Chapter 25: The two boxes of herbs
Chapter 25: The two boxes of herbs
Upon seeing Soft Feather for the first time, a person’s first impression would definitely be about her long legs. But after some interaction with her, the first thing that would come to mind would instead be her blushing smile, so moe.
At this moment, Tubo and two other boys stood up and walked over to Shuhang’s side and asked him, “Shuhang, did something happen?”
They were Shuhang’s three roommates. When they saw that this tall dark man was looking for Shuhang, they were worried as well as curious as to what was going on.
“Nothing much, it’s just an express delivery and they have two packages for me. I need to sign before I can accept it.” Shuhang said with a smile, then he turned back to ask Sima Jiang, “Little Jiang, it’s nice to meet you. Where are the boxes?”
Little Jiang…… The man in the suit’s mouth twitched. How many years has it been since someone dared to address him as such? He never thought that he would have the chance to hear this from someone, moreover it came from a young man.
However, this gave him a refreshing feeling as he laughed. “It is already at the entrance of your dormitory, we just need for you to verify it.”
“Shall we go now then? It just so happens that I have a fifteen minute break.” Shuhang replied.
Sima Jiang laughed, “I have been waiting for you to say that!”
……
……
Shuhang stood at the doorstep of his room on the second floor of the men’s dormitory.
Four men dressed in black suits were guarding a pair of 80cmx80cm boxes with serious expressions on their faces.
Shuhang was speechless. “Is your Feng Shou Courier service always this amazing?”
Your service is so amazing, is there even a way out for other couriers?
“Haha, our service has always been amazing. However, the sender this time is rather special, which is why our service this time is of an even higher quality.” Sima Jiang chortled.
“Thank you for your hard work.” Song Shuhang nodded, and looked at the courier receipt as he stood in front of the two boxes.
As expected, on the sender column, the name ‘Soft Feather’ was written. However, the sender’s address and other columns weren’t filled in.
These two packing cases were probably the boxes of herbs for concocting the ‘Simplified Body Tempering Liquid’ that Soft Feather had promised him.
“Do you need to confirm the contents?” Sima Jiang asked politely.
Fact was there was simply no need to look. Even if Sima Jiang had the heart of a dragon or guts of a tiger, he still wouldn’t dare to open it without approval.
“There’s no need for that. If there are any problems, I will directly contact you.” Song Shuhang waved him off, brandishing the name card in his hand.
“That is natural, if there are no problems, may I please have Student Shuhang sign here.” Sima Jiang’s impression of Song Shuhang soared, and he pointed to the spot on the courier receipt that needed to be signed.
“Alright.” Song Shuhang reached out and speedily signed his great name onto the line.
“We shall now say our farewells to Student Shuhang, we hope you have a good day.” Sima Jiang waved his hand and left with the four men in tow.
Shuhang felt that these five men did not look like couriers. They were all so inhumanely muscular and intimidating.
Song Shuhang opened his room’s door. “Damn, I forgot to ask them to help move the two boxes inside. I hope they aren’t heavy.”
He had a deep impression of Soft Feather’s heavy luggage, and was worried that these two boxes’ weight would be in tons.
Fortunately, when he tried to lift the two boxes, he found that they weren’t as heavy as expected.
He carried them one by one into the room and then lifted them onto his bed.
After closing the door, Song Shuhang impatiently opened the cardboard boxes. Inside the cardboard box, there were numerous small intricate wooden cases. Each cardboard box was comprised of 4 layers, and each layer contained 4 wooden cases. Altogether, there were 32 wooden cases in both boxes.
Carefully inspecting the contents of the small wooden cases, he found over forty medicinal ingredients in them.
He noticed there were ginseng, Goji Berry, Actinolite, Ladies’ Fragrance and more.
There were some that Shuhang had never seen before, but upon smelling them he felt his body and mind relax. It was as though he had been cleansed through the fragrance of these herbs. Among them there were probably the Fresh Overlord Branch, the Nine-Yang Scarlet Flame Bamboo slices and other Xuanhuan ingredients.
