CH 31.3

Character ListQiao Zhiya: Half-elf, half-dwarf MC.

Chu Rong: Marshal ML.

Zhuang Yu: A doctor in ML’s army.

Chu Yan: ML’s younger brother. Is the same age as MC, currently attending intermediate college.

A1: A household robot in ML’s house.

Qiuqiu: MC’s special plant pet he kept inside his storage bracelet.

Two days later, the principal interviewed Qiao Zhiya via the communicator. In the afternoon of the same day, Qiao Zhiya’s admission notice was sent. He successfully got into the mechanical design department via a special enrollment. He would need to report to the school before the start of the course next week.

The moment the notification was sent, Chu Rong also received information on Qiao Zhiya’s mid-semester transfer file on his communicator. He opened Qiao Zhiya’s file with supervisor authority, and looked at the newly added word “admitted” on it. Suddenly feeling irritated, he tapped his fingers on his table in no particular rhythm.

That Bald Chicken needed to report before the start of classes next week. In other words, the latest he could report was Sunday, which was only three days from now.

Chu Rong’s bad temper exploded after receiving the notice. The ill-tempered White-Haired Monster carried Qiao Zhiya around with a black face all day long, forbidding him to cook, forbidding him to do housework, letting him eat all day long, and asking Zhuang Yu to come to give him another check-up and another dose of spiritual soothing mist.

Qiao Zhiya knew that Chu Rong was unhappy, so he followed his every whim as an appeasement. However, he didn’t forget to mention, “I need to catch up with the curriculum. It may be very difficult for me to come home in the first month or two. But I will still try, because I have to carve another piece of emerald jade for your illness.”

Chu Rong, who was staring at A1 as the robot was picking today’s dinner, turned his head to look at the Bald Chicken’s bold choice of words, and refused directly: “No, you should pay attention to your schooling and rest now.”

“But I want to carve,” Qiao Zhiya insisted. The middle-level magic circle needed more magic power. This piece of high-level emerald jade was estimated to be used up in less than two months. Before the current one ran out of healing power, he needed to make another.

He knew that Zhuang Yu and her master had been researching this “healing magic power” after seeing its miraculous effect on Chu Rong’s spiritual pollution problem. However, their research on magic circle didn’t go well, judging by Zhuang Yu’s increasingly frequent complaints. But even so, Chu Rong never asked him to help, only let him do what he wanted.

The other party didn’t force him, but he couldn’t ignore it with a peace of mind either. n fact, he was also secretly researching the compatibility between the magic circle and spiritual power, but unfortunately the results were not optimistic.

The two were locked into eye contact again, and Chu Rong’s bad temper couldn’t be suppressed anymore.

“My answer is still no. Pack your luggage honestly. Don’t dare to be disobedient again.”

Qiao Zhiya tensed his expression, turned his head away, and angrily huffed, “Then I will make another jade carving secretly, or I could carve a piece at school, and let Xiao Yan bring it to you.”

Chu Rong’s expression worsened, “You dare?”

Qiao Zhiya didn’t verbally answer, only refusing to look at the Marshal.

It was another round of psychological warfare. In the end, Chu Rong couldn’t help getting up and walking in front of Qiao Zhiya, looked down at him, and pinched his twitchy, irritable, long ears:,”Qiao Zhiya, you’ve been too disobedient recently.”

“You’re used to it.” Qiao Zhiya mumbled loudly in defiance.

Ancestor Chu was speechless.

“Okay, fine, fine. Do whatever you want.” Chu Rong withdrew his hand, his eyes were cold. “But you better be extra careful and be transparent to me. Stop immediately if something goes wrong.”

Qiao Zhiya took out a polished piece of jade from his space button without saying a word. The emerald jade was placed down on the coffee table, and he also took out his magic pen.

Chu Rong: “…” This damn child was already prepared!

