Cesar patted Linley on his shoulders comfortingly. “Linley, it will take you quite a bit of effort to gather these eight ingredients.”
Linley still felt a degree of confidence.
Of these eight ingredients, five wouldn’t pose any problem at all. As for fog grass, even though it was rare, it shouldn’t be too hard to buy it. As for Blueheart Grass… he had it already. There was no need to buy it. Right now, the only problem was the cloud fungus!
“Once I acquire the cloud fungus, I’ll be able to produce some Bloodrupture poison. And that day will be the day of Clayde’s death,” Linley said to himself.
Linley could no longer endure any longer. If in the future, he still couldn’t find an appropriate opportunity, he would go all out and kill Clayde, even if it meant exposing himself as the killer. If worst came to worst, he would go ask Yale for help and have the Dawson Conglomerate aid him in fleeing from the Holy Union.
Based on the influence and power of the Dawson Conglomerate, it wouldn’t be too hard for them to help Linley escape from the Holy Union.
“Right now, what’s important is finding these eight ingredients.” Linley was still very happy right now.
At least he now had a goal to work towards.
“Linley. Linley.” Cesar called out to him. “Ahem, Master Linley!”
“Uh?” Only now did Linley end his pondering and turn to look at Cesar. “Mr. Cesar, is there something you need?”
Cesar chortled. “Linley, are you perhaps forgetting something?”
Linley immediately understood. Laughing, he said, “Haha, Mr. Cesar, you are referring to the sculpture, right? I finished the sculpture you asked for a full month ago. Come, please, this way.” Linley immediately led Cesar towards a side room.
In the corner of this side room, there was a man-shaped sculpture which radiated a cold, killing aura. Those two eyes contained within them a disdain for all life and an arrogance that forced viewers to feel awe and terror.
As for the facial features, the facial details were carved even more accurately. The sculpture looked exactly like Cesar.
“Wonderful, wonderful!!!” Cesar was so excited, he said the word wonderful twice.
“Master Linley, you truly are a master sculptor. In such a short period of time, you were able to produce such a flawless sculpture. In my mind, this sculpture is ten thousand times better than even that ‘Awakening From the Dream’ of yours.” Staring at his sculpture, Cesar was grinning so widely that his face threatened to split.
The more he looked at this sculpture, the happier Cesar felt.
“This King of Killers is perhaps a bit too narcissistic.” Seeing the grin on Cesar’s face, Linley couldn’t help but think this to himself.
“Lord Linley.” A nearby housekeeper bowed politely.
Linley pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to the housekeeper. “Go purchase these twelve ingredients for me. The exact amount I need for each is written on the paper.”
“Yes, Lord Linley.” The housekeeper accepted the piece of paper.
Of the twelve ingredients on the list of paper, six of them were the ones which Linley needed, while the other six were just some normal, random ingredients Linley had scribbled on as well. Of the twelve ingredients, only fog grass was relatively expensive. As for the Blueheart Grass and cloud fungus which the Bloodrupture poison required, Linley didn’t even bother writing them down on this piece of paper.
Linley wasn’t actually worried about these ingredients being made public.
After all, the secret formula for Bloodrupture poison was one of the secret formulas of the Deathgod’s Hands. Aside from the Saber organization, most likely no one else knew this formula. And there were many other formulas that also used those ingredients.
After all, Linley didn’t write down the two most critical ingredients; Blueheart Grass and cloud fungus.
“Find and purchase these ingredients for me as soon as possible,” Linley instructed.
After giving his orders to the housekeeper, Linley immediately sent someone to invite Yale, Reynolds, and George to come meet with him at his manor. Whenever they had a chance, the four bros would meet and have food together, thus this wasn’t out of character for Linley.
The next morning.
This was the day of Kanter Debs’ execution by hanging, but Linley couldn’t be bothered to go watch. He was in his manor, drinking wine and chatting with his three bros. Only after they finished drinking did Linley bring up what he wished to discuss.
