Chapter 43: Su Che’s Request

Before withdrawing his right hand, Su Che whispered to Linglong, “It’s okay. Please step back a few steps.”
Linglong was momentarily stunned before guessing that Su Che wanted to pull his hand out of the leaves of the “Flowing Cloud Golden Cup.” She carefully stepped back a few times and then reminded him, “Be careful.”
Su Che nodded silently as his right hand moved slowly and gently. The slender leaves of the “Flowing Cloud Golden Cup” were as smooth and delicate as a lover’s long black hair, sliding gently over the back of Su Che’s hand…
Linglong couldn’t bear to watch anymore, wondering how many more leaves he would drop this time.
To her surprise, when Su Che stood up straight and completely withdrew his hand, not a single leaf fell from the plant. This made Linglong let out a sigh of relief and great joy. Could it be that he really…
“It’s not bad,” Su Che said softly, staring at the magical herb. “It can still be saved.”
“Really?” Linglong’s eyes widened. She stepped forward two steps and asked again, “Really?”
“Mm,” Su Che nodded. “I’m confident I can save it. But as the saying goes, illness comes swiftly but recovery is slow—it will take time and be quite troublesome.”
“It doesn’t matter!” This was the best news Linglong had received in two years. She nodded firmly. “As long as it can be saved, I’m not afraid of the trouble! Junior Su, if you need any help, whatever it is, just tell me!”
After thinking for a moment, Su Che said, “I estimate that at least fifty more treatments like this will be needed, once a day. Also, I’ll need some spirit stones to buy ingredients for the medicine.”
“Just tell me how many spirit stones are needed,” Linglong replied without hesitation, immediately reaching for the Cosmic Bag at her waist.
“For now, at least a thousand spirit stones are required,” Su Che said, keeping his request fairly modest. After all, it was about saving a rare plant worth hundreds of thousands of spirit stones, so a fee of a thousand spirit stones wasn’t excessive at all.
“Well…” Linglong’s face turned slightly red as she said softly, “I only have a little over three hundred spirit stones on me. Can I gather the rest and give it to you tomorrow?”
“It’s okay,” Su Che said understandingly, helping her out of the awkward situation. “Of course. No one carries that much spirit stone around anyway.”
“Mm, okay. I’ll give it to you tomorrow,” Linglong said softly. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome.” Su Che shook his head gently; his youthful face showed a composure far beyond his years. He asked for spirit stones not out of greed but to protect himself. After all, the fact that he could cure spirit herbs that even the Elder of the Medicine Garden couldn’t heal was already incredible. If people learned that he had accomplished this feat without any external aid, relying solely on his own abilities, it would only arouse various speculations from certain individuals. Therefore, claiming that a unique secret recipe was responsible for the success made the request seem more reasonable. It might even draw the Elder’s attention, leading to him being assigned the special position of “Spirit Herb Physician,” which would grant Su Che unrestricted access to the entire medicine garden… Of course, this was only possible if he kept his fabricated “secret recipe” a secret. The worst-case scenario would be if the Elder became greedy and coveted his secret recipe… In that case, he needed to plan ahead and come up with countermeasures. Then, Su Che added, “Also, I need to come here for treatment every day for the next few dozen days. But I doubt I’m qualified to enter the second layer of the medicine garden, right?” “That’s easy to handle.” Linglong immediately took out a purple token, entered some information into it, and handed it to Su Che. “This is my inspection token. Hold it and explain to the guards on the second layer that you’re here to do my work. After they verify it, they won’t stop you.” “Okay.” Su Che took the token, appearing calm on the surface but secretly overjoyed. In the Immortal Prison, Lao He also jumped up and shouted, “Great! It’s done!” Indeed, obtaining this token solved Su Che’s biggest problem at the moment. With a pass in hand, the secret medicine garden was now within reach. After that, Su Che returned to the first layer of the medicine garden, while Linglong rushed to the third layer, which had the strictest defenses. The third layer was much smaller, with only a few thatched huts in it. The most notable structure was just a small farmhouse. Linglong joyfully rushed into the farmhouse and shouted at one of the rooms, “Old man, give me two thousand spirit stones! I need them urgently!” “What do you need so many spirit stones for?” A middle-aged man in simple clothes stepped out of the room. He was tall and stern-looking, with black hair and beard, showing no signs of old age—far from being the “old man” Linglong had called him.

