By the afternoon, Black Pot and Granny Zhuang slipped out to prepare dinner for Chen Shi, and Stone Rock Lady also shyly made her way out, asking them hesitantly, "Do you need any help from ?"
Black Pot glanced at her and pointed to the bowls and dishes.
Stone Rock Lady went over to the well to help them wash and scrub the plates.
Once the three of them returned to Chen Shi’s small temple, Stone Rock Lady sat on the central altar with much more confidence.
After dinner, the local ghosts of Wuwang City and the Lantern Ghosts ca again.
"...Judge Ye has said he is not at ho. Please leave," Sangyu said.
This continued for three to five days; every evening, the city ghosts and the Lantern Ghosts would co to inquire, only to receive the sa response.
The Lord of Wuwang City hadn’t been able to sleep well these past few days. That night he fell asleep and had a dream in which he saw Chen Shi offering incense to the Judge Dragon Whisker Pen every day, murmuring incantations, and nurturing the pen with his own Qi-Blood.
When he ca to claim it, the Judge Dragon Whisker Pen had co alive as a young woman in her late teens, delicate and beautiful, who told him, "My lord, please don’t co looking for every day; I’m afraid Little Ten will get the wrong idea."
The Lord of Wuwang City woke from the nightmare with a start, sitting up abruptly and panting heavily.
"I can’t delay any longer; I will go and claim it myself tomorrow."
That day, while Chen Shi was offering incense to the Judge Dragon Whisker Pen and the Youquan Wandering Dragon Sword, he suddenly slled an invigorating fragrance from behind his head. He hurried into the small temple and, upon reaching the temple door, noticed that a few ginseng grass fruits had grown on the heads of the ginseng grass dolls in twos and threes.
Over these days, with the help of Stone Rock Lady, Granny Zhuang, and Black Pot, Chen Shi had aligned and refined the Heaven and Earth Righteous Qi, allowing the ginseng grass dolls to grow rapidly in strength, with even more of the ginseng grass fruits than before.
Chen Shi eagerly went to visit Granny Sha in Gangzi village, asking with a smile, "Granny, is there a Spirit Grass in this world that can increase one’s lifespan?"
Granny Sha replied, "There are indeed Spirit Grasses and Spiritual dicine that can increase one’s lifespan, but they can only add one or two years at most. And they’re priced like the heavens; even if I sold myself, I couldn’t afford them. These herbs and their formulas are controlled by noble families and holy places like the Great Baoguo Temple. How could ordinary people have access to them?"
Yet, she seed at peace with it, laughing and saying, "Even a great Mahayana practitioner like Ku Zhu struggles with all sorts of Spirit Grasses and formulas, but he only lived to be a hundred and thirty or forty. To struggle for a re ten or twenty more years is not worth it. Just living well for these few decades is enough."
Chen Shi took out a ginseng grass fruit and said, "Granny, try this!"
Granny Sha inspected it and replied, "Isn’t this the fruit that grows on the heads of the ginseng grass dolls? I’ve had it before. Granny Zhuang and I are close, and they were worried I’d die; they gave a few to eat. They didn’t do much."
Chen Shi smiled and said, "Try another one!"
Granny Sha didn’t want to refuse his kindness, so she took the ginseng grass fruit and swallowed it, laughing, "I have but twenty-four years left to live; even if I gain a few months, what difference will it make..."
Once the dicinal effects took hold, however, the ginseng grass fruit seed to be different this ti.
Granny Sha stood there, dumbfounded, asking, "Little Ten, what did you give to eat?"
Though she still had twenty-four years to live, she was an old woman with thin hair and wrinkled skin, but now her appearance was visibly rejuvenating at an astonishing speed.
Her skin regained its luster, her hair turned from silver to black, and her body grew taller, no longer stooped!
Ti seed to reverse on her body, transforming her from an old woman back to the youthful form of her Primordial Spirit’s empress-like image!
Her lifespan also surged at an incredible rate, from twenty-four years to thirty, fifty, eighty, a hundred, two hundred years!
She finally ca to a stop when her lifespan reached five hundred years!
"This isn’t right; this can’t be!" Granny Sha exclaid in both shock and joy, and also a bit flustered, looking at her reflection, murmuring, "I..."
Chen Shi laughed and said, "Granny, you’re so young now, you needn’t call yourself ’old’ anymore."
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