Golden crows rise and jade rabbits fall, chilled winds have blown goodbyes and mountains dews springs gush out, with a last yawn at the fleeting moonlight, flowers open their dreary eyes. Spring has come.
Yes, Zi Yang was equally happy after the passage of the winter season.
First winters are challenging for the newborns and one can imagine the challenge if the newborn is congenitally weak in the first place.
Zi Yang’s plan to buy resources for the body lotion took a back seat as Zi Ming needed urgent care from the doctor to stabilize his health in the winters.
Looking at the health report summary, Zi Yang finally has a numerical idea on how far he the road ahead is.
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[Patient Name]: Zi Ming
[Age]: 1 months 5 days
[Diagnosis]: Congenital origin deficiency
[Details]:
[Bones]: Soft bones with slower nurturing rate than a normal baby by 3x.
[Muscles]: Weaker than normal babies by 4x.
[Blood Circulation]: Low White blood cells, lower RBCs and platelets by 4x.
[Respiration]: Lung capacity is insufficient for his body by 1.2x.
[Digestive]: Digestion ability is good and faintly better than healthy babies.
[Urinary]: No problem here.
[Lymphatic]: Lymphatic system follows other internal organs and is correspondingly weak.
[Summary]: 71.3% overall deficiency compared with a healthy baby. Hope for treatment comes from a good digestive system.
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It took Zi Yang another half a month from the anticipated time to scrape the money together for a purchasing the two water and fire resources.
With hope, Zi Yang checked the stores on Void Net and looked for the resources within the budget.
He habitually opened bigbucks website then, went to his local forum and typed in, “Hi, I am looking for an extraordinary level water and fire type resources for potion making. Can you suggest which ones are best for a novice?”
Comments rolled in as soon as I posted it:
“A novice and playing with extraordinary materials right away. Bro, quite confident, are we?”
“Yeah, practice with mortal level resources first, what if you fail.”
“I have a tinder of earth and a drop of holy spring water. They’re both good for your purpose.”
“What perfect? Even if it’s waste, don’t fool customers here. Tinder of earth is earth and fire dual attribute, even if it is more fire. He wants pure fire.”
I explained that I have potion apprentice to help me. It was then everyone took it seriously.
One shopkeeper, a lady, suggested, “I have both resources but they’re not general type resources. They can be used for evolution but chances of using it perfectly are slim as they’re both a little unstable. But I can sell at the cost of general type plus another 1000 bucks each. Do you want to check out?”
Sure. Checking it out doesn’t cost money. Zi Yang agreed.
The lady, net named – cat got me candy – sent two pictures:
[Phoenix Tail Feather]: It was taken from a phoenix’s tail during nirvana and is tinged with nirvana fire. Due to nirvana’s do-or-die characteristics, it is in unstable condition and needs a soothing agent to calm it down.
[Sword-tinged Water crystal grass]: Ideal water-based resources, but tinged with an unknown sword intent. Using it for any purpose requires this sword intent to be neutralized or perfectly synced.
Sure enough. There is a problem, most people don’t like adulterated materials for potion making, as anything can go wrong during the process and material will be wasted.
But heck, this is like a discount of about 50-75%, moreover lotion making is nothing complicated. It can even be said to be Level -10 potion. If it can be said to be potion, at all.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
It is a rich people body lotion after all.
Anyway, Zi Yang agreed and the shopkeeper sent the products right away via courier.
Worth noting is that the courier here if space jelly that apparently splits and fulfills hundreds of orders at one time.
The entire Royal Speed transportation is based on this one beast while some other beasts occasionally assist.
Zi Yang ordered products at a normal pace, so they would come after all the pending orders are cleared. Usually, it takes a day at most, so he was expecting the orders tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Zi Yang called Jian Guo for assistance at his house. In case, he busted this job.
Next day, Zi Yang and Jian Guo together prepared the lotion.
Mama Mei was by the side to help with spirit qi circulation.
Zi Yang took a pot and put phoenix tail feather on one side and the water crystal grass on the other. Jian Guo held the ancient life tree’s leaf and circulated his little qi to make sure the heat on the put is ideal.
Mama Mei used her spirit qi to stir the two elements of fire and water in the pot to collide and balance.
When it reached at the apex delicate balance where it could break the Tai chi flow and go unbalanced, Jian Guo expertly pushed the leaf at the center of the collision.
