บท 28: The Medicine Tower
Tong-Lang could not help but annoy Lao-Chu before everyone split. Hai-Gu tried to suppress himself not to laugh at Tong-Lang making fun of Lao-Chu…
“You guys shouldn’t laugh at Brother Lao-Chu that way! He’s still the great elder of our clan. I think you guys should…”
“Kong-Shi, brother…I don’t see why we should respect him because you’re the one who really takes care of the clan’s business around here. I don’t see Brother Lao-Chu do anything. He usually goes out and hardly stays in.” Hai-Gu tried to cut off Kong-Shi…
“That’s right. I don’t understand why you gave up the chance to be the great elder of the clan for him.”
“It doesn’t matter who works harder. It matters as long as we all help one another in our clan.” Kong-Shi tried to say what he thought quietly because he did not wish to cause any trouble. He always let everyone do what they want. At this point, everyone scattered home after the final test ended. No one knew how Zheng-Fu won the fight. It was still a mystery to everyone. No one knew what happened after the explosion…
At the estate of the leader of the clan…!
Tian-Qi was brought back to her room after she lost consciousness in the fight. They wanted to check if she had any cuts or bruises on her body, but they found nothing there, not even a scratch. There was just this tiny red mark on her neck though…
“Ouch! How come I have this headache? Wait! My throat is burning.” Tian-Qi started to gain her consciousness back. She got up and palmed her hand on her neck. She was kind of confused when she awoke. When she looked around, she saw that she was in her own room. And then she remembered something…
“Why am I here? What about the fight?”
Squeak!
“Are you awake, Qi-Er!?”
“Father! Why am I here? What about the fight? What happened?”
“The fight was over. And you lost.” Mo-Zi looked at his daughter who was lying in bed. She was curious to know about what happened on the stage. He did not know how to tell her why she was defeated. He chose to tell her the fact that she lost. At least, this would be one of the experiences that she needed to gain and accept…
“Lost!?”
Tian-Qi was disoriented hearing that. Then she tried to recall the situation on the stage. She remembered that she gained an advantage over Zheng-Fu when she used the second stage of the Sword of Fiery Lizard, but then it all went black. She could not remember anything after that until she gained back her consciousness and saw her father with her…
“How did I lose, father? I was clearly having an advantage over him.”
“I’m sorry I have to let you down, but I really don’t know what technique Zheng-Fu used to counter you because there was a lot of smoke and dust all over the place. We hardly saw anything there.” Mo-Zi found it difficult to explain to his daughter too about the technique that Zheng-Fu used. The only thing that he knew was he saw Zheng-Fu performing some kind of fighting technique. The boy moved very quickly too and that was why it was hard for him to see how he made his daughter pass out…
“Don’t know!?”
Mo-Zi’s answer made Tian-Qi crinkle her eyebrows instantly. If no one knew how she was defeated, then how would she know what happened? This made her question even more questionable. Now she felt like she needed to know the answer even more…
At Zheng-Fu’s estate…
Everyone in Zheng-Fu’s family was having a great time having a meal and chatting. Tang-Ling was especially joyful to learn that her son was the winner of this year’s youth martial arts test of the clan…
“Zheng-Fu, dear. I’ve made you your favorite dishes today. Since you won the test, I put extra effort into making them.”
“Wow!”
“Thank you, mother!”
“From now on, you need to practice as much as you can. Alright, Zheng-Fu?”
“I will, mother. I’ll work hard to revive the reputation of our clan.”
Tang-Ling stroked her son’s head with warmth and love that a mother could ever give to her child. Kong-Shi, on the other hand, tried to give a dry smile to both his wife and son. Right now, his mind was full of questions about how his son defeated Tian-Qi. He had been thinking about this since he got back from the test venue. But no matter how much he tried, he still could not come up with an answer. He thought about asking Zheng-Fu about what happened, but he had to stop himself and keep quiet. It would not look good if an elder like him asked his own boy about the technique that he used to win the fight…
“What’s wrong, father? Why are you so quiet? You kind of look suspicious.”
