Chapter 98 He Actually Grew It!

After turning things over in his mind for quite a while, he finally managed to sort out the other party's train of thought.

In the woman's mind, this illness was presumably cured partly thanks to the miraculous prescription of the divine physician You Kewei, and partly due to the protection of the deities of heaven and earth.

When it came down to which specific deity bestowed this protection, without much pondering, the credit fell upon Chen Yu, who had descended the mountain with them on that day.

To be more precise, the couple believed that a certain Daoist monarch and saint was manifesting his divine presence.

After a brief moment of reflection, Chen Yu looked at the woman before him—who was tugging at Liu Da's sleeve and picking a stray blade of grass from his shoulder—and suddenly gained a bit more understanding.

Putting aside his present life, in his past life, he had suffered from various illnesses to some extent. To outsiders, they might not have seemed serious, but only those who fell ill knew how truly agonizing it felt.

Especially for some people, even a mild cold and fever were enough to plunge them into deep despair for quite a while.

Given how fiercely the illness had struck, it was hard to say the woman hadn't harbored hopes and yearnings for the divine. Now that she had escaped the sea of suffering and shaken off the demon of disease that had plagued her, it was only natural for her to unconsciously draw associations in that direction.

Just as she said, she might not understand the pathology and medicinal causes You Kewei spoke of, and though the physician had indeed put in a tremendous effort after her symptoms were relieved, could it really be said that no Daoist monarch or saint was involved?

Three feet above one's head, there are divine beings!

Not to mention that Chen Yu had made a formal appearance in the eyes of others, and later they had even inquired from the old village head about the prestige and past of Yunhe Temple.

It was precisely for this reason that the woman had dragged Liu Da here with her.

No matter what the Daoist priest in front of them said, the simple-minded woman had her own set of logic, as if she had firmly settled on the cause and effect behind this matter.

"I know the Daoist priest dislikes worldly taint. Dahwa! Hurry up and take it out!"

With a trace of helplessness, Liu Da untied a bundle, inside of which were a dozen or so chicken eggs.

Besides these, Chen Yu also spotted two sticks of incense and candles wrapped inside the bundle, which now emitted a slightly pungent aroma of incense as they were revealed.

Chen Yu did not disdain the offering. He accepted the incense and candles, but as for the eggs, he let it go. Times were unsafe down the mountain, and these dozen or so eggs were likely scrounged together by the two of them from who knows where.

He clearly knew the purpose of their visit. Holding a deep sense of reverence and gratitude, nominally they would still choose to make some form of offering like burning incense.

Perhaps they had found out about this from that village elder.

Chen Yu took the incense and candles and invited the two inside.

It was rare to have pious believers visit. People coming from down the mountain to offer incense on Mount Qingtai were extremely rare and practically unheard of over the past few years.

"Please wait a moment, you two benefactors. The main hall needs a little preparation."

No one had visited for too long, and with only himself occasionally lighting a couple of sticks of incense, now that there were signs of human presence, he naturally had to clean up a bit.

Making several trips in and out, he finally invited the two into the worship hall. All the way, the woman walked with utmost reverence, her hands clasped together, softly reciting prayers.

With hearing far superior to ordinary people, Chen Yu heard clearly that it was not any Daoist scriptures or doctrines. Since both were farmers with nowhere to learn such things, what the woman was reciting were merely the Daoist titles and honorifics of saints, occasionally mixed with one or two names he could not recognize at all, likely picked up from hearsay.

The three of them entered the hall, one in front and two behind. The rituals of offering incense, praying, and seeking blessings go without saying.

In short, the two of them had actually come to fulfill a vow. The woman believed that when Liu Da went into the mountain to invite the Daoist priest, he had moved the deity of the Daoist monarch; otherwise, her illness would never have healed properly.

This was something that definitely required thanks.

In the end, Chen Yu saw them off, leaving behind even that bundle of eggs. He was not short of such food, yet placed down the mountain, right here with these two individuals, those eggs probably cost them over a dozen days' worth of rations.

Liu Da's household did not raise chickens or ducks—a fact that the few villagers who accompanied him down the mountain back then had made abundantly clear.

Watching the two support each other as they walked down the mountain, Chen Yu looked back, almost as if he could see through the hall to the curling wisps of smoke rising from the bronze tripod. At this moment, even that pungent smoke seemed to have grown much more mellow.

