After contemplating for a moment, Scholar Song pressed the backspace key and deleted his previous messages from the chat window.
He understood that with the personalities of the group members, even if he stepped in to offer advice, not many would take him seriously. Besides, since someone had already taken the concoction and was still bouncing around, it probably wouldn't kill anyone in the short term, right?
That said, Scholar Song felt he couldn't just ignore them. After all, any medicine could be toxic to some degree. What if this body refining liquid was a slow-acting poison? It might not kill anyone right away, but what would happen in the long run?
Therefore, he absolutely needed to confirm the recipe!
Still worrying about the group's fantasy enthusiasts, Scholar Song was, overall, quite the candidate for a Good Samaritan.
He grabbed a notebook and jotted down the names of thirty common ingredients for the alchemical 'body refining liquid' that he found online.
He had a cousin named Zhao Yaya, who was studying medicine.
Their university had a Traditional Chinese Medicine department, so Scholar Song thought about asking her to check if throwing all thirty of these qi-replenishing and blood-nourishing herbs into a pot and boiling them would lead to something fatal.
In theory, these ingredients for replenishing blood and qi shouldn't be deadly. But who knew what kind of concoction would result from boiling so many different herbs together?
As for the latter names that obviously had a distinct fantasy flair, like "Fierce Overlord Branch" and "Nine Suns Red Bamboo Slices," Scholar Song wisely chose to ignore them. Who knew what those things were? He wasn't a fantasy enthusiast, after all.
If he asked his cousin about those ingredients, she'd probably think he had lost his mind. Then, the next day, his mother would certainly hop on a plane to Jiangnan City to take him to see a neurologist.
"Maybe I'll just quietly ask my cousin when I go home in two weeks," Scholar Song thought, hoping that the group's fantasy aficionados wouldn't meet an untimely end in the meantime.
As he was copying down the recipe, the chat in the Ninefold Land group had quieted down. Typically, not many members were online, and it seemed that even these fantasy enthusiasts had their own normal lives?
Well, that made sense. People had to eat, work, and raise kids. Maybe there were other students in the group like him.
After finishing the thirty herbs on the recipe, Scholar Song stretched. He glanced at the weather forecast on his computer's bottom right corner.
June 1st: Sunny.
June 2nd: Sunny.
"The weather looks nice. I should go out and get some exercise later," Scholar Song thought to himself, feeling that his health had been declining and deciding to be more active.
Yet, despite his intentions, his fingers inexplicably clicked on the game icon on his computer — just a quick gaming session to unwind first!
...
Although he intended to play a couple of quick rounds, once the game started, it turned into a session he couldn't stop!
Hours drifted by, and suddenly it was noon.
"Weekends always fly by so quickly," Scholar Song chuckled dryly, closing the game and habitually opening the Ninefold Land group chat again.
A quick peek at the chat, then back to his day — that's how he maintained his good mood!
Upon opening the chat window, he noticed that the frequently online Hermit of North River was indeed active.
There were several new messages.
The Hermit of North River wrote: "Brother Alchemist, your alchemical skills are truly remarkable. I tried refining the revised body refining liquid ten times and succeeded eight! The effects exceeded my expectations. Unfortunately, this body refining liquid is only effective for beginners in cultivation. It's not very useful for someone like me, but for seniors like the Rain Moon True Monarch of the Da Luo Sect and several of his disciples, it will be invaluable. Once the Rain Butterfly senior receives this recipe, they'll owe you a great favor, Brother Alchemist."
The Wandering Monk Tong Xuan also chimed in with a thumbs-up emoji.
The Hermit of North River immediately responded, "I almost forgot! Master Tong Xuan, you also have a bunch of little monks under your guidance. Looks like you have even more people indebted to you, Brother Alchemist!"
Wandering Monk Tong Xuan sent a smiley face and went quiet again.
The Hermit returned a smile, thinking that practicing 'silent Zen' was quite tedious. Without the chat group, he wouldn't even know how to communicate with anyone. The Buddhist way was so annoying — it was lucky he hadn't been tricked into becoming a little novice by that big monk!
About ten minutes later, Wild Blade of Three Tides logged in: "Fay Yu, Fairy Fay Yu! If you're here, please respond!"
He spammed a series of crying and kneeling emojis.
