Strange World Alchemist Chef – Book 2
Chapter 006 – Enter the Forest
Translated by Pill Bug
Edited by Gumihou
The next morning, while Wu Xuan was meditating, the outside suddenly started to get noisy. Before he could get up and go out to see what was going on, the shouting voice of the Sixth Elder came to his ears.
“Everyone get up, it’s about time to enter the Phantom Forest!”
Wu Xuan quickly walked out of the tent and looked out. The white mist of the Phantom Forest became even lighter, and by then the outline of the forest could be seen clearly. As the sun gradually rose, the fog of this Phantom Forest became lighter and lighter, completely showing the path to enter the forest.
“Get ready to go in, everyone bring your own things.” The Sixth Elder reminded the crowd.
At this moment, the Ninth Elder who managed the Elixir Pavilion came over and gave them each a bottle of pills, saying, “Here is a bottle of Spirit Forging Pills, use them while cultivating, it will help you raise your cultivation.”
No matter what level one was at, there were pills for that level, that was for sure. After all, there have long been people who have worked hard on research so that they could smoothly raise their cultivation, and in order to raise their cultivation, the people before them managed to develop pills.
The effect of these Spirit Forging Pills were the same as the Muscle and Bone Strengthening Elixir. They were Second Grade pills which can be taken constantly to improve cultivation, but their effect was not as obvious as the Muscle and Bone Strengthening Elixir. From the Spirit Refining Stage, improving cultivation became more difficult, and unless a person had good pills and extremely high talent, wanting to rush up levels was basically impossible.
For this reason, the Spirit Refining Stage was the real entry level for cultivators.
Though forging spirit pills was expensive, in order to train clan disciples, whether it was the Wu clan or other clans, nothing was spared. As long as something was useful, they would provide it to improve cultivation. After all, it took twenty years to be able to enter the Phantom Forest. If they did not take advantage of this opportunity to improve, they could only wait twenty more years for another chance.
When it came to Wu Xuan’s turn, there was no portion for him. The reason was simple, he was just at the Body Refining Stage, taking Spirit Forging Pills was simply ineffective and a complete waste!
Although there were no Spirit Forging Pills, the Ninth Elder naturally would not leave Wu Xuan with nothing to use, and had long prepared a lot of Muscle and Bone Strengthening Elixir for Wu Xuan.
Wu Xuan could only reluctantly accept them; they were useless to him. It was not because they were ineffective, but because he had a better Muscle and Bone Strengthening Elixir around.
He knew he had to stay in the Phantom Forest for a month, and so that night [2] he also specially made a few batches of his Muscle and Bone Strengthening Elixir, a hundred bottles or more, all kept in his storage bag. Basically, he had enough to spend all winter inside the forest. What the Ninth Elder gave, he accepted, but would not use.
After the distribution of pills was done, the sun had risen high up, and the forest had been almost fully revealed. People were already starting to move around. The Sixth Elder led the way forward, saying: “Follow them, people can enter now! There are quite a few demonic beasts inside, don’t simply wander around!”
The most domineering group to enter was the Dragon Empire Royal Family’s group, thirty people rushed in directly. Other clans had some complaints, but could only bottle them up and not say them out loud, otherwise if they became annoyed, an unhappy cultivator killing a few of their people was entirely possible.
After the Royal Family group finished entering, the other sects and clans followed. The Wu clan followed closely with the people from the Ten Thousand Medicine Shop.[1] Anyway, since they were going for cultivation and not to hunt demon beasts, partnering with anyone would be the same. Having more people around would be safer instead.
“Hey, why are you wearing gloves?”
This detail on Wu Xuan was noticed by someone else. This person was not one of the elders, it was actually Wu Yuxin!
When her own Ten Thousand Flowers illusion art was unraveled, Wu Yuxin started to pay attention to Wu Xuan, wanting to see exactly what made him so special!
