50 – The Pill Is Complete, Two of the Ten Delicacies

Arriving in front of the small courtyard halfway up the mountain.

Lu Qing rarely did not see his master practicing martial arts on the open ground in front of the door.

He went inside to take a look and found that the door of the medicinal room was still tightly closed, with a faint medicinal fragrance wafting out from within.

Knowing that his master was still inside refining medicine, he did not disturb him.

Instead, he placed the bucket in the corner, sensibly took out a broom, and began to sweep the yard.

Xiao Yan saw her brother cleaning, so she also took a small broom from the corner to help.

When the siblings were almost finished cleaning the yard, Lu Qing finally heard a door opening sound from inside.

Following that, it was the Old Doctor’s hearty laughter.

“You two, have you been here for a long time?”

Seeing Lu Qing and Xiao Yan cleaning the yard, the Old Doctor asked.

“Not very long, less than half an hour.” Lu Qing answered honestly.

“Grandpa Chen, Xiao Yan also helped Brother clean up.” The little girl held up her broom to claim credit.

“Grandpa knows, Xiao Yan is the best behaved.” The Old Doctor immediately praised.

“Hehe…” The little girl instantly became happy with the compliment.

“Master, did you stay up all night?”

Lu Qing looked at the Old Doctor’s attire, which was the same as yesterday’s, and couldn’t help but ask.

“You’re right. Refining medicine requires great attention to detail, especially for this Blood Replenishing and Qi Enhancing Pill. It’s best to complete it in one go to fully preserve the effects of the ginseng.” The Old Doctor nodded.

“Should Master take a rest?” Lu Qing asked with some concern.

“No need, just staying up one night is nothing, my old body isn’t that weak.” The Old Doctor waved his hand, “Besides, us old folks don’t sleep much anyway, losing some sleep is no big deal.”

Lu Qing observed and found that his master’s complexion was still rosy and energetic, showing no signs of fatigue.

He knew his master was telling the truth.

After all, Master was a martial artist of the Inner Organs Realm. Just staying up one night had no effect on him.

“From what Master said, the Blood Replenishing and Qi Enhancing Pill…” Lu Qing’s eyes lit up.

“It’s already been refined.” The Old Doctor took out a snow-white porcelain bottle, “That old ginseng produced twenty Blood Replenishing and Qi Enhancing Pills in total.”

“With the help of these twenty pills, not only will it be much easier for you to enter the Qi and Blood Realm, but your cultivation progress will be very fast after entering the Qi and Blood Realm.”

Lu Qing took the porcelain bottle and felt its heavy weight.

He suddenly asked, “Master, is it best to take this Blood Replenishing and Qi Enhancing Pill after entering the Qi and Blood Realm?”

The Old Doctor was stunned for a moment, then replied, “Yes, this Blood Replenishing and Qi Enhancing Pill is one of the best auxiliary pills for the Qi and Blood Realm. Just refining one pill can bring significant progress. Many martial artists in the Qi and Blood Realm are willing to spend a fortune to get a few.”

“So, would it be a bit wasteful to take this pill before entering the Qi and Blood Realm?”

“Although some of the medicine’s efficacy would be wasted, your foundation is somewhat weak. Without the aid of pills, even if you’ve mastered the Body Nourishing Fist, it would take some time to enter the Qi and Blood Realm.”

Hearing his master’s words, Lu Qing smiled slightly, didn’t inquire further, and changed the topic.

“Master, yesterday I went fishing and caught two strange fish with peculiar appearances. They seem quite unusual, I wanted to let you take a look.”

“Oh, what good stuff did you catch this time?” The Old Doctor became interested.

He knew that his disciple was very talented in fishing and often managed to catch some extraordinary fish.

These days, his small fish supply never ran out.

Fried small fish tasted very good and paired well with alcohol, so much so that his two jars of prized aged wine were almost finished.

“This type of fish is the first time I’ve caught it, not very big but quite strong, it feels very unusual.”

Lu Qing took out the bucket holding the Golden Loach from the corner of the yard.

The Old Doctor leaned over to take a look, saw the golden loach swimming inside, recognized it and suddenly widened his eyes.

“This creature, it’s the Golden Loach!”

“Master, do you recognize this fish?” Lu Qing asked.

