Chapter Forty-Nine: Healing Wounds "Magical Items?"
The little boy shook his head. "Those are really precious things! The auction house only sold a single low-grade Magical Item last year, and even a full-fledged
"I see! Take me to the weapon shop!"
Leilin followed the little boy to the Fire Hammer Workshop.
"Hey! Papa Beard, I brought you some business!" The boy started shouting the moment he stepped inside the workshop.
"Coming, coming!" The shopkeeper indeed had a very thick beard. He wasn't tall, but the muscles on his arms were hard and taut, giving off a powerful impression.
"Hello! Esteemed guest! I'm the owner of the Fire Hammer Workshop — you can call me Blackhammer!" The shopkeeper introduced himself.
"I need a Cross Sword!" Leilin stated his purpose. His previous Cross Sword had been destroyed during the battle with the mutated Green Tree Spirit, and finding one of better quality wouldn't be easy.
"A Cross Sword? Right this way!" Blackhammer unhooked the wineskin from his waist, took a swig, and a strong whiff of alcohol filled the air.
"Didn't I tell you to drink less?" The little boy frowned and covered his nose.
"Hic… Yeg, you're still just a kid. You don't understand the pleasure of fine wine!" Blackhammer shook his head and led Leilin over to a wooden rack.
"All our finished Cross Swords are right here. Feel free to pick one out. Of course, if nothing satisfies you, we can also do custom orders. As for the price…"
When it came to pricing, Blackhammer spoke with perfect clarity — nothing like a man who'd been drinking.
Leilin casually looked over the longswords on the rack. They had clearly been sharpened, their silvery blades gleaming with a bloodthirsty luster.
He picked one up at random, and a fine, solid texture transmitted through his palm. It was quite heavy.
"The blade is forged entirely from fine steel with Star Iron added in. The grip is wrapped in black silkworm thread to prevent slipping…" Blackhammer introduced from the side.
Leilin nodded, set the longsword back on its yellow-wood rack, and picked up another one beside it.
This Cross Sword's exterior was somewhat darkened, radiating a steady, composed luster.
"A longsword forged from Donuo Alloy — the blade has been treated to effectively resist corrosion, fire, and similar damage!"
"Oh?" Leilin's interest was piqued. "Can it resist a Wizard's spells as well?"
"Of course not!" Blackhammer shook his head immediately. "To counter spells, you'd need to inscribe runes on the blade and incorporate rare alchemical materials. A longsword made that way would already be a Magical Item — there's no way it would be put up for sale out here..."
"My apologies — I'm being too greedy." Leilin shook his head.
He picked up the dark, blackish longsword. "I'll take this one. And prepare twenty crossbow bolts as well..."
"Certainly! The price is..." Blackhammer's eyes lit up, too excited to even bother with his drink.
Once Leilin and the boy left the weapon shop, he hung the Cross Sword at his waist and pulled out a Magic Stone, tossing it to the boy.
"This is your pay for today! I'd like to walk around on my own for a while."
"Of course! Enjoy yourself!" A look of pleasant surprise appeared on the boy's face. He stowed the Magic Stone safely and jogged off.
Leilin stood at the roadside, watching until the boy's figure disappeared from sight, then turned and made his way back to the original stall area, browsing casually.
He wasn't sure how long he'd been wandering — he'd simply gone through every wooden shop in the central area — before finally stepping into a store with a test tube painted on its sign.
"Sir, is there anything I can help you with?" The attendant was a young man, dressed in clothing resembling a suit.
Leilin surveyed the potions on the shelves — the crystal vials shimmered in a variety of brilliant colors, and various rare materials were displayed inside the transparent glass counter.
"Looks like this shop is a bit more capable than that chubby Wus's place!" Leilin nodded to himself.
"I need Firebird feathers, Multi-tailed Owl eyeballs, Human-headed Bird feathers, Pink Ink Oil, and Green Coconut Stones..."
Leilin rattled off the materials at a quick pace — some were medicinal ingredients needed for treating injuries, while others were raw materials for the Explosive Potion and other basic potions.
The attendant listened quietly until Leilin finished, then bowed and said, "I apologize, but I must ask — are you an Apothecary?"
"I've done a little research, that's all." Leilin's entire face was concealed beneath his cloak, making his expression invisible to the attendant.
"The Walker Family cordially extends an invitation to an Apothecary of your caliber. Our terms are absolutely the best among Wizard families of comparable standing..." The attendant bowed even lower.
Leilin had fully anticipated this. Apothecaries were notoriously difficult to train, yet Wizards could not do without the various potions they produced. As a result, Wizard families all offered generous terms to recruit them.
He needed to buy raw materials, and his identity as an Apothecary was impossible to conceal. But as long as no one discovered his true talent, there was no need to worry about others knowing — after all, unless he revealed it himself, no one could possibly tell whether the person across from him was a Grandmaster Apothecary or merely an apprentice.
"I'll consider it. Do you have the materials I listed earlier?" Leilin's voice came out hoarse and rasping.
