Lin He carried the pheasant pierced through by an arrow and swaggered through the door of the ramshackle wooden hut.
"Su Qiuran! Look what your big bro caught!" Lin He tossed the pheasant into the battered wooden basin with a dull thud.
Su Qiuran was sitting in her wheelchair, directing Goudan to bite a large black spider in the corner.
At the noise, she turned her wheelchair around, her peach-blossom eyes instantly lighting up. "Damn, Lin He, you actually caught a pheasant? I thought coming back in one piece would be good enough for your little outing."
"Who are you looking down on?" Lin He plopped onto the long bench with a missing leg. It gave a pained creak as he crossed his legs, looking thoroughly pleased with himself.
"Old Sun-you know, the old hunter in the village-personally taught me. Your big bro's a muscleman who can draw a hundred-and-twenty-jin bow now. Shooting a pheasant is as easy as reaching out and grabbing it!"
Su Qiuran curled her lips, but she could not hide the smile in her eyes. "Fine, fine, muscleman. Hurry up and clean the bird. We're having chicken soup tonight. I've almost forgotten what chicken tastes like."
Lin He wasted no time, picking up the pheasant and heading outside. Plucking, gutting, washing-his movements flowed like drifting clouds and running water.
Thanks to the essence of the sun, his strength was now astonishing. Plucking pheasant feathers was as easy as tearing paper.
Before long, the rich aroma of meat drifted through the hut.
Su Qiuran also sliced in some of the pork belly they had bought earlier and added a few handfuls of wild scallions. In this run-down Emerald Mountain Village, that aroma practically qualified as a "crime."
Goudan circled anxiously beside the stove, rapid quacks coming from his duck bill, his tail wagging like a propeller.
"Shoo, shoo. None for you." Lin He gently nudged Goudan aside with his foot and ladled Su Qiuran a large bowl brimming with chicken soup, deliberately fishing out both drumsticks for her.
"What are you going to eat?" Su Qiuran paused at the sight of the meat piled high in her bowl.
"I'm a grown man. Some chicken breast will do. If that's not enough, I can always shovel down another couple of bowls of rice." Lin He waved a hand, served himself some soup, and began wolfing it down with his rice.
Su Qiuran said nothing, silently placing one drumstick into Lin He's bowl with her chopsticks. "One each. Quit playing the big-tailed wolf with me. You're tempering your body every day now and burning through a lot. Don't wear yourself out."
Lin He chuckled and accepted without ceremony, picking up the drumstick and biting into it. "Delicious."
Once they had eaten and drunk their fill, night fell. Tonight was the fifteenth, the night of the full moon. A huge, bright moon hung in the sky, its silvery light spilling into the hut through the broken window lattice.
As usual, Lin He took out the emerald-green jade gourd and placed it in the moonlight.
"Huh?" Lin He suddenly murmured in surprise.
"What is it?" Su Qiuran had been leaning against the headboard, massaging her legs. She looked over at his voice.
"This gourd... it's really sucking it in tonight." Lin He leaned closer to look.
Usually, the gourd absorbed lunar power like an old man sipping porridge, slow and unhurried. An entire night yielded, at most, a wisp of silver mist as fine as a hair.
But tonight, the moonlight was practically being dragged into the gourd as though it were solid. Even the green glow flowing across its surface was several shades brighter than usual.
The two exchanged a glance, both realizing something.
"The full moon?" Su Qiuran blurted out.
"That has to be it!" Lin He slapped his thigh. "This thing absorbs lunar power, which is moonlight. Lunar power is strongest during the full moon, so naturally it absorbs it faster!"
Their eyes widened as they stared fixedly at the gourd like misers eyeing a gold ingot.
About two hours later, the tiny wisps of silver mist inside the gourd miraculously condensed into a drop of silver liquid!
"A drop! There really is a whole drop!" Lin He's voice trembled with excitement. He carefully picked up the gourd as though it were the most fragile treasure in the world.
