A snake egg in the stomach, brewing a potion

Su Yuntao thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. He rubbed them and took another look at the soul ring around Duan Qingya.

The yellow hundred-year soul ring was now being steadily absorbed by Duan Qingya, without the slightest sign of dissipating.

"Huh? Did I see it wrong just now? No, I clearly saw that soul ring fading!"

After this little episode, Su Yuntao began wondering whether he had been indulging himself too much lately. Why else would he be hallucinating?

"Looks like I really need to try that prescription Old Zhao gave me when I get back."

Once Azure Chi had completely replaced the Azure-Scaled Snake King's Soul Imprint with its own, all the soul power remaining in the soul ring surged into Duan Qingya's body at once.

Hmm?! An unexpected bonus! Now I can run my cultivation method at full power.

Duan Qingya was delighted rather than alarmed by the sudden increase in soul power. During the absorption earlier, he had felt that it was coming in far too slowly.

A quarter of an hour passed. With not even a single soul beast nearby, Su Yuntao had grown so bored that he was starting to nod off.

"Senior, let's start dissecting the Azure-Scaled Snake King! If we wait any longer, the Snake Gallbladder won't be fresh."

Su Yuntao's eyelids had been drooping, but the sudden voice startled every trace of sleepiness out of him.

He looked up to see Duan Qingya holding the two knives he had just pulled out of the Azure-Scaled Snake King's head.

"Huh? You finished absorbing your soul ring already? That was a hundred-year soul ring!"

Su Yuntao's gaze kept darting between the Azure-Scaled Snake King and Duan Qingya as he spoke in disbelief.

In response to Su Yuntao's question, Duan Qingya sliced open the Azure-Scaled Snake King's belly and offered a somewhat perfunctory explanation:

"Maybe my martial soul is special and absorbs soul rings a little faster. But the Snake Gallbladder is our priority right now."

At the words "Snake Gallbladder," Su Yuntao immediately tossed his earlier doubts to the back of his mind. Rubbing his hands, he hurried over to watch Duan Qingya.

Before long, Duan Qingya removed the Azure-Scaled Snake King Gallbladder and placed it in Su Yuntao's hands.

Staring at the Snake Gallbladder in his hands, Su Yuntao was as delighted as Station Chief Yu receiving his gold Buddha on a jade throne, his eyes positively gleaming.

While Su Yuntao was admiring his Snake Gallbladder, Duan Qingya was about to retrieve the venom glands when he noticed something inside the Azure-Scaled Snake King's stomach.

Driven by curiosity, Duan Qingya slit open the Azure-Scaled Snake King's stomach as well. An overpowering, foul stench instantly spread through the air.

"Urgh! Urgh, urgh! Is there something wrong with you, kid?! Urgh!"

The smell was even worse than the stench from the Azure-Scaled Snake King's mouth earlier. Unable to bear it any longer, Su Yuntao ran off to the side with the Snake Gallbladder held aloft and vomited violently.

Prepared in advance, Duan Qingya had already held his breath and was watching what slid out of the Azure-Scaled Snake King's stomach.

The moment he spotted what he wanted, Duan Qingya took out a rag, fished it out of the stomach acid, and carried it beyond the reach of the stench.

Seeing Duan Qingya emerge with something, Su Yuntao stopped vomiting, wiped his mouth, and immediately hurried over behind him.

"A Snake Egg? What do you want that for? Don't tell me you're going to raise a soul beast?"

Once he saw that the object in the rag was a Snake Egg, Su Yuntao instantly lost interest and looked away in disgust.

Duan Qingya ignored Su Yuntao's muttering. Of course he had no intention of raising a Mandala Snake.

He had already decided to use this egg and the Azure-Scaled Snake King's venom glands as catalyst ingredients to make a Potion that would strengthen Azure Chi's poison attribute.

Only after most of the stench had dispersed did Duan Qingya return to the Azure-Scaled Snake King's corpse and cut out the venom glands.

"Congratulations, kid! You're a respected One-Ring Soul Master now! In a couple of days, you can come collect your soul master allowance."

"When you reach rank twenty, remember to let me know. I'll find you someone who charges little and gets the job done reliably."

