The silent Association Head office was filled with a gentle flashing light as Ryu reappeared once more.
The Association Head sensed this and snorted. "It hasn't even been a few hours yet but you already failed? Isn't that too pathetic? What a waste of Qi Stones. I'm sure you can see your way out, correct?"
He didn't even bother to look up from his papers.
Ryu's head turned toward the older man whose head was buried in a stack of papers. "Esteemed Association Head, with your lofty position, you're likely the only one in the Alchemy Association capable of awarding Valor Honor Cards, correct?"
"Listen, you annoying brat. Get the hell out of my office. I don't care for your worthless flattery."
"I'm not intentionally trying to disturb you. I only meant to say that since I'm here already, I thought I should ask you to handle the procedures.."
The Association Head finally looked upward, a vein of anger pulsing through his wrinkled forehead, but what he found were piercing silver eyes that lacked even more patience. They were a pair of silver eyes that filled him with a cold and irrational fear.
It was then that the Association Head noticed. Right there, on the left side of Ryu's chest, a badge forged of black steel. However, it wasn't just any badge. Etched across the top of its shield-like structure was a vine of holding small leaves and delicate flower drawings. It was the badge of an herbologist!
'F-four stars…' The Association Head blinked, not believing his eyes. "Who are you?"
"Esteemed Association Head, can you fulfill my request, or must I ask someone else?" The monotone inflections of Ryu's voice didn't change. It was as though he hadn't heard the Association Head's questions at all.
"O-of course." The Association Head calmed himself. Just under three hours had passed since Ryu had disappeared, but the herbology exam was known for taking several days to complete. This wasn't under normal circumstances, of course. It was just that the youth exam was particularly special. However, not only had Ryu reappeared in less than three hours, he came back with the credentials of a Peak Black Grade Herbologist. The Association Head would be a fool if he didn't understand he had made a mistake.
The process of receiving his Valor Honor Card went quickly. Ryu didn't say another word to the Association Head, nor did he need to. Identity treasures like an herbologist badge or the Valor Honor Card were tied to an individual's qi signature. Unless one had a rare technique capable of perfect replication of another person, it was impossible to fake. Of course, nothing was infallible. But, for now, Ryu was fine.
Ryu made his way back to Molly. So he didn't have to waste time listening to her console him about his apparent "failure", he directly placed his Valor Honor Card on the reception desk before she could utter a word. However, it seemed he underestimated just the level of value this card had…
The whole of the Alchemy Association seemed to come to a grinding halt as dozens of pairs of eyes trained on a singular piece of metal cutout shimmering with violet colors and holographic weapons. Soon, those eyes shifted from the card to its owner.
Ryu's presence was completely different with his eyes opened. Even with Ailsa's shroud, he still appeared untouchable to many. Ryu's face had already been etched into the minds of many.
Molly, a mere receptionist, was surprisingly the first to recover as she slowly handed Ryu a memory jade filled with their Association's inventory. She sighed inwardly, it seemed her intuition was correct. She could only imagine her grandfather's feelings after he was forced to hand this card to Ryu.
'Why did he have his eyes closed previously? And why did he decide to open them now?' Though she thought this, Molly had her own guesses. Much like her grandfather, she knew the importance the eyes had for herbologists. Low ranking Spiritual Senses weren't good enough to pick up on all the small details an herbologist's eyes had to. So, Molly thought that maybe Ryu was forced to rely on his eyes during the exam and gave up whatever Spiritual Sense training he was doing before that.
'The selection here isn't amazing, but it will do.' Ryu ignored the eyes floating around him, focusing entirely on the inventory list that appeared in his mind. Not only did he need cultivation herbs for qi, the body and the mind, he also needed something he could use to ensure that he had no more hidden injuries.
"I will take fifty stocks each of Qi Cleansing Leaf, Blood Boiling Stem, and Mind Calming Leaf. In addition, I'll take a hundred dosages each of Revitalizing Petal and Vital Tree Essence, plus a log of Seeking Wood."
Molly's lip twitched, but she still went ahead with her duties.
Qi Cleansing Leaf helped prep and prime one's Qi for their next Revolution. It was excellent for accelerating qi accumulation and greatly shortened the time between Revolutions.
Blood Boiling Stem was an auxiliary herb meant to be used along with beast blood and Spiritual Roots. It was placed into the collected blood and acted as a catalyst that made absorbing the latent Vital Qi far easier. It made for smoother body cultivation.
Mind Calming Leaf allowed one to focus on Visualization for longer periods of time and thus aided Mental Realm cultivation. There were two important aspects to Mental Realm cultivation. One was of course accumulating Spiritual Qi. This directly influenced everything from how powerful and far reaching one's Spiritual Sense was, to how long one could sustain Meditation States or one's Natural Orders. However, the second aspect was just as important and touched upon the same factors. It was known as Focus Qi.
Focus Qi was exactly what it sounded like. It referred to a martial warrior's capacity for focus. How long they could spend meditating, how long they could spend in seclusion, or even how long they could maintain the sharpness of their attacks in battle. Though it was called Focus Qi, there was no empirical way to measure one's Focus. It could only be improved with time and meditation. Mind Calming Leaf essentially artificially increased Focus for a small period of time.
All of Revitalizing Petal, Vital Tree Essence and Seeking Wood were related to Ryu's body recovery. Cultivation was important, but recovery was equally if not more important.
Revitalizing Petal resembled rose petals and were meant to be diluted in large baths of hot water. Seeking Wood was what Ryu planned on building these baths with as they were able to seek and pull away impurities naturally. Finally, Vital Tree Essence would be the hot water Ryu used in this equation. It referred to the deep root water taken from the Vital Tree, a spiritual tree known for little else but its ridiculously long lifespan. It was said a mortal could gain a hundred years of life drinking its Vital Essence.
However, all of these things obviously came with an extremely exaggerated price…
Molly coughed slightly. "That'll be 30 600 000 gold…"