With each day, she found herself growing more accustod to feeling the energy of the world. But she would not be satisfied until she could rge this energy with her own and use it in a technique. Only then would she have successfully reached the next stage of the Sword Path.
With training and cultivating coming along, there was only one elder that has yet to make her formal appearance, Elder Hua.
Ming Yue's ti with Elder Hua was an interesting one to say the least.
Pretty much everyone under her sought the way of pill-making. Yet Ming Yue, who had no business with that, was given the sa access to the materials but used it for paste-making*. More than that, she spent much of her ti alone with Elder Hua, conversing about dicine with each other.
On one such day, Ming Yue was busy grinding up so dried herbs in her own personal workroom. It wasn't an actual workroom but a space given to her by Elder Hua. She sat before a table with several bundles of plants by her. Dried stalks of red grass and various trimd leaves and roots piled on the table. Next to it was the mortar and pestle she was using to grind the dicine. A bucket filled with water stood by her as she dumped the ground up herbs into it.
All around her were jars that suffused a sweet floral scent, most likely carrying all sorts of dicine that she created herself.
Xiao Yin was with her, helping to place new stalks into the mortar. Hei Yue could not handle the sll of the dicine and returned to Ming Yue's room on his own. This process would take all day and the fox's nose could not endure for that long.
Ming Yue was imrsed in her work until soone knocked on her door before coming in. It was Elder Hua that ca. The two greeted each other followed by Elder Hua asking what she was making.
"Bone Setting Bandages", Ming Yue replied as she went back to her seat.
"Oh, it seems like every day you are making sothing different. Well, I hope you're ready. I'm going to test you for a bit", said Elder Hua.
Ming Yue nodded allowing the Elder to continue. Although paste-making wasn't Elder Hua's expertise, her dical knowledge far surpassed Ming Yue's. With her teaching, Ming Yue learned much more about the ways of dicine. Elder Hua was an expert with high pedigree but when it ca to Ming Yue, she was like a young woman.
When she first watched Ming Yue make dicine, Elder Hua would assault her with all kind of questions.
Where did she learn this?
How did she end up becoming a cultivator?
Was there anyone she liked?
What was her final goal?
She was incredibly interested in Ming Yue's upbringing but she was careful as well. So questions, she chose not to pursue any further. Elder Hua noticed the changes in Ming Yue's eyes as she asked about the girl's father. It was hard to describe, it wasn't necessarily sadness but a mix of reminiscence and lancholy.
As for Ming Yue, she found Elder Hua's personality quite different from what she had expected. The first ti Ming Yue saw her, she thought the Elder would be more mysterious or eccentric. After all, she arrived to Clear Spring Mountain under an illusion just to play so trickery.
Never would she have thought that Elder Hua was so chatty.
As the two grew more comfortable with each other, their conversations went from dicine to everyday life. Though, it was mostly Elder Hua that talked. Sotis, she would answer questions that Ming Yue had and other tis, she would talk about all kinds of things. Gossip that she learned from her students, complaints about her day, ranting over the dical concoctions she carried with. But as the Elder, she did test her students and Ming Yue was no exception.
"What are the three forms of dicine?"
"Unrefined, paste, and pill."
"...and the difference?"
"Directly consuming the herb will give the strongest results. Whether it is dicinal or for cultivation, the energy will be more potent but it will leave impurities in ones body. As a paste, this is a thod used by body cultivators. It is also a popular thod for small villages, although it is only in the form of simple redies. But for body cultivators, paste are best used for training the body. Furthermore, so concoctions can even nourish the physical body better than pills. However, pills are by far the most versatile one. Its potency is slightly weaker than eating the herb raw but in exchange it leaves little to no impurities in the body. It can be for dicine, cultivating, boosting one's power, increasing ones comprehension ability but it is the most expensive thod. Pill-making needs both a cauldron and a furnace. In addition, there are chances of failing the process, wasting the materials."
"What about ranks?"
"Plants, materials, and beasts all fall under a similar system with ranks from 1 to 10. The difference is that the potency of dicinal plants are classified by age while the rank indicates their rarity. There is ten year, a hundred year, and a thousand year. Anything in the ten thousand or hundred thousand range no longer exists, even if they do, soone would have taken it quickly."
Elder Hua was satisfied with her answer and then decided to ask a different question.
"Why is paste-making better than the other two?"
Rather than see the young girl stutter, Ming Yue did not seem bothered. Her position as a doctor's daughter was not so empty title.
"It isn't better it is just different. The potency isn't as strong as the other two forms but the gap is quite small. The process is quicker but requires accurate asurents to get the best effect with the least impurity. You don't need much to make it, maybe a mortar and pestle but you could optionally just chew it. It might be best suited for body cultivators but that doesn't an it is useless to normal cultivators. Pills are popular because they're simple to use. You can just put it into your mouth and let it dissolve. Ingesting the unrefined plant gives you raw energy, powerful but hard to control."
Elder Hua nodded approvingly with her answer and continued to question her for the rest of the day. Ming Yue had to identify all sorts of herbs and explain their uses and effects.
Ti went by quick and Ming Yue finished several batches of what she called the, "Bone Setting Bandages". It was a reddish pink sludge to which she soaked bandages in them. This thod allowed the bandages to absorb the dical efficacy but left out most if not all of the impurity that ca from the sludge.
Elder Hua finished Ming Yue's personal test and stayed a little afterwards to talk a bit.
"You know, one of my old students ca back after traveling. The little boy even had a couple of disciples too. We had a fair bit of catching up to do."
As Elder Hua spoke, she helped Ming Yue organize the many jars of dicine in her workroom.
"When I spoke of you, he seed to be a bit surprised, telling that one of his students had t you so ti ago. It was at a ruined town nad Blue Willow, if I recall."
Upon hearing the na, Ming Yue looked at Elder Hua.
"What a small world", she said, "Is that disciple nad Yong Jing?"
"Oh yes, it is! How fascinating, would you like to et her now?" Elder Hua asked her with anticipation.
"Maybe later, I'm a little bit tired right now."
"Oh... sure, tomorrow then yes?"
"Mm."
Elder Hua left Ming Yue alone, returning to her quarters. As for Ming Yue, Blue Willow Town caused her to reminisce about Red Lotus Country. It has been a year since she was there, now she's sixteen years old. Two years have passed since her village had perished and quite a lot has happened since then.
She gave a quiet sight and cleaned her workroom, thinking about the things she had experienced. Finishing up, Xiao Yin followed Ming Yue to her bedroom and nested on her shoulder.
Her last thoughts as she went to sleep was how far she had co.
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