Transmigrating into a Mob Character to Rehabilitate the Villain Plan Volume 1 Chapter 23

Cultivation terms were everywhere this chapter. Reminded me of how I’ve read more cultivation-related novels in Chinese than I have in English, and thus am woefully ignorant on how to translate them.

Luckily, this novel is very light in the cultivation aspect. I decided to use August’s suggestion and use ‘artificer’ instead of ‘artifact refiner’. Thank you for the help!

Chapter 23:

This kid,ihonestly… Ling Xia shed silent tears. His monthlyjpay compared tolYu!ZhiJue’s was probably like the difference between a village teacher’s and a city official’s, huh… …i

“Since I’ve handed the things over, I’m leaving.” Yu ZhiJue glanced at Ling Xia and directly headed outside.

LingiXiaihurriedly calledlout, “Wait,iI’llisendlyoulback.”iHe!fished out!ajpaper lantern fromithe cornerjandlcarefully lightediit up.jEveryltimelheiwent to findithese twolkids, theyiwerelboth eitherlbusyicultivatinglorjcompleting variousia.s.signments with basicallyjno freeltime atlall.!Afterjthe boy returned, there were definitelyimore tasksiwaiting.iHisiheartlached quitelajbit.i.thatlalchildithis young had tojwalkiback alone!at night.i

Yu ZhiJue looked at the dusty lantern with scorn, took out an artifact for illumination from inside his sleeve, pulled open the door, and refused, “No need. I just learned the Flash Step Technique, so I can go back very quickly.”

Although he feigned a calm composure, his tone still faintly divulged his happiness. After saying so, he vanished from his original spot without a trace.

Watching the small body that momentarily disappeared and then reappeared ten meters away, Ling Xia inwardly sighed; as expected, a genius was a genius! He waited until Yu ZhiJue’s silhouette faded into the distance before closing the door and opening his new book, diligently thumbing through its contents.

Earlier today,lfor thejsake ofjcompletingitheimasked man‘sla.s.signment,ihe hadjjust givenjthis aicursoryjread. Onlyjnowldidihe discoverithatjthis booklwaslvery unique, quite unlikeithosejcryptic andidifficult.i.tolunderstandjtomeslthat populatedlthejlibrary. Th.e.l.layoutjwas considerably!lively and!fascinating,!andlit includedidetailedldescriptions on variousjtypeslof artifact!refinement equipment,imaterials, and other related subjects.!

Moreover,jwhat pleasantlyjsurprised him the most was that onjevery page, possibly because some magic was applied, picturesjof energy stones that were nearlyias clear and detailed as photos would replacejthe text that it corresponded to, andjafter he finished!viewing them, the images would morphlback into words.

Dipping his own specially created quill pen in ink, Ling Xia took notes in a journal while he read.

With regards to refining magical artifacts, aside from the matter of gathering materials, the elements that were equally indispensable were luck, one’s innate talent, and the artificer’s proficiency and experience.

Refining artifacts couldibe considered a magical art.jChoosingjdifferent types ofjenergy stones, varying the degrees of heat, and even how one was introduced to the field were all factorsithat could change an artifact’s capabilities during its refinement. A single magicallartifact!could even simultaneously possess multiple functional orientations, like offensive, defensive,lsupport-based, etc.iThe Shang!Yanitheylmet beforelhad usedja lightning attribute offensive artifact.iLightning offensive types were formidable in their!power, but the success rate ofjtheir refinement was extremely low. The onejthat boy had could be consideredjalmasterpiece.

When refining, high-level artificers were capable of carving their own divine sense onto their creations, using psychical energy to mold the artifact into any shape they wanted, and even designate user limitations.

LingiXia became completely absorbed!injsoakinglupithislknowledge. Injmiddle school,ichemistry wasihisibestisubject,landlhe liked hands-on!experiments the most. Observing howithelcombinationlofldifferentlreagents!caused varying chemical reactions!toloccur alwaysjgavelhim!a heartfelt sensejofithrill.jDue to hislgrades in highischool, hejstudied computer programminglinstead of chemistryjinicollege, and always found that regrettable. He!felt.i.thatiartifact refinement andjchemistry experimentsjactually hadlcertain minute pointsjof!similarity.l

It wasn’t until!the sky started!to brighteniand the familiar sound of ajbell chimed outside that Ling Xia finally became aware thatihe had ended up pulling an unexpected all-nighter.

Without his notice, Ling Xia’s impression of the masked man had once again increased by an unknown percentage. In the short 6 hours he spent there, the other was able to determine which areas were best suited for him to pursue. Compared to those ancient, fogey guys who solely relied on the results of an exam, he was indeed a lot more reliable and could absolutely be praised as a teacher who taught to his student’s strengths.

LingiXiajma.s.sagedihis tiredieyes, stretched!hisjbody,iand!rotatedihisistiff!neck alcouple of!times.lAfterwards,ihejproperly put awayjthelbookjand!hislnotes, washedjup, and atejailight breakfast before proceedingjtolhisijob ofjtilling soiljforlspiritual herbs.j

Oflcourse, heldidn’tispendlhis daysjhere exclusively repeatingjsuch!monotonous and!routine physicalilabor. Hejalsoididlailotiof!thinking,jobservedihis surroundings, andioften went!tojlookjup relevant reference material.jHe prettylmuch alreadylgrasped the properties,lpreferences, andlplanting methodslofjall the typeslofjspiritual herbs!thatlImmortaljWelcoming Pavilion grew.iHowever,!thelspiritual herbs herejwere only!theitip ofithe iceberg!when compareditojthe!varieties recordedland known,ithusjhe stilljhadlto find!aniopportunityito!learnimore aboutlthose others.i

It’s said that ShaoYang Sect’s best spiritual herbs were not at Immortal Welcoming Pavilion, but with a high-level wood attribute divergent-skill elder called Mu QingHe. Ling Xia decided that if he ever got the chance, he must go there to study.

