Chapter 0187

“Don’t worry about it.” Fenix held Tempest back as she tried to reach the disappearing loot.

“How can I not worry? I might have gained a hoard of treasures from the chaotic rift but that doesn’t mean I have enough to spare for Graden!”

Hoard. Everyone’s eyes twitch. They finally understood the logic behind Tempest’s generosity. It seems the benefits she received weren’t small. For Tempest to refer to her treasure as a hoard meant she got more treasures than she was telling them, definitely more than she took out previously.

The silly brat did have a brain!

Then it fully hit them.

“Ah, that’s her true motive.” Everyone thought in their hearts. They didn’t say it out loud. They aren’t stupid. They aren’t going to run their mouths and lose their treasure in the process. At the same time, they were relieved. Once a miser, always a miser. They felt it was strange Tempest was willing to give up a treasure from the chaotic rift. It was very uncharacteristic of her.

Her ‘sharing the loot’ was merely a diversion. She was showing them a small portion of the true loot.

Tempest’s comments gave her away. The rest of the group was determined to con the brat out of more of her hoard.

“Hey take it easy. Graden is just making the Golden Sunfire Vine his avatar. It isn’t running away.” Fenix explained the situation. “High-level alchemist undergoes lightning tribulation every time they create a high-level pill. Before alchemist gets to that level, they have to prepare countermeasures against the lightning tribulation. Mage alchemist resists the lightning tribulation by creating an avatar out of a plant they grew.”

“Not exactly.” Graden cut in. “Do you know why aside from natural born elements very few things can increase a mage’s cultivation?”

Everyone shook their heads no. Even the knowledgeable Fenix didn’t know the reason either.

“Our spirits nurture the natural born elements inside of them. It is one of the ways they can grow and if they grow, they pass on more mana to us.”

“Ahh, so that explains it,” Fenix exclaimed. She was always puzzled at this point.

“Wood spirits are the exception because there aren’t any natural born wood spirits. Instead, wood spirits take rare herb into themselves and grow them.”

“I see.” Fenix nodded, acting like she knew everything when she didn’t.

“Haven’t you notice when you communicate with your spirits you communicate with only one of them and not the entire collective?” Graden asked the group.

“Yeah, I noticed. It is overwhelming to talk to the entire lot at the same time. They swarm you all the time trying to get a word in that you feel like you were being attacked by a mob. They only stopped when I fainted! And you know, I have to weed out the information I asked them to collect. They are so literal. Give me information about A and they only give me spoken information about A. Whether or not it is true, they don’t care. All they care about is getting the information then mobbing me with it. A little accuracy, please! The value of information lies in its accuracy!”

“We get it.” Fenix interrupted Tempest. Tempest glared at Fenix for her interruption. She got a belly full of complaints that she finally gets a chance to air out and Fenix had to interrupt her. Damn it!

“The point,” Graden said before Tempest can continue with her rant, “is that you mainly speak to one of your spirits for each element. For an alchemist, it is important because the wood speaker houses the avatar of the alchemist. The avatar of an alchemist is the plant refined for the sole purpose of taking the lightning tribulation caused by going against heaven when creating high-level pills. My wood spirit is taking the Golden Sunfire Vine into itself and nurturing it.”

Tempest stares intensely at Graden before nodding her head in acknowledgment. She doesn’t know how much of it were lies or truth or if Graden knows the entire truth either. Tempest knew his spirits kept secrets from him for his own good. It might be valid in the past but now they should come clean. At least Graden would know what to expect or prepare for the unexpected. Still, the problem is for Graden and his spirits to work out. Tempest hopes with a fake Eternal Flame Tree, ah she means the Golden Sunfire Vine, as a cover for the real Eternal Flame Tree, a channel of communication that can be opened between Graden and his spirits.

“Congratulations, Graden.”

