Chapter 23 – Peak of Dreams
Chapter 23 – Peak of Dreams
When the dripping wet Lin Mu Yu arrived back at the bonfire and dropped off the lotus flowers in his arms, Qu Chu couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t those Rainbow Lotuses? What are you planning to do with those?”
“Making medicine.” Lin Mu Yu said with indifference.
“Lin Mu Yu, do you truly not understand or are you pretending to be dumb?” Qu Chu continued.
“What do you mean?” This time Lin Mu Yu was confused.
Qu Chu sat up and explained, “The Rainbow Lotus is a level 7 herb that emits a delicate fragrance, but it’s slightly toxic and will cause hallucinations if ingested. Due to the rarity of Rainbow Lotuses,, some nobles like to use a powdered form of these lotuses in a herbal concoction and consume them in search for a quick euphoria. This herb has long since been banned by the Imperial Panacea Division from civilian use. As only the army medics are allowed to use Rainbow Lotuses for producing painkillers, do you still dare to use them to make medicine?”
“Something like that happened?” Lin Mu Yu mused for a second, then shook his head, “It’s alright. If you won’t tell anyone, no one else will accuse me of it.”
As he spoke, he looked towards the sleeping Tang Xiao Xi. This beautiful little princess probably won’t report him.
Qu Chu stared at the youngster and asked, “What are you planning to make with those Rainbow Lotuses? As far as I know, the Rainbow Lotus can’t be alchemized in conjunction with any other herbs to create potions. Most of the recipes involving Rainbow Lotuses have been lost for thousands of years.”
“Peak of Dreams.”
With just three simple words, Qu Chu had been stunned.
Peak of Dreams. This was a name that no one had heard for a long time, because the recipe for this elixir had been long forgotten by the world. The last person who could create the Peak of Dreams was a Medicine God, but he had passed away thousands of years ago! Peak of Dreams is a rare and unusual elixir that was ranked as a level 7 potion by the Panacea Division. According to legends, this elixir could greatly awaken the hidden potential in humans. After drinking the elixir, the user would fall into a deep slumber for 3 days and 3 nights. Upon awaking on the 4th day, they will have a high chance of enhancing their ability, so much so that legends told of a Heaven Sealed fellow awakening a martial spirit after drinking the Peak of Dreams!
……
For martial arts practitioners, Peak of Dreams was something they would dream about obtaining.
“You truly know the recipe for Peak of Dreams?” Qu Chu found it hard to believe the youngster before him.
Lin Mu Yu faintly smiled, “What do you think? Or did you think that I’d risk drowning by gathering these lotuses just to tease you?”
Continuing on, he looked around and asked, “Are there any Bone Trees nearby?”
The Bone Tree is a level 6 herb said to only grow on the bones of animals. Because of its cold nature, it is usually added to medicines for removing excess heat energy from the body.
Qu Chu nodded, “When we came, I saw some Bone Trees about 5 Li from here. But with your shabby martial prowess, you might not even survive the journey. You have to understand, any creature older than 1000 years can easily kill you.”
TL Note: Li (unit)
Lin Mu Yu chuckled shamelessly, “That’s why I…”
“You’re not planning on asking me to help gather Bone Trees for you, are you?”
“What would you say?”
“Keep dreaming!” Qu Chu coolly folded his arms and sat on a rock. The character and ego of a Saint realm expert were truly awe-inspiring.
“I am probably the only one in this world who knows the recipe for the Peak of Dreams. Do you want to become the other person who shares that knowledge? Perhaps even the Medicine Kings in the royal palace would see you in a different light.” Lin Mu Yu softly teased.
Qu Chu’s body shuddered for a second as his conscience combatted the temptation. A second later, he dashed out into the distance and shouted, “Protect Princess Xi, I’ll be right back!”
……
Less than 10 minutes later, Qu Chu returned with a small, ghastly-white tree. An earnest look was on his face as he smilingly said, “I bought it back. You need to teach me how to alchemize Peak of Dreams now!”
Lin Mu Yu snickered inside but sternly said, “The recipe for Peak of Dreams is a first class top secret. I won’t normally teach it to anyone else, so there are some conditions if you want to learn it.”
“What conditions?”
“Teach me Verdant Shell and Sonic Punch!”
“You little rascal. You want to learn both? You’re asking for more than you can swallow!” Qu Chu retorted in bewilderment.
Lin Mu Yu showed a slightly distressed face as he said with a lack of enthusiasm, “But alchemizing the Peak of Dreams is a long lost skill…”
“Forget it, deal!”
Qu Chu really could not resist the temptation. Of course, it was only in regards of alchemy. If he wasn’t so deeply engrossed with alchemy, perhaps he would never have been good friends with Chu Feng.
……
Thus, Lin Mu Yu began to explain the method of using the Essence Purification Technique to remove medicine cores from Bone Trees. The whole process was exceptionally delicate and complex, so after a dozen times, Qu Chu finally understood the basics. In comparison, extracting medicine cores from the Rainbow Lotus was a whole lot simpler. Finally, when it came to the alchemy step, the process became very complicated as flames must be continuously fed to the two types of medicine cores to remove impurities before they would need to use Essence Purification to fuse the two types of medicine cores.
After nearly 3 hours, Lin Mu Yu alchemized a total of 5 bottles of Peak of Dreams, while Qu Chu created 2 bottles.
