Dimensional Slime Rancher-Chapter 16: First Attempt!

Imperial City, Great Hall of the Luo Clan Manor.

"Father, is... is Sister going to be alright?" Luo Lan’s voice was filled with raw anxiety, his usually cheerful face completely drained of color.

He stood shivering in his wet clothes, terrified that his father would say the words he feared the most.

Luo Qing’s beautiful, icy face was terrifyingly pale, and her usually sharp, focused eyes had become completely spiritless.

Underneath her translucent skin, a dark blue, freezing vein of uncontrolled Qi was roaming violently about, visibly draining her remaining life force with every passing second.

The tall, imposing Luo Clan Patriarch was gloomily standing next to his daughter’s bed.

As he slowly withdrew his hand, pulling back the dense Nascent Soul true energy he had just used to forcefully stabilize her core, his sharp eyebrows were knitted together in a furious V.

A terrifying trace of absolute killing intent, deeply hidden in his eyes, was starting to violently stir the air in the room.

"Who did this?! How did Qing’er become like this?" The Patriarch coldly asked, the heavy mahogany furniture in the room beginning to crack under his suppressed anger.

"We... we went to Boss Ren’s shop and met... met Gu Tian." Luo Lan was physically trembling, having great difficulty breathing due to his father’s suffocating intimidation.

A Nascent Soul expert’s raw fury was not something an early-stage Foundation Establishment kid could easily endure.

The Patriarch sharply turned his head, his eyes locking onto his son like a hawk.

"Who did you say you met? That treacherous bastard, Gu Tian?"

"Yes..."

"So, he’s the one who shattered Qing’er’s core?" The Patriarch gritted his teeth, his voice dropping to a terrifying, deadly whisper.

His fists were so tightly clenched that blood began to drip from his palms.

Luo Lan was startled, and he quickly shook his head in denial. Subsequently, he frantically conveyed every single detail of what had happened within the Dimensional Ranch to his father.

"You’re telling me that Qing’er was critically injured by the shopkeeper’s brass golem?!" There was absolutely no expression on the Patriarch’s face now, but Luo Lan was even more terrified.

He knew that the type of absolute anger that was hidden behind a calm face was the most apocalyptic.

"Boss Ren said... he can synthesize a cure and save Sister in exactly three days," Luo Lan stammered, holding his Fuzzball tightly for comfort.

"And you actually believed him? You’re letting an arrogant alleyway merchant with a violent toy dictate your sister’s life?!" The Patriarch coldly smiled as he glared at his son, causing Luo Lan to feel as if he had been plunged into a frozen lake.

"Go to your room. I’ve already summoned the Royal Alchemists. Hopefully, they’ll be able to purge the uncontrolled Qi." The Patriarch tiredly waved his hand, dismissing the dejected, shivering boy.

After Luo Lan left, the Patriarch ordered the elite guards to secure the manor, and he vanished from the spot with a subtle distortion of space.

"I’d like to see what kind of suicidal merchant would dare to command a golem to strike down my daughter," the Patriarch’s gloomy, echoing voice resounded in the empty hall.

Under the cold night sky, the alleyway leading to the Dimensional Ranch seemed unusually tranquil.

The narrow street was deep and quiet, and a warm, blue light was seeping out from the gaps in the heavily shuttered windows.

Pudding was lazily lying flat on the wooden porch, its translucent blue body blending into the shadows, maintaining its immutable sleeping position as if digesting the spicy cosmic rib was its greatest life achievement.

Hmm? The core of the blue slime suddenly quivered. It slightly opened a pseudo-eye and puzzledly looked upward toward the empty, rainy sky.

It sensed a massive, terrifying figure striding effortlessly through the air, approaching the shop with a solemn, apocalyptic expression.

The ambient aura coming from the figure was stifling enough to crush a normal building.

The Luo Patriarch was standing proudly in the air with his hands behind his back, looking down upon the tiny, twenty-square-meter shack with absolute disdain.

Just as he was about to unleash a palm strike to level the block, his sharp eyes suddenly focused on the blue puddle lying at the entrance.

"A basic water slime?" The Patriarch slightly muttered, halting his attack.

His expression gradually changed from being completely unconcerned to a look of profound, chilling shock as he intently stared at the gelatinous blob.

It was an unfathomable beast!

The Patriarch was completely bewildered. He was absolutely unable to see through the slime’s core.

Even though the creature was only lazily sleeping there, the Patriarch’s Nascent Soul instincts were screaming at him.

He felt an undeniable premonition that if he tried to violently destroy the store, that little blue puddle would instantly retaliate with a force that could threaten his life.

"A mysterious shop protected by a terrifyingly dense elemental beast... This place really isn’t simple." The Patriarch was deeply unnerved. The burning rage in his chest cooled slightly, replaced by absolute caution.

He was suddenly slightly convinced by what his son had frantically claimed. Perhaps this bizarre shopkeeper really did possess the miraculous ability to save his daughter.

"If you can’t synthesize a cure for my daughter in three days, then, even if I have to risk my cultivation base fighting that beast, I will make sure this entire street is burned to ash as an offering for her," the Patriarch coldly snorted to himself. Then his figure blurred and vanished into the night sky.

Pudding indifferently watched the spot where the scary flying man disappeared.

It let out a tiny, glowing burp, then flattened out again and continued its deep sleep.

