"You sure you don't need any help?" I asked, mostly because it felt polite at this point.
Li Wei didn't even look up from the wood he was chiseling. "Kai, would you want to help you make an elixir?"
I blinked, caught off guard by the rhetorical question. "Probably not..?"
"Exactly," he said, giving a quick side-eye before going back to work. “We’ve got this covered. Go play with your plants or sothing.”
I glanced over at his father, who gave a nod of agreent, hamring down another beam without missing a beat. Clearly, this was their domain, and I was just so guy who happened to show up with ideas and seeds. They were the professionals. Plus, they looked like they were in their elent—thick coats, sawdust everywhere, and not a single break in their rhythm. anwhile, I was just standing there feeling... well, unnecessary.
Tianyi fluttered curiously near the half-built foundation, her wings shimring in the cold morning light, while Windy slithered around the edge of the garden, eyeing the woodpile like it was a challenge. Probably deciding if he could knock it over with his tail.
“Alright, alright,” I said, holding my hands up in surrender. “I’ll leave you to it.”
Li Wei didn’t respond, too focused on whatever intricate wood sorcery he was working on. His dad gave a grunt, which I assud ant ‘thank you for not getting in the way.’ With one last glance at the growing structure that would soon be my greenhouse, I turned and headed back inside my shop, leaving the carpentry duo to their magic.
Once inside, the familiar sll of herbs and dried flowers greeted , grounding back into my world. I shut the door behind , blocking out the cold and noise, and made my way to the table where the Golden Bamboo seeds sat, waiting for .
Ti to get back to the real puzzle.
I plopped down into my chair and pulled out the stack of notes Guowei Wang had sent . Despite the nurous failed attempts recorded in the letters, the information had been invaluable. Every failure was a clue, showing what didn’t work. Cultivating Golden Bamboo was like asking the heavens to hand over a divine treasure. The seeds would sprout, yes, but then they’d just stop. No growth, no energy. Just… there. A tiny little shoot that gave up on life before it even started.
I flipped through the pages, reviewing the detailed notes. One of the more promising attempts ntioned a seed that had sprouted—full sun, well-drained soil—basically treated like any other bamboo. It had even grown a few inches before it stubbornly refused to grow any further. That had led to my current theory: the soil probably needed to be well-drained, just like regular bamboo, but it must require sothing more—sothing beyond just sunlight.
"More sunlight," I muttered to myself. How do you get more sunlight when it’s already planted in full sun? Build a second sun? Did there use to be another celestial body in the sky that disappeared centuries ago?
I stared at the seed in my hand, rolling it between my fingers. There had to be sothing I was missing, sothing I wasn’t seeing. Maybe I was overthinking it? I closed my eyes and activated my Plant Whisperer skill, feeling the familiar tingle crawl down my spine, spreading out to the tips of my fingers.
The seed humd with life beneath my touch. It wasn’t dead, not by a long shot. It felt eager, like it was just waiting for the right conditions to explode into growth. But those conditions were still a mystery.
I let out a sigh, dropping the seed back onto the table.
My head was starting to spin from all the cross-referencing and thinking, so I decided to take a quick break. Grabbing a few herbs from the shelf, I began preparing a revitalizing tonic. The herbs mixed together easily in my hands, their aromas familiar and calming. Within minutes, I had extracted their essence, creating a potent, energy-boosting drink.
Tossing it into a couple of vials, I headed back outside where Li Wei and his father were still hard at work. They hadn’t slowed down in the slightest, but even carpenters needed a boost every now and then.
“Thought you could use a pick--up,” I called out, holding up the vials.
Li Wei finally stopped chiseling long enough to give a skeptical look. “What’s in it?”
“Trust , you’ll feel like you could build ten greenhouses after this.”
His dad took the vial without hesitation, downing it in one go. A second later, his eyes widened slightly, and he straightened up, his energy clearly restored. “Not bad, Kai,” he grunted, giving a nod of approval.
