Chapter 139: Using Local Materials

“We won! We won!”

Zhao Xin yelled excitedly as he charged at Su Chen and hugged him when Su Chen’s body suddenly swayed slightly as the color drained from his face.

“Su Chen, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, just a little exhausted. Damn, that guy was really powerful. If he had been able to hold on for just a bit longer, then I would’ve been in some real hot water,” Su Chen said in between breaths as he gasped for air.

He had never particularly focused on brute force battles. The previous battle had been a first for him in many ways.

“Two Ferocious Race youths! Su Chen, you killed two of them all on your own. You’re so powerful!” Zhao Xin said excitedly.

He couldn’t defeat a single Ferocious Race youth even if there were three of him, so Su Chen’s performance was quite shocking to him.

“What do you mean, powerful? Didn’t you see me gulp all those medicines down?” Su Chen said somewhat crossly.

“Right, what medicines were those? How come they were so powerful?” Zhao Xin asked.

“Advanced Strengthening Medicine, Advanced Iron-Skinned Medicine, Advanced Vitality Recovery Medicine, Advanced Wind Agility Medicine, and a Frenzy Medicine,” Su Chen replied.

“Holy cow!” Zhao Xin exclaimed animatedly. “If you were able to become so powerful with just those few vials of medicine, then can you make some more for me so that I can beat up some Ferocious Race youths too?”

“Make some more? Do you know how much these five vials of medicine cost?” Su Chen countered.

Zhao Xin paused for a moment. “How much?”

He knew in his heart that they couldn’t possibly have been cheap.

Su Chen replied, “These five vials were all advanced medicines, worth roughly 2500 Origin Stones each. Frenzy Medicine is also worth 3500 Origin Stones.”

Even though he had prepared himself, Zhao Xin was still stunned by the number. “You’re saying that you used 13500 Origin Stones worth of medicine in a single moment?”

“That’s right; 13500 Origin Stones is only enough to let you go all out for such a short period of time. Otherwise, how could I possible achieve such a great effect?”

Alchemists were divided by skill level into Novice, Qualified, Distinguished, Master, and Legendary. These tiers generally corresponded to the value of the medicine they could concoct - a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand, and a million Origin Stones, respectively.

The medicines that Su Chen had concocted were all advanced-tier medicines, which could be concocted by Qualified Alchemists, so each one was worth a few thousand Origin Stones. In fact, they were considered quite cheap since Su Chen hadn’t dared to try concocting any medicines with greater effect. Spirit Sobering Medicine, for instance, which could generally only be concocted by Distinguished Alchemists, fetched a pretty thirty or forty thousand Origin Stones. Otherwise, why would the Immortal Temple continue to bargain with Su Chen? Three thousand vials were worth nearly 100 million Origin Stones. The Recovery Medicines he had concocted earlier were all low-tier and not worth much money.

Su Chen had only brought ingredients with him, but that didn’t mean that these ingredients were worthless.

13500 Origin Stones of medicine still required around 3000 Origin Stones in raw ingredients. Of the 13000 Origin Stones of items he had brought, medicinal ingredients made up around 11000 Origin Stones.

In other words, he could only make three batches of such medicine in total.

He had already used up one batch just like that.

“I originally planned to let Wang Doushan and Cloud Leopard use them. After all, I’m not that good at close-quarters combat, and I can’t manifest the full potential of these medicines. However, if they used it, they could probably take care of two to three Ferocious Race youths on their own. Unfortunately, I didn’t get very lucky......” Su Chen sighed regretfully. One could only imagine what the two Ferocious Race youths whom Su Chen had beaten to death would feel if they had heard what he had said.

“So you can only make two more batches of such medicine,” Zhao Xin also sighed.

“Actually, I can only make one more batch,” Su Chen replied.

“What? Why is that? Don’t you still have around seven to eight thousand Origin Stones worth of ingredients left?”

