Chapter 26: Forcing the Medicine to Take Effect

  Just as Han Li thought this gloomy weather would continue for a while, the sun finally reappeared in the sky and the day cleared up.

  It's been almost half a month since Han Li discovered the secret of the green liquid, and he had grown impatient. On the night of a sunny day, he finally saw again the strange phenomenon that had occurred four years ago - numerous light spots densely surrounding the bottle, forming a large cluster of light.

  When Han Li saw this strange phenomenon, the stone that had been hanging high in his heart finally fell down. It can be basically confirmed that this small bottle is not a one-time consumable item, but a reusable magical object.

  After waiting for seven more days, a drop of green liquid finally appeared in the small bottle again. When Han Li saw the green liquid appear inside the bottle, although he had already been 80-90% sure in his heart, he was still extremely excited, indicating that he would have an endless supply of rare and precious medicinal materials from now on, and would never have to worry about this again.

  To know the preciousness of medicinal materials, most of them are evaluated based on their age. The older a herb is, the greater its medicinal properties will be. Similarly, the longer the age of a medicinal material, the harder it is to find, and generally they grow in deep mountains, old forests, and steep cliffs, without taking some risks, it's not even worth thinking about.

  Although some pharmacies and doctors themselves will specially cultivate some medicinal herbs, most of them are commonly used and can be used in a short period of time. Most people would not be foolish enough to plant something that takes tens of years to mature.

  But there are also some wealthy families who, in order to be prepared for any eventuality, will have people specially cultivate a few extremely rare medicinal herbs to use in times of crisis. These medicinal materials generally won't have any effect unless they've been cultivated for a very long time, because ordinary things can be easily bought with the wealth and status that these families possess, so why bother going to such great lengths to cultivate them? Moreover, these families can pass down their wealth from generation to generation, so they don't care about how much time it takes to cultivate these medicinal herbs. Nobody knows whether or not they'll ever need them on a particular day, so these medicinal herbs are generally the best of the best, cultivated over hundreds of years, or some rare and precious solitary specimens that ordinary people can't afford to cultivate.

  Occasionally, some rare medicinal herbs appear in the market, but they are mostly bought up by these wealthy families, which has led to a sharp rise in the price of rare medicinal herbs in the market, and often there is no supply at all.

  Han Li didn't think much of Mo Daifu's prospects for this trip, guessing that he wouldn't gain much either. But now he no longer had to worry about it, with this bottle, all sorts of good medicinal materials could be cultivated in a short amount of time.

  Han Li harbored an unusual mood and over the next several dozen days, he conducted a few more experiments with the ripening medicinal herb.

  Once, he sprinkled the diluted green liquid on a large number of herbs, and as a result, only got a lot of ordinary medicinal materials that had an effect of one or two years of cultivation the next day, which was far inferior to the first batch of herbs obtained. From this experiment, Han Li subtly grasped some rules.

  In the next experiment, Han Li simply omitted the dilution step and directly dripped the green liquid onto a ginseng plant. As a result, when he woke up the next day, Han Li had obtained a hundred-year-old ginseng that was indistinguishable from a wild hundred-year-old old man ginseng. This experiment made Han Li extremely happy, not because he had obtained a rare medicinal material, but because he had roughly grasped the method of using the green liquid.

  Afterwards, Han Li conducted several more experiments to preserve the green liquid. He took the green liquid that had just been taken out of the bottle and placed it in various containers, including ceramic bottles, jade bottles, gourds, silver bottles, etc. He discovered that no matter what kind of container was used, the green liquid could not be preserved for more than a short period of time. As soon as the green liquid was removed from the mysterious small bottle, it had to be used within a short period of time; otherwise, it would slowly disappear without a trace. The diluted version also had the same characteristics, although it could be stored for a slightly longer period of time. However, after exceeding a certain amount of time, only the infiltrated other substances remained in the container, and the components of the green liquid had disappeared.

  After doing this experiment several times, Han Li completely lost confidence in the preservation of green liquid in other containers. It seems that it is impossible to store a large amount of this mysterious **, and can only go to test another kind of superimposed medicinal properties.

  Han Li dripped a drop of green liquid onto a stalk of green three-leaf grass, transforming it into a yellow three-leaf grass with a hundred-year medicinal property. After several days, he dripped another drop of green liquid on it, and its age actually increased by over a hundred years.

  Seeing that it was effective, Han Li continued to repeat the same method for more than two months. Every time new green liquid was produced from the small bottle, he would drip it onto this San Wu grass, and the San Wu grass did not disappoint him. Its leaves gradually changed from yellow to dark yellow, then from dark yellow to black, and finally became a rare thousand-year-old San Wu grass after its leaves turned completely black and shiny.

  This test was very successful, it seems that if there is patience, the age of Sanwucao can be further increased. However, for Han Li, this is completely unnecessary, as long as he knows that this method is indeed feasible, he doesn't need these extremely old medicinal materials, hundreds of years old herbs are enough for him to use himself.

  After this long series of trials was over, Han Li could finally take a break and think things through carefully. By now, quite some time had passed since Mo Daifu came down the mountain.

  Han Li was now lying on his wooden bed in his own room, holding the thousand-year-old San Wu grass and staring blankly.

  His eyes stared straight at the black medicinal herb, as if studying it, but as long as there was another person in the room, one could see from his scattered gaze that his mind was not on the Sanwucao at all, but rather wandering outside, thinking about who-knows-what.

  He no longer had the joy he felt when he first got the Sanwu grass, but was carefully thinking about the benefits and dangers that this small bottle brought to himself, making arrangements for his own future.

  Han Li saw many examples of "treasuring a jade and suffering for it" in the various books from Mo Daifu's house. The bottle in his hand was truly priceless, and if outsiders knew he had such a treasure, he would not live to see the next morning. He would be overwhelmed by greedy people who came after hearing the news, just like many "jade treasurers" before him. Without mentioning distant examples, even the masters of their own sect would not let him off if they knew the secret of this bottle. They would think of ways to kill him and steal the treasure, and he would end up with a tragic fate of "losing one's life for treasure".

  "He must not tell anyone about the bottle, and he should be careful when using it on the mountain. The sound of the bottle absorbing light is too loud, and if he's not careful, outsiders will discover its secrets." Han Li made up his mind to keep his mouth shut and not reveal a single word to outsiders.

  However, he is now in urgent need of medicinal materials for his cultivation, and not using this bottle would be a waste. He still needs to think of a way to achieve both goals. He thought about the stagnation of his cultivation and felt somewhat disheartened. No matter what, he couldn't delay the progress of his cultivation mantra. He wasn't cultivating because of Mo Daifu's urging, but because he had vaguely realized that some unusual changes in himself over the past year were inseparable from this unnamed mantra.