Encyclopedia of Herbs?

"This..."

His mind was filled with knowledge about herbs; it was so vast that the knowledge even exceeded the memory he gained during his entire life as a teenager.

Luckily, what he gained was knowledge. If it was someone's life experience, he would likely end up becoming that person. Because the amount of information was so huge that it could override his original memory,.

Wei Fang continued looking at his newly gained knowledge. Not only does it contain a vast variety of herbs, but there are also explanations about their use, where they grow, and what they need to grow.

Each herb was given an image to show what it looked like. It was the most lifelike and real image Wei Fang had ever seen. Because he knew that it was an image, he became more fascinated. It was because the image was in 3D format, so Wei Fang could observe it from any direction.

There were also notes about how to differentiate between similar-looking herbs. For example, the Moonlight Herb, Moon Flower, and Yin Moonlight. They were three herbs that grew in a similar region, were similar-looking, and had similar conditions to grow. So, many people are often confused about them.

If one wants to look for the Moon Flower, they need to look for its leaf pattern. The Moon Flower had a curved leaf pattern, while the Moonlight Herb and Yin Moonlight were straight. Of course, the difference would become obvious after the Moon Flower produced a flower. If one wants to look for Yin Moonlight, they need to look for their root. Yin Moonlight's root had a darker color and a shade of purple because of the yin energy it absorbed. The one that had a normal root and straight leaf pattern was Moonlight Herb.

But, as Wei Fang continued to look at the new knowledge and its notes, he found several things that were odd.

There were taste descriptions for each herb. Even though he never studied alchemy, he knew that refining pills didn't require one to know the taste of an herb. Because he never ate a pill that tasted delicious.

Thinking about the vast number of herbs that had similar taste description...Wei Fang was filled with admiration for the person who created the encyclopedia because he could feel that person's sacrifice.

To be able to taste hundreds of thousands of herbs that had'very bitter' and'very terrible' taste descriptions was really worthy of admiration; even he shuddered, wondering if he was able to do it.

"Achoo!"

"Who is praising me?" Fang Jiuyi, who was strolling in the mortal night market, muttered.

"System-sama, why is there a taste description?" Wei Fang asked the system.

[Isn't it better to be more detailed?]

"It's obviously better if you say it like that. But does alchemy need to make pills that taste better?"

[It would be better if you could do so. It would make children take their medicine easier.]

Wei Fang's head was full of questions mark. What had this to do with children taking medicine?

"Then, this. In the Earth Flower note, there was a note saying don't bring it to the kitchen because its smell could ruin one's appetite. There was also one in the Moon Flower, suitable to be brewed with tea. There also..."

[No comment.]

"System-sama?"

[The system was offline.]

"Offline? What is offline, really?"

"System-sama! System? System?"

"It's gone."

"Why do I feel the encyclopedia is a bit familiar?" He muttered.

Wei Fang shook his head, "Whatever!"

Although the encyclopedia was a bit strange, the knowledge inside was real. It could be said that he had become an expert at herbology in a single step.

Now he didn't need to worry about embarrassing his master. After all, his master was an alchemy master of the sect; if he, his disciple, didn't know a thing about alchemy, then it would be embarrassing.

***

The next day, Wei Fang went to the Alchemy Hall after doing the punching routine.

When he arrived at the hall's entrance, he could feel many hostile gazes landing on him. He saw that it was mainly the ones who had just taken the entrance test that shot him those gazes, and the most intense one was from the man from yesterday who was brought to his knees by Elder Tan.

It seems he was still dissatisfied with Elder Tan yesterday but didn't dare to confront him. So, the only target was him, the weakest.

Wei Fang didn't want to be involved in their childish game. If he had time, he would better increase his power instead. So he could survive better if he needed to venture out of the sect in the future.

Being jealous of others and resenting unfairness wouldn't get you anywhere. It would just make you uncomfortable.

But things didn't always go as one wished. Just as he was about to pass without giving them any heed, a young man stopped him.

"Are you the one who entered Alchemy Hall with your connection?"

Wei Fang looked at the young man in front of him. He had quite a large build for an alchemist.

"Yes!" Wei Fang didn't intend to deny what he did.

He could enter Alchemy Hall because of that one healing ointment, so it was not wrong to say he entered through connection.

"Go back to where you came from! You who enter Alchemy Hall without ability and through connection aren't fit to become alchemists and would tarnish the Alchemy Hall's reputation."

Wei Fang was stumped when he heard that. He thought the man would scold him or beat him up. Unexpectedly, he only wants him to go back and not tarnish the hall's reputation. But the problem was that he joined the hall not because of alchemy.

"Mmm, senior brother, did you misunderstand something?"

"Misunderstand?" The senior brother was confused. 

"Yes." Wei Fang nodded. "Do you know the reason why I entered the Alchemy Hall?"

"To become an alchemist, what else?" He still sounded confused. Doesn't everyone enter the Alchemy Hall because they want to become alchemists?

"There's where you were wrong. I joined the Alchemy Hall not because I wanted to become an alchemist but because my master was an elder of the Alchemy Hall. Even if I want to join another hall, I reckon Alchemy Hall would try to prevent it." Wei Fang explained.

It was normal practice to let the elder's personal disciples enter the hall without a test. It was because if the disciples entered another hall, every time their master gave them resources, it was like the Alchemy Hall nurtured disciples for another hall. Because their master got the resources from the Alchemy Hall.

The senior brother then became quite awkward. "My apologies, junior brother. I didn't know that. My name is Han Lan; maybe I didn't have strong combat power. But if junior brother requires something related to alchemy, I can help you once."

"Don't worry, it's fine. You are too polite, Senior Brother." Wei Fang smiled. It seems Senior Brother Han Lan was quite a righteous figure.

Han Lan then turned to look at the young man from yesterday before leaving.

Wei Fang also looked at him and said, "If I became you, I would use those times to memorize more herbs instead of being jealous of others."

He didn't have the habit of being nice to someone who was giving him trouble.

"You don't deserve to say that when you can't even pass the entrance test." The man suddenly snapped.

"Who says I can't pass the entrance test? If there was an easier way, who would want to make themselves difficult?" The entrance test was not difficult; it was just differentiating herbs and listing their properties.

Maybe he couldn't pass it yesterday, but now...

He had become an expert at herbology; if he couldn't pass the entrance test, he could just go home and farm.

"Cuih, even a child can talk big." The man spat out, "Do you dare to duel in alchemy with me? The theme would be herbology."

"Duel? Then how about a bet?" Wei Fang proposed, "I don't have that much time to spare."

It was clear that if he refused to bet, Wei Fang would reject the duel.

"Okay, what's the stake?"

Wei Fang grinned and said, "Six hours of pill chamber use."