A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity-Chapter 37 - 36: Leather Making

Only after confirming the Fear Bear was truly dead did Lü Zhong walk over and pull the Green Frost Sword from the corpse.

Looking at the filthy sword, he couldn’t help but frown. He had no choice but to slap three Cleaning Talismans on it to remove the grime.

Even so, he could still smell a strange odor.

Just then, Lin Zhongze walked over, a joyful expression on his face. "Fellow Daoist Lü, we really have you to thank for this! Otherwise, who knows how we would’ve managed to kill this beast..."

He had only taken a single palm strike, and already his blood was churning, a sweet taste rising in his throat. He didn’t dare to imagine what price he would have had to pay without Lü Zhong’s final sword strike.

"It was just a lucky shot..." Lü Zhong said, waving his hand dismissively.

"Luck has nothing to do with it. Fellow Daoist Lü, you’re truly modest!" Lin Zhongze said, shaking his head in disagreement.

To land a precise blow on the Fear Bear’s vital point in such a tense situation required incredible control over one’s Magical Artifact—something impossible to achieve without long, hard training.

An inch higher or lower, and the outcome would have been entirely different.

But seeing that Lü Zhong didn’t want to talk more about it, Lin Zhongze tactfully dropped the subject.

Meanwhile, Huang Shuyuan had already stepped forward and begun processing the Fear Bear’s carcass.

Because the Fear Bear had fallen so quickly, her contribution had been minimal.

The team didn’t carry dead weight. To protect her ten-percent share, Huang Shuyuan, having contributed little to the kill, had no choice but to painstakingly take on the dirty and laborious tasks.

As a Talisman Maker, her basic skinning skills were quite good.

With Xiaoqi and Sanniang’s help, she easily skinned the bear, leaving the hide almost perfectly intact.

The more intact the bear hide, the higher the price it could fetch.

And this one before them was simply perfect!

Besides the hide, the Fear Bear’s teeth, fur, and Bear Bones were also top-grade artifact refining materials.

As for the bear’s gallbladder, heart, and eyes...

They also had some value and could be used for alchemy.

The Fear Bear’s meat was inedible. Although eating it had a physically strengthening effect, the downside was that one’s Divine Soul would become weak, making them easily frightened and prone to terror. Its only use was for concocting the Soul-Exhausting Poison.

But very few Alchemists knew how to concoct this secret poison; at least, none were known to exist in Qingliu Square.

But on the principle that every little bit counted, they took a portion of the meat with them, as long as it didn’t slow them down.

"All things considered, our haul from this trip is pretty substantial. We’re looking at two hundred Spirit Stones at the very least!" Lin Zhongze’s heart swelled with excitement and joy, and a massive grin nearly split his face.

The others felt much the same, every one of them beaming with delight.

...

「By the time they returned to Qingliu Square, it was the middle of the month.」

At this hour, all the purchasing shops were closed, so they had no way to sell their haul.

So, Huang Shuyuan suggested they go ahead and process the bear hide now.

A processed hide would fetch a higher price than a fresh one.

Lin Zhongze listened with a calm expression. He didn’t make a decision immediately, instead turning to look at Lü Zhong.

"Fellow Daoist Lü, what do you think?"

Lü Zhong understood what Huang Shuyuan was thinking. ’She’s clearly afraid Lin Zhongze will take the materials and run. Faced with a huge sum of nearly three hundred Spirit Stones, no Loose Cultivator could resist that temptation. To be honest, I’m worried about that too.’

"I agree," Lü Zhong said.

"In that case, let’s all go to Fellow Daoist Huang’s home and wait for her to finish processing the hide," Lin Zhongze said. A flicker of disappointment flashed in his eyes, but he concealed it so well that no one noticed.

Huang Shuyuan lived in a small courtyard on Tonghe Lane, which was located on South Street.

"You Talisman Makers really are different, being able to live in such a nice house!" Xiaoqi’s eyes lit up as he entered. He looked all around, envy practically written on his face.

After all, he didn’t live in a proper lane, but in a row house near the edge of the Workshop Market.

These so-called row houses were, in reality, just brick houses slightly better than shacks, named so because they were usually built in a continuous row.

The row houses were small, each with just one room and one main hall, yet they were packed with people. Typically, an entire family of several people would be crammed into one unit.

As for the drawbacks of the row houses, the list was practically endless.

The air was foul, the noise was incessant, the sanitation was abysmal...

Living in a place like this, even the concentration of Spiritual Qi was the lowest in the entire Workshop Market.

The only advantage was probably the cheap rent, at just one Spirit Stone per month.

"It is, this house is amazing!" Sanniang said, her face also filled with envy.

Even though she was on her own, she was also studying to appraise medicinal ingredients, so she couldn’t afford to spend money freely. Unable to afford the five Spirit Stones a month for a small courtyard, she could only rent a row house and be Xiaoqi’s neighbor.

Honestly, Sanniang was truly envious of Huang Shuyuan.

Before she took up appraising medicinal ingredients, she had considered learning Talisman Making.

Unfortunately, learning Talisman Making was incredibly difficult. After wasting a good deal of time, she had been forced to accept that she had no talent for it and switched to the less promising field of appraisal.

"Being an Appraiser is great, too. I heard the masters at the purchasing shops earn a monthly salary of five Spirit Stones!" Huang Shuyuan replied with a small smile, emerging from the kitchen with a tray in her hands after overhearing Xiaoqi and Sanniang.

As she spoke, she set down the tray carrying tea and pastries.

The tea was ordinary green tea, but the pastries were the fancy, honey-sweetened kind, which made Xiaoqi, watching from the side, nearly drool.

"Help yourselves to some tea and snacks. I’m going to go process the bear hide."

"Fellow Daoist Huang, would you mind if I watched from the side?" Lü Zhong asked.

He was ashamed to admit it; though he was a Talisman Maker, it was one thing that he couldn’t skin a beast, but he didn’t even know how to process a hide.

After all, many high-level talismans were made from the hides of Demon Beasts.

Talisman Paper made from the hides of Demon Beasts had naturally high Spiritual Qi conductivity, making it far superior to the Talisman Paper made from Talisman Grass in terms of both a talisman’s power and the success rate of its creation.

The craft of hide processing was, one might say, an essential, fundamental skill for any Talisman Maker.

Hearing his request, Huang Shuyuan stopped and looked back at Lü Zhong. After a moment’s hesitation, she said, "You may, but it will cost you three Spirit Stones, Fellow Daoist Lü. It can’t be helped; I had to pay to learn this craft myself."

"No problem!" Lü Zhong agreed without the slightest hesitation.

"In that case, come with me." Huang Shuyuan nodded and walked towards her Talisman Making Room.

Unlike Lü Zhong’s own Talisman Making Room, Huang Shuyuan’s was not only visibly cleaner and tidier, but the air also lacked the characteristic strange odor of Talisman Ink. Instead, a faint, pleasant fragrance lingered.

"The process for preparing a hide is actually quite simple. It’s really just a few repeating steps."

As she spoke, Huang Shuyuan had already started working on the bear hide, explaining as she went. "For example, what I’m doing now is removing the hair and grease from the hide. If this step isn’t done properly, the hide will become stiff and hard when it dries..."