Chapter 17: Ghostly Peony!

  Back in the house, he played "High Mountain and Flowing Water" twice, replenishing his depleted aura and seemingly making progress with his skills. The aura stored in his aura pool had already exceeded half of the pool's capacity, reaching the mid-stage of the Lethal Child realm. His physical strength had also been greatly enhanced, although he hadn't tested it yet, Xiao Yun could feel that his current strength was at least twice as strong as before, and punching out 400-500 kilograms of force shouldn't be a problem.

  ……

  ——

  Morning.

  Muyan En is back, with a rare smile on his face, it seems that this trip was very smooth. He untied the medicine basket filled with herbs and casually placed it aside, then fished out from his sleeve a flower with an extremely strange smell.

  Its appearance is similar to a chrysanthemum, with over ten leaves, as big as a pear. Its entire body is snow-white. The center of the flower seems to have a human face, which looks quite beautiful. However, its smell is really unbearable. As soon as Muyan En touched that flower, an extremely foul odor like rotting corpses instantly filled the entire room.

  "How smelly is this?" Xiao Yun immediately pinched her nose shut.

  Mu Tian'en, on the other hand, had a look of relishing it, as if the smell was quite pleasant, and even leaned in to sniff it carefully. When he looked up and saw Xiao Yun covering his nose with a pretentious expression, he immediately rolled his eyes, "You ignorant child, this is a rare treasure from heaven and earth, yet you dare to despise it."

  "Senior, is this the ghostly begonia you were talking about? It's too smelly, are you sure it's this thing?" Xiao Yun asked from a distance, pinching her nose.

  "Ghost boy, the flower blooms only once every fifty years, and it only blooms on a full moon night. Moreover, each bloom lasts only one minute. Before the flower blooms, its fragrance is intoxicating, but when it blooms, the stench is unbearable. Even if my eyes are problematic, my nose won't be! Quickly bring over my wine jug!"

  "Oh!"

  Xiao Yunzheng couldn't bear to leave and hurriedly ran outside to hug the vat, taking the opportunity to breathe in two mouthfuls of fresh air.

  "You're really a different breed!"

  Covering his nose with a piece of tattered cloth, Xiao Yun carried the wine jar back into the house, gazing at the Ghost Orchid in Mu Tian'en's hand, marveling at its beauty. Despite its lovely appearance, it emitted an incredibly foul odor that made him almost vomit up his breakfast even through the cloth. "Senior, are you sure you want to use this thing to brew wine?"

  "Mu Tian'en's eyes widened, 'Don't ask nonsense if you don't understand!'"

  Xiao Yun's face twitched, this flower is so foul-smelling, wouldn't that ruin the whole jar of wine? Who would dare to drink the wine brewed from it?

  "Senior, what's the use of this ghostly flower?" asked Xiao Yun, puzzled, as he watched Mu Tian'en put the flower into a wine jar.

  "Ghost Orchid, gathering the essence of heaven and earth, blooms only once every fifty years. Each time it blooms, a new leaf grows. This flower already has eighteen leaves, its age is nearly a thousand years old, it's an excellent spiritual herb for enhancing one's power."

  "What are you doing, using it to brew wine?" Xiao Yun asked in puzzlement. Wouldn't it be better to use it for alchemy? With such a large vat of wine, the medicinal effect would be diluted to what extent?

  Mu Tian'en shook his head, "This Ghost Orchid is quite extraordinary, it blooms for only a moment, and only when it's in bloom can it be picked to have any medicinal effect. If not used in time, after half a day of being picked, it will wither and lose its efficacy. However, this Ghost Orchid is also not suitable for refining into a pill, but using wine can force out its efficacy and seal it for a long time."

  "How can it be so magical?" Xiao Yun was somewhat surprised, just a flower, yet so sentimental.

  "The world is vast, and nothing is impossible. This Ghost Orchid has accumulated nearly a thousand years of medicinal power, its potency surpassing that of many spiritual medicines that are several thousand years old. Moreover, its medicinal properties are violent, but after being soaked in wine, it can become somewhat gentler."

  Moy Tianen seemed to be intentionally or unintentionally imparting some knowledge of pharmacology to Xiao Yun, it seems that he really wanted Xiao Yun to follow him in learning medicine. However, Xiao Yun didn't seem to have much interest in this, unlike the other miscellaneous chores he had done before. Xiao Yun was different, a rare innate music prodigy, even if he didn't have a strong foundation, his comprehension would never be low, which is the most important thing for practicing the art of healing through music.

