Dragon of Rochester
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Story 10 - The Spy Who Rocked Too Hard (Part 32 đž)
🕑 Added 2024-07-15 07:22:36 +0000 UTCAuthorâs Note:
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Part 32
Going through large amounts of information was something Iâd mastered even before I transmigrated to this fucked up universe.
Since I preferred to start at the beginning and go in chronological order, I picked up the jade slips that had the descriptions of what the bath used to be like. Apparently, it had felt like swimming in mint with a warm power flowing through the discipleâs meridians. Noxious had helpfully included a note describing the current bath as a mild ghost pepper soup. Considering his weakness to my cleaning technique, that might just be an exaggeration. Still, someone somewhere had fucked up.
Next, I read about the experiments Fangstrikeâs predecessors attempted once they realized that their once near-perfect bath had developed worsening side effects.
Since this was anecdotal and not documented by the original observers, I couldnât say for sure if they fucked up as badly as they thought they had. Frankly, if they were trying to save face, they might have fucked up even worse.
After going through that pile as quickly as I could, Iâd developed a headache. Also, the urge to tie up every alchemist here to teach them about the scientific method â specifically, how to document their fucking experiments. Sadly, I had to work with what I was given.
It seemed like most of Noxious Fangstrikeâs predecessors had focused on solutions involving poisons rather than regular medicinal plants, and instead of removing possible problematic ingredients, the poison-obsessed lunatics had added in more just with opposing effects to counteract the sequelae. Obviously, their experiments yielded little effect.
That said⊠the direction of some of their ideas was brilliant. If theyâd actually worked.
Next, I went over Noxious Fangstrikeâs documentation. I could forgive the fact that he hadnât organized it by date since he couldnât remember exactly when heâd done each experiment, but he could have listed them by ingredients tested.
Whatever. Iâd gone over what I was expecting, and this wasnât as bad as the previous batch. But I would still sit him down and go over some things. For example, what the fuck did he mean when he said he added a goddamn 1000-year-old spiritual ginseng just because he felt like it would help nurture the body and prevent some side effects? This was on top of changing the Silver Ice Grass for the costly Platinum Ice Grass.
One simply did not add 1000-year-old ginseng to a bath when experimenting.
Especially not at the prices he found them on this backwater continent. No wonder this fucker didnât want to shell out for expensive ingredients now. If he couldnât sell his poisons and pills for an obscene amount, Iâd believe that he was broke.
I turned to him as he took the leaves off a spiritual plant he was prepping. I glared. He looked back at me, very confused.
Ha!
I moved on to the poisons that shared multiple ingredients with the baths. While I would have to make these later I could still visualize how each ingredient affected the pill.
âWait a second.â
âWhat?â Noxious asked from across the room.
âShhhh!â
I mentally went through the ancient poison manual Iâd memorized back when I was in the outer sect. It had one of the same pills on the list Noxious gave me, but they were different! The old one called for 10 Five Flames Pepper. This version only needed one.
I originally thought this pill had errors purposefully added to confuse anyone who got their hands on the manual who wasnât in the sect. But Iâd seen this same difference in the number of stalks for every poison that used Five Flames Pepper.
That told me that there was something deeper going on here. Iâd have to talk it over with Noxious soon.
Before I did that, there was another inconsistency I had to look into. Which made sense because if the issue with the bath was with only one plant, all of these poison masters would have figured it out before I got here.
Shockingly, these guys werenât the usual incompetent assholes I often ran into in this fucked up universe.
There was a flower native to this region called the Irrepressible Blood Chrysanthemum. It had no application outside of this contract bath. That meant that there was no reason to export it to my continent. Actually, by the time I explored more of the world in my past life, this sect, the only place that used it, had already been destroyed. It likely wouldnât have even been listed as a medicinal plant. Which explained why Iâd never heard of it before.
Although I hadnât worked with it, I could tell that there was something fucking weird going on. The clues were all coming together.
âSenior!â
âWhat?â Noxious Fangstrike practically flew over and hovered above my shoulder.
