Chapter 024 – Body Strengthening, Level 6
That night, Wu Xuan quietly left his room once Yue Xin"er has fallen asleep. Naturally, he had sneaked out in order to make the Muscle & Bone Strengthening Elixir.
Though he had a troubling encounter that afternoon, the purpose of going to the Elixir Pavilion was to collect magic herbs to make elixirs or pills out of it, therefore, no matter what, his plans for tonight will not change.
"Muscle & Bone Strengthening Elixir, let"s check the ingredients…"
He spread spread out the herbs to check out their individual components: Spiritual Gra.s.s, Evening Press Flower,
After taking a little taste of each component, he meditated upon their flavours. Aside from the slightly bitter evening press flower and spiritual gra.s.s, the other two herbs have a slightly sweet after taste.
He had no idea what the elixir made from these herbs would taste like, but now that he had confirmed the flavours of the individual components, he made up his mind what to make from them. Let"s make fruit juice!
Naturally, there were no juicer or blender here, however, there was a stone mill in the kitchen for grinding soy beans to make tofu. He"ll just use this as a subst.i.tute juicer.
First, he soaked the herbs herbs until it puffed up with water. In addition to herbs, he also added some peeled oranges and grapes, fruits with a little sour taste to it would create the most balanced fruit juice. There were all kinds of vegetables in the kitchen as well as several different kinds of fruits. As expected of a big clan like the Wu Family, while their kitchen pantry could not be considered luxurious, they have plenty of fresh fruits available.
Of the four herbs in hand, two were sweet while the other two were bitter, in order to counter the bitterness, it"s best to use something that was both sweet and sour. The resulting product would be something sweet and tart.
Once he had peeled and seeded the oranges and grapes, he added the herbs into the mix and began to chop up the ingredients into smaller chunks about the size of a soy bean. Finally the chunks were poured into the stone mill and he began the grinding process. As he turned the handle, he could feel the chopped up fruits and herbs being grounded up.
Wu Xuan added a spring water into the mill, and red-gold liquid began to flow out into a prepared bucket. He continued turning the mill until liquid stop flowing. After filtering the juice through a meshed cloth, the final product was a fairly clear gla.s.s of juice without too many sediments left in it.
Since Wu Xuan was now a cultivator, the job of grinding and filtering was asy for him, in just half an hour, he managed to turn the herbs into a whole bucket of fruit juice.
From appearance alone, the juice looked like a like a bucket of melted gemstone shining a l.u.s.trous red with a touch of gold. In the dark, the light felt especially gorgeous. There wasn"t a lot of light in the kitchen in the first place, so the red and gold light actually came from the liquid itself!
Such a large bucket of juice, ah wait, he should call it a bucket of Muscle & Bone Strengthening Elixir, was quite a lot. Even Wu Xuan felt a little shocked, this was probably the result of adding spring water into the mix. Normally an alchemist could create two bottles of elixir from two portions of magic herbs at most.
However, in the end it"s not quant.i.ty that counts but quality! Just what kind of effect would it have when used.
Without hesitation, he scooped up a ladle full and drank the the Muscle & Bone Strengthening Elixir straight from the ladle. Sweet and smooth fruit juice slid easily down his throat. Once it hit his belly, a burning sensation suddenly swept through his entire body, penetrating deeply into every muscle and bone.
When he finally recovered from the affects of the elixir, he breathed in a leisurely breath and stretched, "The effect is too perfect, to have such an awesome effect just from a single ladle full. Not only did my cultivation rose slightly, I could definitely feel an improvement on my bones and muscles. Though the effect is not as powerful as magic pills, but since there"s such a lot, it should be more than enough ba?"
Since he had nothing to compared to, he had no idea just how powerful the original Muscle & Bone Strengthening Elixir was. However, with this amount, even if the effect was a little inferior than the real thing, it shouldn"t be too bad. Two portions of herbs would only yield two bottles at most, for him to make a whole bucket full, if he were to bottle it, he could probably get about 40 to 50 bottles out of it.
In short, he was quite happy with this kind of result.
