Qiu Yunru found that he was very satisfied with the area he had crashed into. Seeing as it was a Circular Grove--a type of glade that appeared throughout Heixi Gorge--the sunlight reached this area well, and many plants grew here. He hopped around with his short collection knife, cutting and plucking studiously.
First, he plucked a few Purple Serum Flowers from the bush he'd fallen into. Purple Serum Flowers, being five-tipped with an abundance of petals that mimicked a chrysanthemum, glowed a faint purple over a sheer black base color. He sat against a tree then, took out his small mortar and pestle, and began to grind the petals into paste.
Because of their unique biological nature, rather than turning into a simple slightly wet paste, the petals released a metallic-scented black ooze when crushed. Once well-grinded, it made up a thick black paste that smelled suspiciously similar to human blood.
Next, Qiu Yunru went searching in the nearby forest for a pond. Seeing as there were many divets in the earth in Heixi Gorge, and the area was prone to rain, ponds and even lakes were abundant. He only had to walk about thirty seconds before finding a pond that was topped by floating lotuses.
Rather than being bright white and pink, these lotuses shone like obsidian. When touched, they weren't soft and pliant, but hard as rock. Though Qiu Yunru had researched these beforehand, he was still surprised by their weight and heft. He had to lug them one at a time back to the glade.
He then began to grind them down with a small chisel, crushing the pieces he managed to chip off on a cutting board into dust. As he did so, a smattering of violet demonic qi rose up off the board.
Black Lotus Petals were known for their unique ability to revitalize demonic qi when crushed. Thus, they attracted demons who were low on qi. This was convenient for Qiu Yunru; if others with more bold methods of attacking those Shadow Demon Puppets managed to tire some out, they might smell the Black Lotus Petal powder and come his way, allowing him easy targets.
Once he was finished, he mixed together the Purple Serum Flower paste and the Black Lotus Petal powder to make a glittering black goop. This, he poured into a ceramic jar with an enchanted lid.
He had enchanted the lid to allow smell to escape. However, the lid was physically un-openable until he removed the hidden talisman. This would cause any Shadow Demon Puppets to struggle momentarily, granting him some time to strike.
Qiu Yunru took a small break after this and lied down in the grass after making sure no one was nearby. He munched on a pork bun and sighed.
Heixi Gorge was vast, and it seemed he'd flown into an area that was particularly difficult to traverse into. He was a little troubled by this; if it was difficult for others disciples to make it here, would it be difficult for Shadow Demon Puppets to reach this place, too? However, in the end, he came to the conclusion that he would be all right: Shadow Demon Puppets, despite their lack of intelligence, were more durable than humans. They should still make it here.
Would you take me as a lover?
Li Chenyuan's dark phoenix eyes had been so earnest and desperate.
Qiu Yunru's face reddened, and he choked on his pork bun, coughing violently. Quickly, he sprung up to get back to work.
The next step was to set up a barrier that would surely keep other disciples out of this area. Orignally, he had wanted to cut down a large load of tree branches and carve them into spikes to push into the earth surrounding the clearing. However, in training for the tournament, he'd foudn that this would take far too long. Also, he was bad at woodcarving, and he hated the feeling on splinters. So, instead, he went searching for another plant in the undergrowth.
Within a large bush, he found what he was looking for--Stinking Brittle Bitter Grass. The grass here hadn't seen sunlight in a long time, but had still grown long. It was black, like all the other plants in the gorge, but spotted white. Qiu Yunru ripped a handful of these up and went back to extract a serum from them.
As he boiled the grass over a small fire, a horrifice smell began to rise in the air. Qiu Yunru, thankfully had come prepared. He had tied a perfumed cloth around his nose and mouth. Even so, his eyes began to water, and he gagged ever time he passed over the boiling pot.
One the water had consumed the essence of the grass, Qiu Yunru plucked out the grass strands, picked up the pot with watery eyes, and ran around the glade, dumping the water in a circular perimeter. Then, he threw the pot into the forest and ran back to the glade, ripped his mask off, and gasped for air.
Some sacrifices must be made--it was said that any pot that had boiled Stinking Brittle Bitter Grass would stink for all eternity and could never be cleansed properly of the smell. He would just have to get another!
Seeing as the scent of this grass was only something humans could smell and not demons, the perimeter of dreadful smell should ward off competing disciples, while not putting off Shadow Demon Puppets.
Now came the last element of his plan. This step was the fastest, but the most important.
After running around to gather the last few ingredients, Qiu Yunru sat down to crush some Thousand Undead Tree branches, which crumpled like charcoal until his pestle, and to crack twigs from White Curl Stacks to release their purple-golden sap. He mixed these together, packed the resulting paste onto a tray, and set it out in the sun to dry. Within a few hours, the paste should be dried into a block of easily powderable material.
This material was known as Magnetized Qi Powder. As implied by its name, if this powder was inhaled by any creature, it would such the qi out of their system, reducing them to a husk and effectively killing them. Thus, it was dangerous to both humans and demons.
However, seeing as he had used specific flora from Heixi Gorge, this brand of Magnetized Qi Powder was far more prone to collecting demonic qi than spiritual human qi, making it far less dangerous to people and far more dangerous to demons. When Shadow Demon Puppets were drawn in by the smell of blood and Black Lotus Petal Powder, Qiu Yunru could toss a small bit of powder onto them from the trees, killing them without striking them once. What's more, if a group of Shadow Demon Puppets came swarming, powder was a versatile substance to attack them with; it could cover large areas and destroy many puppets at once.
Qiu Yunru sat against a tree, feeling very satisfied with himself. He'd really thought this all through well!
It was only an hour or two until sunset now. He'd been working hard all day, so he lied back to rest another moment.
However, he was just closing his eyes when he sensed another presence nearby.
Someone stumbled out of the bushes, coughing and waving their hand in front of their face with a disgusted expression.
"Oh?" They said, looking at him. It was a woman's voice, but this person wore male alchemist's robes. A smile split their lips. "And who are you?"