"Shall we try it?" Su Qiuran was excited too. This essence of the moon could supposedly cleanse the essence and marrow and improve spirit roots. It was a treasure that could defy the heavens and change one's fate.
"I'll go first." Lin He poured out the drop of silver liquid. It rolled across his palm, giving off a cool, faint glow, but did not instantly seep into his skin as the essence of the sun had.
Lin He waited for ages and felt nothing.
Refusing to accept it, he rubbed the drop against his skin. Instead, it slid straight off like a bead of water. Had he not caught it with quick eyes and hands, it would have fallen to the floor.
"What's going on? It doesn't work on me?" Lin He scratched his head, looking frustrated.
"Let me try." Su Qiuran held out her hand.
Lin He carefully poured the drop of essence of the moon into Su Qiuran's palm.
A miracle happened.
The instant the silver liquid touched Su Qiuran's skin, it melted like a snowflake falling into boiling water and seeped into her body.
Su Qiuran shuddered all over. Then a faint layer of silver light enveloped her. She closed her eyes, her brows slightly furrowed, as though sensing something.
Beside her, Lin He was so nervous he hardly dared breathe. Goudan seemed to sense something too and lay obediently in the corner without a sound.
Only after a full half-incense-stick's worth of time did the silver light around Su Qiuran gradually fade.
She slowly opened her eyes.
"How is it? Can you feel your legs?" Lin He asked urgently, his gaze fixed on her lifeless legs.
Su Qiuran shook her head with a bitter smile. "No. My legs are still the same. I can't feel a thing."
A flicker of disappointment crossed Lin He's eyes, but he quickly rallied and comforted her. "It's fine. It was only one drop. Maybe it wasn't enough. We'll save up more every full moon from now on. We'll cure them someday."
"But..." Su Qiuran abruptly changed tack, a glint of disbelief flashing through her peach-blossom eyes. "Although my legs haven't recovered, I think... I sensed something else."
"What?"
"Spiritual Qi." Su Qiuran drew a deep breath. "I think I can sense those faint traces of energy drifting through the air."
Lin He froze. "You mean..."
"I might... have a spirit root now." Su Qiuran's voice was full of shock and confusion. "And it feels strange. This spirit root doesn't seem to have grown out of nowhere. It's more like it's always been inside me, only withered and dried up all this time."
"That drop of essence of the moon was like sweet rain after a long drought. It awakened it, and even... strengthened it a little."
Lin He sucked in a breath of cold air.
Hadn't the Su Household long since decided she was trash with no spirit root? Could this body's original owner actually have had a spirit root, only for it to have been suppressed or hidden for some reason?
"Try seeing if you can cultivate!" Lin He said eagerly.
Su Qiuran nodded and tried to draw on the faint traces of spiritual Qi in the air.
Yet a moment later, she opened her eyes helplessly.
"No." Su Qiuran sighed. "The spiritual Qi here is far too thin. It's practically like moisture in a desert. Although I can sense it, I can't absorb any into my body."
"This spirit root has only barely revived. Its quality might not even be a tenth of a five-element mixed spirit root's."
Lin He's brows knitted tightly at her words. "Looks like Emerald Mountain Village isn't somewhere we can stay forever after all. We need to find a way to get spirit stones, or... move somewhere with plentiful spiritual Qi."
"Moving isn't realistic. We're too weak right now, and going out would be too risky," Su Qiuran analyzed calmly. "We still have to rely on our old trade: farming and saving money."
"If we can't absorb spiritual Qi from the air, then we'll cultivate by eating spirit rice!"
"Besides, I can feel that my spirit root has only just revived. It hasn't fully recovered at all. It's still a long way from its complete form."
"But if one drop of essence of the moon already has such a pronounced effect, a few more drops might improve the quality of my spirit root even further!
"Who knows? It might become a heavenly spirit root in the end!"