“Wah? Did the sun rise from the west? Our silent and stoic Bei Ting Mao has congratulated someone for their achievements!” Tempest half mocked half teased Bei Ting Mao.

“I can give credit where credit is due.” Bei Ting Mao said solemnly.

“Actually, he just wants to get on Graden’s good side because he has the potential to be a high-level alchemist in the future. It’s easier to ask for pills if we’re close now.” Li Ming revealed Bei Ting Mao plan.

Bei Ting Mao glared at Li Ming. “What? It is best, to be honest in the beginning. We’re all in this for the long haul anyway. It is stupid to start our relationship with ulterior motives and schemes.”

Bei Ting Mao blushed at Li Ming admonishment but said nothing. They all knew it was better, to be honest with each other. Lies, schemes and ulterior motives would rot their budding friendship.

“I thought mages don’t need pills,” Tempest asked dubiously.

“It’s not that mages don’t need pills for cultivation, it just that the pills they do need is hard to make.” Graden clarified Tempest’s misconception.

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“Well, you can keep your drugs. I won’t need any and I won’t take any. Too many people use drugs to control me. I don’t want to be controlled.” Tempest stated her stance on pills to the group.

“All the more for us.” Li Ming said to lighten the mood.

“You can have your drugs!”

“Okay, okay. All the pills are for us. None for Tempest’s personal use. Now let us get back to the original topic, claiming our treasure from Tempest’s hoard.” A bright smile lit Fenix’s face. It seems when she was holding Tempest back, she also caught on to Tempest’s blunder.

“Okay, sheesh. Greedy bastard. Take your pick!” Tempest grumbled.

“Me next,” Fenix yelled before heading to the pile on the ground to pick her prize.

“Wait!” Graden interrupted Fenix.

“What?” Fenix whined. She was itching to get her hands on her treasure and Graden’s interruption annoyed her. She held herself back from slapping Graden silly because it was Graden. Sweet, gentle Graden understood Tempest best. It would be their benefit if he was able to pry more treasure out of Tempest’s hand. Everyone else can follow suit.

“I wish to bargain.” Graden turned towards Tempest with an unusually serious expression, “I want another treasure from you right now.”

“No way. We agreed on one per person!” Tempest refused. Give these bastards an inch and they’d take a mile. Well, they aren’t going to fool her, no siree they ain’t!

“We agreed on one per person and if we want more we can negotiate with you.” Graden corrected.

“Hmph! What do you have to bargain with me? Everything in your mage robe belongs to me. Speaking of which, hand the loot over.” Tempest stuck out her hand for the loot promised her. Graden didn’t hold back. He completely emptied out his mage robe. Tempest stuffed the loot into her mage robe right away. She’d sort them out later. “Now that I have everything you have, what do you have to bargain with me?” Tempest said like a snotty little princess lording her might over her subjects.

The others really wanted to laugh at her behavior because instead of coming off as a mighty cultivator she came off as cute brat. A cute silly brat. Of course, everyone held back their laughter. They’d tease her after they got their treasure.

“Fenix give me 500 jade token please.” Fenix gave Graden the requested jade token which he used his fire spell to engrave his name and number on the token. He showed the token to Tempest.

“What is so special about these tokens you made yourself. My charms are better than those.”

“Each token can redeem one pill in my hands or one plate of food personally cooked by me. I’ll give you all 500 hundred for one treasure.”

Tempest’s eyes sparkled like the miniature sun at the offer. She may not care about the pills Graden can make in the future but she loves the food he can make now. Tempest’s mind began to race. If she eats three meals a day, 500 plates of food can last her about 167 days. If she were to eat more than one plate of food per meal then the tokens won’t last even three months. 500 tokens aren’t enough!

As Tempest was thinking about Graden’s bargain, the others were keenly observing Tempest's reaction to Graden’s offer. They didn’t miss the Tempest’s audible swallow or how her eyes sparkled nor did they miss how her entire demeanor changed from a silly brat to a calculating merchant trying to get the best deal for her wares.

