◎Essential for Cultivators' Home and Travel◎
After the stone door closed, a gentle glow from a spirit stone array illuminated the entire stone chamber as bright as day.
The interior was surprisingly spacious, furnished with tables, chairs, and bedding—everything one might need.
The most eye-catching feature was the large medicine cabinet, containing a hundred unmarked drawers. Yu Youyou pulled one open and found it filled with various medicinal herbs.
On the table lay ten empty drawers, presumably meant to be filled with the correct selection of herbs from the cabinet.
"Radix Dipsaci."
"Rhizoma Smilacis Glabrae."
...
These herbs were all quite common, with none of the legendary spiritual medicines—likely a consideration for mortal children unfamiliar with such high-grade materials.
However, midway through her inspection, Yu Youyou's eyes suddenly lit up.
She had stumbled upon an herb she had never seen before.
The post-apocalyptic world had been harsh—polluted air and soil, and zombies everywhere. Medicinal plants were often trampled before they could mature.
Under such dire conditions, many plants had gone extinct. Even the most common honeysuckle could fetch a hefty price, forcing medical experts to maximize the efficacy of every resource they had.
As the top medical professor in the human base, Yu Youyou had unrestricted access to the system's database, allowing her to study the names and uses of nearly every known herb.
But she had never seen them in person. Now, faced with these dried specimens, she found it difficult to distinguish them at a glance.
"Pinnate leaves, single leaf and single flower..." Yu Youyou examined the dried herb for a long time before bringing it to her nose for a sniff. Detecting a faint fragrance, she tentatively pinched off a tiny piece and placed it on her tongue.
People from the post-apocalyptic world were wild like this—everyone dared to play the role of Shennong, tasting hundreds of herbs.
"Bitter, with a lingering sweetness and a slight numbing sensation on the tongue."
Yu Youyou's eyes sparkled.
"Isn't this the legendary Solitary Leaf Flower?"
Solitary Leaf Flower—a miraculous hemostatic agent. In a world where severed limbs were commonplace, a single stalk could sell for tens of thousands on the black market, and even then, it was nearly impossible to obtain. In her past life, Yu Youyou had only ever gotten her hands on a single leaf—never the flower, which held the strongest medicinal properties.
Instantly, over a dozen prescriptions using Solitary Leaf Flower as the main ingredient flashed through her mind. She had never had the chance to make them before—but now, she could finally try!
Her gaze burned with excitement as she stared at the flower, forcing herself to calm down after a long moment.
She moved on to the next herb.
"White Mustard Seed." Pfft, nothing special.
"Andrographis." Hah, utterly ordinary.
"Silver Trace Grass... Holy—?!"
Yu Youyou clutched her own tail tightly, using the pain to regain her senses. She was afraid she might lose control and start gnawing on the thing right then and there.
Silver Trace Grass—with a black-market auction price in the millions? Compared to this, Solitary Leaf Flower was nothing!
If a painkiller made from Drunken Heart Flower could make you oblivious to a zombie biting off your leg, then one made from Silver Trace Grass would let you lose half your head without noticing!
But alas... Yu Youyou stroked the dried grass with a pang of regret.
Silver Trace Grass was most potent when fresh. This one had already been dried.
If only she could get her hands on a fresh stalk...
Outside the stone chamber, Elder Wan sipped tea mixed with fresh milk, tossing in two sugar cubes when he found the flavor lacking.
Beside him, Qu Qingmiao stood with her arms crossed, expressionless—like a cold, towering snow pine on a wintry mountain.
Elder Wan offered her a cup. "Want some?"
Qu Qingmiao shook her head. "No, thank you."
Unfazed, Elder Wan took a sip and murmured, "I wonder how this year's batch of kids will fare. If we don't get a decent one soon, our Alchemy Sect will be humiliated by the other three regions again."
Qu Qingmiao remained silent, though her gaze darkened slightly.
The Eastern Region had the Alchemy Sect, the Western Region the Herb Valley, the Southern Region the Revival Sect, and the Northern Region the Hanging Pot School.
These four great medical cultivation sects were in constant competition. The other three had millennia of terrifying legacy, backed by powerful medical families within their ranks. The Alchemy Sect, however, had been formed five hundred years ago, after the great war between humans and demons, by a gathering of rogue cultivators.
The Alchemy Sect lagged behind the others in every aspect—even their disciple selection criteria showed it. The other three sects only accepted those with spiritual roots for their outer sect trials, and most of their disciples came from cultivation families. Only the Alchemy Sect had no such restrictions.
After a moment of silence, a bright light flashed from one of the stone chambers ahead.
Elder Wan rubbed his bald head, visibly relieved. "Someone’s already identified an herb? That’s fast. Not bad—which family’s kid is it?"
Such speed in deciphering a new formula surely meant a child from a medical or alchemy family.
Qu Qingmiao glanced over. "The illegitimate son of the Su family from the Northern Region—Su Yizhi."
The Su family was a renowned alchemy lineage in the Northern Region, highly respected within the Hanging Pot School. Logically, Su Yizhi should have joined them—no one knew why he had come to the Alchemy Sect instead.
Elder Wan immediately grew wary. "Be careful. He might be a spy sent to steal our formulas."
Qu Qingmiao gave him a strange look before replying flatly, "The Hanging Pot School probably doesn’t think much of our formulas."
They were the oldest sect, after all.
"..."
Elder Wan took a long sip of milk tea to hide his embarrassment.
That stung.
Perhaps out of boredom, Yu Nianrou and her companions had also arrived at the guest courtyard.
