Chapter 314 - Creating a Cultivation Manual is So Hard!
Chapter 314: Creating a Cultivation Manual is So Hard!
Creativity truly depends on inspiration.
Just like writing novels, there are times when you have a plot in your mind, but you could sit in front of your PC for two hours and finding whatever you write simply wrong, leaving you feeling miserable. There would also be times when you write smoothly to the point that you derive pleasure from it, and a huge wall of text is written with a bit of rustling.
That holds the same for writing cultivation manuals.
When he attempted to develop the item refinement method before this, Jiang He simply could not write a thing no matter what ideas he had. Right now, however, his inspiration was flowing freely as if from a spring, unable to be held back even if he tried.
“The mystic symbol for soulception could be directly replaced with the word ‘soulception’ itself, but what about the array and symbols for mystic treasure’s special effects?”
“For example, the Scarlet Flame Sword is a fire-type flying sword and the Autumn Water Sword a water-type flying sword. Aside from the materials holding the fire or water attributes, there needs to be an inscription of mystic symbols. Could these be replaced with normal text instead?”
“Likewise, would the word ‘seal’ work as a mystic symbol for mystic treasures that captures humans?”
“Kill, guard… in fact, other special-type mystic treasures work too…”
As his writing flowed freely, Jiang He scrawled over two thousand words in the old blacksmith’s workshop. Afterwards, he spent another half an hour two editing, perfecting, or erasing those two thousand words.
In his perspective, did item refinement actually have to be so elaborate?
Wouldn’t it be better if it was simpler?
If it was too complex, he might not even be interested in item refinement.
“Well, the item refinement manual is settled…”
Jiang He was very satisfied with the two-paged manual he was holding.
And now, for the head-hurting part: naming…
Jiang He racked his brains, eliminating elaborate names such as Nine Scrolls of Item Refinement and Caped Immaculate Item Refinement before finally deciding on a simple name…
“Jiang-Style Item Refinement is not bad.”
Jiang He hence wrote that name down, which was only appropriate since he had created this technique itself.
He then checked the time.
It was just a little past three in the afternoon.
Wu Yueru had already informed him that his talk was at seven, which was in another four hours…
“I could use these three hours to develop both the pellet refinement manual and the array technique as well.”
Right now, his inspiration was flowing like a spring. After some thought and musing, he began writing.
“Since item refinement could be made very simple, the same would apply for pellet refining…”
“First step of pellet refining, prepare pellet materials.”
“Second step, liquify materials to improve fusion and prepare the mold to make shaping the medicinal pellet easier.”
However, Jiang He stopped writing at that.
He remembered every medicinal pellet he had seen before then… ninety-percent of them were in the shape of little balls, so he was forced to use a boring word like ‘dragon-eye’ when describing it in his writing.
“With a mold, there would be a variety of shapes for the medicinal pellets to choose from—the common ones would be molds for ice-cream and popsicles. Won’t I shape the medicinal pellet into ice-cream once I pour the materials for the medicinal pellets into the mold? And won’t the medicinal pellet take shape after I add in a stick and put it in the fridge for a few hours?”
“Hmm…”
“I could make it into ice-cream shape, but what about the taste?”
“I could add in some buttered sunflower seed and syrup… it won’t affect the medicinal effect of the pellet, would it?”
Jiang He thought about it… there was not a huge chance of affecting the medicinal value, and even if it did… it could be revamped until there were no problems. Hence, quickly going online to find the recipe for the Little Pudding branded ice-cream, Jiang He referenced it for a bit.
“Drinking water, white sugar, fruit syrup, vegetable oil, maltodextrin, full-cream milk powder, whey powder, eggs, soy flour, food additives… hmmm, food additives aren’t that healthy, so I won’t include that.”
“And what on earth is vegetable oil?”
“I won’t add that either…”
“Actually, when it comes to tastes, I could refer to a few more recipes for popsicles and ice-cream. After all, some medicinal pellets are hard to swallow—bitter, raw, and sometimes it feels like your mouth gets numb for half a day.”
Hence, in just around an hour, Jiang He had finished his pellet-refinement manual.
‘I’ll name the pellet-refinement method Jiang-Style Pellet Refinement… and now, the only problems left are the pellet recipes and mold,’ Jiang He thought, and turned to the old blacksmith with a smile. “Old man, could you make me a mold?”
“I don’t need any specific shape, as long as it could be used for freezing popsicles, ice-cream, and ice balls.”
Ice balls were round, and similar in appearance with the standard medicinal pellet, which made it a must-have.
“Are you making your own-ice cream?”
The old man smiled. “Fine, it’s not a problem—I could make it any moment… by the way, what materials do you want for your mold? Stainless steel?”
“Why stainless steel? You could smith with A-grade alloy, right? Then use A-grade alloy.”
The old blacksmith was shocked.
Forging an ice-cream mold with A-grade alloys?
How much was an ice-cream worth?
Even if it was just an ice-cream mold, were the materials alone not worth almost a million if made with A-grade alloys?
Still, the old man naturally would not protest since Jiang He was the one who requested. Since he had A-grade alloys in his workshop already, he materialized his big hammer and asked, “Do you have the dimensions for the mold you want?”
