In order to avoid offending Taishi’s so-called “divine weapon self-respect”, the spiritual sword Mo Tianliao wore in his hair could no longer be used, lest he be shouted to an early grave by Taishi. However, flying generally required a sword, so he still needed one. Since it would not be used for fighting, he could make a spiritual sword specifically for flying, which would be lighter and easier to carry than ordinary swords.
Because of this, Mo Tianliao gave Meng Hu his transforming fire sword and asked da-shixiong to help him sell it.
When Meng Hu took the fire sword, he fell in love with it. “Shidi, this is a very good sword, it’s rare to come across something so fine. If you want to sell it, sell it to me, ok?”
“I made it when I was at the Foundation Establishment level, so it’s not that good.” Mo Tianliao raised his eyebrows. He was not planning to sell it to da-shixiong, there were few lingshi left in his storage bracelet, he had to save money to buy materials so he could make more money, but it would be unkind to sell it to shixiong at a high price. “Shixiong, if you want, you could go find me some good materials, I’ll make you an even better sword.”
Meng Hu was very happy when he heard this. He patted his chest, promising that he would get Mo Tianliao a good price.
Once the big tiger had eagerly left, Mo Tianliao headed to Woxuan abode.
In the Ten Thousand Flowers Valley, Hua Qing, dressed in gaudy clothes, was raging at a rabbit sitting amid the grass. “When you wrecked only my medicine garden, I could overlook it, but why did you destroy my flowers?! I already said they are poisonous and can’t be eaten, but you didn’t believe me! ”
Mo Tianliao approached and saw a green rabbit sitting among the flowers. He couldn’t help staring, his eyes huge. “So green rabbits exist, how odd.”
“Hahahaha, no.” Zi Mo came over, holding a chicken drumstick in his mouth, he finished eating it in a couple of bites and then picked up the fat rabbit. “He ate poisonous flowers.”
Mo Tianliao gave a sideways glance and saw that just where the rabbit had been, there were several strange flowers, they had eight petals, each a strange dark green colour.
“Do you know how hard it is to cultivate these Green Devil Flowers? And you just gobbled them up like that.” Hua Qing did not feel even a tiny bit sorry for the rabbit who had grown green fur, he was holding the flowers that had been chewed bald, utterly heartbroken. This was the main ingredient for refining his Green Hair Pills. What was he to do the next time da-shixiong wanted some Green Hair Pills? He had also wanted to make more for Master.
Mo Tianliao swallowed his laughter and looked at the pitiful rabbit. “I’ve only ever seen green-haired turtles, it’s the first time I’ve seen a green-haired rabbit. It looks very pretty.”
When Hua Qing heard this, his eyes suddenly lit up. “Pretty you say?” With that, he walked around Zi Mo, who was still holding the rabbit, and suddenly came up with a new money-making idea.
Besides Green Devil Flowers that could turn rabbits green, there were many other flowers that could be used as dyes. He only needed to refine the relevant pills and then sables could become ferrets, black bears could become brown bears, and colourful tigers may even become rainbow tigers. By then, the entire Beast cultivator world would be addicted to changing their fur colour, and his Colour-Changing Pills would be in high demand.
Mo Tianliao looked at Hua Qing, who was laughing more and more strangely, and suppressed a smile. “I came to see shixiong in order to discuss something.”
As far as the Way of the craftsman was concerned, Mo Tianliao was unsurpassed in the whole Taixuan continent. It was useless to rely solely on either magical tools or medicine to cure a divine soul, so he had thought to combine the two. Hua Qing was a famous master alchemist in the righteous path, just the person to consult about this.
“I heard that you were learning crafting. I can’t help you with that, you should ask a craftsman.” The Way of the alchemist and the Way of the craftsman seemed similar, after all, both used furnaces. But, in fact, they were both very different. Hua Qing picked the remaining Green Devil Flowers along with some flowers of other colours, in preparation to make his Colour-Changing Pills.
“The Way is nature, it applies to everything,” said Mo Tianliao with a smile. “When shixiong wants to integrate two things with different effects, what does he usually do?”
