Chapter 485: Primary Emerald Body

He slept for seven or eight hours straight.

When he woke the next day, Gao De felt utterly refreshed.

The fatigue from refining spirit marrow and the negative effects of the slow-acting potion had vanished entirely.

The recovery power of a “robust” body was simply astonishing.

Gao De focused his awareness slightly and examined his condition. As expected:

【Your immunity to toxins has increased by 99.9%. Your body organs’ ability to digest, metabolize, and expel various toxins has increased by 99.9%.】

Fuck. Gao De lost his appetite entirely and immediately pulled out another vial of Tier-One hallucinogenic potion, opened it with practiced ease, and downed it in one gulp.

He refused to believe it!

Hallucinogenic potions induce intense hallucinations in the target, plunging them into mental chaos and rendering them unable to concentrate in combat.

Its onset and duration were far shorter than the other three potions, making its effects far more violent.

That’s the power of brute force.

After this vial entered his gut, the final barrier finally shattered.

Immediate, noticeable changes erupted within Gao De’s body.

In fact, it wasn’t just internal—this time, even his external body showed clear signs:

Faint emerald veins surfaced across his exposed skin, including his face and hands.

Though they vanished in an instant, they were undeniably there.

【Your immunity to toxins has increased by 100%. Your body organs’ ability to digest, metabolize, and expel various toxins has increased by 100%.】

The bottleneck had finally been breached.

The familiar flash before his eyes, the familiar white glow filling the room, the familiar daylight emerging.

A lock within his body shattered with a thunderous crack.

A cascade of information surfaced in his consciousness:

【Your body has endured continuous toxin exposure and refinement, gradually enhancing your immunity and metabolism of toxins, evolving into a Primary Emerald Body.】

【After evolving into a Primary Emerald Body, you gain extreme toxin resistance, immunity to most natural toxins (snake venom, poisonous mushrooms, etc.), significantly increased success rates in resisting low-tier magical toxins (corruption curses, etc.) and supernatural toxins (undead corpse poison, etc.), and greatly reduced symptoms upon poisoning.】

【Through constant consumption and metabolism of toxins, your bodily functions have been deeply optimized. You have gained the Purified Viscera, increasing the efficiency of your internal organs in metabolizing toxins and shortening the duration of poisoning.】

【Having accumulated extensive experience resisting toxins, your senses have become extraordinarily sensitive to them, allowing you to precisely detect potential toxin threats in your surroundings through subtle cues such as scent and taste.】

【Your blood can repel ordinary venomous insects and possesses mild detoxifying properties.】

My blood has mild detoxifying properties?

Gao De’s lips twitched.

Am I Tang Sanzang now?

This one was somewhat useless.

But the other three were extremely practical—worth every bit of his self-inflicted poisoning.

Toxin resistance needed no explanation—it offered dual utility in daily life and combat.

The Purified Viscera held deeper, long-term significance—it allowed Gao De to consume virtually any magical potion with relative impunity.

If cultivation were training, wouldn’t someone who could take drugs long-term with almost no side effects be considered a top-tier talent?

What delighted Gao De even more was that the Emerald Body, like the Ice-Protected Body, carried the prefix “Primary”—meaning 100% was not the limit, and further advancement toward Intermediate or Advanced Emerald Body was possible.

Satisfied, Gao De rose and rummaged through his wardrobe for a brand-new Sea Sentinel uniform.

—Promotion from Second-Class Apprentice Mage to First-Class Apprentice Mage brought a raise of five silver coins monthly, along with a new uniform.

The old Second-Class Apprentice uniform, per Sea Sentinel tradition, was not reclaimed—it was kept by the mage as a memento.

The First-Class Apprentice Mage uniform differed only minutely from the Second-Class version.

Apprentices were still soldiers, so they bore no official shoulder insignia—only a sleeve marking.

The Second-Class Apprentice uniform had a single copper star on the cuff; the First-Class version replaced it with two copper stars and added a small rune embroidery on the collar.

With his current runic knowledge, Gao De recognized the rune instantly as the Water Element rune.

He donned the new uniform, grabbed his coin purse, and stepped out.

First, he ate breakfast at the “mess hall,” then headed straight for the Sea Sentinel headquarters: the White Tower of the Deep.

His goal was clear.

It was merely March of Year 9658 of Nolran.

At his current cultivation pace, with even minor additional gains like spirit marrow, reaching sixty drops of liquid mana before year’s end was highly probable.

