Half-truths and half-lies—if one wanted to survive in the Wasteland, there was simply no way to place one's sincere heart entirely in another's hands.
Looking at the slender One-eyed Frog hanging from his waist, Li Ziran could not help but laugh.
Selling this Medusa off would bring him dozens of times the return in an instant.
He had taken full advantage of Barbaro's deal and gotten an explosive piece of news besides.
A swamp teeming with Medusas.
A suddenly appearing swamp was nothing strange. Such abruptly formed terrain was everywhere across the Wasteland.
The entire Red Soil Continent was ruled by the Elemental Tide. The Elemental Tide contained every kind of magical element, and their uneven distribution created all manner of miraculous magical terrain, forming the Red Soil Continent's complex and ever-changing natural environment.
It was precisely because the elements within the Elemental Tide were unevenly distributed that, once too many gathered inside and formed a particular elemental storm, they could even rip space apart.
And once space was torn open, spatial folding would occur, completely shifting an area thousands or even tens of thousands of kilometers away.
A swamp appearing out of nowhere was not rare. Sometimes, the Elemental Tide could even bring forth icebergs thousands of meters high. If one was unlucky enough to encounter a glacier, an entire nation could vanish in an instant.
Clearly, Barbaro had made a fortune from this Elemental Tide incident.
Li Ziran slowly drew back his thoughts. Overall, Barbaro had not gotten the short end of the stick this time.
He really had obtained a Medusa's Eye. With that eyeball, he was bound to become a prominent figure in the Wasteland someday.
Making the acquaintance of such a person would gradually improve his future business, whether in the Wasteland's northwest or within the Wolf Tribe.
As for the Petrification Curse, he had not told Barbaro about it. In Li Ziran's view, a customer only needed to pay the price. Whether the deal ultimately brought profit or loss was entirely his own burden to bear.
Although this business philosophy often left Li Ziran doing loss-making deals, it was precisely this philosophy that had allowed him to meet one bizarre character after another.
There was no reasoning to life in this Wasteland. Everyone had their own way of surviving. In his eyes, connections were often more important than making money.
Li Ziran sighed softly and raised his head to gaze at the vast, boundless line of the Wasteland, hazy and indistinct, appearing and vanishing from sight.
His brow gradually furrowed. Now was not a good time to set out alone.
The Wasteland had been ravaged year-round by the Fire Element and Wind Element within the Elemental Tide, making it extraordinarily empty. Aside from bare mountain ranges, there were only a few thorn trees.
Wasteland hurricanes carried the dry Elemental Tide, purifying away the scant Water Element.
Of course, the Elemental Tide was not the most terrifying thing. The truly terrifying things were the bandits and Wasteland dwellers lurking everywhere.
In this Wasteland devoid of even the slightest rule, the natural law of survival of the fittest was displayed in all its naked glory.
To survive here, every living being would plunder resources as much as possible.
When Li Ziran had first appeared in the Wasteland, he had been taken in by a family of cave dwellers. Just as tears of gratitude filled his eyes, he was sold into a slave caravan one month later.
Had he not truly possessed a bit of luck later on and encountered his benefactor and teacher, Watt, he would probably have been the most miserable man since his rebirth.
Looking at his arm, already completely stiff, Li Ziran muttered, "If only I knew Curse Art!"
Since leaving Gray Wolf Territory, he had been attacked by Wasteland Vipers seventeen times. By now, he suspected that his curse had likely come from encountering snakes.
Witch Doctors originated from witches. Though they were not as proficient in curses as witches, curses were still a skill they relied upon for survival.
Witchcraft, curses, healing, Transformation Spells, and divination were the five major abilities of Witch Doctors. Each ability was further divided into different categories according to strength, domain, spellcraft, and school.
Healing alone had distinctions such as Healing Wave, Healing Curse, Healing Orb, and Healing Totem. As for curses and divination, their branches were even more numerous than the hairs on an ox.
Yet the most basic classification among Witch Doctors still followed the Beast Race's ancient traditions.
