Chapter 242: Bias Cao Mao!?
'They're really here.'
Receiving the emergency order from Cao Mao, Ma Moxi postponed his closed-door training schedule and went out to scout the potential enemy army north of their city.
Three kilometers away from Siren City, Ma Moxi had found the orc base.
The red orcs, who had been busy carrying lumber, rocks, and unknown material to build their fortress. The number of these men kept increasing as more transport ships landed on the beach, and more orc came out of the ships.
Zhao Bao had informed everyone that about less than 5,000 orcs had landed on the beach. But Ma Moxi was seeing at least a massive army of 10,000 burly orcs with the cultivation base of 5th-stage!
As Ma Moxi wasn't confident that he could take on this army alone, he retreated to report everything to Cao Mao and others.
...
Meanwhile, Cao Mao continued to distribute his pills after he had ordered Ma Moxi to scout the orc army via text message.
Jia Wenhe and Ju Shoufen received an excellent-grade immortal pill from Cao Mao. The latter was also generous as he gave three good-grade pills to Zhao Bao's disciples.
All yin slaves stared at Cao Mao with teary eyes. None of them had received a pill from Cao Mao yet, and the latter didn't seem to pay attention to them.
Wei Yuan felt bad for the girls. She asked him, "Miaomiao, you won't have enough pills for everyone at this rate. You should keep some for us."
Cao Mao snickered, "I know. As the matter of fact, you girls will get a better pill from me."
"Really!?"
Cao Mao turned to Ju Shoufen and Jia Wenhe, "Father-in-law, Shou-I meant, grandmother-in-law, do you have extra essence cores that I can loan? I need... 2,000 essence cores."
Both alchemists stared at Cao Mao and raised one of their eyebrows, "Do you think essence cores grow on a tree!? We aren't that rich."
"But I really need that..."
Jia Wenhe sighed, "Sorry, brat. We need to keep some refined stones and essence cores to maintain our filter arrays and defensive arrays. These arrays consume a lot of energy because the blood Qi from the sea keeps flowing toward our city. As the matter of fact, we will sooner or later run out of essence cores soon..."
Zhao Bao overheard that, and he was saddened. Still, as kind, as he was, he offered a helping hand.
"This monk has contacted my abbot via text messages. He said that he would mobilize everyone here to help you, including supplying some array resources. Also, he has a condition."
"What condition?"
Zhao Bao hesitated to say it as he was ashamed, but he decided to be frank, "The abbot said that he wished to relocate the main monastery here since this place is rich with natural Qi and Essence. We hope that you can accommodate us."
"Oh, sure!" Cao Mao nodded. He had no problem with that since he had expected it. Moreover, he was glad that the abbot would come since he needed every manpower he could get.
There was no telling whether the orcs would be friendly or not. Cao Mao still remembered that the Orc King Bloodline's curse had activated its beacon several times, so they might have come for him.
As Cao Mao had agreed, Zhao Bao passed a spatial ring to him.
Inside the ring were 2,000 essence cores, which was the backup fund for the auction. However, he hadn't used it since the event had been ruined by Liu Bian.
"There are 2,000 essence cores in there. However, may this monk have a collateral item as a guarantee that you will pay us back?"
Cao Mao snickered. He passed the remaining immortal-grade pills to Zhao Bao, except for the mutated pill.
"Will these pills do?"
The monk smiled, "Of course!"
While Cao Mao and Zhao Bao had been negotiating terms, the yin slaves and Wei Yuan stared at Cao Mao and Zhao Bao with teary eyes. Their dreamt pills had been given away, just like that.
Disappointed by Cao Mao, Wei Yuan walked toward him. She twisted his ear and yelled, "Why the hell did you sell the priceless pills to him!? What about our share!?"
"Ow! Ow! Patience, young Padawans! I have plans. Give me a few minutes, okay!?" Cao Mao managed to break away from Wei Yuan, but he still smiled at her, "Come with me. Let's talk in private."
Cao Mao took Zhao Bao's spatial ring and guided the girls toward the mansion, where all yin slaves used as their living quarters.
