Renshen Doll

To be fair, digging through the medicinal garden really was a good approach. While practicing the spell "Shrinking Earth," he could also learn about medicinal herbs through hands-on experience, making up for his lack of knowledge in that area. It killed two birds with one stone.

Senior Sister was thinking of him.

Senior Sister was thinking of him.

Senior Sister was thinking of him.

Lu Yang hypnotized himself into believing that Senior Sister had his best interests at heart. Just as he was about to genuinely accept the arrangement of taking on the task of burrowing through the soil in place of earthworms, he suddenly remembered something: Earthworms probably had no distinction between males and females.

"Why do earthworms have husbands and wives?"

Uncle Ba explained, "Earthworms in the mortal world indeed have no distinction between males and females. That's merely a sign of low-level life-forms—oh, I don't mean that as an insult. Earthworms with intelligence that can take human form are different. The Silver-Ringed Heavenly King Earthworm is especially from a royal lineage among earthworms, and its bloodline suppresses all other earthworms."

"I understand. Please continue."

Uncle Ba continued, "With the Silver-Ringed Heavenly King Earthworm couple around, loosening the soil should've been no problem. But it was all because I couldn't keep my mouth shut that day. I asked the Silver-Ringed Heavenly King Earthworm's wife, 'They say earthworms can split in two and still survive. If you split in two as well, wouldn't you be able to work one day and rest the next, taking turns with the new you?'"

"She was moved by what I said and immediately cut herself in half, splitting into two people."

"They were truly identical, like twin sisters. No, it was practically the same as clone magic. I watched with my own eyes as one person became two, and I couldn't even tell which one had been the original."

"Fortunately, they could tell each other apart."

"When the husband returned and saw his two wives, he was completely dumbfounded. The two of them then asked him which one he actually liked."

"The husband was an open and forthright man too. He didn't hide his feelings at all and bluntly said that he liked sisters."

"Then the family civil war erupted. The three of them acted out one tangled drama of love and hatred after another, and to this day, none of them has any mind for work." Uncle Ba sounded deeply remorseful throughout.

Lu Yang: "..."

For fuck's sake. What a bunch of lunatics.

"Specifically, what am I supposed to do?" After finishing his rant, Lu Yang quickly calmed himself and gradually adapted to the mindset of a cultivator.

They're all trivial matters.

Uncle Ba stroked his white beard and smiled. "Just go inside. Someone will guide you. But let me warn you: entering the medicinal garden is for loosening the soil. If you dare secretly pick any herbs, Discipline Peak will definitely hold you accountable!"

Discipline Peak was the mountain governed by the Grand Elder. It was impartial and strict, showing no favoritism.

Lu Yang thanked Uncle Ba and walked into the medicinal garden.

The moment he entered, Lu Yang smelled a medicinal fragrance dozens of times stronger than before.

The distance was only a few steps. There was no way the scent could differ so greatly.

Lu Yang immediately realized that although it had appeared as if Uncle Ba alone had been guarding the medicinal garden, in reality, an entire formation was protecting it and keeping outsiders from entering.

The formation locked in the garden's aura, but the medicinal fragrance was simply too rich for even the grand formation to contain completely, allowing a wisp to leak out.

That single wisp of medicinal fragrance could prolong an ordinary mortal's life. It was easy to imagine how wondrous the fragrance inside the medicinal garden must be!

Aside from the medicinal fragrance, the most striking thing was the spiritual energy. It was simply far too dense. Lu Yang suspected that what lay on the leaves of the herbs wasn't dew at all, but droplets of water condensed from spiritual energy, with each drop being no less valuable than a low-grade spirit stone!

Everywhere Lu Yang looked was lush and verdant. All kinds of medicinal herbs he had never seen or even heard of spread out before him.

The herbs had been planted neatly in rows, divided into separate areas according to their species. The sight dazzled Lu Yang's eyes.

He didn't even dare move his feet casually, afraid that he might step on some rare variety.

Lu Yang squatted down and examined several kinds of herbs in succession. At last, he saw one he recognized. The plant had three leaves, their veins distinct as if formed from frozen ice, and radiated a faint chill.

"Ice Soul Grass. Remember, this flower is helpful for cultivating ice-attribute techniques and increases the speed of absorbing spiritual energy."

Each Ice Soul Flower was planted far from the others. This was to prevent the chills they emitted from joining together and freezing everything solid.

Lu Yang had once fought a puppet and been beaten into complete disarray. Afterward, the puppet had used Ice Soul Flowers to dress his wounds, so the memory remained fresh in his mind.

He truly didn't recognize any of the other flowers and grasses.

"Hey, who are you?" A voice that could hardly be called polite came from nearby. Lu Yang instinctively turned his head, but saw no one.

"Who's speaking?"

"Hey, look down." The voice reminded him.

Lu Yang lowered his head. A three-inch-tall ginseng doll was bouncing around beside his feet, apparently displeased that Lu Yang had taken so long to notice it and that it had needed to call out so loudly.

"You're so stupid. Why don't you know to look down? You even needed me to remind you!"

The ginseng doll had thick, sturdy legs and a chubby body. It ran circles around Lu Yang, its two rootlets serving as arms and bobbing up and down as it moved. The markings on its body formed facial features, and its expression was as rich as a human's.

"Young man, who are you?" the ginseng doll asked in a world-weary tone.

A ginseng that had developed a spirit was certainly no youngster. Not daring to be discourteous, Lu Yang bowed and said, "I am Lu Yang. I've accepted a task to loosen the soil in the medicinal garden."

"So you're just here to loosen the soil." The ginseng doll heaved a sigh of relief. It had thought another detestable human had come to harvest them.

The herbs in the medicinal garden had all been cultivated by it.

"Since you can enter, you must have received Little Ba's permission. Come to think of it, other than Little Ba and that female devil, it's been quite some time since I've seen an outsider."

To the ginseng doll, the aged Uncle Ba was merely a junior.

What use is a high cultivation realm? When it comes to medicinal herbs, what matters is who has lived longer.

It looked down on every single person in the Ask Dao Sect.

Lu Yang had heard about the rules of the medicinal garden. Its herbs were precious, and if anyone wanted to obtain one, they had to ask the person guarding the garden to go in and pick it. Other than the garden's guardian, no one was allowed to enter.

Without this task, Lu Yang wouldn't have been able to enter the medicinal garden either.

He didn't know who the female devil mentioned by the ginseng doll was. Was she another person who guarded the medicinal garden?

The ginseng doll planted its two rootlets on its hips and complained, "Why are all you humans so tall?"

Lu Yang also found it tiring to speak while looking down, so he took the opportunity to use the spell "Make Inches," shrinking himself to the same three-inch height as the ginseng doll.

"Oh? You're pretty sharp for a youngster. You're much better than Little Ba." The ginseng doll was first startled, then delighted. It was rare to find a human as tall as itself, and it was never happy having to crane its neck to look up at humans.

The ginseng doll's head and torso were one continuous whole, with no neck.

"From now on, just follow me around this medicinal garden!" the ginseng doll declared boldly. It patted Lu Yang's shoulder with a ginseng rootlet, treating it as a sign of acceptance.

"I still have some things to take care of. Follow me, and once I'm finished, I'll take you to meet the other Medicine Kings."

When medicinal herbs developed spirits, they became Medicine Kings—the most precious of all herbs.

Even extremely powerful sects might not possess a single one. If they obtained a Medicine King, they could enshrine it like an ancestor.

From what the ginseng doll said, there were quite a few Medicine Kings like it in the medicinal garden.

Lu Yang clicked his tongue inwardly. The Ask Dao Sect's foundations were truly terrifying.