Buying the herbs and such went without much issues... Besides us all cringing at the costs as many of the herbs used in this Blood Returning Elixir was used in common remedies used by nobles in dealing with drug poisoning.
"Those nobles! They have made everything good, so expensive!" Xiao Wu snapped in annoyance as she stomped out alongside my more... Normal steps as we left the shop damn near broke once again.
I just sighed helplessly before I said. "Well we got enough for us all to have ten baths over the next month. We can make more money in this month."
Once we grew in strength. We could go fuck around in the local Soul Master Arena's and make massive amounts of money should we win.
And with my special physique and overpowered soul ring configuration when I became a lvl 30 Soul Elder with a black Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring... I would beat anyone of the same realm like an unwanted stepchild.
But as we were going to walk back to Shrek, a loud series of screams rang out. Blood curdling screams of agony, dying, and the mentally shattered rang out across the street from us.
"Lets go look!" Ning Rongrong said with a grin at the thought of looking at some drama.
And without waiting for us at all. The little witch sprinted off with a mischevious giggle as I ran behind the damned princess as I knew I would have to be the one to drag her ass back if there was an evil soul master or something on the other side.
But as we crossed through the alleyway and saw in the courtyard on the otherside. Mubai, who had been sprinting beside me, called out. "Xiaotao! You are making a scene!"
And there she was... The reverse jade beauty. The woman who would get hopped up on her own aphrodisiac indusing flames and then 'attack' you!
Ma Xiaotao was even more physically mature than Zhu Zhuqing, despite only being a good year older than us at most. And it was definitely a scene as two yellow spirit rings floated behind her as she was stomping on some guys that were clearly 'civilians.'
Then my face twitched as she looked up with crimson eye's that glowed in amusement as she looked to Dubai and said with a grin. "Boss Dubai! These little bastards thought they could roll over one of the merchant caravans Wuji escorted into Suotou City! Help me beat the shit out of them so we can get the locations of their fences haha!"
And then it hit me!
Why rob the bandits... When you could rob the rich merchants who were buying stolen goods!
"Ma Xiaotao, you are a genius! Wutong, get your itching powder, Dubai, help me pull down their pants, we're going to shove some poisoned sticks up there if they don't give us the right answers haha!" I laughed manically as I approached the now utterly terrified thieves.
Dubai had only known me for a day... But he just cracked his knuckles and said. "Fine. But we aren't leaving any witnesses. I don't want this kind of reputation to spread."
And before the girls could ruin it with their 'morals' or disgust.
The leader of the group, who was under Ma Xiaotao's boot, screamed out. "I don't want poison in my butt! I will tell you anything! I will tell you where the fences and criminal groups of Suotuo are! I will have my hidden wife sleep with you all! Just don't stick it in there!!"
And I turned to Wutong who coldly nodded as she handed me the alchemy notebook I used to keep notes and she brought out a large knife to the man and began playing with it visibly as I waved my hand to him and said.
"Good, start naming groups and locations. Each location you name... Saves you a finger. So you had best have at least ten."
And so he blubbered and quickly began naming names and even snitched on a couple of bandit groups' locations outside of the city. And those guys outside... We could give the locations to Zhao Wuji and Flender.
They could deal with them, leaving no survivors, and bring back all the ill-gotten goods to give Shrek Academy an infusion of liquid funds.
Still with the locations all done. Mao Xiaotao kicked the guy across the garden we had invaded, and as she moved to leave, I nodded and closed the book with a crisp snap and called out. "Time to go."
After we left the property and got down the alley and onto the main street. Ma Xiaotao quickly stepped in front of us and gave us all introspective looks as she grinned. "Hey, that was a pretty good show. But that isn't important... You!"
She pointed dramatically with a slurry of emotions crossing her face. "You are the one who has been making those elixirs to keep my evil fire down!"
There was a pause as the other girls knew what 'evil fire' meant and they also gave me weird looks before I said rather unsurely. "That is me I suppose? I hope it's helped."
She hurriedly nodded before throwing a look at Dubai who raised a hand helplessly. "It's helped alot to say the least over the years. But anyway we should go head back to Shrek to tell Wuji and Flender about our finds."
With that we quickly headed back with Ma Xiaotao taking the lead back to Shrek which made me realize something. Ma Xiaotao wasn't like Ma Hongjun who dealt with his evil fire via fucking whores and civilians.
Ma Xiaotao didn't want to be fucking strangers to deal with her evil fire, and thus she had to work hard to suppress her evil fire.
Once we got back to Shrek though in a rush. We flagged down Flender who was trying to clearly write some kind of weird advertisement for us to go like mow grass or something.
And after explaining and handing over the list and maps of the surrounding area of Suotou City. Flender nodded with a solemn nod. "Yes I understand, we will destroy those illegal bandit groups and with any funds I collect. I will reinvest it back into Suotou City and you kids to honor the fallen!"
