Martial Arts: My talent multiplier increased

A first-class courtyard.

When Fang Ping brought the note back, Fang Yuan was practicing boxing in the yard.

The third level of the Overlapping Wave Fist involves repeated hammering and refining of the fist's intent. With each punch, a very low, muffled sound fills the air—a miniature sonic boom generated by the fist's intent compressing the air.

Fang Ping stood at the courtyard gate and waited for thirty punches.

Fang Yuan withdrew his fist and took the note.

"Qingyao Valley has the largest stronghold. You need help."

Fang Yuan finished reading it. He held the note to the lantern in the courtyard. The edges of the cotton paper rolled up, and the flames swallowed it from the middle, burning it out in three breaths. The ashes scattered in the night wind.

helper.

Shen Youlan was right. That stronghold in Qingyao Valley—a dozen or so red-robed men, at least two of them at the Refining Realm. For him to go alone would be tantamount to suicide.

But what help could Shen Youlan offer him? People from the Dark Butterfly Pavilion? They were just peripheral spies from a county-level intelligence organization, with limited combat power to mobilize. Moreover, Shen Youlan herself was only at the early stage of the Bone Refining Realm.

Fang Yuan doesn't need a human helper.

It's medicine.

-

Baicaotang. Backyard.

Fang Yuan arrived at 9 PM. Manager Qian had already closed the front door. The small pharmacy in the back courtyard was lit—not by oil lamps, but by a stove fire.

Fang Yuan pushed open the door of the pharmacy.

A wave of heat hit me. It carried the aroma of seven or eight kinds of medicinal herbs—bitter, spicy, sour, and with an indescribable metallic sweetness.

Liu Ruyan squatted in front of the stove.

Her face was smeared with three colors of medicine stains—yellow was coptis chinensis powder, black was something she didn't know, and there was a dark red smear on her left cheekbone. Her hair was held back with a twig, but most of it was loose, with two strands hanging in front of her eyes. She blew on them and they fell down again.

There were three items on the pharmacy's counter.

On the left: a white porcelain bottle. The mouth of the bottle is open. Inside is a light green powder.

In the middle: a bamboo tube sealed with wax. Through the bamboo walls, you can vaguely see that the liquid inside is pale blue.

On the right: a black porcelain jar about the size of a thumb. The mouth of the jar is sealed with three layers of oiled paper, and then wrapped with hemp rope. It looks like it's sealing something that can't be revealed.

Fang Yuan's nostrils twitched as they swept over the black porcelain jar on the right.

The smell emanating from that jar was extremely faint. But after Fang Yuan's eight-fold standing meditation technique pushed his sense of smell to its limit, he was able to extract a component from that faint smell that made his scalp tingle.

The smell of blood. Not just any ordinary smell of blood. It was the same kind he had smelled on the corpses of evil cultivators over the past five nights—the stench of dissipating foreign essence and blood.

Liu Ruyan didn't even look up.

"You've arrived."

She flipped her right hand over the fire. Her palm held a small ceramic dish, about the size of her hand. The medicinal liquid inside was evaporating. Her hand was incredibly steady—the fire was at least three hundred degrees Celsius, and the ceramic dish offered limited insulation, yet her fingers didn't tremble even slightly.

Fang Yuan walked to the table. His gaze swept over the three items from left to right.

Liu Ruyan stood up. She tried to wipe the medicine stains off her face with her sleeve—but instead of removing them, she smeared the yellow and black stains into a grayish-green stripe.

She picked up the white porcelain bottle on the left.

"Blood Stasis Removal Powder"

She handed the porcelain bottle to Fang Yuan. Fang Yuan took it and unscrewed the cap. A layer of light green powder floated at the mouth of the bottle. Fang Yuan smelled it.

Bitter. The undertones of angelica and chuanxiong—sounded exactly like the powder she had sprinkled on his back before. But there were two additional components that Fang Yuan hadn't smelled before. One was astringent. The other—Fang Yuan's twice-perfect comprehension scoured his olfactory information twice—there was no match.

