Chapter 420: Just Stand There

After finally catching his breath, Nai Ge Li Si grumbled, "Silver Coin, to save you I nearly ran out of breath — how are you going to repay me?"

Silver Coin said emotionally, "I'm so moved, Lord Nai Ge — I'll find ten little mother dragons to attend you."

Nai Ge Li Si roared, "Kuabada! Is that to attend me or to do me in?!" After yelling at Silver Coin, Nai Ge Li Si leaned over and whispered, "Two will do."

A snort of laughter rang out from his body, a puff of smoke rose, and Durroken rolled out: "You dragon who died a youth — never chased a girl, yet talk big. I'll have a word with Nai Aili later."

"I'll bite you to death!" Nai Ge Li Si said, flushing with embarrassed rage.

While they chatted here, Seeing Ange had already suppressed the enemy — single-handedly, with first-tier magic, he pinned down dozens of swordsmen and mages in the estate. Magic turrets really are this handy.

The enemies were blasted into covering their heads and scurrying away, scattering in all directions, leaving a wide open space before the tomb entrance. Many threw off their helmets and armor in utter disarray, even tossing the bloodlust potions that had just been handed out to them.

Durroken gave a casual wave of his Midas Rod from afar, and one of the bloodlust potions flew on its own into Durroken's hand.

He popped the cap and poured a little out, then tapped it with his Midas Rod — Decomposition Art. Soon his face showed contempt: "Drug-stimulated frenzy. Trash."

Silver Coin had heard that term before. Back then, the antidote for the Mark of Corrosion he had taken had also been called a low-grade 'drug-stimulated' by Sava. Could this bloodlust potion be the same as the Mark of Corrosion?

Seeing Silver Coin's puzzled look, Durroken explained offhandedly: "Potion warlocks are also called potion-masters. Most of their abilities are delivered through potions. Low-grade potions are exactly this 'drug stimulation' — using the drug's own properties to trigger part of the body's abilities, but the side effects are especially severe."

"Mid-grade potions no longer rely purely on drugs. They use special processing methods to cause a qualitative change in the material, producing special effects. For example, my lord's Holy Essence Liquid and Worm-Ash Liquid both fall into this category."

"As for higher-grade potions, they're no longer purely potions — the Soul-Condensing Holy Grail that lets you ascend to godhood upon drinking, the Resurrection Potion that brings the dead back to life, the Transformation Potion that changes your form — all of those fall into this category."

Don't be fooled by Durroken being an alchemist — alchemy and potion-making are of the same house, many techniques are interchangeable. Given the same formula, a potion Durroken brews would definitely work better than half-baked Sava's.

Just as Durroken finished speaking, a mouse's head suddenly popped out of the ground, exclaiming excitedly, "My lord, your summary is wonderful! Could you be a potion grandmaster?"

"Oh?" Durroken beckoned in surprise, and the mouse immediately floated up out of the hole against its will, squeaking frantically.

"Transformation Potion?" The mouse landed in Durroken's hand; he observed it for a moment and muttered hesitantly.

He wrapped his palm around it, and at once the mouse's eyes went vacant, the spiritual light faded, and it returned to the look of a normal mouse.

"No — it's a consciousness projection. What a strange mouse, able to bear a human's consciousness." Durroken said, intrigued.

Durroken released his palm and cradled the mouse in his hand. After quite a while, the mouse began to wriggle and struggle, its eyes gradually changing, until finally a glint of brilliance flickered in them — a consciousness surpassing a mouse's wisdom projected over.

"You're that potion warlock outside, aren't you? What's your name?" Durroken asked.

"Grandmaster, you guessed it in one — that's me. My name is Li Dalor, a junior potion warlock. I'm honored to meet you. Excuse me, is that the legendary Midas Touch Set you're wearing?" Li Dalor asked excitedly, using the mouse's vocal cords to speak — the voice was thin and shrill, squeak squeak squeak.

"Oh? You know of the Midas Touch Set? Where did you hear of it?" Durroken said, surprised.

"It's recorded in the Undead Sacred Flame," Li Dalor said.

Durroken nodded — that must be something Your Majesty recorded in the Undead Sacred Flame. He smiled and replied, "It's only a replica. Apart from the Midas Rod having some effect, the hat and cloak are just decorative."

Since the Midas Touch Set is recorded in the Undead Sacred Flame, the people of this world must know its function. If they found out this one was real, they'd go mad.

"Oh, a replica…" Li Dalor's tone clearly carried disappointment, but immediately he perked up again: "Then my lord, the mid-grade potions you mentioned — the Holy Essence Liquid and the Worm-Ash Liquid — could you let me see them? And the higher-grade ones — the Soul-Condensing Holy Grail, Resurrection Potion, Transformation Potion and the like — what do they look like?"

Durroken's expression turned odd as he listened. He asked, "Are you asking me for instruction? Have you paid tuition?"