“Is two thousand spirit stones a lot?” Linglong pouted unhappily. “Just sell one pill casually, and it’ll be more than that!”
“It’s not much to me, but for your current level, it must be a huge sum,” the middle-aged man said gently. “I’m just curious. Little Linglong has always been very frugal and never asked me for anything. What’s different today?”
Linglong couldn’t hide the joy on her face as she said crisply, “Let me tell you. I’ve found an expert who can cure my Flowing Cloud Golden Chalice. Two thousand spirit stones is what I plan to give as payment.”
“Hm?” The middle-aged man’s thick brows furrowed slightly. He thought to himself, “Could it be someone from the Spirit Medicine Mountain? Otherwise, since I’m at a loss, who else could possibly cure it?”
So, he became serious and said, “Linglong, even if those bastards from the Spirit Medicine Mountain come to our sect, you must not ask them for help. You have to understand…”
“Of course!” Linglong raised her voice, interrupting him immediately. “How could I ask them for help! Not to mention the Flowing Cloud Golden Chalice, even if I were incurable myself, I wouldn’t turn to them. One day, I’ll uproot their wretched sect completely!”
“That’s good.” The middle-aged man’s expression softened as he sighed lightly before asking, “So, what kind of powerful person can cure that spiritual herb?”
“It’s a young apprentice pharmacist who was just recruited by our Xuanji Peak. He’s only at the first level of Qi Cultivation.” At this point, Linglong narrowed her eyes. “Old man, stop talking! I know what you’re trying to say. Don’t worry, I won’t get deceived. I’m not some foolish person without judgment. Besides, he wouldn’t dare deceive me!”
The middle-aged man held back his words and listened quietly as she continued.
“If he’s not capable of curing it, then it’s fine. I’m used to it anyway and won’t blame him. But if he dares to deceive me, huh, he better not expect to have a good day ever again!”
Linglong waved her little hand menacingly, but in the blink of an eye, she smiled again. “But actually, I do have some confidence in him. I don’t know if it’s just an illusion, but I really felt the Flowing Cloud Golden Chalice perk up a little just now. He said it will take at least fifty days and many supplementary herbs to fully cure it…”
The little girl was extremely talkative, chirping clearly like a nightingale, recounting Su Che’s first attempt to treat the spiritual herb.

At first, the middle-aged man was somewhat skeptical, thinking she had met some reckless young fool who dared to touch that dying spiritual herb without any preparation… But after hearing the whole story, especially when the boy withdrew his hand and not a single leaf of the Flowing Cloud Golden Chalice fell anymore, the middle-aged man was moved.
“Interesting…” The middle-aged man showed a slight smile.
“Hurry up, give me two thousand spirit stones!” Linglong stretched out her little hand again.
This time, the middle-aged man didn’t hesitate. With a flick of his hand, he took out a spirit stone bag from somewhere and handed it to Linglong: “Three thousand spirit stones—thousand more for you! If that boy really succeeds, it means we have a special talent here, which is indeed a good thing.”
“Old man, don’t try to find any excuses to investigate him, nor spy on him secretly!” Linglong, being quite smart, warned in advance: “Even if you’re curious about him, wait until my Flowing Cloud Golden Chalice is completely cured before doing anything. I don’t want any complications during this time. It’s taken so long to find even a glimmer of hope…”
“Understood, understood, clever girl.” The middle-aged man chuckled, his gaze full of affection for Linglong.