4: Chapter 4: Using the Mountain as a Warning and the Initial Preparation of the Medicine

The owner of that eye was clearly very patient, sticking motionlessly to the gap, trying to see the dim scene inside the courtyard more clearly.

Lin Chen did not stand up; he didn't even change the rhythm of his breathing.

He simply bent down slowly and silently, his fingers touching a palm-sized, rough-edged piece of dried, hard mud brick.

This was leftover from when he was patching the wall that afternoon.

The cold, hard sensation traveled up his fingertips, instantly calming his chaotic thoughts.

Just as the owner of the eye seemed to see that there was no one in the courtyard and prepared to call his companions in, Lin Chen moved.

Without the slightest warning.

His wrist flicked violently, and the mud brick left his hand, turning into a black shadow that was almost impossible to catch in the moonlight, carrying a sharp whistling sound as it smashed with pinpoint accuracy toward the gap in the courtyard wall!

"Puff!"

A muffled sound, like a hard object smashing into rotten mud.

Immediately afterward, a tightly suppressed cry of pain came from outside, along with the sound of a body stumbling and crashing into something.

"Damn! My eye!" a shrill voice cursed, filled with pain and shock.

"Damn it, keep it down! We've been discovered!" another hoarse voice growled, revealing a hint of panic.

In the courtyard, Lin Chen had already stood up.

He didn't go to pick up the short blade hidden in his bosom, but simply stood with his hands behind his back, walking to the open space in the center of the courtyard, where half of his body was just illuminated by the sparse moonlight filtering through the gap.

He stood like a javelin, straight and upright in the cold night.

"Gentlemen," his voice was neither high nor low, but it clearly penetrated the thin mud wall and reached the outside, "what is the meaning of this in the middle of the night?"

The outside fell into a deathly silence instantly.

The wind blew through the alley, bringing a few barks from wild dogs, making the atmosphere here even more eerie.

After a full dozen breaths, the hoarse male voice sounded again, but this time, there was less ferocity in his words and more probing: "A misunderstanding, a misunderstanding! We are the night patrol for the town. Seeing that this courtyard was dilapidated, we were afraid that thieves had broken in, so we came to take a look. We didn't expect... to disturb your rest."

Night patrol?

Lin Chen sneered inwardly.

Would the night patrol peek through wall holes like rats?

Would they talk about the woman in the room with that kind of lewd tone?

He didn't expose this clumsy lie, just stood there in silence.

Silence itself was a kind of pressure.

He began to circulate the little bit of Qi Refining, third level Spiritual Qi that he had just stabilized in his body.

He didn't deliberately do anything, just let that faint aura flow along his Meridians and release a trace from the pores of his body.

For a real Cultivator, this aura was so weak it could be ignored.

But for thugs who hadn't even touched the threshold of Qi Refining, or even pure Mortals, it was like hitting an ice wall in the dog days of summer, carrying a natural pressure derived from the level of life.

The air outside the courtyard wall clearly stagnated for a moment.

Those footsteps that had just been restless were as if nailed to the spot, not daring to move at all.

When the hoarse male voice spoke again, the tone had become much more respectful, even carrying a hint of imperceptible trembling: "So... so it is a fellow Daoist resting here. It was this one who failed to recognize Mount Tai; I have disturbed you, I have disturbed you! We will leave now, we will leave now!"

Before the words faded, a chaotic and hurried sound of footsteps sounded, as if they were afraid that if they walked too slowly, they would attract some disaster.

The footsteps stumbled all the way and quickly disappeared at the end of the alley.

Lin Chen remained where he was, not moving.

He listened intently, and only after confirming that there were no other strange sounds around did he slowly loosen his fist, which he had clenched tightly at some point.

His palms were cold and damp.

He returned to the room and gently closed the dilapidated wooden door.

In the darkness, Su Qingyao had already sat up, still covered by the hard, old quilt.

"They won't give up," her voice was exceptionally clear in the quiet night, "the leader... listening to his aura, he seems to have just touched the threshold of Qi Refining. His internal Spiritual Qi is extremely impure; he must have taken some wild path."

"Hmm," Lin Chen sat down on the cold edge of the kang, "so we can't wait for them to come again."

The initiative must be in his own hands.

He paused and changed the subject: "Your injuries, the Green Beard Roots and Snake Saliva Grass from yesterday can only alleviate them; in the end, it's a drop in the bucket, not enough."

Su Qingyao was silent for a moment.

The moonlight shone down from the hole in the roof, just outlining her pale side profile.

