Liu Zhu picked a flower from the Liu Clan's estate, planning to test his blood on that first before he bought medicinal herbs to use. Once he made sure he was out of sight Liu Zhu bled slightly onto the flower. As he stared at it the flower quickly grew, going from being only a couple inches tall to being completely grown over the course of a minute.

Liu Zhu nodded happily after seeing the first test succeed. "It's not as fast as before, but I guess it wasn't just temporary." Liu Zhu put the flower away and went to grab his coin purse. "I should go purchase some plants from the family's shop then. If this works just as well on apothecaries' ingredients as it does on flowers, then I'll never have to worry about money again."

Liu Zhu made the short trip from the Liu Clan's estate to Vermilion City on foot. The Liu Clan was centered around Vermilion City, and since Zhu Chao took over they had once again become the most powerful family in the city. The Liu Family owned many shops and businesses in Vermilion City, and Liu Zhu was planning to head to one near the center of town that sold plants, balms, and a few pills for cultivating.

Upon entering the shop an old woman eagerly greeted Liu Zhu. "Young Master Liu, welcome, welcome! I'll call the manager so that you can look at the books." As the old woman began walking towards the back of the store, Liu Zhu stopped her. "I'm not here to check how the store is doing today, I'm a customer." The old woman seemed surprised, but switched gears smoothly. "In that case just come to me if you need any help. This old woman may not be of much use, but I know this store like the back of my hand." Liu Zhu nodded, thanking her for the consideration, and began to look through the store, trying to figure out what plants would be the best to use for his tests.

Liu Zhu spent half an hour inside the store, and in the end just made educated guesses at what to get. He wasn't an expert in herbology so he divided the plants into a few groups based on price and the time they took to mature and then bought one from each group. The price he was very familiar with as he had gone over the Liu family's books for several years, including this shop's. The time each plant took to mature was something he roughly knew for the more common plants. For the less common ones, he could simply ask the employee at the counter- she wasn't just there for show.

The plants ended up being 29 gold and 8 silver even after Liu Zhu's sizable discount at the Liu family's store. The money in his coin purse was immediately reduced by a third, but Liu Zhu wasn't worried. After all, if this panned out he could make a massive profit off of the plants he had just bought. Liu Zhu returned back to the estate after his purchases, spending the next hour writing detailed observations of the plants and taking measurements so that he could figure out in more detail how they changed once his blood was applied.

Once everything was prepared Liu Zhu cut his finger and dripped blood onto each plant one by one. It was unpleasant, but he was already growing used to the process. After the blood dripped onto the plants it was slowly absorbed into them, and their growth sped up. Much to his disappointment it was nothing as dramatic as with the flower, but it was still enough to excite him. He took a second set of measurements and wrote down any changes in the plants' appearances before trying to grow them with more of his blood. Unfortunately the plants barely reacted the second time. "Maybe it only works once? No, it would make more sense if it were once per a given time period. I'll try again tomorrow and see if it helps." Liu Zhu sighed and put the journal away, realizing that this would take a while to figure out.

After finishing his experiments Liu Zhu turned his attention to testing out his newfound strength. He hadn't had a chance to spar with anyone since his breakthrough to Flesh Tempering, and he was raring to go. "There are the children of the elders and the few talents we recruited from the city, but..." Liu Zhu scrunched his brow as he tried to think of someone suitable to spar with. Eventually he snapped his fingers, having found a suitable candidate. "Dai He is still at Late Flesh Tempering. He can help me spar, and then I'll get his advice on how to profit off of this ability. He's spent his entire life training to become a businessman, so he'd know more about how to identify goods and what I should do. More importantly, I can trust him."

Liu Zhu got a servant and had them send a letter to Dai He requesting that he visited. He would go visit his friend himself, but Liu Zhu wanted to train a bit before they sparred and get a proper grasp over his strength. Given the difference in cultivation between the two it was almost impossible Liu Zhu would come out on top, but he wanted to be in his best condition anyways. It'd be a waste to test his strength if he couldn't properly control it.