The wound on Yu Nianrou’s face had mostly healed, but an extremely faint scar remained on her cheek—a slight blemish on her otherwise delicate and flawless complexion.
Obsessed with her appearance, she grew restless whenever someone glanced her way, convinced they were staring at the scar.
Noticing this, Jiang Yuan leaned in and reassured her softly, "Don’t worry, Junior Sister. I promise your face will be fully restored in seven days."
Yu Nianrou turned her face away with a scoff. "You’re not an alchemist. What good is your promise? You’re just as useless as the rest!"
It was infuriating. The elders of the Alchemy Sect were either secluded in alchemy sessions or off on distant healing missions. The few who remained in the sect couldn’t be bothered to tend to her injury. Yu Nianrou, accustomed to being pampered in the Cloud Hua Sword Sect, was deeply dissatisfied.
Jiang Yuan’s smile turned bitter at her scolding.
Beside them, Yu Chang’an tugged at his sister’s sleeve. "Sister, the recent unrest among demonic beasts has kept the alchemists busy treating the injured. They’re not ignoring you on purpose."
Yu Nianrou lifted her chin slightly, her expression softening a little. She turned back to Jiang Yuan. "What were you saying earlier, Senior Brother?"
Jiang Yuan sighed and lowered his voice. "Yesterday, I heard that a Silver Trace Grass has sprouted in the Alchemy Sect’s herb garden. It’ll mature in seven days."
Silver Trace Grass promoted blood circulation and regenerated flesh—the finest divine medicine for healing. It would undoubtedly erase her scar.
But Yu Nianrou, used to luxury, dismissed it. "Just a mundane herb without spiritual energy. What’s the point?"
Jiang Yuan added, "That Silver Trace Grass is growing in a first-grade spiritual herb field."
Only then did a flicker of interest cross Yu Nianrou’s eyes.
If an ordinary medicinal herb can absorb spiritual energy, it becomes a spiritual herb. However, out of thousands of ordinary herbs, barely one might transform into a spiritual herb.
Since that Silver Vein Grass grew in the spiritual herb field, it meant it had already evolved into a spiritual herb—far more precious than a typical first-grade spiritual herb.
However, Yu Nianrou glanced at Qu Qingmiao’s retreating figure ahead and wrinkled her nose. "The Alchemy Sect is so stingy. Yesterday, they looked like they were in physical pain just because I took a few pills. Who knows if they’ll even let me have this herb?"
Alchemists treasured herbs like their own lives, hoarding rare specimens away. Though the Silver Vein Grass was only the lowest grade of spiritual herb, its rarity made it unpredictable whether those impoverished alchemists would even sell it.
Jiang Yuan smirked confidently.
"Junior Sister, don’t worry. Among those taking the Alchemy Sect’s test this time, the top scorer will undoubtedly be that kid from the Su family."
"I visited him last night and already paid a hundred spirit stones as a deposit. In seven days, he’ll present that Silver Vein Grass to us."
By the second day of the test, candidates had begun deciphering the pill formulas one after another. Each time they placed herbs into a medicine box, the corresponding stone door would glow faintly.
Su Yizhi’s door had already flashed three times.
Qu Qingmiao observed each one carefully, pausing briefly at Yu Youyou’s station.
There was no movement at all—not a single flicker of light.
She still remembered that young girl. If her guess was correct, Yu Youyou came from a poor family, likely without any opportunity to learn about medicinal herbs, let alone decipher a pill formula.
What a pity. Such a kind and resilient child probably wouldn’t pass the test to stay in the Alchemy Sect. Qu Qingmiao decided she would examine Yu Youyou’s illness more thoroughly before sending her down the mountain.
Thinking of the girl’s clear, innocent cat-like eyes, Qu Qingmiao sighed almost imperceptibly.
Fate was always so cruel to the weak.
……
"The God of Fortune truly favors me!"
Inside the stone chamber, Yu Youyou felt like a mouse that had stumbled into a rice bin. The extinct herbs she had only seen in databases were now right in her hands!
The fragrance of the herbs intoxicated her, and she instantly plunged into a fervent state of work, meticulously cross-referencing the database records in her memory and reorganizing all the herbs according to their effects.
It was a painstaking process—with medicinal herbs, even the slightest mistake was unacceptable.
By the time Yu Youyou had memorized all the herbs, her nerves finally relaxed, and her already exhausted body collapsed onto the floor.
She had been too focused to notice earlier, but now she realized her stomach ached from hunger.
After lying there for a while, she slowly pulled herself up.
If she remembered correctly, there were seven fasting pills provided by the Alchemy Sect on the table. One pill could stave off hunger for a whole day without the inconvenience of bodily needs—a must-have for low-level cultivators on the go.
Sure enough, her fingers closed around a small white porcelain bottle.
Starving and nearly faint, Yu Youyou popped a fasting pill into her mouth—only for her pale face to instantly turn the color of liver.
She had heard fasting pills tasted awful but hadn’t paid it much mind. In her past life, she had endured tasteless nutrient solutions daily, and in this life, she survived on plain steamed buns. What couldn’t she tolerate?
But the moment the fasting pill touched her tongue…
Yu Youyou had never eaten a cockroach, yet as the flavor exploded across her taste buds, she inexplicably imagined a winged, zombie roach!
Gag!
Compared to this, the nutrient solutions from the apocalypse tasted like sweet soda.
For the first time since her rebirth, Yu Youyou found herself longing for the taste of nutrient solution.
