Chapter 452: The First Day! |
Their eyes met, and for a moment, they simply stared at one another.
Neither recognized the other, leaving them in a brief silence, eyes wide.
After a short hesitation, Jiang Chen opened his mouth.
“Do you… want a drink?”
The little dragonkin pursed her lips, her entire face scrunching up before she let out a loud “Waaah!”
Her tears had barely begun to flow before they instantly turned into rolling ice crystals.
Only then did Jiang Chen react. He immediately brought out the prepared spirit beast milk and, using his water manipulation arts, drew out a thin stream from within.
He guided it into her mouth drop by drop.
One moment, she was crying. The next, after tasting the milk, she instantly quieted down and began suckling greedily.
Seeing this, Jiang Chen frowned.
“This won’t do. I need to make something like a mouthpiece for her to hold, so she won’t fuss.”
Fortunately, crafting such a thing posed no difficulty for him.
If he wanted something resilient, he could use spirit plants.
If he wanted something soft, he could use spirit beast materials.
If he wanted something firm, spirit metal would do.
In short, the object itself remained the same, but the materials and styles could vary greatly.
Therefore, while the little dragonkin was drinking her milk, he vanished in a flash.
When he reappeared, he held three pacifier-like mouthpieces in his hand.
The resilient, soft, and firm varieties were all accounted for.
It had to be said, the little one could really drink.
Of course, it might also be due to her special constitution, which allowed her to absorb it rapidly.
She drank nearly half a Jin of the ice-attribute scaled horse milk before finally stopping.
Once she had drunk her fill, she revealed a satisfied little expression, a trace of milk still hanging at the corner of her mouth.
Then, with her large ice-blue eyes, she looked around her surroundings with great curiosity.
Jiang Chen sighed with emotion.
“A glutton from such a young age. What will she be like when she grows up?”
He watched her two little hands grabbing at the air, looking as if she simply could not stay idle.
He immediately picked out a soft mouthpiece from his selection and placed it in her mouth.
Sure enough, the little one instinctively began to suckle, her attention now entirely focused on it.
Seeing this, Jiang Chen breathed a sigh of relief.
“It seems I actually have some talent for taking care of children.”
Truth be told, her half-human, half-dragon appearance was truly adorable.
She possessed features that did not belong to humans, yet still bore a striking resemblance to them.
After a while, she gradually closed her eyes and soon fell into a deep slumber.
Seeing this, Jiang Chen turned around and began refining puppets for brewing wine.
He needed one specializing in making the wine starter.
He needed one to manage the fermentation.
He needed one for distillation and purification.
A single puppet would not suffice; he would need at least several.
Therefore, after careful consideration, he decided to refine four of them.
He named them respectively: Wine-Starter Maid, Spring Servant, Distillation Master, and Wine Steward.
Wine-Starter Maid
She stood around 1.7 meters tall, her body plump like an earthen jar, with multiple ventilation holes worked into her frame.
Her core was forged from warm jade marrow, her outer layer wrapped in century-old green mulberry wood, and her joints inlaid with silver wire.
Her right hand was shaped like a flat wooden shovel, her left hand like a porous bamboo sieve, and atop her head sat a green jade crown shaped like a small jar.
She could sense the moisture in the surrounding air and prepare wine starter on her own.
Spring Servant
He stood two meters tall, shaped like a person holding an earthen jar.
His main body was crafted from living water jade and embedded with breathable pottery, with a moving wheel installed at the base.
Nine-bend water patterns covered him from head to toe. The earthen jar in his arms acted as a liquid separator, allowing him to add spirit spring water with great precision.
He could turn over the fermenting mash and regulate the temperature.
Distillation Master
He stood 2.5 meters tall, with a rather complex build resembling a vertical distillation furnace.
His left arm was a retractable copper distillation pipe, his right arm a condensation trough, and his chest was inlaid with a purple crystal disc that could reveal the strength of the wine.
The distillation arm was forged from parting fire copper, while ice soul crystals ran throughout his body to cool him on their own. A Spirit Gathering purple crystal served as his core, supplying the power for his movements.
He could perform layered distillation and adjust himself according to the state of the wine.
