Chapter 5
Chapter 5
After sending the children to play on their own, Xu Mu’an takes out a box in which there are five flaming red herbs – the Lieyan Herb.
The herb in itself is not rare and is a common ingredient for making afrodyn. Despite the mildly poisonous property of this medicinal herb, it does no harm to most human bodies. But to Xu Mu’an, the herb has surprisingly proved to be much more beneficial.
Drive by extreme hunger one day when he was little, Xu Mu’an accidentally ate a Lieyan Herb, which immediately caused a scorching sensation inside him like a flame was coursing through his body. In an effort to control the excruciating agony, he had to apply his inner force. To his surprise, after the pain subsided, he felt his power had significantly improved.
In this world, people mostly rely on magical herbs to improve their inner force. Many spiritual plant masters are specialized in boosting the growth of spiritual plants which make people more powerful. Compared with their counterparts from the fire group, spiritual plant masters from the wood group enjoy more benefits from the edible herbs. As a result, they are more advanced in their level of practicing than spiritual plant masters from the fire group.
Xu Mu’an takes a deep breath as he stares at the herb in the box. Those from the Xiao family all assumed that the reason he made it to level three spirit power was because of Xiao Jingting’s help. Only Xu Mu’an himself knows that he has the Lieyan Herb to thank for his progress in practicing.
He closes his eyes. In fact, the Lieyan Herb has become less and less effective for him and when the herb stops working, his practice will draw to a complete end as well. Despite that, he has been fortunate because a lot of his fellow practicers from the fire group have stalled at level two spirit power for their entire lives.
Xu Mu’an inhales deeply and takes in all the remaining five herbs at once. The next moment, the familiar pain washes over him. Having got used to it, Xu Mu’an is soon able to adjust and begin focusing on practice by drawing the power from the herb.
For the next two hours, the man keeps practicing until night falls. An afternoon of practicing has only led to slight improvement in his inner force. As a matter of fact, the daunting and painstaking process has seen a lot of people give up halfway through their practice.
Xu Mu’an opens his eyes and hears a sound from next door, knowing the childe must have come back. The thought of Xiao Jingting instantly fills the man with bitterness, because Xu Mu’an has had to work extremely hard to reach the same level three spirit power as that childe of the Xiao family who, instead, has spent every day of his life on pleasure and never bothered to practice.
If he were Xiao Jingting, he would have enjoyed the privilege of bathing in valuable medicine herbs since a young age and had access to all the spiritual plants he ever wanted, which would have empowered him much more…
He shakes his head, telling himself to stop thinking about the unrealistic.
…
Xiao Jingting throws himself into bed, feeling depressed.
Having learned that he can use his inner force to farm the land, he can’t wait to try.
However, he has failed to find where his farmland is after spending a long time looking for it.
Just like the man he was in his previous life, he has no sense of direction in this life, either. This makes Xiao Jingting frustrated, because it’s not like that he could find a Baidu Map in this world!
He closes his eyes, thinking about his trip outside. When he was out, he got a lot of disdainful look from other people. And when he walked past some households, the villagers, upon seeing him, even brought their children inside and slam shut their doors. The realization that he has become such a nuisance in the eyes of others gave Xiao Jingting quite a headache.
Xu Mu’an is out before daylight.
Xiao Jingting is aware that his male wife has taken a temporary job somewhere and his memory also tells him that the previous degenerate husband has wasted all the three liang of silver ingots which took Xu Mu’an a long time to save.
A moment later, Xiao Jingting hears another sound from next door, thinking that Xiao Xiaodong must have got up from bed and started making breakfast.
Although Xu Mu’an belongs to the fire group, Xiao Xiaodong belongs to the wood group. However, the boy’s inner force is still weak due to his young age. Xiao Xiaodong has tilled a vegetable garden in the front yard and selected all the seeds by himself.
Afraid that Xiao Jingting might steal from his garden, the clever boy has deliberately chosen all the kinds of vegetables the man least likes.
Having eaten up all the vegetables he harvested the last time, Xiao Xiaodong decides it’s time to grow a new batch.
Xiao Jingting opens the window through which he sees Xiao Xiaodong, with his eyes closed, gesturing near his garden. Xiao Jingting realizes the boy is trying to enforce the magical lines for herb cultivation which can help plants grow. The man is surprised to see that as the boy reads the lines, a scattering of sparkling light falls to the garden like raindrops.
Xiao Xiaodong keeps on reading the magical lines near his garden, but his effort has been far from effective.
Seeing this, Xiao Jingting’s mind goes back to the day when he and his parents inspected one of their farmlands. As he recalls, his parents also read a few lines and the crop immediately sprouts and grew as high as ten centimeters. But clearly, Xiao Xiaodong is not powerful like that since he’s still a small child…
Seeing the boy working hard, Xiao Jingting is tempted to try as well, so he reads the magical lines at the boy’s garden.
Immediately, the man sees green sparkles of light raining down from the sky on the garden and all the vegetable seeds in the boy’s garden sprout in an instant.
Xiao Jingting feels a surge of excitement, overjoyed by the fact that this new body of his is powerful, at least more powerful than his son.
Xiao Xiaodong is taken aback by the sudden sprouting of his vegetables. Soon, the smart boy catches Xiao Jingting standing near the window across him. But before the man could throw an ingratiating smile at the boy, Xiao Xiaodong quickly runs back to his room and locks the door again.