Mortal: Fairy Song Yu has issued you a task.

Chapter 55 Alchemy and Pharmacology, Worm-like Monsters

Having already achieved some success in weapon crafting, Lin Jingchu naturally couldn't neglect alchemy. After settling the rent for the weapon crafting room and resting for a day, he received the Song Yu alchemy experience as a system reward.

Just like last time, Lin Jingchu's consciousness sank, and he entered Song Yu's body. Half a day later, he opened his eyes with a bored expression.

Like other arts and crafts, alchemy is profound and complex. It is not enough to simply master the formulas, the temperature control, and the techniques for condensing the elixir; more importantly, one must have a deep understanding of the essential characteristics of various medicinal materials and spiritual substances.

In his past cultivation, Lin Jingchu had never ventured into alchemy, so he was completely ignorant about it.

Furthermore, Song Yu was not yet twenty years old, and his accumulated experience in alchemy was incomparable to Elder Feng's hundreds of years of experience in weapon crafting, thus his contribution to Lin Jingchu's improvement was incomparable.

"It seems I'll have another person to chat with Song Yu about. I'll ask her for advice on pharmacology when the time comes."

Thinking of this, a flash of inspiration struck him, and he took out the mortal martial arts manual he had found along with the miscellaneous records—"Blood Soul Blade Technique".

This seemingly ordinary skill, which sacrifices one's own vital energy in exchange for a short-term surge in power, naturally comes with a set of methods to strengthen the body and enhance the source of vital energy.

That involves using a variety of precious medicinal herbs to make a soup bath, and while soaking in the bath, practicing specific techniques to absorb the medicinal power and strengthen the body.

This method is useless to cultivators; they would definitely use the medicinal materials to refine elixirs that would aid their cultivation.

Moreover, when cultivators absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, it subtly nourishes their physical bodies. Although the effect is generally moderate, it is no less effective than the arduous training of ordinary people.

But it was different for Lin Jingchu. He had Song Yu's Heavenly Spiritual Root, and before entering the Core Formation stage, he did not have an urgent need to use pills to assist his cultivation.

In addition, now that he can set up formations and refine weapons, earning spirit stones to buy spiritual herbs and materials is not difficult.

After gaining a thorough understanding of pharmacology, he could then begin to improve the medicinal bath formula, replacing the original formula with more potent spiritual ingredients to significantly enhance its body-strengthening effect.

From then on, Lin Jingchu returned to his former rhythm of cultivation. He would meditate quietly under the moon every day, and in his spare time, he would go to Song Yu's cave on White Phoenix Peak to have in-depth exchanges with her.

Song Yu was very surprised, not expecting that Lin Jingchu was involved in alchemy. He immediately took it upon himself to act as a teacher and began to role-play.

In addition, during this period, Lin Jingchu also accepted two commissions from his fellow disciples in the sect, earning some spirit stones—one for setting up a magic array and the other for refining a magic weapon.

Time flies, and more than twenty days have passed in the blink of an eye.

One morning, Lin Jingchu was in his cave reading through a pharmacology book he had borrowed from Song Yu.

He had deduced suitable high-level spiritual materials to replace most of the ingredients in the body-strengthening medicinal bath recipe, but he had not yet found an ideal substitute for one key ingredient—"scorpion tail grass".

The role of this herb in medicinal baths is to "solidify" and "suppress" vital energy, preventing the body from instinctively resisting the medicine due to its overpowering effects, thus making it difficult to absorb the medicine.

The problem is that while scorpion grass can suppress mortal true energy, it cannot suppress the spiritual power and magical power of cultivators.

The spiritual herbs and materials that can effectively suppress poison are either highly poisonous, which the current physical body cannot withstand, or they are too expensive to consume.

Just as Lin Jingchu was frowning in deep thought, a sound transmission talisman flew through the barrier into the cave. It was none other than Senior Brother Ye, whom he hadn't seen for almost two months, coming to visit.

"Senior Brother Ye, it's been a long time." Lin Jingchu stood up and came out of the cave to greet him. "I thought you had already found a way to deal with that worm-like monster."

