After a short, ten minute walk Wu Lin finally arrived to the nursery house. The place located within boundaries of low level district was relatively close to the orphanage but it was obviously better maintained. However, the building wasn’t something great either.

Of course, given his age, Wu Lin wouldn’t be allowed to take care of children. At first he was asked to do simple pieces of work which included mostly cleaning and small repairs. However, thanks to his mature demeanor and partly out of the pity because of his well-known disposition he was gradually trusted with more demanding works. Already working for almost a year, he became more of an errand boy.

Physical labor was something he personally had nothing against, but if he had exerted himself, the outcome would be tragic. Therefore Wu Lin was extremely grateful for the opportunity. However, he didn’t want to spend his whole life as a simple helper. He knew his limitations but yearned for more!

“You’re already there, just in time.” Lady folded her hands as she looked at Wu Lin. She seemed agitated for some reason. He nodded slightly as he came closer.

“This morning, I was shocked to discover that our medicine supply is almost entirely used up. Those girls, they neglected it for so long. What if the kids had got sick?” She was getting more and more irritated as she spoke.

“Miss, would you like me…”

“Yes, I would like you to go to the herbalist place.” She interrupted and extended her hand towards the boy. “There, take this. Money and note are inside this pouch, don’t lose it.”

Wu Lin quickly grabbed tiny bag and turned around. “I’ll be right back!” He said as he hidden the money inside the pocket.

Currently the Purple Sky city is separated into four districts: the first, where nobles resided; second, for martial practitioners; third, for common folk and fourth, the slums area where poorest gathered.

As an orphaned kid, Wu Lin inhabited the poorest part of the city. Even though the world he lived in was ruthless, in this poverty-stricken area one could not feel the ferocity. Of course, everywhere around the world people had their demons but were those of any concern for a child? He would only discover the ugly side of humanity later.

The boy proceeded through the streets. He heard a lot of rumors about the mysterious herbalist but did not know whether they are true or not. Supposedly, the man was an old master of medical arts who came to the slums two years earlier. The true reason behind his arrival was unknown, but since he settled in the area, inhabitants became able to receive his help and thus no one was overly curious.  Wu Lin, however, had interest in his skills. The boy already used herbs to lessen the pain of his body but the way he performed was very crude. He simply stuffed unrefined medicinal grass into his mouth and chewed on it. He was yet to see a real deal.

He passed some makeshift stalls and asked for directions.

“Don’t come back!” Wu Lin heard a yell from the old, wooden house. Shortly after that the doors to the place violently shook. In the next second, thick, reinforced door creaked open with a great force. Two grown-up men got thrown out the building with tremendous momentum. Before they could stand up, huge shadow emerged from the entrance and a muscular, white haired man appeared before them.

Wu Lin’s jaw dropped. The huge man emitted powerful aura.

“Don’t come back.” The man repeated, looking at the two fallen people with disdain. “I already have refused your request once and yet you still dare to demand?”

“L-lord…” As one of the men spoke, the old giant snorted with annoyance. Seeing that, the two got up clumsily and left in haste, not daring to look in the man’s eye again. The old man watched them as they left and then gently closed the door.

The Wu Lin was overjoyed! The mighty presence stirred his heart. He almost instantly understood that the muscular, white haired man was the herbalist he was looking for!

He knocked onto the door.

“I told…!” Before he could react the door opened again. Wu Lin’s body drew beautiful arc as he flew through the yard.

A moment later, inside the house.

“Hahaha! Boy, even if you look like that, you’re actually quite sturdy.” The man said cheerfully. “Forgive me for that, but pay more attention next time you’ll come knocking onto someone’s door.” He was still trying to keep face. As he could see the boy was not badly injured, there was no cry of pain whatsoever; therefore he had nothing to be embarrassed about.

Wu Lin looked at the man situated across the table. He already explained why he visited the herbalist and right now, at his side, stood a medium-sized package filled with medicine. At the beginning he looked around restlessly to see if there are any herbs he did not know but the room was almost entirely devoid of them. He sighed.