Li Wei followed suit, taking a swig and blinking in surprise as the tonic hit. “Okay, maybe you’re good for sothing,” he admitted, handing back the empty vial.
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
“Glad to be of service,” I said with a smirk.
As they got back to work, their energy noticeably renewed, I couldn’t help but grin. It wasn’t every day I got to play a supporting role in soone else’s craft. Maybe I couldn’t build a greenhouse, but I could keep the builders going strong. Watching them work, I noticed a clear difference in their working styles.
Jian Wei, Li Wei’s father, worked with the steady, thodical precision that ca from years, no, decades of experience. He used marking knives with familiar ease, carefully outlining the wood with smooth, deliberate cuts. Each motion was purposeful, asured, as if the wood itself were an old friend, and he knew exactly how to coax the best out of it.
Li Wei, on the other hand, was like a storm. Where Jian Wei was slow and deliberate, Li Wei moved quickly, his hands flowing over the wood in almost a blur. He didn’t even bother with marking knives. Instead, he cut freehand, trusting his instincts and skills without a second thought. And yet, despite his speed, his cuts were precise—almost unnervingly so. He’d pause occasionally, step back to examine his work, then dive right back in with a quick adjustnt that brought everything perfectly into alignnt.
It was srizing to watch, the way the two styles contrasted yet complented each other. The father, with his years of expertise, and the son, with his natural talent amplified by sothing more.
As I watched, Li Wei suddenly looked up from his work and called out to his father. “That guideline’s off by a fraction. Left by two milliters.”
Jian Wei paused, squinting at the wood before adjusting it slightly. I blinked. From where I was standing, I couldn’t see any difference at all, but sohow Li Wei had caught it from across the foundation.
“Wait,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “How did you even see that?”
Li Wei shrugged, casually wiping his hands on his tunic. “Harmonic Carpentry.”
“What?”
“The skill I unlocked about a month ago,” he explained as if this was the most normal thing in the world. “It’s called Harmonic Carpentry. Helps see the balance in materials, or visualize grid lines or paths in the things I’m working on.”
“Grid lines?” I leaned in, intrigued. “So it’s like your vision has... boundaries?”
“Sort of.” Li Wei gestured to the beam he’d been working on, and I swear I could almost imagine the faint outlines he was describing. “It lets dabble in other things too, like masonry, even talworking. All the materials, they’ve got their own rhythm. It’s just a matter of tuning into them.”
I couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe as I listened. It reminded so much of my own skills, like the Refinent Simulation technique—how I could visualize the reactions inside the furnace, see the paths ingredients would take before I even added them.
“Have you learned the mory Palace technique?” I asked, suddenly curious if his skill set paralleled mine even further.
Li Wei’s eyes flicked over to , a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. “I did, actually. Got it as a quest reward. It’s been useful, especially when working on more complex structures. You?”
When everyone was special, no one was, I suppose. First Feng Wu, then Zhi Ruo, and now him? Everybody was getting all these supposedly 'rare' skills, even though Elder Ming said it was unheard of to have unless you were an Essence Awakening stage cultivator!
I shook my head and nodded. “Yeah. I use it for rembering a lot of things, and revising recipes, techniques, and whatnot.”
“Huh.” Li Wei scratched his chin thoughtfully. “I guess we’re more similar than we thought.”
That realization struck harder than I expected. How had Li Wei, soone who had been a promising carpenter until recently, reached such a high level so quickly? What had prompted the Heavenly Interface to give him these quests and abilities, allowing him to eclipse his father in skill in just a few months? Was it sothing in his potential, or had the Interface been waiting for him to tap into it?
Before I could ponder it further, Li Wei gave a curious glance. “What about you? What abilities did you get?”
“Well, since you asked...” I plucked a sprig of mint from a nearby plant, holding it up as I activated my Essence Extraction skill. Instantly, the essence of the mint began to flow from the plant, gathering into a shimring ball of energy at the top of my palm.
