Chapter 62 – Local Shocked as Florida Man Develops Chemical Weapon as Food
"Hmm…"
Wu Buyi was put in a tough spot. He hated to reveal his capabilities, but he had no choice since Leo asked him. He confessed.
"About one month per batch. I will also need assistants to maintain the fire and essence during the concoction. That doesn't include the time I need to invest to prepare my condition since I will have to sit in front of the cauldron for three months straight."
Hua Jiashan and others nodded in approval as the time Wu Buyi needed was much less than average alchemists. From their standard, it usually took two to three months for an alchemist to concoct a batch of cultivation pills. After all, making pills was not an easy task, and it was time-consuming. Alchemists were respected as specialists because of this reason.
Unfortunately, Leo's standard was different.
"Too slow."
"Eh?!" The elders were stunned.
Wu Buyi was offended, and his face twitched. He believed that he was one of the fastest pill-makers on the continent. Thus, he asked Leo how long it took to make them.
"T-Then, how long did you take to make those…MEDIUM-GRADE pills?"
Wu Buyi stressed the quality of the pills. He could make a batch of 15-20 high-grade pills 60-70% of the time, and he was confident in his abilities. He was sure that Leo's concoction method was inferior to his.
Leo snorted and told them the truth, "Three hours!"
"WHAT?!"
Wu Buyi dropped his jaw and the tea bottle. The glass container hit the floor, but it didn't shatter upon impact. Everybody except Hua Jiashan stood up in shock.
"ONLY THREE HOURS?! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!"
Leo widely grinned. He wondered if he should show them his trade secrets.
'Should I, or should I not? This is kinda childish to flex, but I need to compare the standard of this world and the system's abilities. Well, since these guys will send free laborers to help me, they will eventually learn about the workshops anyway. Oh, wait. How about this? I don't have to tell them about the system or how the workshop works. I just magically make them…remotely! Yup! That will work.'
After coming up with the idea, Leo coughed, "How about I show you how it's done?"
"YES, PLEASE!" Wu Buyi repeatedly nodded. The others were also curious.
"Follow me."
Hua Jiashan finally smiled. He followed Leo through the back doors, and they arrived in the backyard. In front of them were two alchemy workshop buildings.
Fortunately, both cauldrons were idle as Leo had just collected everything. Although Leo could have used both of them at once, he didn't feel like it. He had a feeling that it might be overkill to demonstrate how he usually worked.
"Please wait here. I'll go get the ingredient from the granary."
"…"
Not wasting time, Leo asked the crowd to wait there. He went to fetch the ingredient from the granary.
The crowd was slightly confused. They noticed that Leo wore a clear gold ring, and he also carried a spatial ring of billion spirit stones in his pocket. They wondered why he didn't store the materials in his spatial ring.
Meanwhile, Leo entered the granary and found Cat inside. She was still terrified of the heavenly tribulation, and she refused to come out.
Leo cut a handful of virgin yang potatoes and left her alone. He also took a fiery tomato and a tiger-killing orange along as he needed both. He returned to the workshop.
Upon returning to the workshop, Leo discovered that Wu Buyi had been rubbing and inspecting the cauldron in curiosity while the other elders silently gazed at the workshop buildings. On the other hand, Hua Jiashan frowned and glared at the second workshop.
When Hua Jiashan noticed Leo's arrival, he immediately pointed at the second workshop.
"Fellow Daoist, what are you keeping in that building? I sense dreadful air from that place. It smells like…death."
"Oh? That?" Leo ignored Wu Buyi and tossed three ingredients into the cauldron without even looking. He gargled and spat at the fireplace, and the cauldron lit up automatically.
DING
Nobody could hear the system bell sound. The cauldron's lid was closed, and it started working.
"!!!"
Wu Buyi jumped away from the cauldron in panic. He circulated his Qi in his eyes to inspect the flow of Qi in the pot. Then, he looked at Leo, who already walked toward the second workshop.
"Eh? What?"
Wu Buyi couldn't understand how Leo did it. Normally during a concoction process, an alchemist always pressed their palms on their cauldron to inject their element essence and Qi into the pot, extracting the essence from the ingredients and mixing them together. Nobody could make pills without touching their burning cauldrons.
Yet, Leo nonchalantly ignited the cauldron and walked away.
The other elders were also flabbergasted and baffled. They had seen how Wu Buyi worked with his pills before, and they had never seen a crazy alchemist that worked on their pills remotely. Question marks floated on top of their heads as they looked back and forth between the cauldron and Leo.
Meanwhile, Leo stood in front of the second workshop, and Hua Jiashan followed him. The latter began sweating as he recognized the aura. The sect master's voice was also cracked.
"Say, fellow Daoist. Please answer me honestly. Are you cultivating another contraband item?"
"Why?" Leo giggled, "What if I do?"
Leo paused for a moment. He still remembered the mushroom seeds, and he forgot to water them for days. He wondered what could go wrong.
"T-This is not the time for a joke, Daoist Florida Man. I know this aura. Isn't this Sweet Dream Mushroom?! Do you realize what you're doing?"
"Are they that bad? They're good catalysts for alchemy though. I'm also planning to eat some of them."
"WHAT?!"
