Chapter 330: After the Battle

"Alright, you'll feel weak for the next few days—take it easy, rest up. Grab a bowl of vegetable porridge from the stall next door every day; you'll be back on your feet in three days."

Having treated another patient, Feng Xue wiped away nonexistent sweat and shook the bell on the table.

Although the high-level cultivators had used pre-arranged techniques to absorb most of the residual shock from the combined spell, cases of injuries from collapsing buildings, wind-induced trauma, sudden temperature shifts causing pathogenic winds to invade the body, or hailstorms triggered by subsequent violent weather were far from rare.

While other cultivators were assigned to restore the port city of Shenshuigang by acting as earth and wood immortals, Feng Xue was stationed within the city to treat the sick.

The sudden temperature spike from the explosion had now subsided, but that only meant more residents would fall ill in the coming days.

Fortunately, Feng Xue had a beast-medicine workshop (a food synthesis device) with unlimited antibiotic supply—without any supernatural power, common colds and flu were no longer a concern.

As the saying goes, sometimes the unplanted willow grows into shade: during this stretch of healing, Su'e Huiye had gathered considerable votive power, her spiritual essence growing ever more vivid—but Feng Xue knew this was as far as it could go.

The ritual for the mana computer was far too complex; with his current technical level, even after ten or twenty years of carving, he might still fail to produce a Talisman and Spell capable of hosting an AI template.

So Feng Xue planned to head to the Sea World afterward and borrow Xiao Lingling's 3D printer to directly print out a Talisman and Spell for the mana computer.

But that meant, before then, Su'e Huiye should remain in her dim, half-aware virtual spirit state—otherwise, once her cognition solidified, altering her later would become a nightmare.

Feng Xue had no intention of becoming one of those classic sci-fi scientists who, through carelessness, end up creating something completely uncontrollable.

He stretched out with full force, revealing a weary expression, nodded to a nearby cultivator, and walked toward the nearby tent.

"No, no! We've perfectly replicated the entire sequence—so why still can't reproduce the effect?"

"Maybe the snake's own structure reacted with our ritual?"

"That's troublesome—we can't easily find another virtual spirit identical to it."

"No need for perfect identity—just similar basic attributes. I inspected the blast site—the turbid obsessions forming the virtual spirit mostly dispersed; they likely didn't participate in the reaction. I think it was something like… ah, a catalyst—foreign chemistry term, meaning…"

"So basically, find a water- or poison-aligned virtual spirit? Antique dealer! You got any suitable ones?"

"I sell spirit ghosts, not virtual spirits—go find the shamans if you want virtual spirits!"

…

As Feng Xue reached the tent, he heard a group of cultivators gathered together, shouting. There was no helping it—the previous spell had been too dazzling; after casting it, they were still exhilarated and had banded together to study how to replicate it.

Fortunately, no one had died in this battle, and cultivators' memories allowed them to clearly recall their sequence—even if they forgot the overall order, they could still dredge up from their soul-sea who they passed the spell to and who passed it to them.

Thus, within a short time, the entire ritual was fully listed out.

But a problem emerged during this process: even after perfectly repeating the ritual without any simplification, the resulting spell's power was utterly disproportionate to its complexity—far, far short of the spell that had blasted a lake into existence.

If they had succeeded, the matter would've ended there—but precisely because they couldn't, more and more cultivators joined the discussion, determined to get to the bottom of it.

"Feng Daoist?" One cultivator noticed Feng Xue's arrival and waved. Feng Xue nodded and said:

"I'm exhausted today—I'm heading back to rest. Any Daoist skilled in medicine willing to take over for me?"

The cultivators understood perfectly—after all, he hadn't even entered the Dao yet and had drained all his mana, yet still persisted in using votive power to save lives. If they didn't let him rest now, what kind of people would they be?

Immediately, one cultivator said:

"I've been idle long enough—I'll go earn some merit too. If you make any progress, be sure to tell me!"

"Won't forget you!" Another cultivator laughed in reply, and the group resumed their discussion.

Listening to the spell research drifting into territory he could no longer comprehend, Feng Xue ultimately stuck to his persona—leaving behind only a cybernetic avatar of a small bell, under the pretense of leaving a teleportation coordinate.

This practice posed no issue—nearly every cultivator who could teleport left something behind. But unlike those who left behind spirit ghost traces or soul imprints, Xiao Lingling's avatar possessed computational power and subjective initiative, enabling her to record and analyze every conversation.

The cultivators, after all, had intended open discussion—they didn't worry about eavesdropping, which worked perfectly for Feng Xue.

He had no intention of replicating the "Bashu Explosion Bomb"—after all, its casting time was too long and its power excessive. Compared to the final spell, the knowledge and techniques inadvertently revealed during these masters' research into its implementation were what Feng Xue truly needed.

Whenever this happened, Feng Xue missed Old Li.

"That old man still owes me one day of teaching! Tsk—I'll compile all the key points, and next time I see him, I'll ask them all at once!"

Feng Xue muttered inwardly, pushed open his door. Shenshuigang grew more prosperous the closer it got to the harbor; Jilongzhai, far from the port, had suffered the least damage—his house, protected by spells, had escaped unscathed…

"Alright, there's a lot of ash."

He cast a Dust-Cleansing Talisman and Spell to clean the room, then released Liu Yunxi again.

"I thought you were going to run off again!"

Seeing they were home, Liu Yunxi finally sighed in relief, took the belongings from Feng Xue's hands, and began rearranging everything.

Feng Xue could only smile:

"Even if you say that, you always pack up before every battle. Not using the items is just a matter of rearranging—but if you really have to flee, anything left behind will need replacement."

Liu Yunxi had no rebuttal to Feng Xue's path dependency; she nodded and reinstalled Xiao Lingling's transmitter in the living room, then rebuilt the home network.

Seeing the network restored, Seeing Mo Ying joyfully emerged from her painting, clutching her phone, and flew toward her room—

"I'm exhausted these past two days—I'm taking two days off!"

"???"

(End of Chapter)