“Of course, I do.” The Old Doctor’s expression was quite excited, “Do you remember the Red Moon Carp you caught before? I mentioned that it was one of the Ten Delicacies of the world.”

“Is this fish also one of the Ten Delicacies?” Lu Qing’s heart moved.

He hadn’t really thought of this.

“Correct, this type of fish is also a rare variety, named the Golden Loach. It is also one of the ten rare delicacies in the world. However, its ranking among the ten delicacies is much lower than the Red Moon Carp, being near the bottom. Therefore, its freshness is somewhat inferior to the Red Moon Carp.”

“Although the taste is slightly lacking, the Golden Loach is superior to the Red Moon Carp in one significant way: it has a very high nutritional value and is most suitable for those with weak constitutions.”

“Last time, I mentioned to you that your Red Moon Carp was bought by a nobleman in the city to nourish his wife’s body.”

“After the noble lady ate the Red Moon Carp, her health improved significantly, but she still remained somewhat weak.”

“If she had consumed the Golden Loach back then, she would probably have fully recovered.”

The Golden Loach was indeed one of the ten rare delicacies.

Lu Qing was surprised.

Based on this calculation, he had already caught two kinds of the ten rare delicacies in the river outside the village.

A small rural wild river could actually harbor two, or even more, varieties of rare fish. This was indeed quite intriguing.

Was it because of the Blood Apricot, or was there some other more unknown reason?

Lu Qing couldn’t help but think deeply about it.

The Old Doctor obviously thought about this issue as well.

“Aqing, where did you catch this Golden Loach?”

“In the same place where I caught the Red Moon Carp last time.” Lu Qing did not hide the truth.

“This small river outside the village can actually produce both the Red Moon Carp and the Golden Loach?”

The Old Doctor realized something unusual.

“Master, is there something wrong with that?” Lu Qing asked humbly.

“It does seem a bit unusual.” The Old Doctor said, “But as for the exact reason, I, an old man, cannot say. However…”

“However, what?”

Seeing that the Old Doctor’s face seemed somewhat serious, Lu Qing asked quickly.

“The fact that there are rare fish hidden in the river outside the village, you must never mention it to others in the future.” The Old Doctor said solemnly, “Rare fish are hard to come by and extremely valuable. If the news gets out, it may not be a good thing for the village.”

“I understand.”

Lu Qing understood his master’s point.

The so-called fault of holding treasures, the value of rare fish was too high.

If others knew that the river outside the village harbored rare fish, there was no guarantee that no one would want to monopolize the river and drive the villagers away.

He had seen many such cases in the news in his previous life.

By then, it would be a disaster for the villagers of Jiuli Village.

It seemed that even if he caught rare fish in the future, he could no longer reveal it.

Realizing this, Lu Qing immediately made a decision.

Even if he caught rare fish in the future, he wouldn’t sell them again.

Anyway, he had already reached an agreement with the little black beast; if he caught rare fish, he would just exchange them for ginseng with it.

“As long as you remember.”

The Old Doctor nodded, knowing that his disciple was always intelligent and did not require much guidance.

However, he was instead curious about another matter.

“Didn’t you say you caught two Golden Loaches? As far as I remember, Golden Loaches always appear in pairs and never alone. So where did the other one go?”

“As for the other one, it was eaten by that little black beast.”

Lu Qing smiled wryly and then explained the matter of the little black beast insisting on eating the rare fish.

He only omitted the part about the agreement with the little beast.

“I originally wanted to keep both Golden Loaches, but that little beast wouldn’t give up, so I had to give it one.”

“So that’s how it is, there’s no harm in it. That little beast gave you a hundred-year-old ginseng, reciprocating its gift by giving it a rare fish is also appropriate.”

The Old Doctor did not find it wasteful.

“Master, since there’s only one Golden Loach left, you should enjoy it. Consider it a bit of my filial piety to you.” Lu Qing said.

“Such a good thing, it would be a waste if I enjoyed it alone.” The Old Doctor laughed, “Let’s eat it together.”

“By the way, you’ve been catching this Golden Loach at a perfect time. With a bit of luck, you might step into the Qi and Blood Realm today.”

Hearing these words, Lu Qing was taken aback…