In-See City
After smiling by himself for a while, Sue-Wu brought himself back to normal to a calm state of mind. Then he coughed mildly and turned to Zheng-Fu and then said,
“Don’t tell anyone about the achievement today! It might cause some issues in the clan.”
“Yes, Master. I’ll do what you tell me!”
After the conversation, both Zheng-Fu and Sue-Wu prepared more ingredients to go back to mix the medicines further. They produced more second-ranked healing pills that day, about 20 pills of them. They had to stop because they ran out of the Hound Tongue plants…
“It’s too bad we ran out of the Hound Tongue. I didn’t think I would need a lot of them because I thought they might not be helpful this much. Let’s go to the market to buy some more herbal plants tomorrow. Do you want to join me?”
“The market!?”
This would be the first time that Zheng-Fu had a chance to go out if he was allowed to go to the market with Sue-Wu. Since he was reborn in this world, he had never had any chance to go anywhere but within the estate of the clan. This was because his father was an important figure of the clan, so his son, Zheng-Fu might be a walking target if he went outside the clan’s estate. However, it would be safe to go out with Sue-Wu because there was a rule saying that the alchemists in all clans must not be touched in any circumstances. They did not attack the alchemists because sometimes they needed to collaborate with the alchemists from each clan…
“I would love to join you, Master, but I think that my father wouldn’t let me. I would like to see what is out there too, but…” Zheng-Fu said sadly. He felt like he had no energy left when he thought of this. When Sue-Wu saw him like that, he came up with an idea and then said…
“How about I go talk to your father? Don’t you worry about it! I’d like to do it to thank you for the new medicine formula.” When Zheng-Fu heard that, he felt energetic all of a sudden and smiled at Sue-Wu while cupping his fists to pay gratitude to his Master instantly…
“Thank you for your kindness, Master.”
“Alright…Then you come and wait for me here tomorrow. I’ll let you know what your father says.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Okay! And take these. Take some of your pills home.” Sue-Wu gave five pills of the second-ranked healing pills to Zheng-Fu before the boy left home. He also gave Zheng-Fu a warm smile…
“Thank you very much, Master!”
Zheng-Fu said goodbye to his Master and headed back home immediately with those five second-ranked healing pills with him in his cloth bag. On the way home, he was thinking that it would be great if he owned a spatial ring. It was not wise to be walking around carrying something precious like these pills. He thought that he must get a spatial ring first thing when he got to the market…
*But where am I going to get the money to buy the ring? I have no money at all. Wait! I’ve got these second-ranked healing pills. Master Sue-Wu said it costs a lot. If I can sell some of these pills, I would have enough money to buy at least one spatial ring!*
Now Zheng-Fu could not wait for the next morning. He wished for it to be tomorrow very soon. However, Zheng-Fu, at the same time, did not have any high hopes for getting a grant to go to the market anyway. He was not sure if Master Sue-Wu could convince his father to allow him to go…
When Zheng-Fu arrived home, he continued to study from the Book of Fundamental Herbal Plants. After a month since he received the book, he could remember nine portions of the whole knowledge of the book. It did not take long for him to understand the initial part of the book because they were about lower-leveled herbal plants, which made it easy for him to take it all in so quickly. To remember the later parts took him more time though because they were about complex herbal plants in terms of features and qualities…
Zheng-Fu did not know that it took more than a month for others to remember up to nine portions of the whole book. He could be called a genius of a genius being able to do that. Sue-Wu himself spent more than ten years on the book. Even so, he had not been able to remember everything in there…
Zheng-Fu actually did not create only one herbal medicine formula. He had created another ten more of them by using the formulas that Sue-Wu initiated but could not achieve. He modified those formulas during the past month. He chose to show only one formula that he modified to Sue-Wu because he wanted to know if the formula actually worked…
The result came out better than Zheng-Fu expected because he doubted that the first-ranked healing pill could become more efficient when an ingredient was replaced, and the mixing steps were rearranged. He thought it was amazingly shocking that he could turn the pill into the second-ranked healing pill. It made him realize that if he used the more suitable herbs, the outcome would be more and more powerful…
Zheng-Fu then realized that the price of the pills must be more expensive if they were medicines that helped revive or increase Qi energy. The pill that Zheng-Fu just succeeded was merely to help heal wounds. It was the pill that was important to only warriors and soldiers…
The next early morning, Zheng-Fu sat in front of the Medicine Tower to wait for Sue-Wu. He was very excited to know if he could go with his Master. And within no time, Sue-Wu showed up in front of him…
“Your father let you come with me to the market. Did you know how long I had to persuade him to allow you to come with me?
“Really, Master!?”
“Yep! Alright, let’s move before it’s late!”
“Yes, Master!”