Looking at Duan Qingya, who had received his One-Ring Soul Master certification, Su Yuntao suddenly felt a swell of pride, as though Duan Qingya were his own younger brother.

After everything that had happened that day, Su Yuntao and Duan Qingya had unknowingly grown a little closer.

"Sure! Sorry for the trouble in advance, Senior!"

Duan Qingya had not expected Su Yuntao to be so enthusiastic. He had originally planned to approach the principal of the Nuoding City Junior Soul Master Academy for his second soul ring.

But now that Su Yuntao had offered to help, Duan Qingya naturally would not refuse. After all, he had no connection to the principal.

After bidding Su Yuntao farewell, Duan Qingya returned to the Pharmacy. He needed its Medicinal Herbs to make his Potion.

"Oh, Qingya, you're back! How's the soul skill you got? Is it a really powerful one?"

Seeing Duan Qingya appear outside the Pharmacy with a bundle on his back, Ling Zhi immediately stopped laying out Medicinal Herbs to dry and hurried over to greet him.

In answer to Ling Zhi's question, Duan Qingya wasted no words. He summoned his martial soul and displayed his newly acquired hundred-year soul ring.

"It's all thanks to your investment, Boss Ling. Otherwise, I never would have encountered that Azure-Scaled Snake King over four hundred years old and obtained my first soul skill, Azure-Scale Bind."

"Over four hundred years old? Didn't you say you were hunting one a little over three hundred? How much extra did that soul master from the Spirit Hall charge?"

Hearing that the target soul beast's age had suddenly changed, Ling Zhi grew anxious. He was afraid Duan Qingya had taken out a high-interest loan because he lacked the money.

"He didn't. I gave him the Azure-Scaled Snake King Gallbladder to settle the bill and brought back the remaining venom glands."

As he spoke, Duan Qingya showed Ling Zhi the Azure-Scaled Snake King's processed venom glands.

Ling Zhi knew Duan Qingya had taken dissection tools with him, but he had not expected him to be able to extract the Snake Gallbladder intact.

Ling Zhi still felt that using the gallbladder to settle the bill was a bit of a loss. Even the poor-quality one from before had fetched such a high price.

The two chatted for a while longer before Duan Qingya took an advance on half of next month's wages and bought a pile of Medicinal Herbs.

"Are you going to use the venom glands in a potion?"

Seeing the pile of Medicinal Herbs Duan Qingya had bought, Ling Zhi knew he was going to use his unique method to brew another Potion.

"Yes. Would you like to watch this time, Boss Ling? If so, I can go a little slower."

Duan Qingya knew Ling Zhi was curious about his potion-making method. However, it was built upon his beast taming talent and could not be learned merely by studying it.

At Duan Qingya's invitation, Ling Zhi gave a wry smile and waved him off.

After watching several times, Ling Zhi had already deduced that Duan Qingya's potion-making method never relied on fixed steps, but on his personal understanding of the Medicinal Herbs.

And that talent for sensing Medicinal Herbs so precisely was something Ling Zhi would never possess in his lifetime.

Despite saying he would not watch, Ling Zhi could not resist sneaking a glance at Duan Qingya as he brewed the Potion.

Only when he saw Duan Qingya operating five pieces of potion-making equipment at once did Ling Zhi realize just how much he had slowed down on previous occasions.

Good heavens! Is this Duan Qingya's normal brewing speed? And how does he operate several pieces of equipment at once?

As he brewed the Enhancement Potion, Duan Qingya finally experienced the joy of potion-making from his previous life again.

Just as I thought, soul power mixed with mental power is easier to control than soul power alone! This increases my brewing efficiency who knows how many times over.

Having successfully mixed mental power into his soul power through the beast taming space, Duan Qingya secretly rejoiced.

This technique was something every Beast Tamer who could make potions in his previous life had to learn, because with each evolution of a Tamed Beast, the number of Medicinal Herbs required grew explosively.

Even now, Duan Qingya still remembered how, lacking Pure Dragon Blood as a catalyst ingredient, he had been forced to add over a hundred and eighty more Medicinal Herbs to refine Wyvern Blood.

A quarter of an hour later, a bottle of dark green, sweet-smelling liquid stood before Duan Qingya.

"The Primary Poison Attribute Enhancer is a success!"