Chapter 26, The Miraculous Effect of Tears

Translator: StarReader

 

Su Chen pulled out a small cloth pouch from within his robes. At the thought of how this pouch, which had been by his side for so many years, might hold a groundbreaking secret, filled him with exhilaration.

 

He untied the string and carefully emptied its contents onto his palm—one by one, sixteen tiny blue stones glinted in his hand.

 

From the moment he was born, except for the two stones given to Daoist Han Shan shortly after his birth and the two tears that fell into the lake and were devoured by the monster fish, the rest had always been with him.

 

Su Chen took one of the stones, while the others were placed back into the pouch. He placed the chosen stone in a bowl, then used a mortar to crush it into a fine powder, which he stirred into a large wooden bucket filled with stream water for over an incense stick’s time.

 

This ten-acre herb garden was nestled deep in the remote reaches of the forest at the back of the mountain, rarely visited by anyone. Even so, the numerous medicinal herbs planted here gave off a strong aromatic scent that partly masked the smell emanating from the bucket.

 

He conducted his experiments here without worrying about being discovered. The large wooden bucket, which once held clear stream water, now had a blue tint as the stone powder dissolved.

 

Su Chen buried his face in the bucket and took a deep sniff. The smell wasn’t quite right. He didn’t detect the strong, alluring aroma he had sensed by the lake—so intoxicating that fish and beasts alike would flock towards it blindly. Instead, there was another peculiar scent, reminiscent of the passage of time, drifting through the water. Su Chen couldn’t quite place it. The odor was almost imperceptible yet distinctly present. The more he focused on it, the deeper it seemed to penetrate his senses, seeping into his very soul and leaving him with an odd, unsettling sensation. He sat there by the bucket of murky water, scratched his head in contemplation, and wondered what he should do next.

 

He turned a single small bluestone into a large bucket of blue water, but what now? Use it to feed fish? But there were none in the Medicine King Estate’s rear mountain.

 

Furthermore, after feeding them, what’s next? Eating them? He had already grown tired of fish long ago in Zhou Village.

 

Su Chen couldn’t figure it out either.

 

This blue liquid—he wasn’t about to drink it himself. It was his own tear petrified from his body; drinking it back felt unnatural.

 

Su Chen mulled over it for a while, glanced at the numerous herbs in the surrounding herbal garden, and suddenly had an outlandish thought.

 

“Would the blue water have any reaction if used on the herbs?!”

 

Since there were no fish around, he could only test it on the herbs. He’d pour some over them to see what would happen.

 

Su Chen wasn’t willing to risk using expensive high-grade herbs for experimentation; if something went wrong, he wouldn’t be able to afford it with his monthly three hundred coin salary.

 

The price of herbs was determined by their years of growth. A ginseng with ten years’ worth of potency fetched nearly a couple of silver taels, while one with twenty or more years becomes even more expensive.

 

However, seedlings that were only months old have no medicinal value at all—just a few copper coins each. Even if one died, Zhou Mieyan wouldn’t make a fuss; maybe just a symbolic fine of a few copper coins.

 

Su Chen chose an extremely cheap herb seedling from the herb garden to conduct his experiment. He dipped a small ladleful of blue water and poured it over the root.

 

He squinted at it for nearly half an incense stick but saw no signs of anything unusual.

 

“Maybe it’s just not enough water to show any effect!”

 

Su Chen thought to himself.

 

No worries, he could afford to wait and observe. After all, guarding the herb garden was a dull task—and he had plenty of time on his hands.

 

Late at night, Su Chen felt sleepy and yawned a few times to stay alert. He thought there was nothing important to do in the short term, so he went back to the shack to rest.

 

…

 

The next morning, Su Chen got up and worked neatly as usual, carrying a shoulder pole to fertilize, water, weed, and loosen the soil of the ten-acre herb garden. Sweat slid down his forehead, and he stopped when he watered the seedling that he tested yesterday.

 

The seedling that was watered with a spoonful of blue water last night had grown a lot taller and sprouted its first leaf.

 

Su Chen rubbed his sleepy eyes and stared at the ginseng seedlings in the field in disbelief. Ginseng grew one leaf every year, but this seedling did it so fast that it grew from the state when it was just transplanted to almost a year of medicinal age in just one night.

 

In this way, it would only take another ten nights for it to become a valuable ten-year-old ginseng.

 

Su Chen was stunned, and an irrepressible excitement and joy surged in his heart.

 

Near the medicinal fields, the other seedlings planted together were still without leaves. But the one that Su Chen had watered with the blue water had sprouted its first leaf.

 

Was this the miraculous effect of the blue water?

 

Su Chen decided to continue his experiment and poured another small spoonful onto the seedling.

 

To add to the comparison, he set aside a small section in the herb garden for himself, adding a variety of medicinal herbs as seedlings.

 

Every day, Su Chen carefully observed their growth, and the more he looked, the more amazed he became.

 

Any seedling that had been watered with even a small spoonful of the blue water grew at an incredible speed, accumulating nearly a year’s worth in just one night.

 

Why did the blue water accelerate the growth of herbs?

 

This left Su Chen both astounded and deeply puzzled.

 

Since he couldn’t figure it out, he decided not to dwell on it. After less than a month, the large bucket of blue water had already yielded a dense patch of mature herbs. Their growth years ranged from several years to over ten years. The incredible effect it had in accelerating the growth of the herbs was very useful to Su Chen.

 

After being eliminated and assigned to the Errand Hall, Su Chen had become a lowly errand disciple, his prospects looking bleak. Although he had once entered the Upper Dantian and achieved the unparalleled perception of a Grandmaster, his cultivation remained stagnant. His weak Lower Dantian energy left his extraordinary perception nearly useless. If he couldn’t improve his strength soon, he might end up spending the next few decades as a lowly errand disciple, unheard of in the martial world of Gusu County City and the Wu Region.

 

Moreover, Su Chen tried to re-enter the Upper Dantian, searching for Spirit Mountain and his soul, but he failed. Unknowingly, this bucket of blue water proved to be the miracle he needed. In just a short half-month, Su Chen reaped rich rewards and staged a remarkable comeback.

 

Just the decade-old ginseng, blood ginseng, red blood vine, black yam, and snake gall fruits—all lower- to mid-grade spirit-enhancing herbs—already numbered over twenty. The rest, with one to nine years of growth, totaled nearly fifty.

 

A decade-old ginseng in the large pharmacy of Gusu County City would cost a full tael of silver. This amount would have taken Su Chen four or five hard months of labor to earn.

 

For a new junior laborer at Errand Hall, this was a windfall from the heavens. In just half a month, his wealth skyrocketed.