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Duan Li nodded.
"That"s right, inside these four small bottles are the blood that was extracted from the One Hundred Thousand graveyard lake, in short the blood pool!" Duan Li replied.
However what Duan Li had just said was only half the truth. In fact, these blood was actually his own blood!
Back when he went to change his tattered uniform, he was still pondering on the method to increase the strength of his followers exponentially within a short period of time. It was then that he remembered about the blood pool that had skyrocketed his physical body to the pinnacle level of the Foundation establishment realm in one go!
If he was not mistaken, the extreme potency within that blood pool were actually caused by the crimson mysterious pearl, and right now, that pearl was somewhere within his body!
Therefore, he decided to see for himself if his blood contained the miraculous effect like those inside the blood pool. p.r.i.c.kling his index finger, a tiny blotch of blood popped out.
When he used his identify ability on it, the information he got had thoroughly excited him!
[Host"s blood. Preliminary a.n.a.lysis shows that the blood contained a mysterious effect from an unknown origin.]
[Upon consume by other people, at host"s will, the blood will seep into their cells, transforming their innate potentials tremendously.]
[Danger! Host is adviced to dilute a single drop of blood with other liquid agent to reduce its lethal potency!]
These were the results from his identify ability and because of that, he decided to put a single drop of blood into each of these four small bottles.
"Eh? I"ve also heard about this mysterious blood pool from my grandfather. Supposedly it could really help in tempering the physical body. But I thought that was only just a rumor because no one could actually find it?" Shen Murong spoke out, a little bit unconvinced.
"No, it is definitely real! My sources told me that the academy has some sort of a secret organization that was able to go in and out of the Eternal maze safely, and the blood pool was located somewhere inside there!" Shen Lu replied as he held one of the small bottle with sparkling eyes.
"The Eternal maze? You mean THAT one underground? Impossible! I personally knew some of the old folks from my clan with heaven-defying abilities that went in and never came out again! How could this rumor be true then if no one was able to make it out alive?" Shen Murong refuted.
"T-this.." Shen Lu has no way of replying to Shen Murong"s statement. While the rumor regarding the blood pool and secret organization that he got was definitely reliable, the fact that people on the level of nascent soul realm that had entered and never came back was also true as well!
This was something that had always poke at his mind whenever he thought about it.
Which one was actually the truth?
At this sight, Duan Li turned his head towards Xiahou Yu and the latter nodded. However, Duan Li was still conflicted whether he should tell them the truth or not.
Thus, he reached out for the blue jade slip inside his spatial ring and contacted the princ.i.p.al by sending a voice message through it.
"Princ.i.p.al, my followers wanted to know about the Eternal maze." Duan Li spoke out to the blue jade slip before injecting some spiritual Qi into it to send the message away.
"Eh? You have the Princ.i.p.al"s personal contact?" the three fellas was shocked by this, excluding Xiahou Yu.
One has to know that the princ.i.p.al was someone at the very top of the power chain within the academy!
To think that Duan Li could ask something out so casually to the other party, just what sort of relationship do they have?
Not long after that, the princ.i.p.al replied with a short "Ok."
Somehow, Duan Li was quite annoyed with this short reply.
"T-that was really the voice of the princ.i.p.al"s! How was this possible!" exclaimed Shen Lu, utterly surprised.
Such crucial information, and he has no way of knowing it? There must be a high star ranked Strategist that intervened with the information network inside the academy!
Was it the vice-princ.i.p.al?!
"Eh.. me and Xiahou Yu are a little bit close with the princ.i.p.al somehow.." Duan Li replied as he scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
Even Xiahou Yu has a connection with the princ.i.p.al?!
The trio looked at Xiahou Yu with deep gazes that caused the latter"s face to flush red from being stared as such.
"Anyway! The most important thing is, I could now tell you guys about the truth regarding the Eternal maze!" Duan Li said hurriedly.
"The truth regarding the Eternal maze? What do you mean?" Shen Murong asked curiously.
"It"s actually like this..." Duan Li began to explained out everything that he knew so far.
...
"W-What? So it was actually like that? No wonder!!" Shen Lu exclaimed out in disbelief.
"En! Now all those rumors made perfect sense to me if it were like that after all!" Shen Murong added.
"To think that only weaker people could go in... but why does this has to be a secret and not made public?" w.a.n.g Xiolun asked out, as both Shen Lu and Shen Murong nodded to express their sentiments regarding this secrecy too.
Hearing this, Duan Li shook his head as he could only answer out truthfully.
"You guys are underestimating the Eternal maze! It was because the maze was still extremely dangerous, even for me! And I"m not trying to brag, but even with my capabilities, I had still needed to struggle with all of my might!"
"The reason why the both of you hadn"t been able to see me around during the past three days, was because I had to recuperate from a severe injuries after exploring the first region!" explained Duan Li with a deep sigh.
Listening to this explanation, the trio cupped their chin each as they contemplated. It didn"t took them long to nod as a sign that they had accepted Duan Li"s explanation.
It makes sense.
After all, they had all witnessed Duan Li"s might back then during the battle with Shen Murong. If even he had struggled inside the Eternal maze with such a battle prowess, it was needless to say if it were anyone else.
When Duan Li saw that they were convinced, he exhaled in relief.
"Okay, let"s talk about the Eternal maze again next time. Right now, we need to focus on the task at hand!" Duan Li reminded them as they all nodded at him in realization.
"Shen Lu, I will leave you to the task of experimenting with this blood. But remember, you need to dilute them! Do not consume it before informing me!"
