Jade Marrow Orchids took roughly three months to mature from planting.
Even that was the result of generations of cultivation by the skilled hands of Jade Dew Hall.
An ordinary wild Jade Marrow Orchid of the original strain took around eight months to mature.
According to the Book of Tending Medicines, a Jade Marrow Orchid was mature when its orchid fragrance filled the air and its honeyed dew thickened into nectar, milky and musky, with a delightful scent. It was a superior treasure material for making incense and refining pills.
Ever since discovering that the moonlight he drew down while cultivating helped these Jade Marrow Orchids grow, Chen Shuangbai felt as though he had opened the door to a new world. Every night, he cultivated in a different spot, drawing down moonlight to nourish the orchids.
When a breeze blew, the Jade Marrow Orchids, noticeably more robust than those in the other medicine gardens, swayed gracefully in the wind. They were like bashful young maidens shyly greeting their sweethearts, or uninhibited beauties beckoning to amorous swordsmen.
The sight filled the senior and junior brothers who had also taken on tasks tending spirit medicines with envy.
During this period, quite a few fellow disciples had approached him, openly or otherwise, hoping to get a few pointers from Chen Shuangbai.
But Chen Shuangbai only played dumb, prompting many of them to curse him as a "little fox" behind his back.
He wondered whether the spiritual charm of the spirit medicines nourished people.
After spending so long in the medicine garden, Chen Shuangbai had acquired a faint orchid fragrance about him.
The fragrance was not overpowering, however. It was fresh and pleasant, leaving anyone who smelled it feeling clearheaded and refreshed rather than finding it pungent and unpleasant.
The Jade Marrow Orchids still needed several months to mature.
But the other kinds of spirit medicine in this garden did not take nearly so long.
In the second month after Chen Shuangbai took on the task of garden guardian, several spirit medicines, including hazy moon vine, rosy robe grass, and jade-rinsing moss, began to mature one after another.
Though these three spirit medicines could not compare to the four great spirit medicines, they were the main ingredients in several basic pills used by the sect's disciples or traded outside the sect. Their medicinal properties were exceptionally pure, nourishing the body and aiding cultivation.
The rosy robe grass was the first to mature.
Jade Dew Hall would naturally send medicine attendants to harvest the gardens overseen by the garden guardians.
This medicine attendant had already harvested the gardens of several disciples, but when he came to Chen Shuangbai's plot and saw rosy robe grass of such fine quality, he could not help exclaiming in amazement.
"I've been harvesting spirit medicines for years, but I've rarely seen quality this good!"
"By the hall's standards, I can give it a grade of A!"
Chen Shuangbai smiled and cupped his hands in salute. "Thank you, senior brother!"
The medicine attendant could not help smiling at this, though he kept his face stern. "I'm only a medicine attendant in the hall. I don't count as a disciple of the sect."
But Chen Shuangbai said, "The rules must be observed."
His words made the medicine attendant even happier.
As a result, Chen Shuangbai earned far more merit points from his first task than his fellow disciples did, over five hundred in all.
The other garden guardians earned only between one and three hundred merit points per harvest, while Chen Shuangbai had earned twice as much. That showed just how fine the spirit medicines he cultivated were.
If merit points were spent only on meals in the dining hall, a month's expenses would amount to a dozen or so.
The real expenses lay in learning Law Techniques, buying pills, refining Law Treasures, and so on. Anything to do with cultivation was a bottomless money pit!
The most basic purchase was the Azure Dew Pill, which could be bought from the sect.
It was an elementary pill aligned with water and wood. Its medicinal properties were pure and gentle, and it had next to no pill poison, making it ideal for Qi Refining cultivators.
After receiving his first batch of merit points, Chen Shuangbai bought three bottles, each priced at fifty-six merit points.
With money to burn, he also bought a bottle of Cold Spring Pills and ten sticks of Spirit-Clearing Incense.
The former was a pill for purging impurities from the body, while the latter aided cultivation, allowing cultivators to settle their minds more quickly.
Chen Shuangbai's aptitude was already good, and now that he had pills to help him, it was like giving wings to a tiger.
After breaking through, Chen Shuangbai carefully checked his condition. Finding no discomfort whatsoever, he knew he had not been pulling up seedlings to make them grow.
"No wonder Teacher Lingxiu always said cultivators needed wealth, companions, methods, and land to cultivate faster and better. Now I can see it's true."
Receiving a reward for his efforts made Chen Shuangbai all the more motivated.
He cultivated even harder.
But soon, a new change disturbed his cultivation path, which had been as still as the water in an ancient well.
And this change was for the worse.
Over the past few days, the garden guardians and medicine attendants in the Cold Mist Jade Garden had gradually noticed troubling signs while tending the spirit medicines.
For example, a spirit medicine would suddenly wilt, and when they dug beneath it, they found its roots had been gnawed clean away.
Other spirit medicines had all their sap sucked out and died on the spot.
In some gardens, great swathes of spirit medicines began to die. The sight was enough to scare a person to death.
Panic spread rapidly.
After Chen Shuangbai learned of it, he made inquiries. Before long, word came down from Jade Dew Hall that medicine worms had gotten into the garden.
Medicine worms!
Worms that ate medicines!
They were a special kind of strange insect, deadly to spirit medicines.
When A Heng came to pass on the message, Chen Shuangbai asked curiously, "Since they're pests, why doesn't the hall wipe them out?"
A Heng explained, "There are many kinds of medicine worms. If we cast spells at random to kill them without knowing what kind they are, I'm afraid it might backfire and produce a bad result."
"I came to pass the message on to you. Stay alert these next few days and take good care of the spirit medicines. If circumstances allow, make sure you get a clear look at what the medicine worms look like!"
"If you can catch one, the hall will reward you generously!"
Hearing that tone, Chen Shuangbai understood how dangerous the medicine worms were. Even when cultivating at night, he could not help keeping extra watch.
Yet despite such stringent precautions, many medicine gardens still fell victim to the medicine worms' depredations. The losses were nothing short of disastrous!
One night.
Chen Shuangbai cultivated with his eyes closed.
But shortly afterward, his closed eyelids twitched. His heart, still as the water in an ancient well, seemed to sense something. He snapped his eyes open and looked toward the southeastern corner of the medicine garden.
A cold wind blew through the nearby grove of Iceheart Bamboo, producing eerie cries like the sobbing of ghosts and spirits.
The medicine garden was utterly quiet.
Yet with his remarkable spiritual perception, Chen Shuangbai sensed that something alive seemed to be moving in the southeastern corner.
Without a thought, Chen Shuangbai flipped through the air like a hawk, stomped heavily on the ground with his right foot, and flashed toward the southeastern corner like a streak of white silk.
The commotion instantly enraged the thief!
More than a dozen Jade Marrow Orchids suddenly wilted, and streams of sap like jade marrow poured out of them, converging on a point in midair.
"Spirit-Appraising Pupil!"
Chen Shuangbai formed a hand seal and secretly circulated Law Power into his eyes, opening a special field of vision.