“N…n…nothing. I’m fine. I’m just glad that you won the fight and received the Body-Strengthening Ginseng. I’m also thinking about sending you to the Deva Heaven institution, so you can improve your skill. You need to reach at least the first level of the Foundation Building stage though.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Thank you, father. I won’t let you down. Wait! This is for you, father.” Zheng-Fu handed a fighting manual to Kong-Shi after expressing his gratitude to his father. He gave his father an innocent smile again…
“The manual of the Three Fists of Torment!?”
Kong-Shi did not understand why Zheng-Fu gave him back the manual of the Three Fists of Torment because he had just given him the manual yesterday. He thought that his son might not be able to understand the skills, so that was probably why he gave the manual back to him…
“Was it hard for you to understand?”
“Not at all, father. I understand the whole book and could achieve all of the techniques. And what more is… Well, please open the manual, and then you’ll see!”
“Understand the whole book!?”
Kong-Shi’s face turned confused. He became blank in his mind because he did not know whether he should be appalled or delighted. The whole day was full of endless surprises that caught him off guard and prompted him to ask questions. So, when Zheng-Fu told him that he could successfully achieve the family’s secret fighting skill, he did not know whether he should laugh or cry or express any emotions at all. But right now, he still tried to smile at Zheng-Fu and opened the manual according to Zheng-Fu’s urge. And as soon as he turned on the page, his facial expression changed. His hands trembled. Sweat started to show itself on his forehead. His temperature also rose. Then he switched turning his gaze from the manual to Zheng-Fu and then back to the manual and continued to do so several times…
“Dear! What’s wrong? Why are you making that face? Look! You’re sweating like crazy.” Tang-Ling started to suspect her husband because all of a sudden, he acted like he was in a state of shock after he took the fighting manual from Zheng-Fu. She could see that Kong-Shi kept switching his gaze from the manual to their son successively…
“Zheng-Fu, son. This is…!”
“That’s right, father.” Zheng-Fu nodded and kept the smile on his face still…
The reason why Kong-Shi acted the way he did was that he saw that all movement patterns and the fundamental principles of the Three Fists of Torment skill had been tweaked and modified. Zheng-Fu also worked on the last technique of the skill and completed it too. The whole thing was so easy to read and understand, much better than the old version. Merely looking at the pages, Kong-Shi could understand the two techniques that he had been practicing better. It was like the knowledge in the manual was being transcended to him as he was looking at the pages…
Before the modification, no matter how much Kong-Shi practiced the techniques, he could not bring himself to produce powerful enough force from these techniques. He could not even do the adaptation on the techniques. There were a lot of holes and flaws in the techniques’ original versions. But when he received the manual back from Zheng-Fu and read it, he became a different person. He now understood his family’s secret fighting technique…
Not only the flaws in the first movement patterns were gone, but the new version also eliminated unnecessary moves. It made the outcome much more powerful. His family’s secret fist fighting technique had become something as great as the Sword of Fiery Lizard skill. It actually might be something more powerful even…
“I’m alright, dear.” Kong-Shi assured Tang-Ling that he was fine and then turned to Zheng-Fu and said, “I’m just surprised and glad that our son could understand our family’s secret fighting skill so quickly and so thoroughly. He’s really good indeed.” Kong-Shi did not mention the changes and revision of the techniques to Tang-Ling. He only wanted his wife to know that he was delighted that their son could understand the techniques very quickly. Kong-Shi then put the manual back into his spatial ring…
“Father, mother! I’ll excuse myself to clean up, please!”
“Of course. Don’t forget to brush your teeth, dear.”
“Sleep tight, son!”
Zheng-Fu left for his room immediately. Right now, he got six lower-leveled Qi energy stones and a Body-Strengthening Ginseng. He wanted to use the special ginseng to improve his weakening physical strength, but he needed to have it extracted first. The only people who could extract the ginseng were the alchemists. The alchemists in his clan were merely of the beginner level. Different levels of alchemists produced different levels of medicine efficiencies…
It seemed like Zheng-Fu had no choice, but to go to the alchemists in his clan. Going to the higher-leveled alchemists would cost him a lot of pay, so he decided to go to his clan’s Medicine Tower to ask the alchemists there to extract the special ginseng for him…
As for the lower-leveled Qi energy stones that he recently acquired, he would keep them rested for now. He intended to use them to check if what he had in mind was correct…
“Now with these Qi energy stones, I can see if what I suspect is true.”
