After arriving at the Hundred Mechanisms Hall, Lin Yun searched around before finally finding Elder Ye's grandnephew idling about in the main hall.
Lin Yun slipped over to Senior Brother Ye and discreetly handed him the bottle of pills for strengthening the foundation and nourishing the origin.
With gratitude written all over his face, he said, "Thank you for helping me put off my assignment for several months, Senior Brother Ye. This is just a small token of my appreciation."
Senior Brother Ye remembered Lin Yun quite well. The seventy-year-old medicinal herb Lin Yun had given him several months earlier had helped him advance one cultivation level, saving him months of arduous cultivation. He had been delighted, which was also why he had been willing to help Lin Yun delay taking on his assignment.
Seeing Lin Yun offer him pills this time, Senior Brother Ye smiled and said, "Junior Brother Lin, you're finally back! If you'd stayed away any longer, I wouldn't have been able to hold things off for you."
As he spoke, he casually opened the bottle and tipped out a yellow pill. "What kind of pill is this?" he asked with a smile.
Lin Yun had casually refined these pills using a few thirty- to forty-year-old medicinal herbs he had on hand. Although they were inferior to the Spirit Pills he had refined previously,
given Lin Yun's attainments in the Alchemy Dao, this bottle of pills was still far better than those circulating in the Yellow Maple Valley. Its effects in strengthening the foundation and nourishing the origin were enough to help a cultivator at the ninth level of Qi Refining advance at least one level.
Lest Senior Brother Ye fail to recognize their worth and waste his efforts, Lin Yun immediately explained, "These are called Peiyuan Pills. They have the effect of Strengthening the Foundation and Nourishing the Origin. This bottle can help a cultivator at the ninth level of the Qi Refining Stage or above advance one level. Consider it my thanks for your help, Senior Brother Ye."
At this point, a carefully measured hint of embarrassment appeared on Lin Yun's face, and he continued, "Also, I'd like to ask Senior Brother Ye for help with my assignment. Could you find me a good place where I can stay long-term?"
Upon hearing what the pills could do, Senior Brother Ye's casual expression vanished in an instant, replaced by an irrepressible glimmer of delight.
His granduncle had promised to arrange a Foundation Establishment Pill for him in a few years to help him establish his foundation, but he needed to reach at least the tenth level of Qi Refining before his granduncle could make the arrangements.
Yet he was only at the seventh level of Qi Refining, and there were just a few years left before the next distribution of Foundation Establishment Pills. He had been planning to beg his granduncle again to think of a solution.
These pills had arrived at exactly the right time. How could he not be thrilled?
As for Lin Yun's request, fulfilling it would take no more than lifting a hand.
Still, he was not certain the pills were as potent as Lin Yun claimed, so he smiled and said, "Let me try one first. I really haven't seen these Peiyuan Pills before. They must be pills passed down in your family, right, Junior Brother Lin?"
With that, he swallowed a pill. As it dissolved into a warm current in his stomach, Senior Brother Ye immediately felt his magical power increase slightly. His body felt no discomfort at all; on the contrary, it was pleasantly warm.
He immediately knew Lin Yun had spoken the truth. Beaming, he said, "These really are excellent pills! Haha! Leave your request to me, Junior Brother Lin. Where would you like to go? A mining site, or somewhere else? Do you want an easy post, or one with plenty of fat to skim?"
Lin Yun promptly explained his plans. "My family grows medicinal herbs, so I'd like to tend a herb garden."
Places where medicinal herbs were grown generally had abundant spiritual energy. Moreover, with his attainments in the Alchemy Dao, Lin Yun could fleece a little from the Herb Garden to refine pills. It was just the right place for him to cultivate in seclusion for now.
This was the assignment Lin Yun had chosen for himself after careful consideration.
Senior Brother Ye's eyes lit up at his words. "Oh! That's right!" he said immediately. "There happens to be just such an assignment. Martial Uncle Ma has a private herb garden, and he's been looking for someone lately."
A day later, Lin Yun received his assignment from the Hundred Mechanisms Hall. Carrying a white jade token, he arrived at the Hundred Herb Garden on Greenstone Ridge.
Standing outside the Hundred Herb Garden's restrictions, Lin Yun's thoughts stirred. Isn't this where Han the Old Devil will work later? Now that I've snatched his job first, I wonder whether he'll still come to the Hundred Herb Garden in a few years.
While gathering raw materials of the five metals earlier, Lin Yun had visited Jiayuan City in Lan Province and learned that Mo Juren of the Fearsome Flood Dragon Association had been missing for around six years. Counting the years, Han Li should enter the Yellow Maple Valley in just a few more.
He raised the jade token, and a streak of green light flew out of it. A moment later, the restrictions at the Herb Garden's entrance opened, revealing a small path. Lin Yun strolled inside.
Following the path into the Herb Garden, Lin Yun soon caught a rich medicinal fragrance. Looking up, he saw a short, withered old man waiting for him in front of a courtyard bearing a plaque that read "Hundred Herb Garden."
Lin Yun immediately hurried forward and bowed. "Disciple Lin Yun pays his respects to Martial Uncle Ma."
The old man merely nodded indifferently before saying, "You're the disciple the Hundred Mechanisms Hall sent to tend the garden? Your cultivation is passable, at least. Have you tended a herb garden before? Do you know how severe the punishment is if you fail to complete your duties?"
Lin Yun now cultivated the White Yang Diagram. Although his White Yang True Qi was pure and powerful, it was also deeply restrained. To outsiders, his cultivation appeared to be around the tenth level of Qi Refining.
Reaching that level at sixteen or seventeen was passable enough in Martial Uncle Ma's eyes, so the eccentric old man did not demand too much of Lin Yun's cultivation. He cared only about whether Lin Yun had experience tending a herb garden.
Lin Yun said, "My family grows medicinal herbs, so I have quite a bit of experience tending herb gardens."
This was no lie. The Lin Family had built its livelihood on growing medicinal herbs. Before he had pierced the veil of forgetfulness from the womb, his grandfather had personally taught him the family's herb-growing skills.
Furthermore, to understand the medicinal properties of this world's herbs for pill refinement, he had read through all the books on medicinal herbs he had brought from home.
Martial Uncle Ma neither agreed nor disagreed with Lin Yun's words. He simply led him into the Medicine Field and pointed at the plants. "Then tell me what all these herbs are. If you can't recognize them, go back where you came from."
Lin Yun took one look and said, "Midnight flower, yellow ball grass, white crane lingzhi, moon-gazing grass..."
At first, Martial Uncle Ma remained indifferent, but as Lin Yun named more and more herbs, his expression grew serious. Once Lin Yun had identified every medicinal herb in the Herb Garden, he immediately tossed him a token.
His brows relaxed, and he said happily, "Good, good, good! At last, I can concentrate on my cultivation. This is the Restriction Token for the Herb Garden. I'm leaving the garden in your hands. Rest assured, this is my private herb garden. I won't treat you poorly."
After a pause, he pointed at the few thatched cottages nearby and said, "Also, my notes on cultivating medicinal herbs over the years are inside. You can study them carefully too. Make sure you take good care of the Herb Garden."
He then explained some precautions for managing the Herb Garden in detail. Only after Lin Yun had repeatedly assured him did he leave.
Once Martial Uncle Ma was gone, Lin Yun surveyed the Herb Garden with satisfaction. Just as he had expected, the spiritual energy here was more abundant than on Mystic Kun Mountain. Although the oldest herbs in the garden were only around a hundred years old, their sheer number and variety more than made up for it. All he had to do was fleece a little from the garden, and he would never have to worry about lacking ingredients for pill refinement.
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