Chapter 55: A Convenient Formula

Wang Feiyin immediately revised the schedule and began teaching them lightness skills the next day.

When Tao Ji and Tao Yanbai returned to Huishan, they saw Pan Yun and Seeing Miao Zhen stepping the Seven Stars Step, occasionally colliding into each other;

Beside them, Seeing He had sandbags tied to her calves, running from one side to the other, sprinting all the way to the alchemy chamber, then zipping back again.

Oh, the alchemy chamber on Mount Sanqing was some distance from the mountain gate, separated by a bamboo grove, roughly five to six hundred meters apart—one at this end of the mountaintop plateau, the other at the far end.

It wasn't that there was no open space near the mountain gate—after all, the mountain gate itself had a vast expanse of open ground—but this was designated for training.

More importantly, alchemy inevitably involved accidents; to prevent the alchemy chamber from affecting the monastery here, it had been deliberately built far away.

So they built three rooms on the other side of the mountain, by the Danying well: Wang Feiyin and Tao Ji each took one, and the third, in the farthest corner, was for other disciples to study and practice.

Seeing He now carried dried and prepared herb bundles, zipped over to the alchemy chamber to drop them off, then ran back again, repeating the cycle.

It trained her skills while also accomplishing useful tasks.

Wang Feiyin, sitting on a stone and swaying gently with a small bamboo stick in hand, was pleased with the children's diligent practice; seeing his younger brother return, he raised the stick and said, "Third brother's back?"

Tao Ji watched his disciple zoom past him in a blur, speechless for a long moment: "Big brother, what skill is Seeing He practicing?"

Wang Feiyin pulled out the technique Pan Yun had written from memory the night before and showed it to him: "Fifth sister found her a perfect lightness skill—Shadow Step. Take a look."

Tao Ji skimmed it at a glance, before he could comment, Seeing He dashed back again, skidding to a stop beside him with a flash, cheerfully announcing: "Big Grandmaster, I've finished fifty laps."

Wang Feiyin chuckled and nodded. "Good, good, good. Go stretch your legs and rest. Your master's back—go learn medicine from him."

Tao Ji picked up Seeing He and carried her off.

Seeing He didn't really want to leave—she wanted to stay with Little Auntie Seeing Miao Zhen and the others.

Pan Yun and Seeing Miao Zhen were lost in the subtle transformations of the Seven Stars Step; everyone else had been forgotten until their stomachs growled loudly.

They snapped out of their deep practice, walked to the back courtyard, and saw Tao Ji dumping herbs—surprised: "Third brother, when did you get back?"

Tao Ji stared at them silently for a long while, then nodded. "Good. I can see you're serious. Keep it up next time."

Tao Yanbai: "Little Auntie, we didn't just walk past you—we stood beside you and talked with Big Grandmaster for a long time, and you didn't notice at all?"

Pan Yun and Seeing Miao Zhen shook their heads together. "Didn't notice at all."

Tao Ji: "Enough. Yanbai boiled noodles—eat first. Afternoon, you'll learn herb preparation with me."

As disciples of Sanqing Monastery, no matter which path you specialize in, you must know herb gathering, preparation, basic acupuncture, and prescribing for common illnesses.

Of course, this isn't your professional expertise—it's your basic knowledge.

After eating noodles, Tao Ji took them to the open ground before the alchemy chamber with yesterday's gathered herbs.

He brought out two large wooden basins.

The Danying well was right beside them; Tao Yanbai went to fetch water, while Tao Ji guided the three girls to wash the magnolia bark, then sliced it into strips and laid it on a giant bamboo sieve. After draining the water, they carefully transferred it to small drying racks.

Citrus fruit was prepared the same way.

By the time seven and a half of the ten herb-drying racks before the alchemy chamber were filled, yesterday's harvest was finally processed.

The three recited the herbal prescriptions and pulse cases they'd memorized the day before, over and over again.

If they misstated a single character, Tao Ji would smack their head sharply, sternly.

Pan Yun felt she would never forget magnolia bark or citrus fruit, nor the prescriptions and elixir formulas tied to them.

But this wasn't the end—it was only the beginning. Every time they went out to gather herbs, they had to recite the properties, preparation methods, prescriptions, elixir formulas, and illnesses treated by each herb.

And recently, it was precisely the season for stripping magnolia bark and collecting citrus fruit; in their alchemy chamber alone, piles of prepared magnolia bark and citrus fruit already filled four burlap sacks.

Not to mention the other herbs they'd gathered—deer tongue grass, peucedanum, Du Zhong, ligustrum, and cloud mist herb—stacked high, filling half the room.

Pan Yun now felt terrifyingly strong: she could identify so many herbs, knew how to harvest them, understood their preferred growing environments, could prepare them, and knew their prescriptions and corresponding illnesses.

If you gave her a machine to examine the human body, she could be a doctor prescribing medicine right now.

Oh, this world had no such machines—illnesses could only be diagnosed through observation, listening, questioning, and pulse-taking.

No matter. She felt that with her current learning pace, none of this was a problem. Pulse-taking and observation? She could master those in minutes.

She could even make talisman paper now—what couldn't she do?

Indeed, Pan Yun had recently been forced to learn a new craft: making talisman paper!

The mountain had run out of talisman paper, and Tao Ji had had no patients lately, so he rarely left the mountain; thus, Master Xuanmiao emerged from seclusion to guide them in making talisman paper.