Spiritual power couldn’t sense the magic power. Chu Rong couldn’t see the soft light emitted by the magic circle that Qiao Zhiya painted. In his view, Qiao Zhiya was drawing nothing on the surface of the jade. The youth seemed like he swiped blindly, but when he finished drawing one side of the emerald jade, a complex array pattern suddenly carved onto the surface.

Seeing is believing, as they said. Chu Rong’s eyes widened in shock after seeing this mysterious happening.

In the middle of carving the magic array, Qiao Zhiya’s magic power was exhausted twice. He directly absorbed the power of two earth magic stones in front of him in order to sustain himself. Chu Rong watched as the dark brown stone gradually faded in color and dried out in the tender and beautiful hands of the youth, until it completely turned into an ordinary gray stone. Chu Rong’s heart was in turmoil once again.

A few hours later, the last magic circle took shape, and Qiao Zhiya was finally finished.

“Here you are.” Qiao Zhiya put away the magic pen and happily handed him the rune-covered emerald jade.

Chu Rong withdrew his gaze from staring at Qiao Zhiya’s dainty hand. He instead looked at the youth’s slightly tired face, and gave him another pat on his head. Chu Rong took the emerald jade and stroked it gently. He also gave Qiao Zhiya a top-quality ink jade to replenish his spent magic power.

Qiao Zhiya noticed the softening of his breath, and felt that the atmosphere was right at the moment, and said quickly: “Actually, I have also studied a method to restore your spiritual power, which is to make magic potions. During this time, I taught myself the basics of making potions. I also bought the appropriate tools, and I want to try it.”

“Magic potion?” Chu Rong recovered from an inexplicable tender emotion. He immediately frowned and said: “Don’t do it, look at how white your face is just carving this jade. Do as I say and finish absorbing this ink jade. After that, go to rest.”

Qiao Zhiya immediately turned his face away again in a petulant manner, “Then I will secretly make it in the school.”

“…”

This bald chicken is getting more and more cunning!

Ancestor Chu lost his temper again. He wanted to teach this Bald Chicken a hard lesson, but in the end he had to compromise and agreed to let Qiao Zhiya make magic potions. In return, he could only do it after a good night’s rest, and must do it under his supervision. He even wanted to specially call Zhuang Yu over to prevent Qiao Zhiya from hurting herself while making the potion.

The next day, when everything was ready, Qiao Zhiya took out the pharmaceutical1Just a memo, there’s a distinction between “pharmacist” and “apothecary”.  Pharmacist is a professional who dispenses prescribed drugs in a hospital or retail pharmacy. While an apothecary is a person who makes and provides/sells drugs and/or medicines. Seeing QZY makes his own medicine, he would be counted as an apothecary. Though, in a medieval fantasy-like setting, I think “potion maker/master” would be more appropriate. tools he never used before and set them up. He brought out a pot of very thick and lush plants as the main ingredient of his magic potion2Uh also, from now on, when it said “potion” it meant a medicine from QZY’s world. If it’s “medicine/agent/drugs/etc” then it’s from the human world..

Zhuang Yu reached out and touched the strange plant as she asked, “What is this, I’ve never seen it before.”

“It’s called stone grass.” Qiao Zhiya replied. He snuck a glance at the moody White-Haired Monster next to Zhuang Yu. Remembering the plant’s dubious origin, he hurriedly explained, “I secretly dug it back from that mining planet and raised it. It probably grew a little stronger because it can absorb better nutrients.”

In just a few short months, the originally thin and weak plant became a healthy one. It now became arrogant, like a real tyrant. Inside his storage bracelet3By the way, “storage bracelet” = QZY’s own spatial storage from his hometown. While “space button/space ring” = human’s version of that, and it’s wide-spread., this stone grass fought with Qiuqiu every day. The wood magic element contained in the grass’ body was several times stronger than before, which made Qiuqiu very jealous.

