On the morning of the third day, Zhen Jin slowly woke up.
It was peaceful.
Last night he had a good rest. His body no longer laid on hard rock, but now on a fluffy layer of branches and leaves.
Zi Di fetched these specifically for Zhen Jin.
Thinking about his fiance, Zhen Jin’s heart warmed up.
But Zi Di wasn't nearby.
Thinking about what Zi Di had proposed to him last night: She wanted to extract a bit of Zhen Jin’s blood to examine whether any fire-poison was left and perhaps resolve the mystery of Zhen Jin’s true cultivation level.
Zhen Jin had agreed.
“This girl…will she not rest even after staying up late into the night?” Zhen Jin's complexion sank and his heart rose up in concern.
Although he was asleep, he was confident--if even the wind blew, he would immediately detect it.
Zhen Jin looked at the fluffy pile of hay off to the side, it had no sign of being used. Zhen Jin was certain that Zi Di had not slept here last night.
She had gone into the cave’s depth and didn’t come out again.
Zhen Jin got up and went into the cave’s depths.
In the cave’s depths Zi Di had arranged a temporary potion making pharmaceutical space.
1
As Zhen Jin had been recovering for the last two days, she rarely went out. Even when going out it was only within the vicinity of the cave’s mouth. During this time, besides looking after Zhen Jin she had also been fiddling with potions.
1
Zhen Jin entered and unsurprisingly saw Zi Di sitting between some holes.
These holes were both big and small. The big holes had a lot of beast blood, bones, fur, etc. While the small holes had potions of all sorts of colors.
“My Lord, you woke up?” Upon hearing sounds of movement, Zi Di turned around to see Zhen Jin but didn’t get up. Her hands moved incessantly as they mixed potions.
“Please forgive my rudeness my lord, I am in the middle of making a potion.” Zi Di swirled the glass bottle in her hand. At the same time, her fingers were constantly sprinkling ingredients.
This glass bottle was the size of an adult’s finger, it seemed to have bear blood in it and appeared dark red in colour.
Grains of sand-like ingredients were blended into the potion and stuck to the side of the glass.
Zi Di closely watched the bottle and sometimes added a few more grains. She sometimes scooped up some bear blood from the hole and added it to the bottle.
Finally, as some kind of equilibrium was reached, the grains stuck to the side completely dissolved into the potion.
Zi Di faintly nodded as she sealed the bottle with satisfaction and placed it on a wooden shelf to the side.
The wooden shelf was crudely built with coarse dry branches and was almost packed with bottles.
Zhen Jin saw these glass bottles filled with wild potions and couldn’t help but ask: “Did you spend all of last night mixing these potions? Are you not exhausted from this?”
2
“Thank you for your concern my lord.” Zi Di smiled and immediately explained, “If I do not use it now then the bear blood will lose its effectiveness. These are first-rate materials, it's a pity I do not have the necessary refining tools on hand. This bear blood was silver level, to only make wild potions is so wasteful!”
The majority of magical materials were time sensitive. After passing the time limit, the value of the materials would greatly decrease.
Zhen Jin nodded, approving of Zi Di’s efforts: “You have worked hard.”
As he spoke his eyes did not move from the glass bottles
How odd.
He seemed to sense a sweet smell from the bottles and from the depths of his heart arose a desire to drink the bear blood.
3
“Why am I so hungry?” Zhen Jin asked as he suppressed the strange feeling.
To tell the truth, he hadn’t had a full meal in the past two days. Although he knew his recovery was going well, he was still cautious of eating too much.
In this manner, the bear and leopard blood were all used up. Next was to process the meat.” Zi Di licked her lips, her forehead was covered in sweat after the long and hard work.
Zi Di took a piece of the animal flesh from a large hole and covered it with some medicinal herbs. She then took out a potion from her bag and slowly poured it over the flesh.
This potion was not stored in a glass bottle but rather seemed to be made from black iron wood.
Although she poured only a small portion of the liquid, it quickly spread out with a pungent smell.
Sizzle…
With a corrosive sound, the plump beast flesh became shriveled and dry.
2
Zi Di then tore the meat and kept tearing it apart. The meat became shredded meat and was squeezed into rousong.
4
After two days, Zhen Jin finally ate something other than rations. Most of what he ate was this meat rousong.
They didn’t start a fire.
On one hand, they learned their lesson of suffering from the fire-poison bees and were cautious of starting a fire.
On the other hand, the cave was not a convenient place to start a fire due to the lack of oxygen and possible build up of toxic smoke.
Although the processed rousong wasn't tasty, it was still nutritious and the process killed any bacteria or poisons in the meat.
5
“These are top class magical materials, elsewhere these would sell for a lot of gold. Such a pity. If I could get even the most common crucible it would be good!”
3
Zi Di regretfully shook her head.
Zhen Jin laughed, he didn’t advise Zi Di to rest after working all night but rather sat next to her: “Is there anything I can do to help you?”
