Dimensional Slime Rancher-Chapter 19: Stupid AI’s opinion!

"Did General Ouyang actually visit that tiny shop?" The Crown Prince, Xia Long, looked at Advisor Xu in genuine astonishment and asked, tapping his fingers against his golden throne.

Advisor Xu lightly stroked his long, meticulously groomed beard and the corner of his mouth curled up as he nodded respectfully.

He had been astonished as well; he certainly had not expected someone as fiercely proud as the supreme commander of the military to casually walk into an alleyway store.

"Did your Shadow Guards find out the exact reason why General Ouyang appeared there?"

The Crown Prince asked as he stood up and lightly paced about his luxurious hall, his eyes narrowed in deep political calculation.

Advisor Xu paused for a moment and was frowning as he uncertainly replied,

"Perhaps the General was simply attracted by the sheer quality of the shop’s elemental merchandise..."

The Crown Prince turned his head and stared at Advisor Xu with a cold, false smile.

"Do you really believe that your answer is realistic? General Ouyang is a peak Core Formation master and has already reached a state where external tools and low-tier beasts are essentially useless to him. Since he has no desire for common artifacts, why would he visit a supposed ’Rancher’ for the sake of mere shopping? He went there to make a point."

The corner of Advisor Xu’s mouth curled up. He really believed that General Ouyang was there just to buy the miraculous items.

The Crown Prince had not personally felt the suffocating purity of the shop’s true energy, so he had absolutely no idea.

He would not be questioning that assumption if he had absorbed the aura of a Searing Mana Cube at least once.

At any rate, from Advisor Xu’s experienced point of view, that Dimensional Ranch was a terrifying anomaly.

"Your Highness is absolutely right. I will send more spies to investigate his military motives immediately," Advisor Xu said smoothly as he performed a deep fist-and-palm salute, wisely not disputing his master.

"Go on. It seems that you really enjoy the merchandise from that strange merchant. Is it really that miraculous?" The Crown Prince lightly glanced at Advisor Xu and asked, raising an eyebrow. He was naturally aware of Advisor Xu’s daily whereabouts.

"That’s right, Your Highness. Especially the Basic Hydro Slime... The pure water Qi is both violently refreshing and deeply soothing for the meridians!"

Advisor Xu’s eyes lit up as he replied honestly.

Immediately after, he remembered he was speaking to the ruthless Crown Prince, so he suddenly shut his mouth and withdrew into the shadows with a forced, polite smile.

"A purifying slime... It sounds pretty interesting." The Crown Prince was startled for a moment, and then a dark, calculating smile appeared on his aristocratic face. "Perhaps I should pay this ’Rancher’ a visit myself."

As the night fell, the moonlight was like a silver veil as it draped a layer of cold afterglow over the capital.

...

Inside the Workshop of the Dimensional Ranch.

Ren took a deep, steadying breath and took out a second Starlight Lotus and another glowing Radiant Moth from the stasis-vault.

He carefully extracted the moth’s core fluid while completely ignoring its sad, musical humming.

After painfully carving the specific runes into the Lotus stem and perfectly extracting the glowing sap, Ren followed the brutal instructions of the blueprint to synthesize the Luminous Spirit-Lotus Elixir once more.

He placed the volatile, glowing mixture into the primary crucible of the thermal compression array.

He then carefully injected the preserved moth wing-dust and sealed the heavy blast doors.

Then, it was time for the absolute most important step that he had completely missed before.

"System, how exactly do I use my true energy to manually buffer the synthesis? Do I just blast the array with raw Qi?" Ren puzzledly asked, staring at the humming machine.

[Manual Synthesis Buffering: The Splicer nourishes and aligns the raw materials with true energy by permeating it through the external nodes of the compression array. The Splicer will be severely tested on his ability to delicately manipulate true energy and his microscopic control over the genetic structure of the elixir,] the System explained via a floating text prompt.

Ren was startled when he read the System’s explanation.

As his lazy gaze focused on the heavy, glowing array that was currently superheating the volatile mixture, he saw violent waves of cosmic heat radiating from the thick metal.

"System, are you sure about this? If I place my bare hands onto the external nodes of that glowing forge, won’t my skin instantly melt off?"

The corner of Ren’s mouth was violently twitching.

[The external nodes of the thermal compression array were specially forged from absolute-zero cryo-steel. They will automatically adjust the ambient temperature once they detect the Host’s true energy. There is absolutely no need for the Host to panic like a coward,] the System solemnly, mockingly stated.

Ren was deeply skeptical as he raised his hands. Heavy, liquid-like rays of blue light circulated around his palms. It was like a glowing, aquatic veil was draped over his skin.

An early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator was able to easily manifest their true energy outside of their body, and it was also the absolute minimum standard required for manual high-tier synthesis.

Ren had a highly solemn expression as he slowly, nervously placed both of his palms onto the glowing nodes of the array.

A warm, incredibly comfortable feeling was transmitted to his palms, but the flesh-melting hotness he expected did not appear at all.

"How conveniently amazing," Ren exhaled in pure relief.

Then he slowly closed his eyes and manipulated the dense true energy within his Foundation Establishment core.