“Boss Yale, there’s something I want to ask you to help me with,” Linley said.
“Third Bro, just let me know what you need,” Yale said boldly.
Linley withdrew a piece of paper. “Boss Yale, I need two types of ingredients. One is fog grass, the other is cloud fungus. These two herbs are extremely rare, and are virtually unavailable on the market. I was hoping you could help me, Yale.” Yale was supported by the Dawson Conglomerate, after all.
As one of the three great trading unions of the Yulan continent, the Dawson Conglomerate was a massive organization with astonishing abilities.
It would be much simpler for them to look for cloud fungus and fog grass than for Linley to do so on his own.
“Two types of herbs? Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle it for you.” His tongue slurred from wine, Yale pounded his chest and promised. At the same time, he took the piece of paper with the two herbs written down on it from Linley.
“I’ve seen fog grass at home when I was young. It is a very fun type of grass. Under the hot morning sun, it will emit white mist,” Reynolds immediately said.
Linley’s eyes lit up. However, Reynolds’ clan was back in the O’Brien Empire. From his clan to the Kingdom of Fenlai would require at least a year of travelling time. Linley didn’t have that much time to wait. Only if he absolutely couldn’t find it would he be forced to wait patiently.
“How long would it take us, if we were to wait for you to get fog grass from your home, Fourth Bro?” Yale snickered. “Third Bro, I’ll go talk to my Second Uncle right away and have him help you find these two ingredients.”
Yale really did handle Linley’s matters with high importance. That very day, he went to find his Second Uncle.
That night, within a private deluxe room, the brown-haired Myron Dawson was casually draped in a bathrobe. Bare-chested, he was lying on a reclining chair, while two beautiful young ladies were by his side, attending to him.
“Second Uncle, Second Uncle!” Yale’s voice sounded out from the other side of the door.
Myron curled his lips helplessly. Stroking the fragrant hair of the two beauties, he chuckled. “My dears, the two of you can go outside and wait a while.” Those two beautiful women left the deluxe room very obediently, and then Yale rushed in.
“Yale, you are already a grown up now. How can you act like this?” Myron Dawson said with a frown.
Yale chortled. “Second Uncle, don’t be angry. I’ve come today to ask for your help with something. This is something on behalf of my Third Bro, Linley.”
“Your Third Bro? That Linley fellow?” Myron immediately sat up straight. “Go ahead, what is it?”
Yale withdrew that piece of paper from his clothes. “Second Uncle, my Third Bro is in urgent need of these two types of herbs, which is why I’d like to ask you, Second Uncle, to help out and see if we can find them.” As he spoke, he delivered the paper to Myron.
“Fog grass, cloud fungus?” Upon seeing the words on the paper, Myron Dawson nodded. “I’ll send some people to investigate and see if there’s any to be bought nearby.”
“Haha, thanks, Second Uncle!” Yale was excited. “Then I won’t disturb you, Second Uncle, from your festivities. I’ll leave now.”
“You little punk.” Myron Dawson chuckled, then looked back at the piece of paper. “Fog grass and cloud fungus? What does this Linley need these two ingredients for?”
Linley had to admit, the Dawson Conglomerate was an astonishingly ef
ficient machine.
“Third Bro, within the various branches in the Holy Union of our Dawson Conglomerate, we only have a small amount of fog grass. As for cloud fungus, we had some a while ago, but it’s already been shipped towards our headquarters. The headquarters of the Dawson Conglomerate is the place where we have the most herbs and ingredients. Here, let me give this fog grass to you first.” Yale directly handed Linley a pouch.
Within the recipe, the amount of fog grass needed was measured in grams, but the pouch which Yale handed to Linley contained nine full clumps of fog grass. This amount was more than enough.
“So there’s no cloud fungus available?” Linley accepted the pouch.
Yale nodded. “Third Bro, if you are in a hurry, I can have my Second Uncle send experts to ride flying magical beasts to head to our headquarters as soon as possible. Riding flying beasts is quite fast. From here to our headquarters, three months is more than enough.”