Witch Doctor Apprentice, Witch Doctor, Grand Witch Doctor, Staff Witch Doctor, Titled Witch Doctor, and Witch Priest.
For a Witch Doctor Apprentice, the simplest requirement was learning one spellcraft among them. The Frog Transformation Li Ziran currently grasped qualified him as a Witch Doctor Apprentice.
But to become a Witch Doctor, one had to at least master the witches' unique Devouring Curse.
This was a form of witchcraft involving the level of the soul, yet it was also the foundation that allowed Witch Doctors to possess enormous spiritual power.
Witches could not temper their spirits through the Elemental Tide. They could only strengthen their spiritual power by devouring existing spiritual bodies.
Li Ziran's spiritual power had come from his teacher, who had grafted a portion of his own spirit into Li Ziran's body.
Yet the Devouring Curse was a unique inheritance of every witch school. Although Li Ziran possessed a special ability such as organ transplantation, his weak spiritual power meant that among Witch Doctors, he could only be called an Apprentice.
Even though his teacher Watt possessed Frog Transformation and the miraculous Healing Wave, because he had no Devouring Curse inheritance, his spiritual cultivation had never improved throughout his life. He remained an Apprentice.
There was no helping it.
The Devouring Curse originated from witches and flourished in the dark Abyss and the Undead Continent. In a region like the Wasteland, where only unaffiliated witches existed, it was nearly impossible to see even a trace of a Devouring Curse.
To put it bluntly, Witch Doctors in the Wasteland basically knew none of this type of spellcraft.
There were only two ways to obtain a Devouring Curse. One was to join a witch sect by a stroke of fate; the other was to purchase one from a merchant caravan at an exorbitant price.
But they were expensive.
The newest copy of "Evil Spirit Devouring Curse" had sold at auction for 3.7 gold coins, a sky-high price Li Ziran did not even dare dream about.
Without the enormous spiritual power granted by the Devouring Curse, Wasteland Witch Doctors could only seek a dangerous path through the side door. Yet they had developed Transformation Spells to a remarkable degree in terms of speed and precision.
Take ordinary Frog Transformation. In the past, it required three Witch Doctors to cast together, but now Li Ziran could do it alone. Moreover, judging by his current proficiency, as long as he kept training for a while longer, Frog Transformation would no longer need the aid of a magic array.
"How exactly am I supposed to learn this Healing Wave?"
Li Ziran leaned against a bare slab of rock and sighed. He was waiting here for a passing caravan. Following one could avoid the danger of being preyed upon by bandit gangs, while also giving him time to think about his former days.
In his previous life, he had been a surgical doctor and an outstanding science and engineering student. That was why he could effortlessly construct the magic array for Frog Transformation and understand the peculiar Light of Transformation produced after energy traveled through the array.
Though he still did not understand why energy became Light of Transformation after passing through a magic array—just as he could not make sense of the microscopic changes that produced chlorine gas when potassium permanganate reacted with hydrochloric acid—he knew that mixing the two could extract chlorine gas.
Likewise, by using spiritual power together with a specially prepared frog-blood solution and drawing a magic array in Tadpole Script, one could extract Light of Transformation.
Thus, he had mastered the extremely difficult Frog Transformation within three days, yet with the simplest Healing Wave, he had still made no progress at all.
"Close your eyes. Sense that tiny trace of warmth within the unseen, then seize it!"
Those were Watt's exact words, and they had become Li Ziran's nightmare.
The word sense was like a book without writing. He would rather his master gave him an advanced mathematics formula than use such vague and ambiguous nonsense.
Having not the slightest talent for sensing spells, Watt had no choice but to sweep him out the door and send him into the Wasteland to seek inspiration.
Li Ziran looked into the distance. There was still no sign of a merchant caravan on the reddish-brown road. Clearly, they too believed that crossing the Wasteland in the predawn hours was not a wise choice.
Li Ziran took out his scalpel, withdrew a thin silk cloth to wipe the bloodstains from it, then carefully returned it to his surgical kit.