He slowly directed the liquid-like energy through the cryo-steel nodes and directly into the violently boiling dimensional materials inside the array...

It was a kind of invisible, microscopic permeation that was as delicate as threading a needle in the dark.

Through his energy connection with the nodes, Ren seemed to be able to physically feel the chaotic cellular changes in the ingredients inside the crucible.

The volatile Starlight Lotus sap and the moth fluid were constantly clashing, but under the soothing, heavy nourishment of his true energy, they were being forcibly, perfectly aligned.

The genetic essence was constantly, flawlessly binding into a single, stable structure.

After thirty grueling minutes of transferring his true energy like this, Ren slowly pulled back his trembling hands and stopped the flow.

There were heavy, cold beads of sweat dripping down from his forehead.

The massive loss of true energy was making him feel incredibly drained and physically exhausted.

Ren collapsed onto a nearby stool to recover his breath for around half an hour, then he forced himself up and carried on with the manual buffering once more.

The true energy within his core was tightly controlled according to his desperate wishes as it flowed into the array and continuously stabilized the volatile elixir.

After another agonizing half an hour, Ren pulled back his shaking hands once more.

He heavily breathed out and used a dirty towel to wipe the sweat from his pale face.

At that exact moment, the Workshop was unknowingly enveloped within an extremely rich, breathtakingly pure fragrance.

There was the distinct smell of cosmic starlight, blooming lotus, and pure, concentrated life force perfectly mixed within the fragrance.

Compared to his disastrous first attempt, the fragrance was infinitely more intoxicating.

If the explosive aura from before felt like standing next to a live bomb, then the current fragrance made Ren feel as if he was floating peacefully in a warm, healing ocean of stars.

Even Ren could not help but deeply sniff the air a few times, as the rich, pure life force was incredibly intoxicating.

This was the true result of manual energy buffering.

It was indeed infinitely superior to purely automated synthesis, and the healing efficacy would definitely be absolute perfection as well.

The Host’s true energy acted like a perfect cosmic glue.

After it was injected into the dimensional ingredients, a special genetic catalysis occurred and drastically stabilized the structure of the elixir.

In addition, the raw spirit energy within the materials was perfectly, evenly distributed on a microscopic level.

After letting the array run its final cooling cycle, the Luminous Spirit-Lotus Elixir was finally completed.

Even Ren was feeling a sudden, intense burst of vitality in his tired body just from breathing in the ambient smell of the finished product.

Hiss...

The heavy blast doors of the array slid open. Ren eagerly walked over, and a rich, glowing fragrance immediately gushed out

. The cool, silver steam, heavily accompanied by the scent of pure life force, rapidly spread into the air of the Workshop.

After greedily inhaling the glowing air once, Ren’s tired gaze finally focused directly on the contents of the primary crucible.

The moment he looked, an expression filled with absolute, indescribable relief and pure capitalist happiness appeared on his lazy face. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"I actually succeeded!"

The Luminous Spirit-Lotus Elixir was quietly resting within the crystal vial in the crucible.

The liquid was crystal clear, glowing with a brilliant, pure white starlight, and was slightly shimmering with contained, healing energy.

The color was a flawless, translucent silver, and there was absolutely no burnt foam floating in the liquid like the previous disaster.

Evidently, the volatile genetic essence had completely, perfectly bonded due to the manual true energy buffering.

Ren’s tired heart soared. The elixir looked as exquisitely beautiful as a bottled galaxy and radiated an aura of pure, undeniable salvation.

"System, this time the Luminous Spirit-Lotus Elixir should definitely be considered a flawless success, right?" Ren proudly asked the System, puffing out his chest.

He was a genuine synthesis genius. How difficult could manual genetic splicing actually be?

[It barely meets the minimum eligibility criterion to not be classified as toxic waste. Does the Host really want the System to formally rate the Elixir this time?] the System solemnly, mockingly asked.

Ren was completely stunned for a moment.

Before he could angrily react or tell it to shut up, the System began to solemnly announce its brutal rating.

[The Host did not manage to fully preserve the Radiant Moth’s wing-dust during extraction, and the microscopic structure was slightly bruised. The Lotus sap was injected 1.2 seconds too late, and the stabilizing runes carved into the stem were not nearly deep or uniform enough. The manual control during the buffering process was incredibly feeble, and the overall purity of the Host’s true energy was laughably weak. Overall rating: A Luminous Spirit-Lotus Elixir that barely qualifies to save a dying mortal.]

Ren expressionlessly glared at the glowing vial of elixir.

He suddenly felt that the magnificent, life-saving item that he thought was absolute perfection had become incredibly flawed and cheap.

The glorious, cosmic fragrance even seemed to have noticeably weakened under the System’s harsh criticism.

"A System with a venomous, hyper-critical tongue will definitely not be loved by its Host!" Ren mentally yelled, rubbing his temples.

Ren was utterly exasperated. He decided to take a deep breath of the ambient life force to calm his raging nerves, then switched his focus back to the glowing vial.

As it was the very first time he had successfully completed a high-tier, life-saving synthesis using his own true energy, he was still incredibly excited, regardless of the stupid AI’s opinion.