Su Mu left his rented room and headed to a Chinese medicine shop to buy herbs.
Su Mu handed over the prescription and asked for the herbs. After glancing at it, the shopkeeper began filling it right away.
Before long, the herbs were ready.
Carrying the herbs, Su Mu also bought a clay pot before leaving. After he left, the shopkeeper wrote down the prescription he had just filled from memory, then set it aside to examine carefully.
This was already an occupational habit of his. Whenever someone brought in a prescription he had never seen before, he would habitually study it to see what sort of prescription it was.
If it was a good one, he would add it to his collection.
By now, Su Mu had returned to his rented room. He had no idea the medicine shop's owner was studying his prescription, but even if he had known, he would not have cared much.
That was because the initial processing of several of these herbs required Spiritual Power. Without Spiritual Power, the prescription was essentially useless.
Otherwise, Su Mu would have bought the herbs separately just now.
Bubble, bubble.
The medicinal brew kept churning in the clay pot, and the thick scent of Chinese medicine began filling the rented room.
Su Mu sniffed it and felt the smell was still tolerable.
Following Xiao Wu's instructions, he brought it to a boil over high heat, then turned the heat down and put on the lid.
Ten minutes later, Su Mu's gaze shifted slightly. Inside the pot, he sensed a tiny amount of Spiritual Power being activated before gradually sinking into the medicinal brew.
What Su Mu found somewhat strange was that this Spiritual Power actually blended into it.
Then the smell of Chinese medicine reaching his nose began to change a little. It was no longer as strong as before, when the choking medicinal smell had been thoroughly unpleasant.
Now, the medicinal scent actually carried a trace of fragrance, giving an entirely different impression. And as he kept smelling it, it even felt a little intoxicating.
Su Mu was delighted. According to Xiao Wu, the herbs would give off a delicate fragrance once they had simmered to this stage.
Judging by this, he should have succeeded.
A little excited, Su Mu waited another ten minutes, turned off the heat, and waited three minutes before lifting the lid. Crystal-clear beads of water slid down it one by one.
Seeing this, Su Mu caught a drop in his hand and put it in his mouth.
It was a little sweet, with a trace of medicinal fragrance.
After he swallowed, a thread of warmth immediately rose in his lower abdomen, only to dissipate quickly.
It should have worked!
Feeling this unusual sensation, Su Mu was instantly delighted.
He poured out the brew, waited for it to cool a little, and drank it all in one go. Then he closed his eyes and carefully felt for the medicine taking effect.
His body felt pleasantly warm, and he could not quite tell whether it was because the medicine was too hot or because of its medicinal effects.
In Su Mu's own opinion, the medicine should have turned out right, but he still needed to wait two days to see whether there were any side effects.
There was also the matter of the dragon's resentment that he needed to deal with.
At this thought, Su Mu gazed into the distance.
From where he was, he could see a golden field of presence surging dozens of meters into the air in the distance.
This needs to be resolved soon. Otherwise, the area affected will be far too large.
I'll go take another look tonight.
After some thought, Su Mu decided to check the situation that night.
Since it's still early, I might as well return to the Immortal Cultivation Realm.
With that thought, Su Mu returned to the Immortal Cultivation Realm.
Meanwhile, the construction crews at the overpass were still working desperately to meet their deadline.
Construction on this stretch of road had also closed off a nearby main road, causing severe congestion in the area and making travel extremely inconvenient.
The higher-ups had already issued orders for them to finish the work within three days.
All that remained was to drive in the pillar ahead, pour the concrete, and connect the bridge sections above. Then the work would be complete.
Rumbling rang out continuously across the construction site.
Bang!
Suddenly, a dull bang interrupted the otherwise fairly rhythmic rumbling, and several workers' faces fell.
"No way. Did the drill bit break again?"
"From that sound, it definitely broke. How many does that make now? The third, I think?"
The surrounding workers started talking among themselves. Based on their original schedule, they could have connected the bridge sections and finished tomorrow.
But because they could not get this pile driven in, construction kept getting delayed again and again.
"Xiao Chen, how are you doing your job? You've wrecked three drill bits already!"
Hearing the sound, the supervisor in a white hard hat some distance away froze for a moment, then strode over furiously.
Xiao Chen, who was operating the pile driver, felt like crying but had no tears. "I don't know either! There weren't any problems with all the piles we drove before this. I keep wondering if there's diamond down there. Otherwise, how could the drill bits break so easily?"
"Bullshit!" Hearing this, the supervisor's anger flared. "We surveyed everything before starting work. The piles should go in easily. How could there possibly be diamond?"
"Change the drill bit again. If it breaks again, I'm docking your pay!"
The supervisor spoke angrily, then stood to one side to direct the work.
At these words, Xiao Chen's face filled with grievance, but he could only operate the excavator arm and raise it. Yet just as the arm retracted upward, a sound like something shattering came from below.
In an instant, sand and stones flew below. A rock was blown up, smashed straight through the cab's window, and slammed hard into Xiao Chen's head.
Xiao Chen let out only a muffled grunt before slumping forward.
"Fuck, what's going on?"
Such a fierce gust of sand and stones suddenly swept across the construction site that everyone nearby was left at a loss. It took quite a while before the flying sand and stones finally settled.
When they looked closely again, they received a fright. Xiao Chen's head was covered in blood inside the cab, and even his hard hat had a large hole in it.
The rock was still firmly embedded in that hole. Without the hard hat, that single blow would probably have shattered his skull.
"Call an ambulance! Call an ambulance!"
The supervisor reacted fastest. He hurriedly dropped the plans in his hand and rushed over to check on Xiao Chen, shouting at the top of his lungs.
His heart was in his throat. If anything happened to Xiao Chen, he would definitely bear responsibility as the supervisor!
The workers nearby finally came to their senses as well and hurriedly dialed 120.
A little over ten minutes later, an ambulance arrived with its siren blaring. After seeing the injured man, the medics quickly applied a simple dressing and carried him into the ambulance. The supervisor hurried aboard and went with them.
"What was that? Why is this so uncanny?"
"Exactly. We've been trying to drive this pile in for so long without getting anywhere, and now it nearly killed Xiao Chen. I've heard major construction projects all need a living human foundation sacrifice. Could this be demanding a human sacrifice?"
As soon as the ambulance left, everyone on the construction site began discussing it, their expressions rather grim.
What had just happened was simply too uncanny. That sudden burst of flying sand and stones had come far too abruptly.