Chapter 6. Tian Family’s Gongzi
Half a month passed quietly. Early in the morning, Xu Ziqing walked to the side of a flat bluestone, holding a thick copy of "Secret Book of the Medicine King", and sat down to study it carefully.
It was the third book he has read, and the first two have been already memorized by him during this half-month period. Fortunately, he has a good memory, otherwise, it would be impossible to consume and remember such large tomes with thousands of pages each.
Old Man He went to take care of the spirit grass early, leaving him to study alone. Xu Ziqing was also used to it. Turning it over page by page, he quickly wrote down the habits, growth environment, appearance, medicinal properties, and other effects of each spirit grass. Reciting repeatedly in order to burn it in memory.
Over the past few days, Xu Ziqing has understood the natural way Manager He acts. He seemed indifferent, but his love for spirit grass was extremely sincere. Therefore, after Xu Ziqing came to Baicaoyuan, he asked him to learn to recognize spirit grasses first and familiarize himself with related knowledge, and did not teach him any tricks.
Xu Ziqing has a calm and quiet temperament, and has always loved flowers and plants. There was no need for the old man to supervise him. Seeing and being surrounded by so many strange and fascinating ones was enough to push him to read those heavy ancient books day and night and refuse to let go. All thought of immortal destines and cultivation were left behind.
About half an hour later, Xu Ziqing reluctantly put down the book and stretched out.
After Old Man He woke up, he would spend an hour managing the spirit grass. During this time, Xu Ziqing did his first round of ancient book reading. During chenshi1, Xu Ziqing will make a few morning dishes and send them to Old Man He. If Old Man He was in a good mood, he would walk him through a few simple spirit grass-related things, and he will naturally take notes.
After that, Xu Ziqing was rushed back and continued to recite. He prepared lunch at noon, washed the dishes and cleaned the dishes for an hour, then read, prepared dinner, washed the clothes of the two of them, and continued to study until Old Man He fell sleep, and he also fell asleep.
Spending six to seven hours each day in this period reading and reciting should be very boring. However, Xu Ziqing didn't feel bored because of the content.
Old Man He saw it in his eyes, and also remembered it in his heart.
As usual, he cooked rice porridge mixed with fragrant leaves. It was fresh and soft and easy to eat. Xu Ziqing installed two bamboo tubes and took them across the path to the medicine garden ahead.
The stream in the middle gurgled, and the sound of the water is very pleasant. After being there for a long time, Xu Ziqing observed that the terrain on both sides of this stream is not the same.
Old man He explained to Xu Ziqing before he understood. It turns out that the various spirit grasses have different temperaments, some like heights, some fear heights; some love light, some prefer darkness; some prefer moist, some like arid conditions. To make a spirit grass comfortable and grow, one had to cater to their temperaments, else they may not survive, have bad appearance, or a poor quality. Just waiting for time was insufficient, and would be unlucky otherwise.
Xu Ziqing listened humbly, and forced himself to remember it. He wanted to take notes, but Old Man He didn't allow it. It made sense after considering it. Things to learn need to be chewed and swallowed before he can apply what he has learned After he considered it, , you still have to chew and swallow what you need to learn before you can apply what you have learned. Otherwise, it will be a mess when he has to really apply it.
There's still plenty of time, so Xu Ziqing was not in a hurry and took his time learning. When Old Man He feels he can get started, he will be able to do as Old Man He asks.
Old Man He is now squatting in front of a flower garden, fiddling with his hands. Xu Ziqing walked over quietly, silently squatting beside him.
For many days, Xu Ziqing knew that Old Man He wasn't bothered if he wanted to follow along and learn in this way.
Today, Old Man He was removing weeds from the golden silk grass. He only saw his left hand gently caress the golden silk grass stem, very slowly pulling it aside, holding a a thin silver needle in his right. Gently poking near where the silky grass stem met the soil, close to the roots, his hand shook, letting the grass stems fall into the porcelain bowl next to it.
Xu Ziqing recognizes the golden silk grass. It is a perennial herb, that likes light and grew in damp and watery places. In the where he learned about it, it mentioned there must be a water source within 100 meters.
After this kind of grass is planted, the first blade of grass will grow in about a hundred days, and the second one in a hundred days, and so on. After ten blades of grass have grown, the grass will be one foot tall and no longer increase. There is a white silk in the middle of the leaf surface of the grass blade that grows through the entire blade. Later, after many years, the white silk will transform into gold silk. However, not all plants with ten grass leaves can have that golden silk, usually three-leaf golden silk grass is the most common. Ten-leaf golden silk grass is equivalent to a legendary thing, and isn't easily found.
Golden Silk Grass is not delicate and difficult to grow, but it was a rare spiritual grass. Why? Because when it breaks through the soil, it will often attract it began to emerge from the land, it often attracted the accompanying faded gold grass.
Faded gold grass has no aura. If it is not accompanied by golden grass, it is simply a weed that will not attract anyone's attention. But it is not only the companion of Golden Silk Grass, but also the nemesis of Golden Silk Grass.
