C361 – True Genius
Posted on May 20, 2019 by AzureOrchid92
Shao Xuan followed the old man along to circle around the mountain. If they saw the plants they needed, the old man would go and get it.
A low brown grass was cut by the old man. From a growing spiral tree, a skin was peeled. There were even some Shao Xuan had not seen before. The old man also picked some flowers.
“You’re going to…” Shao Xuan asked, seeing the old man’s actions.
“Use it to put down that batch of wild rats!” The old man’s tone was like it was obvious. For those he suspected were the thousand gold grains, he was determined to win and never let those wild rats eat those ears.
“Poison them?” Shao Xuan asked. Those wild rats were many, so if he wanted to poison them, even if he concocted an herbal medicine, the amount should be very large too. Unless he was actually going to concoct a specific drug.
However, the old man did not want to directly poison the wild rats.
“It is useful for them to stay in this barren mountain. If we need more thousand gold grains in the future, we may have to rely on them to find it so they cannot all be poisoned. I am just trying to stun them now.” The old man’s hands were full soon after. Although he actually wanted to pick less as there was not much grass growing in every part of the mountain, but the old man had to in order to concoct something in time. He moved fast, going to places he had in his memory for some of the plants he needed. In a moment, his hands were full.
“I’ll take it, you go on.” Shao Xuan turned his attention to the grass on the old man’s hands.
The old man did not decline. He handed the herbs to Shao Xuan and told him, “Be careful with those. Do not touch the fractures, the grass juice is bad for you too. And don’t take a whiff of it, or you’ll fall first and I wouldn’t be able to put all those wild rats down.”
The two men quickened their pace. Those wild rats’ movement showed that the plant at the mountain top would soon be fully mature. They had to collect everything and seize the right timing.
By following the old man, Shao Xuan had learned a lot of things, but it would be impossible to reach the old man’s ability to get the materials on the spot, when they were rushing for time. The old man would not say a lot, so Shao Xuan could only memorize as they go along. Perhaps he could use these later.
The mountains that seem to be short of trees and weeds everywhere was a treasure paradise for people like old Ju. Whether it’s waste or treasure, that depended on the person. Some plants alone might not have much ability, but together it could be different. What the old man wanted to concoct was a combination of a variety of plants to get the medicine.
“All right, that’s all.”
The old man sat on the ground and began to prepare things to make the medicine.
With a small copper tripod, a few odd-shaped knives, and he would be able to deal with all these.
“Shao Xuan, go to the mountains to get more ‘single-lined fruit’. Find the kind that had a small opening, not something with no opening or has been completely opened.” The old man did not lift his head as he spoke to Shao Xuan. He was busy with his hands and simply did not have the time to look for it himself. He also could not match Shao Xuan’s speed to search for said herb.
“Okay.” Shao Xuan did not ask much too, since he knew what kind of plant the old man was talking about. On the way, the old man had taught him how to recognize it.
Shao Xuan remembered that most of the plants of the “single-lined fruit” grew in the valley between the two mountains. He had seen it quite a few times as he walked along the narrow part of the valley.
A “single-lined fruit” was a kind of shrub, with a height not even reaching Shao Xuan’s waist. This was a shrub the old man himself named.
As he run down the hill, Shao Xuan looked around, then saw a “single-lined fruit”.
The so-called “single-lined fruit” was named as such because when the fruit of this shrub was about to mature, a line would appear on the fruit’s hard shell. Thereafter, as the fruit matured more and more, the line would crack and open, and the inside of the fruit which has a cracked line would dry out until only a small core would be left. When the time came, the crack on the fruit would be snapped and completely open, spewing out the core inside.
Shao Xuan tried once to be hit by the fruit’s core ejected from the shell and it hurt a lot. If Shao Xuan didn’t have a strong body, he might have broken a skin.
In general, when the fruit of this plant had a crack, there would be no other beasts around. In the old man’s words, “When you see those fruit with the line on the shell, you cannot be near, or you will be shot.”
If picked improperly, it would also stimulate the crack on the fruit’s shell and have an early ejection of its core. Therefore, the old man told Shao Xuan how to correctly pick a “single-lined fruit” when he demonstrated it twice.
Compared to the previous two days, there were more fruits with a crack in its shell surrounding the trees. He just did not know which were needed by the old man. Some cracks were still shallow and might not meet the requirements of the old man.
After thinking about it, Shao Xuan decided to cut away a branch with more fruits. After searching for that kind, he cut them, then Shao Xuan went up the mountain again.
The old man said that those wild rats on the mountain was waiting for the ears to really mature, as it was the most perfect moment the wild rats could get from it what they most wanted, so getting it a point earlier wouldn’t do. Perhaps the group of wild rats at the front which were relatively larger than the rest had gotten to eat more thousand gold grains in the past. If they found it themselves, why shouldn’t they eat more of it themselves too?
As he was thinking, Shao Xuan continued up the hill with the branch.
When Shao Xuan arrived, the old man has lit a fire, with various herbs that has been prepared next to it. The copper tripod let out some pungent smell from inside.
“You should stay away from this point.” The old man waved to Shao Xuan. Shao Xuan put the branch down then avoided the area. After all, Shao Xuan did not have the old man’s detoxification ability, so he was afraid that even a smell would make Shao Xuan faint.
Even after just a small whiff, Shao Xuan suddenly felt a little dizzy, so he moved a few more feet away and stood on a higher ground several meters away from the pot.
The fire was very strong that the inside of the copper pot constantly have water vapor coming out. The old man crouched beside it, staring, his eyes did not move a moment away from that small pot. He constantly stirred the medicine inside with a knife.
“All right!”
The old man screamed excitedly. He extinguished the fire, then picked up the branches brought by Shao Xuan and quickly removed the fruit that matched his requirements. He then held a fruit in one hand and the other held a strange knife. He scraped some powder from the small pot, then poured the powder into the small opening on the fruit.
Each fruit was as big as quail eggs, while the gap on the fruit was narrower. But the old man only needed one hand clamped on the knife and use that strange knife to pour powder into the hole without the powder leaking out and being wasted.
No wonder he had so many strange knives. It turned out to be used for this.
After filling one, the old man also covered the opening with a thin layer of almost transparent leaf skin. It’s to not let the powder inside leak out.
His actions quickly filled up the collected fruits with powder and sealed with the leaf skin. The old man finally picked up the last of the filled fruits with the least powder, then looked around.
Not far away, there was a bird on the ground pecking bugs. He looked at that target, then the old man threw it like a bullet. The fruit flew straight towards the other side, then hit the ground, issuing a clicking sound. The fruit completely opened, and the core inside ejected, at the same time, the powder filled in sprayed out.
Shao Xuan saw the bird flutter its wings twice, looking like it wanted to fly away, but after shaking its wings, it fell.
“How is it?” The old man looked at Shao Xuan with a smug face. It was clear that he was very pleased with what he had made himself.
Shao Xuan walked near to look at the fallen bird, then looked at the completely open empty shell, then sincerely commented, “True genius!”
The crazy old man is indeed a genius! （人´∀`*）
