Martial Immortality: Starting with the Spirit Beast Scroll

The main hall of Xuanwu Pharmacy was spacious and bright. Directly opposite the main entrance was a long, mahogany counter that stretched over thirty feet. Several clerks bustled about, pulling herbs from the drawers of the large apothecary cabinet behind the counter and weighing them for customers.

On the shelves to either side were many prepared cultivation medicines, with labels that read: Qi Replenishing Soup, Rejuvenation Soup, Gathering Power Pill, Vajra Pill...

A dozen or so martial artists in various training uniforms were selecting herbs from the shelves while several attendants in blue robes stood by, explaining the medicinal properties.

Zhao Lin glanced around. All of these attendants were martial arts practitioners. One of the older ones had abundant Qi and Blood; he was actually at the First Layer of the Qi Realm.

"Sir, are you here to buy raw medicinal herbs or a refined formula? All of our herbs are sourced from Yanxing Mountain and are of the highest quality. Please feel free to choose whatever you need."

A blue-robed attendant saw Zhao Lin walk in and approached with a smile.

Noticing Zhao Lin was wearing the training uniform of the Xingyun Sect, the attendant gave a slight fist-and-palm salute. "Ah, so you’re a fellow sect member."

Zhao Lin nodded and pulled a list from his sleeve. "Fill this prescription for me. I’ll need one mace’s worth of each herb."

The attendant took the list and glanced at it. It contained the names of over a hundred different herbs: Chen Shi, Earth Essence, Hu Jugeng, Cyan Ganoderma, Withered Leaf Grass...

"So many herbs, and only one mace of each... This doesn’t seem to be for any kind of formula, is it?" the attendant asked, puzzled.

"I have my own use for them!" Zhao Lin said tersely.

The names on the list had all been collected from the notes in the Celestial Water Pavilion. Their scents varied, some strong and some faint. Zhao Lin was only buying these herbs to train his nose, so he naturally didn’t need a large quantity.

"Alright, I’ll have a clerk fill the order right away."

The attendant said no more, turning and walking to the counter to hand the list to an available clerk.

The clerk took the list and stuck his tongue out slightly. He expertly grabbed the herbs from the apothecary cabinet, wrapped them in parchment paper, and wrote the name of each herb on the package with a vermilion brush.

"Clerk, you’re not going to weigh the herbs?" Zhao Lin asked curiously, seeing that the clerk was just grabbing them without using a scale.

"Replying to you, sir, I’ve been working here for five years, gathering herbs thousands upon thousands of times every day. Practice makes perfect. No matter what it is, I know the weight just by grabbing it."

The clerk spoke, but his hands moved as fast as ever. In no time, he had all the herbs packaged.

"So it truly is just a matter of practice."

Zhao Lin offered a word of praise. His gaze swept quickly over the apothecary cabinet, and his nose twitched. He pointed to a row of drawers on the topmost shelf and asked, "Those must be the rare herbs, right?"

The clerk glanced back and nodded. "That’s right. These are all rare treasures from Yanyun Mountain. Only martial artists are skilled enough to harvest them."

"The Xingyun Sect only releases a small amount each season, so they’re often out of stock. Would you like to buy some, sir?"

Zhao Lin gave a noncommittal response. "Take out a little of each for me. I’d like to smell... no, I mean, have a look."

’He definitely couldn’t afford such expensive herbs, but as long as he could smell them and memorize their scents, he would have achieved his goal.’

Zhao Lin had learned from Senior Brother Liao and Senior Brother Gu that before the autumn harvest, the Elder Council would introduce the disciples to the rare flowers and exotic herbs of Yanyun Mountain to help them identify the plants during collection.

However, they would only describe their appearance and growing environment. As for their scents, they would mention them only briefly at best. That was far from enough for Zhao Lin, which was why he decided to come to the pharmacy to get a whiff of them in advance.

"One moment, sir."

The clerk brought over a wooden crate, stepped on it, and took out a small amount of each herb from the top shelf. He arranged them on the counter and began to introduce them one by one.

"This is a Red Tiger Scorpion Shell, this is earth blood ginseng, and this is a Celestial Vermilion Fruit..."