24
Breakthrough
Linley was silent for a moment, then smiled and nodded apologetically at Yale. “Boss Yale, sorry for the hassle.”
“It’s no hassle.” Yale chortled. “It’s just sending someone to make a delivery is all. No big deal. Our Dawson Conglomerate often sends people to deliver letters to the headquarters. We’ll get several things done.”
Linley nodded.
“Third Bro.” Yale’s voice became solemn as he looked at Linley. “Tell me the truth. Why are you in such a rush to get these herbs?”
If it were someone else asking him, Linley totally could’ve lied and claimed that he was using it to make a medical lotion which would help him increase the speed at which his body gained strength. After all, it wasn’t unheard of to bath in medicinal waters as part of training. But facing one of his bros, Linley didn’t wish to lie.
“Boss Yale, right now, I can’t tell you yet. When the time is right, I will tell you.” Linley patted Yale on the shoulders as he spoke.
The bros of dorm 1987 had been together since they were young. They ate together, lived together, played together. They were as close as real brothers.
“Understood, Third Bro. But if you need anything at all, make sure you let me know.” Yale didn’t ask anything else.
The next day, Linley’s housekeeper brought over the herbs which Linley had asked for, except he hadn’t been able to find any fog grass. Based on what the housekeeper said, there was no fog grass available on the market at all. If they wanted to buy some, they would have to send someone to buy it from the Four Great Empires.
After all, fog grass was cultivated from the great plains to the far east. Some of the market centers of the Four Great Empires fairly close to the great plains did have a small amount of fog grass for sale.
“Right now, of the eight ingredients I need to produce Bloodrupture poison, seven are ready. All I’m missing is cloud fungus.” Within his secret study, Linley had put all of the various herbs in front of him on a table, pondering what to do. Of the eight ingredients, there were three that were rare. Fog grass had been procured by the Dawson Conglomerate, while he already had enough Blueheart Grass.
“If I wait three months, then at that time, the people from the Dawson Conglomerate will come and deliver the cloud fungus.” Linley felt very confident.
At most, three months. At that time, he would have all the ingredients that he needed, and would thus be able to prepare a few mixtures of Bloodrupture poison.
But Linley wasn’t the sort of person to sit around waiting.
“Help me spread the word. Let it be known that I am preparing to begin a period of training with the usage of herbal baths, and need cloud fungus as one of my components. I’m willing to pay up to a million gold coins for it,” Linley instructed his housekeeper.
Although Linley wouldn’t lie to his bros, he had to give a good excuse to the rest of the world.
Cloud fungus, in and of itself, was not a poisonous plant. It actually was greatly beneficial to the body. But all herbs possessed their own wondrous properties. When these eight herbs were all refined and processed together, they would be able to produce a poisonous powder like the Bloodrupture poison.
“Yes, Lord Linley.” Upon hearing the words, ‘a million gold coins’, the housekeeper’s heart trembled.
To Linley, a million gold coins really wasn’t much. When he had auctioned off his sculpture, ‘Awakening From the Dream’, the price was twelve million gold coins. Afterwards, when Patterson had secretly met with him, he had gifted Linley another ten million gold coins. After Linley’s rise to prominence and appointment to the rank of Prime Court Magus, the Radiant Church, King Clayde, and many other nobles had all given Linley many valuable gifts.
And just a short while ago, the Debs clan had gifted Linley with a magicrystal card that had one million gold coins on it.
Linley’s current net worth was well over 20 million gold coins.
And this wasn’t even counting the Saint-level magicite core that Linley had acquired from the Saint-level Violet Tattooed Bear. That core, which Linley was keeping hidden, was a priceless treasure which probably was worth more than even a hundred million gold coins.
The news that Linley was seeking to buy cloud fungus for a million gold coins originally only spread amongst herbal merchants, but shortly afterwards, all the various nobles of the Kingdom of Fenlai learned of it as well. All of those nobles now knew that Master Linley needed cloud fungus.
