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18.32% Learning To Live As A Cultivator / Chapter 59: Chapter Fifty Nine - I have been labelled as a servant... again

Chapter 59: Chapter Fifty Nine - I have been labelled as a servant... again

There was not as much blood as the scream perhaps suggested. Maimai waved away concerns as she blushed prettily, gathered her herbs and stated; "I'll just go back first, Merylin and rest."

"Yes, sister," Merylin said with a soft, worried voice. "That is probably for the best." She watched as the girl ran off, not noticing her dazed smirk beneath the silk handkerchief she held against her nose.

"I h-hope she will b-b-be alright," Leon said aloud without thinking as he held the two requests. The three extras glanced over at him with slight sneers.

"What is it to you?" One, with long, deep purple hair demanded.

Merylin inwardly gritted her teeth thinking that these friends were perhaps not the sort of girls she should associate with if she wished to keep her reputation pure. Even if the gossip they had shared with her had been useful. She bowed to Leon, showing respect that she did not feel. "It's fine," she said, gently. "Thank you for your concern." She glanced up through her long eyelashes at the taller boy beside him, but noticed he was not paying her heed so quickly straightened.

Leon just smiled as if he hadn't noticed the twisted expression of the girls and bowed his head slightly in turn.

"How long must we wait?" Jin Li stated, impatiently.

"D-Do you n-need to return to the m-martial arts school n-now?" Leon asked wondering why he was suddenly impatient.

"No," Jin Li declared, shortly. "But at this rate, you will not have time to make me lunch."

Leon frowned. "It was n-not that long ago that I s-served b-breakfast," he mentioned and as if on cue, Jin Li's stomach began to voice its complaints. Whether fortunately or not, Leon was the only person in range to hear it.

"The meal was insufficient in size."

"You ate half of m-m-mine as well!"

"True, you should make more next time, so that you don't become any skinnier."

As they exchanged words, Merylin came to much the same conclusion that Jin Li's roommate Sun had, although of course she would not know this. The tall boy appeared to be a young Master, perhaps down on his luck due to the quality of cloth of his otherwise well tailored garments and the smaller boy with strange hair was his servant. Clearly, the handsome, dashing, young Master was a martial artist and thus his servant must have enrolled in the alchemist school to provide him with pills as well as continue his usual duties of taking care of his master.

This theory, she felt, while not proven, was not unlikely. After all, her half-sister, Maimai, who was born of a concubine weeks after her own birth, was with her to be her companion while she adapted to education within the school. This was her noble father's wishes.

Merylin and Maimai were just two of the children born to the leader of the famous Dawn Star sect. Both were born blessed with spiritual roots, Merylin's being fire and Maimai's being wood and as such were considered talented. And Merylin, at least, proved this to be true. She broke through to the secondary stage of cultivation at just fourteen. Granted, as daughter of the first wife, she had access to abundant pills and elixirs, but this was still a worthy achievement.

However Maimai had heard from a servant about the Ascending Mountain Institute, a school that would accept all talented individuals whether they were poor or wealthy, so long as they could prove themselves worthy to learn. Merylin had become curious. While indeed, she had the best tutors for cultivation, alchemy and martial arts, she also felt a little smothered by her doting father and overbearing mother. When she had first mentioned the school, her father had wept declaring dramatically, but what if someone bullies our Merylin? Completely unworthy of a sect leader. And her mother had turned up her nose, stating that the Teachers at the school were all 'charlatans and tricksters' despite the amazing reputation Merylin had discovered it had.

In the end, her father had agreed to her demand to enrol... so long as it was not in magic or beast taming or martial arts, so that his little girl could not get hurt. And as long as she took Maimai as a companion. Merylin would never admit it, but that girl's martial arts were better than hers!

"I am Merylin," she stated to the object of her affections with a small and warm smile. "I hope that we can learn from each other in the future." And with that, she swept out of the building, the girls running to catch up as they carried her herbs.