Wu Xuan turned his head to look, and was just about to reply when he found that Zhao Xi was also at her side! Immediately he clenched his throat and croaked: “I feel somewhat cold, can’t I wear gloves…”
“What happened to your throat?”
Wu Yuxin’s unrelenting questions sounded so concerned that the surrounding Wu clan disciples and elders felt surprised. Were these two familiar with each other? Those actions seem like they have known each other for a long time.
Wu Xuan lightly coughed a few times and said, “I guess it’s because when I came out yesterday, I ate too many heaty things, which caused my voice to be hoarse…”
This excuse was very far-fetched. As a Body Refining 8 cultivator, there was naturally nothing to say about his physical quality, being more than ten times stronger than an ordinary person’s. Not to mention eating heaty stuff, even if chili oil was poured down his throat, it would not lead to a hoarse voice. Only if he ate a little poison, was it possible to become like this.
Luckily there were not too many people around to look deeper and doubt his words. The Phantom Forest was right in front, who cared how your throat was, as long as you were not missing arms and legs, it was a small matter!
Zhao Xi also glanced over at him, then followed the crowd forward, seemingly thinking of something. Wu Xuan breathed a sigh of relief and refocused his attention on the Phantom Forest. He wanted to feel how mystical this forest really was, which had attracted so many sects and even people from the empire.
Just after they crossed into the forest, a cold aura came pouring in and enveloped their bodies. Crucially, Wu Xuan felt like his soul was throbbing, as if some peculiar energy was starting to pour into his soul!
As they went deeper and deeper, this feeling became stronger and stronger, like his soul was being washed by some kind of energy, and then infused with spiritual power to quench it, so that his soul energy was raised!
The others felt this even more strongly! That’s why it was called the Spirit Refining Stage, since it was when you start to quench your soul energy and improve your spiritual abilities! For this reason, in this forest, they were clearly benefitting more than Wu Xuan.[1]
“Roar!”
A startling roar came from the distance, barely the slightest figure could be seen fluttering in the mists, followed by the sound of battle. Not long after that, following a harsh wail, the surrounding area regained its tranquility. But then, the harsh wailing sound has been deeply burned into the hearts of the people present.
“Everyone be careful, pay attention to the surroundings, the demonic beasts here are at least at the Spirit Refining stage!” Zhao Tianlong, the president of the Ten Thousand Medicine Shop exhorted the crowd, so that the strong cultivators stood guard by the weaker cultivators. The Wu Clan side also followed up.
Stronger cultivators surrounded the Spirit Refining cultivators who came here to train. Multiple layers of protection formed up, and even if demonic beasts were to come, they would be able to quickly protect them.
What Zhao Tianlong said here was that the lowest cultivation level was at the Spirit Refining Stage, which meant there were higher level beings existing! If they only allowed the disciples to enter by themselves, in less than a month, it was estimated that no one inside would survive.
Wu Xuan also continued to pay attention to the surroundings, thinking that although this place was wonderful, it was accompanied by even more danger! No wonder the number of people was limited, having more people was not only easy to attract the attention of demonic beasts, but also difficult to fully take care of them.[3]
Only those who did not want to cultivate, and only want to explore what was inside, like the Royal Family Team, could simply kill through their way in.
Pill Bug TL Notes:
[1] Removed repetitive description.
[2] Which night exactly did you have the time to cook all this stuff up? Back in the clan?
[3] Narrator, didn’t you say earlier that having more people would be safer? I guess the difference is whether you have to take care of the crowd or not, since you can use other people as meat shields but not your own clan members.
Cultivation stages:
- Body Refining Stage
- Spirit Refining Stage
- Core Formation Stage
- Void Transformation Stage
- Void Spirit Stage
- Emperor Stage
Each stage has 10 levels, going from level 1 to level 10. Levels 1-3 are early stage, 4-6 are middle stage, 7-9 are late stage, level 10 is peak stage.