My face twitched as his usual shameless greed but after looking around. I coudn't help but notice the flavorless Grandmaster was also completely gone.
"So where is our Grandmaster?" I asked curiously.
Flender's face became... Odd before he said. "Ahh, he and Wuji went out to go make some money as well. As well as possibly seeing an old friend of his apparently."
'Huh, I wonder if he is going to Liu Erlong for money?' I mused to myself and then I just shrugged after the thought.
Still I then clapped my hands together and looked around to everyone before saying. "Alright. Well I am going to setup the medicine baths for the girls first so they can watch over one another. Then us boys can take our own baths."
Thankfully we had already prepared and got a bunch of large metal barrels with some steps we but in them to sit within. So the only difficult issue was taking buckets of water from the well to fill said barrels...
As it's not like Shrek had convienent hoses or a shower system after all.
Once we got the barrels filled with clean water and atop the some burners I buried beneath the barrels to heat the bath. I began explaining. "This body refinement bath will infuse you with the powerful blood essence of the spirit beasts used in it's refinement. It will refine your organs, meridians and enhance your spirit energy flow to an extent after some use."
I then took a breath and look at Ning Rongrong, Ma Xiaotao, Xiao Wu, Zhu Zhuqing, and finally Tang Wutong before I said seriously.
"This refinement bath is a very strong and potent refinement method... It WILL hurt. It will feel like fire ants are burrowing under your skin and gnawing on your bones while fire is running through veins with each beat of your heart."
I looked them all dead in the eye and said bluntly. "This WILL not kill your or even cripple you if you lose control. But it will hurt even more if you don't control yourself. You all have to steel your minds for this, and I won't be here to help as... You ladies are going to need to get undressed obviously."
Tang Wutong then said calmly but firmly. "Pain on the path of body refinement is just a simple fact. Xiao Wu and I are well aware."
Which was true. Over the years, they both had, had some of my concotions even if they weren't as strong as this.
And speaking of which. With everyone except for Dai Mubai going for their third spirit ring within this year... I should probably try to get some more whale gel for them to try to get their third spirit ring at the five thousand year range if possible.
Of course even now it wasn't nearly time for me to mess around with using alchemy to enhance the age of our spirit rings to fix my teammates shitty first spirit rings.
But later one, when we were around level fifty? I could work on fixing our first couple spirit rings even without things like Heavenly Herbs.
Then Zhu Zhuqing said quietly but also firmly. "I am not afraid of pain. Thank you for the warning though."
Ma Xiaotao likewise just snorted while I knew she herself was being tormented by her evil fire so this wasn't going to be anything out of the ordinary for her.
As for Ning Rongrong... She was slightly pale at the thought as after a couple of days around me. She knew that I woudn't joke about this kind of thing.
Still she made a noise of discontent before she said proudly. "I may be the princess of the Seven Glazed Treasure Clan. But I won't be defeated by some random decotion!"
My lips twitched as I thought idly. 'Yeah... You are going to be the first one to cry for sure.'
So I gave the girls a look and said helplessly. "I suggest you ladies take turns. Two at a time at first and I can start the next set once the first two are done so you ladies can watch over one another and help each other out of the baths."
Tang Wutong then asked. "When will the baths be done? Any signs to note for?"
I nodded and explained that the baths would clearly done as the red bath would turn into dull grey waste water that would need to be drained out and the barrel rinsed out.
With that all explained I got the materials that Flender already collected while we were in the city as he was indeed a fast as hell one with his owl martial soul.
And the girls had the wonderful view of me tying up a couple dead spirit beasts as Flender coudn't find any bigger ones we could 'raise' and bleed for our uses and begin draining their crimson blood out into several large pans.
Once I collected the blood, I mixed several weak toxins into the pans which made the blood cells and lifeforce rupture turning said blood into the consistency of yogurt while the water and waste minerals of the blood seperated away from the blood essence.
Then I mixed several herbs into the pans to remove the toxins and soothe the roiling blood essence to make it's absorbtion more gentle before I tossed the blood essence bath bombs into the barrels of scalding hot water.
A loud crackling hiss rang out as the clear water turned scalding red like a thick chili oil that made our noses burn with the girls going pale at the sight besides Tang Wutong.
But even Xiao Wu whimpered and asked softly. "Xiao Long... You aren't trying to cook this adorable rabbit are you?"
To which I looked her up and down and she glared as I said teasingly. "Nah, not enough meat on you haha."
Then I gave them all a look and said. "Goodluck. I am going to go explain this to Oscar and Dai Mubai while you ladies have your soak."
And before they could start screaming threats at me when the pain hit... I quickly got the hell out of there. As I had no doubts that by tommorrow they were going to want to bite me to say the least."