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“Your breath smells like a medicinal grass. Did you by any chance stumble upon some poorly made pills, boy?” Old man asked, his gaze sharpened as he faced Wu Lin, getting serious at instant. If a medicine pill was prepared clumsily, one could harm his health and even cripple cultivation. The old man felt that he owed something the young boy before him for the accident before.

“No, sir.”

“Don’t lie to me, boy.”

“I wouldn’t dare sir. Pills are too precious and I couldn’t possibly use them.” Startled, Wu Lin replied. He did not know that he had a smelly breath. It surprised him, but it didn’t take genius to understand why an old herbalist could smell something. Wu Lin spoke after a short pause.

“It’s just…” He started hesitantly. He earned himself another sharp gaze.

“…I ate the low-grade, common medicinal grass that I picked. I did it for the sake of cultivation, sir.”

Man stared at the boy dumbfounded. Only after a while did he come back to his senses.

“You did what?” He looked at the boy, thinking he misheard him. His eyes bulged wide with surprise.

“I ate the grass, sir.”

“Hahahaha!” Herbalist started to hit his leg with an open palm. Tears could be seen at the corners of his eyes. The loud laughter startled the boy. It took couple of minutes until the man finally subsided. He wiped his eyes with the back of his palm.

There is a reason why people don’t eat medicinal materials in their raw form. First and foremost: efficiency in which they absorb the raw medicine is lower while compared to proper, refined pill. However, the biggest flaw was in fact nasty aftereffects brought by the impurities inside the materials. Even the common medicinal grass of the lowest grade had one. It caused laxation! Herbalist chuckled, well aware of that fact.

Unbeknown to him, Wu Lin wasn’t affected by that particular effect even though he gulped vast amount of grass every day.

After a moment, the old man unveiled the reason behind his happiness. Wu Lin paled slightly when the lecture was over. Even though he had not experienced horrifying outcome, he promised himself to not overuse unprocessed grass in the future.

Herbalist took small, round pill and gave it to the boy. “Take it. It’s the low quality medicine pill but at the very least it was properly refined.” Wu Lin was startled. He received the gift and thanked the herbalist.

“Come back tomorrow, boy. I might have a work for you.” As the small silhouette went further away Bo Hong smiled. In his mind, he was still recalling the scare in boy’s eyes when he told him about the grass.

Wu Lin continued running small errands till the rest of the day. Then, not wasting a moment, he climbed to his training spot and started to cultivate.

Author note:

First of all, thank you, Alvastar. I simply can't find  the right words to express my gratitude. You went as far as to explain Profound Mysteries of Grammar to me. I’m grateful for the pointers. Thank you, thank you. And those comics, they are great; again, thanks a lot for sharing. If you would like to point out more mistakes you’re always welcomed. Much like everyone else; please be encouraged. I sincerely hope that you’ll keep reading my story. Continue being awesome.

Mistakes I make are mostly because I’m really sloppy (at times, I hope?) and I suffer from severe lazy-a** disorder. Right now, I want to improve; but then, I also want to release some chapters and proceed with the story. Since I’m not exactly a fast or talented learner this whole process of ‘quality improvement’ might take a while.

Ding! MC got his first quest. Wait a second… that is not a VR story! Grandpa character appeared. Cool.

Everyone’s so sensible in this world; people don’t even mock MC. Yet. A couple chapters from now things are going to get spicy. You’ll have to cope with me trying to create the story’s background for the time being. Oww, how pleasant it is to torment MC a little, how pleasant indeed. He is so weak and fragile.

IIt took me some time to release this chapter, mainly because I was leveling my character in a certain aRPG. Sorry.

Almost 100 average views, five followers and someone was even kind enough to rate my fiction with whooping 4,5 stars! Thank you, especially because at this point, the story is rather generic and not very innovative. Hahah, forgive me, but it is going to stay like that for a while. I’m happy you had enjoyed it.

Still looking for proofreaders...

Thank you for your kind attention,

Humble, D.