Picking up one of Lin Mu Yu’s bottles and sniffing the contents, Qu Chu uttered in amazement, “A 2nd tier Peak of Dream? Good heavens…”
“Let’s smell yours.” Lin Mu Yu smiled.
Qu Chu was a veteran like Hawkeye and was able to identify the quality of potions by smell. He sniffed the two bottles he made and disappointingly said, “9th tier…”
“That’s not too bad. You have to remember that these are genuine Peak of Dreams.”
Lin Mu Yu stuffed his 5 bottles into his backpack.
“Wait wait…”
Qu Chu looked at the bottles of Peak of Dreams and asked, “Could… Could you leave a bottle for Princess Xi? She is in the golden period of training so a bottle of Peak of Dreams will be very important to her. You can ask for as much money as you want, just give me a price.”
Lin Mu Yu couldn’t help but laugh, “Princess Xi… Forget it, I’ll just give her a bottle as a present.”
“Ah, many thanks!”
“Alright then!”
Lin Mu Yu dusted off his hands and said, “The preparation technique, alchemy method, and recipe for Peak of Dreams have all been taught to you. Thus, you should keep to your promise of teaching me Verdant Shell and Sonic Punch!”
“Alright.”
……
Qu Chu was a man who kept his words. Under the moonlight, he explained the secrets behind Verdant Shell and its channeling methods. In truth, the technique was not difficult to understand, one simply needed to turn the basic energy inside their body into dense stone energy. It could be considered an advanced version of the energy barrier. Although the Verdant Shell was just a defensive barrier for Qu Chu, it wasn’t that simple for Lin Mu Yu. If he were to use Verdant Shell in conjunction with Ebony Scale, the resulting defensive strength would not be a simple 1+1=2 and would be closer to an exponential growth. With it, Lin Mu Yu will be able to challenge foes much stronger than him by using this extraordinary defensive power..
After practicing for an hour, Lin Mu Yu was able to condense his energy into dim plates of green rock energy, but they were still far from the thickness of those created by Qu Chu. The next step would just be learning to better control the energy input. As such, his results could be considered a small achievement.
After learning Verdant Shell, Lin Mu Yu asked for the next skill.
In all honesty, Sonic Punch was the skill that Lin Mu Yu was most interested in. Lin Mu Yu had been intrigued since the first time that Qu Chu had used the technique. The skill used energy to create ripples in the air and subsequently used the sonic boom to attack from long distance. It was an awesome-looking finishing move that was capable of shattering the victim’s internal organs!
……
However, the stronger the technique, the harder the learning process.
The essence of Sonic Punch is a skill called “Wind Blow”: Sending out a punch that would cause a slight fluctuation in the air. The speed of the punch must be close to the speed of sound while simultaneously using energy to create the moving force that will create a ripple in the air. Lin Mu Yu had to practice just that step for 3 hours before finally understanding the technique before daybreak.
Qu Chu watched Lin Mu Yu practice only to feel a surging excitement inside his heart. He had seen many geniuses in his lifetime, but none were able to be as perceptive as Lin Mu Yu. This kid only needed 3 hours before understanding the Wind Blow technique, when Qu Chu himself had to practice diligently for 7 days and 7 nights!
Could it be that this kid’s perception was ten times as sharp as Qu Chu’s?
Qu Chu momentarily became indecisive as he realized that he didn’t know what kind of frightful person he was teaching. But from the moment they met, Qu Chu felt that, although Lin Mu Yu was hiding something, he was definitely not a bad person. Otherwise, he would have never risked his own life to save Tang Xiao Xi.
Admittedly, Tang Xiao Xi was a devastatingly beautiful girl and many young nobles in the Capital would proclaim that they would give their life for Tang Xiao Xi. But when such a situation truly arose, perhaps they would all cower back like turtles. After all, for things like beautiful girls, skirt-chasers would simply want to own them and not protect them.
……
After teaching Wind Blow, Qu Chu once again began chanting his endless poem of instruction for Sonic Punch. Lin Mu Yu merely listened three times before he memorized it all in his head!
Seeing Qu Chu’s dumbstruck face, Lin Mu Yu secretly snickered. It was just reciting a thousand word mnemonic, which was nothing compared to the time when he first started learning speed memorization techniques. Furthermore, the fact that he had won first prize in all kinds of competitions wasn’t a lie. Ace student + gaming expert + super silver-spooned kid was his identity. Now that I think about it, that Lamborghini I bought should have shipped by now. I wonder if my older brother or my dad will receive it for me. Now that I’ve come to this foreign world, I don’t even know of a way to return.
The only thing I can do now is to keep living on.
……
Lin Mu Yu felt a sense of loss as he looked up at the starry skies of this world. However, when he looked down and saw the faint morning rays spilling onto Tang Xiao Xi’s peaceful sleeping face, he felt as if he could find something to live for in this world.
Everything will eventually turn to dust, so who would know how tomorrow will turn out?
……
When the light of dawn finally appeared, Lin Mu Yu was finally able to grasp the fundamentals behind Sonic Punch. He was able to attack a log from 10 meters away and make it tremble slightly. Although the result didn’t look like much, the power of Sonic Punch should improve as his martial capacities improve.
From Lin Mu Yu’s observations, most fighting techniques taught in Silver Fir City cost at least several gold Yin, and there was no lack of fake and inferior techniques to be found. In comparison, Qu Chu’s Lightning Chop, Verdant Shell, and Sonic Punch were all genuine high level battle techniques. Not to mention the most important part of all: They were all free!