Medicinal Tea

"Techniques and skills resided in the heart; only by integrating them thoroughly could one grasp their essence."

After receiving Hong Jiu's guidance, Wu Ming gained many insights into the Falling Leaf Spear Technique. Even in his dreams, scenes of Hong Jiu wielding the spear kept replaying before his eyes.

How light and gentle were falling leaves?

How swift and fierce was a spear thrust?

By all reason, the forceful wind raised by a spear thrust should have easily swept the leaves away. Yet Hong Jiu's spear could strike, even pierce through, those fluttering and unpredictable leaves. Such force was more astonishing than a single thrust piercing through bluestone floor tiles.

It contained fierce hardness while combining absolute softness—Hardness and Softness Combined. Only then could it reach that level. It was undoubtedly a skill of the Unity Realm, far beyond what Scattered Hand and Mastery could compare to.

With Wu Ming's current understanding of martial skill, attempting to directly comprehend hardness and softness and cultivate unity was clearly aiming too high. Thus, he focused his contemplation on the specific moves Hong Jiu had displayed: the transformations and angles of every move, as well as the transitions linking one move to the next.

Over the following days, he went through the Falling Leaf Spear Technique manual once more, thoroughly memorizing the moves and engraving every detail in his heart. He compared the fixed diagrams one by one against the dynamic moves Hong Jiu had performed.

Thanks to his foundation in Quivering Spear Force, it was not difficult to break down and practice each move until he mastered it. The difficult part lay in linking the moves together, and in using them flexibly in actual combat to reach the true level of complete integration.

The former required practice; the latter required not only practice, but a certain degree of insight.

Wu Ming had a calm temperament and never aimed too high. He always began with the fundamentals. After firmly committing everything to memory, he started by breaking down and practicing the most basic moves. In roughly seven or eight days, he had mastered all sixteen forms of the Falling Leaf Spear Technique.

"Simply mastering the moves still doesn't count as complete integration..."

Inside the martial academy.

Wu Ming stood in a corner with a long spear in hand, a contemplative look in his eyes as he slowly pondered the spear technique.

Scattered Hand and Mastery were unlike the stages of Blood Forging, which had clear dividing lines. The two realms of martial skill were more like a relatively smooth curve, with progress steadily rising throughout.

For a Scattered Hand martial artist who had only just learned how to exert force, even three joining hands would find it difficult to contend against a Mastery martial artist. But if a Scattered Hand martial artist had basically mastered the moves and possessed some practical combat experience, even two joining hands would not make things easy for a Mastery martial artist.

Just as Wu Ming was carefully contemplating the spear technique—

Suddenly,

A familiar voice called out.

"Wu Ming."

Chen Gui approached from afar and, smiling, slapped Wu Ming on the shoulder. "Come, come, come. I'll take you to try something good!"

Over the past seven or eight days, Wu Ming had not run into Chen Gui many times. He had heard that something was happening at Chen Gui's home. Seeing him now, Wu Ming did not ask what he had been busy with these past few days, merely saying with some curiosity, "What good thing?"

"You'll know when you get there."

Half-pulling and half-dragging, Chen Gui led Wu Ming out of the martial academy to a relatively spacious and quiet courtyard behind the Seven Martial Alliance. Several residences stood there, with a pavilion built in front of them.

Chen Gui led Wu Ming all the way to the side of the pavilion.

Inside the pavilion stood a stone table, upon which rested a tea set. With a cheerful grin, Chen Gui picked up the teapot and poured two cups of liquid. The liquid was pale red, as though stained with blood, yet it carried a faint fragrance when smelled.

"This is Bloodgrass Tea, a specialty of my family. Give it a try and see what you think."

Chen Gui looked at Wu Ming with a smile. After speaking, he picked up his own cup and took a sip first.

This was the inner courtyard of the Seven Martial Alliance, so Wu Ming did not suspect anything. He lifted his teacup and took a small sip. His gaze immediately froze slightly as a warm current flowed down his throat and swiftly spread outward, making his entire body feel pleasantly warm.