If they could provide Linley with the cloud fungus, not only would they receive a million gold coins, they would also have a chance to build up a relationship with Linley.
Many nobles began to wrack their brains for methods by which they could locate cloud fungus.
But alas, cloud fungus was far too rare, and far too expensive.
After ordering this news to be spread out, Linley continued his life of solitary, pitiless training within his manor. In the blink of an eye, November arrived, and with it the temperature began to drop as well. The leaves of the trees within the Hot Springs Garden began to turn yellow and fall, filling the grass with sallow leaves.
“Haaaaa!”
Linley, who had been engaging in one-finger vertical push-ups suddenly exerted strength through his fingers, flipping himself into the air. Somersaulting easily through the air, Linley landed on the ground, his bare upper chest covered in sweat.
Aided by the Supergravity Field, after having trained for so long, even Linley’s powerful body was beginning to feel tired.
“Whew.”
Standing normally again, Linley felt the muscles in and near his fingers, arms, and shoulders all feel numb and sore. He found this feeling to be very comfortable, as he knew that in this situation, his muscles and bones were slowly strengthening.
The way to train one’s body was to exceed one’s limits time and time again, so long as one didn’t exceed the limits by too much each time.
Seating himself cross-legged, Linley immediately began to train in accordance with the ‘Secret Dragonblood Manual’, allowing the liquefied Dragonblood battle-qi in his dantian to begin to rush out. In a short while, the mighty Dragonblood battle-qi had filled Linley’s entire body.
Training, time and time again. Each time, the Dragonblood battle-qi would become a bit more pure, and Linley’s bones and flesh would become a bit stronger.
The azurish-black Dragonblood battle-qi entered his dantian again, then spread out again. The dantian was the nucleus for a Dragonblood Warrior. Linley had reached the late-stage of the sixth rank long ago, and in September and October, he had reached the peak of the sixth rank.
Right now, Linley had reached a plateau. He could break through any day now.
“Crack. Crack.” All sorts of strange sounds began to emit from Linley’s body. Linley’s muscles seemed to have a mouse buried beneath them, as they began to ripple up and down nonstop. Even his veins were popping out, and throughout Linley’s body, beads of sweat and beads of blood were beginning to come out!
�
��I’m finally about to break through.” Linley was shocked and pleased.
He had waited far too long for this day.
“Bubble, bubble.”
That azurish-black Dragonblood battle-qi began to roil about strangely, filling Linley’s entire body with pain. But within his dantian, that liquefied Dragonblood battle-qi began to condense itself yet again, increasing in density by several factors. The Dragonblood battle-qi was being drawn back into the dantian nonstop. And then, it would once again be emitted from the dantian yet again, forming a circle.
Whenever the Dragonblood battle-qi entered the dantian, it would transform.
After roughly an hour’s time had passed, all of the Dragonblood battle-qi in Linley’s body had undergone this transformation. Although there was theoretically only a thin barrier between the peak of the sixth rank and the early seventh rank, Linley’s strength was now several times greater than it had been in the past.
Linley opened his eyes, a look of uncontrollable excitement within them.
“Haha, I’ve finally entered the realm of a warrior of the seventh rank.” Linley was extremely excited.
As long as he were to agitate the Dragonblood battle-qi in his body, he would be able to assume the Dragonform. The training speed of the Dragonblood Warriors was extremely high, especially in the earlier stages. Linley had spent just about half a year before advancing from the sixth rank to the seventh rank. This sort of advancement was extremely astounding.
But Linley estimated that to progress from the seventh rank to the eighth rank, he would need several years, most likely.
The farther along one was, the harder the road would become. But nonetheless, most Dragonblood Warriors only needed a few decades to reach the Saint level in power.
Bebe, who had been sleeping nearby this entire time, opened his sleepy eyes, which suddenly brightened. Excitedly, he spiritually said to Linley, “Boss, you reached the seventh rank?”
Dragonblood: Book 2 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 19