Chapter 26: Blood Wine And Eye Medicine
October, the morning breeze gradually dispersed.
Xilutiya squatted in the fields of the backyard, carefully examining the arm-high Swan Orchid in front of her.
The blue-green scaly bulb was like a spindle, standing in the soft soil, with light green long leaves branching out from the scaly bulb, naturally curving.
【Swan Orchid】（Good-53）: Growing, humidity and light suitable, good ventilation.
Just good? The maiden gently touched the flower stems with her hand, feeling a bit disappointed.
She originally thought that by satisfying all the various conditions needed for Swan Orchid growth, the quality should reach excellent.
It seems things aren’t that simple.
If meeting growth needs isn’t enough, then further sorting out the growth situation is needed to reach a very suitable state, but the problem is how she would know under what conditions Swan Orchid grows best.
Communicate with the plant? But Swan Orchid is merely a plant, not a living creature, and it won’t speak.
Wait, although Swan Orchid won’t speak, it isn’t a dead object either; just as animals have blood flowing in their bodies with their own pulse rhythm, plants also have liquid called ‘honey’ flowing inside; if she could sense this pulse rhythm, could she know its condition and strengthen it.
Xilutiya felt a surge of hope; she placed her hand on the Swan Orchid’s scaly bulb, closed her eyes, and carefully sensed, searching for that subtle pulse rhythm.
Time passed…
A long time later, she opened her eyes and shook her head in some disappointment.
Plants and animals are vastly different; they have no heartbeat, so no such thing as pulse rhythm.
She could only go ask Scholar Heide.
……
The next day, after class, Xilutiya came to Scholar Heide’s study room and inquired about cultivating plants.
“It seems you’ve hit a bottleneck.” Scholar Heide had anticipated this.
“Your problem is also the one those earliest gardeners encountered several epochs ago.”
“Unlike fairies who are naturally adept at cultivating plants, humans and other beings must overcome the barrier of communication and understanding to learn to cultivate extraordinary crops.”
“There are actually two methods for this; the first is very common, directly replicating based on experience left by predecessors; the second is to individually refine understanding based on each plant’s situation, then make targeted adjustments.”
“The latter is obviously more effective, but also much harder; most gardeners use the first method at the beginner tier.”
“So, you can see in the same orchard, there are good quality fruits and poor quality ones; the most gardeners can do is try to raise the base number to get more high-quality fruits.”
“I actually wanted to suggest that you just follow the experience template to cultivate for now.”
“However, after spending this time together, Tiya, you’re definitely not satisfied with just following experience and then waiting for luck, right.” Scholar Heide stroked his beard and spoke with great understanding.
“Yes, Teacher, please teach me.” Seeing his confident demeanor, how could the maiden not know that this teacher definitely had a way.
“Hehe, at times like this you call me Teacher so affectionately.” The old man complained a little; Xilutiya rarely communicated with him in class, always quietly staying in the corner to listen, not proactively answering questions.
“Alright, I won’t make it hard for you.” He stood up, rummaged on the bookshelf, and finally pulled out one of them.
《Book of Pear Fruit（Copy）》, written by the Forest Dweller of the Fifth Epoch, detailing the cultivation process of the ‘Red Pear Fruit（Second Order）’ and methods to observe red pear fruit trees.
He flipped open a page in the book and showed the content above to Xilutiya.
【Emerald Eye Potion Recipe】（First Order）; A magic potion dripped into the eyes, one of the seven basic eye potions, which allows the recipient to sense the delicate flow and state of plants.
“This is the recipe for Emerald Eye Potion; originally, such secret arts knowledge was to be given to you only after graduation.” Scholar Heide explained.
“Since you need it urgently now, I’ll impart it to you early; after you graduate later, there won’t be extra rewards, so don’t blame this teacher for being stingy then.”
“Refining the magic potion ‘Emerald Eye’ requires some rare herbs; I can provide you with one share for free, but after that, you’ll have to prepare them yourself.” He explained again.
“I understand.” Xilutiya took the book, then sat aside and copied the magic potion recipe onto paper again.
Most of the herbs in the recipe have no nature tier, just relatively scarce herbs, but one main ingredient requires fresh flower buds of ‘First Order-Emerald Honey’ nature; just this one plant costs nearly 70 silver, no wonder Scholar Heide couldn’t be generous; if he sponsored every student, he probably couldn’t sustain it.
Adding up altogether, it would cost about 90 silver in material costs; the maiden estimated in her heart, and this was still the ideal situation; if any herb was hard to find, the cost would rise further.
“Thank you, Teacher.” After copying was done, the maiden bowed in thanks.
“Alright, take my note and go find Manson; in a couple days he’ll prepare the materials for you; the reason I’m not giving you money is because some materials are hard to buy even with money.”
Indeed, with Scholar Heide’s name, going to various guilds and nobles in the city, materials could be easily obtained, but for an unknown person, it would be extremely difficult.
……
While Xilutiya was working hard on her path as a gardener, other students in the same period were also gradually forming their own plans.
“Mike, aren’t you going to class today? Why are you back?”
In a courtyard in the lower city, the adventurer team members saw this youth walk in.
“We’re not having class today.” Mike replied, but he clearly had something on his mind.
“Is Brother Jieluo in?”
“Not right now, probably at the bar.”
“At the bar, then I’ll go straight there.”
Half an hour later, Mike finally found the drunk Jieluo in the dim bar and helped him out.
“Brother Jieluo, there’s something I want to ask your help with.” He hesitated for a while, then spoke.
“Wh-what is it… tell me.” Jieluo was still a bit drunk, his right hand waving wildly in the air, the accompanying force nearly making Mike unable to support him steadily.
“It’s like this: next month our students will have an assessment; if we get top ranks, there will be big rewards.” Mike gritted his teeth.
“So, I want to improve my strength to get good results in the assessment, and this requires some help.”
“Haha… what help, just say it.” Jieluo sobered up a bit.
“I need ‘Blood Wine’ to improve my breathing technique.” Mike felt a bit ashamed; he seemed too reliant on this big brother, and actually the two had no blood relation, just met through adventure work.
“Heh, I thought it was something big.” Jieluo’s thick palm slapped on Mike’s shoulder.
“Here, take it!” He fumbled with his fingers at the inner layer of his belt and pulled out a shiny gold coin.
Gold coin, a metal round coin emitting a faint golden sheen, with a cold feather bird pattern on it, indicating it came from the northern Winter Kingdom.
Mike looked at this gold coin, his emotions complex: gratitude, tension, guilt, and a hint of anticipation.
Holding the gold coin warm with body heat in his palm, Mike helped Jieluo back to the room in the small courtyard to rest.
After explaining to his friends, Mike took the gold coin and left for the Adventurer’s Guild, where there was guild-sold ‘Blood Wine’; this was medicinal wine refined from blood of beasts above First Order nature, which could improve abilities related to ‘Blood Law’ nature, and was also very suitable for breathing technique training.
“With this, I can break through to the second stage of the breathing technique within a month.” Mike walked out holding the blood-red wine bottle, secretly resolving in his heart.
In the future, once he had strength, he would definitely repay Brother Jieluo.