Gather materials, boil, pound, soak, pound again, soak again…

Until sieving, drying—failures, then try again…

By the time Pan Yun and the others could independently produce qualified talisman paper, a corner of the alchemy chamber was filled with stacks of yellow paper.

And Pan Yun not only learned to make talisman paper, but from the pile of failures, she crafted a softer, waterproof paper better suited for the toilet.

Wang Feiyin, who had been waiting for them to produce suitable writing paper, sighed and withdrew his gaze: "I thought the mountain might gain some extra income."

Pan Yun wrote down the derived formula, blew on the drying ink, and said: "Who says toilet paper can't bring in income?"

Wang Feiyin: "Because people can substitute other things for toilet paper—they're willing to endure discomfort on their rear ends, but won't compromise their children's reading. They'll spend twenty cash on a stack of writing paper, eighty cash on a stack of coarse Xuan paper—but who'll pay twenty cash for your stack of toilet paper?" Pan Yun: …

Pan Yun retorted: "My paper's cheap. Twenty cash too much? What about five cash?"

Wang Feiyin stared. "Five cash a stack?"

Pan Yun: "Five cash a jin!"

Who sells paper by the jin?

Pan Yun does.

She weighed out one jin, calculated the profit, and declared: "I'll take this jin down the mountain and sell the formula."

Wang Feiyin: "You're selling the formula?"

Pan Yun: "If we don't sell the formula, who else will run this business?"

Wang Feiyin thought about it—he was right. Who on the mountain had time for this?

Everyone was busy cultivating and studying.

!. Read

Hearing he didn't have to run the business himself, Wang Feiyin immediately stopped worrying and asked eagerly, "How much do you plan to sell it for?"

Pan Yun discussed it with him, "Senior Brother, what do you think we can sell it for?"

Wang Feiyin looked troubled. "I don't know the price."

The senior brother and sister huddled together and discussed for a long time. Based on her own shallow understanding, Pan Yun set the price at "five hundred taels." Wang Feiyin thought it was too expensive. "The price is too high. What if they won't even bother haggling? How about we open at three hundred taels and let them bargain down to two hundred?"

"Two hundred taels?" Pan Yun said indignantly, "In Senior Brother's eyes, is my prescription worth only two hundred taels?"

Wang Feiyin: "Pretty much. A prescription for using the latrine—how much money can it make?"

Pan Yun huffed and said, "Just wait until I go down the mountain and sell it for you to see."

Wang Feiyin said loudly, "Go then, go tomorrow. If you can sell it for more than two hundred taels, I won't take a single coin of the excess—it's all yours."

Wang Feiyin asked Tao Ji and Master Xuanmiao to take them down the mountain to Yushan County the next day.

Miao He, who had been practicing her cultivation, was so delighted she did a roll on the ground. Whether she made money or not didn't matter to her—she still had plenty of money, enough to buy lots of food. What mattered was that she could go to Yushan County.

Pan Yun asked Wang Feiyin, "Senior Brother, aren't you going?"

"I need to stay and watch the house."

The next day, the six people and one cat of the Daoist temple each had their backs piled full and arms loaded with things. Pan Xiaohei even had to walk down the mountain on its own—no one had the strength or space to carry it.

Pan Yun carried two sacks on a shoulder pole, with Miao He and Miao Zhen following behind her. Ahead was Tao Yanbai; all four of them carried two sacks each on shoulder poles.

As for Tao Ji and Master Xuanmiao, each carried six burlap sacks on a shoulder pole, completely blocking their line of sight—they couldn't even lift their heads.

During a rest stop along the way, Pan Yun asked Tao Ji, "Senior Brother surely didn't stay behind just because he had to carry the packs, right?"

Tao Ji, as expected, spoke too quickly: "No, Senior Brother can't casually leave the mountain."

Pan Yun: "Why?"

Tao Ji realized she had said too much and immediately shut her mouth.

Master Xuanmiao cut off her probing, saying, "Wait until you're a bit older and we'll tell you."

Cut off by that one sentence, Pan Yun could only stop asking further.

Once they reached the foot of the mountain, things were better—the Sanqing Temple's mule was still being raised in the village, and the cart was still there too.

Tao Ji went to the fields and the Wang family to lead the mule back, and patted its fat belly, saying, "They really raised this mule well."

Satisfied, he hitched up the cart, loaded all the medicinal herbs they had brought down onto it, and then drove the cart, leading them to Yushan County.

Tao Ji felt sorry for the mule; with so much already loaded on the cart, he naturally couldn't bear to have anyone ride on it, so he forbade anyone from sitting.

The children didn't mind—as long as they could go down the mountain, they were very happy.

Tao Yanbai was familiar with the way to Yushan County, so he walked ahead leading the way, introducing the villages and roads along the route as they went.

This was Pan Yun's first time going to Yushan County, and she was in a good mood.

Her good mood lasted until she and Tao Ji came out of the bookshop.

The secret prescription in her arms had been sold, exchanged for five small banknotes.

Miao He and Miao Zhen were waiting outside. The moment they saw her, they rushed up with eager eyes and asked, "How much did you sell it for?"

Pan Yun held up five fingers.

Miao He widened her eyes and said excitedly, "Five hundred taels! You really sold it for five hundred taels!"

Pan Yun: "Fifty taels."

Lucky number is the one ending in 8, screenshot as proof

(End of this chapter)