“Is this actually stone grass? Isn’t it the type of plant that grows in the crevices of rocks?” Zhuang Yu was surprised, and observed the overlush stone grass more carefully, as if she was watching some kind of miracle, “I have raised this grass too, but I have been unable to keep it alive. So I thought it was a kind of plant that would wither immediately if it left its original environment.”

“Actually, it is quite easy to keep.” Qiao Zhiya blushed and explained in a low voice, “It absorbs my mag— err, I mean it absorbs my special spiritual power.”

Furthermore, this grass also had a very good appetite. It was no wonder it became the chonky-equivalent in the Plantae kingdom.

“No wonder.” Zhuang Yu calmed down when she heard the explanation. She looked at the Cutie with a smile, “The healing-type spiritual power is indeed beneficial to plants. This is one of your advantages. Are you going to use it as a potion ingredient?”

Qiao Zhiya nodded: “It does have a soothing property. It should be able to calm a polluted spiritual power.”

“Then try it.” Zhuang Yu supported his innovation very much. She put on her safety goggles and gloves, and readied herself to supervise Qiao Zhiya.

Qiao Zhiya glanced at Chu Rong who had been silent all this time and paused in his tracks. He reached out to the stone grass while saying, “Zhuang Yu-jie, my method of making potions may be a little different from yours…”

He silently used his magic to ask the stone grass for a few healthy leaves to spare. After the grass agreed, he plucked a couple of them, then returned the grass to his storage bracelet after giving it his magic power in return. He then put the leaves inside a special container and began to draw a magic circle.

Zhuang Yu, who was going to help him extract4If you care about my nerdy rant, you are welcomed to read it in the footnotes below. the plant’s essence, was stunned, and then retracted her hand wisely.

First, a purification circle was drawn on the bottom of the container. After the magic array was activated, Qiao Zhiya put the container into the device for extracting plant essence and pressed it open. After finishing these, he took out a bottle of spiritual power soothing agent from his storage bracelet, and poured it into a spare container on the side.

A few large leaves’ extract could only fill a small test tube. Qiao Zhiya took it out, felt the rich wood-type magic power inside, closed his eyes, and began to probe it with his magic power.

Zhuang Yu blinked in confusion at the Cutie’s actions. But seeing that Qiao Zhiya was still fully concentrated, she was keen on just supervising him. Besides, his methods were far different from what she knew, so she couldn’t actually help him.

As soon as Qiao Zhiya’s wood-type magic power penetrated into the potion, the plant’s own wood-type magic responded excitedly. The magic circle immediately purified any impurities contained within the extract.

This was a very slow process. Outsiders could only see the color of the plant essence in Qiao Zhiya’s hand slowly becoming purer and purer. They couldn’t see the “black smoke” that came out every time an impurity was cleaned out.

After finishing the purification process, Qiao Zhiya drew a fusion magic circle on the table. He poured the plant essence and spiritual power soothing agent together, and after replenishing his magic power, probed into the concoction with his magic power again.

The process of purifying, merging, and sorting out the two different compounds couldn’t be interrupted. Qiao Zhiya finished merging the potion when his magic power was about to be exhausted. He felt bleary, but he forced his eyes open and wiped the sweat on his forehead.

He carefully inspected the finished potion in front of him. All the magic circles he drew were all correct, and the potion’s color was also correct. It should, at the very least, not be dangerous.  He took the bright green potion, sealed it, handed it to Chu Rong, as happily exclaimed, “It’s done! I specially blended the spiritual power soothing agent into it to improve the absorption level.”

Chu Rong stretched out his hand but didn’t take the potion. Instead, he brushed the youth’s sweaty bangs on his forehead, patted him, and said in a gentle voice, “Thank you, you have worked hard.”

“It’s not hard,” Qiao Zhiya was a little shy. Shaking his head gently, he passed the medicine forward again, looking at him with expectant eyes.

Chu Rong took a deep look at him and reached out to take it.