"Later on tonight, be sure to report to me on your findings. For now, you guys can do whatever it is you wanted to do before night time. By then, everyone must be present back here, understood?"
Somehow, Duan Li was not nervous at all in pa.s.sing down his commands onto them without a hint of hesitation to it.
"Roger that!" they replied.
And naturally, all of them were gladdened by this. After all, It would be quite an awkward situation if their Lord turned out to be someone timid with no talents in leadership at all!
...
Right now, Duan Li was waiting at the front gate of his residence court. He received a message from his "disciple", Ju Zhianhu, the chief doctor from the royal palace that the latter was coming to meet him.
Not too long after, Ju Zhianhu had finally arrived at his doorstep.
With a bow and clasping both of his hands together towards Duan Li, he greeted out excitedly, "Disciple greets young master!"
Hearing this, Duan Li almost had the urged to stumble and fall down from where he stood. It still sounded awkward for an elder to label themselves as a disciple of his.
Nevertheless, Duan Li needed to be professional in this, so he just nodded casually.
"En! It"s good for you to come today!" said Duan Li.
"Of course, this disciple here had rushed to meet young master as soon as my task at the royal palace was finished today!" replied Ju Zhianhu eagerly.
"Speaking of which, I have brought some advanced books regarding the art of medicine and concoction from the royal palace"s library!" he continued.
Woonggg!
A pile of books that was neatly arranged were materialized by the latter on the ground.
Seeing these books, Duan Li couldn"t help but to be impressed! There must be at least a hundred books from this pile alone!
"Very good! I am happy for this, a job well done!" Duan Li complimented the other party as he whipped out a high quality spirit stone from his spatial ring.
"Here, take this as a token of my appreciation! Don"t reject it, this is out of my goodwill for you!" he continued.
Gulp!
A high quality spirit stone was a third of my yearly salary!
Swiftly receiving the high quality spirit stone from Duan Li, Ju Zhianhu bowed again, "Thank you young master!".
"Don"t mention it! Come in, I will impart to you on my knowledge regarding the art of medicine later on!" said Duan Li as he pulled in the pile of books into his spatial ring.
...
Inside the residence court...
"This residence court of young master is truly impressive! Although it"s not as grand as the royal palace, it"s not half-bad at all! Just the atmosphere and the view alone is already so beautiful!" Ju Zhianhu commented as he nodded repeatedly, entirely amazed.
No wonder the young master could afford to fork out one high quality spirit stone for me!
"Eh? Is that a herb garden? Holy!" his eyes squinted.
Ju Zhianhu quickly rushed forward as his eyes opened wide observing the varieties of herbs in front of him, like a child seeing a new toy for sale.
Looking at this sight, Duan Li chuckled out.
"Go and play- eh! I mean you can have a look first on my herb garden! Meanwhile, I would like to browse through the books that you borrowed for me a little bit." Duan Li quickly corrected his words.
Thankfully, the other party had not been listening properly.
"Okay young master! I would also like to study these herbs here first!" Ju Zhianhu replied as his hands began to touch the leaves and stalks of the herbs pa.s.sionately.
...
Within the study room, in just under two hours, Duan Li had already been able to internalize 10 books on concoction arts and 16 books on the art of medicine.
Even he himself was struck at disbelief with the rate of his learning speed!
"T-this, its truly getting more easier for me to read books! Perhaps one day it might be really possible for me to learn the contents of a book by just seeing the t.i.tle and the cover!" Duan Li chuckled out to himself.
If that were truly the case, then he would probably become the winner of life.
"Ohh, it"s already been two hour! Let"s see now what my disciple is currently doing..."
...
At the herb garden...
"How was the herb garden? Did you find it to your liking?" Duan Li spoke out as he approached at Ju Zhianhu from the distance with his hands clasped behind his back, like how a teacher or an elder would usually do.
"This herb garden is marvelous! Some even had the maturity of several decades!" Ju Zhianhu replied, his face full of satisfaction.
"But there are some herbs that even I don"t know of! For example, this three-clover leaf herb, at first I thought that it was the famed spirit twilight herb! But upon closer inspection, it was actually something else different entirely!" he continued as he pointed at the red spots under the leaf.
Activating his identify ability, Duan Li chuckled for a bit.
It"s time for him to act his part as the teacher!
"That"s actually a hybrid between spirit twilight herb and Yin transforming herb! Their genetic was mixed together during the process of cross-pollination! So you are not entirely wrong there." Duan Li pointed out.
"That over there, is a gra.s.sroot spirit herb. But if you look at its leaves carefully, you would see that it had undergone a slight mutation! This is due to being planted near to the Vermillion herb!"
He then continued to use his identify ability on herbs that he didn"t know anything about. And naturally, it was 100 percent spot on everytime!
Ju Zhianhu was truly convinced right now that Duan Li was a rare genius. Because on some of the herbs that he pointed out, claiming to "not know" of them, it was actually just an act of his part to test how deep the knowledge of the latter goes.
To think that Duan Li could identify every single herb, including some that he didn"t managed to recognize, now THAT was amazing for someone of his age!
After a while, Duan Li felt that it was enough, so he turned towards the other party.
"That"s it for the herb lesson today. I"m guessing your main reason to come here is actually to learn more about the art of medicine right?" asked Duan Li with a smile.
"En! This disciple was quite mesmerized with young master"s healing technique the other day, and would love to get some more pointers behind their usage!"
"If it"s not a trouble for young master, this disciple beseech for your guidance!" Ju Zhianhu spoke out with a respectful bow.
"Don"t be too formal. Alright, come in!" Invited Duan Li.
...