Chapter 5: The Textbook

Some people said Mu Xian was a perfectionist, others said he was a paranoid, and still others said he was obsessive-compulsive.

In the first seven years after beginning to study Spiritual Pharmacology, Mu Xian spent almost every single day, without rest, compounding the Yuan-Dispelling Potion. He did not touch any other potion at all, so much so that he attracted no attention from the Sect.

No one knew how many failures Mu Xian experienced during those seven years, nor how many materials he consumed. In any case, the Danding Sect, as the premier power on the continent, not only had a vast number of disciples, but its warehouses were also filled to a frightening degree with all sorts of resources. So, Mu Xian was luckily never noticed or disturbed by anyone.

Seven years later, Mu Xian participated in the Sect’s Grand Competition for the first time. In the short span of time it took an incense stick to burn, he broke through, momentum unbroken, all twenty-eight exam questions jointly set up by the Sect Elders.

At that time, the other Sect disciples had only completed two questions. As a result, he alone became the focus of attention for every Sect Elder and competition disciple. That year’s Sect Grand Competition became Mu Xian’s own personal competition.

When Mu Xian approached the twenty-ninth and final exam question, all the Sect Elders and competition disciples instinctively held their breath, wanting to see if the miracle would continue.

This was because the final question involved compounding the Yuan-Dispelling Potion. Moreover, each participating Sect disciple was given only three sets of backup materials. If they failed to successfully compound the potion after using all three sets, it counted as a failure.

Since its founding, no one in the Danding Sect had ever completely passed the Grand Competition. The purpose of this final question was merely to motivate the Sect’s disciples.

In front of the twenty-ninth question, Mu Xian only paused for a moment. Then he closed his eyes. His hands moved like dancing butterflies, tracing phantom shadows in the air, making his movements completely impossible to discern.

After the time it took for ten breaths, Mu Xian stopped his actions. The entire Grand Competition arena fell into a deathly silence.

Every single person in the Danding Sect, from Elders to disciples, felt their brains freeze. Mu Xian, in their eyes, had become a monster-like existence.

The sudden display of ultimate skill Mu Xian showed at the Sect Grand Competition left the assembled Elders utterly devastated. It took them several months to recover from this huge blow. Being rather spiteful, they then pushed Mu Xian out front again to embarrass others. And Mu Xian didn’t disappoint the hopes of his masters; he crushed the old monsters within the Spiritual Pharmacist circle.

The saying “He does not take flight, but once he does, he soars to the sky; he does not cry out, but once he does, he startles the world” could not have been more fitting for Mu Xian. Because his terrifying, near-perfect Spiritual Sense allowed every potion he compounded to reach Supreme Grade quality. Mu Xian himself also acquired the nickname “The Textbook” within the Spiritual Pharmacist circle.

After being reborn, Mu Xian was delighted to discover that his Spiritual Sense control ability had crossed over along with his Divine Soul. So he was certain his success rate in compounding the Yuan-Dispelling Potion could exceed ninety percent.

Furthermore, as long as his Spiritual Power cultivation improved, his success rate for compounding Spiritual Medicine of any rank could reach ninety percent, even a hundred percent, and the quality would also reach the highest Supreme Grade.

However, Mu Xian’s current Spiritual Power cultivation was only at the first rank, the Soul-Fixing Realm. He could only compound very few types of Spiritual Medicine, and his self-preservation ability was almost zero. He no longer had a top-tier power like the Danding Sect to rely on. On the contrary, dangers lurked everywhere; he faced life-threatening peril at any moment. Naturally, Mu Xian dared not easily reveal his greatest future reliance for survival.

As the saying goes, an ordinary man’s guilt is not the crime, but the treasure he holds brings blame. If he revealed his medicine-making skills without sufficient strength to protect himself, it likely wouldn’t bring him any fame or fortune. Instead, it would only land him in prison.

“In the end, it still comes down to my own Spiritual Power cultivation being too low,” Mu Xian finally couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

Learning that the Yuan-Dispelling Potion wasn’t so easy to compound, Ling Tian didn’t feel much disappointment. Instead, he felt this was normal. If the Yuan-Dispelling Potion were truly that easy to make, it wouldn’t be driven to sky-high prices in the market.

“Xian’er, wait here for a bit. I’m going to take a turn in the woods to see if there’s any more danger,” seeing Mu Xian had mostly recovered, Ling Tian stood up and softly instructed.

Hearing this, Mu Xian’s eyes lit up. However, his mouth moved slightly, but in the end, he made no sound. He gently nodded, acknowledging he had heard Ling Tian’s instruction.

If Mu Xian’s cultivation was only at the initial stage of the Flesh Body Realm, Ling Tian truly wouldn’t dare leave him alone in the carriage. But knowing Mu Xian was a Spiritual Master, Ling Tian felt that with the main force of the Fire Wolf Gang wiped out, Mu Xian staying outside Shenduan Mountain to protect himself was completely fine. For Mu Xian, Shenduan Mountain, with its traps and roaming fierce beasts, was actually more dangerous.

Ling Tian used his Spiritual Sense to repeatedly check the area, confirming there was no danger nearby. His towering, mountain-like form then plunged into the vast sea of forest. Immediately, the thunderous roars of beasts reached his ears.

Even sitting inside the carriage, Mu Xian could feel the ground shaking violently. It was easy to imagine the ferocity of Ling Tian’s battle with the beasts within Shenduan Mountain.