“Ah, wait, don’t drink it yet.” Qiao Zhiya seemed to think of something, raised his hand, and took out Qiuqiu his storage bracelet. He let the plant ball dip into the potion to test it.

After drinking a small portion of the potion, Qiuqiu immediately straightened the tip of its vine, and jumped onto him excitedly, as if he also wanted the potion.

“I’ll make it for you later.” Qiao Zhiya stroked it and fed it a little of his magic power. He looked at Chu Rong again as he continued, “Qiuqiu said that the potion is fine, you can drink it directly.”

Chu Rong and Zhuang Yu both looked baffled at the seemingly-sentient plant in Qiao Zhiya’s palm. They have tried to study this guy in secret, but they couldn’t found anything important. They originally thought that this “Qiuqiu” was just a native plant of Qiao Zhiya’s home planet. While it did have the interesting ability to wound itself on the youth’s body in protection, never in a thousand years could they guess this plant also could test potions.

“Can it detect poison?” Chu Rong looked at Qiuqiu and quietly asked.

The ball nestled in Qiao Zhiya’s palm seemed to sense danger. It couldn’t help shaking, and rolled scaredly into the inside of Qiao Zhiya’s sleeve.

“Well, my father found it for me. It is rare and very precious.” Qiao Zhiya didn’t realize that Qiuqiu wanted to hide. He took it out and held it in his palm. He patted it with his finger as he spoke with a smile on his face, “Qiuqiu has always been with me. It is my family. Don’t you think it’s very cute?”

Surrounded by a bunch of scary-feeling people, Qiuqiu began to play dead again.

“It is very good.” Chu Rong agreed, and he continued, “Take care of it well. Don’t let people find out that it’s special.” After speaking, he looked at Zhuang Yu, and the doctor made a gesture of zippering up her mouth shut.

That night, Chu Rong took the medicine under the urging of Qiao Zhiya, and was sent to the medical center of Chu’s headquarters by Zhuang Yu not long after.

His spiritual power went berserk again.

Qiao Zhiya was stunned and wanted to follow, but Zhuang Yu forced him to stay at home because he had to go to school the day after. Besides, he couldn’t afford another attack on his already-fragile spiritual power, so no contact whatsoever with Chu Rong.

How could Qiao Zhiya sleep in such a situation? He was terrified all night. He wanted to inquire about the situation but was afraid of disturbing the treatment. All he could do was to pace around the living room until dawn. At some point, he passed out from exhaustion on the sofa.

A slight sound of the door opening woke him up. He jolted awake, sat up, and saw a familiar figure appearing at the door. Scrambling to open the door, he threw himself on Chu Rong. During this state, he subconsciously ejected all his remaining magic power, his anxiety made him blabber incoherently over the older man, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t let you drink medicine without any proper testing. I will never dare to do that  again. Are you okay? Are you still uncomfortable? What did Zhuang Yu-jie say, you—”

Chu Rong looked at the anxious Bald Chicken. He brushed the limp blond bangs, then picked him up on his arms.

With his body hanging in the air, Qiao Zhiya wrapped his arms around Chu Rong’s neck in pure reflex. He stared at the White-Haired Monster with a blank look, completely stunned speechless.

“I’m fine.” Chu Rong’s face was always indifferent and calm, but his eyes were very gentle, “The pollution value has dropped again. Your potion is very useful in that regard. You haven’t slept all night?”

“Ah…” Qiao Zhiya, who was sleep-deprived, couldn’t answer through his muddled state. He blearily nodded, then shook his head, “I slept on the sofa. So the potion really is useful? Your spiritual pollution level dropped how much?”

Unknown to both of them, Chu Yan popped out from behind his brother’s back. His face was filled with mirth, full of unsaid gossip. He zoomed into Qiao Zhiya – who was still in Chu Rong’s arms – and hugged him tight. He replied in place of his brother, “It’s not too much—”

Chu Rong glared at his younger brother sharply, with a promise of a painful death.