If he became a famous artificer or a wood attribute divergent-skill cultivator in the future, then he wouldn’t need to worry about dragging those two kids down. Haha, those kids can be in charge of laughing hand-in-hand across the lands, and as for him, he’d be their personal artificer slash horticulturist that hid behind the scenes, and maybe even double as an alchemist. Just the money he’d make from selling his creations would be enough build an entire country!

The little guy inside him was already howling with delirious laughter in a hands-on-hips pose. The more he fantasized, the giddier he became, full of energy despite not having slept last night.

Ling Xia had thought that the masked man would drill him on the book’s contents, but who knew the other would directly take out a jumbled pile of disorganized energy stones from his s.p.a.ce and dump it on a table instead.

Hejsmilediandiinstructed, “Since youjsaid you’ve finished reading,ithenlcome differentiatelwhat attribute theselenergy stones are, and whichlones canibejused!together injrefining.”l

Now this was a hard test. Ignoring that Ling Xia only had three days to read, even if he did memorize the info of every energy stone in the book, accurately telling them apart would be difficult to achieve without at least a year of practice.

Ling Xia only blanked out for a second before meticulously starting to inspect the heap. He’s a quite optimistic person, so he’d just have to try his best regardless.

Soon, he pickedioutlfour pieceslofienergy stonesjthat!hejfeltlconfidentiabout, andjone bylone, introduced theirlorigins.!

Ling Xia cautiously reported,i“This onelis!called FlamingiCloud Rock, ajlevel-2 fireiattributejenergy stone.lThat one is a Merry Gate Stone,ja!level-1 earth attributeienergyistone… …” After that, he picked outifivejor six more stones, ones his memory was a!bit fuzzyjon, andifollowing the differentiation method presented inlthe book, did a few simple tests to determine their attributes. Nevertheless, by the end, he stillifailed to identify over half of theistones.

Fortunately,lthe masked man didn’tlreprimand himjandjonly smiled,l“You’ve alreadyidoneiquite well.!Nowitell!me, of the energyjstonesiyou sorted out, whichiones can beicombineditogetherltoirefine into a!magicaljartifact?”!

LingiXia gingerlyjplacedjtwolstones together and respondediwithjalgrin, “If youiput this piece ofllevel-2!water attribute energyjstonejinto a characteristically!mild beryl,lthen you!canirefinelaisupport-typelartifactlforlwaterlattribute divergent-skilljcultivators.”j

Due to Yu ZhiJue’s attribute being water, plus wanting to give the boy something of his personal creation, he had reread the section on water attribute energy stones a few extra times, thus his memory on it was particularly vivid.

The masked manileisurely lied backidown again. “Yep yep, not tooibad of an answer. Since it’silike this, whyldon’tlyou go and refinejit.”

Incredibly stunned,!LinglXiajblurted out,j“Right now?”j

Currently, he couldn’t even be called a novice low-level artificer yet, and without any psychical energy, he have no other choice but to depend on manual heat control and fire attribute artifacts. However, without a shred of experience, how should he start? One should know, disciples taken in by ordinary artificers generally spent at least 3 years doing odd jobs.

The masked man shot him a glance, closed his eyes once more, and supplemented while rocking his leg, “The tools I used in my youth for artifact refining are placed in the third room from the left. You can use those. Studying theory without actual practice is useless, so go try it out for yourself!”

Before LingiXiaicould voice!the rest!ofihis misgivings, a familiaricrackj.a.ppeared below and downihe fell.!He helplesslyjshookjhisihead;jwaslthis master!not afraidjof him wasting!preciousienergyistones…i…It should belnoted thatlsome naturalimaterials couldn’t bought nojmatter howjhighlaipriceionejoffered.j

He opened that room’s door, the inside indeed full of books, equipment, and materials related to refining artifacts, and from the shelf with energy stones, found the two kinds he needed. Although these two types weren’t considered valuable, but if he had to buy it himself, he reckoned that one piece alone would burn through half his monthly salary…

Ling Xia bitterly wept inside. Looking at it this way, the masked man was really a generous and big-hearted master!

Helcarefully weighed!theitwolstones,!ofteniconsulting thelartifactirefinement book,iand followinglthejratioslgiven, usedla!smalljknife toisc.r.a.pejofflthe extras.iHe placed them insidejthe refining furnaceiandjlitla!smalliflame, then slowlyland mindfully increasediitsjheat in accordanceito theimethod recordediin theibook.i

Except, he!triedjthree times and failedlthem all. Notjonly did the end result not have ajrecognizable shape, it was defectiveitolthe extent that not a spec of theistones’ original colorslremained. In his hand, therejwas just a lumpiofiblack, indistinct, garbage-like…thing.

What a complete and utter waste! Ling Xia’s heart was in anguish seeing that water attribute support-type artifact being treated like trash, and answered with a nod, “Just a little bit… …However, this disciple does not yet possess psychical energy.”