The man had fair skin, a round face, and a round nose. He Lingchuan remembered this face; it was indeed A'luo, the combat medic from the battlefield.
A'luo glared at Hu Min. "I'm going to buy herbs—don't block my way!" Couldn't he see he was busy?
"I brought Brother He to see you for an Emperor's Flowing Dew formula!"
A'luo looked at He Lingchuan, a flicker of confusion in his eyes, having no idea who this was.
Clearly, He Lingchuan lacked the protagonist halo that made someone unforgettable at first glance.
Hu Min cleared his throat. "The Battle of the River Valley! His arm was broken, my leg was broken, and you wrapped us both up like zongzi dumplings. Remember?"
A'luo let out a long "Oh!" "It's you!" He reached out, grabbed He Lingchuan's arm, and gave it two gentle squeezes, nodding in satisfaction. "Good constitution. You've recovered better than him."
He Lingchuan thought to himself, *That can't be right.* It was a broken bone, and as the saying went, it took a hundred days for torn sinews and fractured bones to mend. Even with miraculous medicines, it was nearly impossible to fully heal in just a month or so—Hu Min was living proof.
He had recovered so quickly only because he lived in reality. Stepping out of the dream and back into it had simply erased the injuries he had sustained earlier in the dreamscape.
A'luo was well versed in pharmacology, yet he found nothing strange about it. It was likely the broken saber's doing.
It seemed this was a dream after all; perhaps certain absurdities were simply forced to make sense here.
A'luo looked back at Hu Min. "Is he the only one who needs a formula?"
Hu Min rubbed his hands together with an obsequious smile. "If it's convenient, could you write one for me too?"
"Not convenient!"
He Lingchuan gave a light cough. "Time is precious. Doesn't A'luo still need to head out and fetch herbs?"
"Fine, I'll write formulas for both of you!" A'luo looked at Hu Min. "But you're reimbursing me for the ingredients I need to refine Emperor's Flowing Powder for myself." He thumbed back toward his little wood-grade house. "I'm broke right now. In dire need of money."
"All right, all right." Hu Min curled his lip. "It's just a bit of military merit, isn't it? Your older brother has plenty!"
A'luo let the two inside, questioned them, and took their pulses. He also examined the circulation of He Lingchuan's true energy, and finally penned a prescription for each.
His brush flowed swiftly and boldly, yet his handwriting wasn't illegible like that of ordinary doctors. Comparing the two prescriptions, He Lingchuan saw that several ingredients were indeed different.
Having dashed them off, A'luo thrust the slips into their hands and explained the simmering method for the powder. "Any container will do. The most important thing is not to use metal pots or jars!"
He Lingchuan committed every detail to memory, then handed over a small pouch containing one liang of chewing tobacco.
This stuff really was great for doing favors.
Accepting the gift, A'luo's expression softened considerably. "You know how to handle people far better than that Hu fellow. If you're ever sick or short on medicine next time, you can come find me."
He Lingchuan and Hu Min stepped out the door and made their way back.
Hu Min sighed. "A'luo didn't used to be like this. But he's a decent guy at heart; you'll know once you spend more time with him."
He added, "I noticed a tree in your courtyard has branches stretching into your neighbor's yard. Remember to trim the overhanging branches before dark, or it'll be hard to tell who owns any Emperor's Flowing Dew that lands on them. Something like that happened the year before last—two neighbors who had been close for over a decade beat each other senseless over some dew on tree leaves. In the end, one died and two were injured, and those who survived were hauled off to do hard labor."
Panlong City rarely imprisoned people because it refused to feed freeloaders. Once convicted, criminals were mostly dispatched to mines, road and bridge works, or logistics as laborers. Female convicts were put to making clothes, farming, or mending; in any case, no one was left idle.
"Also, avoid leaving the city these days. When Emperor's Flowing Dew falls on the wasteland, it's bound to stir up beasts and monsters. The wilds are extremely dangerous." Hu Min scratched his head. "Last time the dew appeared, an inexperienced garrison from the Xianyou Kingdom foolishly pitched their camp right on the open plain. A bull monster led over a thousand frenzied wild cattle to trample it flat, leaving countless dead and wounded."
He Lingchuan smiled. "How does the Ministry of Merits handle the dew it collects? Do they refine it into pills and powders too?"
"A citywide curfew begins tonight. Dedicated personnel using specialized methods will gather the dew both inside and outside the walls. Supposedly, last time they found a chunk of dew paste as big as a fist by the river."
With the common folk confined to their homes, the authorities were free to harvest all the Emperor's Flowing Dew that fell on the streets, squares, markets, and across the entire Chipa Plateau.
Moreover, the dew spoiled quickly, putting the city's organization, dispatch, and transport capacities to the test.
"The medicines they can refine from Emperor's Flowing Dew are endless—flesh-knitting, blood-nourishing, fatigue-relieving, even life-prolonging for those on the verge of death. All kinds of miraculous effects. There's also something called Blue Jade Paste. If you take a grain the size of a mung bean before cultivating, you don't just get double the results with half the effort—it boosts your progress by more than three times! It's just absurdly expensive and takes a massive amount of military merit to exchange for." He sighed. "I only ever popped one, but the effect was so amazing I'll never forget it as long as I live!"
He Lingchuan stared at him eagerly. "Do you have the recipe for Blue Jade Paste?"
"No way! I'm no apothecary!" Hu Min scoffed with a laugh. "I hear no more than three people in this city know it, and A'luo isn't one of them."
"Oh." It wasn't really disappointment; that was just life.
"Right, speaking of free things, I almost forgot an important matter!" Hu Min turned serious. "What basic art do you cultivate?"