Zi Di smiled: “Since you asked my lord, I cannot reject your politeness.”
Zi Di then started to carefully pour as Zhen Jin tore the meat, creating more rousong.
Working together increased their efficiency greatly.
After working together for a time, Zhen Jin awkwardly found some holes in the corner that stored feces and urine that he had excreted in the past few days.
6
“I was examining them to determine your body’s condition my lord.” Zi Di said in a flat tone. “It was a pity that I was unable to measure your true strength.”
“Another reason was that I wanted to analyze and recreate the potion that healed you. If it really healed you my lord then the value of its potion formula would be enormous!”
“Should someone with such a studious attitude, really be a mage? Zhen Jin muttered internally.
7
He then said approvingly: “Did you gain anything from your work?”
Zi Di sighed, her expression was dark: “During our dire situation, I went off on intuition during many crucial steps. I am incapable of remembering all the herbs I used. It is impossible to recreate that potion. I can only try my best.”
“But it is not like I had no gains. I mixed the bear blood and ore to create two potions. One is a combustion agent, the other is a flame retardant.”
Zhen Jin nodded as he helped Zi Di process all the meat. He patted Zi Di’s shoulder and suggested: “Lets eat for a bit.”
The two ate some rations, some rousong, and drank some water.
8
The water was lukewarm.
Despite not lighting a fire, they were still warm from the ore.
In this environment and these circumstances, drinking water brought great comfort. As the lukewarm water went down their throats and into their bellies their spirits were all comforted and soothed.
The current food was enough and water was plentiful. The two were frugal and after drinking a few sips of water, Zhen Jin started to talk: “Tell me about yourself Zi Di.”
Zi Di nodded: “I am no doubt your fiance my lord.”
“Then what clan are you from? Where is your clan’s territory?”
Zi Di laughed bitterly: “My lord, you overestimate me. I am not really a noble. I am from an old trading clan.
“Eh?” Zhen Jin could help but raise his eyebrows, he didn’t expect such an answer.
Nobles almost always married other nobles.
Some nobles married relatives to keep their lineage pure.
9
“So, did your body awaken some superior bloodline?” Zhen Jin asked again.
This was a possibility.
Although nobles usually would only have one wife, they had many mistresses that could result in a few bastards.
Bloodlines were difficult to confirm based on the family tree alone.
Historically, there was no shortage of lower class nobles possessing superior bloodlines. Even children among the commoners could break out with astonishing potential, their origins tracing back to a superior bloodline of a noble.
In many cases these strong bloodlines would attract nobles wanting to merge them into their clan.
But Zi Di shook her head once again and said bitterly: “I am sorry to disappoint you my lord. My bloodline is mediocre, in fact the black iron level is already the limit of my potential.”
“I am not a noble. My ancestors are not nobles. My father is the president of the Wisteria Merchant Alliance, now it is my turn to run the entire Merchant Alliance.
“Wisteria Merchant Alliance?” That name does sound a bit familiar…wait a minute, don't tell me?
The meat is fucking RAWWW!!
-Gordon Ramsey
Notes
Welcome to topics that won’t pop back up until the second book, ala when our couple finally gets off tutorial-worldbuilding island. This whole noble marriage thing heavily reminds me of the eugenic shenanigans of Fire emblem awakening/Fates where you would shove pairings together to get the most insane growths on your kid. I think the best Morgan possible went Lon'qu x Nowi to get Nah and then Nah x Robin to get a busted dark flier Morgan to break the game even on lunatic+. But it looks like Zhen Jin is more interested in getting money rather than breeding busted kids, cause relying on nonexistent children is a terrible idea. For soon the tyrannical
crest
bloodline system will be thrown into the flames.
Deus’ Notes
So. Apparently, water is some chinese joke about word count and filler. So I kept thinking about it during those paragraphs of them “enjoying food and water”. Lol
With Zi Di seen to play a support role, her mechant alliance might come to be a big help once they leave the island. Maybe some business expansion parts and politics that readers have enjoyed in the way that gu zhen ren writes. I’m curious to know how they got engaged.
Translation Notes
(is Zi Di’s bag a space bag. Seriously how many potions does she have? Quick reminder that liquid does in fact have weight and Zi Di can barely drag Zhen Jin around) (what does a wild potion do? idk guess we will see) (soon zhen jin will start sparkling probably, maybe, eh probably not) (
pics here
if your wondering what rousong looks like) ->
(THIS CAVE HAS FLAMING ROCKS
)<- (WHY) (I'm worried that zi di has scat fetish…*shudder*) (this is the reason why int gear prices are so low) (hgggggh wordpadding) (author is filling the chapter with water kekeke) (Europe and Targaryens intensifies) Editor Notes
(im wondering whether or not to use apothecarium) (in some places it used animal flesh/ meat here it uses beast flesh/meat...this is too annoying) (knowing she's a potion maker, the crucible should be something she wants or needs to process the materials she has on hand. she's sighing because she doesn't have it. Crucible is similar to a furnace)