A Tale Of Demons And War Gods - Chapter 4.2

Director Yang Xin of the alchemist guild yawned as she made her way out of her room and into her study. Tying her large blue robe tightly around herself to ward off the morning chill before making her way over and pulling apart her curtains to let the sunlight in.

"Oh what's this?" the black haired beauty hummed in interest when she made her way over to her desk and saw a single envelope sitting in the middle of it. Mail already? "Let's see what you are then." she said, taking a seat behind the desk and opening the envelope to see what was inside.

"Zoysia grass?" she quirked an eyebrow and chuckled when she read it over. There was a myriad of different uses written on the letter for the weed. From using it in the standard soul pill to increase the effect by as much as thirty percent. A paralytic poison that could bring down even silver rank demon beasts. Used in the making of the medicine used to treat Arctic Disease that would double the strength. And quite a few more, there was easily three dozen or more uses for the thought to be useless weed.

"This has to be a joke." Yang Xin shook her head in bemusement.

..She bit her lip. But what if it wasn't?

Standing up, the beautiful black haired beauty made her way over to her ingredient shelf and pulled out the ingredients for a batch of soul pills, before opening the one little jar she had of zoysia grass and making her way over to the small soul pill refinement station and plopping down in front of it.

Half an hour later, her eyes went wide when instead of the six soul pills she expected, eight were ejected from the opening in the refinement station, each one glowing warmly with a shiny green glow. And her eyes almost shot out of her head when she tested one and felt the mass of cultivation that surged through her soul force upon ingesting it.

"They were telling the truth!" Yang Xin yelped in shock.

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The next morning, after coming to a decision. Shin Long woke up early, had a quick breakfast and then made his way to class from his dorm room.

There was still a half an hour before class was due to start by time he arrived, so he wasn't expecting any students in, but his aunt should already be inside there preparing for class.

Opening the door to his class, Shin Long entered and closed the door behind him. He caught sight of his lovely, bodacious aunt sitting at her desk going over a few scrolls and was just about to walk down when he caught sight of orange hair in his peripheral vision.

And there, sitting in the adjacent seat to where he sat yesterday, was Ning'er combing over the scroll he'd written last night fixing up the cultivation technique she'd been using. He'd renamed it from Lightning Wing cultivation to Storm Dragon, since he'd added a way to increase the cultivation by drawing from the qi of the elements of the storm, wind, water and lightning. Named after himself of course, and not her clan.

It couldn't compare to his War God cultivation. But the speed that he theorised it would have when it came to cultivating would be incredible. Honestly, he'd even impressed himself with the creation. And the awe in Ning'ers gaze when he showed the completed technique to her had been a hell of an ego booster.

While he wasn't planning on seducing the beautiful girl anymore and giving his older half brother a green hat, that didn't mean he was content to let that idiot have a girl like her. He'd just make sure she had the strength needed to put the fool in his place.

Upon hearing the door close, Ning'er looked up from the scroll and met his eyes. A bright, warm smile spreading across her face, "Oh, good morning Shin Long." she greeted.

"Morning." he nodded back, stopping at the desk as he made his way down towards his aunt, "How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Much better," Ning'er continued to beam, "Your help last night soothed most of the pain and the medicine you said I should take took care of the rest."

"That's good," Shin Long smiled back at her, "It'd be a waste for a girl like you to die so young."

"Ah!" Ning'er gasped, face flushing at the compliment and he couldn't help but chuckle.

Before he could say anything else to her though, he heard his aunts voice, "You're early Shin Long," she noted, and he turned around to face her, noting she was looking between him and Ning'er suspiciously, before shrugging her shoulders a moment later, sending her large breasts jiggling, drawing his eyes to them. She noticed his gaze immediately and smiled smugly, "What brings you here at this time? I assumed you'd drag yourself in at the last minute like yesterday."

"Nothing much," he shrugged in reply initially, "I just wanted to tell you that I'm going out to hunt Earth Eaters instead of staying in class today. The stuff you'll have to go over for the next few weeks to teach the basics of cultivating to some of the class means there isn't anything I'll learn here."

He didn't bother telling her how close he was to the silver rank. He wanted to surprise her later. If things worked out as he planned, he should be on her level in the next couple of weeks, if not stronger. And he relished the thought of her shocked face when he unveiled his power and made true on his promise to make her his woman.

Shen Xiu sighed, "The sad thing is, I cannot even refute that," the redhead replied, "Very well, you're the one paying to go to this school and not the other way around, so do as you wish. But do be careful, Earth Eaters while not incredibly powerful can take a lot more damage than any of the demon beasts within the training grounds."

"Don't worry, I've prepared some trump cards in advance to bring them down," Shin Long waved them off, "Later big sis, have fun going over the basics and dumbing everything down for Shen Yue to understand."

She rolled her eyes, "Yes, yes. how very funny," she waved her hand, "Now toddle on and have fun wrestling the dirt eaters."

Shin Long snorted and turned around after waving goodbye and was just about to leave before he met Ning'ers eyes. "You want to come?" he asked her, "There's not much you'll learn here either."

Ning'er blinked, "Er, is that okay?" she asked, looking towards his aunt hesitantly.

"On you go if you want, it's none of my buisness," Shen Xiu rolled her eyes, "Going with him will get back to Shen Fei however quite quickly, I hope you're prepared to deal with the consequences when he comes demanding answers." she warned.