Wei Yuan, Ma Xingjuan, Ju Chen, Jiang Lan, Kang Yan, Pan Xiaofan, and the girls followed their husband to their residence, confused about what he had planned to do in their mansion.
The monk and other elders couldn't follow after them since they respected the family's privacy. Ju Shoufen also restrained herself even though she was one of his wives.
The elder didn't dare to reveal her true relationship with Cao Mao in the open yet. Jia Wenhe and Jia Shan had already figured it out, though.
As soon as Cao Mao was alone with his wives, he took out all remaining essence cores that he had obtained so far. Then, he absorbed their energy into his dantian!
"Miaomiao, what are you doing!?"
The girls were shocked as their husband suddenly decided to eat all the loaned cash at once.
Cao Mao grinned, "Making money."
"How are you making money when you're absorbing the essence cores' energy!? You're wasting them!"
"Just wait until I'm done. Actually, I can do it faster if in ITS, but those pesky tribulation eyes will probably kill me in my sleep if I let my guard down. I need to do it while I'm awake."
"..."
The girls didn't understand what Cao Mao was talking about. Yet, they waited for him to finish what he had planned to do. They believed in his unique cultivation technique.
In this world's standard, it usually took an essence gathering realm expert several months to convert all energy within an essence core into yang or yin essence that they could use.
But for the girls, who each had dual-cultivated with him over 10,000 times in this past year, had converted their dantians and their default energy into Life Qi and Life Essence. Therefore, they only needed a day or two to digest 50,000 liters of Life Essence.
However, Cao Mao was a lot more efficient. He only needed to touch them to absorb everything. It only took Cao Mao less than 10 seconds to consume the energy of 2,000 essence cores.
Cao Mao and opened his status menu and checked his current energy pool, regeneration rate, and his backup energy.
...
[Basic Information]
Name: Mao Miaomiao (Cao Mao)
Cultivation Rank: Middle 4th Stage (Essence Gathering Realm)
[Energy Pool]
Current Life Essence: 2,058 Million Liters
Dantian Capacity: 5,000 Million Liters
[Daily Energy Regeneration Rate]
Life Essence: 2,500,000 Liters
[Element Crystal Level]
Wood (Primary): 7/7 (MAX)
Lightning (Secondary): 3/3 (MAX)
Fire (Secondary): 3/3 (MAX)
...
He could see a lot of improvement. However, he wasn't happy with his current energy pool since he had barely enough to buy a set of pill ingredients.
Cao Mao glanced at another system screen, which revealed the new item in the system shop.
[One Set of Unified Elemental Vein Pill Ingredients]
Price - 2,000 Million Liters of Life Essence
The ingredients for the new mutated pill were extremely expensive since it would consume most of his power and weaken him for a long time. Fortunately, his bone marrow had been upgraded, so he could regenerate some energy back to recover from the loss.
Cao Mao tabbed the [Buy] button next to the item. Then, unprocessed 108 herbs, 4 familiar-looking hearts without a glass container and the seal, and yin yang catalyst crystals appeared in front of him.
The girls screamed in shock. They thought that Cao Mao would concoct another batch of divine pills here.
Cao Mao grinned as he strolled toward the giant hearts, which seemed lifeless.
"Don't be afraid, girlies. There is no soul or divine will in these hearts. They're just duplicates."
...
[Cloned Heart of Divine Azure Dragon]
[Cloned Heart of Divine Black Tortoise]
[Cloned Heart of Divine Vermilion Bird]
[Cloned Heart of Divine White Tiger]
...
The system revealed this information in the system shop in the description, telling Cao Mao of what items he could get from buying the batch of ingredients.
These items were what he needed to create the new mutated immortal-grade pill!
Without wasting his time explaining to his wives, he opened the mass-production menu. Then, he tabbed the highlighted name, Unified Elemental Vein Pill. Next, he pressed the [Auto-Production] button.
The ingredients in front of him vanished. But within the next second, a batch of 20 grey pills appeared!
Ding
[The Auto-Production System has finished making 20 Unified Elemental Vein Pills.]