Vaguely, Wu Ming sensed that the Blood Qi within his body had also been stimulated, becoming faintly more active.

Good stuff!

Wu Ming had already roughly understood the effects of this Bloodgrass Tea. His eyes lit up slightly, and he promptly drained the tea in his cup. The warm current soon filled his limbs and bones, while the Qi and Blood throughout his body became active, as though he had trained bitterly for half a day.

"How is it?!"

Chen Gui winked at Wu Ming.

Wu Ming nodded. "It seems to have an effect that nourishes Qi and Blood."

"Hahahaha!"

Chen Gui burst into laughter. "This is a medicinal tea my family has newly cultivated. It'll be sold in the city within the next few days, and the price isn't expensive either. One tael of medicinal tea only costs ten taels of silver. Every day, you only need to use half a qian to brew tea, and it will nourish Qi and Blood. Compared to those strongly potent nourishing prescriptions, its effect is a notch weaker, but its medicinal properties are much gentler."

At this point, Chen Gui looked at Wu Ming and said, "Brother Wu, as long as you come help me, the conditions I offered you before will remain unchanged. On top of that, I'll give you one tael of Bloodgrass Tea every month. What do you think?"

Hearing Chen Gui's words, Wu Ming was somewhat surprised inwardly.

By Chen Gui's account, one tael of this Bloodgrass Tea was worth ten taels of silver. Of course, that was the Chen Family's selling price to outsiders, and the actual cost was certainly much lower. Still, its value was plain for all to see.

After tasting only one cup, he could already feel how Bloodgrass Tea activated Qi and Blood. With Bloodgrass Tea assisting him, each day he spent cultivating and refining his Qi and Blood would probably equal a day and a half of accumulation. Its effects could be called extremely significant.

Wu Ming was indeed tempted.

The main reason was that, compared to his rapid advances in martial skill, his progress in nourishing Qi and Blood could not be called utterly immovable, but it was still extremely slow. To accumulate enough abundant Blood Qi to support Second Blood Forging would take at least more than a year.

If he had a supply of Bloodgrass Tea, it would undoubtedly greatly increase the efficiency with which he accumulated Blood Qi.

Seeing that Wu Ming was clearly moved, Chen Gui added another weight to the scales. "If Brother Wu thinks these terms are acceptable, let's go to the main hall of the Seven Martial Alliance to sign the contract. The Seven Martial Alliance's commission can come out of my share."

The Seven Martial Alliance was the Chen Family's largest client in its medicinal herb business. Naturally, when the Chen Family hired personnel, it did so through the proper channels within the Seven Martial Alliance. However, martial artists of the Seven Martial Alliance Outer Hall who took jobs through the alliance received its protection, but had to pay twenty percent of their earnings as the alliance's commission. If Chen Gui offered him ten taels of silver a month, the Seven Martial Alliance would take two taels as commission.

Now that Chen Gui said he could cover the commission himself, it was equivalent to adding another two taels of silver to Wu Ming's wages.

"Brother Chen is being so generous. If I keep refusing, it would be rather discourteous."

After his thoughts turned, Wu Ming finally made his decision and agreed outright.

He and Chen Gui were already fairly familiar with each other, and he knew something of the Chen Family's pharmacy business. It was also a perfectly legitimate line of work within the Seven Martial Alliance. In truth, the price Chen Gui offered was exceptionally high for a Scattered Hand martial artist at First Blood Forging, nearly approaching the kind of jobs taken by some martial artists at Second Blood Forging.

It was only because he had previously received Hong Jiu's summons and guidance, and the news had spread quickly through the Seven Martial Alliance's martial academy, that his worth had immediately risen. Added to that was the Chen Family's newly launched "medicinal tea" business, which most likely truly lacked manpower. Only with all these factors combined had Chen Gui offered him such treatment.