“It’s actually very difficult to combine two things with different effects, particularly with alchemy. Many things are inimical when together, it is necessary to find ingredients that inhibit their antagonistic properties. This refining of opposing substances requires a lot of skill and an understanding of the principles that govern the mutual strengthening and weakening between the five elements.” Hua Qing picked up the green rabbit from Zi Mo’s hands. “Just like this rabbit; you could use it for alchemy, but you can’t mix it with Soaring Coin Grass, and the like. Otherwise the rabbit meat would go bad.”
The fat rabbit kicked his legs and glared at him.
Mo Tianliao took the rabbit and petted it. The rabbit’s fur was long and soft to the touch. If he wasn’t mistaken, this should be Bai Luo, the Sect Leader’s third disciple, who now had turned green.
Inimical things? Mo Tianliao looked down, the Nine-Souls Crystal Soul Subjugating Horn Shield needed a Sound Subduing array, while nurturing the soul required a Soul Soothing array. Sound Subduing and Soul Soothing were two completely contradictory arrays. They both affected the soul, Sound Subduing was for external defence, while Soul Soothing was for internal healing. Then he just needed to find the connection between both and think of a way to make sure they did not interfere with each other.
“I see. One more thing,” said Mo Tianliao, smiling. “Those pills that can soothe the soul, can shixiong make them in liquid form?”
“Liquid?” Hua Qing frowned slightly, alchemy produced pills, little round beads. “Just dissolve them in water.”
“Dissolving them in water will reduce their potency.” Mo Tianliao wanted to make a magical tool that would secrete things like Soul Condensing medicine whenever Master had a headache, in case Qingtong had one when he was not around and he lacked the strength to eat the pills.
“In that case, I’ll have to try and make some.” It was the first time Hua Qing had heard of someone wanting liquid medicine, other than Silk Tree Nectar, that is.
“Thank you, shixiong,” Mo Tianliao cupped one hand in the other, expressing his gratitude. “I wonder if I could learn alchemy from shixiong?”
Hua Qing looked incredulously at him. “You can only cultivate one, either the Way of the alchemist or the Way of the craftsman. You have just started crafting, I’m afraid learning alchemy wouldn’t be good for you.”
“I know my limits, and I still hope that shixiong will be so kind as to grant me some advice.” Mo Tianliao did not say much, just looked at Hua Qing sincerely.
“Tsk, tsk. So greedy, be careful not to choke.” Zi Mo snatched the green rabbit, put it on his head, and walked away wobbling.
Obviously, Hua Qing felt the same way. He clearly wanted to persuade him but since he was not his Master, he did not dare to speak out of turn. He threw some jade slips at him with a cold expression and told him to memorize it all before coming to him again.
Mo Tianliao took the jade slips which contained the names and properties of tens of thousands of spiritual plants; he was very happy. This must have been summarized by Hua Qing himself, and it also contained notes on inimical substances, things to avoid when refining pills, and so on. Memorizing this would save a lot of effort.
Zi Mo returned to Wotian abode wearing a green rabbit and ran into the second-generation disciples who were practicing the sword in the Southern Hall.
“Second shibo, your green leather hat is pretty nice!” A second-generation disciple sincerely praised.
“Second shishu, where did you buy that green leather hat?” Chi Feng and his two siblings looked at each other, their lips twitching with supressed laughter.
“Waooo.” The little leopard, who was brought by Chi Shan so he could play, echoed their sentiments immediately after.
Chi Feng and his siblings were also Demonic Beasts, their talents were not enough to be direct disciples of any of the abode Masters, so they followed Yan Lie. The little leopard that had been brought back by Qingtong was thrown to Yan Lie by the Sect Leader, and Yan Lie threw it to his disciples in turn. It was too small to read cultivation manuals, so Chi Shan took it with her everywhere.
Zi Mo nodded towards his shizhis and other disciples, went straight through the Southern Hall, went around the cloister, and ran into his fourth shidi Mo Xiong, who had come to help the disciples practice the sword.
