Favorite of the Beast-world: I Got Rich Through Farming-Chapter 182 - 128: Spiritual Power and Witch Power (2)
"Blood Crystal?"
She blinked in confusion, her gaze wandering.
"I don’t have any Blood Crystals. I’ve never even heard of such a thing. It doesn’t seem like they sell them in Beast Gathering City, either..."
An Jin pouted and slumped onto the table, looking utterly dejected.
Chi Li gave her an amused look, then turned and went into the adjacent room. He returned with a small mahogany box.
He opened the box. Nestled on a soft animal pelt was a single, translucent, blood-red Crystal Stone.
’Is that a Blood Crystal?’
"That person gave me two of these back then. I was saving this one for when I advance my spiritual power, but if you need it, I can lend it to you for now."
An Jin was both flattered and taken aback. "If I use your last one, what will you do?" she asked, feeling a bit embarrassed.
"That’s why I said ’lend.’"
Chi Li’s smile didn’t waver. He propped his chin up lazily, his long, fiery-red eyelashes nearly hiding the amusement in his eyes. "But I will need you to pay it back."
"Don’t worry, though. I don’t need it for the time being. Blood Crystals are far rarer and harder to find than you can imagine. Many Beastmen go their entire lives without ever seeing one."
"And even if you can’t find a Blood Crystal, you can compensate me with something else. That person will be coming to bring me more eventually anyway."
An Jin took the Blood Crystal from the wooden box. She held the translucent crystal in her delicate, pale fingers, memorizing its features. "I’ll have the Beastmen search for one. Hopefully, we’ll have good news."
This conversation in the afternoon actually made An Jin suspicious and curious about Chi Li’s origins.
Judging by his knowledge and his casual attitude toward such precious resources, he didn’t seem like an ordinary city Beastman. ’Chi Li must have a more complicated background, right?’
’And that person he mentioned...’
’Who could that be?’
An Jin shook her head, casting the impractical speculations from her mind. ’It’s useless to overthink it.’
After returning to her wooden house, she drank the medicinal soups Chi Li had given her once a day for a full seven days. Then, she went to find him again to have the spiritual power totem drawn on her body.
She watched as he placed a Blood Crystal in a bowl. A faint red light emanated from his palm, and the crystal immediately melted into a viscous liquid.
"Take off your clothes," Chi Li said without turning his head.
An Jin sat on the bed and hesitated for a moment, but then she briskly removed her tube top. With her back to the young man, she let her long, smooth black hair cascade over her shoulders. "...Is this okay?"
Chi Li turned to look. His gaze fell upon the female’s smooth, snow-white skin. His gilded, vertical pupils trembled instinctively, and his fingertips tensed.
"...It’s fine."
It took him a long moment to get his breathing back to normal.
With her current level of spiritual power, he only needed to draw the totem on her upper body. Besides, a single Blood Crystal wasn’t enough to draw a full-body totem anyway.
Chi Li dipped his long, slender, snow-white fingertips into the viscous, blood-like liquid. He sat down next to An Jin and began painting something on her back with extreme slowness and concentration.
Although she couldn’t see it, she could vaguely "see" the complex and mysterious runic totem in her mind’s eye.
As his fingers moved, An Jin felt a burning sensation on her skin, accompanied by a faint, scorching pain.
The air in the room was utterly silent.
After a long while, the young man’s voice finally broke the silence.
"It’s done."
Chi Li had poured a great deal of his own spiritual power into the totem, and his face was now pale and weak.
He handed the female’s discarded clothes back to her. "Try to circulate the spiritual power in your body. See if there’s any change."
"If you practice circulating your spiritual power through this totem, it will become stronger and more stable."
"Spiritual power isn’t just for detection. If you continue to cultivate, you might even become a Witch, admired by all Beastmen..."
An Jin nodded and quickly put her clothes back on. Even after getting off the bed, she could still feel a lingering heat on her back.
She was overjoyed. "Thank you so much," she said with sincere gratitude. "If I get any news about a Blood Crystal, I’ll have the Beastmen inform you immediately."
"Mm, okay."
Chi Li, however, didn’t seem particularly concerned.
After getting a few more sets of restorative medicine from him, An Jin left and headed back to her wooden house. From a distance, she saw a familiar, slender blue figure waving at her from her doorway.
It was Xi, whom she hadn’t seen in a long time!
His eyes were brimming with tears and the corners were red, as if he had been terribly bullied. He threw himself at An Jin, seeking comfort. "SOB, SOB... The other Water Beastmen say I’m too weak! They won’t listen to me..."
"Huh?"
An Jin pulled Xi away, led him into the wooden house, and wiped the tearstains from his face with a soft, thin cloth. "Well, that’s to be expected. In the Beastman World, the strong are respected, after all. And you’re just an ordinary Little Merfolk..."