"An ancestral breathing method called the 'Guiding Technique.'"
"Not a systematic cultivation canon?"
"No." That was also what frustrated He Lingchuan most. "Just a rudimentary foundational mental art."
The He family hadn't passed down much of value. Father and sons all practiced this mental art, and the previous owner of this body had been the most diligent of them all, yet it had never produced any remarkable abilities.
The ceiling was simply too low.
"Then that's great—that's wonderful! You're completely unburdened!" Hu Min slapped his shoulder and laughed heartily. "Opposite the Pengcheng Office we visited earlier is the Tizhen Office, which handles all kinds of supernatural techniques and cultivation arts!"
He Lingchuan was overjoyed. "Really?"
The broken saber was truly thoughtful. Just when he was fretting over having no path to cultivation, it delivered warmth right to his doorstep.
"The authorities promote five foundational mental arts. Go to the Tizhen Office, and a specialist will test you and recommend one," Hu Min advised him. "The foundational mental arts are open to all citizens of Panlong City, taught and guided free of charge. Other supernatural techniques and advanced arts, however, must be earned with merit.
"Oh, and from time to time, the Tizhen Office invites masters and luminaries to lecture and pass down teachings in various fields. Most don't charge an admission fee, so don't miss out."
He Lingchuan's eyes sparkled as he listened. Wasn't that just public lectures by master teachers, and free of charge at that? Given Panlong City's disposition, they weren't likely to cut corners; any invited experts were bound to offer genuine insights.
He wished he could rush straight to the Tizhen Office right now.
However, by the time their conversation reached this point, the sun was already dipping low in the west. Curfew was set for tonight, the government offices were far away, and Hu Min still had to buy his herbs and couldn't linger.
"Do you need me to grab an extra set of ingredients for you?"
"No need!" Having earned thirty taels of silver today, He Lingchuan generously hired a carriage to see Hu Min home.
Walking back into his wood-grade house, He Lingchuan flopped onto the bed, limbs sprawled, kicking up a small cloud of dust with a soft puff.
The bed was hard and creaked with every turn, and he caught a faint scent of mildew—no one had lived here in a long time. Yet his mood was unusually cheerful and relaxed.
In this legendary city, he actually had a home of his own.
From now on, he had a foothold.
The future held promise.
As he closed his eyes to doze, he suddenly remembered the three verses the old turtle demon had left him.
Could one of them, "seeking reality within illusion," refer to this Panlong dreamscape?
The broken saber wouldn't drag him into dreams without reason. Perhaps he could find a way here to break the deadlock and save his own life?
He needed to take these dreams more seriously and put more heart into them.
This time, with no one disturbing him, He Lingchuan woke on his own.
Seeing how spacious the bedroom was, he couldn't help letting out a sigh.
He was back in reality. The broken saber hadn't let him stay in the dream until nightfall. At the same time, he recalled that he had entered the dream Panlong City only after taking Emperor's Flowing Dew and regulating his breath to cultivate.
He Lingchuan felt under his pillow for the broken saber, stroking it as he murmured, "Why drag me into the dream all of a sudden? Was it because of the Emperor's Flowing Dew?"
The Auxiliary Army had just encountered Emperor's Flowing Dew, an event that happened once every few decades, and the dream city had conjured related events right alongside it. When too many coincidences piled up, it had to be deliberate.
The broken saber naturally remained silent, offering no response.
Looking down, however, He Lingchuan caught the divine bone pendant on his chest flashing red twice before fading.
The last time he woke from the dream city, it had been glowing as well.
He recalled that the soldiers and civilians in the dream city always seemed to glance at his chest before showing goodwill, and a petty thief had even tried to steal the divine bone.
Could it be that this object had become his pass into the dream city?
After spacing out for a moment, He Lingchuan suddenly slapped his forehead. "Damn it, how could I forget the most important thing!"
Straightening his clothes, he left the manor and rode his horse straight toward Shuanghe Town.
By then, dusk was falling once more.
His session of consuming the dew and regulating his breath had taken three full shichen. The guard posted outside his door was genuinely astonished. "Even the Eldest Young Master has gotten this diligent? The Second Young Master only took a shichen or so."
His companion chuckled. "Maybe the Eldest Young Master just fell asleep."
...
Only when the moon rose above the willow tops did He Lingchuan return to the manor.
The family had already finished dinner and retired for the night like most people, with only a few patrol soldiers drifting around the grounds.
He Lingchuan had to exchange several passphrases before he could return to his quarters, rather than simply getting through on face recognition, showing that security was rather tight.
Instead of heading straight to his room, he went to the kitchen to light a fire. Along the way, he fetched a small clay pot, washed it clean, and added some rootless water collected from the eaves jar, a full two jin of honey, and every last drop of the Emperor's Flowing Dew he had left.
Next came the five medicinal herbs he had bought from Shuanghe Town.
These herbs hadn't come easily. Though none were rare, their prices were five to ten times higher than market rates in Blackwater City.
Months had passed since the great battle at Woling Pass. While passing merchants had breathed some life back into war-torn Shuanghe Town, the local populace's livelihood remained desolate, leaving severe shortages of basic necessities like grain and medicine. He had combed through every pharmacy in town and still couldn't assemble a mere five ordinary herbs.
The final two herbs had only been acquired after he asked the pharmacy shopkeeper to buy them off traveling merchants, at a steep price, of course.
Though it had taken time, the herbs were already processed at the shop—ground to powder or peeled as required. He dumped them all in, stirred thoroughly, then retrieved a turtle pearl and a piece of toad venom, crushed them, and tossed them in as well.
Chapter 158