Soon afterward, four million in cash was lined up before Saminu.
When he opened the box, it was filled with level four Ayrid, all carefully arranged.
Each Ayrid could be exchanged for a hundred thousand in cash at the market. But as a seasoned merchant, Saminu had the tricks to sell it at a hundred and twenty per Ayrid.
The fact that Armad gave them to him at a hundred thousand per Ayrid and the whole sum of four million was brought to him made Saminu water down his greed.
“Half the amount of this is alright, Your Highness,” he said. “I don’t want to be so selfish.”
He called out his guards and ordered them to take half the Ayrid away.
“It wouldn’t be fair for me to take it all,” he said and saluted the prince before he left.
Armad remained silent until he left, and the judge gathered the rest of the Ayrid and stored it inside his bag.
Saminu had always been clever, and he didn’t need to be told to usher all his workmen out of the farmhouse.
He couldn’t risk any of them seeing the unfolding drama that he was sure would soon follow. It was better that way to avoid anyone causing trouble for him in the future.
Armad sensed all the commotion outside through his spiritual sense. A few seconds later, he turned to the Judge and gave him a meaningful look. The Judge understood what it meant and went to the door. His hand on the knob, he hesitated to open it as he stared thoughtfully at Nusi.
He believed that Armad had somewhat changed towards him since the maidservant came into his life. It made him wonder if she had used some enchantment upon him to have such effects on him.
He resolved to learn more about her and was prepared to eliminate her if necessary. He couldn’t risk all the efforts he had put in place to protect the prince being jeopardized by her.
Armad had read his mind, but he remained unmoved, knowing that Nusi could defend herself soon. His quest for cultivation overshadowed everything else at the moment.
“Go and keep watch by the entrance,” Armad directed his orders at her. “Not even a fly should be allowed in.”
She nodded and left the room for the farm’s entrance.
Armad took a deep breath and stood up. He left the room through the back door, which led him back inside the farmhouse.
As before, the fresh scent of the herbs wafted through his nostrils, and immediately, the System resumed its hysterics.
A contention between the higher-ups would be best left as it is. It would be much easier if he denied knowing anything about it later.
But unknown to him, he had already put himself in trouble from which he couldn’t easily extricate himself.
“You have just made a discovery! A new substance! Quick! Place your hand on it for the System to make pills!”
He smiled faintly. The System’s choice of words wasn’t lost on him; it was trying to urge him into touching those herbs.
He took a deep breath and moved closer to the nearest plant. The plant was roughly as tall as his arm’s length, with leaves that were a mix of yellow and green. Each leaf had six veins on the right and seven on the left, with stems rising from their midpoint where they fused to the trunk.
As he reached out towards the first leaf, Armad felt his body heat up immediately. A shiny aura emanated from his hand and enveloped the entire plant. Within a minute, the entire plant was absorbed into his outstretched hand.
The System seemed genuinely determined about this, as not a single leaf was left behind. Armad stared wide-eyed, pondering within his mind. Was the System so desperate to do this?
Another thing that puzzled him was how quickly the nutrients were processed this time. It finished in no time, probably because the nutrients were in their purest form. In contrast, Armad’s diet likely contained impurities that always delayed the System as it separated the useful from the impurities.
And now, barely five minutes later, he received a message from the System.
“You have just absorbed a pure substance and made 2317 cultivation booster pills.”
The sound of the System in his head held him rooted to the ground as he tried to comprehend this piece of information. It took him almost 30 seconds to digest what he had just heard. “2317...” He kept repeating to himself.
This figure represented the total number of pills he would have made if he were to meditate for five or seven days straight.
But the idea that the System had produced all of this from only one plant, and all of them cultivation boosters, was nothing short of amazing.
Initially skeptical, since he knew where the System usually stored pills for him, he decided to satisfy his curiosity by checking them out.
Armad created a portal and searched through his bag. A new shelf had been installed, stacked with loads and loads of pills.
He stared in open-mouthed wonder at this discovery. It was incredible how he had stumbled upon a thousand when he was hoping for only one.
How could he have known that such a plant existed in his backyard all this time? If he had known, he would have frequented this farmhouse before the wild people arrived. But now, there was no way he would sell another leaf to anyone again.
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Perhaps the dried ones, but even then, he had to think it over. These were more lethal than any weapon he could think of. But right now, his mind was focused on the amount of cultivation he would gain from 2000 pills.
His cultivation years were just a little more than 7000 at the moment. How much more would it add if he absorbed all those medicinal plants? He wondered as he moved on to the next plant.
He was also amazed at how different it was this time. Normally, the System always informed him about ten or so substances found, which never got processed immediately.
But now, only one pill, the cultivation booster, was created, and it was multiple times the usual amount.
This indicated that this plant and the substance it contained were in their purest form and had only a single nutrient.
It also suggested that it had only a single use, which was boosting cultivation.
He reached out and placed his hand on the next plant. It was an odd one to behold, as it looked ashen all over.
It wasn’t the only plant with that color, just as the first wasn’t the only one with its look. Most of the plants had some similarities, but Armad believed that they all had individual uses unique to them.
The ash plant had only three leaves on a long trunk, which couldn’t be longer than Armad’s arm. The rest of it was filled with thorns.
