NOVEL NEXT Chapter 135: Open Wide
I leaned on one of the shelves in the basement, reading one of the alchemy books in Song Song's mansion. Despite how hard we had worked cleaning the library, the shelves no longer had a speck of dust, the floor was polished, and the place had better lighting. However, there was still a smell of damp wood in the air.
But even the strange smell wasn't enough to distract me from the book in my hands; Alchemy Mysteries Maximum.
Through my studies, I had a rough understanding of how alchemy worked. The whole process was much more complicated than I had thought. It was more art than science, somewhat like cooking, yet it wasn't like cooking at all.
Alchemy was interesting in its own way but very unpredictable, which made me apprehensive about consuming any pills.
As for trying alchemy myself? I could follow a recipe, but it didn't take a genius to figure out I didn't have what it took to become a master chef. However, I would only know for sure if I tried it. Only fools thought in absolutes.
"I had hoped it would be closer to chemistry than cooking," I muttered, closing the book. Then I placed it back on the shelf and rubbed my brow.
However, alchemy did have many similarities to chemistry, but without the absolute certainties. Just one ingredient could have many different effects in alchemy! Where hydrogen, for example, always acted like hydrogen in chemistry, in alchemy it could behave differently, like a magnet that could both push and pull.
Perhaps I was viewing things too much from an Array Conjurer's perspective, while Alchemists saw things differently. Nonetheless, I definitely wanted to give it a try. I couldn't wait until Song Song brought me those Root Cleansing Pills. Since she no longer had her old connections, getting something like that would take longer than usual.
I walked up the stairs and out of the secret door that led to the basement library. The mansion no longer looked as it had before. After setting up arrays for cleaning and making a few repairs, the floor was polished, the stairs were fixed, and we even had a few dozen mortals come to fix other things. At the same time, Song Song had watched them like a hawk.
I walked outside and was greeted by the soft chill of the air and the green garden. With the snow almost gone, the place was starting to look more alive. Turning around, I glanced back at the mansion.
Some green vines still clinging to the walls and sneaking through the windows, but that added to the rustic charm. We also hid some artifacts and specific keys to the arrays surrounding the mansion that only Song Song and I knew about.
"Did you finally stop that reading spree?" Song Song's voice came from behind me, accompanied by the soft smell of delicious food. Like always, she had moved so fast that I only sensed her when she was already behind me.
I turned around and saw her holding a plate. It looked like a curry, rice, and meat dish.
She had brought me food? I had gotten so absorbed in reading that I hadn't eaten anything for the last couple of days.
"Thanks, I didn't think you were that considerate," I smiled and extended my hand, ready for the plate.
But Song Song raised a questioning brow and used her chopsticks to grab a mouthful of rice, stuffing it into her mouth. "What're you talking about? This is my food. Go get your own."
"What?"
"Some of us are not so stupid as to forget to eat for a couple of days," she shrugged.
"Inconsiderate bitch," I muttered just loud enough for her to hear.
She pointed a chopstick at me and said, "What did you say? I suddenly have the urge to stab this in your eyeball."
"Honorable, Eternally Powerful, Beautiful Compared to Heavens, Lady Song Song! Your charm truly knows no bounds, and your leadership makes me want to go out there and conquer the world for you," I mock-bowed my head toward her.
"That isn't even a title anymore. You've been doing this so many times, using different titles, that it feels like you're just mashing words together," Song Song said, eating another mouthful of food.
Even though she was eating while standing, there was an elegance to her movements—delicate and soft. For a second, I was lost in that grace, wondering how many hearts this girl would have captured if she wasn't so deranged.
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"By the way, I've been scouting, and your cousins have been looking for you. It would be smart for you to report something good to your clan. I could use their backing," she said.
"For now, certain things are better kept behind the scenes. The only thing my clan's support would earn right now is that some people might decide to eliminate them," I refuted her idea.
In the grand scheme of things, the Liu Clan was inconsequential. While they could be considered a local powerhouse where I lived and were growing every day, their power was incomparable to any of the powerhouses within the Blazing Sun Sect.
"I have some ideas about people who might join our side. That would earn us some allies and cover our weaknesses," I said, staring blatantly at her plate of food.
Cultivators had monstrous bodies that could go weeks without eating without being affected, but that didn't mean I wasn't hungry.
Of course, Song Song had zero remorse and continued eating without a care.
"You know, you could have asked for some food before I went out to get some," she said. "I might have gotten some for you."
"Might?"
