Chapter 11
Ch.11 Missing the Critical Component
After consuming the equivalent of three adult portions of food, Luo Nan patted his stomach contentedly and asked, “Aina, is my father still in the manor?”
Placing Luo Nan’s used dishes onto the serving cart, Aina softly replied, “Young Master, His Grace said he had urgent matters to attend to and left ahead of time.”
“Indeed, my perpetually busy father—merely returning home for a meal already counts as quite the exception.”
Although temporarily unable to share his joy with his father, Luo Nan felt no disappointment.
“By the way, Young Master, before leaving, His Grace entrusted me to inform you: if you have any needs, you may freely access and utilize anything from the family’s supernatural materials repository.”
“Oh? Truly ‘freely use’?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what His Grace said.”
“Hss… Could it be that my old man somehow knew I might succeed?”
Luo Nan remembered that, every time Duke Medillion had used treasures or artifacts to ‘wash and refine’ him in the past, he would head straight to the family’s supernatural materials repository and recklessly consume resources as if they cost nothing.
By his estimation, the heavenly treasures he had wasted since childhood could have forged several fourth-tier Heroes—or even one fifth-tier Legend.
It wasn’t that Duke Medillion begrudged these supernatural materials; rather, he refused to let Luo Nan squander himself through these meaningless acts.
But Luo Nan’s temperament was stubborn—the more Duke Medillion forbade something, the more determined Luo Nan became to do it.
Especially after that incident.
Over time, Duke Medillion simply revoked Luo Nan’s access privileges to the family’s supernatural materials repository.
Unexpectedly, today his father had restored to him this privilege, which had originally belonged to him.
“Perfect. Besides needing supernatural materials to assist my warrior cultivation, the family repository should also contain quite a few items useful for preparing countermeasures against ‘her.’”
Luo Nan hadn’t forgotten the crisis he needed to resolve—the ‘conspiracy with demons’. Although he had settled on a strategy of ‘avoidance as the highest priority’, he still needed to prepare thoroughly for all eventualities.
Considering the worst-case scenario—if he truly confronted her—being prepared would still be far better than having no preparation at all.
“Aina, come with me to the materials repository. I’m about to go on a ‘grand shopping spree’!”
“Coming, Young Master!”
…
The supernatural materials repository within Luo Nan’s home was located on the third basement level of the Duke’s manor. The thick metal door was alloyed with arcane steel, mithril, and even primordial gold—these magic-conducting metals.
It was estimated that if the wealth spent forging this door were converted into gold, its weight would exceed that of the door itself!
And this was merely the supernatural materials repository of the Medillion family’s Duke Manor in the imperial capital. In the numerous family estates distributed across the Medillions’ ancestral fiefdom—Linxia Bay—repositories of identical or even superior specifications to the Duke Manor’s were not uncommon.
Thus, although he was a debauched villain, behind his debauchery lay the centuries-old foundation built by his family’s surname!
“There was a saying in my previous life: ‘How can your mere ten years of diligent study compare with my family’s three generations of effort?’”
“Back then, I scorned that saying, but now that my identity has shifted from ‘ten years of diligent study’ to ‘three generations of effort,’ I feel that saying does hold a sliver of truth.”
“Sigh, the wicked noble class!”
Accompanied by maid Aina, Luo Nan entered the supernatural materials repository. Upon stepping inside, he saw countless towering storage cabinets standing silently in orderly rows, resembling a black matrix, wordlessly proclaiming the Medillion family’s profound foundational strength.
Luo Nan waved his hand; beside him, Aina—as if sensing his intent—handed the lengthy requisition list to the repository’s custodian.
The custodian was an elderly man with no discernible presence—snow-white hair, hunched shoulders, and slightly clouded eyes, appearing completely like an ordinary old man nearing the end of his life.
Luo Nan scrutinized him again, and an idea involuntarily surfaced in his mind:
“Could he be some hidden master sweeping the floors?”
Although Luo Nan had seen the custodian many times before Duke Medillion revoked his access privileges, back then he had not yet awakened his previous-life memories and naturally paid no attention to this seemingly unremarkable old man.
“Ah, Young Master Luo Nan… has His Grace permitted you entry again?”
The custodian’s voice was exceptionally hoarse, as if his throat had been slit by a knife. He accepted the requisition list from Aina’s hands and winced slightly as he said, “The items requested by Young Master are quite numerous. You are…”
“Yes, this time, I succeeded.”
Luo Nan did not conceal from the custodian the fact that he had entered the supernatural realm. Firstly, he was certain the custodian was trustworthy; secondly, it was impossible to hide anyway.
“Good, good, good.”
The custodian uttered the word ‘good’ three times in succession. He set down the list in his hands, and his previously clouded eyes suddenly became clear as he carefully examined Luo Nan.
“I knew it—the efforts of His Grace and Young Master would not be in vain. If the Lady were to know, she would surely feel comforted.”
Upon saying this, the custodian seemed to realize something and hastily cut off the topic, nodding apologetically to Luo Nan before rising to walk toward the storage cabinets.
“Young Master, I’ve reviewed the materials you listed on your requisition. The vast majority are available in the repository, except for one item…”
“What is it?”