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Liu Zhu trained for several hours, immediately destroying the dummy he used to use and moving onto a more durable one. By the time someone came to inform him that Dai He had arrived, he felt like he had gained a decent grasp of his power. To be frank, it was far beyond what Liu Zhu had expected- the difference between Late Strength Rendering and Early Flesh Tempering was like night and day to him. Now he felt like it was only natural for a breakthrough from Strength Rendering to Flesh Tempering to be so difficult when the difference in strength was that large.

Liu Zhu met Dai He in a side room of the manor, and a servant fetched tea while they caught up. "Brother Liu, I haven't seen you in a couple of weeks! I had a present prepared for your birthday, but the party was cancelled last minute. Were you closed up in training again?" "For the first week yes. After that some things happened, and long story short I made a breakthrough." Dai He chuckled in response. "Yes, I'd noticed. Congratulations, I was rooting for you. Did you call me here to celebrate since you missed your birthday?" Liu Zhu shook his head in response. "I'll find some time to hang out with you, but that's not why I called you here. I wanted to spar with you now that I've broken through, and there's also something I wanted to consult you about."

Dai He responded lightheartedly, keeping the mood jovial. "A little overconfident, eh? Whatever, we can spar later Brother Liu, but let's take care of that other business first. It's best to get the other business out of the way in case you're upset after I beat you." "It's not that I'm overconfident, but you're the best sparring partner I could think of- most of the elders' children and the talents we've recruited into the Liu family are either a couple years younger or older than me. Plus, if my loss is a bit embarrassing then I don't need to mind if it's with you, right?" "Yeah, you're right. It's not like I mind either way."

The two ended their small talk after a few more minutes, and Liu Zhu led Dai He up to his room. He was hesitant about telling anyone about his newfound abilities or the details concerning his breakthrough given Zhu Chao's warning, but he needed the help and trusted Dai He almost as much as Zhu Chao. They'd been friends for many years, and Dai He was smart- he wouldn't just leak something as important as this.

When Dai He entered Liu Zhu's room, he immediately noticed the plants and commented on them. "I thought you wanted to become a refiner and forge weapons. Are you planning on switching to pill forging?" Liu Zhu shook his head and grabbed a flower he had prepared beforehand. "Just watch." Liu Zhu cut his finger again, much to the confusion of Dai He, and let his blood drip onto the flower. It immediately began growing, and Dai He's mouth hung open, confused, as he stared at the spectacle.

Dai He stayed silent until Liu Zhu spoke again. "The gist of it is that my blood can grow plants now. I'll tell you in more detail later, but this explanation saves time. I experimented a bit earlier and have the results on that table with all the plants. I was wondering if you could help me sort them out and see how effective this really is." Dai He nodded, a thoughtful look covering his face. Without saying anything he headed over to the table and began reading through the journal placed next to the plants, occasionally grabbing an herb and examining it to double-check the descriptions in the book.

After a quarter of an hour Dai He put everything down and turned around, a wide smile on his face. "This is great! Just continue to keep your results like that and I'll look at them after a week. Given how long these take to mature we'll want to wait at least that long. Unlike a flower that matures in a year at most, medicinal herbs are most useful after decades."

Dai He tore a piece of paper out of the notebook, muttering to himself as he scribbled on it. "In the meantime I'll look into a few things. You can also pick up these plants and add them to your experiments. A couple of yours look similar whether they're old or young, and it would be difficult to tell the age without a specialist. We need to keep this a secret, so obviously that's out of the question. These are replacements for them where it's easy to tell the age."

Liu Zhu smiled as Dai He went on. "I didn't even think about that, it was a good idea to ask you. I suppose this is the skill of a merchant family's heir?" Dai He laughed as he finished writing. "Damn right. I'm not just any normal merchant anyways- I'm going to be the best one in Yutian Country, no doubt about it." Dai He continued to get hyped up, but Liu Zhu cooled him down before he forgot the other reason he was brought here. "Brother Dai, it's good you're excited, but there's still something else you need to do." Dai He froze, a confused expression on his face. "Huh? Did I miss something?" "We still need to spar."

Dai He's expression became awkward upon hearing this, as he realized that he'd completely forgotten. "I'll be heading over to the sparring grounds then." Liu Zhu left the room as he said this, Dai He hurriedly following behind.