"It's specifically effective against Blood Corrosion Poison." Liu Ruyan spoke 30% faster than a normal person. "Sprinkle it on the wound, and within 15 minutes, it can suppress the spread of Blood Corrosion Poison to near a standstill. It's three times stronger than the version I used before—because your pharmacy has a herb called 'Purple Gold Vine,' something my master searched for for six years without success, and your manager just left it gathering dust in the bottom drawer like an ordinary climbing plant."

Fang Yuan didn't reply. He put the blood-stasis-removing powder into his pocket.

Liu Ruyan picked up the bamboo tube in the middle.

"Azure Spirit Liquid".

She unscrewed the wax seal. The pale blue liquid sloshed inside the bamboo tube.

"After drinking it, it can significantly enhance the range and accuracy of perception for a short period of time. The specific degree of enhancement varies from person to person—the more perceptive one is, the more obvious the effect will be. The duration is approximately half an hour."

Fang Yuan's fingers paused on the bamboo tube for a moment.

Significantly improves the range of perception.

His spiritual talent is doubled. If the effects of the Azure Spirit Liquid could be stacked on top of this talent multiplication—

Fang Yuan didn't ask for the specific value. He took the bamboo tube and stuffed it into the other pocket of his robe.

Liu Ruyan reached out her hand towards the black porcelain jar on the right.

Her movements slowed down. She had been quick and efficient when handling the blood-activating powder and the Biling liquid. Now, her fingers paused for two breaths on the hemp rope of the black porcelain jar before she began to untie it.

"This thing."

Her voice slowed down.

"I haven't decided on a name yet."

The hemp rope was untied. The layers of oil paper were peeled off one by one.

The moment the jar was revealed, the faint smell of blood intensified. Fang Yuan's doubled spiritual perception detected an unusual fluctuation within that scent—not blood or qi, not medicinal properties. It was some kind of energy form somewhere in between, one that Fang Yuan had never seen before in any ancient texts.

Liu Ruyan tilted the jar towards Fang Yuan.

The jar contained dark red powder, two shades darker than blood. The powder was extremely fine, appearing almost uniform to the naked eye, but Fang Yuan's eight times the power of his stance training enhanced his visual precision, revealing extremely faint red wisps of light between the powder particles.

The gossamer threads were slowly wriggling.

It looks alive.

"Weren't you hunting those red-robed men?" Liu Ruyan's gaze shifted from the mouth of the jar to Fang Yuan's face.

Fang Yuan neither admitted nor denied it.

But Liu Ruyan didn't need his acknowledgment. During the five days she stayed at Baicaotang, the number of Qi and Blood Pills Fang Yuan delivered each morning varied—three more bottles on the second day, five more on the third. A normal merchant wouldn't suddenly increase his personal medicine consumption unless he was engaged in intense battles every night.

"This stuff was sprinkled on their 'altar'," Liu Ruyan said, pointing with her index finger to the dark red powder in the jar. "It can disrupt the altar's blood circulation."

Fang Yuan lifted his gaze from the powder.

"principle?"

Liu Ruyan's lips twitched slightly. Fang Yuan had seen that expression before—when she was explaining pharmacology, the corner of her mouth would unconsciously turn to the left. It wasn't sarcasm. It was the satisfaction of "finally someone asked the right question."

"Their altars are maintained by their vital essence. This essence circulates within the altar's patterns, forming a closed energy loop. This loop is the source of their evil power—like a reservoir. As long as the altar exists, the reservoir exists. The evil practitioners can draw power from the reservoir at any time."

She drew a circle on the rim of the jar with her index finger.

"The core ingredient of this powder is ground 'Crimson Flame Core' powder, plus nine auxiliary medicines created by my master. The medicinal properties of Crimson Flame Core are pure Yang—naturally counteracting the 'coldness' of evil techniques based on essence and blood. When sprinkled on the patterns of the altar, the Yang medicinal power of Crimson Flame Core will seep into the blood circulation loop, disrupting the flow of energy from the inside."

Fang Yuan's doubled comprehension translated her words into a more straightforward description—pouring sand into their oil pipelines.

"Without the altar's supply, the cultivation levels of those red-robed people will drop by at least 20%." Liu Ruyan emphasized the word "20%".