"In my Storage Pouch, there were originally two bottles of 'Pulse Nourishing Pills' and one bottle of 'Clear Essence Dew', enough to suppress the injuries and slowly recuperate. Unfortunately... when escaping the Sect, we were caught up by Outer Sect Deacon Wang Heng and his group, and the Storage Pouch was confiscated by them," she said in a very soft voice, carrying a hint of unwillingness, "now... I can only rely on Mortal medicinal herbs."

She closed her eyes, seemingly trying hard to recall something.

As a Pill Dao Genius with an Earthly Spiritual Root, even if she had only been influenced by what she had seen and heard, she had recorded countless Pill Formulas and pharmacology in her mind.

After a long while, she slowly spoke: "I need three stalks of 'Red Essence Grass' and two 'Warm Yang Flowers', and neither can be less than five years old. Supplemented with old ginger and brown sugar, simmered over a low fire for three hours, it might be able to dissolve some of the stasis in the Meridians and nourish the vitality."

She paused, her tone a bit hesitant: "... But the Red Essence Grass and Warm Yang Flower, although they are only the lowest-grade first-tier Spiritual Plants, in this small town with thin Spiritual Qi..."

"Baicao Hall might have them," Lin Chen took over her words, his tone certain.

He remembered the faint warmth that came from the stone ring in Crippled Sun's shop during the day; it didn't just come from the few "weeds" he had picked out.

"But he won't sell them to us cheaply," Lin Chen's voice sank, "and we can't let him know that we are looking for these two Spiritual Plants."

A seriously injured female Cultivator, a male Cultivator with low cultivation, two outsiders, yet specifically asking for Spiritual Plants... this would be equivalent to telling others that we have secrets.

"Perhaps..." Lin Chen's right thumb subconsciously rubbed the rough surface of the stone ring, and a bold plan gradually took shape in his mind, "there is another way."

The next morning, just as the sky was barely brightening.

Lin Chen came to Baicao Hall again.

Crippled Sun was yawning, slowly removing the door panels.

Seeing Lin Chen, his turbid eyelids lifted lazily, and a hint of sarcasm hung on the corner of his mouth: "What, the medicine from yesterday didn't work? I told you earlier, those weeds aren't even worth burning as firewood."

Lin Chen ignored his mockery and walked straight to the counter.

He didn't mention buying medicine, but instead reached out and pointed to another larger sack in the corner with its mouth half-open.

It was filled with withered grass roots, caked mud, and some broken stones and withered leaves.

"Boss, these weeds... how do you sell them?"

Crippled Sun was stunned for a moment, then looked at Lin Chen up and down with a look like he was looking at a fool, as if confirming whether there was something wrong with his brain.

"Sell? You mean these?" He pointed his chin at the sack and sneered, "These are all mud clods and waste roots brought down from the mountains when digging for medicinal herbs. I usually save them up to pad the medicine cabinets, or just burn them as firewood. You want them?"

Lin Chen nodded seriously: "The dilapidated courtyard I live in is drafty on all sides. I see that these grass roots mixed with mud should have good stickiness, so I want to get some back to patch the wall."

He acted like a poor man at his wits' end who had to make the best use of everything, his eyes filled with a bit of helplessness toward his destitute life.

"One copper coin, this whole sack, I want it all."

Crippled Sun's eyeballs rolled around.

Yesterday, he sold a small handful of "weeds" left over for two copper coins.

Today, he sold a whole sack of "junk" that no one wanted for one copper coin.

This deal, no matter how he calculated it, he wouldn't lose.

He waved his hand like he was shooing flies, with a sense of superiority like he was giving alms: "Take it, take it! Consider it me doing a good deed. Hurry up and carry it away, don't block me from doing business."

Lin Chen didn't say a word, took out that precious copper coin from his bosom and placed it on the counter, then walked to the corner and shouldered the heavy sack.

The sack was very heavy, causing his body to sink violently, but he gritted his teeth and stood firm, walking out of Baicao Hall step by step.

Behind him, Crippled Sun picked up the copper coin, blew on it, and let out a satisfied low laugh.

Lin Chen carried the heavy sack of "junk" back to the dilapidated courtyard.

Su Qingyao was already able to hold onto the wall to get off the kang and walk slowly in the room.

She watched as Lin Chen "clattered" everything from the sack onto the ground, revealing a large pile of tangled dry grass roots, withered leaves, broken stones, and hard mud clods, her eyes full of confusion.

Lin Chen didn't explain; he squatted down and began to carefully rummage through the pile of junk.

He pretended to look for sturdy grass roots, but in reality, all his attention was focused on his right thumb.

The stone ring sent out bursts of faint or clear warmth, like the most precise detector, guiding his fingers to travel through a pile of worthless mud clods.