This Li Dalor was certainly a fast familiar — eavesdropping on Durroken's words was already bad enough. Durroken hadn't been on guard before, but now he was on high alert. There was absolutely no second mouse or other small animal nearby.

From now on, Durroken would have to keep an eye out for those inexplicable little animals. Someone in this world could actually project their consciousness onto a small animal? Truly amazing.

Bearing a consciousness requires a certain soul strength — small animals simply don't have that capacity. For example, to project a consciousness onto a mouse would be like stuffing a cow into a bottle; it would only burst the bottle apart.

The fact that the mouse hadn't burst meant some special method had been used. Durroken wanted to find out what method, which was why he was being so patient. It was just that this Li Dalor was showing an unusually 'eager to learn' attitude, which left him not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

"Tuition? I'll pay, I'll pay! Grandmaster, would you take me as your student? I'm willing to offer up my entire fortune," Li Dalor asked eagerly.

"How much is your entire fortune?" Durroken felt a bad premonition stirring inside, instinctively wanting to glance at Locke Si — only to find Locke Si hadn't caught up yet.

"I have three hundred soul crystals — that's my entire fortune. Is it enough, my lord?" Li Dalor asked cautiously.

As expected — even poorer than Locke Si.

Durroken said, "Keep it yourself. Tell me — why can you project onto this mouse without bursting it? Was it specially raised? What did you feed it?"

"Heavenly God Potion — I fed it the Heavenly God Potion. I raised it from birth," Li Dalor said.

"Projection… what you're doing can't really be called projection — it can only count as consciousness transfer. How far is the range of your consciousness transfer?" Durroken asked.

"F-fifty meters. Uh, my lord, the projection you're talking about — is that the kind of planar projection?" Li Dalor asked cautiously, his tone exactly like hearing a forbidden-spell term in a beginner magic academy.

"Fifty meters? That close?" Durroken smiled and said, "Little friend, let me show you a trick."

Before Li Dalor could react, Durroken swept his cloak, a puff of smoke rose on the spot, and he vanished.

Before long, another puff of smoke rose at the same spot, and Durroken reappeared — but in his hand he was dragging an unconscious human.

The mouse in his other hand stared blankly at the human, then at Durroken. It took quite a while before it realized what had happened — it had been caught.

The one Durroken had dragged back was Li Dalor's body. He had lost consciousness because his consciousness was projected onto the mouse, but the projection range was too short — he was hiding just outside the courtyard within fifty meters, and Durroken had hauled him out in an instant.

He had thought he was projecting, perfectly safe — even if the mouse was crushed, his consciousness could retreat to his body. Well, now his body was in Durroken's hand too.

Li Dalor obediently offered up a bottle of potion: "This is the Heavenly God Potion — it boosts a creature's spiritual power, letting it accommodate a stronger consciousness. One bottle like this is enough to raise dozens of mice and rabbits."

Durroken opened it and couldn't help laughing: "Isn't this just grave grass — extract, process, refine, then dilute, then use Solidify Art to enhance the effect, add fragrance to disguise it beyond recognition so you can't tell what it is, then give it a fancy name — Heavenly God Potion? Ha."

Nai Ge Li Si leaned over to sniff, eyes lighting up: "Oh, it smells pretty nice though."

"Smells nice? Then it's yours." Durroken shoved the whole bottle into Nai Ge Li Si's mouth.

"Ptui ptui ptui! What are you doing! Are you trying to poison me!" Nai Ge Li Si hurriedly spat the bottle out, but it was too late — more than half the potion had already poured into his mouth, dissolving on the tongue, impossible to spit out.

Durroken laughed: "Just drink it — it's good for you. Aren't you complaining you can't fly? Boosting the body's spiritual power lets it accommodate more of your strength. One bottle isn't even enough."

Saying so, Durroken pulled out another big handful of grave grass and began brewing on the spot. A tap of his Midas Rod and the grave grass immediately crumbled to powder.

Although he could handle the next steps himself, he still shamelessly went to Seeing Ange and said, "My lord, your extraction and purification techniques are better — they can boost the potion's efficacy."

The attacking enemies had all been blasted outside the walls by him, and idle hands make idle work — Seeing Ange casually began brewing. Having extracted so much Holy Essence Liquid, Seeing Ange effortlessly extracted the essence from the grave grass as well, then used the Stain-Removal Art to purify it.

This high-purity grave grass liquid, once placed in a bottle, kept churning on its own — as if something was brewing inside.

Durroken's Midas Rod swept around, rolling out imprint after imprint and tapping them in. It took quite a while before he finished. He handed the bottle to Nai Ge Li Si and said, "Another bottle — this one you just inhale."

Nai Ge Li Si quickly took it, smiling as he brought it up to his nose and took a deep breath.

While Durroken was brewing, it had already experienced the benefits of the potion that had just been poured into its mouth. How to describe it? Like being constipated for years and suddenly finding relief one morning.