“This Ling uncle of mine is practically a human-shaped beast,” Mu Xian shook his head and chuckled wryly. Then he lifted the beaded curtain and climbed out of the carriage.

Mu Xian had no intention of obediently waiting in the carriage for Ling Tian’s return. After encountering two ambushes in a row, Mu Xian clearly realized how terrible his current situation was.

To change his awful predicament, the only way was to increase his own strength.

For others, improving strength in a short time might be extremely difficult. But for Mu Xian, increasing his strength was a relatively easy matter.

As the saying goes, a decade of cultivation is not as good as one Spiritual Pill. Mu Xian naturally would not give up his greatest advantage to strengthen himself.

Although the Shenduan Mountain before him was very dangerous, often danger and opportunity coexisted. Just outside Shenduan Mountain, Mu Xian had easily found all the herbs needed to compound the Yuan-Dispelling Potion. This made Mu Xian even more filled with anticipation for the depths of Shenduan Mountain.

The Shenduan Mountain that was like a flood beast in Ling Tian’s eyes, in Mu Xian’s eyes, had become a natural garden of Spiritual Medicine.

Mu Xian originally intended to enter Shenduan Mountain with Ling Tian. But after thinking about his many secrets, he swallowed his words.

“Father’s fate unknown, the Elder Council pressing for the throne imminently, the collateral branches of the family waiting to make a move, enemies coveting the family’s resources watching closely from the shadows, and that inexplicable romantic rival… all these troubles have piled up together. The previous owner of this body truly suffered many calamities,” Mu Xian thought after carefully sorting through his memories, and couldn’t help but clench his fists again.

“The most urgent task is to resolve the issue of conflicting medicinal properties within my body, to avoid exploding and dying. If my little life is over, then there’s no need to play anything else.”

Mu Xian quickly made a decision in his mind, and a confident smile appeared in his eyes. His body flitted like a wisp of light smoke into the depths of the forest path.

Towering ancient trees, lush and verdant, pierced the clouds, blotting out the sky and sun. Their massive, intertwined roots and the green vines coiling around them completely shrouded the entire Shenduan Mountain, not allowing a single ray of sunlight to penetrate. As a result, the dense forest inside and the world outside became two completely different places.

After his figure disappeared into the dense forest, Mu Xian slowed his pace. He scanned the surroundings, then his eyes brightened. He stepped forward a few paces, carefully plucked a few herb plants, ground them into juice, meticulously smeared the juice all over his body, then gathered a few more ink-black, lacquer-like leaf grasses and tossed them into his sleeve. Only then did he continue walking deeper into the dense forest.

Mu Xian didn’t walk in a straight line. He constantly changed direction, cleverly avoiding several fierce wild beasts. As he ventured further in, the light in the jungle grew dimmer.

The thunderous roars of beasts occasionally sounded from all around. The terrifying aura permeating the sea of forest was enough to make anyone’s heart tremble. A serious expression also appeared on Mu Xian’s face, but his footsteps did not slow in the slightest.

After half the time it took for an incense stick to burn, Mu Xian’s footsteps came to an abrupt stop in front of an ancient tree. An undisguised flash of delight appeared in his eyes, and his body trembled with excitement almost uncontrollably.

This was a withered ancient tree. No one knew how many years it had been dead. Large cracks split its massive, coiled roots, and weeds grew thickly. The inside of the dead tree was long filled with soil and dead leaves. On the tree trunk grew patches of gray-brown leaves, each about the size of a palm.

If it were an outsider, they might overlook these gray-brown leaves. But for the genius Spiritual Pharmacist nicknamed “The Textbook,” Mu Xian, these gray-brown leaves were no different from rare treasures, priceless and hard to find.

“To think Shenduan Mountain actually has Ironwood Forest Leaves,” Mu Xian whispered softly. Then he impatiently crouched down and began carefully clearing the weeds around the Ironwood Forest Leaves.

In his previous life, Mu Xian had turned the Danding Sect’s warehouses upside down searching for Ironwood Forest Leaves to compound a Ninth Rank potion but couldn’t find any. He finally managed to snatch one Ironwood Forest Leaf at an auction house for a high price.

According to the auctioneers, the Ironwood Forest Leaf had already gone extinct on the continent. Only some hidden mountain ranges and deep jungles might still have traces of it.

Because Mu Xian had gone to such great lengths to find the Ironwood Forest Leaf, his impression of it was too profound. So when he inadvertently saw something he had desperately searched for but couldn’t find suddenly appear before him, he couldn’t help but lose his composure.

However, Mu Xian quickly calmed down. Twenty thousand years later, the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy had already dried up, and many herbs had become extinct on the continent. But this was not twenty thousand years later; all kinds of herbs naturally existed in abundance.

“Composure, must maintain composure!” Thinking about how he had accidentally crossed over to such a fortunate era, Mu Xian couldn’t help but feel his heart surge with emotion. He took several deep breaths, spending quite a while to finally calm his emotions.

Although the Ironwood Forest Leaf looked ugly, its taste was extremely bitter, and it was generally unappealing, its juice could not only strengthen the physical body but also gently nourish all the tendons and muscle tissues within the human body. It also had a good warming and nourishing effect on the meridians.

Mu Xian originally just wanted to casually find a few herbs to solve the problem of conflicting medicinal properties in his body. But now, with the Ironwood Forest Leaf, he changed his mind. Of course, the conflicting properties needed to be resolved, but wasn’t it even better if he could take this chance to completely digest and absorb all the medicinal power, transforming it into his own strength?