Chapter 149: Leisure and Meditation

A three-story building and courtyard built from stones of various sizes, seemingly possessing an inexplicable crooked and casual charm, yet the ancient aura exuding from every corner of the courtyard spoke of its sturdiness and lack of casualness. The house sitting in one corner of the back courtyard was the same.

Luge looked at the house where he would be staying for the next few days.

He wondered whether to claim a good spot in advance, after all he would likely be the one staying here the longest; Old Lun Se and Green would certainly have to go out on business and run around.

The black-clad youth leading the way pushed open the door; although no one lived in the house, it was still kept very clean and tidy.

Luge examined the house; the house that looked shabby from the outside actually had very good decoration inside, and the bedroom was partitioned into two rooms.

Since there were only two bedrooms, there was nothing to choose from; they could only follow the same arrangement as when they rested in the Safe House on the road — he and his uncle in one large room, the other for Mr. Green.

"You two can rest here with peace of mind; once Mr. Lun Se finishes talking with the teacher, he should come over." The black-clad youth smiled, said this, and turned to leave.

Luge and Green didn't even have time to politely say a word of thanks.

This person is strange, Luge thought.

He didn't feel much disgust from the other party, but this person didn't seem very welcoming either.

"Your Excellency Green, you rest here first; I still need to handle my uncle's pack beasts." Luge said, shaking the two cultivation bags in his hand.

"No need to be so polite; we are companions on the journey, just call me Green directly." Green said gently.

"Maintain respect for the Seeker, otherwise Old Lun Se will scold me."

Luge laughed and shrugged, said this, and walked out of the house.

He looked up at the courtyard before him; originally he still wanted to ask the black-clad fellow who led the way a few questions, but that person walked away really fast, looking like he didn't want to interact with them.

He found a place on the other side of the courtyard that looked like a beast pen, measured the size, and casually let the two six-legged pack beasts out and tethered them inside.

When he returned to the house, Green had already actively chosen the smaller bedroom and gone in to rest.

Old Lun Se had not yet returned.

So Luge returned to the large bedroom himself and began meditating.

These past days, although constantly busy, he had not abandoned meditation; just sometimes he couldn't thoroughly carry out exhaustive deep meditation, so he had to split it up — for instance, in the current environment, he would first do a session of deep meditation training spiritual power and mastering runes, then do a session of relaxing meditation to recover spiritual power, keeping himself in a good state at all times.

Mass-producing the same potion in a short time was also, in his experience, a pretty good way to train spiritual power; stimulating growth was secondary, mainly it trained spiritual power perception and control, which helped him more with rune construction. And what he lacked right now was precisely mastering meditation runes, after all his spiritual power had long reached the Fourth-Rank Wizard Apprentice standard.

One round of meditation after another, unknowingly it reached deep night.

Luge opened his eyes, glanced at the empty room, and entered deep meditation again.

He thought of the sublimation ritual needed to advance to Official Wizard, wondering if the later contents of the Black Book would contain a sublimation ritual.

He also thought of the legendary Ancient Wizards, who could successfully advance without relying on a sublimation ritual; as the unprecedented first genius kobold wizard in history, he wondered if he could try challenging that.

Actually during these days, he had also chatted with various people, steering topics toward the sublimation ritual; even before, when he helped watch the shop for a bit, he chatted a couple sentences with a customer patronizing Old Lun Se's potion shop.

From that customer, he also learned an interesting ritual name: Pure Human Sublimation Ritual. That was an interesting sublimation ritual, usable only by the purest human wizards; supposedly created by a bigoted and powerful wizard who greatly hated the Bloodline Wizard lineage; people like Luge and his group, mixed in Burning Blood City, fundamentally couldn't use it. Supposedly after successfully advancing with this ritual, one could sublimate into a higher, purer kind of human; few chose it, and those who succeeded only said it was a very wondrous experience.

Moreover he learned that rituals like the Sorrowful Puppet Sublimation Ritual were not a good path; taking that step, becoming a magic puppet body, meant losing many choices afterward, facing even more restrictions than Bloodline Wizards; of course for most people, simply succeeding was already a great fortune.

Luge spent the whole night in meditation.

The continuous mastery of meditation runes immersed him in it.

Old Lun Se seemed to be chatting very happily with his old friend, not appearing before Luge again until the blood sun hung high in the sky.

"My dear nephew, you just continue staying here meditating; those bloodline infected have been clashing constantly with the Blood Race guys lately, maybe we can do another deal there on the return journey, so I need to stock up on more goods." Old Lun Se said.

Luge felt Old Lun Se seemed to be saying dangerous things again.

He wanted even more to return to Burning Blood City, start learning his second formula, and the promised Alchemist domain knowledge.

He also thought of using his own crafted potions to transform Aijin and Dasha into Fighters, Dragonborn Kobold Fighters — sounded pretty good; even later finding a way to let them reach the Fighter pinnacle, which is the One-ring Wizard level.

Luge would occasionally rest a bit, using his most skilled self-pause and divergent thinking to relax; plainly put, spacing out and random thoughts.

Right while spacing out, Green issued an invitation.

"Your Excellency Luge, want to go out for a stroll together?" Green said.

Luge thought for a bit, still deciding to cause less trouble for that cheap uncle, so he could only politely decline.

Continued immersing himself in meditation cultivation.

Luge felt as if he had truly paused; for a moment only he remained in this small house, and he could meditate immersively.

The fourth magic mark requires forty-eight runes, of which twenty-four were already mastered in previous stages; the other twenty-four new runes he had already mastered most of; coming to the Upper Realm was much faster than previously estimated.

He let out a long breath, finished another stage of meditation, and strolled into the courtyard for a breath of air.

Old Lun Se also happened to return at this moment.

Judging by the blood sun's appearance now, it should already be evening.

"My hardworking uncle, looks like your harvest today wasn't too good?" Luge teased.

Old Lun Se's expression no longer held the excitement and expectation from when he left in the morning.

"Hmph, there are still plenty of people making money with no regard for their lives; even in hostile relations, they secretly sell goods... Precisely because of hostility, the prices are even better." Old Lun Se said.

Luge rolled his eyes at those words; strictly speaking, them doing business with Blood Fortress wasn't a similar situation.

That Seeker Green, who didn't know where he had wandered all day, also returned to the small courtyard through the back door at this time.

Looking at their appearance, Luge couldn't help thinking: perhaps when his spiritual power reaches the point of no further growth, he would also enter this state, exploring everywhere or earning resources, seeking to help himself break through from another level.

The three enjoyed a dinner together, then each rested.

Old Lun Se didn't want to disturb Luge's meditation, so he shamelessly went to the main building of the black-clad old man's shop to beg a room.

Luge, immersed in meditation all day, only felt as if everything had quieted down.

He actually, rarely, in a Blood Race territory surrounded by malice, opened a period of leisurely life for himself.

(Chapter End)