Senior Brother Ye was filled with frustration: "Sigh! Don't even mention it, those demonic insects are incredibly troublesome. Every time we severely injure them, they burrow underground and escape. In the blink of an eye, a new swarm of insects emerges, it's truly exhausting."

"What's more troublesome is that the protective mucus on the surface of that demonic insect will dry up and turn into dust once it leaves the body or if the demonic insect has been dead for too long. After much thought, I've decided that the only way to help you deal with the problem is to capture one alive."

"A few days ago, we finally managed to catch one. But this worm's slimy, foul-smelling liquid is incredibly foul. Should we release it here directly?"

Upon hearing this, Lin Jingchu immediately led Senior Brother Ye to a secluded open area by a stream in the valley.

Upon arriving at the destination, Senior Brother Ye slapped the spirit beast pouch at his waist! A large iron cage, about ten feet square, crashed to the ground with a "boom." The demonic insects inside the cage, jolted by the impact, flung out a large amount of black, viscous liquid.

In an instant, Lin Jingchu smelled an extremely earthy and foul odor, like fermented tofu and braised carp that had been simmering in a pot for days.

Fortunately, Lin Jingchu was standing far enough away that he wasn't splashed, otherwise the cloud-patterned robe given to him by his senior sister would have been ruined.

The worm-like monster, about two zhang long and coiled up in the iron cage, suddenly raised its front end, revealing a ferocious mouth covered with layers of fine, sharp teeth, and bit down hard in the direction of the two people.

With a clang, the heavy iron cage artifact wobbled slightly from the impact.

When the demonic insect saw that its attack was thwarted, it began to wriggle and its muscles began to contract, as if it were about to spew out acid.

Senior Brother Ye made a hand seal with his fingers.

Crack!

A blinding arc of electricity instantly shot up from the iron cage.

The demonic insect thrashed and struggled violently in the cage, emitting sharp hisses incessantly. After being electrocuted for more than ten breaths, it finally collapsed limply and stopped moving.

"Then, Junior Brother Lin, I'll leave this demonic insect to you. If you manage to develop a suitable counter-array, just let me know when you arrive at my cave. I'll be in the sect these days."

Senior Brother Ye handed the incantation to control the iron cage and the spirit beast pouch to Lin Jingchu before leaving the valley.

Lin Jingchu first went back to his cave dwelling, changed out of his outer robe, and retrieved some items needed for his research before returning to the location of the iron cage.

He approached. The insect demon was plump, its body covered in a layer of black mucus. It sensed Lin Jingchu approaching and shook its head slightly, as if trying to raise it.

Lin Jingchu showed no mercy, pinching a magic seal with his fingers and giving it another electric shock. The effect was remarkable, and the insect demon quickly fell asleep peacefully.

Seeing this, Lin Jingchu took out his Embroidered Spring Blade, hesitated for a moment, and then put it back—he couldn't let this foul-smelling substance soil his sword.

He turned and went to the bamboo grove, broke off a bamboo branch, and used a bamboo knife to scrape off the black slime from the insect demon's body.

The mucus was unusually viscous and did not adhere to anything easily; it took the bamboo knife a lot of effort to scrape off a small piece.

Lin Jingchu made a move in mid-air, and dozens of array flags of different colors and patterns flew out of his storage bag. He set up the most basic five single-attribute spirit arrays, including metal, wood, and so on.

He then placed the small piece of black slime into each of the arrays, carefully sensing the subtle reactions and changes the arrays produced, and meticulously recording the observations for comparison.

"This black viscous liquid is quite peculiar. It actually repels all five elements of spiritual power to varying degrees? Although the metal element seems to be slightly more effective, it is still extremely limited. Even if a high-level metal-based offensive array is set up, its power will probably be weakened by more than 60 or 70%."

He shook off the grayish-white dust in his hand that smelled only of earth—the slime that had been detached from his body for too long—and then summoned several other sets of array flags.

Since the Five Elements spiritual power is not effective, let's try the abnormal spiritual power such as wind, thunder, and ice.