"Thanks for the hard work, boy. I'll need you to take me back in a bit." Su Er crouched down, rubbed Fang's soft ears, and slipped another piece of meat into his mouth.
The big dog whined and wagged his tail happily, then carried the meat off to one side and tucked into it.
Su Er straightened, surveyed his surroundings, and nodded in satisfaction.
Like a soft curtain, the moonlight draped everything in the clearing in a silvery-white coat, while everything beyond the clearing remained as dark as ever.
Perfect. Once the potion absorbed the essence of the moonlight, he could dig a hole nearby and bury it, then come back to collect it when the Lord of Thunder unleashed his might.
"Ptoo... ptoo, ptoo..." Su Er took out a small glass bottle. By the time he had barely filled it halfway, his mouth was unbearably dry, and all the while he had to be careful not to let the Mandrake leaf beneath his tongue fall out.
He had reached the crucial moment, with the timing and location just right. If he accidentally dropped the leaf now, all his efforts would come to nothing.
Try it yourself, and you would understand the suffering involved.
Fang had long since finished that large piece of meat and was sitting nearby, panting with his tongue out.
He blinked curiously as he watched Su Er. What was the two-legged creature doing?
Looking at the thick, bubbly liquid in the bottle, Su Er breathed a sigh of relief. With a deft curl of his tongue, he rolled the saliva-soaked leaf into his mouth.
"Ptoo..."
After soaking in saliva for a month, the originally bright green leaf had turned dark green.
"Please let this work on the first try. I don't want to go through this