The Experimentation

Just as Han Li was beginning to think the rainy weather might continue for some time, the sun finally hung in the sky once more. The skies had cleared.

Nearly half a month had passed since Han Li had discovered the secret of the green liquid, and he had grown unbearably impatient. On the very night the weather cleared, he finally witnessed the miraculous sight he had first seen four years ago—countless specks of light, densely clustered around the bottle, forming a large luminous orb.

The moment Han Li saw this spectacle, the heavy stone that had been lodged in his heart finally settled. This much was now virtually certain: the small bottle was not a one-use consumable, but a wondrous object that could be used repeatedly.

After another seven days of waiting, another drop of green liquid finally appeared inside the bottle. Although Han Li had already been eighty to ninety percent certain of this outcome, he was still exceptionally pleased. This meant that from now on, he would have an endless supply of rare medicinal herbs and would never have to worry about them again.

As everyone knew, the value of medicinal ingredients was largely determined by their age. The older a medicinal herb was, the greater its potency. Similarly, the rarer and older the ingredient, the harder it was to find. Such herbs generally grew deep in the mountains, on treacherous cliffs and in remote forests—places one could not reach without taking considerable risks.

Although some pharmacies and physicians cultivated their own herbs, these were mostly common varieties that could be used after only a short growing period. Most people would not be foolish enough to plant things that took a decade or even several decades to become usable.

However, some wealthy and influential families, taking precautions against unforeseen circumstances, would have their people specially cultivate a few extremely rare medicinal herbs for use in life-or-death emergencies. These ingredients generally had no medicinal effect without undergoing a considerable number of years, because ordinary items could easily be purchased by such families with their wealth—why would they go to all the trouble of cultivating them? And since these families could pass down their fortunes for generations, they did not mind the time required to cultivate these herbs. After all, no one knew whether they might one day need them. Thus, these herbs were usually extreme-grade varieties that required centuries of cultivation, or rare, one-of-a-kind specimens that ordinary people simply lacked the financial and material resources to produce.

Occasionally, a rare wild herb would appear briefly on the market, only to be purchased by one of these wealthy families. This drove the price of rare medicinal herbs ever higher, often creating a situation where there was demand but no supply.

Han Li did not hold out much hope for Doctor Mo's current expedition. He estimated that the doctor would not have much success. But Han Li no longer needed to worry about this. With the bottle, he could accelerate the growth of any fine medicinal herb in a very short time.

With a peculiar feeling in his heart, Han Li conducted several more experiments with herb acceleration over the following few dozen days.

In one experiment, he sprinkled diluted green liquid over a large number of herbs. The next day, he obtained only a large quantity of ordinary herbs with a mere one or two years of accelerated growth—far inferior to the herbs from his first experiment. From this test, Han Li vaguely grasped certain patterns.

In his next experiment, he skipped the dilution step entirely and dripped the green liquid directly onto a single ginseng plant. When he woke the next morning, he found himself in possession of a century-old ginseng, indistinguishable from a wild century-old plant. This test filled Han Li with unexpected joy—not because he had obtained a rare ingredient, but because he had roughly mastered the method of using the green liquid.

Subsequently, Han Li conducted several preservation tests with the green liquid. He placed the liquid, freshly extracted from the bottle, into various containers: porcelain bottles, jade bottles, gourds, silver bottles, and so on. He discovered that no container could preserve the green liquid for more than a quarter of an hour. Once the liquid was removed from the mysterious vial, it had to be used within fifteen minutes; otherwise, it would slowly vanish without a trace. The diluted liquid shared the same characteristic—although it could last slightly longer, after a certain period, only the other liquid it had been mixed with remained in the container. The green liquid component had disappeared entirely.

After conducting these tests several times, Han Li completely lost confidence in preserving the green liquid in any other container. It seemed impossible to store this mysterious liquid in large quantities. He would have to try a different kind of test: stacking the medicinal effects.

Han Li dripped a drop of green liquid onto a green Sanwu grass, transforming it into a yellow Sanwu grass with century-grade potency. A few days later, he dripped another drop onto it, and its age increased by yet another century.

Seeing that this approach was indeed effective, Han Li repeated the same process without pause over the next two months. Whenever a new drop of green liquid was produced in the vial, he would drip it onto this same Sanwu grass. The Sanwu grass lived up to his expectations: its leaves gradually turned from yellow to yellow-black, then from yellow-black to black. Finally, when its leaves became completely jet-black and glossy, it had become a rare thousand-year Sanwu grass.

This test was a resounding success. It seemed that, given enough patience, one could continue to increase the Sanwu grass's age indefinitely. But for Han Li, there was no need to do so. He only needed to confirm that this approach was viable. At present, he did not require medicinal herbs with such extreme ages; a few centuries' worth of potency would be more than sufficient for his own use.

After completing this long series of experiments, Han Li could finally rest for a while and take stock of his situation. By now, a considerable amount of time had passed since Doctor Mo had gone down the mountain.

At this moment, Han Li was lying on the wooden bed in his own room, the thousand-year Sanwu grass in his hand, staring blankly into space.

His eyes were fixed on the black medicinal herb, as if he were studying it. But anyone else in the room would have noticed from his unfocused gaze that his mind was not on the Sanwu grass at all. He was lost in thought, his spirit wandering far away.

The joy of obtaining this thousand-year Sanwu grass had completely faded. Instead, he was carefully considering the benefits and dangers that this small bottle had brought him, planning his path forward.

Han Li had read many accounts of "the crime of possessing a treasure" in the various books in Doctor Mo's room. The bottle in his own hands was an unparalleled treasure. If anyone else learned that he possessed such a priceless artifact, he would not live to see the next morning. He would be overwhelmed by a flood of greedy people arriving upon hearing the news, just like so many previous "possessors of treasures." To say nothing of people far away, consider the immediate proximity: if the sect masters of the Seven Mysteries Sect knew the secret of this bottle, they would certainly not let him go. They would find ways to kill him and seize the treasure, and he would end up with a miserable fate of "treasure taken, person destroyed."

"I must never tell anyone about the bottle. And on the mountain, I must use it with extreme caution. The bottle's absorption of light motes is far too conspicuous; if I'm not careful, outsiders will discover its secret," Han Li resolved. He decided to keep his mouth shut and not breathe a single word to anyone.

"But I am currently in desperate need of medicinal herbs for my cultivation. It would be a pity not to use the bottle. I need to think of a way to have the best of both worlds," he thought, a little gloomy as he recalled his stagnant progress in cultivation. In any case, he could not afford to delay his practice of the oral formula. He was no longer cultivating merely to satisfy Doctor Mo's demands. He had vaguely sensed that the unusual changes he had experienced in recent years were inseparable from the practice of this nameless oral formula.