"Oy, where have you been for the past few days, Three Tides? Off meditating somewhere?" The Hermit of North River teased knowingly.
"Meditate my ass!" Three Tides sent a voice message, his voice choked with emotion: "Three days ago, the esteemed Spirit Butterfly visited me and stayed at my place for three days. Then, you know how that goes…"
"Ha ha." The Hermit of North River felt no sympathy for Three Tides; he didn't deserve it for digging his own grave!
"@Fay Yu, beautiful Fairy Fay Yu, please come out and meet me! I have a pressing request!" Three Tides cried out, his surname being Lang, and his birth name was Lang San.
"?" Fairy Fay Yu popped online and sent a question mark.
"Fairy, you finally made it! I have a favor to ask — please take your love-struck old dad home! I'm begging you!" Three Tides sent an OTZ kneeling emoji.
"Ha ha." Fairy Fay Yu replied with a smiley face, and a moment later sent a quiet message: "My old man is love-struck?"
Wait a minute, something seemed off here.
Old man? What the heck? Was the esteemed Spirit Butterfly really using his daughter's account?
Crack! Something broke. It was Three Tides' fragile heart.
This old guy really was love-struck — he frequently logged into his daughter's account. Was there no such thing as privacy left in the world?
"…" The Hermit of North River felt his mouth twitch uncontrollably. Finally, he kindly reminded, "By the way, Brother Three Tides, I think Fairy Fay Yu is probably busy refining the new version of the body refining liquid, right?"
So, Fairy Fay Yu likely wouldn't be online for a while.
Then, there was silence.
Wild Blade of Three Tides disconnected… not logged out, but disconnected.
"Ha!" Scholar Song burst into laughter.
His mood was lifted.
However, after scanning the chat logs for several days, he felt that the people in the group didn't quite resemble ordinary fantasy enthusiasts; the content of their conversations was too real, almost as if they weren't just daydreaming.
This thought flickered through Scholar Song's mind.
"Have I been reading too much of their chat logs? Am I starting to blend in?" Scholar Song thought, breaking into a cold sweat.
He had long surpassed the age of being a fantasy enthusiast, but who didn't have a 'back-in-the-day' moment?
The dreams of being a hero or a martial artist, or even a superhero, were experiences he never wanted to face again, buried deep in his past. Just thinking about them filled him with embarrassment and made him want to die — he wished he could forget all of it, just wipe it from his memory!
So he absolutely couldn't let himself be influenced by these group members.
"Time to eat." He reached out and prepared to close the Ninefold Land group.
Just as he was about to exit, the Hermit of North River chimed in again: "A Qi, has one of your juniors completed their tribulation? Why is there no news?"
Su Clan's A Qi replied: "They're preparing for the tribulation now; it will start in a few hours."
The Hermit of North River asked: "Where are they going to undergo the tribulation? Do you need any help?"
"In a suburban area of H City. Don't worry, my little A Sixteen has extraordinary talent. The Third-Rank Heavenly Tribulation is just a piece of cake for them," Su Clan's A Qi laughed, feeling very relaxed. "You all just wait for my little A Sixteen to advance to the Fourth-Rank Innate and then look for opportunities to challenge you, ha ha!"
"Now that you say that, I'm relieved. A Sixteen is indeed quite talented. The Third-Rank Heavenly Tribulation shouldn't be a problem for them," the Hermit of North River replied.
After that, the group fell back into silence.
...
...
Scholar Song scratched his chin. H City?
That was just next door to Jiangnan! Speaking of which, his college town was right between Jiangnan City, H City, and J City.
H City was a small city in China, but despite its size, it was incredibly prosperous. It was known as a shopping paradise, claiming that you could find anything under heaven and earth there. Well, except for illegal stuff.
If someone was undergoing a tribulation in H City, wouldn't that be visible in Jiangnan?
"I'm such an idiot," Scholar Song laughed to himself. He actually believed what the group members were saying?
A heavenly tribulation? The weather was clear, with no clouds in sight and the sun shining brightly. There was no way there would be a thunderstorm, right?
Besides, it wasn't like a few years ago; weather forecasts were pretty accurate now. They could predict sunny weather for the next three days with no thunderstorm in sight.
"Since the weather's so nice, I'll go to the bookstore after lunch!" Scholar Song murmured to himself.