As is common sense, one would have to put the mold in the freezer if they wanted to make ice-cream. Moreover, one would not make more than a few ice-creams if the mold was too small, and it could not be stuffed inside the freezer if it was too large.
“Anything goes.”
Jiang He smiled. “It doesn’t need to be placed inside a fridge for freezing. I’ll look for a frost technique or something similar later so I can freeze the mold at any moment.”
With that, the old blacksmith began forging the mold.
Jiang He was not idling either and started to develop an array.
He did have experience on how to do that, since he had created the Nameless Sword Array.
“My Nameless Sword Array is truly powerful. Even if I am a Yuan Spirit novice, I could kill a full-fledged Yuan Spirit even with the Ice and Fire Duality Sword Array alone. The Sword Array of Five Elements and Six Pulses is on the cusp of Convergence-tier as well… of course, that might have to do with the fact that I’m a sword cultivator.”
Sword cultivators prioritized killing.
Therefore, it was normal that he could punch above his weight with his flying swords. Still, it was a clear sign of how frightening his sword array was given how much a difference in tier it bypassed.
But the problem was the sword arrays needed too many flying swords.
Could an average sword cultivator be able to afford that?
“I should prioritize simplicity in the arrays I develop in the future.”
“Otherwise, I would need more array materials such as spirit stones, array flag, array board, as well as inscribed patterns for the array. How troublesome would that be?”
“Spirit stones, array flag, and array board are essential to laying out an array, but I could spare the inscriptions.”
Jiang He pondered.
Having the experience of creating the techniques for refining items and pellets, it was easy to skip the trouble of inscriptions. All he needed to do was use text to replace those markings—for example, if he wanted to create a sealing array and name it the Great Nine Heavens Array of Dragon Sealing, he just had to write those words.
“I could make a sealing array, a death array, a guard array, and an illusory array, as well as a protective array for my house. The last one must be powerful and combines all the other aspects, and the type that could stop even a Sufferance-tier cultivator.”
Jiang He rose to his feet, pacing around the old blacksmith’s workshop, musing to himself one moment and appearing delighted the next. Still, he would soon shake his head, throwing away that idea.
Then, after pacing around for over a dozen minutes, he would sit down once again and get his pen to write around a few dozen words, only to scratch them off in dissatisfaction.
“Creating an array is really difficult…”
Jiang He breathed a long sigh.
Creating cultivation manuals was so difficult.
Taking out a bottle of rank-nine Origin Fluid and a handful of purple-gold sunflower seeds, he kept thinking as he munched on, ‘Let’s give it a name for now… Since it’s a sealing array, let’s call it the Great Nine Heavens Array of Dragon Sealing.’
As for why it was called that… did it not sound awesome?
“Now, for its strength… It could be set as a growing array since it is best if I could still use it later when I ascend as an immortal or sage. For example, the more powerful the user of the array, the stronger the effect of the array must be.”
“Moreover, with more spirit stones used, as well as the stronger the array flags and array boards used, the power of the array should increase too.”
“As for the death array, let’s call it the Nine Heavens Thunderflame Array.”
“Invoking thunderbolts and earthen flames once charged, and drawing Violet Purple Thunder if powerful enough, who can’t it kill?”
“As for the guard array, it shall be… the Earthen Black Tortoise array. Drawing upon the strength of the earth and as stalwart as the Black Tortoise itself…”
“The illusory array should be called the Ten Thousand Phenomenon Array, conjuring a multitude of illusions of everything imaginable, drawing upon the demons in the heart…”
“I just have to combine all four arrays as my house-guarding array. When someone comes calling, the array would activate, luring them inside and ensnaring them with an illusion. After that, I’ll activate my death array, and there is still the sealing array even if the illusory array and death array do not kill the victim.”
“There is still the guard array even if they could break the sealing array, and if the target still manages to break through, they would be exhausted by now. So, I’ll greet them, and attack with the Cloudscraper Vine, Dumbo, Trumbo and the Seven Bottle Gourd Brothers, and kill them with a wild thrashing.”
Delight showed on Jiang He’s face!
His creativity was very much perfect!
As for the spirit stones…
Those were actually Orirocks and he had as many of those as he needed, not to mention that the secluded immortal sects would have a lot of those in store. There might even be some mineral veins of Orirocks at their Secret Realms and he just had to harvest some when the time comes.
“For array flags and array boards… I would just have to buy a little flag and a board, and write ‘array flag’ and ‘array board’ before planting them. Would that get me a real array board and array flag?”
Jiang He felt that he could test the idea.
When he was done creating his array, the old blacksmith had finished the mold too.
That was when Wu Yueru’s call reached him.
“It’s seven soon, Mister Jiang. When would you be arriving?”
“I’m coming. I’ll be right there.”
Hanging up, Jiang He felt a headache just then.
Holding a talk?
This was the first time he had done that in his entire life!
“Forget it, I’ll just have to brace myself and do it. Like Wu Yueru put it—it’s just telling everyone about my experience in cultivation as well as the course of my growth… hold on…”
Suddenly, Jiang He did a double take.
Cultivation… experience?