Chapter 24: Picked Up on the Road

It seems quite easy.

Could it be that I'm actually a genius?

The corner of Xia Zhi's mouth curved into a smile, his brow arching slightly.

He had originally thought this attempt wouldn't go very smoothly, that he might have to endure several setbacks and failures before getting a clue, but he never expected it to go so smoothly, as if it were as natural as water finding its channel.

Cough cough, can't get arrogant. According to a certain Magic User, true magic originally requires no special talent, effort, location, or time at all; it is something anyone can use regardless of gender, race, wealth, or preparation.

Picking up a random stone and tree branch can trigger a Miracle — that is magic.

Although it sounds a bit fantastical, considering the original plot, Kamijou Touma, as an Ordinary Person who understood nothing, merely brought back some travel souvenirs from around the world and placed them together at home, unintentionally forming a Magic Array —

Which triggered a world-scale great magic like "Angel Fall."

From this perspective, that Magic User's discourse on the essence of magic may not be baseless talk; its credibility and reasonableness have been verified to a considerable degree before a real case.

Perhaps Kamijou Touma was just a blind cat stumbling on a dead mouse, but his achievement is solidly right there.

Compared to a great magic like "Angel Fall," what Xia Zhi is doing right now is merely an attempt to burn some scraps on the side while opening the pot, not even counting as true Alchemy... he cannot be satisfied with this.

Collecting his smile, Xia Zhi extended his hand calmly; those few Qi Dans containing pure power in the "pill furnace" seemed to be pulled by a formless force, rising leisurely from the furnace and landing precisely in his palm.

There were four Qi Dans in total, each presenting a perfectly round shape, about the size of a human thumb, like works of art condensed from the essence of Heaven and Earth.

They lay quietly in his palm, their surfaces smooth as a mirror, just reflecting the moonlight sprinkling from the Night Sky, faint light flowing between them, crystal clear and shining brilliantly.

"Colorless and transparent..."

Examining the pure flawless texture of the Qi Dans in his palm, Xia Zhi was slightly surprised. According to the Stone Boiling Technique, directly boiling Earth Vein Qi to transform into pills, the quality of the Qi Dans is without exception deeply influenced by the original attribute of the Earth Vein Qi.

Yet the Qi Dans condensed in his hand right now are crystal clear — does this mean they originate from a colorless power without any tendency?

Perhaps — this is the special aspect of the entire Holy Grail System?

Precisely because this power itself possesses no inherent tendency, it has broad and unlimited shaping possibilities, able to guide and shape development in any direction, thus achieving that legendary Omnipotent Cauldron said to grant wishes?

Such a thought naturally surfaced in Xia Zhi's mind; relying on his extraordinary perception of Magic Power, he conducted a meticulous investigation of each Qi Dan.

Although theoretically all impurities had been thoroughly removed and only essence retained through the Stone Boiling Technique's refinement, he still decided to act with utmost caution.

After repeated verification found no error, he pondered briefly, then decisively swallowed one Earth Vein Qi Dan. After all, this was the purpose of this trip; when it's time to be decisive, one naturally must be a bit decisive.

The Earth Vein Qi Dan dissolved the moment it touched his tongue tip; the pure power contained within quietly spread out, and with the natural flow of Magic Power in his body, it rapidly pierced through his whole body like a rushing stream, circulating through his four limbs and hundred bones, permeating into every most minute place.

The Magic Furnace Core operating automatically within his body was absorbing this formless power at extreme speed and converting it into Magic Power he could use...

The whole process flowed like clouds and water, needing no complicated refinement steps; this pure power without any attribute or tendency was naturally absorbed and integrated into himself.

With an extraordinary focus, Xia Zhi concentrated fully on insight into the changes within himself; after a round of introspection and estimation, he confirmed his Magic Power upper limit had clearly increased, the bodily sensation being a direct growth of over half a level.

Although it's highly likely because his own Magic Power base was relatively small that he could feel such a clear increase. But considering it was just the time to swallow one Qi Dan, this efficiency is undoubtedly astonishing.

Moreover, the Qi Dan is colorless, has no nature tendency, and even the refinement process is saved.

Although a bit cliché, and sounding a bit like a classic villain line, at this very moment Xia Zhi really wants to say — "Heaven is truly helping me."

Since that's the case, what is there to hesitate about in the next choice?

That's right, I'm just going to eat eat eat —!!

Glancing at the already darkened sky, Xia Zhi decided to work through the night.