"Yeah, well, I am the leader of this organization. If I go around getting you lunch, it will make it seem like I'm the subordinate in this ordeal," Song Song explained.
Since when did she begin worrying about what others thought of her? It was more likely that my food would take too long to be made, and she would get bored and return without it.
"It is a pain finding someone unlikely to poison our food," Song Song sighed. "It's only a matter of time before that brother of mine does something like that."
She narrowed her eyes, her pinky finger twitched, and she seemed a little on edge.
"There is a good chance that the Sect Leader might be protecting us behind the scenes. While my name wasn't mentioned in the war report, he personally knows I'm useful to some degree. While in the general gist of things I might not be special in his eyes, it would be a waste to let a resource like me die off due to petty drama," I said, trying to look at things from the Sect Leader's perspective.
As long as he hadn't noticed anything strange, he should be curious about how I had stumbled upon the knowledge I used to bargain with him.
Song Song stared at me, seemingly deep in thought, as she elegantly finished her meal. She put the plate and chopsticks into her storage ring and asked, "Since when did you become so optimistic?"
"Keeping us alive would be convenient for him. After all, we will be thorns in the Song Clan's side as long as we stay alive," I explained.
"If he wanted to, the Sect Leader could single-handedly kill everyone else in the Sect. While my clan is powerful and many Song Clan members have been Sect Leaders in the past, that doesn't make us untouchable. The Sect Leader can destroy the whole clan with just one word," Song Song clarified as a smile slowly spread across her face.
Damn… That was such a strange way of leadership. It was very different from how leadership usually worked on Earth. Most of the Sects were built like this too. The Sect Leader was the greatest power in most Sects, and without the leader, the Sect would be directly demoted.
How was I supposed to figure out how a guy like that would think?
"Anyway, I got you the pills you needed," Song Song said, handing me a small sack. "There are five Root Rejuvenating Pills. Use them carefully and try not to waste them. They're rare, and even I had difficulty getting so many at once."
My heart leaped with excitement, and I stopped worrying about things I had no control over. I didn't even bother paying attention to Song Song's smugness; she clearly wanted to say something I didn't care about. Opening the sack, I saw the pearly white pills inside and sensed the light Qi radiating from them.
I immediately entered the mansion and entered one of the corners of the entrance room. If one didn't specifically pay attention, newcomers might not notice the door hidden in the shadow of the stairs.
I had prepared a room specifically for this. It was empty except for a clean table and a couple dozen vials. Some small and delicate tools, like those made for surgery, were on a small shelf in the corner.
Taking out one of the pills, I placed it atop a clean white napkin from my storage ring and put it on the wooden table to prevent it from rolling away.
Song Song had given me five of these pills, so I had to be very careful. Unfortunately, Speedy wasn't around to test these things on him.
I removed a thin needle from the tools and poked the marble pill. The needle pierced the surface easily, but instead of the Qi inside the pill pouring out, it rampaged and formed many holes.
Whatever kind of Qi the pill released, I had already contained it with a simple barrier. Though the Qi from the pill was leaking, it seemed harmless and was leaking at such a slow rate that the pill should still retain some of its effects.
I looked at the pill in a trance, wondering about swallowing one of the pills I had. But as soon as the idea came to mind, I shook my head and dismissed it.
I didn't get much time to play around with the pill as I sensed Song Song approaching the room. She opened the door, which now made no sound, and no dust fell down.
"Why did you have to run away so fast? I have other news," Song Song grumbled.
"How important is the news? I'm doing something really crucial right now," I said.
"It doesn't look like something crucial at all," Song Song whispered under her breath, knowing that I could hear her. "Anyway, it isn't any big news. So you can go back to work."
She genuinely seemed to think that, and I trusted Song Song's decisions on most things. But when it came to certain things, like what she considered "dangerous" or "unimportant," our views rarely aligned.
"Now that you're already here, you can just tell me the news," I said.
She shrugged. "Sure."
Song Song leaned on the door frame with a bored look and said, "Well, I wanted to say that your pet turtle has returned. It's being cared for by some of the inner disciples that reside in the Outer Sect, you know, the guys who work as guards and such."
Whatever I was thinking about doing next moved to the back of my mind as a smile spread across my lips.
This was not small news for me!
"Well, I'm going to the Outer Sect. It's about time I visited some of my friends too," I calmly stated and stood up.
There were many things I needed to do in the Outer Sect, and among those things were many people I hadn't greeted since coming back. After Song Song and I finally decided to go after everyone, I would no longer have the leisure to visit my old friends. That would just put them in danger.
This was as good a time as any to meet them.