Da Zhu delivered the century-old Poria water to the Mo family, where Mo Hua was eating beef noodles in a restaurant just like the other diners.
Liu Ruhua opened the box and upon seeing the luminous blue Poria water, she hesitated, saying, "This is too precious, I can’t accept it."
"Aunt Liu, please take it," Da Zhu insisted. "Mo Hua has been a great help to my master, and he specifically asked to deliver this."
Liu Ruhua smiled and said, "Hua is just a child, what great help could he have possibly been?"
When Mo Hua saw Da Zhu, he ran to the door with his bowl and asked, "What’s this?"
"This is Poria water," Da Zhu explained proudly. "It can clear heat, calm the mind, and soothe the spirit. A herb gatherer owed my master for crafting a spirit tool and couldn't pay with spirit stones, so he gave this instead. It’s perfect for your health, Aunt Liu."
Mo Hua’s eyes lit up, and he accepted it imdiately, "Thank my Master Chen for !"
"It's nothing, no trouble at all!" Da Zhu waved his hand.
Seeing this, Liu Ruhua could only relent and invited Da Zhu inside, "Haven’t eaten yet? Co in for a bowl of noodles."
Da Zhu hesitated, "I’m not really hungry."
Mo Hua pulled Da Zhu inside, "Eat before you go back."
Liu Ruhua served Da Zhu a big bowl of noodles topped with beef, the heat and aroma wafting up.
Da Zhu ate until he was sweating profusely.
Knowing these children often did physical labor and rarely had a full al, Liu Ruhua served another bowl.
Da Zhu’s face lit up with a smile.
Liu Ruhua glanced at the box of Poria water and said to Mo Hua, "This Poria water is very valuable. When you have ti, go and thank Master Chen. If you can really be of help, try to assist more often."
"It’s fine, Mom, whatever array Master Chen needs, I’ll handle it," Mo Hua confidently assured her, then thought for a mont and added, "Anything below first-grade is fine."
He wasn’t yet capable of drawing arrays that contained nine array patterns.
"Be humble," Liu Ruhua advised as she stroked his head. "Don’t boast about things you can’t do."
"Little Mo is very skilled at drawing arrays! My master even praises him, saying he could beco a first-grade array master in the future," Da Zhu said naively.
"The future is uncertain, and one must not be arrogant about cultivation," Liu Ruhua chided, though she was inwardly pleased to hear her son praised. She prepared so beef and rice wine for Da Zhu to take back to Master Chen, along with so pastries to treat his fellow disciples.
Da Zhu, carrying several food boxes, went back happily.
That evening, under Mo Hua’s "supervision," Liu Ruhua brewed the Poria water into a dicinal soup, which truly cooled her ridians, although it pained her to use such valuable resources.
Such a fine ingredient wouldn’t have been used if Mo Hua hadn’t insisted.
After his mother had taken the dicine, Mo Hua returned to his room to continue studying array patterns.
"The quality of spirit ink affects the efficacy of the array..."
"The attachnt of array patterns and the transmission of spiritual energy vary on different array diums..."
"The spiritual power at the third level of Qi cultivation is too weak..."
"Practical application indeed enhances mory and comprehension of arrays; I was sowhat unfamiliar with the Magma Array containing six patterns before, but now it feels engraved in my mind, each stroke erging almost instinctively..."
Learning by doing, Mr. Zhuang was absolutely right!
Drawing arrays on various diums and making them functionally effective revealed many issues, greatly benefiting his understanding of arrays.
However, finding opportunities for practical application wasn’t easy; nobody would ask a third-level Qi cultivator like him to draw an array, and the arrays used by low-level independent cultivators were too basic, typically containing only two or three patterns. Arrays with more than four patterns were rare.
What to do?
It would be ideal to use an array containing at least five patterns, and the dium should be fine steel, and it would have to be soone he knew; otherwise, they wouldn’t let him draw the array, and any mistakes would be difficult to explain.
Thinking it over, only Master Chen and his furnace were suitable.
But it wasn’t good to dismantle a recently repaired furnace to redraw it.
Was there another furnace?
Mo Hua sneakily glanced at the family stove, feeling that its fla seed a bit weak.
The next day, Mo Hua tentatively ntioned his idea to his mother, who promptly refused.
"The stove is not only for business but also for cooking als for you and your father, and the heat is sufficient. Unless it’s broken, don’t even think about ssing with it."
Liu Ruhua, Mo Hua’s mother, had watched him grow up and could see through his little sches at a glance.
Mo Hua had no choice but to give up.
A few days later, Liu Ruhua went to Xinglin dical Hall to ask Master Feng for a follow-up consultation. Mo Hua accompanied her.
Master Feng took her pulse with the thread thod and nodded,
"Good, the nourishnt of the heart and lungs is well-managed. You can occasionally use spiritual power to let the ridians adapt, but prolonged activation of spiritual power will still damage the body. As for the residual fire toxin, it’s almost completely cleared."
"I’ll prescribe a few herbs; go fetch them. I’ll make a pill later for you to take ho."
Master Feng wrote down several herbs on paper. Liu Ruhua went to gather them and instructed Mo Hua not to wander off, but to keep Master Feng company.
After Liu Ruhua left, Master Feng took a sip of tea and looked up to see Mo Hua staring at the pill furnace in the room.
"What are you looking at that pill furnace for, Hua?"
Mo Hua asked, "Grandpa Feng, can this pill furnace break?"
"Any spirit tool can break," Master Feng stroked his beard.
"Has it broken before?"
Master Feng nodded, "It has indeed broken a few tis."
"Next ti it breaks, can I fix it?" Mo Hua asked quietly.
Master Feng was slightly taken aback, "You’ve learned to craft tools?"
"Not exactly," Mo Hua waved his small hands, "I an the array inside. If it breaks, can I fix it?"
Master Feng smiled at him, "Alright, if the pill furnace’s array breaks, I’ll let you fix it!"
Mo Hua smiled, squinting his eyes, "It’s a deal then!"
"It’s a deal!" Master Feng laughed.
When Liu Ruhua returned with several packs of herbs, seeing Mo Hua and Master Feng chatting happily, she couldn’t help but smile warmly, "What are you talking about?"
"Just made a little deal with Grandpa Feng," Mo Hua bead.
"You’re trying to earn Grandpa Feng’s spirit stones?"
"It’s just about friendship, not spirit stones," Mo Hua said.
Liu Ruhua shook her head with a smile, handing the herbs to Master Feng, "Thank you, Master Feng."
Master Feng smiled and took them, then stood up and walked to the pill room, placing the herbs into the pill furnace, ready to start the fire, but suddenly paused, looking at the furnace with a complex expression.
"Grandpa Feng, what’s wrong?" Mo Hua asked curiously.
Master Feng wiped the edge of the furnace, checked the spirit stones, then said with so resignation, "The pill furnace is broken."
Mo Hua was stunned for a mont, then whispered,
"It didn’t break just because I ntioned it, did it?"
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