The body it was currently projecting into was alive, and all living things had their negative reactions — it got tired, thirsty, hungry. Just now, carrying Seeing Ange flying over had nearly made it vomit from exhaustion.

But it was clearly a god of knowledge, brimming with divine power, yet unable to bring it to bear because of the limitations of its body — and the biggest limitation of all was its spiritual force.

If the body's spiritual force were strong enough, not only would its control be far more agile, it could also cast certain spells; when strength fell short, mana could be used to make up the difference, and stirring up wind elements would let it fly with much less effort, and it wouldn't have to work so hard carrying someone on its back…

Bah! Carry my ass — let him fly himself, I'm not a mount. Lord Nai Ge shook his head violently, flinging the thought of carrying anyone out of his mind.

Thinking as he inhaled, Lord Nai Ge's spirit kept growing stronger.

Liddalow on the side was dumbfounded — this "Heavenly Elixir" he'd paid a fortune for was actually refined from grave-grass? Goddammit, those swindlers had clearly told him it was made by some necromancer alchemist.

What shocked him even more was that Duroken had seen straight through its composition at a glance, and his companion had casually refined an even higher-grade potion — and one that you took by inhaling, no less.

That an inhaled potion outranked a drunk one was beyond question; an inhalant potion had to be far higher in purity, because the lungs' self-purification function was very weak, and too many impurities would damage them.

Whereas with a drunk potion you didn't have to worry about impurities at all — if you couldn't absorb them, you could just excrete them out.

The higher the purity, the better the absorption and the faster the effect; on this point alone, it was immeasurably superior.

With every breath Lord Nai Ge inhaled, he felt his spirit grow considerably stronger; unable to hold it in, he gave a huff — and a blast of dragon breath shot out.

"Hahaha, I can breathe dragon breath now — watch me burn your butt!" Lord Nai Ge excitedly huffed another breath at Duroken.

The moment he huffed it out, Duroken punched him right on the nose, slamming his mouth shut; the dragon breath got trapped inside and sprayed out through the gaps in his teeth.

"Goddammit! Hot, hot, hot! It's blistering!" Lord Nai Ge cursed as he ran over to Seeing Ange, opening his mouth wide to show the blistered spot.

A few Cleanse Face spells later, the blisters were gone; Lord Nai Ge wasn't angry either, and happily hugged the bottle and kept inhaling. He'd always thought about growing up fast to boost his strength, but this method of boosting spiritual force first seemed to work even faster.

Just then, a sudden commotion broke out outside the manor.

After Seeing Ange arrived, he had blasted the enemies straight over the courtyard wall in one barrage; unable to break in, they could only lay siege outside without withdrawing — probably waiting for reinforcements.

When Duroken had dragged Liddalow inside earlier, it had caused a stir, which had then died down; now it suddenly flared up again, and grew more and more intense, until at last there was a clatter of running footsteps.

The enemies besieging the manor didn't even bother with Liddalow anymore, and in a rush of clattering footsteps they were gone in no time.

Marquis Fivo poked his head out to look, puzzled: "Why have they withdrawn? What's happened? Could the North Wind family have sent people back?"

Apart from the North Wind family sending people back, Fivo really couldn't think of any force that could make Count Gula back off.

The answer was revealed quickly — from afar came a chorus of "awoo awoo awoo" howling; Little Angel and Little Zombie ran in with arms outstretched for balance, howling as they scurried along, with Lockse and Jilly and the others following behind.

"Uh, how did you get in?" Lord Nai Ge asked, baffled. "Wasn't the city gate closed? Did you break through?"

Lord Nai Ge had carried Seeing Ange on his back and gone on ahead, while Little Angel and Little Zombie drove the skeletons from behind; but when they reached the city wall and found the gate shut, he had no choice but to carry Seeing Ange and fly over the wall.

Yet now they'd gotten in so easily — had the city gate been opened?

Lockse said: "I don't know. We hurried the skeletons to the city gate, and the people on the wall just opened the gate for us, and greeted us really warmly too, so we just came on in."

Lord Nai Ge, Silver Coin, and Fivo all couldn't help covering their faces: "The gate opened and you just walked in? Aren't you afraid it might be a trap?"

Lockse scratched her head and gave an awkward smile: "We didn't really think that much about it…"

Silver Coin suddenly slapped his thigh: "I get it — the people on the wall must have gotten the wrong idea, thinking the skeletons were from the cemetery outside. Count Gula's men retreating was probably the same misunderstanding — they thought the cemetery skeletons had mobilized, and that's why they got scared off."

Fivo immediately looked over and exchanged a glance with Silver Coin: "We were just agonizing over how to maintain order in the city after winning the bid for city lord — we don't have enough hands. Since they've got the wrong idea, let's just confirm their misunderstanding for them."

"My lord, please place the skeletons at key, conspicuous spots inside the city — a dozen or so at each location. They don't have to do anything, just stand there."