Liu Li looked at her blue stockings. They were...soiled to say the least. The Fallen Princess never imagined that piece of clothing could stimulate her Master Ming that much.
Sadly, the black-haired girl doesn’t have spare change with her. Because of how suddenly Ye Ming appeared in their lives, the last remaining Liu Clan member had no chance to prepare spares.
Now, however, it appears she will have to.
’I guess for now I will be without them.’ Liu Li sighed as she pondered what to do. In the end, the girl will be without them.
The Fallen Princess left the small house and looked for her Master Ming. After last night, she was worried; she had revealed her identity. A small part of her was terrified that Ye Ming might ask her to teach martial arts or use her knowledge.
But that’s the thing. Apart from her basic education, she never learned anything. She was way too young when the Liu Dynasty fell.
All that Liu Li can share is... trauma from seeing her family getting exterminated.
After looking around, she found him with a piece of wood in one hand and a rusty deboning knife in the other. It was one of the items he got from that junk Elder Ding.
’Greedy old man selling junk for absurd prices!’ The Fallen Princess snorted with disgust as she walked over to him.
"Oh, Liu Li, are you okay?" He stopped whatever he was doing and looked at her.
"...I am..." The black-haired girl slowly nodded, then noticed him staring at her legs. Her robes might hide most of it. But he could see some of it.
"...I don’t have spares here." Liu Li explained, knowing what he wanted.
"That is fine." He looked a bit amused. Was he that obvious?
’That dissapointed expression says otherwise.’ Internally, she rolled her eyes.
"Then... do you need me for something, Master Ming? Or can I return to my cultivation?"
The Fallen Princess’s question surprised Ye Ming for a bit.
"Of course, I am not keeping you tied, you know." The Alchemist chuckled at her. But the black-haired girl simply smiled at him.
Liu Li is well aware that she could just do her own thing, but such actions could make him displeased with her, and that is something she doesn’t want, no matter what.
So, just to be safe, she will ask first, then do her thing.
"Then I shall cultivate. Tell me if you are planning to go somewhere." With a small smile, the black-haired girl stepped aside, found a place to sit, and started cultivating.
Now that her meridians are open, her cultivation speed has increased severalfold!
Ye Ming watched her start cultivating, and it made him smile at how cute this proud princess was. While there are still some questions he would want to ask her, the Alchemist decided to let her speak when she decided to do so.
For now, he will wait, as one way or another, he has things to do.
Like the knife he was playing with. This knife is one of the tools he got from Elder Ding. There are several letters inscribed on its edge; from the looks of it, this is a deboning knife that is good for rendering Beasts.
However, it was old... if not ancient. He has been using the ’Sharpening and Cutting Art’ and ’Sand Softening Art’ to restore it to its pristine state.
Now, calling it ’pristine’ is a bit of a stretch, since he’s been adding small amounts of sand.
Sand is basically crumbs of ground rocks, not metal. But strangely enough, ’sharpening’ art mixed with a constant flow of Qi and trying to channel ’meaning’ is working wonders for this weapon.
He noticed that even his training sword was slowly becoming a real and very dangerous weapon. It’s like the tool is absorbing the Qi and is transforming into something else.
’Interesting...’
With a simple stroke, the knife easily sank into the wood, slowly cutting it in half. The Alchemist is not using excessive force- no, a gentle push- and the tool slid like a hot knife through the butter.
"It appears you have been practising with whatever you have." A familiar female voice brought him back from his tests.
Ye Ming raised his eyes and looked at Jiang Mengxue, who was standing there with a smile on her lips.
"Mengxue."
She smiled even more when the Alchemist called her by her name.
"Yes. As promised." The girl made a motion, and several books appeared above her hand.
"The Cloud Lightfood, a Mortal Realm Technique, allows you to move swiftly." The Young Mistress explained to him.
"Like moving through the clouds." She motioned to the topmost book, then pointed at the others.
"The rest of them are records we have on Alchemists, beast rendering, and professions that you could find useful.
And we have several pill recipes."
Now that got his attention!
"Though don’t have your hopes up..." She swiftly clarified. "The Jiang Family never had a proper Alchemist; whatever we have are just the notes we were able to gather over hundreds of years... in hopes that one day we will have an Alchemist." The Young Mistress said with a hopeful tone while looking at him, hinting at something specific.
"That is more than enough." Ye Ming swiftly got up and sheathed his deboning knife.
He ignored what she was hinting at and took her words directly. The Alchemist took the books and notes from her.
First, he put away the books on animals and rendering, then checked her notes.
"...Foundation pill needs Lotus Strengthening Flower... doesn’t this flower grow in still ponds and lakes? Where water barely flows?" He recalled a yellow flower that loves water and could be full of parasites because of still water.
"Yes, we have several of them... we kept them in case of emergencies so that we would need foundation pills for half the price."
"Hmm... in that case, you want me to try to make it?" Ye Ming asked her with a small smile.
