Can I Learn a Thing or Two, Bro?

Elves?

Li Ziran's brow instantly furrowed. If they were to choose the most magical race on the Red Soil Continent, it would undoubtedly be the Elves.

This race was practically born for magic. Even the most ordinary Elves grew multiple magical organs, through which they could frantically draw elemental power from the Elemental Tide and reach the level of a High Mage in barely a dozen years.

Many could even become Magisters.

That alone would have been one thing, but what people found unbearable was that as Elves grew older, their magical organs fused at different levels, forming unique hybrid magic.

For instance, the renowned Moonlight and Eternal Light. The latter in particular was said to require the fusion of more than a dozen elements, including earth, water, air, and light, making it one of the most ultimate forms of magic.

The Moon Elves, aside from possessing the magical abilities inherent to Elves, also grew a special additional organ: the Moon Kidney.

This organ could absorb the unique Lunar Element, one of the rarest elements yet detected in the Elemental Tide. Spells formed from Lunar Power possessed a uniquely calming effect and were among the most practical meditation-support spells.

Their rarity far exceeded even that of Medusa.

"Has a new space appeared nearby?" Li Ziran asked despite himself. That was the only possibility. After all, the tropical rainforest where Elves lived was extremely far from the Wasteland, and these were the rare Moon Elves, who almost always lived in the deepest parts of the forest.

One appearing in the Wasteland was already astonishing enough. Yet from the Minotaur's tone, there seemed to be quite a few of them.

"No." The Minotaur gave him an honest answer.

Li Ziran could not help mocking himself. Derivative Spaces were exceptionally rare. A living space like that of the Swamp Dragon might only be encountered once every few hundred years. How could he possibly be so lucky as to encounter another one right after finding one?

If they truly were Elves, he could hardly wait any longer. Ignoring the Minotaur's attitude, he hurried into the basement with pounding footsteps.

But when he saw the sight before him, he was completely dumbfounded.

Several dozen corpses lay piled together in every direction. If not for the corpse stench filling the entire room, he might have thought they were heaps of autumn straw.

The bodies were stacked one atop another, their skin split open and their flesh rotted away. Aside from the pointed ears that identified them as Elves, they were scarcely any different from ordinary rotten meat.

"They were already like this when you got them?" Li Ziran asked unhappily.

"At first, they were laid out one by one. Later, they became like this." The Minotaur looked puzzled. "Can they still be used?"

Li Ziran wanted to cry.

Bro, you were actually asking whether they could still be used? Did you not know corpses needed to be separated in an orderly fashion? Did you not understand what refined handling meant? Did you not know that putting different corpses together caused cross-infection? Could you not even spread a little lime powder on the ground to preserve them?

Li Ziran truly wanted to curse him out. This was fucking squandering heaven's gifts.

Moon Elves!

The crescent-shaped marks that occasionally flashed through the corpse pile made Li Ziran certain these were the legendary Moon Elves. But what use was that now?

"Um, honored guest, can you take them?"

Li Ziran waved a hand and took a deep breath. "Let me calm down!" He had to calm himself down. This fellow simply was not suited to the corpse business.

Yet he had to admire the other man's luck. Such corpses were rarely seen even once in a hundred years, yet there were more than a dozen here.

Who knew what godforsaken corner he had found them in. Why did Li Ziran never have that kind of luck?

"How much do you want?" Li Ziran worked hard to keep his tone even.

"Fifteen silver coins." The Minotaur asked tentatively.

Li Ziran said nothing.

The Minotaur grew a little timid. "Then... ten silver coins?"

Li Ziran could not help laughing. "Five. And you have to let me pick through this heap of junk some more. You... I truly don't know what to say to you. Fine, fine. Next time you go to the market, whether it's a library or a bookstore, or even if you just find some bard, buy a book on corpse preservation and study it properly, all right?"

The Minotaur could not understand why Li Ziran was so agitated. He merely wanted to sell corpses, yet the other man was telling him to read books instead.

Completely inexplicable.

"All right, but aren't five silver coins too little?"

"Hmph, and you still have the nerve to open your mouth? If you knew even the tiniest bit about preserving corpses, this stuff could make you rich overnight. Now it's rotten meat! Rotten meat! Rotten meat! Understand? Five silver coins—I don't even want to give you one!" Li Ziran roared outright. He truly could not control himself.

These were Moon Elves! With one of these corpses, he could have swaggered straight into the Undead Nest and casually asked any Necromancer whether he would teach him Corpse Witch Summoning.

If they refused, hmph, he would find another one.

Now, the match made in heaven was gone.

