Starting Cultivation in Wasteland

Celestial Sound actually held back; otherwise she should have used Cold Flame Bullets or the Purification Technique.

These few Light Magic Techniques don’t cause any harm to ordinary people.

Against a wandering soul, the Firefly Technique works the worst—though it’s also better for letting the other side receive a more complete set of memories.

Flower Scorpion took that hit and couldn’t help letting out a soft hum, then answered vaguely,

"No, I mean... I took five pills that Boss gave me!"

Five pills... Qu Jianlei’s mouth couldn’t help twitching; you really aren’t afraid of poisoning yourself to death, huh.

Claire heard that and couldn’t help speaking up, "Didn’t Boss say you can take at most two?"

"If you can take two, you can take three," Flower Scorpion was still answering in fits and starts, "Claire, would people like us be afraid of poison?"

Claire fell silent with a grin; people who came out of the Wasteland only chase survival—who cares about overdosing on medicine?

Flower Scorpion was still explaining, "I took three, and I still had two in my mouth—just now... I swallowed them."

Strictly speaking, her answer is logically self-consistent, but Qinghu suddenly spoke up.

"Too reasonable, which makes it the biggest unreasonable point. How could you withstand Supreme-level Mental Shock?"

That is indeed a loophole. Leaving aside the Supreme one’s soul strength, just the Mental Shock alone—how could an ordinary A-level possibly withstand it?

Flower Scorpion answered, "You can look at my headband!"

No one knew when she started liking to tie her hair into a bun, and everyone had gotten used to it.

A bun always needs a headband; Qinghu reached out and took it off, casually rubbed it, and fine powder fell off in a flutter.

"In the headband’s inner layer, this is... powder to resist Spiritual Power?"

Claire spoke up, "Boss said that the first time he ran into Spiritual Armor, it was a single hairpin."

Qinghu fell silent, pausing before she spoke, "Good idea."

She didn’t ask why the other party didn’t publicize this trick; Awakened roaming society have to rely on their own insight for many things.

Besides, even if the other party were willing to hint, would she be willing to calmly accept advice from an A-level?

Anyway, learning it now isn’t too late, and this method looks quite nice.

Just as Flower Scorpion was about to pass the review, the Paranoid, who was standing guard in the distance, suddenly spoke.

"In your eyes, who’s the person Boss cares about the most?"

Flower Scorpion was stunned for a moment when she heard this, then answered in halting fragments.

"Xiang Xue, no; Zi Jiu Immortal, no; Old Ben, no... The thing he cares about most is not having avenged Little Jing!"

She went on and on but ultimately never mentioned her own position, though she should rank ahead of Old Ben, right?

As soon as she finished speaking, a bolt of lightning lit up in the distance, and shortly after, rolling thunder followed.

"Little Jing..." Hearing this name, Qu Jianlei felt a bit dazed—that little hairless freak?

Then he inexplicably grew irritable again, "Alright, enough questions. She should be the real deal and needs rest."

An A-level swallowing a Supreme’s memory really is a snake trying to swallow an elephant. If he’s right, Flower Scorpion will have to lie flat for at least two or three months.

The Paranoid softly muttered, "This lightning in the great snowy mountain... really is a bit like Blade’s temper."

Just then, the Big Head Butterfly slowly started turning again, "Satellite communication lines have been restored..."

"Current data shows our battle was perfectly blocked out."

"Hm?" Qu Jianlei froze for a second when he heard that; he’d been thinking of getting out fast. "You sure?"

"Absolutely sure," Big Head Butterfly did a rotation, "Anyway we have a Teleportation Array; even if we need to run temporarily, we’ll make it in time."

"The key is we should really search the place thoroughly. This guy killed so many people, he must have stashed a lot of money!"

Qu Jianlei pondered for a moment, then raised his voice, "Alright, it’s late. Let’s rest up first, no rush to leave."

"No rush?" Everyone was collectively stunned when they heard that—weren’t we just saying we needed a quick fight and a quick exit?

Qu Jianlei glanced at Flower Scorpion, "Look at her. She ended up like this, wiped out a deadly threat for us..."

He actually didn’t want to talk high and mighty, but there’s no helping it; if you want to lead a team well, you can’t rely on sincerity alone.

"Rest first, and while we’re at it, see if there are any Soul Bodies that guy didn’t have time to summon."

"I support Boss’s suggestion," Qinghu spoke up first, and very frankly added, "Who knows, there might be good stuff."

She’s just too eager to get a look at a Magic Door for soul cultivation.

"Sounds good," the Paranoid also nodded, "People like this hiding things definitely wouldn’t stash everything in just one place."

Hearing that, Qu Jianlei couldn’t help thinking of himself; he never hides his stuff in only one spot either.

In these times, there are far too many people with no sense of security—let alone those who can’t stand the light of day.

But the Paranoid’s next sentence was already a bit insanely bold.

"There are hardly any people here; we could totally set up Arrays and do Cultivation."

"Once Flower Scorpion fully recovers, we’ll use Lund’s memories to search for wealth. It’s only a matter of a few months—we can afford to wait."