“—But it’s already amazing! After ten years of research, Chu family’s sponsored medical research lab only managed to create a new soothing agent, not creating treatment to clear up the root cause. But you somehow managed to do it! Qiao, you are too good!” Chu Yan understood the implied murder in Chu Rong’s eyes, so he only said the good things to Qiao Zhiya. That didn’t quell his innate need for gossip, but he knew when to suppress his desire. He coughed and reminded Qiao Zhiya instead, “Look, it’s early in the morning, isn’t it inappropriate for us to stand and talk at the door?”

Qiao Zhiya didn’t expect him to be there, and looked down at what he looked like now. He was held like a child by Chu Rong.

Naturally, he got embarrassed and blushed. He hurriedly struggled to get off the man’s embrace, but it was proven to be futile. Through this, he said to Chu Yan, “You two came back so early. You haven’t had breakfast yet, have you? Wait a moment, I’ll make it for you.”

“Let A1 do it.” Chu Rong noticed how squirmy the youth became, but he didn’t put him down. Instead, he continued to walk into the bedroom as he chided, “Go to sleep, I will wake you up when breakfast is ready.”

Qiao Zhiya struggled: “But I am not sleepy…”

“You are sleepy.” Ancestor Chu refused to accept the rejection. He pushed the youth forcefully onto the bed, then turned and left as he slammed the door shut.

Outside the bedroom, he glared at Chu Yan, who was trying to sneak into Qiao Zhiya’s bedroom. He motioned to the kitchen, and commanded his younger brother with a tone that clearly took no rejection, “Go to the kitchen and tell A1 to cook.”

Chu Yan, who was about to take a peek, said: “…”

Gah, this perverted older brother of his!

QZY: oh so you want to let me do whatever I want? Hmpphh! I will just do it secretly then~

CR: *angry*

Mae’s the-more-you-know corner (nerd alert)

IRL, extracting a plant’s “essence” wouldn’t be enough for a modern drug. You would need some level of purification of the exact compound you want to extract from the plant, and that involves a lot of steps and solvents. Especially since it’s for health, the control over the impurity level and such is crazy high.

Since this purification process is tedious at times, plus waiting for plants to grow usually takes quite a long time, many modern factories used artificial ones (istg if i heard anyone said “artificial one is inferior to natural one” without a nuanced argument ready, i will punch them in the face) or engineered microbes to produce those compounds instead. Although extracting the compound from the microbes can be a separate challenge in itself lol.

QZY’s method is quite faithful to reality. He just has magic power to make things easier for him. It makes me kinda jealous, ngl.

Also, “impurity” IRL just means anything that is not your desired compound. It doesn’t inherently mean it is dangerous/poisonous/etc. In QZY’s potion-making, it seems “impurity” refers to dangerous pollutants instead (because it’s represented as “black smoke”).

Credentials: i have a masters in biotech + bachelors in microbio. Though, that does mean I’m not an expert in this field.

If you can, please support me by donating on my ko-fi~ For every 2 ko-fis, I’ll release an additional chapter ^^

1Just a memo, there’s a distinction between “pharmacist” and “apothecary”.  Pharmacist is a professional who dispenses prescribed drugs in a hospital or retail pharmacy. While an apothecary is a person who makes and provides/sells drugs and/or medicines. Seeing QZY makes his own medicine, he would be counted as an apothecary. Though, in a medieval fantasy-like setting, I think “potion maker/master” would be more appropriate.2Uh also, from now on, when it said “potion” it meant a medicine from QZY’s world. If it’s “medicine/agent/drugs/etc” then it’s from the human world.3By the way, “storage bracelet” = QZY’s own spatial storage from his hometown. While “space button/space ring” = human’s version of that, and it’s wide-spread.4If you care about my nerdy rant, you are welcomed to read it in the footnotes below.