Chapter 14 Medicinal Plant Cultivation

Li Yongfeng, having been an escorter, had extensive connections, and he brought back the seeds Wang Sheng needed that very day.

After receiving the seeds, Wang Sheng began to sort them into categories.

With his Level 9 Herb Recognition, he could clearly identify all of the seeds.

"This is Angelica… this is astragalus… Codonopsis, Poria… white peony…"

It took over ten minutes for Wang Sheng to carefully sort dozens of types of medicinal herb seeds into their respective categories and label them with their corresponding names.

After organizing everything, he took out the herbal formula he had written from memory, and the decision on which medicinal plants to cultivate would be based on the formula.

He ultimately chose the "Ten-Complete Great Replenishing Pill."

The Ten-Complete Great Replenishing Pill, a very famous tonic in traditional Chinese medicine, is made up of ten herbal ingredients such as Codonopsis, Atractylodes, Poria, licorice, Angelica, and others, with a simple and crude effect of warming and replenishing Qi-Blood.

Because it was so well-known, Wang Sheng had made a point to learn how it was made.

Of all the Qi-Blood replenishing formulas he knew, this one used the fewest medicinal herbs.

Even ten ingredients seemed too few, and Wang Sheng could only feel a liverache.

However, despite any liverache, it needed to be done—after all, this was a life game with no room for regret!

The schedule for his daily tasks needed to be adjusted once again.

The time spent practicing Ba Duan Jin was reduced to once a day.

The cultivation time for Inner Core Skill remained unchanged.

In fact, practicing Inner Core Skill actually consumed spiritual power. Previously, because of the Tiger Bone Ointment, Qi-Blood was strengthened and spiritual power rapidly recovered, hence the quick progress.

But once the Tiger Bone Ointment ran out, the progress on Inner Core Skill became as slow as Ba Duan Jin.

The Chrysanthemum Planting, having broken through three times, produced chrysanthemums that could replenish the spiritual power consumed in Inner Core Skill practice and also accelerate progress.

Now that he could replenish spiritual power with chrysanthemum tea, practice of Inner Core Skill naturally could continue without the need to reduce time.

If it wasn't for the fact that the progression of the required medicinal herbs was overwhelming, Wang Sheng would have even considered increasing the time spent on Inner Core Skill, as it was a fundamental method.

Eventually, Wang Sheng added another ten types of medicinal plants to his backyard cultivation.

In the following month, the thing Wang Sheng did most each day was tending to the soil in the backyard, advancing the Medicinal Plant Cultivation, and the month passed by peacefully.

As the month went by outside, according to the information gathered by Li Yongfeng, the situation became more chaotic.

Due to warfare, many merchant caravans dared not travel, and the price of food had already risen twice. Although it hadn't reached an exaggerated level, some perceptive people began hoarding grain.

Even Qingshan Village had set up checkpoints at the entrances and exits due to the information from Li Yongfeng, looking ready for a looming storm.

Just as significant as the changes in the outside world were the changes to Wang Sheng's progress bars.

A month ago, "Herb Recognition: 9 (25%)" and "Ginseng Cultivation: 9 (12%)" had already reached Level 9, now they had become "Herb Recognition: Breakthrough+1 (78%)" and "Ginseng Cultivation: Breakthrough+1 (95%)."

Both had broken through once.

Ginseng Cultivation, like Chrysanthemum Planting, allowed Wang Sheng to quickly grow a mature ginseng, although, unlike chrysanthemums, which could be harvested in a few days, it was different.

A wild ginseng's growth cycle is measured in years, with it taking roughly 20–30 years to mature. Wang Sheng needed at least half a month to cultivate a mature wild ginseng, which was still astonishingly fast.

Not to mention, as the progress bar increased, the speed would become even faster.

What he anticipated most was the astonishing effect after breaking through Herb Recognition.

His mind now contained a wealth of knowledge about compounding medicines, and the biggest advantage of this breakthrough was a greater assurance in creating the "Ten-Complete Great Replenishing Pill."

The other major gain was the advancement in the progress of the ten medicinal ingredients of the "Ten-Complete Great Replenishing Pill."

"Codonopsis Planting: 9 (95%)", "Astragalus Planting: 9 (97%)", "Poria Planting: 9 (96%)"...

The cultivation progress of all ten medicinal herbs had reached Level 9 and were just a few percentage points away from their first breakthrough.

Although after the breakthrough he would still need to work up to three more breakthroughs to achieve the effect of Chrysanthemum Planting, having them all breakthrough once still brought a tremendous sense of accomplishment.

"It should be today. I'll put aside Inner Core Skill for now and bring all the cultivation levels of the medicinal plants to breakthrough."

He wanted to see if the "Ten-Complete Great Replenishing Pill" concocted from ordinary medicinal herbs would be effective.

That afternoon, Wang Sheng dug in the backyard soil, bringing all the progress bars to 99.99%.

"This hoe of mine should trigger a breakthrough for them all, right?"

As Wang Sheng spoke, he plunged in the final hoe.

Just as he expected, with that hoe, all the Medicinal Plant Cultivation levels broke through once.

But there were also unexpected developments.

At the moment of the breakthrough in all the Medicinal Plant Cultivation levels, the various progress bars related to medicinal plants such as "Chrysanthemum Planting," "Ginseng Cultivation," "Codonopsis Planting," and more all vanished.

What replaced them was "Medicinal Plant Cultivation: Breakthrough+1 (88%)"

Wang Sheng blinked at the progress bar before his eyes.

Was this the merging of all the Medicinal Plant Cultivation progress bars?

He suddenly recalled something and began planting chrysanthemum. He quickly got a mature chrysanthemum.

Wang Sheng brewed tea with this chrysanthemum.

The final result confirmed his thoughts; the chrysanthemum he had planted now did not possess the previous special effects—it was an ordinary chrysanthemum.

"..."

He had a rough understanding of what had happened.

After a certain number of medicinal plants broke through their cultivation levels, they merged into the skill "Medicinal Plant Cultivation."

The level of "Medicinal Plant Cultivation" and its progress was related to the combined levels of each individual Medicinal Plant Cultivation before the merge. The fact that "Medicinal Plant Cultivation" had an 88% progress level was closely related to Chrysanthemum Planting.

The advantage of this was that "Medicinal Plant Cultivation" could affect all types of medicinal herbs, eliminating the need to advance each one individually, thereby reducing the "grind."

The downside was equally clear, as the Chrysanthemum Planting, which had achieved three breakthroughs, was now back to an ordinary level.

"Overall, it's a good thing!"

Although a thrice breakthrough Chrysanthemum Planting was lost, looking at the long term, having "Medicinal Plant Cultivation" would save a lot of time in the future.

"Then let's just keep grinding!"

Before, he needed to advance ten skills to three breakthroughs; now he just needed to work on one. What was there to be dissatisfied about!

A month passed, and Wang Sheng's strength hadn't improved much, but he was still caught in the cycle of grinding.

However, just as he was about to continue advancing his progress, he felt a sudden pain and swelling in his body.

He immediately realized something—this was the phenomenon of Qi Rushing to the Disease!

His Qi-Blood Power had found a "disease spot"!