Zheng-Fu rushed to get in the carriage with Sue-Wu. His face was filled with a joyful smile. He thought that his father would not let him. Both Zheng-Fu and Sue-Wu were now sitting in a carriage. There were about 30 bodyguards whose Qi energy level was at the beginning level of the Foundation Building stage. The strongest bodyguards were at the fifth level of the Foundation Building stage…
“Where are we heading to, Master? To Sai-Tarn City or In-See City?” Zheng-Fu asked Sue-Wu out of enthusiasm because this was the very first time that he got a chance to get out of the clan’s estate. Zheng-Fu had learned about geography. He could remember a lot of information about routes and cities that were recorded in the book that he read when he was studying with Master Huang. Even though he knew the geography of places around the clan, he never at least once came out to see the real thing. So, this very first field trip of his gave him a lot of excitement…
According to the map, the Tian-Tang Clan was located in the West. The nearest cities to the clan were Sai-Tarn City and In-See City. Both cities were not big but were densely populated. Four more other clans were located around the same area. They were Lei Clan, Huo Clan, Jia Clan, and Mu Clan. If the Tian-Tang Clan was included, all five of them were deemed to be the most powerful clans in the area…
Tian-Tang Clan was in a slump state and ranked the least powerful among all clans. This was because the clan had not been giving birth to a martial arts genius for many years now. They had been suffering from a shortage of resources too. The whole thing had put them in a decline for so many years…
“We’re leaving for In-See City!”
“In-See City!?”
“Well, what In-See City is like? Let me think about it…Yeah! In-See City has a tropical climate. It has a dense forest and also vast grass fields. The city is also located next to the mountains. It is the place where tons of Hound Tongue plants are found. It is probably the place where the herbal plant grows the best, so its price is much cheaper than in Sai-Tarn City. In-See City also sits in the middle of the way that led to all five powerful clans, so it is kind of bigger than Sai-Tarn City.”
“Wow!”
Sue-Wu could not help but feel impressed by Zheng-Fu’s description of the city. The boy made it sound like he had seen the whole of In-See City before. He knew that this was the first time that Zheng-Fu got out of the clan’s estate. He wondered why the boy knew this much…
“You’re correct. In-See City was located in the middle of the way that led to the five clans, so, normally, there are more people flocked in this city. There are also a lot more goods to offer people who come to the city. The Hound Tongue plants also cost cheaply because no one needs them, thinking that they are useless, just like the way I used to think about them earlier.”
Even though Zheng-Fu learned a lot of information about the city from the book and Master Huang, he paid close attention to what Sue-Wu told him because he had never visited the city for real. Sue-Wu was more than happy to explain everything about the city to Zheng-Fu, whether it be about the city’s history or things that Zheng-Fu never knew about…
“You must remember to stay close to me. Don’t go anywhere by yourself without telling me! You got it?”
“Yes, Master!”
It took about three days to go from Zheng-Fu’s clan to In-See City. After traveling for three whole days, they finally arrived at the center of In-See City, the center city of the five clans. There were a lot of people on the street, men, and women. The city made Zheng-Fu think of the world that he left from, especially about the time that he usually walked back home late at night. The difference was that this was during the day in the city. There were a lot of shops on both sides of the road. There were shops that sold many kinds of tools…
Squeak!
“We are going to stay for a day before going back to our clan. This is where we are going to spend the night.” When Zheng-Fu got out of the carriage, he found an average-sized tavern in front of him. It looked quite exceptional for the size. This was the place that Sue-Wu usually came to stay every time he came to buy ingredients for his herbal medicines…
“Please accept my respect to you, Sue-Wu sir!” After the student and Master got off the carriage, a somewhat chubby man rushed to greet them with extreme politeness instantly…
“Well, hello tavern owner!”
“Our tavern would like to welcome you, sir. How long are you going to stay here this time?” The chubby tavern owner asked while rubbing his hands together…
“It’ll be only one night this time.”
“You got it, sir. I’ll have my boys prepare the room for you.”
“Wait!”
“Get me two rooms, would you? I’ve brought my nephew with me this time.” The word ‘nephew’ got the tavern owner interested in checking out Zheng-Fu, so he glanced at him with suspicion. Normally, Sue-Wu would come by himself. In the end, the tavern owner did not say anything, but smiled and then said…
“Of course, sir. I’ll have someone take care of it!”
The hotelkeepers started to take the group’s belongings to their rooms. All bodyguards scattered to their rooms to take some rest and waited to go back to the clan the next day. They did not need to be active much because this city was a safe city due to the rule that no one was allowed to fight unless they took it to the dual courtyard in the center of the city. Anyone who did not abide by the rule would be banned from the city for a year. This very rule helped keep the city safe and sound for so many years. There were still some quarrels in some parts of the city, but they were just small things. The people in the city still took the rule seriously…
“I’ll take you to this one place before going to the herbal plant shop. We are going to leave the tavern in about a shichen, so you go take some rest as you like.” Sue-Wu turned to Zheng-Fu before letting him know the plan…
*This one place!?*
“Yes, sir!”
Although Zheng-Fu was curious about the place that Sue-Wu was going to take him to, he did not ask or say anything back to Sue-Wu. He did not mind going places with him in this city anyway, so he replied to Sue-Wu politely. Then he started to walk to the room that the hotelkeeper prepared for him…