How about that, the little girl should be moved by now, right?
Hurry up and gasp in amazement!
Half-Immortal Zhang kept one eye half-open, fixed on Chen Xiaoman, unwilling to miss a single flicker of her expression.
Chen Xiaoman was indeed amazed. “That’s so impressive! Grandpa Half-Immortal, are you an immortal?”
“Not… not quite yet…” Half-Immortal Zhang stammered.
Feeling awkward inside, he hurried to add, “I failed my tribulation, otherwise I’d have already ascended.”
Seeing Half-Immortal Zhang looked hurt, Chen Xiaoman quickly turned to comfort him. “Grandpa Half-Immortal is already so impressive, you’ll definitely become a mighty immortal someday.”
Half-Immortal Zhang grew even more depressed.
“My body is already gone. All that’s left is this wisp of remnant soul that fled into your little world and took shelter in your body. I’m afraid there’s no path to immortality left for me in this life.”
He pulled the gourd from his waist and gulped down several mouthfuls of wine.
Chen Xiaoman asked with concern, “Can Grandpa Half-Immortal still go home?”
She didn’t understand what Half-Immortal Zhang was talking about, but she knew his home wasn’t here.
Half-Immortal Zhang sighed wistfully. “With just this wisp of remnant soul, I’m afraid I can’t go back.”
He’d nearly been scattered into nothingness, and could only rush to take shelter in Chen Xiaoman’s body.
Once the spiritual energy in his cave paradise ran out, this wisp of remnant soul of his would dissipate too.
Poor Grandpa Half-Immortal.
Chen Xiaoman looked at Half-Immortal Zhang with sympathy.
Half-Immortal Zhang nearly choked on his own breath.
He was a half-immortal!
And now he was being pitied by an orphan girl!
Well, in his heart, Chen Shuisheng didn’t deserve to be Chen Xiaoman’s father anyway.
He took a deep breath and asked Chen Xiaoman temptingly, “Little girl, do you want to cultivate immortality?”
See, this girl would surely be thrilled beyond words.
Then, he’d set up layer after layer of trials, and once she passed them one by one, he’d reluctantly pass down everything he’d gained in his lifetime…
“No.”
“Well, if you want to cultivate immortality, we should first…”
Half-Immortal Zhang stopped mid-sentence, sensing something wrong. “What did you say?”
Chen Xiaoman shook her little head. “I don’t want to cultivate immortality.”
“If not immortality, what do you want to do?”
Half-Immortal Zhang couldn’t help exclaiming.
Chen Xiaoman said as if it were obvious, “Earn money. I want to earn back the five strings and pay Father and Mother back, and earn lots and lots more money, so Father and Mother can live a good life.”
Half-Immortal Zhang’s beard trembled and trembled.
How could there be someone who didn’t want to cultivate immortality and only wanted to earn money!
When you could become an immortal, who cared about earning a bit of money!
No appreciation for a good thing at all.
This girl really had no idea what was valuable!
“Grandpa Half-Immortal, what’s wrong?”
Chen Xiaoman asked with concern.
Half-Immortal Zhang’s lips trembled, and he said shakily, “This whole lifetime of skill I have is going to dissipate along with me…”
Chen Xiaoman immediately sensed his sorrow.
Grandpa Half-Immortal was so pitiful.
She thought about it, then lifted her face into a smile. “Grandpa Half-Immortal can teach me to recognize herbs, and I can earn money selling herbs.”
Half-Immortal Zhang’s eyes lit up, all his earlier gloom swept away at once. “First learn to recognize herbs, then I’ll teach you medicine.”
Not wanting immortality was fine.
If she learned his skill at refining pills, that would still make her his successor.
Chen Xiaoman raised her little arm excitedly. “Grandpa Half-Immortal, I want to learn medicine!”
Half-Immortal Zhang, who had been scheming over how to talk Chen Xiaoman into learning medicine, let out a puzzled “Hm,” “For money again?”
But Chen Xiaoman shook her little head, her eyes dimming. “If I knew medicine, I could heal my mother.”
Half-Immortal Zhang knew she meant her birth mother.
Just as he was thinking how to comfort the little girl, he saw her raise her little head, her eyes burning bright.
“I want to be a doctor, and treat patients who have no money, and let them all live healthy lives!”
Half-Immortal Zhang looked at Chen Xiaoman in astonishment.
Right after that last sentence, faint golden light seemed to swirl around the little girl’s body.
She’d actually gained fortune upon her!
This was recognition from Heaven’s Way itself!
He had cultivated for thousands of years without ever gaining fortune like this.