"Five, um..." The Minotaur was still dissatisfied, but seeing Li Ziran's murderous gaze, he could only nod. "All right, five it is. Can you give me the money?"

Li Ziran took out the silver coins and shoved them into the Minotaur's enormous bovine hoof as if firing bullets. Perhaps still dissatisfied, he snapped, "You, stay and help me!"

"Me? Help?" The Minotaur pointed at himself. But looking at the heap of rotten meat and Li Ziran, whose anger had yet to fade, he could only nod. "All right, all right. I'll listen to you."

Li Ziran rolled his eyes. Only after reining in his emotions did he walk toward the corpses.

He had already spent five silver coins. If he could not find any useful organs in this pile of rotten meat, he would lose his shirt.

Fortunately, the uppermost bodies had not rotted too badly. He and the Minotaur worked together to lift them down.

He drew out a scalpel and cut into an Elf's skin. It was soft and mushy, like fat meat steamed for ten hours. Before the blade even passed through, the skin split open on its own.

It was more badly rotted than he had imagined.

Elves were a race favored by magic, but precisely because of that, they were too pure, making them especially susceptible to Elemental Bug infection after death. A normal corpse could last around five days in the Wasteland, but an Elf could not endure even one day. This degree of rot, if it were on a Pigman, would have taken seven days to reach.

Sigh!

Li Ziran sighed. The Elf skin was completely useless now, and it had been the best material for filtering the Elemental Tide.

Using small tweezers, he gently parted the whitening flesh. With the scalpel, he carefully removed the meat beneath the skin, searching for something.

A neural network.

This was an organ unique to magical races. It could accelerate the speed at which elements flowed through the body. It was exceedingly rare, yet every Elf possessed one.

In Li Ziran's view, these meridians had been soaked in elements for years and should not have rotted away so quickly.

But the neural network was as thin as a hair, making it difficult to find within a heap of rotten flesh. One careless movement and the scalpel might cut it, and once the meridians were damaged, they were essentially ruined.

A complete set of Magical Meridians was worth at least fifty to ninety gold coins, so he had to be careful beyond careful.

The Minotaur and Horse Dwarf watched Li Ziran stare motionlessly at a heap of rotten meat, and both nearly threw up.

Even they could not bear the stench here, yet this human remained perfectly unfazed.

The more flesh Li Ziran peeled away, the more cautious he became, because he did not know whether his next cut would land directly on the neural network.

He quietly steadied his breath and methodically infused spiritual power into the scalpel. The spiritual power continuously radiating outward through the Mithril formed a blood-red image in his mind.

It was somewhat like what one saw through X-rays, but clearer.

That was the advantage of Mithril. It allowed his spiritual power to radiate outward and sense what lay beyond the flesh.

Bzz!

At that moment, a glimmer suddenly appeared in his Spirit World.

It was as though his vision had been seized. Li Ziran abruptly opened his eyes and stared at the rotten flesh before him.

He sensed it. Half a finger beneath this flesh lay a neural network.

He put away the scalpel and thrust his right hand directly into the rotten meat.

The Minotaur and Horse Dwarf closed their eyes at the same time. The bloody, mangled sight was beyond what they could bear. They simply could not imagine a human possessing such a bizarre hobby.

Sizzle, sizzle!

Driven by curiosity, they opened their eyes again, only to see Li Ziran gripping a lump of rotten meat with both hands and kneading it like dough. The clump of flesh grew thinner and thinner between his palms.

Blegh!

At last, the Minotaur could no longer hold it in and vomited right in front of Li Ziran.

But Li Ziran's gaze was unusually focused. A smile suddenly appeared on his face, which had been stern for so long. One hand steadily gripped the intestine-like flesh, while the other swiftly picked up tweezers from the side.

The tweezers touched the surface of the flesh, and he pulled out a yellow filament as thin as a hair. With a gentle tug, half a finger's length had already emerged.

"Quick, pat the corpse for me!" Li Ziran pointed at the flesh above the filament and shouted. "At an even pace!"

Slap, slap, slap. The sounds echoed through the basement as the filament Li Ziran pulled out grew longer and longer, and his smile became brighter and brighter.

Once the final section left the flesh, Li Ziran swiftly took out a thumb-sized vial, stuffed the filament inside, then pulled out a bottle of orange-yellow reagent and filled the vial before sealing it.

Only when he watched the yellow thread float in the solution like an earthworm, growing increasingly transparent until it gradually took on the color of moonlight, did Li Ziran finally let out a long breath.

"Lunar Meridians, worth at least one gold coin! I'm rich!"