“You promised you would never use it until the day you died!” Jacob splurted. “You coerced me!”

“Oh, Jaji, honey, you know that’s not true,” Epagogia moved a claw in the air while licking her lips. “Soul Contracts can only be signed if both parties are willing. And trust me, even if you were a bit drunk, your heart and soul were there with you. You were the master of your destiny, and you signed a very daring contract. Simple, really, but very daring. I kind of proposed it to you as a bedroom joke. I never expected you would actually sign it.”

“You said you would never use it!” Jacob begged.

“I said I would never use it ‘until the day I die’, and dying is something I recently did if I remember correctly. So, even if I just gave you my word without signing a contract, I’m not bound to it anymore.”

She tugged at an invisible string, and Jacob felt his hands move on their own, starting to undress.

“You must be kidding me,” Jacob was redder than a tomato.

“Kidding you I am not, sugarplum,” Epagogia smiled with a lascivious expression on her face.

The Great Temptress. The Seductress of Legends. Empress of Terror. Queen of Devils.

Epagogia.

She suddenly let the connection with his Soul Contract go, and Jacob immediately put his clothes back on.

“All in good time, Jaji,” she said, leaving a half-naked Jacob to shiver in the cold of the room.

…

Jacob had gone over to the Dawn Lily and was observing its maturity state very closely.

With this, I will cure my Crohn's and raise my talent and substantially alter my body. It’s going to take much more than one Dawn Lily to change my talent and my body to what they had become in my past life, but this time I have no Plate with infinite Ingredients to use.

Man, I was going to simply go to fu**ing Blacksoil and a myriad of things popped up. I’m truly happy to see Epagogia again, but that did catch me surprised.

Jacob emptied his head the next moment to focus on the task at hand. He needed a brief respite from what had just transpired. Therefore, he would throw himself into one thing he knew very well and be extremely comfortable with.

Alchemy!

The Dawn Lily could be refined in a Pill with all the aforementioned qualities and would give him an edge for future battles. However, if he really had to fear the same terrifying enemies of his past life, he would need every margin he could get.

The seeds had special properties that enhanced the body. The flower itself could instead change the talent of people who were born with not much luck like him. It had been a precious currency for Patriarchs and Head of Sects with useless children.

He would need…

Let’s see.

An Acordium Root, spotted!

A Red Salacious Stalk, there!

A Violet Carapace, right in front of me!

Jacob had never been so happy in his entire life. He would save a couple of seeds from the Dawn Lily to grow new Dawn Lilies.

Oh, oh, oh.

It was too good to be true!

But then, suddenly, an insane idea grabbed Jacob’s chords.

No, no, no. I can’t do that.

No, it would be foolish.

I have no assurance I wouldn’t be wasting the Dawn Lily.

He would have one chance, one opportunity to succeed.

If it works, it might very well provide me further insights for my cultivation too…

Jacob was living the drama of being a cultivator. He had just had a terrific idea, but he wasn’t so sure it would work. Therefore, he could either go with a safe plan and get the minimum expected result or gamble with fate and maximize his returns.

Come on, Jacob was having doubts now.

If there were evil cultivators out there after his hide, he would make them pay dearly to get it. But, if he followed the same caution he had had in his past life – now without the Plate – he was good as dead.

There was one concoction he could try, something so potent and daring he might actually be able to pull it off. But he would be risking the Dawn Lily, one of the most precious resources for him.

“Fu*k it, let’s try,” Jacob steeled his resolve.

He started gathering some different herbs and put them together on a rock nearby.

“Epagogia! I need a pot and some water for it. Also, a mortar!” he shouted toward the Devil Queen on the far side of the Alchemical Garden.

She strolled over while Jacob started to gather some bulbous, fleshy, small fruits with seeds inside.

“Honey, what do you need them for?” she walked seductively while swaying her hips.

“Cut it off, woman,” Jacob said with a solemn tone, “I discovered a new branch of alchemy. I need a mortar, a pot, and water. Do you have them?”

When Epagogia saw the no-bullsh*t expression on Jacob’s face, she shrugged and nodded.

“I’ll get them for you, sugarplum,” she smiled and started swerving her hips again, this time while giving him a view of her generous rear.

“If this works, I should get a statue of me in Genoa, for Christ’s sake,” Jacob laughed.

It was hard to keep threading a path without a trail left by someone else. But the already threaded route was never the way to success. So, if Jacob wanted to save humanity truly, then it was time to push every boundary and be uncomfortable with his next moves.

And the time it was, time to make some Pesto.