After cleaning up the kitchen, he carried the bucket of juice to his room. He carefully pushed the door opened, mindful of the still sleeping Yue Xin"er. When he saw that she was still peacefully sleeping, he smiled slightly to himself.
He set the bucket next to him on the floor, filled a cup and drank it in one go. Once more, the sensation of heat and the feeling of his body melting and being reforged overcame him once more. He quickly settled into a meditative pose and began to absorb this amazing energy.
Cup after cup followed, Wu Xuan eventually lost count of the number cups he drank. He only felt the amount of spiritual energy in his body increasing, his bones hardening and the meridians within his body grew st.u.r.dier, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with spiritual energy.
[Hong!] A sudden sound roared through his body, Wu Xuan felt like his whole body was floating. An entirely new sensation spread through his body, the spiritual energy glowing from his body shone brightly in the room. He slowly opened his eyes, a delighted expression on his face.
Body Strengthening, Level 6!
In just one short night, he had drunk continuous amount of Muscle & Bone Strengthening Elixir, absorbed the spiritual energy from the elixir and just like that, had a breakthrough! This kind of speed was just too amazing!
He was just about to reach for the ladle and cup, when he noticed Yue Xin"er sitting next to him, a teacup in her hand as she slowly sipped the Muscle & Bone Strengthening Elixir, a blissful expression on her face!
This image nearly scared the soul out of his body, he quickly s.n.a.t.c.hed the cup from her hand and said, "Xin"er how could you just simply drink this kind of thing!"
The Muscle & Bone Strengthening Elixir was not something that could be drunk by just anyone, only cultivators with at least a Body Strengthening, Level 5 or above could consume it safely.
Yue Xin"er was blissfully unaware as she smiled at him, "Elder Brother Xuan, this juice is very nice, why didn"t you give Xin"er some earlier…"
Wu Xuan was too busy examining Yue Xin"er"s body with his spiritual energy to bother with what she was saying, after going through her body several times he found that there was nothing really wrong with her. The most curious thing was that the spiritual powers from the elixir had all been absorbed by Yue Xin"er!
This matter really puzzled Wu Xuan, elixirs and magic pills clearly were not something that should be taken carelessly, could it be that thanks to him processing the magic herbs via cooking that ordinary people could actually absorb it?
However, it"s better to be safe than sorry, it"s better not to let Yue Xin"er drink this kind of elixirs, what if she has some kind of reaction of some sort? Yes, it"s better to avoid it all together.
"Xin"er, you can"t drink this thing, how about I make something else for you, all right?"
Wu Xuan felt that he had been careless with Yue Xin"er"s situation. To think that he had focussed all of his attention on cultivating and neglected the time. He had actually spent the entire night meditating, and when Yue Xin"er woke up she hadn"t disturbed him, but had instead seen this bucket of delicious looking drink and had helped herself to it.
"Xin"er understand…" Yue Xin"er had not been intentionally naughty, and nodded obediently at Wu Xuan"s words. However, her eyes kept roving towards the bucket, as though her eyes were magnetized by something from inside the bucket.
Wu Xuan also looked into the bucket, thankfully Yue Xin"er hadn"t actually drank too much of the elixir. However, it looked like he"d drank almost half a bucket of the elixir by himself overnight, at this rate, he"d probably run out soon.
He frowned, he"d probably finish the whole thing before the day was out. Once that was gone he would have to wait a whole month to collect magic herbs to make the next batch of elixir. Now that he had reached Level 6, he really did not want to wait too long before the next breakthrough.
"Maybe I should just bottle the rest, sell them for money, and buy more magic herbs to make more elixirs?"
Wu Xuan clapped his hands once. Yes, let"s decide it this way. Things that have been refined were worth more money, he could definitely get lots of money from this, and buy more herbs to make more elixir and money that way.
Only with proper resources like this could he continuously improve his own cultivation. The best short cut for cultivation was through this Muscle & Bone Strengthening Elixir. However, unless one was a young master of a special sect or a second generation rich brat, who would have the money to buy as much elixir as they like?
[Translator"s note: Oho, work hard young padawan!] As for juice making… since everyone should know what juice and juicer is, here"s a youtube link of old fahioned stone mill grinder for soy beans!
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