“Because not all the ingredients I brought can be used to concoct those medicines. For instance, the Advanced Strengthening Medicine requires Cliff Grass and Blood Lotus. I brought enough Cliff Grass to make four vials of Advanced Strengthening Medicine but only enough Blood Lotus to make two. Now, I only have one more Blood Lotus remaining. Even if I have enough Cliff Grass, I only have enough Blood Lotus to make one more vial of this medicine.”

Zhao Xin was stunned. “Why would you do this?”

“Because you can find Blood Lotuses here,” Su Chen replied.

Zhao Xin was dumbfounded. “How do you know? Isn’t this the first time anyone has been allowed to enter?”

Su Chen smiled. “You can infer some things without ever entering the ruins. For instance, it has already been established that this ruin has existed for nearly 36000 years. Thus, it probably came into being during the 41st millenium of the Chaos Era. During that time, the Arcana Kingdom had just invented the Bloodline Extraction Instrument, and they were probably furiously analyzing and researching bloodlines. Blood Lotuses are extremely important for the Bloodline Extractors, so almost every Arcana Master would grow them in large quantities in their own personal voids. In addition, Wind-Silencing Grass, which can be used to concoct the Advanced Wind Agility Medicine, is also a very important organism within the void. It can generate breathable air, making it a critical component in keeping this void space alive. In fact, I have already verified this; there is a forest nearby in which I found Wind-Silencing Grass. Unfortunately, however, there was a Demonic Beast there, so I wasn’t able to harvest it. There are many more grasses and herbs like this scattered throughout that I am confident are here even though I have never entered these ruins before.”

Zhao Xin was stunned. “So your plan from the beginning was to use local materials as ingredients to concoct even more medicine?”

“That’s right. However, I still brought along two sets of complete ingredients with me just in case so that I wouldn’t be too deep in the hole if I had made an incorrect assumption. In addition, I would be able to use a batch of medicine immediately if I needed it. Unexpectedly, I really did need to use that batch almost immediately.”

“How do you know all of this?” Zhao Xin said, his face filled with awe.

“While you all were enjoying yourselves in the flower houses[1. Chinese culture tends to refer to young maidens as “flowers”], I was doing some research in the library.”

Upon hearing the words “flower houses”, Zhao Xin’s face reddened. He laughed awkwardly, “So if you can gather all these materials, then you can make a total of four batches?”

“Actually, I can make six.” The number that Su Chen reported gave Zhao Xin another shock.

“Didn’t you say you only brought enough to make four batches?”

“I told Cloud Leopard and the others to help me bring some too.” Su Chen had already pretty much recovered as he got back to his feet. “Thus, the most pressing matter right now is to quickly find them. I have a plan, but I’ll need your help.”

“Just say it. I’ll be sure to take care of it,” Zhao Xin said. He had an immense amount of respect for Su Chen now, so he would have been willing to listen to Su Chen even if he didn’t have the third student number.

“I want you to leave this place and go look for others because you have the Golden Blazing Eagle Eye. As long as you stay watchful of your surroundings, you shouldn’t be in too much danger. After you find them, let them know two things: first of all that I am here and that they can find he here if they are wounded”

“You’re going to stay here?” Zhao Xin was somewhat unwilling to part with Su Chen.

“I’m going to the forest to find some ingredients and concoct a few more medicines. I need to have a set location to treat other people’s injuries, since it won’t do for me to be running all over the place. Thus, the task of finding our allies falls to you. You can also use this opportunity to continue mapping out the place.”

“Fine,” Zhao Xin agreed somewhat reluctantly.

“Secondly, you need to tell them that I need these ingredients.” Su Chen pulled out a piece of paper. On it was a list of the names of many medicinal herbs that he needed.

He handed it to Zhao Xin and said, “If they find any of these medicinal herbs, they should bring them to me.”

“Mhm!” Zhao Xin nodded his head vigorously.

It was evident just how important those herbs were. If they could gather them for Su Chen, just these six batches of Advanced Medicine would become serious weapons, enough to deal a huge blow to the Ferocious Race youths.

“Lastly, I need you to do one final thing,” Su Chen said straightforwardly.

“What is it?” Zhao Xin replied.

“Go find Ji Ruoyu. No matter what, nothing can happen to him!”