Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

In between the flipping of the palm, there was a suction and repulsive force. A palm was extended outwards. Within a very short period of time, a sheet of rain was cut off, and empty space was left. Then, it returned back to normal.

After stopping, this hand was only moistened by a few drops of rain.

It was raining all night and all day.

The rainfall was abundant. The river in the mountain streams was also full. The mountain had an extra aura when there was water present.

The dog laid in its kennel, silently looking at the rain outside. It seemed to be thinking about something. Its gaze was a little distant.

The mountain road was muddy because of the rain. Wang Yao did not go down Nanshan hill for food, but instead, he made do with the few meals he already had.

When it was raining, Wang Yao did not always stay in the cottage but wandered around the herbal field instead. Seeing that the impact of the rain on the herbs were greater, he could also make some drainage arrangements. However, what made him happy was that under the incantation of the Spirit gathering battle array, the sky and earth seemed to have undergone a qualitative change. It was the same even for the soil underneath his feet. Even if the rain was pouring heavily and the mountain road outside was very muddy, the soil in the herbal field did not become that way, even with all the rainwater penetrating into the ground.

Gathering the aura from the four sides and evolving around the heaven and earth—not only was the sky evolved, but the ground evolved as well!

…

Inside a courtyard dwelling in Jing City, thousands of miles away.

A thin old man was lying in bed.

Cough, cough, cough. He kept coughing, and it seemed as though his lungs would also be coughed out.

A middle-aged man stood in front of the bed.

“Teacher.”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s an old trouble.” The old man waved his hand. After he took the medicine, the severe cough became a lot milder.

“The five-line array method, the ancient pharmacist?”

“Yes.”

The middle-aged man standing in front of the bed replied very respectfully.

“Do you want me to take a look?” The old man stared at the student standing in front of the bed.

Ten years ago, the man used to be his own disciple. However, he did not know why the man was willing to be punished by the rules. He left immediately and learned the Western technique that they ostracized the most. However, three years ago, the man suddenly repented and paid a visit. A year ago, he regained the things he left behind in the past.

Now that he already had a foot in the grave, those few disciples came to visit him sometimes. The disciple who once rebelled came to visit him often and brought some very precious information with him.

“Is he the one who healed Guo Laotou’s illness?”

“He was not sick originally,” the middle-aged man said.

“That’s true but untrue as well. However, he could forcefully delay the fire of life which was about to extinguished. This ability is indeed impressive.”

“It’s remarkable. I admire him a lot.”

“That’s indeed rare. How about this, make some arrangements. After a week, I’ll go with you.”

“Yes, teacher.”

…

The rain stopped at night, and the stars glittered in the sky.

In the cottage, Wang Yao was preparing some medicinal herbs. He planned to decoct an herbal medicine tomorrow to replicate the Muscle Revitalization powder.

The licorice roots in the Catalogue of Magic Herbs were very precious and barely existed anywhere else in the world. Moreover, he could not supply them on a large scale with the current ability of the herbal field. He wanted to use some common wild herbs to replace the licorice roots and decoct the herbal medicine in the hopes that it could also produce a similar efficacy. He had already tried this before with Regather soup. However, that type of medicine was to consolidate the corporeity in a broad sense, unlike the Muscle Revitalization powder, which was a very targeted medicine.

He had to try to know if it was successful or not.

Furthermore, during his time at home, he did not decoct any medicine, as he should be moving about.

The sun rose very early in the morning.

After ending his daily practice, Wang Yao started to decoct the medicine.

Firewood, ancient spring water, multifunctional pot for herbs, a few types of medicine and the crackling sound of the firewood burning.

Wang Yao added a few types of herbs into the multifunctional pot for herbs in order and observed the color of the soup.

The scent of the medicine drifted out.

The Everlasting grass and Lingshanji were unable to be added. He found three more common herbs to replace them and added them into the soup.

It was not right!

