Hundred Herbs Heaven

As the morning light washed over the window lattice, Suisui was using its bone claws dipped in cinnabar to draw crooked patterns of encouragement on talisman paper.

Li Nanzhu gazed at those bright red lines, then suddenly swept the pile of deduction notes regarding Cang Dongqing into a box. With the click of the lock, all her hesitations were sealed away.

Now, the only thing she could do was increase her strength as quickly as possible and break through to Foundation Establishment.

Another day passed. Li Nanzhu was using the Wanxiang Brush to sketch the final stroke on a piece of talisman paper.

Suisui squatted by the ink slab, its soul fire flickering in sync with the rhythm of her wrist. At the moment the brush tip erupted with a golden glow, Li Nanzhu’s wrist turned sharply, the Wanxiang Brush leaving a half-afterimage in the air.

Yet she was half a step too late. The igniting talisman fire surged up the brush handle and reached her fingertips. While burning the paper to ash, it also scorched three strands of her bangs.

"Failed again..." She rubbed her throbbing temples, staring blankly at the charred talisman ash on the desk.

Suisui dipped a bone claw into the ink and drew a crooked explosion pattern next to the failed talisman—this was already the seventy-third failure of the day.

"That move worked when the furnace exploded..." she murmured, stroking the cloud patterns on the end of the Wanxiang Brush.

During her last out-of-control alchemy session, the Stream-Diversion Technique that had suddenly surfaced in Xiao Yan's inheritance allowed her to save half a batch of pills at the critical moment. That exquisite method of dividing spiritual energy into thirty-six streams felt like a wild horse breaking its reins when applied to talismans.

Suisui suddenly jumped onto the 'Detailed Explanation of the Talisman Dao', its bone claw slapping heavily on the words 'Spirit Gathering'. Li Nanzhu followed its gaze, her eyes landing on a doodle she had made on the edge of the page yesterday—an improved plan that had come to her in a flash of inspiration when the furnace exploded.

"Forget it." She put away the cinnabar ink slab. "Alchemy is more practical."

"Little Junior Sister." Feng Qingping’s voice came from outside the courtyard, tinged with a bit of helplessness. "Your medicine garden is about to be plucked bald by you."

Li Nanzhu gave a sheepish laugh. Since she began preparing for the Foundation Establishment breakthrough, the Five Elements Dao Sect had never been quiet—the soundproofing arrays that the Second and Seventh Senior Brothers had activated before their seclusion had to endure the impact of her exploding furnaces almost every day.

If not for the repeated assurances from the Fifth Senior Sister and Sixth Senior Brother that the soundproofing arrays wouldn't fail, Li Nanzhu would have probably run away carrying her alchemy furnace long ago.

In the end, Feng Yi reached the limit of his patience. He grabbed her by the back of her collar and tossed her directly into the sect's alchemy room.

"Explode away," he sneered, pointing at a row of profound iron alchemy furnaces. "There's enough here for you to explode until next spring."

Suisui suddenly jumped onto her shoulder, its bone claw pointing at the pile of furnace wreckage in the corner. Stuck to the bottom of one was a half-finished foundation establishment pill, its pale gold pill patterns already beginning to take shape.

"I know." Li Nanzhu sighed softly. "It's just missing that tiny bit..."

The profound iron alchemy furnace shimmered under Li Nanzhu's palm, the fine array patterns on the furnace body lighting up one by one as she injected her spiritual energy.

This was the third furnace she had tried since Feng Yi brought her to the alchemy room—the first two had already turned into that pile of wreckage in the corner during her trials of the Stream-Diversion Technique.

As for the precious furnace gifted by Sixth Senior Brother, she naturally kept it carefully tucked away in the deepest part of her storage cabinet—why use her own assets when she could fleece the sect?

Once again, she placed the processed spiritual plants into the furnace one by one according to the steps. The rhythm of the churning medicinal liquid within the furnace gradually synchronized with her inherited memories; in a daze, it felt as if a pair of transparent hands were resting on the back of hers, guiding her.

"Time for the seven-leaf lotus..." She flicked her finger, the medicine scoop precisely hooking the green spiritual plant from the desk. Just as she dropped it into the furnace, a sharp crackling sound came from within—the previously stable medicinal liquid began to churn violently.