This was a bright iron alloy mixed with Mithril, capable of allowing a portion of spiritual power to seep into it.
As for what spiritual power actually was, Li Ziran still had not figured it out. He could only sense that it existed.
Whenever he wanted to use it, he could always feel an invisible energy emerging from within his body, and that energy gave him a form of perception beyond sight.
It was unusual, and extremely useful.
Having finished maintaining the scalpel, he took out his surgical scissors. He had to care for them carefully. This set of tools had cost him thirty-seven silver coins, though it was worth every penny.
It allowed him to use the knowledge he possessed to help the living beings here perform certain organ transplants.
This was a craft even more sought-after than slave trading, and it demanded considerable skill. It could make up for the enormous costs of his cultivation.
This world was stranger than he had imagined. Every living being could obtain talents from the omnipresent Elemental Tide, drawing all kinds of elements from it to continuously increase their strength.
Sensing the Elemental Tide and tempering one's spirit or flesh—this was the righteous path.
But there would always be those who took crooked paths, and Organ Witch Doctors were an exceptionally deviant profession.
They unanimously believed that exhausting every effort to draw power from the Elemental Tide was far less useful than directly transplanting another's fully cultivated organs.
It was radical, yet there was no lack of a market for it on the Red Soil Continent.
More than two years had passed since he left his master. Li Ziran had survived by relying on this ability, and had even accumulated some savings.
He still remembered the first time. Crushed beneath immense debt, he had been forced to enter the peril-filled Undead Nest. There, he had used his scalpel for the first time to help an aged Necromancer replace his heart with a Griffin's heart.
The other party emerged safe and sound, and had even gained the power to control the Thunder Element.
A heart transplant—this had once been a subject he never would have dared imagine. Now, it had become effortless.
The Necromancer became his friend and was willing to purchase his corpses. In return, he taught Li Ziran quite a bit about potions.
Sacred Potion, Paralysis Potion, Volcanic Potion that stimulated the bloodline, and Berserk Potion.
Potions were absolutely a more profound field of study than Witch Doctors, but unfortunately, he only knew their names and did not understand the full production process.
"Need a ride?"
An aged voice interrupted Li Ziran's memories. The speaker had a long beard and hard, curved horns.
Coiled-Horn Goatmen, the most hardworking race in the Wasteland, traveled the Wasteland in groups, seeking every job where they could earn money with brute strength.
Likewise, gathering together made it easier for slave caravans to capture them in the greatest numbers.
"Of course!" Li Ziran stood and smiled. Though Coiled-Horn Goatmen were the lowest sort of laborers, they were by no means harmless, especially at such a late hour.
But the swamp region Barbaro had told him about had made his heart itch unbearably. He had to hurry.
Swamps were pitifully scarce in the Wasteland, and they did not last long.
The abundant Water Element within a swamp would soon be devoured and destroyed by the Wasteland's dry hurricanes, and this newborn swamp would quickly become part of the Wasteland's parched earth.
By then, even the most beautiful Medusas would be unable to remain.
Corpses could keep him fed and clothed, but if he caught two Medusa slaves, he could buy two Devouring Curses from the Necromancer.
One for himself, and one for his teacher Watt.
"Are you a witch?" the Ram-headed People leader asked, looking at Li Ziran's patterned robe.
Li Ziran nodded and handed over a bottle of low-grade Healing Potion. "Chief, are you heading to the swamp in the northwest corner?"
The Ram-headed People accepted the potion and smiled. This kind of Healing Potion was the most sought-after, with demand exceeding supply. This tiny bottle could very well save three to five lives.
"Lots of people are heading there. There's plenty of work, but the fighting there is fierce. If you can give me another bottle, I can take you there especially!"
Li Ziran shook his head. He was not foolish enough to go that far. If he had another bottle, this group of Ram-headed People would probably start robbing him.
Spreading his hands, he smiled. "No more. I made this one with great difficulty. Give me a lift tonight, and I'll leave your group at daybreak!"
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