âIrrepressible Blood Chrysanthemum. Let me see one.â
With a grabbing motion, he pulled over jade box from his ingredient shelves and opened it to reveal a beautiful blood red chrysanthemum with a hint on yellow gold in the center. It was now obvious where the colors from the sectâs robes originated.
I examined the flower using divine sense and frowned. Nothing was out of place butâŠ
âThere is definitely something off about it.â
He scowled. âThere isnât! Iâve been using these for hundreds of years. Unless youâre saying it causes side effects because itâs mixed with another ingredient.â
âA senior from one of those anecdotes you gathered mentioned that he used two chrysanthemums because the new flower was weak. What happened to the old version?â
âOh⊠that.â
This fucker.
I stood up and clasped my hands behind my back. âYes, that.â
âAs far as I know, that plant was almost entirely wiped out a thousand years ago. They managed to grow more with seeds they had in storage, butâŠâ
âThey looked the same, but had half the potency?â
âExactly!â
âMy seniors discovered that if they doubled the amount and added a Sublime Mint Leaf, it worked the same, with only very minor impurities added to the bath.â
That⊠was not something Iâd have recommended doing, but it had seemed to work fine. âIâm guessing that it also added a few side effects.â
âThey werenât anything a Blood Cleansing Pill couldnât take care of.â
âUntil the issues with the Five Flames Pepper intensified the problem.â
âWhat are you talking about?â
âThe people who tried to fix this bath did their best, but they went about it the wrong way.â
âJunior Linlin. Please, just get to the point.â
âDoes our sect have a horticulture department or do we gather all of our ingredients from outside?â
He smirked arrogantly. âOf course, we have our own disciples dedicated to raising spiritual plants. The whole east side of this peak is saved for growing the best quality herbs.â
âDoes that include a team committed to breeding plants to be more potent?â
He paused, then glared so intensely that he practically strangled my neck with his gaze. âHow did you know about that?â
âI figured it out myself. It wasnât that hard.â Especially since Iâd heard about something similar in my past-past life.
While I was in college, I talked with a fellow biology major who was a little too interested in plant breeding. Specifically, where it affected marijuana. Thanks to highly questionable politics, MJ became illegal in my country. But the dealers still wanted to sell it and the buyers still wanted to purchase it. So, just like the alcohol distilleries during prohibition, the dealers had to find a way to distribute it and not get caught.
They thought to sell it in very small portions so it would be easy to smuggle. But the original plant didnât have a very high THC count, the thing that caused the effect the buyers wanted. That led to the growers breeding the weed with the highest amount of THC to each other until they had extremely effective strains.
If this sect did something similar only with their poisonous plants, thenâŠ
âYou idiots did this to yourselves.â
Noxious frowned.
âAfter hundreds of years of breeding highly toxic peppers, you acquired a beast blood contract bath that poisons your own disciples.â
âImpossible. We always cut back on the amount we use of that pepper.â
âYour breeders increased the poisonous properties. But what do you think happened to the beneficial properties?â
âIt stayed the same.â
âOr even decreased.â
He paled.
âEven if the volume of poison they get is the same, the parts of the pepper that helped make the bath work were reduced. Do you see how this is a problem? Especially when the original amount of peppers used was ten?â
âI can see that. But⊠we donât have any of the original peppers. And even if we did have them, weâd have to grow them on opposite sides of the sect.â
Did this guy not know any horticulture? âAre you saying that because it you didnât, your pollinators might breed the two strains and the original peppers will get extra spicy.â
âExactly! Wait. You meant extra poisonous, right?â
âThatâs ridiculous. Just build an isolation formation if you donât already have one. Your disciples are probably hand-pollinating them anyway.â
He frowned. âThatâs for the horticulturists to figure out. Iâm not responsible for them.â
Was he serious? âYouâre a master in the Nascent Soul realm! Even if you arenât caring for the plants yourself, you should investigate how that department is growing the herbs you use every day. Youâre irresponsible if you donât.â
His cheeks turned bright red. âI do not need a lecture from my junior.â
I crossed my arms and glared at him. âDread Lotus.â
He winced.
