Chapter Twelve: Revealing Divine Power Before Others, Gaining Vital Essence Once More (Please Keep Reading)

The morning passed in a blur.
Lunch was decent: a meat dish, two steamed buns, and egg-drop soup one could drink as much as desired.
In the afternoon, each person received several booklets, covering plant medicines, mineral medicines, insect carapace medicines, poisons, and medicines with opposing or restraining properties.
Every medicine was annotated with its properties and effects.
Yang Fan discovered a particular advantage—perhaps it was due to the fate bestowed upon him with his mountain patrol mission. His memory was exceptionally sharp. Though not quite at the level of remembering everything at a glance, he could fully memorize content after two or three readings.
It seemed that his affinity for medicines had also increased, making it easy to remember, understand, absorb, and internalize the knowledge.
By evening, he had already mastered most of a booklet.
After dinner, he and Da Hu left the academy together.
The accommodations here were poor—seven or eight people squeezed into a single room, sleeping on communal beds. Yang Fan wasn’t accustomed to this, so he sought out Steward Wang to request returning home to sleep.
The steward had no objection, only reminding him not to be late the next day.
On the street.
“In the past, I always wanted to learn, but now, seeing those tiny, dense characters in the booklets gives me a headache,” Da Hu complained. “The mountains are much more fun!”
“Come on, at least you know quite a few characters. Look at most apprentices—they have to start learning to read first. That puts us behind already. If we want to compete for the top three spots, it’s almost hopeless. No, it’s completely hopeless,” Yang Fan laughed. “You should be grateful.”
Anyone who became an apprentice was clever.
But due to their circumstances, many didn’t even know how to read.
They could gather herbs because they’d seen them often and recognized them by sight.
“That’s true!” Da Hu scratched his head. “I remember back when Uncle Dashan and your father forced us to study, which is why we know so many characters. Now I realize how important knowledge is, but I just can’t get myself to learn.”
As they spoke, they noticed a crowd ahead, shouting loudly, with a strong scent of blood in the air.
The two quickened their pace and saw several men carrying a python over thirty meters long.
The snake was covered in fresh blood, its massive head nearly reduced to mush.
It was much larger than the one Yang Fan had killed before.
“When will I ever be able to hunt such fearsome beasts?” Da Hu said longingly.
Yang Fan, however, focused on the hunters.
With his “Earth Sense” ability, he sensed their vitality like blazing furnaces—extremely strong. He judged that most were true warriors.
Each was stained with blood, two of them seriously injured.
One carried a corpse on his back.
“You only see the harvest, not their misery,” Yang Fan said calmly.
Da Hu, noticing the corpse, grew more solemn.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
After breakfast, Yang Fan sought out Steward Wang to explain his situation, startling the steward: “What? You’ve memorized all the booklets?”
“Uncle Wang, it’s simple!” Yang Fan smiled. “I already knew most of it. Now that I’ve studied systematically, memorizing it comes naturally.”
As for keeping a low profile?
There was no need.
For the Hall of Universal Relief, the greater the talent, the more valuable the investment and the more attention given.
That was precisely what he needed.
“Then I must test you thoroughly,” said Steward Wang, doubting him.
Though small, the booklets together contained records of five or six hundred herbs, plus classifications, properties, effects, and counteragents—a daunting amount to memorize.
Steward Wang gathered several teaching apothecaries.
He also attracted the attention of other apprentices.
“Yang Fan, tell me about the medicine Huanglou,” one apothecary asked on the spot.
“Flat leaves, serrated, mostly in clusters of five or seven. Bitter taste, neutral property, non-toxic. Treats stagnation of liver qi, digestive accumulation, cold and heat pathogens. It brightens the eyes, nourishes essence, and aids digestion,” Yang Fan replied swiftly.
The apothecary nodded and continued questioning.
Yang Fan answered quickly each time.
Nothing stumped him, which astonished the apothecaries and delighted them greatly.
Steward Wang was visibly pleased.
Having such a promising student was an achievement.
The apprentices watching were shocked: while they were just learning to read, Yang Fan had already finished studying.
Envy and jealousy were inevitable.
Some showed hostility, like Yang Xiang and Yang Tian, who aimed for the top three.
Da Hu, however, was happy for Yang Fan.
“Excellent, excellent!” one middle-aged apothecary praised. “You’ve mastered everything. Staying in the basic academy now would be a waste of time. Steward Wang, why not put him under my guidance? I’ll teach him how to identify and process medicines, so he can graduate quickly.”
“Agreed!” Steward Wang nodded.
This was to cultivate talent for the Hall of Universal Relief, so teaching according to ability was natural.
Steward Wang went to report the matter.
Yang Fan was taken away by the middle-aged apothecary.
He knew only that the man’s surname was Guan, and that he’d been rather aloof during lectures, but now was warm and enthusiastic: “Memory is only the foundation—identifying medicines is the real entry. How do you identify them? By shape, by scent, by their environment, and by the part harvested. Processing is even harder—how long to dry them, whether it’s cloudy or sunny, how to use other medicines to balance toxicity, and so on.”

As he spoke, Apothecary Guan led him to the medicine storeroom.
Cabinets lined the walls, densely packed.
But not much medicine was stored in each.
“First, teach yourself to recognize their features. If you don’t understand something, ask. And don’t mix them up,” Guan instructed, explained the situation, and left.
Yang Fan smiled.
His gaze swept the room, locking onto his targets.
Cabinet number seventy-nine: Millipede Silverworm.
Cabinet one hundred and seven: Black Jade Resin.
Yang Fan opened a drawer to examine a whole dried herb whose appearance had changed somewhat.
He had to compare it with his studies, committing it to memory.
Soon, he reached drawer seventy-nine, pulled it open, and saw a centipede over twenty centimeters long.
Its belly was lined with countless legs, a silver line ran along its back—it was best soaked in wine.
Yang Fan touched it lightly, and information appeared before his eyes.
[Earth Element Essence]: Gathered where earth veins converge, condensed over years, turning the intangible into the tangible, forming the purest essence of the land. Yellow in color, varied shape, with essence hidden inside and indistinguishable from yellow soil—extremely hard to identify. Contains 2.3 essence.
In his sensing, the millipede’s stomach held a stone the size of a fingernail, radiating a strong yellow light.
Clearly, the millipede had swallowed it.
After confirming, Yang Fan activated his Breath Devouring power, and two faint yellow streams flowed out, entering his nose.
[Essence]: 2.3
Yang Fan pushed the drawer back in.
He went straight to another cabinet, opened the drawer, and found a fist-sized black stone inside.
Irregular, emitting a foul odor.
This was Black Jade Resin, a rare medicine formed from the fermented dung of the exotic beast Ink Qilin deep underground.
Yang Fan’s target was within the dung.
He felt somewhat disgusted.