Ever since obtaining his first Soul Ring, Yang Podi's daily studies had changed as well.
He continued practicing spear techniques every morning, then attended lessons at the little school later in the morning. In the afternoon, an hour of medicine refining studies had been added first, taught personally by his grandfather, Yang Wudi.
Only after studying did he go mountain climbing with weights. Once the climb had exhausted him completely, he took a medicinal bath, while his evenings were devoted entirely to meditation.
Today was his first lesson in medicine refining.
After lunch, Yang Wudi brought his grandson to the medicine refining room.
The medicine refining room was built in his grandfather's own courtyard and occupied a fairly large basement. As for why it had been built underground, it was mainly for quiet, to prevent any outsiders from disturbing him.
The medicine refining room was quite spacious, with all kinds of shelves standing around its walls. The shelves held assorted bottles and jars filled with all sorts of medicinal herbs.
Yang Podi examined everything carefully. The shelves held a very comprehensive selection of medicinal herbs, including even ordinary Blue Silver Grass. Among the expensive ingredients were many thousand-year medicinal materials, including thousand-year ginseng, poria, and angelica. There were even many Soul Beasts' blood, internal organs, gallbladders, and the like. Naturally, there were also many snake venoms, including even Jade Phosphorous Serpent venom. There were a very few ten-thousand-year medicinal materials as well, though only in small quantities.
At the center of the medicine refining room stood a large medicine furnace-or rather, a pill furnace.
When Yang Podi entered the medicine refining room for the first time, he felt as though he had stepped into a world of medicinal ingredients.
This time, Yang Wudi did not begin refining medicine directly. Instead, he first explained some knowledge of medicine refining.
"Podi, our Breaking Clan is a medicine refining family with a long and storied heritage. You could say that no family on the entire Douluo Continent is more familiar with medicine refining than we are."
"What you learn at the little school every morning is relatively basic knowledge. Some of the great families outside have this knowledge too."
"But what I'm going to teach you now is inherited knowledge. In the entire Breaking Clan, only your Second Grandfather Yang Wushuang, your father Yang Zhentian, and I are fully familiar with it. Naturally, that includes some of the Breaking Clan's secret medicines. The other elders have only learned part of it."
"Some secret medicines are extremely dangerous, though, and you can't learn them yet. Your task now is to read and first familiarize yourself with all the medicinal ingredients in the world and their properties."
"To keep our family's knowledge secret, you'll come here to read every afternoon from now on. If you encounter anything you don't understand, you can ask me. The shelves behind you hold the vast majority of medicinal ingredients found on the Douluo Continent, so you can compare them and learn about them. However, you'd best not touch the poisonous ingredients yet. Once you actually begin refining medicine, I'll teach you how to use and handle them."
After saying this, Yang Wudi took quite a few books out of his Soul Tool. Many looked extremely old and must have been compiled and passed down through countless generations.
Yang Podi examined the books carefully. Among them were the Complete Compendium of Douluo Continent Immortal Herb, the Complete Compendium of Douluo Continent Poisonous Herbs, the Complete Compendium of Douluo Continent Snakes, the Complete Compendium of Douluo Continent Spiders, the Complete Compendium of Douluo Continent Exotic Flowers and Rare Herbs, the Complete Compendium of Douluo Continent Soul Beast, the Complete Compendium of Douluo Continent Poison-Attribute Martial Souls, Breaking Clan Medicinal Pills, Breaking Clan Medicinal Baths...
One could say that everything on the Douluo Continent used in medicine or poison was recorded here.
The first book Yang Podi picked up was the one he had always most longed to see, the Complete Compendium of Douluo Continent Immortal Herb. Opening the first page, he found a large, pale pink flower: the Aromatic Silk Beauty. The entry included its effects, growing environment, harvesting methods, preservation methods, and more.
After carefully committing it to memory, he turned to the second page. There was a large white flower shaped like a peony: the immortal-grade Lovesick Heartbreak Red.
As he turned the pages one after another, more and more Immortal Herbs appeared. Beyond those Tang San had distributed to the six members of Shrek in the original story, there were many other Immortal Herbs with all manner of strange and unusual properties.
Of all the Immortal Herbs, the one Yang Podi coveted most was the Nine-Leaf Sword Grass. It could enhance a Soul Master's Geng Metal attribute and could be called divine-grade for Soul Masters with sword-type Martial Souls. If used by a Soul Master with the Soul Breaking Spear Martial Soul, it would greatly enhance the spear's sharpness and could even allow the Soul Master to cultivate spear radiance, as well as attacks resembling sword light. There was also a certain chance of evolving into Ultimate Metal.
"Grandpa, this Nine-Leaf Sword Grass seems very good for our Breaking Clan."
"Podi, you have a good eye. Of all the Immortal Herbs, the Nine-Leaf Sword Grass suits our Soul Breaking Spear Martial Soul best. Unfortunately, no one has found any for countless years. Legend has it that the founder of the Seven Kill Sword Technique once consumed Nine-Leaf Sword Grass, and his Soul Power ultimately reached rank 98. Unfortunately, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect searched for the better part of a lifetime without finding any."
Hearing this, Yang Podi silently pondered, I wonder if there's any Nine-Leaf Sword Grass in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well? I hope there is!
Only after an hour did Yang Podi reluctantly leave the medicine refining room. The knowledge of medicine refining was indeed vast and profound. No wonder generations of the Breaking Clan had been so engrossed in it.
At this thought, a question suddenly occurred to Yang Podi. One of his Martial Souls was his own body. If he learned to refine medicine, poisons might instead stimulate the growth and awakening of his second Martial Soul. He wondered whether he could cultivate a body impervious to a hundred poisons like Du Busi's in the original story.
However, everything was still unknown for now. Until he was confident, he had no intention of refining medicine himself. No matter how wondrous the world of medicine refining was, this was still the world of the Douluo Continent. Soul Power was the foundation; without it, he would not even have the strength to protect himself.
Otherwise, the Breaking Clan would not have become the Tang Sect's Medicine Hall in the original story, acquiring a father over their heads out of nowhere. If they had been strong enough themselves, why would they have needed to bother with Tang San? Wouldn't founding their own sect have been much more satisfying?
Of course, besides medicine refining, Yang Podi secretly added another subject to his studies. During his morning spear practice, apart from the Soul Breaking Spear Technique, he also began trying to learn some spear techniques from his previous life. Until he mastered them, he did not dare tell anyone else.
After all, the Breaking Clan's Soul Breaking Spear Technique had been honed through countless generations and could be called the crystallization of countless people's painstaking efforts.
If he practiced other spear techniques, he might end up being treated as an oddity. That would be troublesome.
Yang Podi also did something else: he had his father hire someone to forge a set of close-fitting weights for him. The whole set weighed approximately thirty kilograms, including three-kilogram guards for each of his four limbs and a twenty-kilogram breastplate. Although the overall weight was not heavy, he would never take them off except during his medicinal baths.
He also planned to gradually increase the weight once he had fully adapted to this set. In short, every afternoon, he would put his body under pressure through exercise beyond its capacity, forcing himself to break through his limits. After each weighted mountain climb, he would use a medicinal bath to make himself stronger.