Li Wei’s normally aloof expression brightened, his eyes sparkling with interest. He reached out to touch the essence, his hand brushing against the surface.
The mont his fingers made contact, the energy dropped from my palm, liquefying into a glowing liquid that slid off my hand and onto a nearby astralagus plant. The plant shuddered as it absorbed the liquid, its leaves taking on a strange, vibrant hue that shimred under the light.
I stared at the plant, my brain struggling to process what had just happened. “Uh… that’s not supposed to happen.”
"My bad. I'm sorry."
"No, it's okay." I crouched down to observe the astralagus, which stood out prominently among its standard, purple counterparts. "it just... absorbed it?"
As I crouched beside the plant, its now vibrant and odd shade of bluish green pulsed slightly, almost as if it were breathing. The realization struck like a bolt of lightning.
Have I been able to do this all along?
I looked up at the teen, who was still watching with curious eyes. "Do you know what this ans?"
He shrugged, unaware of what just transpired. "The plant's gone bad now?"
I waved my hand dismissively. "No, no. I can put these essences into other plants! I could create entirely new hybrids! Imagine the possibilities! What if I could make pills and elixirs using these hybrids that no one has ever seen before?"
Li Wei’s expression didn’t change much, but his eyebrow did raise a fraction. “You an like a... mint-astralagus hybrid?”
“Yes!” I exclaid, the excitent building. "But bigger! What if I took the essence of a rare herb and rged it with a common plant? Or combined two powerful herbs into one super-plant? I could make pills and potions that don't lose their effectiveness as quickly because they’re unique every ti!"
Lan Sheng's words echoed in my mind about how most pills lose their potency with repeated use because the body grows accustod to them. But what if I could make entirely new variants, hybrids with never-before-seen properties? Pills that would keep their potency no matter how many tis they were consud because each batch would be fundantally different from the last.
The clinking of gold coins started to ring in my ears. My mind flashed to the possibilities. Creating a line of hybrid elixirs, selling them far and wide, becoming renowned as the alchemist who discovered a new way to enhance herbal dicine. My face split into a wide grin as the fantasy of endless riches began to form in my head.
Suddenly, I couldn't contain myself. I shot to my feet, arms flung wide, and shouted at the top of my lungs, "I’m rich! I’m rich!"
Before Li Wei could react, I lunged forward and hugged him tightly, nearly knocking the poor guy over with the force of my enthusiasm. "Li Wei! This is the luckiest accident of my life!"
Well, second luckiest. Running into the ancient ruins where the Heavenly Interface laid dormant was even more ridiculous.
Li Wei, clearly startled and caught off guard by my sudden outburst, stiffened for a second before awkwardly patting on the back. "Uh, yeah... sure. Congratulations."
"Do you understand what this ans?" I pulled back, practically bouncing on my feet. "This changes everything! I could make an entirely new branch of alchemy! I’m going to be a legend! An immortal alchemist known across the land for creating life-changing elixirs!"
“You sure you’re not getting ahead of yourself?”
“Nope! Not even a little!” I bead, spinning around to look at the astralagus plant, still marveling at what had just transpired. "This is just the beginning!"
Tianyi fluttered over, sensing my excitent. She landed softly on my shoulder, and her wings glimred with a soft blue glow, reflecting the mood of the mont. Even Windy slithered closer, curious about what had happened.
“Just think of it,” I said, grinning from ear to ear. “Unique elixirs, unheard-of pills. I'll change the world of alchemy! And all because of one little accident.”
“Well, good luck with that," Li Wei said, returning to his work on the greenhouse. "Let know when you've made a mint-ginger hybrid. Might help with the cold."
I laughed, my mind already racing ahead with ideas. There was no turning back now. If this worked, the possibilities were endless. I was going to make history, one plant at a ti.
Reviews
All reviews (0)