Chapter 21: Black Lotus

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

The storm brought on by the Arcane Magic Potion swept in many of the powers in Jarrosus City.

From eleven mage families to six underground forces, almost everyone was struggling to raise money. Prime real estate, top-grade magical crystals, rare magic materials and magic equipment… All these uncommon items seemed to have flooded the market overnight. Prices were dropping day by day as if taking a dive from a high platform.

The whole Jarrosus City had become crazy. All the powers qualified for the competition were fighting to force their way into the Emerald Tower.

As for the Emerald Tower, it was of course the center of the storm.

After Gerian had tossed the news out, he’d been staying in the Emerald Tower, feigning illness.

“Visitation? Ai… I’m really sorry, President Gerian is seriously ill; it’s a malignant infectious disease. If you’re infected, it will lie heavy on our conscience. Why not go back first and come back again a few days later?”

Sometimes, the circumstance was a scary thing. Just after two days, someone as honest as Kevin was poisoned into lying every time he opened his mouth. He spoke of the infection with an anxious expression of pain as if Gerian had not been just ill, but had been infected by a plague instead.

Everyone knew what was going on, but there was nothing they could do about the fat old man Gerian. Everyone was at Gerian’s mercy now, and what they were waiting for was to rip him off at the auction. So the members of the ten mage families came and left, and then the members of the six underground forces came and left too…

The seriously ill Gerian, however, was hiding in the basement, grinning. He counted the Arcane Magic Potions again and again and listened to the noise coming from the hall, the grin on his face growing wider as he did that.

He no longer remembered how long it had been since the Jarrosus City had been so astir. For the last twenty years, the Guild of Magic had been the top influence in Jarrosus City. But those with discerning eyes knew that it was only because the Supreme Council still existed. Without the support of the Supreme Council, the guild would have fallen apart in an instant.

Before the emergence of the Arcane Magic Potion, who truly had regard for the Guild of Magic? The same went for Old Odin, whom he shared a friendly relation with. If he had not been the President, that old chap who controlled all the assassins in Jarrosus would not have given the Guild of Magic any respect.

Even that little rascal from the Merlin Family had dared to come to his doorsteps to make a demand.

“Pff! Kicking Felic out of the guild… Hats off to him for thinking about it.”

“Ai, I am too brilliant!” Thinking back to his decision, Gerian couldn’t help but revel in it. It was all because of this decision that the Guild of Magic had become what it was today. 30 bottles of Arcane Magic Potion had made the guild the focus of the entire Jarrosus City. If these fellows who were fighting crazily were to know there were another hundred-plus bottles in the cellar, what expressions would they have on their faces…?

As the initiator of the potion storm, Gerian knew Lin Li’s worth more than anyone else. In his opinion, the Arcane Magic Potion was just the beginning, and it was still far from demonstrating the true worth of Lin Li. In fact, even Gerian himself wondered what kind of surprises would this almost miraculous potion master bring to the Guild of Magic…

Just as everyone was going crazy over the thirty bottles of Arcane Magic Potion, Lin Li was hiding in the potion lab alone the whole morning.

Lin Li knew about the stir created by the Arcane Magic Potion. If it happened in a different period of time, he would have taken pleasure in receiving the attention. But he had no mood for it now.

He found something interesting in the potion lab.

It was a few black petals. He had most likely been too tired the past two days, and walked into the potion lab again in a daze this morning when he woke up. He wanted to leave once he came to realize where he’d gone, but then he suddenly spotted the flower petals among a pile of potion dregs.

The black petals were mixed in the dregs; if not for Lin Li’s good vision, he’d not have been able to differentiate the petals.

In the beginning, Lin Li did not take it to heart. After all, gathering herbs was a troublesome task. Other than a herb master like him, an average person would inevitably pick up some weeds while gathering herbs. Who knew how many weeds he’d picked out from the herbs while he was concocting the Arcane Magic Potion the past few days…

Picking up those few petals was an instinctual reaction, just like how one would naturally grasp a woman’s breasts when he had his arms stretched out in front of her chest—it was not a hooligan’s behavior, but an extremely natural reaction…

Anyway, Lin Li picked up one petal in his hand.

It was then that he realized things were wrong.

Upon closer inspection, this petal was actually the legendary black lotus!

This… this… Isn’t this too phony?

Lin Li could never dream that he’d discover the petals of a black lotus among the peacebloom dregs.

Although using peacebloom as the main ingredient of the Arcane Magic Potion produced fairly good effects, the growing environment of these herbs was not at all harsh. Simply put, they could grow anywhere. As long as there were mountains and water, there would be peacebloom.

The legendary black lotus, however, was on another end of the scope. Its growing environment was unbearably harsh—it had to be rich in magical elements and boast an extreme temperature high enough to melt steel. Most important of all, it had to be watered with molten lava coming from the core of the earth. The molten lava, however, could not be poured directly on the black lotus; instead, it could only be run slowly about a meter away from it…

All the conditions mentioned above were indispensable. Should there be any slight variance, the black lotus would wither away in the shortest of times even if it somehow managed to grow.

Aside from such perverted conditions, the emergence of the black lotus was universally acknowledged as impossible. Lin Li had put out a high price for news on the black lotus in order to achieve a breakthrough in pharmaceutics, but not the slightest simmer of bubbles could be seen even after putting out a reward of hundreds of thousands of gold coins.

The reward had been out for a few months; Lin Li gradually began to give up on the black lotus which only existed in the legends. He had not expected that, a few months later, he’d arrive in another world and discover the trail of the black lotus by chance.

“Could I be this lucky?” Lin Li gazed at the petal in his hand and couldn’t suppress his excitement any longer.

If news of his luck coming upon a few black lotus petals among the peacebloom went out, it would scare some people out of their wits…

Lin Li quickly opened up the Ring of Endless Storm and took out two bottles of potion—a blue one and a red one. Sticking to the ratio of three-to-one, he carefully poured them into a beaker. Once the two potions mixed, they immediately gave off an acidic smell, which filled the potion lab.