Chapter 30 Pain and Pleasure! (Seek follow-up reads, seek Yue tickets, seek rewards!)

After deciding to make wound medicine, Wang Sheng went to find Li Yongfeng to help him obtain some more seeds for medicinal plants.

"More seeds for medicinal plants?" Li Yongfeng was somewhat puzzled, but he nodded in agreement. "I can manage to get them, but this might be my last time going out. Yun Sheng, if there is anything else you want, mention it all at once."

"Last time?"

Wang Sheng thought for a moment and realized it was mostly because of the war. The war was making it increasingly dangerous to go outside, and the risks of venturing out were becoming greater.

"Yes, King Yong Nian's army has already taken Jiangyuan City. It won't be long before they advance towards us. I heard that as long as the army wins, King Yong Nian doesn't care about military discipline. I'm afraid to go out now, and I guess there won't be any more chances to buy!"

An army without discipline is scarier than any bandit or pirate. Their destruction of a place is devastating.

Now that Jiangyuan City had fallen, places like Lijiang Town and Qingshan Village, which were "protected" by Jiangyuan City, were easily susceptible to attack. This was also the main reason why the village chief had initially wanted to evacuate.

With Jiangyuan City taken, the gates leading directly into the interior of Shuzhou had been opened. It was estimated that after a period of reorganization, King Yong Nian's army, led by Zhou Wutong, would attack again.

This period could be as short as a month or as long as several months, depending on the condition of the army and the amount of provisions.

But no matter when the troops arrived, it was likely that the time for Qingshan Village to retreat into the mountains was not far off.

The closer Lijiang Town at the frontier would be hit first, and it was predicted that many people were preparing to flee. Once the merchants fled, purchases would become impossible, not to mention the increasing dangers along the way.

Since it involved his own safety, Wang Sheng felt somewhat guilty about having Li Yongfeng take the risk, so he offered, "I'll go with Brother Yongfeng. It'll be safer that way.

I want to live longer, but that doesn't mean I'm really a coward."

"That would be good, having you there will make me feel a lot more at ease. Nowadays, there are many robbers on the roads."

"Alright, just call me when it's time, Brother Yongfeng!"

After deciding to go with Li Yongfeng to purchase medicinal plant seeds, Wang Sheng returned to his room to check his belongings.

Knowing that this might be his last chance to buy, he planned to buy all the seeds he could get.

However, this meant that his remaining money might not be enough.

Eventually, he took out the old ginseng that he hadn't managed to advance past the third level in his medicinal plant cultivation experiments.

In these chaotic times, old ginseng was eye-catching but also a lifesaver, so he wasn't worried about not being able to sell it.

He took out three well-preserved ones to act accordingly when the time came.

...

He had thought that Li Yongfeng would need a few days to prepare, but he came to find him the very next day.

Several people from the village accompanied him; nearly everyone in the village knew about the war and wanted to make final preparations.

The internal situation in Qingshan Village wasn't very good, and much preparation was necessary.

Due to his trip into the mountains, Wang Sheng's identity as a martial artist had become widely known; the others were visibly pleased to know he was going too.

Having Wang Sheng with them could make this trip much safer.

Wang Sheng was going anyway and didn't mind protecting a few more people.

Soon, the group set out toward Lijiang Town.

Lijiang Town was already developing into a city, so it was much busier than an average town. Wang Sheng had been there a few times before, and many people from nearby villages and towns would come here, keeping it bustling.

But because of the war, this bustling scene had visibly diminished, and many shops had closed.

The group had different items to purchase, so they split up to proceed independently.

Wang Sheng accompanied Li Yongfeng to buy the seeds for medicinal plants.

The purchase went smoothly. Li Yongfeng's contact was also planning to flee and wanted to sell some items.

Wang Sheng said he needed all the seeds, and the person in charge almost split his face with a grin so wide he couldn't close his mouth, but he finally gave Wang Sheng a discount.

However, due to the large quantity of seeds, Wang Sheng's silver was not quite enough, so he ultimately brought out a wild ginseng.

The quality of the wild ginseng was very good, and it immediately caught the person in charge's eye, who gave a rather high price for it.

In the end, Wang Sheng not only acquired a vast amount of seeds but also gained a good amount of silver.

However, he exchanged part of this silver for essentials like salt, which would be hard to obtain once he entered the mountains.

Eventually, the transaction between the two parties was very satisfying, and both got what they wanted.

When the time to assemble arrived, the group reunited, everyone present without any troublemaker.

This made Wang Sheng breathe a sigh of relief.

He wasn't afraid of highway robbery; his fear was that his companions might cause trouble, which made sense—ordinary people wouldn't dare offend others easily.

After procuring everything necessary, the group safely returned to Qingshan Village.

After returning home, Wang Sheng began selecting seeds for golden sore medicine, as he didn't know the exact formula and needed a large quantity of medicinal herbs to repeatedly test and find the most suitable one.

Thus, planting these herbs became one of the most important tasks, besides growing the ingredients for the Ten-Complete Great Replenishing Pill, and had to be carefully selected.

"Rhubarb, Daqing Leaf, Myrrh, dandelion, Frankincense…"

Wang Sheng sorted through a pile of seeds, picking seeds for several medicinal herbs.

"This is going to take another while!"

The ingredients for the Ten-Complete Great Replenishing Pill couldn't be interrupted, and time for planting golden sore medicine had to be squeezed in, making this a long-term project.

Luckily, what he was not short of was patience; one day, the golden sore medicine would be produced.

Then there were herbs for treating internal injuries, such as Panax notoginseng, Saffron..., which also took time to grow.

This made Wang Sheng's time once again tighter.

But watching the progress bar slowly increase and the medicinal herbs continually being cultivated brought a sense of satisfaction in his heart.

"Pain accompanied by joy!"

Only this phrase could describe his current state.

The progress of Qi Rushing to the Disease was equally painful yet joyful.

"Qi Rushing to the Disease: Finding Disease (89.6%)"

The enhancement of Inner Core Skill and Ba Duan Jin accelerated the stage of Finding Disease.

What might have taken days to breach a disease nidus now might take only a day or even less.

Additionally, since the Qi-Blood Power operated automatically, it had improved by more than ten percent in just a few days.

After breaching a disease nidus, the body felt very comfortable, but the Qi-Blood Power's impact brought quite a few troubles.

It's still unknown whether these past few days reached the area with the most disease nidus deposits.

In just a few days, he suffered a series of "illnesses" such as catching a cold, fever, coughing blood, and severe pain.

This was because breaching the disease nidus made its symptoms reappear; if Wang Sheng had not been a martial artist with a strong physique and resilience, it's unknown how miserable he would have ended up.

It could only be said that it was fortunate that the process of Qi Rushing to the Disease paused whenever he activated his Qi-Blood Power—otherwise, who knows, he might have ended up spitting a mouthful of old blood on the Mountain Lord's head.

Of course, even with such tribulations, the gains were substantial.

According to the current progress, he would enter the second stage of Qi Rushing to the Disease, Flipping Illness, in the next few days.

It was also time to resolve the Martial Artist's Epidemic!