Looking at the change of the soup, Wang Yao immediately noticed that the decoction of the medicine this time had a problem. The color did not change much, and the physical form of the soup changed instead. It became muddy. The smell had also changed, becoming slightly pungent. He was almost certain that the decoction experiment this time had failed.

However, he was not in a hurry to stop decocting. Instead, he continued the experiment by following his thoughts. Since he was wrong, then he should continue to see what the effect would be in the end.

The effect was bad.

Wang Yao looked at the medicine in the multifunctional pot for herbs.

It was like roasting porridge. This was still because of the incantation of the special purpose of the multifunctional pot for herbs. If it was just a normal pot, who knew what it would become.

He used his fingers to rub some onto his skin. It did not have the bone-piercing coolness and comfort like the previous Muscle Revitalization powder. Instead, it felt a little sticky with a slight chill.

He failed.

After discarding the wasted medicine, he packed up his utensils. He then thought about the decoction process just now. The process did not have a problem. The problem could only be that the selected herbs were wrong.

“By the looks of it, licorice roots are licorice roots. It can’t be substituted by ordinary medicinal herbs.”

At noon, he went down the hill and returned home to have a meal. Although there were surplus grains on Nanshan hill, Wang Yao’s cooking skills were not very good and were incomparable to his mother’s.

After having lunch, he stayed at home for a while, then went out and took the hoe used for weeding. However, he did not go up the hill but went to the courtyard in the south of the village instead.

The inside of the courtyard was overgrown with weeds.

He first dealt with the weeds there.

Clearing up these weeds was relatively easier because it had just rained. However, the ground was also muddier.

Wang Yao spent the whole afternoon clearing up about less than one-third of the weeds, and there was still a huge heap of weeds near the west wall.

Actually, he could use another method, which was to use weedicide to clear up these weeds. After spraying the weedicide, these weeds would wither after a period of time, but the synthetic chemicals would pollute the soil and water.

“There was no rush,” Wang Yao said while looking at the weeds around him.

After clearing up these weeds, the crumbling old houses would have to be demolished, and a new house would be built.

Of course, this would take some time.

At night, when he was eating at home, his uncle who was accompanied by his wife came.

After dinner, he hesitantly explained his purpose for coming—it was to borrow some money to buy a house.

The family of Wang Yao’s uncle currently lived in a village very close to the county town. Wang Yao had also been there a few times. It was a pretty good place with four roof-tiled houses and a big courtyard. However, his aunt wanted to live in a storied house, saying it was convenient and clean.

Ever since his aunt was pregnant, she did not go to work. His uncle was the only one working. Although he did some errands in the factory, he only earned a few thousand dollars a month. Having at most that meager amount of income, he still had to always be on tenterhooks. Moreover, the current property price in Lianshan County had reached four or five thousand. Buying a set of fairly decent houses would cost over 400 thousand.

“How much would you like to borrow?” Wang Yao’s mother asked.

“50 thousand,” his uncle answered.

“Okay,” Wang Yao’s mother responded. She and her husband earned quite some money and planned to buy a house for Wang Yao. However, looking at Wang Yao now, he seemed that he would not really need their help. Hence, they might as well lend his brother the money.

“Uncle, how much are the house that you’re interested in?” Wang Yao who never interrupted asked.

“52 thousand,” Wang Yao’s uncle replied.

“How much more do you need?”

Wang Yao already wanted to help when he asked. He had a few million in his hands now. It was useless to leave the money idle, and he did not want to manage money matters. Although his uncle was a little snobbery, he was still a relative. He normally treated Wang Yao pretty well. Since Wang Yao had the ability, then he would help.

“I wish to make up 30 thousand and obtain a loan with the remaining 22 thousand.”

A pigeonhole could not even be bought for 30 thousand in first-tier cities such as Jing City. However, in Lianshan County, some families might not be able to come up with so much money at once, even after earning money for a few decades.

“I still have some money here. You can say how much you need and use the money first,” Wang Yao said calmly.

“What?” His uncle and aunt were stunned.