Just as Han Li thought the rainy weather would persist, the sun finally reappeared in the sky—the weather had cleared.
It had been nearly half a month since Han Li discovered the secret of the green liquid, and he was growing impatient. On the night of the clear day, he finally witnessed the same phenomenon he had seen four years ago: countless light specks densely gathered around the bottle, forming a large glowing orb.
Seeing this spectacle, the weight in Han Li’s heart finally lifted. This essentially confirmed that the bottle wasn’t a one-time-use item but a wondrous object that could be used repeatedly.
After another seven days of waiting, a new drop of green liquid appeared in the bottle. Though Han Li was already eighty to ninety percent certain, seeing the liquid filled him with immense joy. This meant he would have a steady supply of rare herbs in the future, never again needing to worry about their scarcity.
The value of herbs largely depended on their age. The older a herb, the greater its medicinal potency. Naturally, older herbs were harder to find, often growing in remote deep forests or on treacherous cliffs, requiring significant risks to obtain.
While some apothecaries and doctors cultivated herbs, these were typically common ones that could be used after a short growth period. Few would be foolish enough to cultivate herbs requiring decades to mature.
However, some wealthy and powerful families, to prepare for emergencies, would cultivate a few extremely rare herbs for life-saving purposes. These herbs often required significant time to develop their efficacy, as anything less rare could be easily bought with their wealth. Why bother cultivating them? Such families, with generational wealth, didn’t mind the long cultivation times, as no one knew when such herbs might be needed. These herbs were often rare treasures requiring centuries to grow or one-of-a-kind specimens—something ordinary people lacked the resources to pursue.
Occasionally, rare wild herbs appeared briefly on the market, only to be quickly snatched up by these families, driving prices sky-high and creating a situation where such herbs were priceless yet unavailable.
Han Li wasn’t optimistic about Doctor Mo’s prospects on this trip, doubting he would find much. But Han Li no longer needed to worry. With the bottle, he could produce any number of valuable herbs in a short time.
With a peculiar mood, Han Li conducted several more herb maturation experiments over the next few dozen days.
In one test, he sprinkled diluted green liquid on various herbs, only to obtain ordinary herbs with one or two years of accelerated growth the next day—far inferior to his first results. From this, Han Li vaguely grasped some patterns.
In the next test, he skipped dilution entirely, dripping the green liquid directly onto a ginseng plant. The next morning, he obtained a century-old ginseng indistinguishable from a wild one of the same age. This thrilled Han Li—not because of the rare herb, but because he had largely mastered the green liquid’s usage.
He then conducted preservation tests, storing freshly extracted green liquid in various containers—porcelain bottles, jade bottles, gourds, silver bottles—but found that no container could preserve the liquid for more than a quarter of an hour. Once removed from the mysterious bottle, the liquid had to be used within that time, or it would vanish. Diluted liquid shared the same trait; though it lasted slightly longer, after a certain period, only the added liquid remained, with the green component gone.
After several such tests, Han Li gave up on storing the green liquid in other containers, accepting he couldn’t stockpile it. He then tested stacking medicinal effects.
He dripped a drop of green liquid onto a green Tri-Crow Grass, turning it into a yellow Tri-Crow Grass with a hundred years of potency. A few days later, he added another drop, increasing its age by another hundred years.
Seeing this method worked, Han Li repeated the process over the next two months. Each time new green liquid appeared in the bottle, he dripped it onto the Tri-Crow Grass. The herb didn’t disappoint: its leaves gradually turned from yellow to yellowish-black, then fully black, becoming a glossy, rare millennium Tri-Crow Grass.
The test was a success. If he had the patience, he could further increase the herb’s age, but Han Li saw no need for that. Herbs with centuries of potency were sufficient for his current needs.
After completing this series of lengthy experiments, Han Li finally took a break to reflect. Considerable time had passed since Doctor Mo left the mountain.
Now, Han Li lay on his wooden bed, holding the millennium Tri-Crow Grass, staring blankly at it.
His eyes fixed on the glossy black herb, seemingly studying it. But anyone else in the room could tell from his distracted gaze that his mind wasn’t on the herb but wandering elsewhere.
The initial joy of obtaining the millennium Tri-Crow Grass had faded. He was now carefully weighing the benefits and dangers the bottle brought, planning his next steps.
From the many books in Doctor Mo’s room, Han Li had read numerous tales of “guilt by possessing treasure.” The bottle in his hands was undoubtedly a priceless treasure. If outsiders learned of it, he wouldn’t survive until the next morning. He’d be overwhelmed by greedy opportunists. Even within the sect, if the sect masters discovered the bottle’s secret, they would surely kill to seize it, leaving Han Li with a tragic fate of “treasure taken, life lost.”
“I absolutely cannot tell anyone about the bottle, and I must use it cautiously on the mountain. The commotion from the bottle absorbing light specks is too noticeable; a single misstep could expose its secret,” Han Li resolved, determined to keep silent and not reveal a word to outsiders.
“But I’m in desperate need of herbs for cultivation right now. It’d be a shame not to use the bottle. I need a way to balance both.” He thought of his stagnant cultivation progress with a hint of dejection. No matter what, he couldn’t delay his technique’s advancement—not just because of Doctor Mo’s urging, but because he vaguely sensed that the unusual changes in himself over recent years were tied to practicing this nameless technique.
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