Picking Fruit, Hidden Current
"Brother Yang, make sure you remember the method to collect the Dragon Whiskers Flower. Only take those with their flower bulb ready to bloom, and not those completely shut or bloomed." Liu Da-Yang pointed at the direction with a few blooming flowers.
The flower is white in color and comes with a total of six petals. There's a total of three stamens for the plant's reproduction, and one flower from each plant will be left aside for them to grow into a fruit. When the Dragon Whiskers Flower has grown into a fruit, the entire plant becomes poisonous.
This is because the plant activated its self-defense mechanism to protect itself until the fruit matured. The plant will slowly decay until the fruit touches the ground and restart the entire process again.
For alchemic purposes, a Dragon Whiskers Flower can be harvested when it is fifteen days old, but for it to bear fruit, a whole month is needed. They also had to maintain the heat surrounding the plant for it to grow well.
"Guang-Er understands. Thank you, brother Da-Yang for teaching me." Yang Guang replied and cupped his hands together.
...
"Brother Da-Bing, what are you doing?" Yang Guang approached Liu Da-Bing after he's done with the learning about handling and harvesting the Dragon Whiskers Flower.
"I'm looking out for the Cai-Xian Fruits and the Pears. The Servants Office promised that we can exchange a bottle of Immortal Cai's Dew each time we deliver five of each." Liu Da-Bing replied.
"But how do we know which one is ripe for harvest?" Yang Guang asked.
"Through Jade Flame, of course!"
"By applying a gentle flame at the skin of the Cai-Xian Fruit, those ready to pick would have their color changed from dark to light purple. But still, the experience is crucial when harvesting the Cai-Xian Fruit and Pears." Liu Da-Bing waved his palm around the fruit in front of him.
Although gentle, the flame still reaches the temperature of between 50-60degree of heat, enough to keep a pot of tea warm for a while. The light and agile movement of Liu Da-Bing quickly caresses the fruit as it changes from dark to lighter skin color.
"Their size is about an eyeball of an adult. And because of the water content inside the fruit, the gentle flame could easily cause the skin to change color. But the same trick cannot be used on unripe fruit because it won't work on them."
"Next is the experience. Although this trick is useful, it cannot be used too frequently... At most, three applications. After that, the fruit would explode." Liu Da-Bing explains.
"Then how about the pears, big brother Da-Bing?" Yang Guang asked.
"Those pears are much more easygoing. Just check for those with mold on their stalk. If there's mold at that part, just cut it off. But remember, you'll need 500jin of strength to pluck it." Liu Da-Bing answered and smile.
...
"Milord." a group of army commanders kneeled before a person seated on top of a silver Qilin Chair.
The chair is two meters long and a meter wide. On the back is a sculpted Qilin scenery, which is then layered with molten silver. At both sides of the end is a beautifully tailored silk pillow, comfortable to touch, and light enough to be held.
"Begin." Uncle Xiao leisurely rested on the chair.
"We've learned about 90% of the recipes available in Ten Thousand Pills Sect. So far, we added 16 types of Forming Pill Recipes and 3 types of Assembling Pill Recipes inside our inventory."
"As for manpower distribution, 1,024 members of our Xiao Clan has already planted our roots there. Xiao Eleven believes that we're not going to face a problem when the sects started to fight." Xiao Eleven, the first person to deliver his report, started.
"Xiao Twelve also wished to report that Steel Refinery's blueprint for fifteen weapons and eleven mechanical components has also been copied. If we give our master smiths another half a year, subordinate am sure that they can reproduce the same products."
"Xiao Thirteen also wishes to report on behalf of uncle Xiao Yi, a third of the theories has been copied. Uncle Yi will proceed to obtain the theories from Thunder Tower and Tempering Tower soon."
"The East Crane Gate..."
"The West Tiger Gate..."
"..."
"..."
"Relay my order to the eleven Banner Commanders. The second to seventh banner shall control the six access points to Hongyu Great Province. Eighth and Ninth Banner will stay and protect the Xiao Clan."
"As for the Tenth and Eleventh Banner, sneak into Tianyu Province, and begin kidnapping their people back to our province. Anyone without the Tianyu City Identification shall be taken without prejudice!"
Uncle Xiao gave his order.
"We will proceed as milord's command!" everyone presents inside this meeting answered to his order at the same time.
...
"Looks like this brother of mine is quite busy." Tian Peng pouted as he speaks to Yang Guang.
Another week has passed from the day Yang Guang transferred into the night shift. During this short period, he already got a hundred Jade Coins paid to him as his salary. And at the same time, Yang Guang got lucky for able to keep two bottles of Immortal Cai's Dew inside his room.
"Brother Tian, you're making fun of me. Do you know how dangerous it is at night?" Yang Guang replied.
"I don't care. I heard that you're going to apply for a day leave. What are you going to do with it?"
"Or, do you want big brother to follow you out to the business street or entertainment street? I heard that the Drunken Fragrance Pavilion is quite good!" Tian Peng anticipates to go out so much that he already picked a brothel to visit.
"Brother Tian, I'm going to trade a theory to study. I had a feeling that my cultivation is getting close to the 5th Layer of Qi Forming Realm!" Yang Guang replied.
"Are you serious? Then we'll put the brothel trip aside! Let's go to the Polished Jade Hall tomorrow morning! I'm itching to get a theory book as well!" Tian Peng slapped Yang Guang's shoulder.