There was no justice in this world!
Half-Immortal Zhang, grief-stricken and indignant, gulped down several more mouthfuls of wine.
Then he suddenly threw his head back and burst out laughing.
Chen Xiaoman asked curiously, “What’s Grandpa Half-Immortal laughing at?”
“It’s rare to find someone with such a kind heart. Starting tonight, I’ll teach you medicine every night from now on.”
Half-Immortal Zhang said heartily.
Someone with such great fortune sent right to him, he mustn’t waste it.
Chen Xiaoman nodded hard, delighted. “Mm!”
She would work hard to learn medicine, and save lots and lots of people!
“To learn medicine, you have to start by identifying herbs.”
Half-Immortal Zhang wasted no time, and with a wave of his hand, a single Wupao berry appeared in his palm.
Chen Xiaoman said at once, “That’s Wupao!”
Half-Immortal Zhang gave an approving sound and said, “Both the berries and the roots of Wupao can be used as medicine.”
He flipped his hand again, and a whole Wupao plant, complete with roots, appeared before Chen Xiaoman.
Chen Xiaoman reached out in wonder to touch the leaves, and found she really could feel them.
She clapped her two little hands together hard. “Grandpa Half-Immortal is so amazing!”
Basking in the praise, Half-Immortal Zhang felt quite pleased with himself.
The next moment, he heard the little girl ask, “Can I take this to sell for money?”
The smile vanished from Half-Immortal Zhang’s face at once.
He puffed out his beard and glared. “This is something I conjured up, it can’t be taken out of here!”
Chen Xiaoman said “Oh” rather disappointedly.
So it was fake after all.
But she quickly perked up again, and asked curiously, “What’s Wupao good for?”
Half-Immortal Zhang pointed at the berry at the top and said, “The berries can be soaked in wine, or prepared and eaten, to strengthen the body. And the roots of Wupao are called Great Wupao.”
He pointed at the roots for Chen Xiaoman to study.
“The roots of Wupao have many uses, clearing heat and reducing dampness, dispelling wind and easing the joints, stopping bleeding, and so on.”
Half-Immortal Zhang explained slowly.
Chen Xiaoman studied the Wupao plant carefully, trying to fix it firmly in her memory.
“Once you’ve memorized it, draw it.”
The Wupao in Half-Immortal Zhang’s hand vanished instantly, replaced by paper and brush.
He set Chen Xiaoman down on the ground, and the paper and brush landed in front of her.
Chen Xiaoman nodded, crouched down, and spread the paper on the ground.
She curled her thumb and four fingers into a fist, pinched the brush between them, dipped it in ink the way she’d seen Li Chuyuan do, and clumsily drew a crooked line on the paper.
She thought about it, then dotted a few black spots at the top.
Satisfied, she nodded, held the paper up to Half-Immortal Zhang with both hands, and beamed.
“I’m done!”
Half-Immortal Zhang: “…”
If she hadn’t said it was Wupao, who could possibly have guessed?
Half-Immortal Zhang gave a “Hm” and said, “Let’s start with learning to read and write.”
Chen Xiaoman grew even more delighted. “I get to learn to read too?”
“You’ll need to write prescriptions later, so of course you need to know how to read and write.”
Chen Xiaoman cheered.
Half-Immortal Zhang smiled and stroked his beard, then wrote two characters on the ground.
“Wupao, the name of the herb we just looked at.”
Chen Xiaoman looked closely at the two characters, silently repeating them over twenty times in her mind, and once she felt she’d memorized them, she picked up the brush and traced out the two characters stroke by stroke, imitating what she’d seen.
Half-Immortal Zhang watched her practice for a while, then, growing bored, lay down on the gourd and returned to the two-story building by the spirit lake.
When he woke and came back out, Chen Xiaoman had already left.
He shook his head. “Young as she is, this dull work of practicing characters is hard to keep up with…”
His gaze swept the ground, and he spotted a piece of paper lying there, one corner weighed down with dirt.
The characters written on it were neat and upright, the large characters “Wupao.”
These two characters had a great many strokes, and yet in just one night, this girl had managed to write them creditably!
Half-Immortal Zhang, astonished, caught something out of the corner of his eye on the ground.
He looked down and froze in shock.
The ground was covered densely with characters!
Filling more than a mu of land!
At the start, even a single horizontal or vertical stroke had come out crooked, but by the end, the strokes were level and straight, and one could clearly make out the characters “Wupao.”
After his shock passed, Half-Immortal Zhang let out a hearty laugh.
This kind of perseverance could move mountains!