"We have two Firebird feathers in stock. As for Multi-tailed Owl eyes, we have one pair, though they've been sitting for three years and their potency has degraded somewhat. Human-headed Bird feathers, Pink Ink Oil, Green Coconut Stone — we have all of those as well. And also…"
The attendant seemed to have every item in the shop memorized. After a brief moment of thought, the words tumbled out in a rapid stream.
Leilin nodded. Wizards cultivated Spiritual Power primarily, and each advancement developed the brain further. As a result, all Wizards were intelligent people. Leilin even predicted that once a Wizard reached a sufficiently lofty realm, their brain could rival the processing speed of an intelligent Chip.
"I'll take all of them. Give me the price!" Leilin nodded.
"The total comes to one hundred and fifty-seven Magic Stones!" the attendant said with a smile.
Leilin nodded and produced a small box from inside his cloak — something he had prepared beforehand. He opened it, revealing row upon row of slender vials filled with a pale blue liquid.
"Take a look. These are all Stamina Potions." Leilin pushed the vials toward the attendant.
The Stamina Potion was one of the most basic potions. Virtually every Potionology apprentice chose it as the first potion they ever refined. The attendant's expression showed visible disappointment upon seeing them.
But the look was quickly suppressed, and the attendant set to work inspecting the vials.
"Thirty Stamina Potions. I can offer you one hundred and thirty Magic Stones!" the attendant said.
Leilin silently agreed. Back in Wus, these would fetch at most one hundred and twenty Magic Stones. The prices outside were indeed higher — but so was the danger.
"Deal!" Leilin counted out another twenty-seven Magic Stones and handed them to the attendant.
"Bring me my materials!"
"Certainly, please wait a moment!" The attendant tucked away the potions and coins, then hurried off to the back.
Leilin waited for roughly ten more minutes before the attendant returned, carrying a small wooden case.
"Here are the goods you requested. Please inspect them!"
Leilin opened the wooden case. Inside, wooden dividers separated the interior into individual compartments. Nestled within each small cell were various potion-making ingredients — colorful feathers, green stones, assorted powders, and more.
Leilin's fingers brushed lightly over the materials. "Chip! Scan…"
Only after the Chip confirmed that all the potion-making materials had passed inspection did Leilin pack up the case, stand, and leave the apothecary shop.
"I'm only selling the most basic Stamina Potions, but the materials I'm buying are so complex that even I can't tell their specific uses — there's no way they could guess!"
Leilin concealed the case beneath his black robes and wandered around a few more times before finally making his way out of the market at a leisurely pace.
"Most importantly, my total transaction only comes to about a hundred-odd Magic Stones. If the Walker Family were to covet even this little bit of profit, their reputation would have been ruined beyond repair long ago!"
With the Chip's detection mode running at maximum the entire time, Leilin confirmed that no one was following him before finally leaving the Lost Forest.
Ever since the incident last time, Leilin had relocated his camp. The place he lived in now was a cave, and as for its former resident — a black bear — it had long since become Leilin's dinner.
Bang!!
Leilin arranged several large cases together to form a makeshift workbench, then laid out the apothecary's tools on top of it one by one.
"Finally, I'm going to be rid of this damn bacteria!" Leilin said through clenched teeth. "The burning sensation that comes every single day, the restrictions on my constitution and strength — I've had enough of it all!"
Leilin picked up a green stone whose surface bore the image of a leaf.
It was a Green Coconut Stone, a peculiar product that was half plant, half mineral.
He crushed the Green Coconut Stone into powder, then heated the Pink Ink Oil. When bubbles began to form inside, he added the powder in.
Hiss-hiss!!! The moment the Green Coconut Stone powder was poured into the Pink Ink Oil, it let out a piercing sound.
The Pink Ink Oil instantly turned green and gave off a strange, sweet fragrance.
"Potion preparation successful!!!" Upon hearing the Chip's notification, Leilin nodded slightly.
He stripped off all his clothes. All over his body, burn scars of every kind covered his skin. On his shoulder and on his lower abdomen, there was one particularly horrific wound each, and surrounding each wound was a ring of hair-like fuzz.
"
The green potion inside the test tube immediately began to boil, vaporizing ceaselessly, and the smell in the air grew even stronger.
Sizzle!!! The fuzz surrounding Leilin's wounds seemed to come alive, surging out from around the wounds and wriggling its way toward the test tube.
"Ngh!!!" Leilin gritted his teeth, letting the fuzz continue to push its way out.
After more than ten minutes, the black fuzz around Leilin's wounds had completely vanished, and the original test tube had turned into a ball of black hair.
Leilin's expression was indifferent. He wiped away the cold sweat, lit a feather, and tossed it onto the hair ball.
"Woo woo..."
Green flames began to burn, and from within came the sound of a woman weeping — the voice was somewhat similar to
Many hair strands tried to escape, but Leilin used a milky-white flame to firmly seal them inside a small circle, leaving them no choice but to endure the burning.