Mo Xiong was dark and strong, with a powerful back and shoulders. When they crashed, it made Zi Mo stumble, Mo Xiong grabbed him and said in a loud voice, “Second shixiong, your green hat looks like third shixiong.”
Green hat… green hat… Zi Mo finally realized what was going on and quickly took off the rabbit on his head. The green rabbit looked at him like he was an idiot and dropped to the ground, turning into the beautiful and serene Bai Luo, but his once elegant white clothes had turned green.
Yan Lie, who was visiting Tianlang Abode with the little fox, just happened to see this scene. His lips twitched, he said to the little fox on his shoulder, “Don’t play with them or you’ll also turn into an idiot.”
Mo Tianliao collected all the necessary materials and told Master that he wanted to forge something, so he would go to the fire room and not come out for a while. His fox pillow was learning magic from Yan Lie, and his tiger blanket had disappeared gods knew where. Qingtong sat in his rocking chair, bored to death.
“Beauty, do you want me to chat with you?” The big tortoise-shell mouth came drifting over.
Qingtong opened one eye, saw Taishi, then closed it again.
Taishi flew to Qingtong’s lap and turned into a sprig of foxtail grass, its stem was long and slender and its tip was bushy, but since it still had that tortoiseshell colour, it looked a little weird. The little spikes on its tip were also tremendously hard, like steel needles.
The foxtail swayed back and forth on its own, trying to tease the cat.
The cold and beautiful eyes slowly opened, he looked expressionlessly at the foxtail stem, it was begging for a slap. He slowly reached out his hand. Five sharp claws suddenly appeared, ready for a scratch. Claws imbued with spiritual power were extraordinarily strong, the foxtail grass went stiff with fear. The moment the claws approached it, it turned itself into dust.
The whole sky was covered with floating tortoiseshell-coloured specks. Because Taishi was also made of Starfall Stone, it glittered in the light of the sun. Once the specks landed, they merged and became a big mouth. “Beauty, don’t be so grouchy. The special tool my Master is creating is very complicated. It will take between ten to fifteen days to complete, that’s why he sent me to play with you.”
Qingtong’s hands, hidden in his sleeves, slowly clenched. Ten to fifteen days! You must truly care, huh?!
Mo Tianliao first crafted the magical tool he had promised to the fox. All it took was a small piece of the Nine-Souls Crystal with a little bit of Sheltering Silver, once it was done, he threw it into his storage bracelet and began crafting the thing he would give to Master. This was going to be complicated and elaborate, the integration of the two functions was not easy at all, he had already ruined a small piece of crystal.
During refining, Mo Tianliao tried to extract a wisp of his own soul. His soul had merged with the portion given to him by Qingtong, now it contained the souls of two people in one. He wanted to try and let Master carry it all the time to see if he could reabsorb it.
Extraction was very painful, except for something particularly important, such as Taishi, a craftsman would not refine his own soul into something, because once the object was damaged, the main soul would also be affected.
Ten days later, he succeeded magnificently. Mo Tianliao lay on the ground, his body beyond exhausted, he looked at the purple pendant in his hand, and slowly smiled. The pendant was edged with Sheltering Silver and hollow on the inside. It cast a colourful halo in the warm light of the forge room, it was very lovely.
Just then, the door of the forge room was pushed open from the outside, and a white clad beauty slowly entered, his slender fingers took the pendant from Mo Tianliao’s hand.
Mo Tianliao looked up and smiled at him. “Master…”
Hua Qing: Do you want to be a green-haired rabbit? Do you want to be a red-haired wolf? Colour-Changing Pills, because you’re worth it
Bai Luo: Exclusive endorsement by peerlessly beautiful rabbit
Zi Mo: It’s only ¥ 998, only ¥ 998
Carpenter: Master, it’s your turn to speak
Xiaozhao: … Available for sell at Tmall
Unedited, please point out any mistakes
Better late than never. Sorry for the wait, this chapter killed me
Third extra chapter, thank you Lalorena and Lassiter for the ko-fi