The Attack of the Wastrel

What Gu Lingzhi had planned as revenge was actually very simple. Didn’t Cai Lan spill some medicine on her the previous time, causing her to attract the attack of a Carmine Python? Hence, Gu Lingzhi has decided to do the exact same thing back at her and use a medicine that would attract a first-order peak grade demon beast. Gu Lingzhi was a common visitor to the Alchemy Tower, thus she would have access to some unusual medicines.

Opening Cai Lan’s mouth, she placed a bright purple pill into her mouth. Once she was certain that the pill was swallowed, she simply left.

Reflecting its outer appearance, the pill was called Purple Violet. Anyone who takes the pill would emit a scent that could only be detected by demon beasts. The duration at which the effect of the medicine lasts depends on the ability of the alchemist that made it. The Purple Violet that Gu Lingzhi fed Cai Lan was a low grade Black-Level Spiritual Medicine that could last a month. This was also the first and only Black-Level medicine that she had successfully made.

“I guess this is considered…fate?” Gu Lingzhi laughed lightly. If not, how could it be so coincidental that all her other medicines were all Yellow-Level ones but only this seemingly useless Spiritual Medicine was able to make it to a low grade Black-Level medicine with two traces of furnace patterns?

After feeding the Purple Violet to Cai Lan, Gu Lingzhi made her way out of the infirmary. Without Rong Yuan bothering her these few days, she had a lot more free time to herself in which she spent most of it practicing Alchemy. This Purple Violet pill with two traces of furnace patterns took two days to be completed.

“When I have time, I shall go to the Alchemy Tower!” Gu Lingzhi’s eyes were filled with confidence.

With Rong Yuan’s absence, Gu Lingzhi also found out something very interesting.

Ever since that one time where she had used the Alchemy Tower to mask her identity as the Black Thorn, Gu Lingzhi has been using the Alchemy Tower to change her identity several times. There were several students who were initially surprised by her appearance and were curious to find out who she was. Surprisingly, most students had high regard for the Black Thorn. When she competed in the Town of the Brave as the Black Thorn, she actually attracted several male students from the Royal School.

This was completely different to when she was acting as Gu Lingzhi. While this was new to her, it also made her feel slightly troubled.

From another perspective, the attention that people were giving her was just like Alchemy and Weapon Forging. There could be surprising outcomes even though the ingredients had been the same, as long as she changed her methods.

Upon reaching the Alchemy Tower, Gu Lingzhi entered the familiar door and was sent to an enclosed room.

The first three stages posed almost zero difficulty to her and she completed them perfectly. She was slightly slower in the fourth stage and took another hour to complete it.

Gu Lingzhi breathed deeply as she started on the fifth stage. She looked at the Spiritual Medicine she was tasked to make this time.

“Something that causes people to fart when they smell it…” Gu Lingzhi’s mouth twisted. Wasn’t this the Spiritual Medicine that she was asked to make when she entered the Alchemy Tower for the first time?

How did she make it previously?

She had used the Ascension Herb and the Tailless Rat to make it. However, after she purified the ingredients and was about to move on to the second step of combining them, she had failed.

With her experience the previous time, it was more straightforward this time and helped her save some time.

She decided to use the same formula for the Ascension Herb but work on the Tailless Rat.

“Previously, I mixed the internal essence of the Tailless Rat with other medicinal ingredients. Maybe this time I should use the internal essence pill directly without attempting to purify it at all!”

She then threw the internal essence pill of the Tailless Rat into the furnace and grinded it into powder. Following that, Gu Lingzhi threw in several stimulating medicinal ingredients that were all roughly purified into the furnace. Lastly, it was the most important part, the time to concentrate on congealing the pill.

A drop of sweat rolled down Gu Lingzhi’s forehead, it took extra effort and concentration to attempt to congeal medicinal ingredients that were not completely purified.

First, she needed to control the temperature of the fire. Next, she needed to slowly combine the medicinal ingredients one by one. One, two, three…

As she combined the ingredients, a tanned coloured liquid appeared at the bottom of the furnace.

It worked!

Delight shone in Gu Lingzhi’s eyes as she continued to combine the remaining ingredients even more carefully. After an hour, all the ingredients were finally combined, forming a blackish-brown lump. A stinging smell floated out from the bottom of the furnace.

Just as Gu Lingzhi was about to mold the spiritual fluid into a pill, a bold idea flashed into her mind. She changed her mind and actually proceeded to break the medicinal lump. Following that, she greatly increased the fire power. The sudden surge in temperature caused the medicinal fluid to produce a slight sizzling sound as a vapor rose from the furnace.

With nimble hands, Gu Lingzhi quickly retrieved a jade bottle used to contain spiritual medicines and positioned it directly at the mouth of the furnace. With a slight movement, the grey vapor was sucked into the jade bottle. Gu Lingzhi suddenly heard a sound in her mind, “Congratulations for passing the Alchemy Tower’s test. Your current standing is — number one.”

Number one? Without waiting for Gu Lingzhi to process the information, a white light flashed in front of her eyes as she was removed from the Alchemy Tower.

At the same time, several students who were passing by the Alchemy Tower saw the first line on the Stone Tablet for the Yellow-Level Alchemist flash. They hurried over to take a closer look.

Whenever the Stone Tablet of the Training Tower or Alchemy Tower flashed, it meant that there were changes to the ranking. It could either mean that the ranking had switched or someone new had entered the rankings.

“God, am I seeing things? Gu Lingzhi?” A student exclaimed loudly after seeing who was ranked first on the Stone Tablet.

“What? Gu Lingzhi?” Another student who had yet to see Gu Lingzhi’s name on the stone tablet quickly scanned his eyes across the tablet before fixing it upon Gu Lingzhi’s name.

“She... she is actually first…”

“Everyone move, let me see!” a haughty voice sounded.

Ever since he was ranked first, Feng An would spend any free time he had hanging around the Stone Tablet at the Alchemy tower to show off. When he saw new students looking at the Stone Tablet, he would pretend to not care as he introduced himself.

Whenever he saw the admiration in his new juniors’ eyes, he would feel a sense of accomplishment. The sullen indignance that he had felt when he was under Beicheng Haoyue’s shadow would momentarily disappear.

Today, he was hanging around the Alchemy Tower as usual when he saw the Stone Tablet flash. He pursed his lips unhappily, “Isn’t it just another person that crawled up onto the Stone Tablet? I have seen many of these people who are full of tricks. If it were up to me, I would say that only the one that is ranked first is considered to have true abilities. As for the rest, they are just lucky…”