The Work of Ink Blending

Li Jinxuan took the goods, paid, and left.

Song Lin breathed a sigh of relief. He had harbored a secret crush on her for a long time but only dared to keep it to himself. She was a genius, while he was just an ordinary ink-blending master.

Song Lin's family was very poor. His father had been a card cultivator who lost his life in a skirmish. Not long after, his mother also passed away from a severe illness, leaving him alone in the world when he was only twelve. Fortunately, when she was alive, his mother had been a two-star ink-blending master, so she left behind some books on ink blending. He used a portion of the meager savings his parents left behind to buy materials and experiment on his own. After countless failures that left him with numerous scars, he finally succeeded. Since then, he had made a living from this profession.

He was sixteen this year. Four long years of diligent ink blending had allowed his spiritual force to break through to the two-star realm early on. However, a two-star Safebox was too expensive for him to afford, so he could only rent laboratories for his experiments.

Half an hour later, Song Lin arrived home. This house was not his old home; the rent for his old home was quite expensive, so he had to move to this place, which only cost 100 Ren a month. Although the house was quite cramped and suffocating, it was enough for him.

Song Lin pulled out his energy card and inserted it into the power device; the lights in the house instantly flickered on. His home didn't have much—just lights, a small refrigerator, a processing machine, a one-star Safebox, and his ink-blending tools. All of these devices were connected to the power source, consuming one level 1 energy card every five days, which pained Song Lin's wallet immensely.

Song Lin opened the refrigerator and took out some food. This kind of food was pre-packaged, highly nutritious, and had a long shelf life, but it didn't taste very good. Even so, to Song Lin, having food to eat was already a great blessing.

Song Lin ate quickly. Once finished, he began to take out the materials he had bought that afternoon.

First, he took out a bag of sand. The grains were dark red, shimmering with a golden luster—this was Chijin Sand. This sand was quite heavy, so one kilogram was only a small bag. Next was a bundle of lotus flowers; this variety, Green Lotus, had green petals and yellow stamens, emitting a fragrant aroma. Song Lin remembered when he was young, he would often watch his mother blend ink, and whenever there was Green Lotus, he would always ask for a bit to smell.
...

"Mom, this flower smells so good. Can I have one?"

"Yes, be good. Then in the future, you must bring home a bride as beautiful as this flower for me."

"Of course."

"Hehe."
...

Song Lin shook his head to clear his mind. Every time he held Green Lotus, he would think of his mother, but the longing was only fleeting, as he had work to do now. Song Lin poured the Chijin Sand into a metal beaker, then placed it on the heating compartment of the processing machine. Five minutes later, the Chijin Sand had melted into a dark red liquid.

Next, he placed the Green Lotus into another compartment, closed the lid, and turned on the switch. A jade-green liquid was squeezed out, flowing down into the glass bottle waiting below.

One-star card ink was used to craft one-star cards. This ink was fused from white ink and another material, depending on the properties of the card ink. For example, to craft an energy card, one needed energy-rich card ink; the better the card ink, the better the card produced.

At this moment, Song Lin was preparing to blend an energy-rich card ink called Chijin Ink.

He took a test tube containing a drop of white ink, then used a separatory funnel to draw a portion of the Chijin Sand solution. Beginning the blending process, Song Lin focused with utmost concentration.

A drop of the Chijin Sand solution fell, and Song Lin's spiritual force immediately enveloped it, slowly fusing the two solutions together. The Chijin Sand inside the white ink was highly volatile, like a fish thrashing in a net. Fortunately, Song Lin was accustomed to this, and volatility of this level posed no difficulty for him.

Once one drop was fused, the silver white ink solution turned slightly pinkish, but it wasn't finished yet. Blended card ink required a perfect fusion ratio to fully release its energy. Take Chijin Ink, for example: with the same amount of materials, a poorly fused batch would only produce an energy card with an energy rating of 50, while a well-fused batch could produce a card with an energy rating of 100 or even higher. Of course, that also depended on the card's patterns, but the importance of the card ink was undeniable.

Each drop of white ink needed to be fused with ten drops of Chijin Sand solution; this was the perfect ratio for Chijin Ink. It took Song Lin nearly half an hour to complete. The finished bottle of ink was a reddish-pink, translucent, with a flowing luster, looking incredibly beautiful. Song Lin admired it with satisfaction for a moment before starting on the next bottle.

An hour later, Song Lin had blended two more bottles. His spiritual force was depleted, forcing him to sit down to recover.

For ordinary people, spiritual force was like a constantly spinning sphere. When they utilized their spiritual force, the sphere would spin very quickly and gradually deplete. When they cultivated, the sphere would continuously expand, indicating that their spiritual force was growing. Particularly when advancing by one star, there would be a qualitative leap, causing the spiritual force sphere to expand dramatically.

But Song Lin was different. His spiritual force was indeed a sphere, but when he broke through to the two-star level, the sphere did not expand like a normal person's. Instead, it condensed a smaller sphere that both spun on its own and orbited the original sphere.

Song Lin had an immense headache over this. This mutation of his spiritual force brought no benefits, but instead prevented his spiritual force intensity from reaching the standard two-star level. Because of this, despite many experiments, he still could not control the fusion of two-star card ink.

Though somewhat discouraged, Song Lin did not give up. He believed that everything had its pros and cons, and there would come a time when he would find the advantage of this mutation. He would keep moving forward.

Cultivating like this, his spiritual force recovered very slowly, but when fully restored, he would find that his spiritual force had increased slightly. If he went to sleep, his spiritual force would recover faster, but the progress would not be as noticeable. For this reason, Song Lin sat until past midnight, and only when he had almost fully recovered did he finally get into bed to sleep.