Chapter 38 – Florida Man Discovers New Shrooms Species in His Pocket
After collecting the deacon's lifespan, Leo invited them into the store. Everybody entered the building first, but Gao Yan remained behind. The latter rubbed an emerald ring on his middle finger, and it shone.
WHOOSH
The 10 pieces of iron pine lumber vanished into the ring!
Leo saw that. He rubbed his chin and thought of the rings in his pocket.
'What are the rings? Rings of Power? Rings of Magic? Ah, right. Some kind of inventory or Doraemon's 4th dimension pocket, maybe?'
Leo wished to inquire Gao Yan about it. However, before he could do it, the people inside the store suddenly ran out and looked at the building. Then, they went inside and made a loud noise, distracting Leo.
"SPATIAL DISTORTION?!"
"I-Is this the legendary spatial array?! Isn't this what the people experience in the mystic realms?!"
"I heard only the elusive Soul Transformation cultivators can tamper a large space. T-This is awesome!"
The disciples speculated while they admired the spacious interior of the store. They forgot about their purposes here.
Leo lightly snorted and shook his head. He found them odd.
'There's a guy with a strange ring that can make large objects disappear over here. Why are they surprised because my store is bigger than it looks? Man, cultivators are weird.'
He planned to research the rings later. For now, he had to attend to the customers.
After admiring the store enough, the disciples began inspecting the vegetables, immortal grass, and pills. As usual, most of them purchased two metal element pills, except Gao Yan.
Gao Yan didn't care for metal element grain pills. He grabbed 15 wood element pills at once.
Leo frowned at Gao Yan. As the leftover inferior-grade pills would cost him 150 years, he wondered if this guy was sane.
"Boy, you will have 40 years lifespan remaining. Are you sure you want to buy those?"
Gao Yan snickered, "My master hasn't refined the immortal grass that I got from you yet, senior. I can gain my years back after eating the immortal pills. Also, if my cultivation base rises, my lifespan will go up naturally, right? I learned it from the sect's library!"
"..."
Since Gao Yan looked like a smart hardworking kid, Leo hoped that he would succeed one day. He agreed to sell the wood grain pills to the boy. Afterward, the others also paid for the goodies.
Gao Yan and the group didn't linger in the store after the purchases. They bid farewell and returned home happy as they got rare cultivation resources for them to use. The deacon received 53 years of lifespan in total as a commission as the total transaction was 530 years of lifespan.
Leo gained 477 years in total after the cut. After sending the group off, Leo closed the store's door and hummed, resuming his chore. He also checked the shelves if some of the pills needed to be restocked.
Life was good. Leo hoped that every day could be peaceful and quiet like this in the future.
*JIGGLE*
While Leo was sweeping the store with a broom, the rings in his pockets jiggled again. He paused and pulled out a ring to inspect.
It was a ruby ring. The gemstone was slightly small, but the workmanship was world-class as it glittered under the sunlight like a diamond.
Thinking of what Gao Yan did to his ring, Leo mimicked him. He rubbed the ruby several times as if he was caressing Djinn's lamp.
Five minutes later, nothing happened.
Leo furrowed his eyebrows, confused. Trying harder, he swiped his index fingertip on his tongue and touched the ring with it.
CRACK
The gemstone and the ring cracked. However, countless streaks of light shot out from the ruby like a water fountain. The lights transformed into ten thousand objects, rolling and piling on the floor. Then, the ring crumbled into dust.
"Wut da hail?"
Leo was speechless. He looked at the random junk on the floor and picked a blue marble stone among 50 thousand balls around him. Then, he brought it closer to his eyes.
This blue ball emitted blue smoke. Leo sniffed at it.
It smelled like ocean wind mixed with vapor from boiled water.
PIKI
After holding the marble stone for a few seconds, it changed color from blue to black. Leo tilted his head, wondering if this material just mutated. Interested in the object, Leo carried it to the workshop cauldron and waited there.
After the cauldron finished making a new batch of pills, Leo collected the goodies and tossed the black stone in there. Then, he pressed the research button to get some information.
DING
<You have discovered Essence Stone!>
.
[Essence Stone]
Can be found underground in any mystic realm. Unlike spirit stones, it contains a great amount of Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, and Earth Element Qi.
[Traits]
Increase Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, and Earth Element Essence by 10 years' worth of cultivation. (Consumption)
[Alchemy Recipe – Soul Stone]
1,000 Essence Stones
Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, and Earth Catalyst
Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, and Earth Essence
.
"Hah?"
Leo found something weird again. He scratched his head in confusion and returned to the store.
Looking at the piles of random scraps on the floor, Leo regretted playing with the ruby ring. He deeply sighed and purchased plastic bins to store the items.
Leo didn't think much. He gathered the blue stones in one bin. Random clean clothes, except loincloths and underwear, were arranged to the side as he might try them on later. Bolts and arrows were put into the second bin.
Then, there were strange books with Chinese words. Although the shop domain automatically translated everybody's speech into English, it didn't translate written words.
