Still Learning To Live As A Cultivator

Chapter Ninety One - I am rewarded?

"And the victor of this challenge is Leo!"

Surprise was followed by the warmth of happiness.  Leon's personality was such that he wasn't the gloating type, didn't think he was better than others and in wake of the Teacher's wonderful declaration he'd even forget that where there was a winner, there was a loser.  He was just satisfied that he hadn't let Jin Li and the others down.  His eyes, which had curved into joyful crescent moons, sought for them wanting to share with them this moment.

He vaguely heard Jude arguing about something in the background, maybe a small part of him was even aware that Jude was dissatisfied with his victory, but this sour note was drowned out in the melody of happiness and couldn't touch his mood.

But before he could rush off to celebrate with his friends, the scholar Teacher stopped him with a question; "Why did you waste time cutting off the wyrm's breath flowers?"

This had been an unnecessary step.  The flowers did not effect the quality or efficiency of the pill at all, nor did they have any great effect on the overall impurities that might linger in the pill at the end.  So cutting them off would just waste time.

Leon knew this, he'd learned about it in a lecture before he'd attempted to make them at that time, but he and Leo shared a certain nature caused by poverty.  "Well, it's j-just that wyrm's b-b-breath flowers c-can b-be d-dried and used as p-p-p... other things."  The fresh flowers were used in certain advanced pills, but Leon hadn't practiced enough to attempt those pills, but Leo had found out that the dry flowers could be burned as part of an incense blend or turned into perfume, though it was not that popular amongst nobles.  So he'd purposefully cut off the heads to dry and sell for a handful of coins, just that he'd not the chance to do anything about it before Caprian trashed his place.  Leon had cleared them out, unknowingly.  But with the regained memory, old habits resurfaced. 

"It's a w-waste otherwise," he couldn't help but blushing over his useless frugality in the moment.  The scholar's smile flickered a bit as if the man was caught by surprise, but it regained its ambiance in a heartbeat, letting no one notice it.

In the meantime, Leon had already hurried off in order to rejoined his friends, a tablet with the won points in hand. As Alchemists rarely traded in points, they would keep a stock of them in this way for later use.

On seeing Leon, this victor, Maimai threw herself into his arms to congratulate him; "Ha ha ha! I knew you would win!" She grinned. Leon was used to her warm affections, though he related them to a siblings care, however they were intolerable to a certain man and that man literally tugged her away by grinning the back of her clothes without care of her nobility or gender.

'Mine!' This was the tone he expressed wordlessly to those around him as he moved into the place he'd forcefully made the girl vacate and to make doubly sure everyone understood, he marked Leon's lips with his own.

"Ah, your nose is bleeding!" Sun pointed at Maimai, who was unperturbed by Jin Li's behaviour, too busy enjoying the scene before her.

Bowyer and Pike were shocked, the former grabbed a handkerchief from an inner pocket and denounced Jin Li's actions; "How can you be so rough to a girl?"

"Tch," Jin Li's arms adjusted their position around Leon's body, pressing him to his side as he glanced at Maimai with disdain. "There must be something wrong with that girl for her to bleed so much in that manner."

Maimai laughed as she accepted amicably the handkerchief with its foreign masculine scent rather than the light perfume she was used to and wiped clean the dripping blood. "Don't worry, I'm not as fragile as others view me. Jin Li did not hurt me." No, just fed her premium dog food.