Now that heâd been properly embarrassed, I continued, âLocate a senior from the horticulturists who has the original seeds. And if you canât do that, then send a disciple out to the farthest corner of this continent to search for it. Either way, we need the least toxic variant soon as possible.â
âAlright,â he said, then paused. âWhat if we canât find the original Five Flames Pepper?â
âThen weâll have to do things the hard and long way.â
He frowned and paused for a second as if talking with others through a secret sound transmission. Within a few moments, several Golden Core disciples entered Noxious Fangstrikeâs alchemy room and bowed deeply. He threw a bag at the one with the highest cultivation. âTake this and hurry to the teleportation platform.â
âYes, senior. Weâll take this secret to our graves.â
Then the group vanished.
âThat was a little extreme, but I approve.â
He scowled.
âWith the demonic sect messing with the sectâs poison body cultivators, there is no telling how badly theyâd want to prevent us from getting the right ingredients.â
âThis only takes care of one plant. You mentioned the Irrepressible Blood Chrysanthemum. Are you planning to fix the issue with that?â
âI canât fix the plant in such a short period. But I have an idea on how to resolve its side effects. It will just take some trial and error.â
He nodded.
âBut before I start on the chrysanthemum, we need to see how much the original pepper strain reduces the sequelae. We have to take this slowly or weâll mess everything up.â
âI⊠understand.â He frowned. âAre you sure it is only these two ingredients that are creating these awful side effects?â
âOne step at a time, senior. Once weâve solved these two. If there are more plants responsible for harming our sectâs disciples, then Iâll figure it out later.â
He stared off into space while looking a little melancholy. âI canât understand how I didnât see this before. It seems so obvious now.â
Fuck. I needed him on his game and not wallowing in his and his sectâs mistakes. âItâs not that you arenât brilliant, senior. Itâs just that Iâm an actual once-in-a-billion-years genius.â
He coughed and looked at me like he couldnât believe Iâd said that.
âDonât feel too bad. I still have plenty of things I need to learn from you about poisons.â
âFor some reason, I suddenly donât feel like teaching you.â
âWell, you donât have to. But Iâm not confident about creating a perfect cure if you donât teach me. And Dread Lotus might yell at you.â
His brow furrowed and he rubbed his temples with one hand. âI canât win against you.â
Of course not! Who did he think I was?
Then, as if realizing something wonderful, he smiled. âBut I can put you through a hellish training regime.â
He chuckled sadistically.
This fucker⊠That was what I usually did to Little Spring! How dare someone use my own punishments against me?
He pulled out several jade slips. âWeâll start with these. I expect you to have made every poison on here by the time you go back to your band members.â
This sneaky motherfucker⊠How did he know I wanted to learn this shit quickly?! This wasnât hell training. It was speed learning. Muahahaha!
Authorâs Note:
Thank you all for reading! You are the best readers a writer could ask for!
I apologize for the late post. I had a rough week between getting food poisoning and having really awful insomnia. Itâs like the universe knew I was coming back to Royal Road this week and decided to throw me under the bus.
But itâs out! Iâll try to post the next chapter on or by Saturday next week. Thank you for your patience!
Comments
Bable Zmith
I have to say that this the best picture of Lin since the 'mech interlude. :)
Riking
I mean, if you're deriding the "hard slow way" instead of milking extra work hours out of the job, he might get a clue that you want to go fast
Green0Photon
I love Lin remembering the answer based on something that she had seen ages and ages ago, like a wise old wizard. Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes, about how important it is to have that memory: > One of the requisites for becoming a powerful wizard is an excellent memory. The key to a puzzle is often something you read twenty years ago in an old scroll, or a peculiar ring you saw on the finger of a man you met only once... --- Speaking of you getting sick, over and over again recently, I got COVID again. Which you may remember from a comment back in Jan about me getting COVID then, and in the prior October. Really sucky, but I'm over that one now. Was too tired to read the past few chapters until now. Always love a small binge. I really hope this shit stops happening to you. I'm excited to see this arc progress! This chapter and the last were especially fun.
Bosparan
Thanks for the awesome chapter! Love how good old Noxious is turning out there :)
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