The leaf was instantly torn apart by the collision but the water and fire elements were also balanced and shortly disappeared.
Jian Guo asked Mama Mei to continue stirring specially on the water side to wear down the sword intent.
After a while, an off-white-colored liquid was left in the pot. It was then set out to cool.
“Wow, this was unique method of potion making. Where did you know to do this?”, Jian Guo asked in amazement.
He usually works with precise calculations and under his teacher’s guidance. It was his first time working such a trick.
“Oh, this is from a provincial potion maker’s comment on the void net. Anyway, thanks for coming today.”, Zi Yang followed.
“No problem. Let me know how well it works. If it works well, I’ll suggest teacher Meng to sell some too. I’ll recommend you”
Jian Guo has already made up his mind to recommend this kid. Even though it looked like he did nothing but put two resources on the left and the right. He maintained the overall process and his calmness diluted the tension.
He was exactly like a conductor, managing micro details and timings for everyone to get things right.
Zi Yang softly thanked and they parted ways after having lunch at the house.
The lotion had just cooled down and Zi Yang was going to take Zi Ming and the lotion with him to Auntie Lan’s house.
Even though the lotion is made, Zi Yang was not sure if the sword intent has been diluted. In case of any issue, Aunt Lan’s peony flower fairy can cast a health boost.
Moreover, this potion is mad of such precious materials. He also wanted to repay some of the favor by sharing some with Aunt Lan’s daughter.
Then, Zi Yang, Zi Ming and Mama Mei all headed to Aunt Lan’s house together.
These days, he's been thinking of getting one more person for house help. Now for example, the baby pandas at home are all alone.
At Aunt Lan’s house, Aunt Lan was pleasantly surprised when Zi Yang visited.
“Yang’er, you finally visited. Your Aunt Lan drove me mad this winter asking why you had never visited when she reminded so many times.”, said Uncle Bai, Aunt Lan’s husband.
“Ah, Bai Tu, Yang’er wanted to prepare some lotion for both Zi Ming and Bai Lian. He’s embarrassed to only ask of you, and not return.”, Mama Mei replied in her unique soothing voice.
Aunt Lan immediately jumped when she heard this, “Really, what Mei Li is true. Yang’er, what nonsense. When Yi Nuo was there, she helped me a lot. This boy…”
Aunt Lan couldn’t help and started crying.
Zi Yang was at a loss throughout the whole process. How could a simple visit evolve into this.
Ah. What a sin.
“Uncle”, he could only seek Uncle Bai’s help now.
Uncle Bai quickly understood, and said, “By the way, you didn’t come without the daises dew water. Did you? My tea’s running out.”
Sure enough. A husband knows his wife best.
As soon as this came out, Aunt Lan jumped again and shouted wildly, “Bai Tu, how shameless are you to request a gift from your nephew. My dad told me not to marry this lazy pig.”
Uncle Bai winked and showed an aggrieved expression of “I had to listen to scolding because of you.”
Zi Yang also knows his uncle well, and calmly betrayed him and said, “Auntie said right. Uncle should come and get it on his own. I came for Bai Lian ah, and Auntie check the lotion and see how it works.”
Mama Mei stood aside and watched the circus of one woman hopping and dancing to the tune of two men – young and old. Who said only beasts do circus?
Aunt Lan brought Bai Lian out and then placed the two little ones together.
Bai Lian was a cute little doll, with big eyes and puffed cheeks. Zi Ming looked better than before but still looked extremely malnourished in comparison.
Both babies were meeting for the first time, so they both showed curious expressions. Bai Lian put Zi Ming’s ear in her mouth and started chewing.
The whole family laughed.
After a while, Auntie Lan verified the lotion with her peony flower fairy. Don’t think that flower fairy can only cast the health skill but not appraisal.
Because it’s true. They can’t do appraisal but any health-related beast can tell by instinct anything is harmful to a certain person or not.
With the go-ahead, Aunt Lan applied and massaged Zi Ming and Bai Lian with the lotion.
While massaging she replied, “This works well. The slight tingling on my finger is simulating my cells to be more active. It is actively destroying dead cells and simulating more cells to divide and strengthen. The rest I am not very sure about, but they're comfortable little mouths should mean good.”
Zi Yang was thankful it worked.
First step to recovery taken today.