Not too close, yet not too far—just eight or nine months away.

Once his mana reached sixty drops and he broke into Late First Circle, he would need to begin planning for his Circle Ascension.

The most critical aspect was undoubtedly Awakening a Specialization.

To ensure he awakened an S-Rank Specialization upon reaching Second Circle, expanding his spell repertoire was now urgent.

Gao De currently knew thirty-two First Circle spells.

Though far fewer than the cantrips he knew upon entering First Circle, this number already surpassed all other First Circle mages.

But would Gao De be satisfied with this?

Naturally not.

Spells were all about more being better.

More spells benefited his Specialization Awakening and ensured he never lacked options.

Thus, his primary task ahead would be expanding his spell collection.

For him, the most practical way to expand it was through the Sea Sentinel exchange system.

Safe, stable, and with an exceptionally comprehensive archive of spell formulas.

The only drawback: all required substantial military merit.

—Of course, that was Gao De’s problem.

Nothing to be said about it.

Just work harder to earn military merit.

Open the scrolls!

Sea Sentinel mages earned military merit only by accepting and completing missions.

But for Sea Sentinel mages, it wasn’t just hard to complete missions—it was hard even to get them.

High-reward or easy, time-saving missions vanished within hours of being posted.

What remained were mostly difficult, time-consuming, or poorly rewarded tasks.

In terms of mission selection, Gao De held no advantage over others—he was even at a disadvantage.

Landing good missions depended on luck and how well-informed you were.

Noble mages had countless informants and received news of good missions almost instantly.

Sometimes, they learned of a mission before it was even posted.

But Gao De didn’t dwell on it.

If good missions were hard to grab, he’d take the bad ones.

Any mission would do.

Entering the first-floor hall of the Mage Tower, he approached the mission crystal panel and began selecting.

He was a man who listened, so he remembered the advice given by Captain Luo Er and Mage Lu Ping:

First, always accept missions within your capacity.

For Sea Sentinel mages, one failed mission could never be erased by ten successful ones.

Better to do less than to do wrong.

Second, avoid accepting missions from Lagos City for now.

Based on his First Circle strength, Gao De quickly filtered out two missions he could handle.

One was 【Decaying Tide】.

In the waters under Yisaka Town, under Dorn City’s jurisdiction, fish had died en masse, and patches of dark purple slime had appeared in some areas.

A mage was needed to identify the source of contamination and resolve it.

The other was 【Crab Infestation】.

Residents of Mont Town had found numerous empty sea turtle shells on the nearby beach, their flesh entirely hollowed out, leaving only brownish sandy residue.

The Sea Sentinels judged this to be the discarded shells of juvenile Shell-Stealing Crabs.

Shell-Stealing Crabs were Tier-One sea beasts, colonial creatures that grew to fist-size as adults, feeding on flesh; adult ones directly attacked passing creatures.

Juvenile Shell-Stealing Crabs, however, slipped unnoticed into living beings and devoured their flesh from within.

These aquatic beasts reproduced rapidly if food was abundant—a single oversight could lead to a full-scale Shell-Stealing Crab infestation.

For nearby residents, this posed a serious safety hazard.

Upon discovering Shell-Stealing Crab traces, immediate action was required to exterminate them before they could grow.

The Sea Sentinels had acted promptly and issued the mission.

One mission had been posted for four days, the other for two—neither had been claimed.

The reason was simple:

Too dangerous!

The 【Decaying Tide】 mission description was brief, omitting critical details.

In reality, past experience showed such mysterious dark purple slime was almost certainly caused by a leak from a local magical workshop, with toxic wastewater flowing through underground pipes into the water.

Magic workshops, as shops in the arcane field, are typically backed by local nobles or high-ring mages.

Even Sea Sentinel mages find it hard to contend with these local power brokers once they arrive.

Tasks face endless obstruction—not only are they hard to complete, but if hidden agendas lie behind them, murder and silencing have not been unheard of.

Thus, under such troublesome and high-risk conditions, this seemingly uncomplicated task has remained unclaimed for a long time.

As for the [Crab Infestation Risk], it is not because the Shell Thief crabs are particularly difficult to handle.

Rather, these Shell Thief crabs usually hide beneath the sand or among nearshore rocks, rarely moving.

Their bodies are tiny, their numbers vast, and they are extremely alert—any disturbance sends them vanishing instantly.

Though their combat power is weak, locating them all is a difficult task.