"Fire Control Technique!" Li Nanzhu's hands rapidly formed seals, her spiritual energy transforming into a fine net that wrapped around the furnace. Unfortunately, she was still a step late. A purplish-red medicinal mist erupted from the exhaust vents, forming a mushroom-shaped toxic cloud against the ceiling.

Boom!

The entire alchemy room shook violently. Li Nanzhu looked at the smoking furnace and suddenly wondered what Eldest Senior Brother would think when he returned and saw that she had exploded so many furnaces.

After all, he was the one in charge of the account books.

She rubbed her wrists, which were numb from the shock, and her gaze swept over the few spiritual plants remaining on the medicine rack.

Suisui was squatting in the corner, stacking the shattered pieces of the furnace lid into a small tower. With every piece it added, it shot her a guilty glance.

"Seems I'll have to beg Sixth Senior Brother..." Before she could finish, a touch of faint blue caught her eye.

A moon-viewing orchid lay by the ink slab, stained with night dew. The wet spiritual fluid on its leaves was slowly seeping into the wooden grain. Suisui sat perched atop the brush rack, the flickering frequency of its soul fire making it look like a child who had done something naughty.

"Fifth Senior Sister?" Li Nanzhu found Feng Qingping, who was studying arrays, while holding the plant. "Did you leave this in my room?"

Feng Qingping glanced at the spiritual herb in her hand and suddenly laughed. "If I had that kind of ability, I would have replaced all the withered spirit grass on the back mountain long ago." She pointed at the moon-viewing orchid. "In this past half-month, the rare spiritual plants that have appeared in your room are more than I usually see in a long time."

Li Nanzhu stroked the leaves, feeling that the texture was somewhat different from the spiritual plants she usually used, but she couldn't quite remember where she had seen them before.

Another day passed. Li Nanzhu held a newly appeared nine-leaf lingzhi. This was already the seventh rare herb to mysteriously appear on her desk, each showing up just at the right time when she was short of materials for alchemy.

"It's too coincidental..." Her fingertips brushed over the fresh soil at the base of the lingzhi. From the corner of her eye, she noticed Suisui using a bone claw to stealthily wipe away mud stains from between its ribs.

At the hour of Zi, Li Nanzhu waited in the shadows of the medicine cabinet.

When the moonlight shifted to the third pane of the window lattice, the air suddenly rippled like water.

Suisui tumbled out of the void clutching a large bundle of moon-essence grass, the morning dew of Hundred Herbs Heaven still hanging on the leaves. It turned around and bumped right into Li Nanzhu’s outstretched palm, scattering the spiritual plants all over the floor.

"I knew it was you." She picked up a golden thread lotus, fresh spiritual fluid seeping from the cut. "All this time..."

Suisui gestured frantically. Its bone claw first pointed at Li Nanzhu, then drew a heart shape, and finally spread its arms in a 'giving everything to you' gesture.

As if afraid Li Nanzhu wouldn't believe it, its soul fire flickered violently for a moment. It suddenly tucked its head into its ribs like a child who had made a mistake and slowly pushed out a memory stone.

When the image of the herb fields in Hundred Herbs Heaven appeared, it used a finger bone to gently tap the wooden signs bearing Li Nanzhu's mark, then quickly retracted its hand to cover its non-existent face.

"So all of these..." She looked at the pile of rare materials in the corner. "You prepared all of them specifically for me?"

The little skeleton nodded vigorously and pulled out another memory stone. In the images, countless spiritual plants actively lowered their branches and leaves toward it, as if welcoming a traveler returning home.

Most astonishingly, when the phantom showed the entrance to the secret realm—which was clearly sealed off—there was a small path paved with starlight reserved just for Suisui.

"I see." Li Nanzhu realized. "Those spiritual plants let you leave because you can go back anytime?"

Suisui nodded hard. As its finger bone drew a third circle in the air, a wisp of starlight leaked from between its ribs. With a soft 'pop' sound, the void rippled with a familiar shimmer—it was the very starlight path she had seen in the memory stone, reserved exclusively for Suisui.

Through the ripples, she could see the spiritual plants of Hundred Herbs Heaven dancing. A few thousand-year-old ginsengs even actively pulled out their roots and tied themselves into bundles to push them toward this side.

Li Nanzhu’s eyes grew warm.

This was the true gift—not a right granted by an inheritance token, but the unique favor of all things in Hundred Herbs Heaven for Suisui.

Even if the secret realm closed itself off to the entire world, it would always leave a door home for this little skeleton.