"Then... we’ll wait," Qu Jianlei nodded, "I’m on board."

This idea is indeed a bit bold. If Lund has other partners, we really might get dragged into trouble out here.

Qinghu also agreed. "Perfect, I can go out and gather information, and take care of my clansmen’s matters while I’m at it."

So that settled it. For them, digging a stone cave in the Great Snow Mountain was already something they were very familiar with.

After two days of work, at a spot three ridges away, everyone dug out a rather luxurious, spacious stone chamber.

It was big enough to set up two Spirit Gathering Arrays and one Qi Gathering Array inside, with plenty of room left to rest.

Celestial Sound had long been puzzled by Arrays, and this time she quietly asked Claire.

"Why is the Array we use for Cultivation not quite the same as theirs? What’s the difference?"

"There is a difference." Claire nodded. She had an excellent relationship with Flower Scorpion and Bentley, and understood the internal distinctions very well.

But what she used was still the standard line. "We’re in the foundation-building stage right now. The boss has his own arrangements."

Celestial Sound had already guessed a bit, she just wanted to confirm. "The boss has improved it, so it can impact beyond Supreme?"

"Of course." Claire nodded proudly. "The boss knows a lot."

"Look at this time—running into this kind of weird stuff, and the boss still knew how to deal with it."

While the two of them were chatting, Qu Jianlei was analyzing the night’s gains together with the other three Supremes.

The Paranoid had been right—he really had reaped a huge harvest. Just Storage Talismans alone, there were nine.

Inside the Storage Talismans, there weren’t only large amounts of Silver Notes, Gold, Energy Ore and other hard currency, but also plenty of weapons and ammunition.

There was no shortage of food, water, fuel, and daily necessities, and even medical supplies—there was actually a limb regeneration device in there.

These supplies alone were enough to let a team of twenty survive in the wild for years.

You could also imagine just how many people this guy had robbed.

Besides that, in a Storage Talisman that was about ninety percent new, there were quite a few Divine Text Documents, as well as a bottle of Medicine Powder.

On the medicine bottle, the three seal-script characters "Soul-Stabilizing Powder" were boldly written.

This was exactly the origin of the Soul-Stabilizing Pill that Qu Jianlei refined. Its function was to help stabilize the Divine Soul, and it belonged to a rather low-level powder type.

With his current level, it was simply impossible to refine any higher-grade Elixir in the short term.

It was just that powder is comparatively easy to lose; to prevent people from analyzing the ingredients, he had pinched it into pill form.

But the other three Supremes’ eyes lit up at the sight. "So this guy really did inherit some Divine Text relics."

Qu Jianlei felt a bit emotional. Compared to the handiwork of Cultivators, Awakened were still a bit too shabby.

He didn’t point anything out. He opened the bottle, looked at the brown powder inside, then sniffed it.

Something produced by Cultivators was indeed fine quality—it at least didn’t have that sharp, pungent taste.

Then he dipped a little with his fingertip, touched it to his tongue, and carefully sensed the medicinal effect.

The three Supremes couldn’t really say anything, and just watched him with open envy.

He squinted as he felt it for about half a minute, then nodded. The difference from the Pill he refined himself wasn’t large.

At least in terms of efficacy, the difference wasn’t much, which meant he was still on the right path. As for color and taste... those weren’t important.

However, this also showed that in the path of Alchemy, he still had a very long way to go.

The Paranoid was the most impatient. Seeing him nod, he couldn’t help but ask, "Boss, what is this?"

"Pretty much the same as the Pill I refined." Qu Jianlei answered in a low voice. "If anyone’s interested, you can try sensing the medicinal effect."

None of the three Supremes was willing to fall behind. Each took a bit, then carefully savored it.

This time Qinghu was the first to react. She slowly opened her eyes, staring at Qu Jianlei in astonishment.

"Boss, you actually... actually know how to refine this?"

She had sensed the differences too, but the core medicinal effect was at least ninety-five percent similar.

That was truly terrifying. Anyone who studied Divine Texts knew just how rare the Pills in the Divine Text inheritance were.

Pills are something that, before the prescription is cracked, there’s one fewer with each use.

And it needs to be pointed out that many Pills have a shelf life.

So many Awakened fought to the death, even lost their lives, for a single Pill, only to find after snatching it: useless!

So any Pill that could still retain its efficacy was without exception extremely rare.

And now the boss could mass-produce them?

Granny Jia also opened her eyes, but her surprise came from another angle.

"The taste is different—the formula was definitely altered... but it still has such a similar effect?"

The Paranoid spoke up as well. "Boss, this time I’m truly convinced... Lund himself was carrying this kind of medicine."

"How could you be so sure this stuff could counter that kind of weird thing?"

Qu Jianlei smiled faintly. The meaning in that smile was clear to everyone.

The Paranoid also realized his question was a bit over the line—he just really couldn’t hold back his shock.

"All right, let’s see what other strange things there are... How did this broken stone end up in here?"

He took out a rectangular black stone, roughly five centimeters wide and ten centimeters long, about two centimeters thick.

The stone’s material was hard to define, with a shallow crack on its surface. There were no traces of external force; it looked like natural weathering.