Chapter 964: Milk of Purple Frost
Gao Ying added, “Furthermore, golden token envoys don’t excel in their martial prowess, but rather in their insight and schemes.”
Pei You laughed and relied, “Then that means with this Golden Token Eleven to help us, isn’t this trip to Cloudcenter Commandery smooth sailing?”
As he listened to them praise Golden Token Eleven more and more, Zu An really wanted to blurt out ‘I’m actually not that amazing…’ He held himself back from boasting with great difficulty.
Sang Hong was quite shocked and asked, “Ah Zu, why haven’t you said anything all this time?”
Gao Ying and Pei You both looked at him as well. This didn’t match his style!
Zu An coughed and quickly explained, “I think we shouldn’t rely on that Golden Token Eleven too much. Embroidered Envoys have always been mysterious, and they’re only loyal to his majesty. They might even have a different mission this time, one that’s entirely different from ours. That’s why I think we should try to deal with this matter by ourselves as much as possible.”
What kind of joke was this? He already had enough pressure. If he had to take on the responsibility for Golden Token Eleven too, he really would break down! That was why he quickly said that as a preventative measure.
Sang Hong nodded and replied, “What you say makes sense. Perhaps Golden Token Eleven didn’t make an appearance precisely to tell us these things. That’s why we should rely on ourselves from now on. We’ll just treat Golden Token Eleven as additional support. We absolutely can’t place all of our hopes on him.”
Gao Ying and Pei You became serious. They could sense the gravity in Sang Hong’s tone as well. The mission in Cloudcenter Commandery might really not be so easy. They exclaimed, “Understood!”
When he left Sang Hong’s room, Zu An gazed toward the surging river waters. The outline of the capital was already about to disappear. He was surprised at the fact that the boat seemed to be moving even faster than he imagined.
He raised his head and saw that the sail had some blue patterns swirling across it. The boat had some formations running through it as well. They were probably wind element runes that were helping the ship move along. Not only did it help to reduce the ship’s weight, it also increased the efficiency of the sails. No wonder the ship was able to move so quickly. Of course, it was only a bit faster than a boat that solely relied on its sails. It was still a bit slower than the steamships of his previous world.
At first, he enjoyed seeing the coastal area scenery, but the more he watched, the more boring it became. After he chatted a bit more with Gao Ying and Pei You, they all returned to their own rooms.
Even though Zu AN’s room was a bit smaller than Sang Hong’s, the layout was still quite nice. He could even feel a bit of the breeze through the window. Overall, the place was similar to his previous world’s business suites. After all, space on this ship had been tight to begin with, so a room like this really was quite good.
“The lives of nobles in this world really are comfortable.” Zu An commented on the indulgent and decadent lifestyles of the aristocrats. Soon afterward, he focused his attention and sat down to begin his cultivation.
Cultivation was king in this world. Nothing else mattered.
This mission to Cloudcenter Commandery was going to be dangerous. Both the confession Chi Tu had provided about the scheme of Cloudcenter Duke’s younger brother and Kong Nanwu’s warnings before he left pointed at that fact. Only by increasing his cultivation further would he have the most reliable strength against those dangers.
He transferred his ki through his body many times, but in the end, he opened his eyes out of helplessness. Ever since his breakthrough in Westhound Tomb’s secret dungeon, his cultivation had been stuck at the ninth rank’s eighth step. He couldn't sense any sign of another breakthrough.
At his level, the amount of Ki Fruits needed was already at an astronomical level. That way wasn’t even an option. Was he supposed to rely on getting beaten up? But at his level, he probably couldn’t level up even if he was beaten to death, right?
Furthermore, he had heard Mi Li mention that the breakthrough from the ninth rank to the master rank was another huge chasm. Many people failed to break through the gap even after an entire lifetime.
“Big sis empress?” Zu An asked. Mi Li had already disappeared for a long time since he came out from the secret dungeon. He really wanted to know how she was doing right now. Unfortunately, there was no response at all no matter how he called out to her.
He suddenly thought of something. He tried to call out again. “Master?”
A lazy voice spoke not long after he called out the word ‘master’. “What is it?”
Zu An was speechless. He asked, “I called out to you so many times just now. Why did you ignore me?”
Mi Li said, “Because you don’t know any respect.”
“We’re closer than that, right?” Zu An couldn't help but say. What he got in return was dead silence. “I’m being ignored again…” He could only change his tone. “Master, why aren’t you showing yourself? How are your injuries from Westhound Tomb?”