Hua Jiashan choked and coughed. He smacked his chest twice as his heart skipped a beat.
After almost having a heart attack, Hua Jiashan told Leo what he had experienced when he was young 500 years ago.
"Fellow Daoist Florida Man. This is different from essence stones. Sweet Dream Mushrooms are the deadliest hallucination mushroom that turns cultivators into monsters. They consume Qi to grow, and their spores can eat cultivators and their Qi from the inside. Five hundred years ago, five countries and 20 million people perished because of one Sweet Dream Mushroom from the Fungus Mystic Realm! One of the islands becomes a forbidden area because of these mushrooms! I saw how deadly these mushrooms were. Once you inhale or consume them, you will become a mindless monster that lives on by eating fellow cultivators! You must destroy these mushrooms right now!"
Hua Jiashan's words entered Leo's left ear and exited his right ear. The Florida Man pulled open the door and witnessed the magnificent scene of a miniature fungi apocalypse world.
Countless buds of orange mushrooms latched onto the ceiling, floor, and walls. Each came in various sizes. The biggest mushroom head was one foot in diameter, and they were average three feet tall. As for the smallest ones, they were finger-sized.
Leo glanced at the door and peeled a patch of mushrooms. Then, he closed the door.
Hua Jiashan was already 100 meters in the sky as he kept his distance from the mushrooms. He screamed his lungs out.
"DAOIST FLORIDA MAN! BURN THOSE BLASPHEMOUS THINGS BEFORE YOU BECOME A MONSTER! NOW!"
"…"
Leo pursed his lips as he believed that Hua Jiashan overreacted. He carried it to the second workshop's cauldron and tossed the patch in the pot. Then, he researched it.
DING
The information was shown to Leo.
.
[Sweet Dream Mushroom]
This is one of the deadliest mushrooms that almost destroy the world 500 years ago. It originates from a fungi-infested mystic realm, and it grows by consuming every type of Qi and essence. As it is from a fungi species, it can rapidly grow and multiply. It only takes one day from one mushroom to terraform everything in a radius of one kilometer into a field of sweet dream mushrooms.
However the hazardous it brings, it comes with great benefits. Immortals and cultivators with virgin yang can consume them to increase their vitality and lifespan. If refined, it can become a life-saving pill that immortals can kill for.
[Pill Recipe – Hope and Dream Pill]
One Sweet Dream Mushroom
Ten Yang Catalysts
Fire, Water, Earth, Metal, and Wood Essence
[Pill Recipe – Determination Pill]
One Sweet Dream Mushroom
Ten Yin Catalysts
Fire, Water, Earth, Metal, and Wood Essence
[Traits]
Increase Lifespan by one year per gram (Consumption)
.
How could he destroy these precious mushrooms when he could farm lifespan by eating them directly?
Leo salivated. He rushed into the second workshop and closed the door behind him. After shutting the door, Leo cut the biggest mushroom and weighed it with his feeling.
It was light by his standard, but it was roughly 20 kilos. Leo immediately calculated in his mind.
'One gram = one year? Then, 20 kilos would be 20,000 freaking years?! Oh, my Florida! I'm freaking rich!'
Without hesitation, Leo started nom-noming, ignoring the fact that many guests were waiting for him outside.
.
.
One hour later, Leo came out. His clothes got slightly stained because of the mushroom's spores and dust. However, he had never felt this energetic before. Leo believed that he could work all night that day.
After coming out, Hua Jiashan slowly descended. But when he noticed that Leo's clothes were stained with orange dust, he backed away.
"D-Daoist Florida Man. Are you okay? Can you talk?"
"Huh?" Leo frowned, "Of course, I can talk. What's the big deal?"
Hua Jiashan let out a sigh of relief. From his experience, people who touched the mushrooms would be zombified in seconds. They also lost their abilities to talk or communicate when they were infected, yet Leo seemed fine as he responded to his questions.
"Are you feeling okay? Do the mushroom spore do something to you?" Asked Hua Jiashan.
Leo shrugged, "Aside from being delicious, I don't feel anything. I guess I'm immune to the poison."
"…"
Hua Jiashan was still wary of the mushroom spore and poison. He kept his distance from Leo.
Meanwhile, Wu Buyi was glued to the cauldron. He panted and stared at the cauldron in a daze while he commented.
"S-Such technique is unprecedented! Not only do the fire element and the mysterious yang Qi flow together in harmony, but there is no waste in the ingredients! Who could have thought that you can use yang Qi as a conductor while the fire element Qi acts as fuel instead of burning the ingredients. Wait…S-Splitting ingredients into 30 sets?! Daoist Florida Man aims to refine 30 pills at once, and he's not even touching the cauldron?! How does he do this remotely?!"
"…"
Leo gave Wu Buyi a weird look. He left the nerd alone while he licked his fingers and cleaned the dust on his clothes with it. Also, as Hua Jiashan was worried about the fungi, Leo walked back to his bedroom and put on the hazmat suit. Then, he returned to the group.
Seeing the clothes, Hua Jiashan was relieved. He avoided the second workshop and landed in front of the first workshop. He also urged Leo.
"Again, please destroy those mushrooms. They must not exist."
"…"
