It took roughly an hour for Ye Lingling to fully absorb the medicinal power within her body. By then, her clothes were soaked with sweat, and the strands of hair over her forehead clung together, leaving her looking rather bedraggled.
Opening her eyes, Ye Lingling glared angrily at her mother. Ye Qingling, by contrast, wore a faint smile and paid little heed to the emotions her daughter displayed.
Ever since awakening her martial soul and learning of the Nine Heart Begonia curse, the once lively, cheerful Ye Lingling had undergone a drastic change. She had become the withdrawn girl she was now, keeping everyone a thousand miles away.
Watching all of this, Ye Qingling felt overwhelming sorrow. Why did her poor daughter have to shoulder this hateful curse?
Thus, Ye Qingling had tried all sorts of ways to improve Ye Lingling's disposition. These included opening the Medical Clinic and taking on apprentices to find companions her daughter's age. The results, however, had been far from ideal.
Now, Ye Qingling could only resort to these prank-like methods, hoping to draw a little more emotional expression out of Ye Lingling. As for the result, it was precisely what lay before her: the mother and daughter's everyday interactions had become rather baffling to outsiders.
Still, Ye Qingling had not forgotten the matter at hand. Seeing that Ye Lingling had absorbed the medicinal power, she stepped forward to examine her physical condition. Naturally, she knew her daughter's constitution inside out. Yet after checking her current condition, a flicker of surprise crossed her eyes.
"This whale rubber really does have an effect," Ye Qingling said, giving a definite answer.
Although he had obtained the answer he wanted, Lu Yang felt increasingly ill at ease. With Ye Lingling in her current state, he really should not have stayed. But when he had tried to leave earlier, Ye Qingling had stopped him.
Now that he had a definite answer, Lu Yang hurriedly made up an excuse and left the Ye Family Medical Clinic.
He knew nothing of the conversation between Ye Qingling and Ye Lingling after his departure.
Upon returning to his lodgings, Lu Yang immediately had someone send a letter to Snake Lance Douluo, reporting everything that had happened at the Ye Family Medical Clinic that day and asking him to help purchase whale rubber of greater age.
From that day's experiment, Lu Yang had arrived at a possibility. Whale rubber certainly improved physical constitution, but his body seemed somewhat unusual. Hundred-year whale rubber would probably struggle to give him any substantial improvement. Thousand-year whale rubber, however, was far from cheap in a place like Heaven Dou City. As for ten-thousand-year whale rubber, it simply could not be bought there.
After all, in this era, nobles still used whale rubber as an aphrodisiac. Even thousand-year whale rubber could only be used by soul masters with a certain level of cultivation. Ten-thousand-year whale glue was a potent, tiger-and-wolf drug; taking it recklessly really could kill someone.
On the present-day Douluo Continent, anyone hoping to purchase ten-thousand-year whale glue would probably have to try their luck in coastal cities. Lu Yang also decided that once his cultivation improved a little more, he would personally visit Vast Sea City to see whether he could obtain some.
At the Crown Prince's Residence, Snake Lance Douluo She Long was taken aback when he received the letter and saw that Lu Yang wanted his help purchasing whale rubber. He initially thought the boy had fallen into bad habits after only a few months in Heaven Dou City.
But on second thought, Lu Yang barely came into contact with outsiders in his daily life. Who could have led him astray? After reading the entire letter, he hurried off to find Qian Renxue and report the matter of the whale rubber.
"Whale rubber? That stuff can actually improve physical constitution? I never would have expected Little Yang to learn something so useful after spending so little time with the Ye Family," Qian Renxue said with feeling.
She also issued orders. Since Lu Yang needed whale rubber, she would naturally support him. With a sweep of her hand, she allocated She Long a considerable sum of Gold Soul Coins and sent him to buy it for Lu Yang. After all, the substance had a rather unsavory reputation. She could hardly buy it for him while showing her true face, could she? It was more appropriate to have a subordinate do it.
That very day, several portions of thousand-year whale rubber arrived in Lu Yang's hands. Rather than taking them immediately, he put them away.
Recently, he had devoted all his energy to studying and eased off considerably on his cultivation.
Yet he had found no records concerning immortal herbs in the Ye Family's Medical Canon. He did not know whether that knowledge was a closely guarded family secret, but it was something he urgently needed.
According to the original story, apart from the knowledge of immortal herbs recorded in the Medicine Chapter of the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record in Tang San's mind, Spirit Hall's Chrysanthemum Douluo and the Yang Family of the Breaking Clan, one of the four single-attribute clans formerly subordinate to the Clear Sky Sect, should also possess relevant records.
The Breaking Clan was far away in the Star Luo Empire. Even if he wanted to approach them, he had no opportunity. Chrysanthemum Douluo, however, might be accessible through Qian Renxue. Although Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan belonged to the Pope's Hall and was one of Bibi Dong's two stalwart henchmen, he and Ghost Douluo Gui Mei had once served as Qian Xunji's guards. As Qian Xunji's daughter, surely Qian Renxue would not find it too difficult to obtain something from them?
With his recent discovery of whale rubber's effects, he could take the opportunity to mention it to Qian Renxue. Perhaps he might even succeed.
At that thought, Lu Yang began making plans.
The following day, Lu Yang went to the Ye Family.
When he saw Ye Lingling again, he kept feeling that something about her had changed. In particular, there seemed to be something strange in the way she looked at him.
Just as Lu Yang was about to take a closer look, Ye Lingling withdrew her gaze. She placed a volume that had been lying nearby in front of him. "Mother asked me to give you this. She said you might be interested in its contents."
Hearing that, Lu Yang set aside his earlier puzzlement. He picked up the volume and began leafing through it. A short while later, he understood why Ye Qingling had given it to him.
The volume recorded difficult illnesses and unusual cases encountered over the Ye Family Medical Clinic's decades of practice. Since Lu Yang had discovered the effects of whale rubber from a few minor details in the Medical Canon, Ye Qingling thought he might be able to deduce something more from this volume as well.
Lu Yang did not know whether to laugh or cry. He had only discovered whale rubber's effects because he had known about them all along. Asking him to genuinely research medicine and pharmacology was rather like forcing someone to do the impossible.
Still, Lu Yang did not refuse. Taking the view that he might as well study whatever came into his hands, he began poring over the medical text. As he read, time quietly slipped away.
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