NOVEL NEXT Chapter 25 - Read the Fine Print!
Yin Hu looked back down at his Compendium. He flipped the page to move on to the next part of the glorious plan he would follow. Already seeing results. Who knew Alchemy was so easy, maybe start a small store front just to have something to do one day. Go undercover and help the masses.
Or maybe trick rich people into paying triple the costs?
It didn't matter much in the grand scheme of things. Being rich was his power. A cheat code he was going to use and abuse until he couldn't no more. Of course there were limits. Wastefulness a sin. He didn't want to be the next super sports player to go broke after making a hundred million dollars within five years.
No. His income needed to support him for however long he existed. Better if it generated income. There was never enough when you were spending an entire kingdom's worth of resources making nukes on a daily basis. Especially if he planned to trick more… err.. convince more disciples to join him.
And then, his dreams would come true. Jade beauties! Being fed grapes by them! And then he would—
Yin Hu blinked. He noticed some tiny words that were much smaller than the rest. He leaned closer and read them. Nearly choking when he finished.
"Jun!" He looked up. "Let me see that."
She was about to drink the elixir. It was only inches away from her mouth. Frozen at his shout. Handing him the elixir without question.
I need to make an excuse up!
The fine print had nearly caused catastrophe. Barely visible even to him. Yin Hu had only caught it because it stood out compared to the rest of the text around it. He had to squint just to see the tiny letters. It was ridiculous that it wasn't the very first thing it said.
Yin Hu frowned.
D.E.Y.M.P. had prerequisites to use. Things that needed to be accomplished before you could consider using the miraculous elixir. In order to fully purify the core, you needed to cleanse your meridians. Strengthen them. Expand them and finally prepare them for the purity of the spiritual roots.
But it was deeper than that. In order to cleanse your meridians, you have to cleanse your body of contaminations. Waste and filth that gathered within their bodies just from existing and breathing air, much less actively gathering Qi and all sorts of energy into your core.
It too required steps to set up.
Medicinal baths and showers. Pills to chip away at the filth and purify the skin. It was how all the ladies turned into Jade Beauties. Though not the men. It didn't have that effect on them for some reason. Strengthening their bodies instead.
Yin Hu had stacked dozens of different items in front of them. Each one as important as the next in two separate groups. The majority were pretty in sync with Hu Shui's development, but required tweaking slightly based on the book.
He made sure to complete the entire chapter this time. Scanning judiciously for any fine print. Rereading each line more than five times each, individually, to make sure he didn't make them explode in a shower of gore. Or light up their cores into a nuke.
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The multiple stacks teetered precariously. Nearly tipping over. Yin Hu reached out, preventing them from falling over. Jun helped by laying them down on the ground. It filled the space between them touching Shui on the knee and almost touching him.
Isn't that gorgeous?
Satisfaction filled his chest. His cheat code of pay to win was clearly being shown in front of him and the stunned girls. Each one less capable of formulating a response. Whether it required items fifty thousand years old as base ingredients. Or a dragon heart. Or even the ashes of a Heavenly Sage ranked Phoenix.
Yin Hu had it all in his spacial bag.
It was difficult to not preen at how incredible everything was.
"A-Ancestor." Shui said.
He looked over to the two girls. Both of whom shivered like it was in the middle of winter rather than the comfortable weather they were in. Teeth chattering. Body trembling and huddling into themselves. They looked positively frozen cold.
"Forgive Shui, Ancestor," Jun bowed deeply, shivering just like Shui. "She has no experience with such pure Qi in the air. Too young to have experienced the Mana Pools of our sacred tree."
The Qi is making them cold?
Yin Hu did not feel anything at all. The exact opposite. The items gave off a comfortable and very pleasant feeling to him. Warm like sunlight and a light breeze. Just perfect rather than anything that was too extreme.
He nodded anyway. Channeling his inner ancestor persona. Acting like he knew exactly what they were dealing with. Even if he had no clue.
"Indeed," Yin Hu said. Everything disappeared with a wave of the hand. "Prepare two large baths, Jun. Both of you need to get ready for the next steps in the process. Each one is important and needs to be perfect."
Jun nodded. "Yes, Ancestor!"
Shui followed her closely as they got up and rushed back into the building. The two of them split into two different directions while still in view after a quick conversation out of his ear shot. It took only a few minutes until they both returned wearing slightly better robes and clothing.
Not that it made a large difference.
Their robes were still ripped and beaten. Dusty and a dirty shade of gray that was nowhere close to the clean colors he expected them to have been wearing. The colors of this Silver Mountain Gang. Cultivator sects and clans took presentation seriously. More so than other organizations in the vast world that was around them. Forcing thousands of elite soldiers that could probably tank armies alone into wearing hideous colors and sigils on their clothes to boot.
I really need to give them some clothes. I got a lot of female robes too, not sure why the system kept sending them.
Yin Hu had an image to uphold not. Take their presentation as the Hu Clan just as much as normal sects and clans did. Neither one of them could look like vagrants anymore. They must look like the direct disciples of an ancient master so far above everything that they keel over just from seeing how rich they were from proxy.
He smiled. The thought was enticing, but he wasn't a show off. Having no one to show off to for eons did that.
Jun led Shui out of the courtyard. The little girl waved at him as she disappeared and closed the gate behind her. Instantly the thought of running away crossed his mind. It was the first time he had truly been alone in this world ever since walking up.
It felt wrong. Something missing in his chest that he couldn't explain. It was not a good feeling to experience. The image of the isolated island became stronger in his mind. Clearer. Exactly what he suffered and how it happened. The sleepless nights. Struggles to just keep going onto the next day. He wasn't sure how he had lasted that long anymore.
Everything had turned blurry in his mind. Forcing him to forget more than he expected.
Being out here in the wider world made everything feel like it happened to someone else. Or he was just watching a movie. A sad character that experienced the depths of loneliness and what it meant to not have someone to just exist. It didn't need to be perfect. Even a bully he would fight with on the daily was better than nothing.
Now he had two young ladies under his tutelage. They had been fully accepted to the fake university that was going to scam and trick them into success. Just so they could fill a gap in his chest. Something he didn't quite understand what it was being filled with.