Chapter 30: Wholesale Healing Potions in the Second Life

Watching Jiang Tingting eat with such relish, Fang Zheng felt no craving. Having gone too long without food or taste, he had almost forgotten what flavor even was.

Fang Zheng asked out of curiosity, "Why doesn't this big white ape eat them itself? Aren't monkeys supposed to love peaches?"

Jiang Tingting shook her head. "Spirits that haven't embarked on the path of cultivation are naturally like that, but this white ape is quite aged. Though it has gradually gained intelligence, its declining vitality has denied it the chance to cultivate."

"The few spirit peach trees on the mountain that aren't protected by arrays possess only faint spiritual energy, which is no longer of any benefit to it."

"For many years, the white ape has offered me peaches, and I have rewarded it with moon essence liquid, allowing it to prolong its life despite its fading vitality."

Fang Zheng was curious. "What about the extra peaches? Do the other monkeys in the tribe eat them?"

Jiang Tingting replied, "In past years, the spirit peaches harvested from the mountain were mostly brewed into 'monkey wine' along with various herbs and lingzhi mushrooms. It would offer this to the cultivators of the Jiang family in exchange for protection. Although this monkey wine is of no use for cultivation, it tastes quite good."

"So in this world, if you're too old, you can't cultivate?" Fang Zheng pondered for a moment, and suddenly, a bright idea flashed in his mind.

*Ah! I have an idea!*

He clicked on his inventory and pulled out a splash potion of healing. As the old white ape looked on with a hint of fear, he quickly tossed several hundred bottles at it.

As the red, swirling mist rapidly dissipated, the old white ape, shrouded within it, began to stand taller and straighter. In just over ten seconds, its frail body, originally barely two meters tall, stretched to a full four meters. Its weight, increased out of thin air, left deep footprints in the grass beneath its feet.

Its muscles surged, corded like dragons, and its eyebrows, which had once hung long and thin, now stood like swords piercing the sky. Its formerly gentle, peaceful face now appeared fierce and martial—a living, breathing silver giant capable of tearing tigers and leopards apart and wrestling wild elephants!

The old white ape had gained intelligence with age, but only because of its declining vitality had it been unable to truly set foot on the path of cultivation. Now, building upon the foundation of all its years of growth and subsequent decline, every bit of damage—the physical wear and tear, the loss of potential, the stiffened meridians, and even the dimming of its soul—was completely restored by the effects of the healing potion!

Even though Jiang Tingting was a princess of the Jiang family, heir to the Great Yin Human Emperor, and already at the second realm of the Sendai stage—accustomed to seeing all manner of miraculous pills and elixirs—she was absolutely stunned by such an outrageous effect.

With a sweep of her divine sense, she discovered that the silver ape’s body was as tough and powerful as a master martial artist's, yet as pure and flawless as a newborn’s.

This was not something achievable by eating ordinary spirit herbs. This was the kind of innate strength and purity usually found only in the offspring of beasts with special bloodlines.

Jiang Tingting swept her divine sense again and observed a faint, soft white light emanating from its dantian sea of energy. The old white ape, nearly a hundred years old and having never touched the gates of cultivation, had spontaneously opened its sea of energy as it regained its youth!

Looking into its eyes, the vibrant radiance within revealed a powerful soul and a surging, youthful spirit. Having witnessed the divine King Jiang Taixu of the Jiang family, Jiang Tingting immediately realized the terrifying extent of the ability Fang Zheng had just displayed.

"To completely rejuvenate it, granting it a second life while retaining its original physical and soul strength?" This was an immense stroke of luck, akin to being reborn or changing one's destiny!

Jiang Tingting knew that while this silver ape lacked any special bloodline, its current state of pure vitality and resilient spirit meant that once it began the path of cultivation, it would surely experience a long period of rapid advancement. If it were human, it would be the type of "immortal seedling" that small sects would fight over. Among the demon clans, it would be enough for the great demons to nurture it as a budding genius.

Seeing Fang Zheng’s nonchalant reaction, Jiang Tingting realized that for him, turning an aging creature into this was likely effortless.

"If only..." Jiang Tingting thought of her grandfather, who had passed away over thirty years ago, and sighed.

"Awoooo!!!"

The silver ape, suddenly restored to its prime, beat its chest and let out a deafening roar. After venting for a moment, it immediately knelt and began to kowtow heavily to Fang Zheng. Though it could not yet speak, it expressed its gratitude for this gift of rebirth in its own way.

After bidding farewell to the silver ape, the two continued their stroll on the mountain. The mountain was vast, filled with all sorts of wonders: white deer as pure as jade ran about, and enormous cranes, as large as helicopters, flitted in and out of the clouds, occasionally diving down to snatch up giant pythons and devour them.

Fang Zheng moved about using his "hover-sprint" mode, while Jiang Tingting followed at a leisurely pace, explaining various things to him. Suddenly, Fang Zheng stopped at a desolate, empty cliff and asked, "By the way, what is this? Why does it look so terrifying?"

Before him grew a strange plant with grey-white markings. Its entire body was blood-red, and the markings vaguely resembled a twisted human face, emitting faint, mournful cries. The area around it was barren, shrouded in a faint black mist. It looked exactly like the kind of lethal, incurable poisonous plant often found in xianxia novels.

Jiang Tingting took a look and replied, "Senior Fang, this is a Nine Nether Yin-Yang Bone-Shedding Ganoderma."

"According to ancient texts, this herb grows only in places of extreme Yin. Before it matures, it exudes an aura of decay; once mature, the body turns crimson gold and flows with Yang energy."

"It requires a thousand years of absorbing the Yin-sha of the earth's veins and the essence of the moon to take form, and five thousand years to reach maturity. Before it is fully formed, it is highly toxic and extremely difficult to transplant."

"But once mature, it becomes a precious medicinal king capable of changing one's aptitude and cleansing the marrow. After consumption, the Lesser Yin and Yang energies within it cleanse the bones and meridians, greatly enhancing one's natural talent."

"Ancient Jiang family records state that the Qingming Mountain was originally called the Moon-Burial Ridge. Legend has it that in the primordial era, a female saint with a Great Yin body fell here, her essence blood seeping into the earth's veins and nourishing many Yin-attribute spirit herbs. Later, the entire mountain range was discovered by the Jiang family and moved here. Most of the Yin-attribute herbs were eventually harvested, and the Yin energy gradually dissipated, leaving only a few that had not yet matured."

Looking at the ancient characters inscribed on the cliff beside the herb, Jiang Tingting added casually, "It should mature in another two thousand years or so."

"It'll take another two thousand years to mature?" Fang Zheng remarked with a sigh. "This really is a cultivation world; everything takes hundreds or thousands of years to grow."

Suddenly interested, he said, "Say, since items from Minecraft have an effect on this world, I wonder if bone meal would work?"

Bone meal was a Minecraft item obtained by killing skeletons or digging up bone blocks in the Nether, which could then be broken down in the inventory or created in a composter. It was used as fertilizer and dye.

When used, it could advance a plant's growth by 2–5 stages, with a 75% chance of triggering the next growth stage. Unlike the healing potion, which restored health out of thin air, bone meal's growth effect was percentage-based rather than tied to a specific growth bar.

Could bone meal accelerate the growth of plants in this world?