Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

It was the evening on the second day, and the townspeople and soldiers who had toiled for the entire day swarmed into the Evening Primrose Bar that had once again opened its doors for business. They were prepared to drink a few cups of rum like they had in the past. But more and more people crowded around the bar as they caught sight of the notice posted outside.

“Purchasing large amounts of Siberian Gut Severing Plants, one hundred Purple Crystal Coins per stalk!”

“Purchasing Magical Beast Blood Essence at a high price, a hundred Purple Crystal Coins per bottle!”

“Purchasing large amounts of corn seeds, ten Purple Crystal Coins per bag!”

…

The crowd was dumbfounded when they saw the notice that had just been put out, and it took awhile for the information to sink in. They could understand why Yang Ling would want to purchase Gut Severing Plants and Magical Beast Blood Essences, but they did not know why he would want to purchase the seeds of common plants such as corn, no matter how hard they thought.

The Terras Forest spanned tens of thousands of miles, with many trees of countless varieties, and corn could be found anywhere. There was corn on the sides of the street, in the yards of houses, or even the roofs. No one expected corn, that could be so easily obtained, to be so valuable. It was unbelievable!

“Could it be that the leader has so much money that he does not know where to put it, and wants to give us a few hundred crystal coins?”

“I heard that this was Miss Yuna’s suggestion. She wants to give the poor some money using this method to help us last through the harsh winter!”

“That’s right, Miss Yuna is a great person. With a mistress like her, we will have good days ahead!”

…

Some suspected that the validity of that claim. There were many presumptions for the time being.

“Brother Yang, are you really going to do this?”

Yuna creased her brow as she saw the crowd below from an elegant window on the second floor of the bar. According to the estimates she and Goode had came up with, they would have to pay a few hundred thousand Purple Crystal Coins. Even though they would obtain a large amount of crystal coins from the merchant associations, this was still not a small sum of money.

Yang Ling smiled mysteriously and sipped his rum. “Relax. With great expense, we will obtain a huge profit!

He needed a large amount of Siberian Gut Severing Grass to create Mandalas, a lot of Magical Beast Blood Essence to build his army of self-destructing bats, and building a Magical Beast Base within the Wizard’s Pagoda domain would also require many trees, shrubs and corn. Thus, Yang Ling had decided to buy all of these at the same time.

A few hundred thousand Purple Crystal Coins was a large expenditure in the short run, but it was definitely a worthy investment in the long run!

With enough poisonous Mandalas and an army of powerful self destructing bats, he would be more confident in taming Twin-legged Flying Dragons, and building a true Magical Beast army.

He would be able to build an expansive forest in the space of the Wizard’s Pagoda with saplings or seeds, and from there transfer Magical Beasts into the domain, building a Magical Beast Base in every sense of the word.

After leaving a few instructions, Yang Ling did not say anything more, quietly returning to Wissen Castle through the back door of the bar, and taking some time to cultivate the poison techniques.

According to the memories of the Flying Dragon he had tamed, there was a level nine Flying Dragon King in the Flying Dragon Valley, with unparalleled strength, impenetrable scales and powerful battle abilities. He might not be able to successfully complete his plans with the Mandala alone, and might need to find another way.

After consuming the Fire Dragon Fruit and advancing to the level of beginner Heaven Wizard, his abilities would not be able to improve much further with any kind of speed. He would need to focus his efforts more on the poison techniques if he wanted to deal with the powerful Flying Dragon King.

After returning to his villa, seeing the little lass concentrating as she flipped through Flowing Venom’s notes, then looking at the Mandala that was being created in the furnace, Yang Ling nodded, satisfied.

Alice might not have been able to become a Blood Wizard and tame Magical Beasts to protect herself, but she showed tremendous potential in the area of poison techniques. He had been deeply confused when he first saw Flowing Venom’s messy array of materials, bottles and jars, but she had sorted them out in just a few days, and she improved rapidly.

At the start, she had frequently asked for Yang Ling’s help whenever she encountered any confusion. Now, it was Yang Ling who had to ask her for help to create a poison used to deal with the Flying Dragon King. He had given her sole responsibility for the poison’s creation.

To an average person, cultivating poison techniques was an incredibly difficult, if not unimaginable, task. But to the little lass, it was clear that it was not as difficult as she had thought.

With a large amount of ready-made materials and samples and using Flowing Venom’s precise notes, and with an exceptional furnace, cultivating poison techniques was much easier. Even though she had bumbled along, sometimes forgetting to add ingredients or messing up the proportions and ratios, her overall improvement could be described as rapid.

They had found the exceptional furnace in Flowing Venom’s Space Ring. The interior of the furnace was carved with Magical Spell Formations of the fire, wind and ice elements. One would be able to control it at will as long as they inserted a small amount of Magical Energy.

