The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#361 - try

Although that dragon葵 plant was ultimately ruined by Lu Jing, he wasn't too disappointed; on the contrary, he felt quite encouraged.

Since he had succeeded once, it proved that his previous explorations were not flawed.

He just needed to continue practicing in this direction. Anyway, he wasn't lacking in mystic force and didn't need to stop and recover after casting a few spells like others did.

So, for the next two hours, Lu Jing continuously cast the Verdant spell on the back mountain.

Later on, he succeeded roughly three times out of every ten casts, which was an astonishing efficiency for a beginner.

Overall, Lu Jing was quite satisfied with this spell.

In the following week, Lu Jing also tested formations and talismans. He both loved and hated formations. Under normal circumstances, the consumption rate of mystic force was obviously not as high as his continuous spellcasting, but once there was a strong enemy in the formation, his mystic force consumption rate would increase significantly.

It could even exceed the cultivation of the Imperial Sword Technique, but unfortunately, Lu Jing couldn't find a suitable sparring partner.

Talismans, on the other hand, were somewhat like power banks, writing the spells on the talisman paper in advance. When needed, only a small amount, or even no mystic force, was required to activate them.

But the prerequisite was that you had to be rich enough. The talisman paper for making talismans, as well as the pigments and brushes needed for drawing them, were all specially made and expensive. They were not like the casually drawn talismans in the hands of wandering Taoist priests.

Lu Jing was now impoverished due to the sword, burdened with huge debts, and without a mineral vein at home. Furthermore, drawing talismans required a lot of time and even learning painting and calligraphy. Therefore, Lu Jing quickly gave up on it.

Perhaps one day, when he solved the problem of increasing his mystic force and paid off the more than three hundred thousand taels of silver he owed Chi, he could consider converting the mystic force he didn't use every day into talismans to carry with him.

In addition to these, Lu Jing also learned about weapon refining and alchemy, but these two were actually more like composite disciplines.

Taking weapon refining as an example, it was actually a combination of spells, formations, and talismans.

Weapon refiners needed to control fire with formations and combine various spells to achieve the various environmental conditions required for smelting. Then, they would inscribe runes on the magical weapon. The whole process was complicated, and most importantly, it wasted too much time on things unrelated to mystic force consumption.

For example, Chi actually spent most of her time searching for and experimenting with new weapon refining materials, which was also the main reason why Lu Jing didn't want to refine weapons with her.

However, as for elixirs, Lu Jing was indeed a little tempted after asking Ding Liu.

According to Ding Liu, there should be elixirs in this world that could consume mystic force, and even elixirs that could control the Niwan Palace from expanding further.

It's just that Lu Jing himself didn't have the time to learn it. The complexity of alchemy was even greater than that of weapon refining, and it also required medical skills as a prerequisite.

Seeing the little medicine boy Xin Xin identifying medicines and wailing like a ghost, Lu Jing gave up on the idea.

However, although he himself didn't plan to practice alchemy, he didn't want to give up on this path. When providing Dharma protection for the green-shirted girl's cultivation of the Myriad Poisons Returning to the Source, Lu Jing took the initiative to bring up this matter.

It just so happened that the latter was now organizing prescriptions with Ding Liu, and she was originally from Myriad Poisons Valley and knew alchemy, so learning alchemy should be twice as effective with half the effort.

However, Lu Jing didn't expect the green-shirted girl to give him a somewhat unexpected answer after a long silence.

"I can't cultivate mystic force."

"Why?" Lu Jing asked strangely.

He had asked the Little Marquis, and the academy did not prohibit the paper figures in Mirror Lake Valley from cultivating mystic force. Most of the places in the library were also open to paper figures, but some paper figures were lazy and didn't want to cultivate themselves.

But the green-shirted girl, who was burdened with deep blood feuds, obviously did not belong to this category.

Speaking of which, Lu Jing seemed to have asked the green-shirted girl a similar question before, but at that time she lied, saying that she couldn't deal with peerless masters with spells alone.

Lu Jing felt a little strange at the time. There was nothing wrong with this statement. It was indeed difficult to kill powerful masters with spells alone, but having spells would always be more advantageous than not having them when fighting. For example, a Body Lightening Spell could take one's Qinggong to the next level.

For another example, if two masters with similar martial arts realms, if one side knew the Invisibility Spell, they could also occupy a considerable initiative. Lu Jing himself had learned in Bietian Cave how terrifying a master who had practiced the Invisibility Spell to the extreme was.

And this time, perhaps because of the life-saving grace before, the green-shirted girl finally told the truth.

"When Myriad Poisons Valley was destroyed, I met Guo Shaojian when I had nowhere to go. He brought me back to the academy. He saw my aptitude for cultivating mystic force and wanted me to become a student of the academy, but the prerequisite was that I had to give up revenge," the green-shirted girl said, "Because only in this way could I pass the academy's entrance exam."

"But for me, if I really gave up revenge, then living would be no different from dying, so I would rather choose to be a paper figure in Mirror Lake Valley, but as a price, Guo Shaojian also does not allow me to cultivate mystic force," the green-shirted girl explained, "Because he knows that if I practice mystic force, I might end up using this power for revenge."

"Is that so?" Lu Jing couldn't help but feel a little regretful when he heard this.

He had originally hoped that the green-shirted girl could help him research poisons related to mystic force. After all, when it came to using poison, the green-shirted girl, as a remnant of Myriad Poisons Valley, even if she wasn't the best in the world, she was definitely among the top.

If he also had Ding Liu's help, maybe she could really research a poison that could consume mystic force, but now it seemed that this path was temporarily impossible.

The green-shirted girl's gaze towards Lu Jing became a little strange, "It was one thing for you to want a poison that could consume internal force before, but why do you want a poison that can consume mystic force this time? Could it be that you have made some enemies in the academy again?"

Lu Jing said vaguely, "Almost, don't worry... he is also a righteous person."

However, this time the green-shirted girl was rarely silent. After a moment, she said, "Be careful not to be discovered by the academy's instructors and be kicked out of here."

After a pause, she added, "I'm not worried about you. The main reason is that after you leave, no one will provide Dharma protection for me to cultivate the Myriad Poisons Returning to the Source."