After all, the time left for him isn't much. According to the Master Lady, the Holy Grail War generally doesn't last too long; judging by past experience, it's very likely a week or so at most.

Then excluding today, how much time does he have left?

Naturally, he can only strive to become stronger, staying up all night eating dirt...

Eat dirt then; anyway, me eating dirt is like whaling, and moreover eating dirt can make you stronger — others want to eat but can't!

Thus, Xia Zhi acted decisively. He carefully examined the terrain and environment of the surroundings, reselected a more concealed position, one that could avoid the prying eyes of the nearby residential area and also ensure the people on Yuan Cang Shan couldn't detect any abnormal movement.

Deeply understanding "to do a good job, one must first sharpen one's tools," he went alone to a nearby convenience store and bought a large stack of sticky notes, spending considerable effort processing them into rune inscriptions and carefully pasting them around.

This is a Jutsu named "Idle Dispersal Technique" —

Its main effect is to make people nearby generate a mood of inexplicably not wanting to approach this place, thereby achieving the purpose of dispersing idle people.

This can effectively prevent some accidental situations, for example everything clearly going smoothly, but because of a blind collision, some unrelated persons inexplicably barge in, just happening to stumble upon the villain's conspiracy and tricks...

Of course, this Jutsu isn't omnipotent either. It works very well on ordinary people, but for non-ordinary people it might be a different matter.

So the Jutsu's range also needs consideration; it's best limited to a certain scope, not expanded indiscriminately, otherwise it wouldn't be dispersing idle people, but specially attracting all kinds of enthusiastic citizens to come investigate.

After careful adjustment and operation, Xia Zhi felt the expected target was temporarily reached, so he stopped his hand's movements.

He starkly discovered that after all this busy work, quite a lot of time had been spent again; the night had deepened a bit. He hurriedly set to work continuing to boil stones and refine pills, continuously activating magic, boiling the earth, boiling Earth Vein Qi into pure Qi Dans one by one.

Next, he, as if tasting snacks —

Absorbed these Qi Dans one by one, converting them into his own surging Magic Power, to nourish and strengthen his fundamental origin.

It's called Alchemy, but it doesn't really count as true Alchemy. After all, although the Stone Boiling Technique is Alchemy and can boil Five Metals and Eight Stones, Earth Vein Qi, that doesn't mean directly boiling them out makes "True Elixirs."

The actual situation is more complex. True Alchemy still requires following rigorous pill formulas, selecting various medicinal stones, following the principle of monarch-minister-assistant-envoy in compatibility, cleverly combining multiple materials, enduring hardship to finally refine Core Pills with specific effects.

In those dozens of pages regarded by the world as chapters of wisdom that confine, besides detailing the essence of the Stone Boiling Technique's application, Index also silently recorded the secret methods of several Immortal Pill preparations.

Like Xia Zhi doing now, directly using the Stone Boiling Technique to boil the earth, then swallowing Qi Dans — this is completely squandering heaven's gifts, equivalent to preparing the medicinal materials but not taking them to Alchemy, just eating the raw materials directly...

However, what can he do?

Xia Zhi isn't unaware that this method is undoubtedly a huge extravagance and waste, but faced with the current predicament of demand, only by adopting this seemingly absurd way can he barely cope.

If he really had to follow procedure to gather numerous rare medicinal materials, then steadily start the pill furnace for refining, not to mention the success rate, just the idea itself seems quite impractical.

I'm afraid even by the time the Holy Grail War settles, he wouldn't have managed to refine a few dregs.

As the night deepened.

From evening until now, Xia Zhi could no longer count how many times he had extracted "Qi Dans." Each furnace perhaps produced only a few, the quantity seeming insignificant, but he couldn't stand how fast the refining was.

The Stone Boiling Technique has an almost naturally justified plundering authority over Earth Vein Qi, taking whatever it wants — truly worthy of forbidden knowledge from a Mo Shu Shu that teaches how to become ageless and immortal, an Immortal; from it one can also somewhat see the meaning of seizing Heaven and Earth's creation.

After all, even stones and soil must be squeezed for spiritual power — if this doesn't count as seizing Creation, what does?

Frankly, such highly repetitive operations are usually quite tedious, but the current situation is completely different, because the progress bar visible to the naked eye and the considerable growth rate both lift one's spirits.

It's like playing those cultivation idle games where you just keep tapping in the early stages and watch various numbers constantly break through...

This kind of positive feedback from constantly increasing numbers is indeed addictive.

