Straw@hat production Chapter - 18 ; Learning Refinement::

At the mission hall:

" Here are the frost dew " Huo ling handed out them to the staff.

" Good, it is the same number as required" he collected the poster of the mission along with the forest dew and said.

" Lend me your hand " the instructor asked.

Huo ling was confused but moved his hand forward.

A flash of light appeared on the instructor hand and then went into Huo lings hand, he looked at it and above his palm count of 400 could be seen glowing.

"These are the merit points for the reward, you can use them to get resources from the academy, five of the points could be exchanged for an essence stone" the instructor added.

Huo ling was surprised, he knew he would get merit points, but their value and way of transmission has shocked him greatly.

He left and thought " Celestial Worms are very mysterious indeed , i guess it was a celestial worm which engraved the merits on my hand but now it has disappeared" he looked at his hand.

He got to know that the merits will automatically appear on a transaction and change their value.

" It was also in the case of Clear Clear worm , I thought that I had to remove one of my celestial worms to get it to work, but at the cave I was in an urgent situation so directly tried to tame it. Surprisingly after finding no space in his celestial sea it went to my soul and is now residing there "

" It wasn't mentioned in any of the details I read about it , also there are rumors about some celestial worms which appear as an mark on the body part of celestial master and reside there without taking a space in the celestial sea" he sighed, this mystery was too large for him.

He exchanged all his merit points for essence stones , as it was the most practical use in his eyes.

He was going towards the library when he noticed Liu Bao to walk towards him " oh what good luck do I have this time to be visited by class 2nd's genius" he jokingly asked.

Liu Bao looked at him thinking "when did this guy learnt flattery and humor"

" Your essence stones , as I promised " she gave him a pouch full of essence stones.

Huo ling accepted it with a calm and steady expression. He took a look and was surprised there were fifty essence stones in it.

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" Aren't you too generous, giving me fifty of them " he just managed to get 80 essence stones by completing such a lengthy and high paying mission but she was giving him 50 just like that.

" It is not even the half of my monthly pocket money , what is there to make a fuss of " she showed off while laughing inside her heart. This was her time to show superiority.

Huo ling frowned " half of her monthly pocket money is more than 50 essence stones " he was truly shocked as essence stones had a great value, ten of them could support a big family of non cultivators for about a year.

"And here I was thinking academy was being too generous by giving class one's disciples 5 essence stones per month" he laughed inwardly.

After saying goodbye to her Huo ling entered the library and checked for books on Celestial worms refinement.

" All of these are only theory based none of them includes basics for practically becoming a Refinement master " Huo ling frowned.

" It seems like I have to buy them in the market" ge made his mind quickly and calmly thanks to the clear clear worm.

It really was very refreshing experience for him to have such a quick thinking and calmness of mind.

............

At night in the hall of Huo lings courtyard:

" The celestial worms from those chen family members sold for 120 essence stones and adding my other earnings I had 250 of them " his eyes had a sparkle, it was for the first time he had seen so many of them.

" After buying all these books on basics, rank 1 refinement and sending some of them to mother , I still have hundred left"

" Lets see what is in here " he opened the first book titled ' The refinement path ' and started reading.

" Celestial worms are present in infinite numbers and infinite types in our surroundings. From ancient times people have tried to study them but still there is much to known. These creatures change and mutate with time and stimulation. Using the help of these stimulations refinement masters could evolve and mutate the celestial worms."

" But as one could imagine it is a work of trial and error, so consumes too much resources, time and brain. Many recipes for evolving particular celestial worms have already been discovered by refinement master's throughout the time , following them correctly one could increase the chances of their sucess and reduce the expenses. But to create new recipes a huge expense was required" .

Huo ling went through all of the book it was only dealing with introduction and basics of refinement path, but still had very crucial things to understand.

Due to his boosted mind Huo ling was able to grasp the essence of it very quickly. The advantages of clear clear worm were very brightly visible in reading and understanding.

Huo ling has also noticed it before when he was reading in the library. He was able to read three books in the same time he took to read one earlier and also understood them more clearly then before.

" Seems like it would take a load of essence stones to start this work " he sighed he was being so happy for getting 250 Essence stones before and now they were not even enough for him to begin refinement.

He understood why Liu Bao was receiving such a pocket money , her mother was a rank two refinement master . Rank two refinement masters could stimulate rank 2 celestial worms to rank 3 stage.

And every single rank three celestial worm had a price of thousands of essence stones.

He took out two essence stones from his pouch and started cultivating " lets get ready for the upcoming battle with other academies, I have heard the prizes are quite generous" he began to absorb the essence.

A person could only absorb about 7 to 8 essence stones in a day and effects reduced while reaching it. Any more then this number would be a waste of the essence stones as the body had already reached the limit.

But excellent grade talents could absorb about 10 or 11 of them as their bodies had affinity towards natural essence.

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