Northern River's Loose Cultivator's Heartache

Chapter 31: Northern River's Loose Cultivator's Heartache

So what if the path of cultivation held terrifying Tribulation Lightning like the kind Su Clan's Sixteen had faced? So what if even greater calamities lay ahead?

Wasn't the answer obvious?

There would be countless dangers, all manner of calamities, and the constant risk of death and utter annihilation.

But how could an ordinary life compare to one so magnificent?

To learn the Way at dawn and die at dusk—would that be enough?

It would!

He would not let this chance pass him by. Who but someone content to waste his life away, or a craven coward, would give up such an opportunity?

People happened to be chatting in the Nine Provinces Number One Group.

Soft Feather was telling Northern River's Loose Cultivator about her trip to J City: how she had met Senior Song, found Ghost Lantern Temple, and captured the Spirit Ghost.

Seeing Soft Feather online suddenly calmed Song Shuhang.

He struck the Enter key firmly and sent his first message to the Nine Provinces Number One Group.

Stressed by a Mountain of Books: "Hello, seniors."

It was a simple greeting, but for a newcomer, it seemed like the right way to start.

Soft Feather of Spirit Butterfly Island: "Which senior has come online? Hello to you too, Senior."

Soft Feather happened to be online. To her, everyone in the group except Su Clan's Sixteen was a senior.

"Huh? Stressed by a Mountain of Books?" Northern River's Loose Cultivator was surprised.

He remembered that True Lord Yellow Mountain had accidentally added an ordinary person a dozen or so days ago. But the newcomer had never spoken up, and Northern River's Loose Cultivator had almost forgotten he was there.

He had assumed the man would leave soon enough. After all, without knowing the group members were cultivators, anyone reading their chat would think he had joined a group of lunatics and promptly quit.

Yet Stressed by a Mountain of Books was still here. And he had addressed them as seniors right away. Had he noticed something unusual about the group?

Stressed by a Mountain of Books: "Hello, Senior Northern River. Soft Feather, thank you for the two boxes of medicinal ingredients!"

"Wait, it's Senior Song!" Soft Feather realized at once, delighted. She had never managed to find which senior in the group went by the name Song Shuhang in the ordinary world. She had not expected Senior Song to come online today.

Stressed by a Mountain of Books: "Soft Feather, just call me Shuhang. I'm only an ordinary person True Lord Yellow Mountain added by mistake. Actually, he added me because my account number differs from yours by just one digit. He meant to add you."

"Huh? Now that you mention it, Senior Song, our numbers really are only one digit apart. We must be fated to meet!" Soft Feather said happily. It seemed she would not be dropping "Senior Song" anytime soon.

Northern River's Loose Cultivator understood now. The "kind Senior Song Shuhang from the group" whom Soft Feather had met in Jiangnan City was Stressed by a Mountain of Books.

That also explained why the newcomer had addressed everyone as seniors.

"Shuhang, since you've started posting in the group, I take it you noticed something about Soft Feather?" Northern River's Loose Cultivator added a smiling emoji.

True Lord Yellow Mountain's divination really was impressive—ten thousand times more impressive than that bastard Copper Trigram Immortal Master's. The young man did have a connection to the group. But why had True Lord Yellow Mountain refused to reveal the result of his divination back then?

Soft Feather of Spirit Butterfly Island: "What could Senior Song have noticed about me?"

Stressed by a Mountain of Books: "Soft Feather did have a lot to do with it. While I was helping her look for Ghost Lantern Temple, I could tell she was very different from ordinary people. But the most important thing was the two boxes of ingredients for Simplified Body Tempering Liquid she sent today. I tried following Medicine Master's recipe just now... and I've just swallowed a mouthful of the liquid."

"Oh? You managed to make Body Tempering Liquid?" Northern River's Loose Cultivator asked in surprise. An ordinary person had received ingredients from Soft Feather, followed the recipe, and produced it without anyone guiding him?

Since when had refining medicine become so easy?

Or did Song Shuhang possess such extraordinary fortune that luck itself bent in his favor?

Fortune was a mysterious thing, but its existence could not be denied. Northern River's Loose Cultivator knew someone blessed with outrageous luck. Whenever that man ran out of money, all he had to do was take a stroll and he would pick up cash until his hands were full—enough to cover several days' expenses.

Unfortunately, despite that incredible fortune, the man had not a shred of talent for cultivation. Otherwise, Northern River's Loose Cultivator would have taken him as a disciple no matter what.

Soft Feather was just as surprised. "Senior Song, my ingredients only arrived around noon today, right? That's barely enough time to refine one batch. Did you succeed on your first try?"

"I'm not sure whether I succeeded or failed... I followed the recipe step by step, but something went wrong when I reached the forty-first ingredient," Song Shuhang replied. "In the end, I only got about five spoonfuls of Body Tempering Liquid. I tried a little, and my body improved a lot. My eyesight, strength, endurance—everything got better."

"Given those effects, you definitely succeeded. Even if something went wrong, it just means the Body Tempering Liquid you made might be lower quality," Northern River's Loose Cultivator said with certainty.

As the most basic medicinal liquid, Body Tempering Liquid caused very little drug resistance.

Unlike higher-grade medicines, its quality did not matter much. Even a lower-quality batch could produce the same effect if one took more of it. That was why everyone in the group had approved of Medicine Master's Simplified Body Tempering Liquid, despite its efficacy being only half that of the old formula.

With higher-grade medicines, however, even a small difference in quality could mean a vast difference in effect, and taking more would rarely make up for it. The higher the grade, the stronger the resistance it caused. It could take hundreds of lower-quality pills to equal one of higher quality, but the more one took, the stronger that resistance became. Eventually, that medicine would stop working for the cultivator altogether.

"What I'd really like to know, Shuhang, is how many batches you made and how many attempts it took you to succeed," Northern River's Loose Cultivator asked curiously.

"Batches? Just one, I think. I only have one induction cooker," Song Shuhang answered honestly.

Before he had even finished, Soft Feather added, "As for attempts, Senior Song probably only made one. It's only been five or six hours since my ingredients arrived."

"One batch, and you succeeded on the first try?!" Northern River's Loose Cultivator's knees nearly buckled. He wanted to fall to the floor and weep. As an independent cultivator, he had been on his own when he first started out.

How many times had he failed while making Body Tempering Liquid back then? He could no longer remember! He had failed over and over, until he was nearly bankrupt, before he finally got the hang of it. Granted, he had been using the old, complicated recipe, but the comparison still stung!

And what was an induction cooker? Some new kind of alchemy furnace?

Had Soft Feather sent Shuhang a furnace as well? Could this new model improve the success rate?

With that thought, Northern River's Loose Cultivator ventured, "Shuhang, is this induction cooker you mentioned a new model of alchemy furnace?"

"Huh? Is there an alchemy furnace like that?" Soft Feather asked, puzzled.

Northern River's Loose Cultivator felt a faint ache in his chest when he saw her reply. He had a feeling Song Shuhang's next message would make him cry.

"..." Song Shuhang looked toward the induction cooker in the kitchen, then typed, "No. It's just a Household Induction Cooker No. 12 made by Might-Shaking Corporation."