Chapter 41: Witch's Potion

"Look into my eyes."

"Look at me!"

Lu Mingfei's deep voice rang out, his tone carrying a hint of impermissibility, like a lion that had just woken from a long slumber, addressing the subjects of its territory.

"Pfft—!" Su Lin glanced over and couldn't hold it in.

"Sorry, pfft hahahaha!"

Before him was a round creature, its swollen face squeezing a pair of golden eyes — if one didn't look carefully, it would be hard to even find where the eyes were.

"Don't you feel even a shred of guilt?!"

This ball in front of him — no, the pressure released from Lu Mingfei's golden pupils was enough to make a hybrid's heart tremble.

"Are you even still human?"

"But you can't blame me entirely for this." Su Lin's trembling laughter came in waves, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably: "I brought you to find the sensation of Qi, and after you found it and passed two barriers, you just stopped."

"What normal person would sit in one spot meditating and drawing in Qi without even learning an introductory cultivation method?"

Zhongli shook his head at the side — the moment he walked in, he saw a round, rolling ball of flesh.

Yet Lu Mingfei himself hadn't even noticed, and kept drawing in Qi.

Su Lin took out his phone and snapped a photo, ignoring Lu Mingfei's resentful little look.

"I sent you a message saying you could come find us in Rong City when you were free, but instead you just sat here meditating and cultivating for an entire day."

"How was I supposed to know cultivation could be this addictive?"

Indeed, one couldn't really blame Lu Mingfei — when a living being draws spiritual energy into its body, it's like someone who hasn't eaten or drunk water for a long time; they keep wanting to satisfy that instinct.

It was a feeling of satisfaction like parched land finally meeting sweet rain after a long drought.

When Su Lin first sensed the Qi of heaven and earth, he was just like Lu Mingfei — except back then he had a method to refine that Qi.

"Can I still go back to how I looked before?" Lu Mingfei asked glumly.

"Of course, you just need to refine all this Qi away." Zhongli pulled a bamboo scroll from a wooden rack: "Then I'll leave Lu Mingfei to you."

"No problem."

Zhongli nodded and walked into the house. After the rows of bookshelves shifted and rearranged several times, his figure could no longer be seen.

"About how long until I go back to normal?" Lu Mingfei asked.

He really didn't want to return to One's Own World looking like this — if that were the case, he'd have to find a new world to take him in for a few more months; he couldn't exactly say he'd gotten swollen just from going to the bathroom.

"Slow, a few days; fast, just one night." Su Lin patted Lu Mingfei's belly.

"That's alright then, that's alright then…"

Lu Mingfei let out a long breath and finally relaxed.

"When Zhongli held up a mirror for me earlier, I thought my whole body was about to explode."

Su Lin wrapped a ball of spiritual energy around Lu Mingfei's body, flicked a finger, and Lu Mingfei floated into the air. A wisp of Jin Guang turned into a thread that wound around Lu Mingfei, like holding the string of a balloon.

"It's not that easy to explode — your body is that of a hybrid to begin with, and you've eaten so many spirit fruits before."

Crack.

"If you don't refine it, this spiritual energy will stay in your body for at most two weeks before it leaks out on its own."

Crack crack.

"I've put up with you for way too long!" Lu Mingfei roared from behind: "Can you stop pointing the camera at me for a selfie?!"

Leaving Wangshu Pavilion, Su Lin glanced at the mountain forest — there were a few spots of cultivation fluctuation within, swallowing up the surrounding spiritual energy.

He found a quiet spot in the opposite direction and set things up casually.

"This'll do." Su Lin patted Lu Mingfei and set him down:

"You little brat just cultivate well right here."

Actually, being indoors wouldn't have affected it either — it was just that for the first time cultivating, being close to nature allowed a more intuitive feel of the changes in the surrounding spiritual energy.

"You didn't forget to tell me anything this time, right?" Lu Mingfei asked worriedly.

"Nope."

Su Lin waved his hand and left without looking back.

Though it was almost the second day already, Lu Mingfei didn't feel the slightest bit of fatigue — right now, he just wanted to cultivate.

Following the meridian route in his mind, the spiritual energy piled up in his body began to peel away from his flesh like silk being drawn from a cocoon, integrating into his body in a more refined way.

In the surrounding trees, grass, and even the sky, many specks of light appeared…

Gradually, Lu Mingfei lost himself once more in this cultivation of life-level evolution.

Cultivation makes me happy….

The ancients truly did not deceive me!

The second day, afternoon

Miss Kelaien walked back from Rong City sipping a cup of milk tea and carrying a few fried skewers. He saw Su Lin lying bored on a wooden armchair, scrolling through videos on his phone.

"Oh, you're back." Su Lin greeted him.

"Didn't you go cultivate?" Miss Kelaien had seen no activity in the group chat and had assumed everyone had gone off to cultivate.

Having slept until he woke naturally, he wandered around the city, had lunch, bought some snacks, and figured he'd come up to Water Mirror Peak for a walk to help digest.

After arriving here yesterday, he hadn't taken a proper look at the scenery on this floating island.

It was time to switch from the industrial style and Western classical aesthetic of Backlund.

"Cultivate early or late, it's all cultivation; refine early or late, it's all refining." Su Lin didn't stand on ceremony — he pulled a fried starch sausage from the plastic bag Miss Kelaien was carrying, evenly coated with a mix of chili oil and spices.

"Not used to living here?" Su Lin asked.

As the administrator of Water Mirror Peak's permissions, he could be informed of anyone passing through the teleportation gate.

"Mm, I feel I'm more used to living in the city," Miss Kelaien said.

"Is that so."

Su Lin thought for a moment, then took out a rectangular jade pillar from his system backpack, carved with several beasts he had never seen before.

"Take it."

Miss Kelaien took the jade carving and asked, "What is this?"

"To a certain extent, it can resist spiritual corruption."

This sect didn't leave behind many resources, and this counted as one of them.

"What do you want." Miss Kelaien nodded; this thing was indeed something he quite needed.

"A Witch…."

"…."

"A Witch's potion."

"Which Sequence?"

"Just the one that can turn a man into a Witch."

Miss Kelaien felt his Faceless almost couldn't hold it together.

"I just want to collect a few interesting things." Su Lin explained: "Most of the Sealed Objects in your world have some side effects. How about getting me a tube of Sequence 7 Beyonder potion, I'll keep it as a collectible."

"I'm afraid that's not enough." Miss Kelaien said, looking at the jade carving in his hand.

The value of this item far exceeded a single Sequence 7 Beyonder potion.

"No problem." Su Lin took the plastic bag back from Miss Kelaien's hand, found a string of pork belly, and said: "After all, I'm not entirely sure just how useful this thing actually is."

Those strange rule-type abilities and concept-type abilities in the Lord's World — just how much effect this thing could have was still unknown.

In terms of grade, there's no issue; it counts as a fairly excellent defensive magic artifact.

"Then thank you very much."