  "Put it back in its original place. From now on, if I'm not around, you must take good care of it for me. If even a single drop is missing, I'll be asking questions." Mu Tian'en said to Xiao Yun.

  Xiao Yun had thought of asking if there would be a share for himself, but thinking of the strong stench just now, he figured that the wine brewed out wouldn't taste good anyway, so he gave up with a humph and carried the jar out of the house.

  ——

  "Hey kid, come here!"

  Just as the wine jar was put back on the medicine rack, a loud shout came from Mo Tian'en's room, scaring Xiao Yun to shrink his neck and hurriedly cover his ears.

  "Senior, something's up?" Arriving at Mu Tian'en's room, Mu Tian'en was standing by the bed, fuming with anger.

  Seeing Xiao Yun come in, Mu Tian'en immediately asked, "Have you touched my guqin?"

  "Uh..."

  He had clearly put it back in its original position, so how could he have discovered it? Looking at Mu Tian'en's unkind face, it didn't seem like he was trying to deceive him either. Xiao Yun was stunned for a moment before dryly laughing and saying, "My guqin is broken, and since Senior wasn't around last night, I... uh... borrowed it."

  "Do you know that playing someone else's guqin is a taboo?" Mu Tian'en fell silent for a moment, his face cold as he stared at Xiao Yun.

  Xiao Yun scratched his head, "Wasn't the senior not around last night? I was suddenly inspired and didn't ask for permission, but this zither of yours is really good, it's actually produced dragon scale patterns, at least it's an ancient zither from over a thousand years ago?"

  "Stop bothering me with these useless things!" It seemed that Xiao Yun was intentionally changing the subject, but Mu Tian'en wouldn't fall for it. He said directly, "Before noon, finish splitting all the firewood you chopped yesterday. If you don't finish, you're not allowed to eat lunch. Additionally, I'm punishing you by making you chop 300 more pounds of firewood and carry 10 buckets of water!"

  "Isn't it? So much firewood, can you burn it all?" Xiao Yun's face suddenly turned bitter upon hearing this.

  "Is it not enough? Then I'll add more." Mu Tian'en said with a straight face.

  "No, no!" Xiao Yun hastily waved her hand.

  "Hurry up and go?" Mu Tian'en's eyes widened in annoyance.

  "Uh, that, senior, can't it be done tomorrow? I want to go down the mountain today." said Xiao Yun.

  Mu Tian'en was taken aback by his words, a look of puzzlement on his face. "What are you going down the mountain for?"

  Xiao Yun scratched his head, "Didn't you say there's a Le Xiufang market 100 miles away? I want to go take a look!"

  "Where are you going?" Mu Tianen was somewhat puzzled. "All transactions there require Lingjing, do you have it?"

  Xiao Yun shook her head very decisively.

  "Are you still going?" Mu Tian'en threw a white eye at Xiao Yun.

  Xiao Yun Dao said, "I'll go take a look, can I, senior?"

  Mu Tian'en thought for a moment and waved his hand, "You can go if you want, but you must come back before dark!"

  "Yes!" Xiao Yun's face lit up with joy.

  Moy Tian'en reached into his sleeve and fished out a few glittering objects, "I have some low-grade spirit crystals here, consider it an advance on your wages."

  "Thank you, senior!"

  Xiao Yun took it, and it was six coin-like objects, pure white, with a small round hole in the center. They felt cool to the touch, like stone. This was the universal currency that circulated among the Leixiu practitioners - Lingjing!

  Although there were only six of them, Xiao Yun had previously only heard about them and this was the first time he saw them. He played with them for a bit before carefully putting them away.

  "Be careful not to get lost, go!" Mu Tian'en said somewhat impatiently, waving his hand at Xiao Yun with a look of indifference.

  Xiao Yun returned to the house, grabbed a package and rushed out in a hurry.

  "This kid, won't he take the opportunity to slip away?"

  Watching Xiao Yun leave, Mu Tian'en muttered to himself and turned back to stroke the Nine Heavens zither by his bedside. This zither had been with him for a long time, although he had already refined the Music Treasure, but he couldn't bear to part with this zither, treating it as an intimate friend, never allowing others to touch it. When going out, he would always hang a strand of hair on the zither strings, and if someone touched his zither, he only needed to see if the hair was still there to know.

  Xiao Yunke didn't know these things, and thought that as long as he put the Jiuxiaoqin back in its original position, Mu Tian'en wouldn't notice anything, but that was completely like brandishing a big knife in front of Guan Yu's gate.