Jin Li and Leon glanced at each other. With all of their bickering, they had forgotten that the girls were even there.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Ebonsolaris Ebonsolaris

Double Update in order to celebrate 100k views! Yay and thank you to everyone reading so far!

Chapter 60: Chapter Sixty - Oops, I used too much spiritual energy

Creating a Cloudy Spiritual Pill was going to be much harder than forming its lesser cousin. If Leon had read the recipe in more depth before selecting the assignment, he might have not bothered. And what was more, although he had Jin Li in mind when selecting this pill to learn and practice, there was no method for an improved version nor small ways to ensure the success of making the ordinary pill.

With a heavy sigh, he flopped back on his bed, playing out the book in his hand falling to his side. "What is wrong?" Jin Li asked, opening his eyes after a couple of cycles of cultivation.

"M-making this p-pill will b-b-be b-bothersome," Leon complained.

"Then don't make it," Jin Li replied. Cultivating with or without pills, it was all the same to him. Sure, he had taken pills during his childhood, but was aware that the rewards were not always worth the risk. "Make this Lord a cup of tea instead. And don't forget the honey."

Leon huffed slightly, but rose from the bed, filled the kettle with water from the barrel and placed it upon the stove. He stoked the dying embers within the wood burning chamber, even adding a little spiritual energy to speed up their awakening. The flames licked hungrily at his energies and claimed the fresh firewood offered. As the fire heated, so soon did the water in his kettle. Leon prepared two cups with fragrant tea and a small spoon of honey.

Jin Li smacked his lips as he sipped the hot liquid with satisfaction. "If making pills is bothersome," he continued, as if their conversation had merely been paused, "then simply continue serving this Lord. You will have more time for it."

"N-Not b-bothersome, n-not really," Leon replied, quietly. Indeed, although it had never been his idea to transmigrate into a world much different to his own and rely on the few skills of the original, he did not dislike this life of making pills. And although his first few days here had been a struggle and filled with fear and worry, he had settled and was happy. This life was simpler, he did not worry anymore about money and he wasn't as alone as he had been in his past life. Compared to worrying over whether he could pay his rent, juggle assignments and taking on more shifts at work and making sure he had enough credits to pass, what was one challenging pill in comparison?

With that thought in mind, he placed his cauldron upon the stove and began to follow the steps of the recipe. He placed songmist moss, the honeyvine and the mothtail roots into the cauldron and kept the metal pot from getting too hot, so that the melting honeyvine would not evaporate before its juices helped melt the roots and moss. Then slowly, he added the bladed thistle leaves that he had chopped up in preparation, a little at a time. They popped and crackled as they hit the simmering liquid at the bottom of the cauldron and Leon gulped worriedly, but did his best to control his spiritual energy which was divided into keeping the heat steady and stirring the mixture so that it did not stick and burn. After the leaves had completely dissolved, he tossed in the small dried seed heads and continued to slowly stir the mixture.

The hardest part of the recipe was to keep the mixture swirling at a constant and slow speed. Too fast and the liquid would remain liquid and the alchemist would likely run out of energy before pills could form. Too slow and the liquid would stick and be ruined. Too unsteadily and the ingredients would not bind uniformly.

Sweat began to bead upon Leon's head as he stared into the cauldron completely focused upon his task. The liquid was beginning to solidify, but he kept calm and did not alter his motions nor allow his energies to fluctuate. As the thickened liquid began to come together, Leon had to divide his energies even further, another thing he had only practiced a little and that was when he made the beast calming pills. However, those did not need such careful refinement, if one pill did not take enough spiritual energy into it, he would not worry and simply throw it away and still be left with some good pills. If one Cloudy spiritual pill did not form with enough energy, it would collapse and could ruin the whole batch!

Somehow, Leon made it though to the end and four uniform pills formed in the bottom of the cauldron. Leon quickly took the pot off of the heat and claimed his prizes, placing them in jade bottles so that they did not lose their potency. And then he collapsed with a sigh having used too much spiritual energy as he focused intently, much to Jin Li's chagrin.


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