"Slow down..."

Zhao Lin casually placed a piece of silver weighing over a tael on the counter and pushed it toward the clerk. Then, he waved his hand over each herb, wafting the scent toward his nose and inhaling deeply.

The scents of the rare herbs were indeed unique. Some were acrid and foul, while others were light and elegantly fragrant. Zhao Lin secretly committed the scent and name of each herb to memory. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

After being dried, the herbs’ scents would intensify and their properties might change, but the primary aroma would still remain.

’As long as these herbs are on the mountain, I’ll be able to find them!’

The clerk stared at Zhao Lin, dumbfounded, completely forgetting to take the tip. It took him a long moment to come to his senses.

"Ahem... Sir, what are you doing?"

"Alright, you can put them back now," Zhao Lin said with satisfaction, having finished his intense sniffing.

’Could it be that just smelling them can increase one’s martial power?’

The clerk’s mouth twitched, but for the sake of the tip, he didn’t say anything more and put the herbs back.

The accountant took the list of herbs from the clerk. After a flurry of clicks and clacks on the abacus, he announced, "Ninety-eight types of herbs, for a total of twelve taels and three hundred twenty cash."

’So expensive!’

Zhao Lin sighed to himself, paid the money, took the packaged herbs, and left Xuanwu Pharmacy.

...

After returning to the Xingyun Sect, Zhao Lin began to immerse himself in his martial arts training.

To get a high rank in the autumn harvest, just improving his sense of smell wasn’t enough; he also needed the ability to protect his gains.

Otherwise, if he gathered a huge pile of rare herbs only to have them stolen, wouldn’t he just be toiling for someone else’s benefit?

Besides, practicing martial arts wasn’t just about protecting his harvest; he also had to guard against exotic beasts.

Wherever rare flowers and exotic herbs grew, there were often exotic beasts lurking nearby.

For safety reasons, the mountains selected by the elders for the Wuxiang Institute disciples generally didn’t have overly powerful exotic beasts.

But exotic beasts were not ordinary animals, after all. They either possessed deadly poison, had sharp claws, or had thick, tough hides. There were even exotic insects like the Iron-Toothed Ants, which appeared in swarms so massive that even Blood Realm martial artists would flee at the sight of them.

Not to mention anything from the distant past, if it weren’t for the fact that the bear on Baitou Mountain was old and frail, and that it had been ambushed with all sorts of despicable tricks, Zhao Lin might not even be able to defeat it in a head-on confrontation now.

...

In the center of the Wuxiang Institute was a wide training ground.

At dawn, dozens of disciples were tempering their bodies under the morning light. Some practiced their fist forms alone, while others sparred in pairs, their shouts echoing across the grounds.

On the west side of the training ground was a row of training rooms built from large stones. From one of them, the faint sound of metal striking stone could be heard.

Steam rose from the top of Zhao Lin’s head. His fists slammed into a coarse punching target as Qi and Blood surged into them, turning his entire palms beet red.

Forceful Qi gathered near the Zhongchong acupoint on the tip of his middle finger, vibrating the acupoint with every impact of his fist.

In order to break through to the Great Accomplishment stage of the Stone Roar Fist, Zhao Lin had drunk a large bowl of General Soup earlier that morning and could barely feel any pain.

CRACK...

When the time was right, the forceful Qi in his ten acupoints finally merged into a single, unified whole!

The color of the knuckles on both his fists changed again. It was no longer the pale blue-white of the Power Realm’s Bone Training Stage, but a light, grayish-white, like hard rock.

Zhao Lin felt the forceful Qi in his hands solidify into an iron plate, as if he had put on a layer of armor. When he swung his fists, the air howled.

Stone Roar Fist, Great Accomplishment!

"Not bad!"

Zhao Lin nodded slightly, a satisfied look on his face.

’Although the Stone Roar Fist doesn’t have a high ceiling, it’s more than enough for the Qi Realm. Now that I’ve reached the Great Accomplishment stage, I can block ordinary swords and sabers head-on.’

’If anyone dares to come after me, I’ll let them have a taste of these fists...’

「Time flowed like water, slowly turning to September.」