Young Master Fan. Breakfast is ready for you at the great hall.”
“Come in.”
The first thing the servant saw when he entered the room was Wun Fan covered entirely in sweat. He panicked and wanted to hand over a towel, but Wun Fan put a hand up and stopped him, “I’m fine, you can leave once you put the things down.”
The servant just thought of it as Wun Fan sweating from a nightmare. Young Master Fan didn’t seem to be in the best of mood either. As a servant, he could not pry into these matters and quickly walked away to avoid any trouble. He would have no one to turn to if he got caught up in some problem.
Wun Fan’s movements were incredibly unnatural. He felt his whole body ache just from standing up. He stared at the washbasin and felt a headache come on. He couldn’t even lift his hand up to brush his teeth. How was he supposed to clean himself up?325Please respect copyright.PENANAVk9fq9WPwr