Soon, from a pile of caked, hard clods with dark golden soil clearly stuck to the roots, he carefully broke out three dark red small grasses that were completely withered but had their roots perfectly preserved.

[Red Essence Grass (Five Years Old)] — Pale golden text flashed across his vision.

Success!

He suppressed the joy in his heart and continued searching.

A moment later, he dug out two small flowers from a cracked mud clod that were a bit flattened but still glowing with a faint orange-yellow color.

[Warm Yang Flower (About Six Years Old)]!

In addition, he also dug out a few other medicinal herbs that the stone ring had a faint reaction to but could not yet identify, all of which were carefully sorted out and hidden in his bosom.

He put away these real "treasures", and only then did he pick out some thick grass roots and clay, piling them aside, putting on a show of really wanting to patch the wall.

Su Qingyao leaned against the door frame, watching his every move, a complex and unreadable light flashing in her cold eyes.

Lin Chen followed Su Qingyao's prescription, putting the cleaned Red Essence Grass and Warm Yang Flower, along with the old ginger and brown sugar he exchanged for with the last remaining copper coin from the market, into that chipped pottery pot, and simmered them slowly on the earthen stove under the eaves over a low fire.

The medicinal smell gradually permeated, different from the bitterness of ordinary herbs, this smell carried a unique fragrance that felt slightly warm amidst the slight bitterness; just smelling it made one feel refreshed.

Su Qingyao moved a small stool she had picked up and sat by the stove, quietly watching the jumping flames in the stove, her pale face illuminated by the firelight, showing a hint of color.

She was silent for a long, long time before speaking softly, breaking the tranquility: "How did you know... that there were these things in that sack of 'junk'?"

Lin Chen was using a wooden stick to poke the firewood to make the fire more even.

He didn't even raise his head, answering in a flat tone: "I guessed."

"Crippled Sun collects mountain goods from all kinds of herb gatherers all year round. Most of those people are Mortals and won't specifically shake off the mud stuck to the roots of the herbs. Some low-grade Spiritual Plants don't look conspicuous, or their age is too low, so they aren't worth selling separately. It's very normal for them to be mixed in with mud clods and brought down the mountain. As for him, either he doesn't recognize them, or he's just too lazy to pick them out from a pile of dirt."

He didn't mention the guidance of the stone ring, just attributing everything to reasonable speculation.

Su Qingyao quietly looked at him, her cold eyes flickering in the firelight, and in the end, she didn't ask any further.

Everyone has their own secrets.

Three hours later, the medicinal soup was finally ready, presenting a clear dark red, like melted amber.

Lin Chen used a newly bought pottery bowl to scoop out a bowl, blew on the heat, and handed it to Su Qingyao.

She took it, the warmth felt in her hand.

She didn't hesitate, drinking the entire bowl of medicinal soup full of hope in small sips.

The medicinal power entered her abdomen like a warm current, quickly flowing through all her limbs and bones.

A layer of fine sweat soon seeped out on her forehead, and a hint of extremely faint blush appeared on her pale cheeks.

She immediately closed her eyes and sat cross-legged to regulate her breath for a moment.

When she opened her eyes again, her gaze was significantly brighter, and her breathing was more powerful.

"Effective," she spat out two words, her tone carrying a hint of relief.

Lin Chen also let out a long sigh of relief.

He poured the remaining medicinal soup into another cleaned pottery jar and carefully sealed the opening with a cloth; this was the portion for the next few days.

After cleaning up the medicinal residue, when he straightened up, his gaze inadvertently swept over the gap in the courtyard wall that he had repaired.

His pupils shrank slightly.

The mud there seemed to have been moved.

A few pieces of wet mud that he had just plastered on yesterday evening and had not yet completely dried had fallen to the ground at the base of the wall.

Outside the gap, the alley was empty, with only the sound of the wind blowing through.

But Lin Chen vaguely felt that just a moment ago, there seemed to be a prying gaze in the distance, which disappeared quickly the moment he looked over.

He walked over slowly, squatted down, picked up the fallen mud, thoughtfully plastered it back onto the gap, and pressed his fingers hard on the rough wall surface to press it tighter.

The progress of the novice task "Establish a Foothold" changed quietly in his field of vision.

[Obtain a Sustainable Means of Livelihood] — that barely visible progress bar seemed to have moved forward by a small notch.

But [Stable Residence] — was still flashing with a precarious pale red light.

He needed to find a way to truly gain a foothold here faster.

The night deepened, and a hint of chill seeped in through the cracks in the wall. Lin Chen stood up, patted the mud on his hands, and his gaze fell again on the base of the wall he had repaired.

The soil there was wetter than elsewhere, but other than that, there seemed to be nothing unusual.