Wine Steward
He stood 1.75 meters tall and possessed a humanoid form.
He was clad in copper armor forged to imitate brocade patterns. His left hand held a wooden tray inlaid with silver wire, while his right hand gripped a three-section retractable wine ladle.
Hidden within his back were several storage artifacts meant for holding different types of wine.
He was responsible for sorting the wine, tending the vessels, sealing them, and storing each batch on his own.
Wine-Starter Maid prepared the starter.
Spring Servant managed the fermentation.
Distillation Master handled the purification.
Wine Steward aged and stored the finished wine.
The four puppets coordinated flawlessly.
Since many of the materials were already on hand, there was no need for him to go searching elsewhere.
He had taken care of everything right there in his personal space.
Moreover, Jiang Chen’s puppet-crafting skills had already reached the pinnacle, and with the Ancestor assisting him from the side, the entire refinement process went incredibly smoothly.
Once the work was complete, all four puppets stood before him.
They varied in both shape and size.
Each had been made for a different task, and each looked unmistakably distinct.
He felt that if he were to take them out to sell, they would easily fetch a price of tens of thousands of Mid-grade Spirit Stones.
Just as Jiang Chen was admiring his handiwork, the sound of “Waaah!” rang out again from behind him.
Hearing the commotion, he immediately flashed over and found that the little one had already woken up, even spitting her mouthpiece off to the side.
Unsurprisingly, she was likely hungry again.
Therefore, Jiang Chen once again utilized his water manipulation arts to guide the scaled horse milk drop by drop into her mouth.
And so, one drank while the other watched.
After a while, the little one ate and drank her fill, once again displaying a satisfied little expression.
Her eyes curved into crescents, and her mouth opened in a silent grin.
Before she could start wriggling around, Jiang Chen seized the right moment and placed the mouthpiece back in.
Sure enough, there was no fussing.
However, perhaps because she had rested, she was much livelier this time. She tossed and squirmed for quite a while before finally drifting off to sleep, bringing peace and quiet back to his world.
“Good grief, and this is only the first day!”
“If this really doesn’t work out, Ancestor, you’ll have to take over!”
“Or perhaps… I should refine a puppet dedicated to raising children?”
Logically speaking, Jiang Chen was a Golden Core Perfected Master. His strength was abundant, and his body was vigorous.
But he had to admit, taking care of a child for the very first time had given him a weariness he had never known.
It was not physical fatigue, but a kind of mental exhaustion.
However, as he looked at the little one sleeping so soundly, a deep sense of satisfaction welled up in his heart.
Simply put, it was actually quite similar to cultivating spirit plants. Both required meticulous care as they grew bit by bit.
The only pity was that spirit plants could grow rapidly with the aid of the Four Seasons Scripture, greatly shortening their maturation time.
But this child before him was entirely different. Without at least a decade of growth, she simply would not mature.
In other words, she would require vast amounts of time and energy to care for.
This was destined to be a very long process of “cultivation.”
…
…
Wake up and cry, cry and eat, eat and play, play and sleep—the entire day went on exactly like this.
At first, he found it somewhat difficult to adapt, but as the cycle repeated, he gradually grew accustomed to it.
Eventually, Jiang Chen even learned to anticipate her needs in advance.
Upon reaching a certain time, he would estimate that she was about to wake.
He would then lean over to check on her, and sure enough, she would be awake.
The mouthpiece in her mouth would wriggle, looking as if she were about to spit it out once more.
Jiang Chen would react quickly, pulling it out with a soft pop before feeding her the scaled horse milk.
Being fed before she could even cry seemed to leave the little one rather confused.
As she drank her milk, a look of deep bewilderment would surface in her eyes.
Once she was full and content yet again, she bit down on her mouthpiece and fell into a deep slumber.
Jiang Chen hesitated for a moment.
Then, for the very first time, he carefully lifted her from the ice lotus and cradled her in his arms.
Feeling the intense chill radiating from her, he did not find it the least bit unpleasant.
Instead, he flashed a wide grin.
“Since I’m raising you myself, I have to give you a name. My surname is Jiang, so you must also take the surname Jiang. You’re so adorable, and a little dragonkin at that… how about I call you…”
