Chapter 153: Making Medicine (1/2)

With each day, she found herself growing more accustomed to feeling the energy of the world. But she would not be satisfied until she could merge this energy with her own and use it in a technique. Only then would she have successfully reached the next stage of the Sword Path.

With training and cultivating coming along, there was only one elder that has yet to make her formal appearance, Elder Hua.

Ming Yue's time with Elder Hua was an interesting one to say the least.

Pretty much everyone under her sought the way of pill-making. Yet Ming Yue, who had no business with that, was given the same access to the materials but used it for paste-making*. More than that, she spent much of her time alone with Elder Hua, conversing about medicine with each other.

On one such day, Ming Yue was busy grinding up some dried herbs in her own personal workroom. It wasn't an actual workroom but a space given to her by Elder Hua. She sat before a table with several bundles of plants by her. Dried stalks of red grass and various trimmed leaves and roots piled on the table. Next to it was the mortar and pestle she was using to grind the medicine. A bucket filled with water stood by her as she dumped the ground up herbs into it.

All around her were jars that suffused a sweet floral scent, most likely carrying all sorts of medicine that she created herself.

Xiao Yin was with her, helping to place new stalks into the mortar. Hei Yue could not handle the smell of the medicine and returned to Ming Yue's room on his own. This process would take all day and the fox's nose could not endure for that long.

Ming Yue was immersed in her work until someone knocked on her door before coming in. It was Elder Hua that came. The two greeted each other followed by Elder Hua asking what she was making.

”Bone Setting Bandages”, Ming Yue replied as she went back to her seat.

”Oh, it seems like every day you are making something different. Well, I hope you're ready. I'm going to test you for a bit”, said Elder Hua.

Ming Yue nodded allowing the Elder to continue. Although paste-making wasn't Elder Hua's expertise, her medical knowledge far surpassed Ming Yue's. With her teaching, Ming Yue learned much more about the ways of medicine. Elder Hua was an expert with high pedigree but when it came to Ming Yue, she was like a young woman.

When she first watched Ming Yue make medicine, Elder Hua would assault her with all kind of questions.

Where did she learn this?

How did she end up becoming a cultivator?

Was there anyone she liked?

What was her final goal?

She was incredibly interested in Ming Yue's upbringing but she was careful as well. Some questions, she chose not to pursue any further. Elder Hua noticed the changes in Ming Yue's eyes as she asked about the girl's father. It was hard to describe, it wasn't necessarily sadness but a mix of reminiscence and melancholy.

As for Ming Yue, she found Elder Hua's personality quite different from what she had expected. The first time Ming Yue saw her, she thought the Elder would be more mysterious or eccentric. After all, she arrived to Clear Spring Mountain under an illusion just to play some trickery.

Never would she have thought that Elder Hua was so chatty.

As the two grew more comfortable with each other, their conversations went from medicine to everyday life. Though, it was mostly Elder Hua that talked. Sometimes, she would answer questions that Ming Yue had and other times, she would talk about all kinds of things. Gossip that she learned from her students, complaints about her day, ranting over the medical concoctions she carried with. But as the Elder, she did test her students and Ming Yue was no exception.

”What are the three forms of medicine?”

”Unrefined, paste, and pill.”

”...and the difference?”