Ren, who was locked inside the Workshop, did not realize what had just happened outside the store at all.

At the moment, he was fully focused on analyzing the complex synthesis formula for the ’Luminous Spirit-Lotus Elixir’.

[Elixir Synthesis: Raw, high-grade elemental materials are perfectly fused with the genetic essence of specific dimensional flora on a cellular level using the Quantum Splicer. Specialized thermal compression arrays are then used to stabilize the volatile mixture, producing a biological elixir that possesses flawless regenerative capabilities for shattered cores,] the System explained via a holographic projection.

"Luminous Spirit-Lotus Elixir: It is a critical-care consumable synthesized using a Tier-5 ’Starlight Lotus’ from the Astral Sea, the core fluid of a Tier-5 ’Radiant Moth’, and several stabilizing catalysts based on an incredibly strict molecular proportion. This elixir possesses profound core-repair and meridian-reconstruction capabilities. The market value is astronomical, but there is a zero-tolerance requirement regarding the genetic splicing alignment."

Ren finished reading the daunting instructions.

He was not familiar with medical synthesis; he usually just made beast food and mechanical collars.

Even though he understood the basic logic behind the molecular proportion, putting it into practice with the heavy, uncalibrated iron Rune-Chisel was going to be an absolute nightmare.

"I should just immediately start practicing before I forget the sequence," Ren frowned, rubbing his temples, and decided to attempt the complex synthesis.

[The System will prepare exactly three sets of raw materials for the Host. The Host will only have three attempts to successfully synthesize the elixir,] the System’s solemn voice rang out, startling Ren. With only three sets of materials, he could only afford to fail twice before the Luo Clan Patriarch came to murder him.

He earnestly studied the glowing holographic blueprint once more.

He took a deep, steadying breath, his lazy eyes sharpening with actual, rare focus.

Without Ren noticing, a heavily reinforced, glowing stasis-vault had appeared within the corner of the Workshop.

It was locked with complex runes, and the three sets of materials mentioned by the System were safely stored inside.

As Ren keyed open the vault door, a dense, suffocating wave of pure, starlight-infused spirit energy immediately gushed out, causing all of the pores on his body to tingle violently.

At the bottom layer of the vault, three reinforced glass terrariums were installed.

Inside each terrarium was a massive, incredibly beautiful moth that had wings glowing like a miniature galaxy.

Ren expressionlessly thought, "So, the raw materials are fully alive... I thought the System would have at least extracted the core fluid for me."

[The System has already neurologically suppressed the combat instincts of the Radiant Moths. The Host only needs to follow the standard procedure of extracting core fluid.

Reminder:

The delicate wing-dust of the Radiant Moth must be completely preserved for the final catalytic reaction. The wings must not be damaged during extraction.]

Ren gritted his teeth and carefully reached into the terrarium, grabbing one of the massive Radiant Moths while it sluggishly flapped its glowing wings, emitting a soft, musical hum.

A Tier-5 Radiant Moth with its combat instincts suppressed was no different from a very large, very pretty butterfly on Earth. Of course, the sheer elemental density was an exception.

The Radiant Moth was extremely majestic. It had a sleek, silver body, and its massive wings were translucent, filled with swirling dots of light that looked exactly like a starry night sky.

From afar, it looked like a piece of the cosmos brought to life.

The Tier-5 spirit beast was actually not that strong when it came to offensive combat.

However, its evasive speed and blinding light magic were why it was rated Tier-5.

Of course, within the System’s domain, the mighty beast was no different from an oversized bug.

It couldn’t even struggle while Ren, a Foundation Establishment rookie with a heavy iron chisel, prepared to harvest its essence.

Ren skillfully, yet brutally, extracted the glowing core fluid and miraculously managed to preserve the delicate wing-dust.

Then he proceeded to take out the stunning, glowing Starlight Lotus from the upper shelf.

These materials were so full of pure spirit energy that the amount leaking out had completely saturated the Workshop, making it feel like he was standing in the middle of a dense galaxy.

Following the strict instructions in the blueprint, Ren first used the heavy iron chisel to delicately carve a specific rune into the stem of the Starlight Lotus, letting the aromatic, glowing sap drain into a sterilized beaker.

The beaker was perfectly half-filled when he was done.

Then, he used the Quantum Splicer mode to begin painfully fusing the genetic essence of the sap with the moth’s core fluid.

Ren carefully added the stabilizing catalysts, his hand cramping as he forced the heavy iron tool to make micro-adjustments to the molecular alignment.

He placed the volatile, glowing mixture into the thermal compression array and started to run the fusion sequence.

After thirty grueling minutes of monitoring the pressure, he opened the primary valve and carefully injected the preserved wing-dust, then sealed the array to let it continue compressing.

He let the machine run for another two hours.

The crisp, clean fragrance of the Starlight Lotus was accompanied by the warm, cosmic hum of the moth’s essence as it slowly vented from the array.

It looked like a beautiful, glowing silver mist as it floated within the Workshop.

"Did I actually succeed on the first try?" Ren was slightly surprised, wiping sweat from his forehead.

However, in the exact next moment, the System’s solemn, soul-crushing voice rang out in his mind.

[Alignment error detected. The Host’s first attempt has catastrophically failed.]

BOOM!

The thermal compression array violently exploded, covering Ren from head to toe in sticky, glowing silver sludge.