Song Shuhang stared blankly at these two boxes of medicinal ingredients.
Without even mentioning the other ingredients within the boxes, just the pieces of ginseng inside were worth quite a considerable sum. As for the Morning Dew Grass, Overlord Branch and the Nine-Yang Scarlet Flame Bamboo slices, these were very possibly one hundred times more expensive than the ginseng.
But their value wasn’t the reason why Song Shuhang was blankly staring at them.
There was only one thing on his mind. Aren’t these the medicinal ingredients for the ‘Simplified Body Tempering Liquid’ prescription?
Using these medicinal ingredients, if he followed the recipe that the Medicine Master in the Nine Provinces (1) Group had instructed, by simmering it in the cauldron while paying attention to the intensity of the heat, would he also be able to concoct the Simplified Body Tempering Fluid?
Just what kind of effects does the Body Tempering Liquid have? Could it really be like those narrated in Xianxia novels, allowing one to experience rebirth?
“Perhaps by utilizing these herbs and following Medicine Master’s instructions, I can ascertain the existence of cultivation!”
A thought emerged in Song Shuhang’s mind, once this thought came up, it was like a insatiable fire which couldn’t be extinguished, causing him to be incredibly tempted.
Song Shuhang didn’t consider himself pigheaded, if the Body Tempering Liquid truly possessed an effect like those mentioned in legends, then he would believe that cultivation truly exists.
But if it really does exist, what was he going to do?
“Since there’re no afternoon classes today, with a total of 45 different herbs, if each herb takes an approximate of 5 minutes, that would be about 3 to 4 hours. Within one afternoon, I can attempt it!”
Song Shuhang is the kind of person who does something if he wants to do it. Since he had made the decision to do it, then he had to make it happen!
“If I want to refine this pill, then I would first need… a pill furnace?”
Something like a pill furnace definitely couldn’t be found in the market. Perhaps it could be found on Taobao, but those that can be purchased were definitely only toys.
Therefore, if he wanted to concoct the Body Tempering Liquid this afternoon, trying to find a pill furnace would be unrealistic, so he had to find something to substitute it.
Song Shuhang then walked into the attached kitchen and searched the cabinets.
Soon, he managed to find something that could simmer herbs……. A hot pot.
But that thought only lasted for a moment before he rejected it. “This won’t do, this deviates too far from an actual pill furnace.”
He had never seen a pill furnace before, and so he didn’t know whether it would be like those shown in movies. But no matter what, it should be some kind of stove, a hot pot would be too different.
Upon putting the hot pot down, Shuhang searched the kitchen once more.
After a long time, he still did not manage to find anything.
Rice cooker, electric kettle, frying pan, pressure cooker… none of them could substitute a pill furnace.
Although the pressure cooker appeared to be more logical, it was meant for cooking through use of high pressure, and couldn’t be opened halfway/in-between. Yet, to concoct the Body Tempering Liquid, an ingredient has to be inserted every five minutes.
In other words, after all that looking, he could only choose that one thing that seemed relatively suitable for the job. Song Shuhang helplessly stared at the hot pot.
“Well, since they’re both used to simmer, why don’t I just give it a shot?” He pinched his chin. Since there’s thirty two sets of herbs, it would be acceptable even if he failed once!
He just felt that it would be a little wasteful, after all these herbs seemed to be very valuable.
“Let’s try it once at least. If I don’t try I will never be successful. Besides, even if it fails, I can just think of it as an experience.” Song Shuhang made up his mind.
It shall begin this afternoon!
Hopefully his roommates wouldn’t mind his eccentricity in the kitchen; or maybe he should find somewhere else to quietly make this attempt?
However, right now he had to return for his final class this morning before doing starting.
Shuhang opened his cupboard, and placed the wooden cases containing the herbs into the cupboard, one by one.
The cupboard provided by the school worked perfectly. Once he took his personal belongings that were in the cupboard out, all of the medicinal herbs were able to fit perfectly.
“This is great. If it hadn’t fit, I wouldn’t know where else I could hide them.” Song Shuhang muttered.