Book 2: Chapter 47: Arming People |
Yin Hu sighed as he leaned back in his lounging chair. He took another sip of his tea, the Spirit Demonic Tree doing the same, savoring its taste. It did not matter how many times he drank a cup, it always hit just right. There were times when he preferred one over the other, but never a moment when tea was not applicable. It fit every event, whether it was recovering from healing a near death patient or sitting in front of someone as strong as Cai Xuefang and faking his persona.
I still need to search my rice bag for a prosthetic. Zhong Da won’t be able to wield his sword properly if he doesn't have a sword arm.
While the potion had healed the majority of injuries and quite literally upgraded them based on a lucky error from the system, it had not given Zhong Da a new arm.
If anything it made the wound seal up perfectly to prevent any real flesh and bones to replace what he had lost.
Yin Hu took another sip as he came to another realization. He had been having too many in recent days. This one was that he had very little nuance to the actual blessing and miraculous items he had in his Vagrant’s Rice Bag. Had he known that the arm would not have been healed fully, maybe he could have devised a new plan. Stabilize Zhong Da and find him a new limb before using his Flower Petal’s Golden Dew.
Alas, it was too late.
He took another sip of the new tea leaf he brewed. Never before had he thought he would find something that was remotely close to coffee, yet here it was. The Earthen Dragon Leaf had a bitter kick much like the general taste of the grounded bean. It was amazing.
The Spirit Demonic Tree picked its leaf out of the normal tea they usually drank and tried to sneak behind him for a taste of the new brew.
Yin Hu gave it a scoff and turned himself away from it.
Said greedy bastard stretched its limb, drooped its branches in a show of pitifulness, and tapped him on the shoulder. Another branch had gulped the contents of its cup empty and pushed it toward the pot that had the Earthen Dragon Leaf brew.
Yin Hu ignored it as he took another satisfying sip. Eyes turning into crescents as he enjoyed the moment thoroughly.
Everything was perfect.
Zhong Da and his wife were healed.
Shui and the dragon hatchlings made up at some point during the rescue. They were currently causing havoc on the other side of the camp with Rong and the Warg. Teams had been made and the Qi Games, as Yin Hu started calling them, renewed with extra intensity. He quickly learned that Hu Shui had very little in the way of sportsmanship. That was another lesson he needed to go over with the mischievous little girl.
Win, but win honorably.
Don’t stunt over the poor Warg everytime you score a point on it.
Jun, on the exact opposite side of the camp, had let out an epic roar of triumph and victory not too long ago. She had dropped to her knees and shouted at the top of her lungs… at cutting a couple trees down from a distance. Something she had been practicing religiously for the past few weeks. At some point, in her wild swing of emotion, she had begun to bawl her eyes out like a baby too.
Yin Hu had gotten up and given her a hug to help whatever it was she was experiencing.
He had come to another realization at that point. It made his senses prickle, but it was for a good cause.
The lesson was simple.
Yin Hu didn’t need to know every iota of detail about what they were going through. As long as he supported and had a system to prevent any mistakes from happening, that was more than enough for the two girls. That didn’t mean their mentals were perfect, it just meant he didn’t need to be a helicopter parent.
He had to just fulfill his role as the grandpa. Lots of hugs, point them in the right direction when they asked, give them stern talking to when they messed up, protect their mentals from cultivation world shenanigans, and the most important one, make sure they trained their behinds off to become the best little cultivators known to this entire realm. Strong enough, smart enough, and fast enough to lead armies, defeat foes, and escape any precarious situations that cropped up.
A thought came to him as he looked back toward Jun.
I thought she could release her Qi already? She showed it a few times already, especially against YagWan and his fat disciple.
The memory was clear. She had carved the fat disciple up without ever getting close enough for him to reciprocate. In fact, he had to intervene and give them a stern talking to about finding a middle ground between fighting and defending themselves with outright torture and sadistic natures.
He still remembered them being stuck with glazed eyes for an entire day after that for some reason.
Probably a new technique they tried that failed epically and never attempted again.
Wonder what makes this one so much different. I don’t sense anything to separate it from what she did before this.
Then again, he didn’t really need to know did he.
Whatever reason she had, it must have been pretty good to her. As long as it did not actively harm her, seeing Jun practice with this much dedication and focus could only be a positive. Even if the results were… suspect overall to him.
It still taught her discipline.
And that was good enough for him.
Yin Hu sighed as he set his cup down, away from the Spirit Demonic Tree, and turned his attention back toward the rice bag.
Searching for a potential prosthetic for Zhong Da while he was sitting there.
He blinked as he saw hundreds of different ones, varying color, strength, abilities, and power level. The vast majority, of which looked and sounded Demonic and to close to cursed weapons that would eat the poor guy's soul before he ever learned to use it.
That didn’t deter him as he kept going through them one by one.
He had more than enough time to analyze each one, there wasn’t really any hurry after all while they were in the Bleak Forests. At least until they found civilization. The longer he searched the more he disliked the options. Even the best ones available had horrifying names and gave off feelings of pure, unrestrained evil. That was not something he wanted to unload on his new outer court member.
This won’t be easy, will it…
Just as he thought, it hadn’t been. Spending hours upon hours dedicated to finding an appropriate item. He hadn’t even known he had a single prosthetic in the rice bag, much less this many that were so spread out.
Worse yet, why the hell didn’t he have a search or organize function. Why did he need to go through the Vagrant’s Rice Bag and its millions of items one by one every time he needed something. The thought of organizing it crossed his mind for a brief second before he punted it as far as he could. That would take centuries to accomplish by himself and there was no way in hell that he would allow anyone to ever gain access to his greatest strength and overall power.
It took four more hours and during the darkest depths of the night that he finally found the one.
He pulled out a deep brown- red wooden arm that had white metal infused into it. It did not look natural or seamless to a human being.
Yin Hu held it up to the moonlight and smiled at how awesome it looked.
Invisible swirls appeared along its body that could only be seen in certain angles when the light shone on it. The hinges moved perfectly, fingers had as much dexterity as a normal hand. Even the wrist seemed perfectly made. Whoever crafted this was a master at what they did.
Arm of the White Feathered Swan -
Arm of Bai LingXuan, mighty Patriarch of the White Feathered Swan. A legend of prodigious power and immense wisdom. Faced with untenable danger, he stood tall before the Heavenly Demon Emperor, Xurkod, the Great Demon Emperor, himself. Though he survived, it came at a cost.
Yin Hu blinked at the arm.
Xurkod…? Feels familiar. Wonder where I heard that name before?