Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 1565. Idle Talk

Mina, Fin, and Seth were seated around a table richly filled with various kinds of congee, soups, noodles, and steamed buns. The breakfast culture was potentially the most different from what Seth or the girls were used to, but it was mouthwatering nonetheless.

“Do you think The Five-Savoring Flavors will be open by tonight?” Fin asked over stuffing her mouth with rice porridge mixed with multiple grains and nuts. They were already eating, but food was all that was on her mind.

“I think we should give Chef Lao Ban a day to get things ready,” Mina mentioned. Considering the restaurant had been closed for weeks, the chef would probably have to purchase ingredients before opening business again.

“At least there shouldnʼt be any more interference with his business,” the blacksmith mumbled. Since he had taken care of Yi Mo, the driving force of the familyʼs interference with the restaurant, there should be no more problem.

He had even used a faked note to pin the guilt on the Cloud-Treading Phantom, getting rid of the secondary problem Lao Ban would have faced in the future. With some luck, the Yi Family would now focus on hunting the thief, and the thief wouldnʼt have the time to care for the chef who tricked him.

With that, everything was ended cleanly.

“Did you hear about the Yi Family?... He actually survived,” the dining room was filled with people talking about rumors and the freshest news, and Seth happened to pick up on one piece of information that rained on his parade.

The girls looked at him questioningly, having also heard the talk. His perfect crime had... failed?

The blacksmith had not only burned Yi Mo with cursed demon fire, but even shot his heart with the Heartseeker Bow. Yet, people were saying he survived?

~Didnʼt you say you killed him?- Mina questioned telepathically, using the . Seth silently looked down at the ball of soul energy he had retrieved from the soul space. This was the fragment of Yi Moʼs soul that dropped after his death.

~I literally reaped his soul,- he assured them. How the heck did a burned body with a pierced heart and no soul survive?

~Isnʼt it that? That phenomenon Yu spoke about?- Fin mentioned telepathically, her mouth stuffed with steamed buns. Du-Duosh.... Ah, forget it. The soul possession thing. Didnʼt he mention that sometimes the souls of cultivators possess a dead body, or dying ones for a second chance?-

After the fairy mentioned it, the other two also remembered. Seth was just too surprised to think of that possibility. ~Well, letʼs hope the guy who took the body stays low-key until we are gone and wonʼt pick up where the old owner left off,- the blacksmith commented.

Seth really wasnʼt in the mood to deal with this kind of stuff on his honeymoon. As long as the new occupant stayed in line, the bard had no reason to play his funeral song again.

“We are going to the bazaar today?” Seth asked out loud to change the subject. They had visited the market and the Fried Peacock the other day, but they had yet to explore the most interesting part of Konan.

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The bazaar was the place where loose cultivators and explorers tried to sell the junk and artifacts they supposedly found in ancient ruins and tombs around the province. There were also low-level cultivation resources such as new weapons, artifacts, and pills they made themselves.

Ever since their visit to Spring City, Fin, Mina, and Seth had benefited a lot from the medicines and potions they had purchased in exchange for the cursed legendary weapon. Many of those medicines were cultivation pills for body refining.

Although players of the system didnʼt cultivate, the pills were still comparable to potions and buff food that could permanently raise attributes. Maybe the effects were a little lower, since most players didnʼt have the proper techniques, but they still helped.

Mostly thanks to the fact that they didnʼt overlap with system means. Any buff food or potion that raised stats or attributes permanently had its limits. Depending on oneʼs own stats or how often it was taken, the efficacy was reduced.

The pills and concoctions of cultivators followed the same rule, but they were a third means to raise stats in addition to the potions and food, without overlapping with either of them. However, they had one restriction: they often had attribute requirements.

If a consumer didnʼt meet the requirements, the pills could actually do more harm than good. Master Mountain and their allies in the XiGuang province had provided them with some of the pills and medicines available, but most of them couldnʼt be used by all players.

This was why the three had a certain interest in bringing samples of medicines home for Alison. Not of powerful pills, but the weaker varieties for low-level cultivators. With those, they would be able to push the power of Minas Mar and the districts even further.

Everyoneʼs survival rates would spike if they could sustain an all-rounder build similar to Seth, without having to overly focus on class-specific attributes and stats. Maybe Alison would even find a way to create system-specific pills with lower requirements.

At least that was one reason. The blacksmith was also interested to see whether he could make some good deals or find something extraordinary using his appraisal skills. Learning formation enchantments by dismantling items in this place would increase the variety of things Rún was able to do, too.

There might be great potential, but a big part in doing so was Sethʼs interest in collecting enchantments he didnʼt know yet. Like a completionist run in crafting. It felt nice to have options.

“Yes, yes, today we are going to visit the market and the bazaar,” Mina confirmed readily. “Then we will visit the Spirit Temple adjacent to Konan, and I have tickets for a show in the evening,” she iterated their plan for today.

“Spirit Temple?” Seth asked suspiciously.

“Donʼt worry, itʼs just a tourist attraction. Itʼs a ruin of an ancient temple where the people worshiped spirit beasts in the past. It has been long picked clean, according to our city guide,” Mina explained.

“So just sightseeing? Alright,” the blacksmith mumbled, enjoying the rich flavor of the soup with dumplings. It had an invigorating effect, preparing him for the day. Literally, he got ʼVigorousʼ as a status effect.

“Maybe we find something everyone else oversaw?” Fin said excitedly.

“Haha. Sorry to disappoint you, but there is nothing left. The Spirit Temple never was a big deal to begin with, but it has been searched by many powerful wandering experts of the past centuries. If there ever was something, it is long gone,” the proprietress said with an amused smile.

“Aww,” the fairy moaned a little disappointed and stuffed her mouth with a fried bun.

“Is everything else to your satisfaction?” she asked friendly. She was here to check on her current VIP guests, as expected after booking the most expensive suite.

“We canʼt complain, we really like the room,” Mina answered with a smile and made small talk with the manager of the Amber Star Pavilion.

After their breakfast, they finally set off to explore the more intriguing part of Konanʼs markets.