"...If you can make it for me... that would be fantastic." The girl replied with a hopeful tone.
"Hmm, how many do you have of them? I need to have at least two flowers for tests."
"Umm... I do not know. There should be over a dozen; we grow and harvest them so that we can ask the Alchemist Association to make the pills out of them for a massive profit." Jaing Mengxue said the last part with a sigh.
"I see, so you don’t expect me to rip you off?" He teased her all of a sudden.
"...Umm... we could... negotiate?" All of a sudden, she got nervous.
"Of course~." His free hand went to her chin; she was standing close to him. "For one... I need at least one for myself, and you still need to keep me company."
"Y-Yes... that much is given~~~" She immediately leaned into his chest.
"Good. Though I understand that you want to cultivate for your tournament, I believe I could keep your cultivation speed faster than anyone in the Sect." Ye Ming said in a quite confident tone. His free hand sneaked to her bum, squeezing it.
His action made the girl blush. But she swiftly recovered.
"Umm... I would love nothing more than to do that... but... I believe... doing so would distract me far more.
I don’t think I could focus on my cultivation... if we do that... I promised that after the tournament, I will do whatever you desire." Jiang Mengxue explained herself in an embarrassed tone.
Her explanation made Ye Ming a little proud. This girl was certain that they would be quite naughty, and she wouldn’t be able to concentrate on her cultivation.
Clearly, she loved everything they’d been doing.
"Sure, I will keep you to it, Xue’er." He teased her even more as he called her a new nickname.
"..." An even brighter blush appeared on her cheeks as only her Grand Uncle calls her like that!
"Y-Yes, then!" She scrambled out of his hands and looked around.
"Umm... I will go and collect the lotus flowers for the pills!" That said, she used her Lightfoot technique to disappear from the area.
Ye Ming chuckled. He never expected to see a Young Mistress so embarrassed. It was cute!
’Regardless, let’s see what we have here.’
Pill recipes are fine. He prefers to make them himself; the fewer instructions, the better.
But more than anything, he got an Xianxia-style technique.
He has no idea if people use swords to fly around, but running faster than a sports car is a good bonus!
The alchemist opened a thin book and checked; there were only a few pages of pictures and a few paragraphs showing how to use Cloud Lightfoot.
"Right... so it’s like Cloud Sword Swordmanship. From one step to another." Ye Ming mumbled under his breath. After reading it once, he was ready to test it out.
He channelled Qi into his right leg, then moved and released the energy in a burst.
At that moment, his eyes widened as he launched forward as if from a springboard.
"Ah shit!" With that said, he stumbled and flopped on the ground before starting to roll.
"Damn..."
"Shit..."
"...Ow... fuck..."
Eventually, he stopped rolling.
"..."
Ye Ming lay on his back, hands spread, and looked up at the blue sky.
"...Ow..." A small groan escaped from his lips. Thankfully, he was at Stage Five of Qi Gathering, not Stage Two like before. His body was far more robust, and he didn’t break any bones in his legs.
After lying around in the dirt, he pulled out the manual from the new, fancy storage ring he’d found and reread it.
"Ah, so I need to prepare the next foot; this is quite difficult as I need to pay attention to both of my legs and, at the same time, look where I am running." He nodded a couple of times. This was quite complex, but he could tell that at some point, this action would become second nature.
"Fascinating, could I add to this?" Mortal technique has no meaning behind their movement. This technique might be called ’Cloud’ because the Elder of Cloud Sword Sect made it. But there is nothing ’cloudy’ about it.
Regardless, he tried again after resting in the dirt.
The Alchemist stood up and tried again: one step, Qi energy, move leg and launch himself. This time around, he didn’t panic and tried to place his next step successfully; he continued the movement: left, right, left, right.
Before long, he was already close to the gates that led outside the sect.
"Damn... I like this!" He swiftly turned around and dashed away like a missile.
The guards who were there were confused.
"Is that an Outer Sect Member who practices Lightfoot? How in Heaven’s name does he have enough Qi Stones to buy one of the manuals?"
"Rich parents." The other guard shrugged.
"Hmph, I guess."
The pair returned to their duties as Ye Ming continued to run around the massive Outer Sect Grounds.
Wide roads meant plenty of space. In fact, midway, he started experimenting with sidestepping and changing direction.
’If I use the same principle, I could use this with my hands and even the sword!’
The Alchemist returned to his house, and there was a grin on his face as he began to experiment! He got motivated!
The thing with Ye Ming was that his view of the Arts differed from that of normal cultivators.
Where normal Cultivators hold their reverie, he sees them as pieces of a puzzle that can be mixed and matched.
That is why Liu Li was so concerned that he picked up so much trash.
But he didn’t see them as trash; they were pieces of a puzzle that he could use later.
Like now, two mortal techniques.
Sharpening and Cutting Art and Cloud Lightfoot technique mixed together!