The production and the system shop were so broken that Cao Mao felt bad for having this cheat. Yet, he was proud that he had chosen this system.
[Your Sponsor has said, "Worship me, you heathen."]
'Yes, yes. You're great, System Sponsor.'
["Be my vessel then. I'll make you one of my elite apostles, and you won't have to do quests anymore."]
'Nope! I like playing this game in the hardcore-mode. It's getting fun lately.'
[Your Sponsor is greatly disappointed.]
[Kunwu likes your independent mindset.]
[The Sun Crow laughs at your Sponsor.]
[OG-Buddha approves your decision for not joining the dark side.]
[OG-Buddha has gifted you 1,000,000 Liters of Life Essence.]
Buddha was kind. He kept giving gifts and blessing to Cao Mao as if he was a SIMP subscriber of a female streamer.
[OG-Buddha has said, "No homo."]
"..."
While Cao Mao was staring at the system screens, reading the notifications, the girls stared at the pills and drooled.
Wei Yuan was bolder than the others. She picked one of the hovering pills and stored it in her inventory.
"I'll take one of the pills! Thanks!"
Cao Mao came back to his senses. He counted everyone, "1... 2... 5...10...15. Damn, I've been fucking so many women. Well, it doesn't matter. I made these for you girls anyway. Everyone, come and take one each."
The girl gang cheered. Ma Xingjuan, Ju Chen, Jiang Lan, and everyone took a pill in glee.
After everyone had their immortal-grade pill, five hovering grey balls were left.
Cao Mao was a bit disappointed since he had thought that he would have had a few pills for his future projects, such as selling them to the Huangjin Monastery's abbot, seducing the beast girls, or feeding them to either his pet geese or his children.
'Haiz. That's as good as I get from sacrificing 2 billion liters of my life essence. Combining with what I have, I have six unified element vein pills. It's time to play around with one of them.'
Cao Mao hadn't finished yet. He took out a tub and poured hollowed spring water in it. Then, he dropped the immortal-grade pill in there.
The girls gasped in surprise. Wei Yuan rushed toward the tub and reached out to grab the pill, thinking that Cao Mao was wasting it.
But Cao Mao stopped her. He seized her hand and pulled her away.
Wei Yuan turned to Cao Mao, "What are you doing!? You're wasting the precious pill!"
Cao Mao rolled his eyes, "Do I need to explain everything before I do something?"
"Well, no. But in this case, you should. One of those pills can sell for ten thousand of essence cores, don't you know!?"
"I'm aware. That's why I'm diluting it with the spring water."
"Diluting it!? What are you-"
"Please. For the sake of my mental health, can you be quiet for a moment and believe in your husband? I know what I'm doing."
"..."
Wei Yuan nodded and stepped back, observing what Cao Mao was about to do.
Cao Mao sighed. He turned back to the tub, which the spring water had already turned grey. The grey pill magically dissolved and blended with the spring water, but they had not been thoroughly mixed yet.
Cao Mao sent his Qi into the tub to stir the water, mixing the pill liquid and the spring water together.
The spring water slowly became clearer, changing from the previous dark grey color. Soon, it turned into transparent water again.
Seeing the condition of the water, Cao Mao took out a teacup and scooped it. Then, he drank the water.
It had no taste, but it was as refreshing as if he had drunk a fine cold beer during the hot summer night.
Ding
[You have drunk a cup of Diluted Unified Elemental Vein Liquid.]
[Your dantian capacity has increased by 10 liters.]
[Your Life Essence has increased by 10 liters.]
[Your Daily Life Essence Generation Rate has increased by 0.5 liters.]
[Your affinity with all basic elemental Qi is at max. You can't improve your affinity with basic elements anymore.]
[The liquid has been greatly diluted. You can't obtain the sacred beast's power.]
Cao Mao licked his lips as the effect was quite satisfactory. However, he needed to confirm something with the system before he could move to the next step.
'Is this cup of water considered immortal-grade or what grade?'
Ding
[The Diluted Unified Elemental Vein Liquid is ranked at the pinnacle of the heaven-grade.]
Cao Mao grinned, "That's good enough."