'Goddammit. I need a full translation function. Rather, is there anything that can make me learn an ancient Chinese language with a click?'
Leo searched his online store system for Chinese linguistic ability, hoping for a miracle.
DING
A list showed up. However, everything was pricy.
[Universal Auto-Speech Translation] – 1,000,000 Years of Lifespan
[Universal Linguistic Knowledge] – 5,000,000,000 Years of Lifespan
[Goblin Linguistic Knowledge] - 100,000,000 Years of Lifespan
[Cathulhu Linguistic Knowledge] - 100,000,000 Years of Lifespan
[Canine Linguistic Knowledge] - 100,000,000 Years of Lifespan
Skimming through the list of linguistic skills, Leo was glad that he wasn't thrown into one of the weird planets, such as goblin or cathulhu ones.
As the list was too long, Leo opened the filter menu and narrowed it down to only the Chinese language or anything related.
DING
[Divine Shang Language Auto-Speech Translation] – 20,000 Years of Lifespan
[Divine Shang Language Reading Comprehension Knowledge] – 10,000 Years of Lifespan
Instead of showing as Chinese, the language was called "Divine Shang". Finally, they looked affordable. Still, even the cheapest knowledge cost 10,000 years of lifespan.
Leo looked at the moon rune language on the book cover for a moment and tossed them to the third plastic bin.
"Meh, I can't read it now. I swear I'll read them someday. Next..."
Aside from the book, there were other scrolls and bundles of talisman papers. Leo threw scrolls and books into the third bin while the talismans went to the fourth container.
Once the small stones, the arrows, and the books were sorted, the store looked a lot cleaner. However, miscellaneous items, such as bottles of pills, sealed wine jars, throwing knives, and random weaponry remained.
Leo threw the weapons to the backyard, where he had collected swords and crossbows. Then, he turned his attention to the pills next. Opening the lid and pouring the content out, Leo found something familiar. As he had made so many pills, he instantly recognized its features and texture.
These were compressed rice balls, aka the regular grain pills. They contained no value.
As Leo didn't need the rice balls, he played with them. Leo spat on the small pills.
*SIZZLE*
All grain balls turned white, and they started to rot. Strangely, mushrooms grew from the pills.
As usual, Leo laughed at his weird creation. He brought the sample to the workshop and threw one in the pot for research.
DING
<You have discovered Sweet Dream Mushroom Seed!>
.
[Sweet Dream Mushroom Seed]
This is a seed of the notorious mushroom that once terrorized the Jianghu 500 years ago. It can be grown in any place with thick Qi, and it's resilient to temperature changes. However, it is not advised to domesticate it unless your mental strength is the same as Buddha's. Can be used as a catalyst for every element.
.
"MUSHROOM, YOU SAY?!"
Leo chortled. As a cultured man, he was overjoyed.
"Hoh, boy. The cultivation world is so much fun!"
No one was there to retort Leo - No martial artist in this world cultivated mushrooms, especially the ones with dubious names. Also, Leo completely ignored the important warning.
The crazy Florida Man rushed back into his store and mutated all the non-element grain pills into moldy mushroom seeds. He carried them in his arms as if they were precious treasures and brought them to the second workshop's building.
As this building was empty, he chose it as a place to cultivate mushrooms. He put all the rotten pills there and opened the shopping menu. He purchased a hundred shelves and pots, spending 200 years of his lifespan. Then, he ran around, digging mutated soil around the store and filling the small pots.
After filling the pots with mutated soil, Leo buried the rotten pills in there, two for each tank. Then, he watered them, giving the dirt enough moisture. Then, he cut some holes in the sides of the pots, allowing the shrooms to come out from there. Although Leo had no idea how to grow shrooms, he proceeded with it as he had nothing to lose.
*JIGGLE*
While working, the remaining 18 rings in his pocket jiggled. Leo patted his pants and widely grinned.
He would be very busy today.
.
.
Meanwhile, Gao Yan, the deacon, and the group traveled to the sect.
On the way home, Gao Yan was absentminded. He thought of the ingredients in the store, wondering how he would use them to concoct pills in the future if he could.
As Gao Yan daydreamed, he accidentally stepped on something slippery and fell on his butt.
The group heard about the fall of Gao Yan. They turned around and laughed at him.
"Gao Yan, you're our future alchemist. Why are you so clumsy? How can we entrust you to make cultivation pills if you clumsily explode cauldrons?" The deacon jeered.
Gao Yan pouted and pushed the ground, getting ready to stand. However, his hands touched something that wasn't supposed to be there. He turned around to see what he sat on.
It was a pile of ash and black clothes. A crossbow, a sword, a spatial ring, and a token of Hound Squad were there.
"Huh?"
As Gao Yan picked up a spatial ring from the ground, the others noticed the black clothes and the items.
"What are those?"
The deacon picked up the token of the Hound Squad. He flipped it around and frowned.
There was a signature of the Ouyang Clan behind the token.