When she began, the Magical Energy in Alice’s body was pathetically little, hardly even a shred. She would not have been able to work on the ingredients even if she had known what they were. But after Yang Ling forcefully shared a portion of his Magical Energy with her and gave her a few high-level Magical Beast Essence Crystals, all of those problems were solved.

Over those days, Alice had gained a preliminary understanding of how to create poison, and the Magical Energy in her body had also increased bit by bit. According to Flowing Venom’s notes, this was how he entered sagehood with poison techniques and became a Lesser Sage assassin so rarely seen on the continent.

In order to strengthen her abilities as quickly as possible, so that she could one day be able to help Yang Ling solve his problems like Yuna and Sofia did. In order to prove her abilities, Alice worked harder than anyone.

She had imagined herself washing vegetables while she was washing and preparing the Siberian Gut Severing Plant. She had not backed down while mixing the Merrakh Poisonous Mushrooms, even though it had made her skin crawl. She fought back the urge to vomit while she was dissolving the Garbat Beastmen Embryo with acid, completing the task with meticulous attention.

In order to prove her ability, and so that she could be with Yang Ling every day, she was willing to do anything, no matter how tiring it was!

Compared to the little lass’s rapid improvements, Yang Ling, who had focused his attention on the poison technique recorded on the stele, had slow progress, not achieving any visible results even after some days of intense training.

Everything was harder at the start. The criteria for cultivating poison techniques was high, and even though there was not much of an effect at the beginning stages, it meant that his abilities would be much more powerful when his training finally came to fruition. According to the explanation on the stele, after training the technique to a high level, he could release an odorless, colorless poison to directly corrode the soul of his enemies with just a gaze, or a few Wizard Mantras!

Even though he was a little disappointed, Yang Ling did not give up. He sat in meditation in his villa and silently trained the poison techniques recorded on the stele.

Just like the evasion techniques, poison techniques also expended a large amount of Wizard Power and mental energy. As his Wizard Core pulsed, a magnificent Wizard Power rapidly circulated inside his body as he absorbed the poison from the stem of a Demon Yam not far away using his mental energy.

Demon Yams were a poisonous item found commonly in the Terras Forest. Even though it only grew to be about half the height of an average person, it had a developed stem that harbored a great deal of poison. Hunters and Magical Beasts would feel giddy and nauseous when they accidentally came into contact with the plant. It would take them at least a month to recover. The more severe cases saw people stop breathing, succumbing to the poison.

Under the effects of the poison technique, the Demon Yam released tendrils of black vapor, spinning around Yang Ling’s right index finger before slowly seeping into his body.

Slowly, Yang Ling’s finger became darker and darker, beginning to emit a faint fragrance. At the same time, the Demon Yam slowly shriveled, withering bit by bit…

Just like that, Alice devoted her time to formulating poisons, while Yang Ling concentrated on cultivating the mysterious poison techniques. With the allure of a big purse full of crystal coins, the townspeople and soldiers that were not on any missions moved out of town, some heading to the Wilderness of Siberia to search for Gut Severing Plants, others collecting the seeds of various trees around the area. There were even some who were collecting the seeds of corn around town.

There was strength in numbers. Soon after, the people had quickly sent over the various items.

Someone had been lucky enough to come across a large field of Gut Severing Plants growing by the side of a cliff. Some had spared no effort in collecting a large amount of seeds from various plants. Some, with nothing to show for their efforts, directly uprooted rare plants and brought them back into town, much to the shock of the old butler Mubaqi who was responsible for sorting everything out.

Also, with the efforts of the intelligence team Parrot, they soon found several places where Vampire Bats frequented. With a clear location, what followed next was much simpler. Yang Ling could either take action personally with his Magical Beast army, or instruct the Bat King to attack with a horde of bats.

In just a few days, tens of thousands of bats appeared in the domain of the Wizard’s Pagoda, creating a small-scale breeding farm for the bats. This way, Yang Ling could replenish the bats using those in the space of the Wizard’s Pagoda at any time.

After running a round of tests, in order to increase the power of the low-level Magical Beasts, Yang Ling decided to build a biochemical army with his advantage. With the miniature bombs laced with poison, the army of Vampire Bats could become an aerial force with suicide attacks, while the spiders could dig into the ground and act as landmines. The Horned Bee Beasts could be an ambush unit with supersonic speed.

When faced with different enemies or prey, the biochemical army could use different poisons. They could make the enemy die on the spot, or cause their prey to lose the ability to do battle or move.

Yang Ling believed that after a series of practical battles, after the development of the army reached maturity, the biochemical army would become a main force in the protection of his territory. Then, even the Banto or Rossi people would have difficulty making even one step into his territory if they choose to attack!