“It’s the ‘scales from the corner of a mermaid’s eye’ you wrote at the end,” the custodian pointed toward a certain direction among the countless storage cabinets. “Although this material is relatively rare, its uses are trivial, and the repository currently has no inventory.”
“However, the family’s repositories in Linxia Bay should still have quite a bit, since the mermaid race primarily inhabits the Lixin Sea south of Linxia Bay.”
“If we were to dispatch a batch of ‘scales from the corner of a mermaid’s eye’ from the Bay region, how long would it take?”
The custodian counted on his fingers. “It would take approximately half a month.”
“That’s too long.”
“What does Young Master need this material for? If it’s to assist warrior cultivation, the repository contains many materials that are completely superior substitutes.”
Luo Nan needed these ‘scales from the corner of a mermaid’s eye’ not for warrior cultivation. As the custodian said, the repository held many superior materials that could substitute.
But unfortunately, he needed this material to deal with ‘her’.
Moreover, this material was an irreplaceable core component.
Recalling the crafting process of that supernatural artifact in ‘The Shining Myriad Trails’, Luo Nan replied to the custodian: “No, I’m not using it to assist cultivation. It’s just a sudden whim—I wanted to experiment with this material. Since the repository doesn’t have any, then forget it.”
“I have no other immediate needs. Please prepare these materials and deliver them to my training chamber later.”
“As you command, Young Master.”
…
“Sigh, utterly speechless yet perfectly reasonable.”
“These ‘scales from the corner of a mermaid’s eye’ are the core material for crafting that item. Without them, facing her, I’ll have absolutely no means of resistance.”
Arriving at his personal training chamber, Luo Nan surveyed the surroundings. “Tomorrow, I’ll go check out that place. If even there doesn’t have it, then I’ll… run!”
Honestly, Luo Nan didn’t care at all about his identity as a Radiant University freshman. After all, in the original ‘The Shining Myriad Trails’, shortly after his ‘conspiracy with demons’, he was swiftly humiliated in the classic ‘debauched young master covets the heroine’ trope soon after the semester began. Later, enraged and humiliated, he revealed his demonic powers and was thoroughly expelled from the university.
“I wonder if I’d receive a world warning if I weren’t expelled.”
“Never mind—consider that later. For now, I should stabilize my newly broken-through realm.”
Luo Nan opened the materials case. The cultivation materials he required were meticulously categorized and neatly arranged. Those rare supernatural materials, which were worth tens of thousands of gold coins and nearly impossible to obtain externally, were now piled within the icebox-sized materials case like the most ordinary stones.
Having become a first-tier warrior, Luo Nan could now sense the supernatural fluctuations within these precious materials—especially those assisting body tempering. Merely being near them, he could feel the faint battle aura within his entire body surging excitedly, an instinctive craving for these materials.
“No wonder it’s the Duke’s manor—materials are pre-processed and ready for direct use. This saves me a lot of trouble.”
Medicine carries three parts poison, let alone supernatural materials. Usable materials from high-tier magical beasts or century-old spirit plants that absorbed the essence of heaven and earth—if used directly without processing, especially for warriors using them to assist cultivation—they could easily cause ‘magic sedimentation’ or even destroy the user’s foundation.
Therefore, processing methods for supernatural materials were, aside from the material’s innate quality, the most important value measurement indicator.
But most warriors couldn’t learn these processing methods. Even mages required years of extensive practice to achieve a certain level of proficiency.
Among them, various controls of fire timing, magic guidance, and even microscopic structural decomposition and recombination had, over thousands of years of human civilization’s development, formed a complex supernatural discipline, giving rise to a branch profession unique to mages—’Refiners’.
When playing ‘The Shining Myriad Trails’ in his previous life, Luo Nan discovered that only after the heroine whose profession was Refiner officially joined the party would the game’s ‘alchemy system’ unlock.
“But fortunately, I’m not some traditional dragon-arrogant-heaven protagonist—I’m a debauched villain! The number of Refiners employed by my family can’t even be counted on one hand.”
Thinking this, Luo Nan removed his upper garment, revealing his sculpturally perfect upper body. He picked up a small vial of red medicinal liquid from the materials case and tilted his head to down it.
Boom—
The pungent liquid instantly transformed into a surge of heat upon entering his mouth, flooding into Luo Nan’s limbs and entire body. He felt as if every muscle in his body was being repeatedly hammered by a forging hammer, his entire being transformed into a red-hot iron ingot on an anvil.
“No wonder it’s the highest-grade body-tempering potion—this medicinal effect is truly potent!”
At this moment, steam began rising from every pore across Luo Nan’s body. Without hesitation, he assumed a stance and began practicing the ‘Seventeen Forms of Body Tempering’.
“The ‘Seventeen Forms of Body Tempering’—a universal cultivation method for warriors newly entering the first tier. With the assistance of body-tempering potions, one can stabilize their realm more quickly.”
Whoosh, whoosh, crackle—
Luo Nan closed his eyes, gradually integrating the physical techniques into his instincts, practicing the various forms selflessly.
As his limbs swung, the air gradually resonated with a humming sound from his movements. “I truly feel like my meridians and bones are being purified and rebuilt.”
“Wait, no—hold on!”
Luo Nan abruptly halted his movements as he entered an optimal state. “Why do I feel… the bit of battle aura I painstakingly cultivated is being… eaten by something?”
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