Even just a glance at a beauty like Mi Li would make him feel much better. There was no one around him, and in the past, she would have already shown herself a long time ago. She didn’t really like to hide in the Tai’e Sword, after all.
But he couldn’t have expected for her to sigh and say, “My soul is unstable. I can’t take physical form anymore.”
Zu An was shocked, asking, “Why is it that serious?”
Not being able to take form was pretty much the same as being about to disappear! But with Mi Li’s cultivation, that shouldn’t have been the case…
Mi Li spoke again. “My injuries last time in Westhound Tomb were too serious. I’ve tried to recover my soul power all this time, but the injuries I incurred last time were special. With my own power, I can’t recover my soul at all. I finally managed to stabilize my condition and prevent my soul from scattering.”
Zu An felt ashamed. He had been living in a carefree manner all this time and forgot to worry about her.
His misunderstanding was because Mi Li had always recovered slowly after resting for a while. He was used to that and forgot just how powerful and special the enemy they encountered in Westhound Tomb had been; that enemy had even specialized in harming the soul.
“Is there anything I can help you with?” Zu An immediately asked.
“There is.” Mi Li didn’t try to act polite with him. “I need soul-mending treasures to stabilize my condition and gradually recover.”
Zu An thought of something. He took out a stalk of medicine that overflowed with radiance from his Brilliant Glass Bead. The room was soon filled with medicinal fragrance. It was clearly something extraordinary. He said, “Here, I have a Sky Crane Root that can greatly heal a damaged soul.”
The Sky Crane Root was one of the main ingredients of the Ki Condensation Pill. The emperor had given him quite a bit of soul recovery medicine after their negotiations in the past, and the Sky Crane Root was the most precious of them all.
“Even though the Sky Crane Root has mending effects on the soul, it isn’t even high quality. It won’t do much for my current level of injury,” Mi Li replied.
Zu An was alarmed and asked, “Then what about the Five Aggregates Root?”
He had fetched a Five Aggregates Root from the imperial hospital for Yun Jianyue when her soul was injured last time. Even though he was already on the ship and was quite far from the capital, if it was for Mi Li, he had to make the trip back.
“If I had a body right now, the Five Aggregates Root would be able to help my soul recover. However, I don’t have a body right now, and my soul’s damage is too severe. It can’t help me,” Mi Li replied.
Zu An’s heart sank. The Great Zhou Dynasty had unified the world, so the imperial hospital had definitely collected all types of treasures. However, the Five Aggregates Root was already the best of what the hospital had. If not even that was useful, what else could they do?
“Then what do you need?” he asked. He knew that Mi Li was well read. She probably knew something.
Sure enough, Mi Li said, “Even though I know there’s a type of medicine that can repair my soul wounds, in the past, that medicine was the rarest and most precious thing. I don’t even know if it still exists in this world, and the name might have changed too.”
Zu An replied, “What are you still beating around the bush for? At this point, even feeding a dead horse medicine is worth it.”
Mi Li’s voice immediately rose a pitch as she exclaimed, “Are you calling me a horse?!”
“You know that’s not what I meant!” Zu An thought to himself, The thoughts of women really change quickly! Despite what kind of situation they were in, she still cared about such things? “Just tell me so we can think about it together. After all, I’m a golden token envoy now, someone who has a lot of resources at his disposal!”
“In the past, the name of the medicine was ‘Milk of Purple Frost’. I don’t know what it’s called now.” Mi Li’s voice was full of hesitation.
Zu An was stunned and asked, “Is Purple Frost a girl?”
Mi Li was stunned. She realized what he meant and exclaimed furiously, “What kind of freaking nonsense is in that head of yours?!”
You have successfully trolled Mi Li for +222 +222 +222…
Zu An quickly apologized. “Please don’t get upset! You can’t get emotional in your current state!”
Sure enough, Mi Li immediately felt a wave of weakness. When she finally calmed down, she lowered her voice a bit and said, “Milk of Purple Frost is created after sun and moon essence, as well as natural ki, are collected by Purple Frost Crystals over ten thousand years, after which only three drops are produced. The reason why this medicine is so hard to obtain is that the crystals are rare to begin with, and ten thousand year old crystals are even rarer. Furthermore, it has to be gathered promptly as well, because the elixir trickles out soon after taking form. Once it makes contact with the ground, it becomes tainted and loses its medicinal nature.”
Zu An went numb when he heard all of those conditions. How the hell were they supposed to find something like that?