He grabbed the branch, and just like before, brightness engulfed the plant, and everything dissolved and got absorbed into his hand.
Within another five minutes, the System finished another set of pills.
[System has absorbed nutrients and created pills called Poison.]
“Poison?” Armad was shocked when he heard this. Was the System also able to make poison? But then it struck him that the System was capable of making any pills as long as the right nutrient was available. It was high time he got used to it and stopped being surprised.
This time around, it was 650 pills, and when Armad checked them out, they were unsurprisingly ash in color, all neatly arranged on a shelf.
As always, the System only gave him incomplete information on the pills. Most times, Armad had to wait until he used a pill before knowing the full extent of its use. Sometimes, even after a rigorous explanation, he would later find some uses that couldn’t be known except through usage.
An instance was when he had used the energy pills. It was only after the first trial with it that possible ways of using it opened up for him.
And now, it was possible to put this particular poison to different uses, like feeding it to his enemies in a drink or inserting and shooting it with an explosive. But he needed to test its potency first to avoid it backfiring on his men, as most poisons were known to. And he needed to know the kind of things it would affect. Would it be people, animals, or plants?
But all these would have to wait until later.
He moved on to the next plant. This one had the appearance of a neem plant, just like a young sapling of neem. But it was dwarfish and not longer than Armad’s arm length, which was about the size of every other plant in this enclosure.
He looked intently at this plant, and surprisingly enough, he felt some kind of pressure on his chest whenever he stared at it.
Without waiting much longer, he placed his hand on it and absorbed it just like he did with the others.
After about five minutes, the System gave him another update.
[Pills have been made, but they are also cultivation boosters.]
Armad found this very strange.
The first plant that gave him cultivation boosters was entirely different from this one. It kept him wondering why this one would also give him the same pills.
As if reading his mind, which was probably the case, the System sent him a message:
[This particular plant has some substances that are beyond the ability of your cultivation to make them into pills. But a small percentage of it can be made into cultivation boosters, hence the new set of pills. The unprocessed substances have been removed from your body. The new set is 343 in number.]
That explained why there weren’t as many pills as from the other plant, which was specifically for boosting cultivation.
So he was still short of cultivation when it came to some substances? Well, Armad believed that he was on the verge of reaching that stage.
An idea suddenly came into his mind. There was a great likelihood that he would suffer a great loss if he went on like this.
These herbs wouldn’t be planted again until about three months when the soil was ready again. And it may take about 5-6 months to germinate.
He would surely incur losses upon himself if he spent them all when his cultivation wasn’t up to it yet. That means he needed to know which plant would make pills when absorbed and which ones wouldn’t. Anything short of this would be a purposeful loss.
“System, is there any way that I can tell which substance is capable of being converted into pills by my cultivation and those which couldn’t?”
A minute and a half passed by without a reply until Armad gave up on ever receiving any answers from System. But suddenly, like a person, System cleared its throat.
“It is possible. But you have to know that for every plant you receive information about from the System, there is a price. It doesn’t matter if it can or cannot make pills.”
Armad arched an eyebrow. “So now we are talking about business with System?” he thought to himself. “Alright, state your price,” he told it.
He believed that the price he would pay wouldn’t be as much as the loss he would suffer from wasting the herbs.
There were more than 500 plants here, some of them identical. If he went around wasting them when his cultivation wasn’t up to it, then the loss would be tremendous.
“The price is, for any plant that System gives you information about, System gets half the nutrients. These nutrients wouldn’t be used to make pills for you because they aren’t for you but for the system then.”
Armad arched his eyebrows. “Where is the difference between this and that?” he wondered. “Even as he ruins part of the nutrients in the former, still part of it could be used by System to create pills for him.”
With the latter, System would provide him with information, but he would only get to use half of the nutrients while System used the other half.
It wasn’t that much of a difference. “Is there no other price but this?” He asked, feeling hesitant to give up so many nutrients that would be transferred to only God-knows-where, whatever the nature of the System.
“There is another price if you are up to it,” System replied.
Armad wasn’t thrilled with the prospect. The price would likely not be easy, since the System itself couldn’t state it directly.
“You can sacrifice the nutrients from a person to a System. The system needs nutrients from at least a thousand persons to enhance its strength to give you the information you need. For every single plant, you have to absorb the bodily nutrients from a hundred people, five of which are chosen by System.”
On hearing the System’s demand, Armad’s eyes bulged out from their sockets. What was the nature of this System that resided in his head? Was it a person, a spirit, or some other creature?
He felt puzzled by it all, but soon he dismissed that notion. He was well aware that the System was truly different from a human but also had needs similar to those of a person.
Just as a human needed to enhance his cultivation, the System also wasn’t immune to such a need. But the means through which the System chose to do so were quite different from the known ones.
He sighed deeply. This was difficult from every angle. There seemed to be no solution that wouldn’t pose significant challenges, and the amount the System was demanding wouldn’t be easy to find. But something else caught Armad’s attention just then.
The system had said that he would choose five out of a hundred from the people Armad would present to him.
“What exactly do you mean by their nutrients?” he asked, wanting to understand this somewhat crazy demand. “Are you going to suck their blood dry or do you intend to kill them? Tell me what exactly is going on.”
He needed to understand what this meant, as there was a clear difference between wanting a body part and killing a person entirely for such.