Ning'ers eyes widened, but Shin Long merely snorted, crossing his arms, "If my brother tries to start shit with me over it.." he trailed of for a moment, a nasty smirk spreading across his face, "Then I'll just rip his demon spirit out of him and keep it for myself. That should teach him not to mess with his betters."

Shen Xiu snorted right back, "Brotherly love sure is something." she chuckled.

"..I forgot they were brothers." he heard Ning'er whisper quietly to herself.

"Never mind that idiot, if he gets uppity I'll deal with it." Shin Long assured her. Shen Fei's might have been a one star gold rank, but the vast majority of his power came from the sheer abundance of soul pills and elixirs he got handed to him over the years from his family, he hadn't earned much of his strength at all.

Weaker than him or not when it came to soul force, Shin Long was sure he could take him. And even actually hoped he would start something. If he could goad his older brother into attacking his soul realm, he could speed up his cultivation immensely. "You coming?" he asked Ning'er once more.

The orange haired girl eyed him for a few moments hesitantly before nodding, "Okay." she slowly smiled again, accepting his offer, standing up and storing her cultivation scroll within her spacial ring.

He bid goodbye to his aunt, and then both him and his new friend left the classroom behind.

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Ning'er couldn't help keep her eyes from straying to Shin Longs form as they walked down the main street leading away from the Holy Orchid Institute. He was such an interesting person.

His past was well known to those of the nobility, and his name was upon everybody's lips after his showing yesterday. Yet, for all that, what did anyone really know what he was like as a person? Besides maybe her teacher Shen Xiu, whom was his aunt that seemed to have a close relationship with him.

Like her, he'd chosen to sit away from everyone else when class started up. But he hadn't paid attention to the lessons at all, he'd spent his time during classes cultivating, as if there was nothing he could learn from the apprentice class.

Which, thinking on it now after her meeting with him last night, might just be true. The kind of expertise he would need to have to modify a cultivation technique like that, and improve upon it to the point where briefly cultivating just this morning for a few minutes led her to gaining a surge of growth in her soul realm, would be master level, if not beyond.

Ning'er could have broken through to the one star bronze rank today already if she wasn't pacing herself to give her meridans a chance to heal more.

"Hoh?" Shin Long hummed, and Ning'er watched as he eyed a street vendor unloading his wares. Placing small, spherical orbs out on display atop his stall. Demon Spirits. Though not very powerful ones from what she could see. Just those made from common demon beasts, those so weak they were usually kept as pets and were pretty useless for a demon spiritualist besides giving a stronger form to take on, very few of them even had any special ability or power.

It was a common sight. The street leading up to the Holy Orchid Institute was always teaming with vendors selling wares that would only see use from cultivators. It was the best place for them to make money considering how many noble children went to the institute.

Shin Long made his way over to the vendor, "Hey uncle," he greeted the man familiarly, "How much you selling these for?" he asked, pointing at the line up of six demon spirits the man ended up putting up for display.

"Ah young master," the salesman rubbed his hands together and smiled, "These are going quite cheap, only five thousand, two hundred demon spirit coins a piece."

"Ah, so you make about two hundred profit per demon spirit you make then huh?" Shin Long hummed in interest, "Which you then use the profits with to make even more over a period of time. A pretty decent idea."

Well, few bought them for merging with. But Ning'er did know it was common practice for noble children to buy them and collect them. She'd actually seen that annoyance Shen Yue buy all six of the demon spirits this same man had put up for sale yesterday after class, trying to show off his wealth to Ye Ziyun.

"Indeed," the salesman nodded, "So does the young master want to buy any?"

"Sadly I can't right now despite how big a help they'd be," Shin Long responded with a shrug, "But I'll definitely look you up in a few days uncle, once I get more money in and I'll buy as many as you have then."

Ah that was right. Shin Long couldn't have a lot of money, not being an orphan that had practically raised himself. She knew he'd been hunting demon beasts in the training grounds since he moved into his dorm, the rumours about the population of Horned Sheep being cut down by a ton had been gossiped about a lot at the institute, and she'd realised last night it must have been him.

Still, he needed them for something? Before Ning'er noticed what she was doing, she had already followed behind Shin Long up to the stall, "In that case," the orange haired girl spoke up, "I'll take two of them." her weekly allowance was fifteen thousand demon spirit coins. She had enough left over for two of them, and it was a small price to pay if Shin Long desired them.

A strong, yet gentle hand was placed on her shoulder and Shin Long gave her a small smile, "You don't need to buy them for me Ning'er," he told her, "I'll have more than enough for them in a few days." he assured her.

Ning'er's face flushed. The weight of his hand on her shoulder, and the way he smiled at her had her heart thumping a mile a minute. "I-I want to though," she stuttered a bit as she replied, "Just think of it as a small gift of my appreciation after what you did for me."

"I didn't do it for a reward you know," Shin Long pointed out. And she believed him, she'd felt he was exceedingly kind after last night, despite the tough front he presented, "..But if you're set on it, I won't insult you by turning down the gesture."

The smile that spread across Ning'er's face was so wide it almost hurt, "T-then pick whatever two you want," she said in return. Something did occur to her though, "Why do you need them though?" they were so weak, that they were beneath someone of Shin Longs talent to use as his merged demon spirit. And why would he need multiple of them?

"..Eh," he bit his lip for a moment before sighing and nodding his head, "How about I tell you once we get out of here?"

"That works for me." Ning'er nodded, continuing to smile.