Same principle — Xia Zhi is also in the early stages right now, experiencing a similar situation; he just keeps cooking the earth, refining Qi Pills, then popping them like snacks one by one, and can rapidly increase his own magic power quantity.

Under such circumstances, how could he possibly feel boredom and fatigue.

Insufficient cultivation — make up for it with pills!

I'll just eat eat eat —!!

But as time passed, although his magic power quantity welcomed what could be called tremendous growth, the pill-popping effect inevitably began to decline — at first one Qi Pill directly increased half his cultivation, later it gradually took two, four, eight...

Fortunately the Qi Pills' essence is entirely pure Original Magic Power, otherwise he might have stuffed himself just by eating.

Although he understood this situation was inevitable, Xia Zhi still couldn't help sighing, his mood slowly losing its previous excitement. He stood up and moved a bit, feeling his own magic power unprecedentedly abundant.

After most of the night's effort...

Progress seems fairly gratifying...

No no, only this isn't enough — feels still a bit short of reaching the Fairy Kingdom Lower Fairy average standard; compared to the Servants who were legendary heroes in this world's past, it's definitely far from enough.

Moreover Servants have Skills and Noble Phantasms — these are all gaps.

Thinking this through, driven by a sense of crisis, Xia Zhi again forced himself to rapidly resume repetitive labor.

Keep eating dirt!

Eat as much as you can — the more you eat, the stronger you become! Best would be to gnaw through the outer Dragon Vein, thereby breaking through Yuan Cang Shan's defense and entering the Great Holy Grail core, then directly cooking Fuyuki City's Dragon Vein hub!

This is Xia Zhi's strategy — he doesn't actually expect simple magic power increase to catch up to the vast gap with other Servants; that's too unrealistic.

What he truly wants is to pull the firewood from under the cauldron, flip the board directly — since this matter is hard to accomplish, then don't accomplish it!

If I can't win, then everyone loses together — that's his philosophy of action.

Considering the current pill refining was becoming inefficient, he also began trying to modify the "pill furnace," expanding the Magic Array to cover more area.

As long as the cooking range is larger and more earth Qi is cooked, the final number of pills formed will definitely be more.

When he goes back later, he'll "borrow" more gems from the cute Master Lady.

Her gems are really useful, and very convenient for setting up Magic Arrays.

Probably also because the Tohsaka Family inherits "Transformation Magecraft," Tohsaka Lady's specialty Magecraft leans toward the characteristic of "power flow, transfer" — so her prepared gems came in handy now.

Anyway, for the Stone Boiling Technique converting Dragon Vein Qi, they can provide some assistance.

Deep night, quiet people.

All sounds silent.

Fuyuki City seems to have temporarily fallen into slumber too, everything sleeping peacefully, no unexpected accidents occurring.

No gas leaks, no gas explosions — roughly meaning Fuyuki City's residents can still have several more peaceful days... though this only shows the Holy Grail War just started, everyone still quite cautious.

No big commotion doesn't mean no real collisions occurred.

Right at Yuan Cang Shan's foot, on the originally empty quiet road, sudden hasty footsteps rang out.

A woman wrapped entirely in dark purple robes, revealing only her fair jaw, appeared in the darkness; she gritted her teeth tight, as if persisting in moving forward, but her steps couldn't help staggering.

Like a crossbow bolt at journey's end, gasping her last breath, as if she'd collapse and die any moment...

Truly laughable — finally summoned, yet to retreat in such a wretched way right when the Holy Grail War just began?

She smiled self-mockingly, simultaneously feeling the scenery in her vision turning black, Yuan Cang Shan ahead becoming faintly blurred, nearly impossible to see clearly in the night... ah ah, should be the limit now.

The Noble Phantasm severed the Contract, also cutting her connection to the Mortal World, making her rapidly lose magic power and fall into dire straits.

And no time to find a new Master and sign a new Contract — that hateful Lancer, like a keen hound, came straight to her door; to shake him off she was forced to expend considerable magic power.

This way, naturally adding frost to snow — remaining magic power already difficult to keep her manifested in the Mortal World.

Staggering steps finally lost balance — this witch fell at Yuan Cang Shan's foot, she lay gasping on the road, eyes vacant staring at the sky, who knows what she was thinking.

In a trance, footsteps came from beside her.

Relying on remaining perception, she sensed a powerful magic power approaching — must be another Servant.

Next moment, the other party roughly hauled her up.

(Chapter End)