A Mortal's Journey to Immortality

From then on, Zhou Ping never went near the chicken coop again. Even when he encountered Chef Wang, he would slip away as soon as possible and never say a word more than necessary.

He was really feeling guilty. It was said that Chef Wang was even fined a month's salary by the Jin family steward because of this, which made him so angry that he even dismantled the chicken coop.

Zhou Ping knew he was in the wrong, so he could only avoid the issue if he could. He couldn't very well come forward and say that he did it, could he?

After this experiment, the eerie abilities of the black agarwood once again refreshed Zhou Ping's understanding.

Its powerful ability to accelerate the growth of herbs is like poison when used on animals, turning them to ashes in a short time.

Zhou Ping still feels lingering fear when he recalls the tragic fate of the pheasants.

He made up his mind that from now on, he could only use water mixed with smoke to accelerate the growth of herbs, and he could no longer make any more wild and haphazard attempts.

Over the next two months, Zhou Ping conducted several more targeted experiments in order to accurately grasp the effect of tobacco water on the growth of herbs.

He first used all the tobacco water to water a single herb, wanting to see how much it could accelerate the growth of the herb in one go.

Experiments revealed that the total amount of smoke and water produced from a single instance of smoke generation could potentially grow a medicinal herb to a lifespan of about sixty years.

If the tobacco water is divided into several portions, the total age of the herbs cultivated would be close to sixty years.

Through these attempts, Zhou Ping gradually discovered the specific catalytic ability of the tobacco, which is equivalent to a medicinal age of sixty years.

Regardless of how it is distributed, the amount of tobacco water obtained at one time can at most give rise to a medicinal herb that is sixty years old.

To Zhou Ping's astonishment during subsequent attempts, the herbs that had been stimulated by the smoke and water could still be stimulated to grow further!

During this period, he used all the tobacco water he obtained three times in a row to promote the growth of the same Tanyou grass, which miraculously allowed him to obtain a rare treasure that was nearly two hundred years old.

This result convinced Zhou Ping that if he continued to use tobacco water to accelerate the growth of this Epimedium brevicornu, its medicinal lifespan could continue to increase.

However, he did not continue. Zhou Ping did not need such an old herb at the moment. It would be a waste of a lot of energy to cultivate a useless herb.

The Jin clan provided him with mostly herbs that were thirty or forty years old, which greatly helped his current cultivation.

One or two herbs that are thirty or forty years old might be something an ordinary person could afford if they gritted their teeth, but for the Jin Clan to consume them day after day for years, like cabbages, and use them for Zhou Ping's cultivation, that would be terrifying.

This requires a family to spend hundreds of years accumulating resources, and in the process, countless resources are consumed.

Even so, the Jin clan is now somewhat overwhelmed. It is extremely difficult to find herbs that are at least forty years old when supplying Zhou Ping. The vast majority are only a little over thirty years old, and sometimes there are even herbs that are twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old mixed in.

This result directly caused Zhou Ping's cultivation speed to slow down, which gave Jin Jingtian a major headache.

Now that Zhou Ping has the mysterious growth-promoting ability of agarwood, he will no longer have to worry about the shortage of medicines for his future cultivation.

However, this also brought him a problem: his sudden increase in cultivation speed would inevitably not escape Jin Jingtian's perception and would certainly arouse the other party's suspicion.

That would be troublesome. If they were to investigate further, the secret of my possession of the mysterious agarwood might be exposed.

Zhou Ping frowned as he pondered a solution. If he didn't solve this problem, wouldn't he be like someone with a treasure trove that he couldn't use?

During this period, Zhou Ping tried to preserve the mixed water in batches for future use.

Because once agarwood produces smoke, if it is not mixed with water, it will continue to linger at the top, condensing and not dissipating.

Even after another cycle, no more smoke will be generated.

To do this, he would collect all the smoke from each instance and mix it into liquid, then store it in porcelain bottles. In this way, he could accumulate a large quantity of liquid.

However, Zhou Ping was greatly disappointed by the result. The stored tobacco water would lose its ability to promote the growth of herbs after two days and would turn back into ordinary water, without any of its magical properties.

Therefore, Zhou Ping had to abandon his plan to store large quantities of tobacco water and would have to use it as soon as it was produced from then on.

Time passed, and more than half a year had gone by since Zhou Ping discovered the secret of agarwood.

Using the magical properties of agarwood, Zhou Ping cultivated many precious herbs, which he immediately brewed into pills and stored away.

Looking at the densely packed small porcelain bottles in front of him, Zhou Ping's face showed a satisfied expression, but it was not long before it was replaced by a touch of sorrow.

Over the past six months, he has truly experienced the pain of guarding a mountain of treasures in vain. With so many precious pills, he dares not use them for cultivation at will.

In order to avoid being discovered by Jin Jingtian, he only dared to eat a tiny bit each time he practiced the Qingyuan Technique, in order to make up for the deficiencies caused by the inferior herbs of the Jin Clan.

Although the cultivation speed was temporarily guaranteed, and even Jin Jingtian couldn't sense this subtle difference, it was like being shackled for Zhou Ping, preventing him from cultivating freely and unrestrainedly.

"Ryusu Pill", "Wolin Pill" and "Tanxiang Pill"

Zhou Ping fiddled with the various porcelain vases on the table, looking preoccupied and somewhat listless.

The names of these pills were just random names he came up with based on the herbs he brewed, simply for easy differentiation later.

Of these pills, apart from the "Ephemeral Fragrance Pill" which has a remarkable detoxifying effect, the other two are used for cultivating the Azure Origin Technique.

In addition to increasing the cultivation speed of Qingyuan Gong, the "Dragon Beard Pill" can also widen Zhou Ping's meridians, making them more resilient and unobstructed.

The "Black Scale Pill" is a precious medicine similar to tempering the body. After taking it, it can temper the bones and transform the body. Its main ingredient, the Black Scale Fruit, is a famous sacred medicine for martial arts training in the martial arts world.

According to some vague and unfounded rumors, some incredibly lucky individuals stumbled upon a thousand-year-old black-scaled fruit after wandering into deep mountains and forests.

After taking it, his Ren and Du meridians were opened, and his martial arts cultivation skyrocketed, transforming him from an unknown person into a renowned martial arts master!

Although Zhou Ping was somewhat skeptical of these half-true and half-false rumors, the effects of the "Black Scale Pill" made him truly feel the changes in his body.

It truly lives up to its reputation as a sacred medicine for martial arts. Zhou Ping has gone from an ordinary boy with mediocre talent to someone who can now master a difficult martial art like the Floating Shadow Step with ease.

The changes in his body and physique are obvious.

The black pills that Zhou Ping gave to Duan Yu were the "Black Scale Pills".

These precious pills played a significant role in assisting the latter's martial arts training.