"Not bad at all, after all."

He muttered an inexplicable sigh, even though this whole affair from start to finish had very little to do with him.

The protection of the Daoist monarch? If such a thing truly existed, it certainly wouldn't have manifested from his humble, dilapidated temple.

...

In the afternoon, the sun was just right.

The *Qi* circulated within his body, and under the pressure of his mental will, it gradually embedded itself deep into his flesh and blood.

His heart was already completely filled. If not for the numerous issues he had encountered during his very first attempt, perhaps all his internal organs would have been fully saturated by now.

After the *Qi* was embedded, the flesh and blood were nourished. Viewed individually, the effect was not particularly intense, but when the entire heart was permeated by *Qi*, a distinctly unusual sensation still compelled him to divert a bit more energy to observe it.

"Enhanced blood-pumping capacity, greater resilience, and the primordial blood seems to have absorbed quite a bit of *Qi*, holding the potential for further transformation."

Aside from these points, the crucial thing was that his heart seemed to have gained something extra. It was a very wondrous feeling, much like facing a black fish—possessing something unknown compared to ordinary fish.

He suspected this was related to the spirituality he believed existed earlier, though he had yet to find solid proof. The primary reason was that spirituality had never been directly observed; it was merely a hypothesis derived from his summary and dissection of several special objects.

It was nothing more than an inference.

Yet he could not help but ponder: what if the heart truly possessed spirituality?

Would that bring about some kind of difference? Chen Yu's consciousness sank deep into his visceral organs, exploring every inch without missing the slightest detail, until he finally found some phenomena that could barely be regarded as anomalies and changes.

There seemed to be a few more nodes on his heart, yet they also seemed invisible. When he searched closely, it only felt like a vague intuition.

Feeling the increasingly surging primordial blood and *Qi* within his body, he let out a breath of relief. At least it was nothing bad; he would continue experimenting step by step, temporarily slowing down the focus on his heart to see if other organs would react the same way.

However, before he could figure it out completely, another change occurred in the medicine field—following the Treasure Heart Grass, the medicinal herb with golden veins growing by the pond was about to mature.

On this day, he finished his breath-control and meditation early and came to the side of the pond outside the medicine field.

This place was close to the vegetable garden. A moderately sized pond had been dug out, with a small earth-and-stone islet piled up in the center. The surrounding water was clear, containing both mud and pebbles.

A few swimming fish darted back and forth, most notably a large crucian carp. Every time it swam, it kicked up a bit of silt, churning the pond water into a murky state.

Having caught two fish a few days ago, he had tasted one fresh that very day, while the remaining one was temporarily kept in the pond. Unlike the black fish, although the large crucian carp did not mind murky water, it was much harder to keep alive.

In just these few days, it was already looking listless.

He was just preparing to pick a day to stew another pot of fish soup.

However, that was not the main focus today. Chen Yu walked briskly closer and saw a fresh stalk of grass unfurling. It was very tender, with delicate patterns spreading across its several long leaves, reflecting a faint, shimmering golden hue under the sunlight.

At a glance, it looked like something otherworldly.

Only at the base, a trace of withered yellow appeared particularly abrupt and eyesore.

Waiting patiently until the yellow spots spread to the middle of the stem and roots, he stepped forward, leaped into the air, floated weightlessly a few times, and grabbed the leaves, pulling upwards in one smooth motion.

Instantly, the soil and rocks fell away, and two round objects emerged from beneath the ground.

Landing back on the ground and brushing away the mud, Chen Yu sniffed gently, only to find a wave of fragrance rushing into his nose—empty, secluded, and pure, as if he were standing deep within a mountain forest.

It made one feel refreshed and clear-headed.

Turning the object over in his hands, he discovered that the connection point at the root seemed to be nothing more than some mesh-like long whiskers. When he twisted them apart, the rounded object fell into his palm, feeling heavy. Its surface resembled a pearl, possessing an unusual luster, smooth and without wrinkles.

The more Chen Yu looked at it, the weirder he felt. He sniffed it once more, his expression growing increasingly heavy with astonishment.

No matter how one looked at it, this thing resembled the legendary alchemical pills!

True pills, not mere powdered pills or pellets.

He looked toward the depression in the pond, momentarily at a loss for words, never expecting that his casual remark back then would actually come true today.

He had truly grown a genuine alchemical pill out of the dirt!