The most common procedure is to determine their activity range based on food remnants they leave behind, identifying their zones and scale of movement.

Then, during the peak hours of dawn and dusk—when Shell Thief crabs emerge to forage—teams lie in wait until the crabs surface.

The inconvenience and time consumption of this entire process are obvious.

Worse still, after the extermination operation ends, one must wait half a month for residents of Mont Town to confirm that no significant traces of Shell Thief crab activity remain in the surrounding seas and beaches before the task is considered fully completed.

If isolated traces are found, the task won’t be blocked—but if numbers are high, you must return and redo it, or accept failure.

Hence, though the [Crab Infestation Risk] task offers a full six Third-Class Merits, it has remained unclaimed for a long time.

Gao De scanned the two task descriptions, thought briefly, and combined with Master Lu Ping and Captain Luo Er’s warnings—he quickly decided on his choice.

"I'll take the [Crab Infestation Risk] task," he said, taking out his identification badge and stepping forward to hand it to the staff.

The staff, though unable to resist glancing at Gao De again, made no gasp of shock or offer of well-meaning advice like “know your limits”—he simply took the badge and completed the registration swiftly.

“Master Gao De, your task has been registered. May you complete it successfully!” he said, returning the badge.

After leaving the Sea Abyss White Tower, Gao De went to Green Wave Court to pick up Tuanzi, who had been fed a pile of high-grade blood food and had grown noticeably plumper.

After more than three months, Tuanzi—finally able to take on a mission again—had clearly “forgotten the pain after the wound healed,” completely forgetting his terrible experience in Marko District; he wagged his head excitedly.

But this time, Gao De truly had no intention of “tricking” him.

“Come in,” he said, feeding Tuanzi a piece of high-grade blood food newly brought from the Northern Frontier, then opening the capybara sack, its mouth aimed at Tuanzi.

Fortunately, after the Animal Shrinking Spell, Tuanzi could still easily slip into the capybara sack—though Gao De clearly felt the weight had increased.

Mont Town’s economy is relatively poorer; one obvious sign is that no airship base has been established there.

Thus, for this journey, Gao De’s transportation choice was no longer the most convenient and swift airship, but a ship.

Fortunately, Mont Town is a small town under Dun City, not especially far from it.

By passenger ship, the voyage usually takes over five hours—weather permitting.

Under such favorable terrain, coastal cities are heavily affected by maritime climate—but within Luo Jun’s inland regions, the weather is mostly excellent.

The Jin Quehua Dynasty, as the first human dynasty, is also the longest-lasting.

Beyond its heritage, depth, royal wisdom, and strength, its superior timing and geography have been indispensable to its enduring prosperity.

After boarding, Gao De released Tuanzi from the capybara sack, letting him swim freely underwater alongside the ship to Mont Town.

At the passenger ship’s speed, Tuanzi could swim for a full day and night without exhausting much energy—he would certainly prefer this over the stifling confinement of the sack.

The Jin Quehua Dynasty’s inland waterways are vast and complex, extremely dense, with countless tributaries, typical of a river valley plain terrain; the Great River and Great Lakes stretch for thousands of miles, surging ceaselessly like silver dragons.

This boundless water expanse nourished the lands on both banks, giving rise to the Jin Quehua Dynasty’s highly developed agriculture, sustaining countless humans.

Meanwhile, the waters themselves sustain countless other lifeforms.

Within these interwoven water systems, all manner of magical plants, treasures, minerals, and ferocious aquatic beasts are countless.

But aquatic treasures are mostly extremely hard to obtain.

First, they are perilous—danger comes not only from natural hazards like undercurrents and whirlpools, but also from lurking ferocious aquatic beasts ready to strike at any moment.

The deeper the water, the more ferocious the beasts hidden within.

Second, the water is murky, making treasures hard to find and harder to retrieve.

Only occasionally does someone get lucky, barely managing to recover a few scattered treasures from the water.

And today, Gao De’s luck seemed excellent.

The ship had only traveled halfway when Tuanzi, swimming freely underwater, surfaced with his round head near the vessel, slapping the water to draw Gao De’s attention.

Gao De heard the sound, walked to the rail, and looked down—he saw Tuanzi waving his flippers, signaling him.

He couldn’t help raising an eyebrow: “You’ve found something in the water?”

Tuanzi immediately bent his body, then snapped upright, repeating the motion three or four times, mimicking a human nod.

(End of Chapter)