It is very important to know that golden silk grass and grass leaves are one of the medicinal materials needed in various special pills. But who knew why, golden silk grass was obedient to the faded gold grass, and would dedicate all its aura and nourishment to let the other grass grow. Therefore, once the golden silk grass broke the earth, the originally white silk that should be golden would revert back, and no new golden silk grass could be formed.
Therefore, an important task for cultivating golden silk grass is to always observe its roots to see if there is any trouble with the faded gold grass. Upon finding a sprout, it must be picked out with a silver needle, so the golden silk grass could continue to grow golden leaves.
Old man He moved skillfully and quickly picked a dozen or so faded gold grass. Xu Ziqing was fascinated, and even forgot the purpose of coming here.
After half an hour, Old Man He finished his work and wiped the sweat on his forehead before he realized that someone was nearby. After turning around, wasn't it just his new handyman?
Xu Ziqing also recovered, and quickly apologized: "Apologies, Manager He, I was fascinated for a while." As he spoke, he offered the bamboo tube. "This is congee cooked by this younger generation. Please don't dislike Manager He."
Old Man He took it, opened the lid of the tube, took a sip, and said: "You have been watching for so long, do you understand what it is?"
Xu Ziqing smiled: "The junior is ignorant, but one can see that Mr. He is removing the faded gold grass."
There was a trace of satisfaction in Old Man He's eyes. "It seems that you did read those books carefully."
"The manager is thinking for the sake of this younger generation, so the younger generation should naturally treat it with sincerity. Moreover, the vastness of the books in those books is really beneficial. It makes one feel their knowledge is very shallow."
Old Man He drank the rest of the porridge in one sip and nodded: "You will follow me before noon today."
Xu Ziqing was overjoyed. This was the first time Old Man He took the initiative to ask him to follow. In other words, he is willing and wanted to teach him? Reassured, Xu Ziqing calmly agreed: "Yes, Manager He."
There is naturally a large difference between someone advising and no one advising. Old Man He is very knowledgeable and cherishes all kinds of spiritual plants. Even if Xu Ziqing is also familiar with many spirit grasses, he still is sometimes unable to fully understand what Old Man He is imparting, due to a lack of experience.
Old Man He didn't just do it by himself and let Xu Ziqing see it for himself as before. Instead, he would explain the main points to him while doing things. In this way, time flies quickly.
When Old Man He was cultivating soil for a dragon claw flower, he suddenly frowned and stopped.
Xu Ziqing was startled: "Manager He?"
Old Man He said: "Some people with a lingpai are here, you go and invite them."
Xu Ziqing naturally complied.
But when he heard Old Man He said again: "You don't have to be too polite, just bring them to me."
Xu Ziqing didn't quite understand, but just turned around and walked outside according to Old Man He's words. But when he walked to the entrance of the medicine garden, he immediately understood.
On the dirt road leading to the medicine garden, stood a few good tempered men and women.
The most eye-catching among them is a purple-clothed woman with a high-handed bun and a slender figure, with a sense of arrogance in her whole body. Xu Ziqing could not see her appearance clearly from a distance, but looking at the outline alone, she should be extremely beautiful.
When he got closer, Xu Ziqing saw the other three men beside the woman. One of them was also dressed expensively. His brows and eyes were arrogant similar to the purple-clothed woman, but when he spoke to the woman, he appeared cordial. His status should be similar to that of a woman. The other two wore similar yellow robes, following behind in a flattering manner.
When those people saw Xu Ziqing approaching, one of the men in yellow shirts shouted: "You laborer, how dare you take you sweet time after seeing the lady here!"
The other man in yellow shirt also said: "So rude. You must be punished!"
Xu Ziqing heard the words before, and felt that although he was not pleasant to listen to, it was indeed that he was not thoughtful. However, when he heard the person behind him, he inevitably frowned. He just arrived here, he hasn't learned the tactics, and his feet are not fast, but he tried his best to walk quickly. When did he ask for punishment? This attitude was too unsightly.
Before Xu Ziqing could reply, the arrogant man spoke first: "Sister Zitang, I got a low-grade magic weapon a few days ago. It looks good, so it's better to give it to my sister to play with."
He touched his sleeve as he spoke, taking out a purple long whip. There were nine whip sections, each about a foot long and embedded with purple orbs. The entire whip flowed smoothly as one, and looked like a treasure.
The woman named "Zitang" was moved, her eyesight could naturally see the whip was a good thing, so she took it. "Tian Gongzi2, if I am not mistaken, this whip is probably a low-grade magic weapon. But even when compared with middle-grade magical artifacts, there is only the slimmest divide between them."
Tian Gongzi smiled and said, "As long as Sister Zitang likes it. Even if it's not a low-grade magical weapon, and really a middle-grade magical weapon, I'd happily give it to sister."
Xu Zitang smiled, and was quite fond of it as she played with the nine-section whip. "What is it called?"
Tian Gongzi said: "This whip is called 'Zihua', which complements you. It just so happens that this laborer has offended sister. Why don't you try whipping him? It's also a fitting small punishment?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the eyes of the group of four fell on Xu Ziqing's body.