“10,000 tokens.” No one was surprised by the amount of Tempest demand from Graden. 10,000 token might represent a lot of pills but everyone here knew Tempest wasn’t thinking of pills when she made the demand.

The little glutton was thinking about food and only food!

Thinking from a foodie’s perspective, 10,000 plates of food wasn’t much. It might not last her the supposed five years they are to spend together as a group.

Of course, everyone here knew they were going to stay together as a group for longer than five years.

“1,000. The pills I make will be rare and valuable.”

“9,000. You can keep your stinky pills. I just want the food.”

“2,000. My cooking skill is that good.”

“8,000. There is room for improvement in your cooking skills.”

“3,000. Don’t you dare disparage my cooking skills when you gobble it all down.”

“7,000. Fine, I won’t disparage the chef. The ingredients are bad!”

“4,000. You supply the ingredients then!”

“6,000 -”

“Ah hell, can the insult and settle with 5,000 tokens.” Fenix interrupted them.

“Hmph. 5,000 it is then.” Tempest reluctantly agreed. So what if she was going to settle at 5,000 jade tokens in the first place. It wasn’t like her to smile and amicably agree to the bargain. That wasn’t Tempest and everyone knew it.

Fenix hand over 4,500 jade token for Graden to inscribe. Once he was done, he gave the jade token to Tempest and picked out a treasure for himself.

This time, Graden chose the Ferocious Frost Fire Flame as his treasure of choice.

“Oh, nice choice, a yin type flame.” Li Ming said.

Tempest looked towards her for an explanation. She read cultivation novels back when she was locked… ah no, back when she was… ah, forget it, back when she was locked up in the mental institution. She knew about yin type flame and yang type flame but she doesn’t know how it would apply to in the Cardinal Realm.

“A yin type flame has a cold attribute in it which can be used to balance out the extreme yang type flame Graden just acquired. I don’t know much about alchemy or mage flame type but in the Heavenly Mountains but I’ve heard that certain plants get destroyed during the purification process when making a pill. Therefore, some alchemist desire a ‘cold’ or ‘yin’ type flame to balance out their yang type flame.” Li Mind tried to explain the concept but since she didn’t understand the mechanism or method of alchemy, her explanation further confused the confused Tempest.

Tempest looks to Fenix for a better explanation since she is a fire mage.

“Don’t look at me. I’m not an alchemist.” Fenix protested.

“You’d do a better job than Li Ming.” Tempest pointed out.

Fenix shrugged her shoulders in acknowledgment then thought for a bit before explaining the concept of a ‘cold’ type flame. “The phrase, ‘it is so cold it burns,’ best describes a yin type fire. It is still a fire, but instead of giving off a hot sensation during the burning process, it gives off a cold sensation during the burning process. Some herbs get destroyed if they are subjected to the hot sensation during the pill refining process. However, if they were to be refined using a yin type fire to refine the herbs, it won’t be destroyed because the hot sensation isn’t there during the refining process. Instead, it is a cold sensation, which they don’t react to. For the alchemist, it means they can handle a wider range of herbs. For mage alchemist, it can be used to understand the fire laws from a different point of view. It is best for mages for those who have low fire affinities, or in Graden’s case, mages who spirits barely communicate with them. The Ferocious Frost Fire Flame allows a mage to comprehend the fire laws from a different point of view from the way the spirit teaches us the fire laws, therefore lessening the reliance on the spirits and increasing the emphasis placed on the mage’s own effort.”

Tempest looked at her polar opposite with sympathy. Her spirits talk to her too much. His spirits don't speak unless necessary.

“Can spirits be switched?” Tempest asked Ventus.

A resounding “No” rang through her head, making Tempest quite dejected.

A yin type of fire gives Graden the tools to cook a greater variety of food.

Tempest immediately perked up at the thought of food, especially her 5,000 dishes!