When Zheng-Fu woke up the next day, he hurriedly went to the Medicine Tower to ask the beginner alchemist of the clan to help him with the special ginseng…
At the Medicine Tower of the Tian-Tang clan…
Squeak!
Zheng-Fu pushed the door to enter the Medicine Tower. When he got inside, he could smell the herbs in the air, which reminded him of the smell of a hospital in the previous world. The hospitals in the previous world were filled with advanced medicine smells though. The smell of the Medicine Tower in this world was nicer because they were from herbal plants. As Zheng-Fu walked into the room, he heard…
“Who are you!?”
“I’m Tian-Tang Zheng-Fu, sir!” Zheng-Fu was quick to cup his hands to pay respect to the owner of the voice, even though he did not know who the person was…
“Zheng-Fu!?”
“Well, well, well! Aren’t you the one who just won the clan’s young martial arts test?” The mysterious voice rang, asking…
“You knew!?”
“Why wouldn’t I know? You have become the talk of the town now. Anyway, what do you need from the Medicine Tower, kid?”
As soon as the voice ended, a veteran elder walked towards Zheng-Fu. His hair and long beard were all white. The air around him was filled with an herbal medicine smell, which pretty much let Zheng-Fu know who he was…
“Please accept my respect, Elder!”
“Hahaha! Good, good, good! It’s good that you show your respect. Not arrogant. It’s good to see you again. I am Tian-Tang Sue-Wu, an elder who oversees this Medicine Tower.”
“Respectable Elder, I came here today because I would like to ask you to extract this Body-Strengthening Ginseng for me, sir.”
“The Body-Strengthening Ginseng!?”
Sue-Wu felt a little puzzled when he heard that Zheng-Fu wanted him to help extract the special ginseng. He never heard of such an idea because normally people who had it would grind it and then boil it before drinking it. Either that or boiled it to use it in a bath to let their body absorb it. So, when he heard the word ‘extract’ from Zheng-Fu, it made him want to know why…
“Kid, you don’t need to extract the Body-Strengthening Ginseng to make it a medicine. You just grind it and boil it to drink it in.”
“Just grind and boil!?”
Zheng-Fu was a little startled because he did not know that the people in the Xianxia world would only boil the special ginseng and drink it. In the previous world, a lot of Xianxia novels mentioned the Body-Strengthening Ginseng, but no one had ever found such special ginseng on earth before. But anyway, he never thought that the way to take this special ginseng would be as simple as just grinding and boiling it and then drinking…
“Is that so, sir?”
But even so, Zheng-Fu would not wish to grind and boil the ginseng that he had. He believed that there must be some other way that he could make the effect more efficient than just boiling and drinking the ginseng…
“That’s right, kid. That’s it. You don’t need to make it too hard about it. Well, if you need nothing else from me, then I’ll just have to excuse myself. I have to create a new formula for a medicine that helps to heal fresh wounds.”
“A new medicine formula to heal fresh wounds?”
“What is a new medicine to heal fresh wounds, sir?” Zheng-Fu asked while making a questioning face like what innocent kids normally do…
“Do you really want to know?”
“Yes, sir!”
“Why don’t you come in and have a look, if you’re interested.”
When Zheng-Fu heard the invitation, he realized that if he wanted to do something more special than boiling the special ginseng, he should learn about the science of making medicine first. He now wished to know how to make medicine and the invitation gave him a chance to learn how to do it. So, he agreed to join the Medicine Elder…
*Being a kid is really superb. Just making an innocent face would help one get what one wants.*
Sue-Wu, on the other hand, let Zheng-Fu in because there were not so many alchemists in the clan because most of the kids would turn to practice martial arts. When he saw enthusiasm from Zheng-Fu, Sue-Wu asked the boy to come to see his work. He also felt like he could get along very well with the boy…
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