“Alright! This is thirty-year-old bitter ginseng, it nourishes the body, strengthens the vital energy and blood, unblocks the meridians, and is for internal use. This is twenty-year-old red blood vine, it heals internal injuries and removes blood stasis. This is ten-year-old snake gall fruit, to be decocted for medicinal baths, treating external flesh wounds. These are all third-grade herbs. One of the herbs is a bit less potent, so I’ll give you a discount—just eight taels of silver.”

The pharmacy owner, Mr. Bolton, deftly wrapped up three packets of herbs and said with a smile, “Use these three sets of herbs together for an excellent body-tempering effect.”

“Thanks!”

Charles Bennett paid eight taels of silver, happily took the three packets of herbs, and left the herbal shop. Carrying old books, ancient paintings, and the three sets of cultivation herbs, he arrived at a secluded courtyard in the academy where students lived, and entered one of the wooden rooms.

Charles Bennett unrolled the ancient painting titled “Immortal Abode,” gazed at it for a while, and then placed it on the table with satisfaction. This was the first time in ten years he had spent silver to buy such a luxurious ancient painting, greatly fulfilling his dream.

Afterwards, he also placed the three sets of herbs on the table and opened one of the packets.

“Time to temper my body and cultivate!”

Charles Bennett got busy, boiling water under the eaves to prepare for decocting the internal and external use herbs.

“Huh? Why is there one less bitter ginseng?!”

Charles Bennett boiled the water, went back inside to get the herbs, glanced at the herbs on the table, and was immediately shocked.

The opened packet of herbs on the table clearly had three herbs inside, but now one bitter ginseng was missing.

“Where’s my bitter ginseng? Who stole my herb in just this short while?”

Charles Bennett panicked, rushed to the table, and picked up the herbs.

Then, he saw something even more astonishing.

He saw that in the one-mu barren medicinal field depicted in the ancient painting scroll, there was now an extra thirty-year-old, three-inch-long bitter ginseng. The leaves of this bitter ginseng were still fresh and dewy, growing vigorously—it was clearly the very bitter ginseng he had bought.

“My bitter ginseng, how did it get into the ancient painting?! I spent a tael of silver on this bitter ginseng, how do I get it out?!”

Charles Bennett stared blankly, his breathing quickening.

“It seems to be... growing!”

Charles Bennett picked up the ancient painting scroll, rubbed his eyes, and looked carefully again.

The bitter ginseng in the painting was indeed getting bigger.

Charles Bennett shook the painting hard, and a thicker, larger bitter ginseng “plopped!” out of the scroll. Its size was more than double what it had been.

“This bitter ginseng is now six inches long, at least sixty years of potency, a sixth-grade herb! Such a high-grade herb isn’t even sold in herbal shops. Even if it were, the price would be dozens or even hundreds of taels of silver.”

Charles Bennett measured the length of the bitter ginseng and swallowed hard.

He immediately realized something even more important.

The bitter ginseng itself was nothing.

The truly astonishing item was this ancient painting scroll. The one-mu medicinal field inside could actually make a three-inch bitter ginseng grow into a six-inch one.

“What exactly is this ancient painting scroll?... The scroll is inscribed with the words ‘Immortal Abode’—could this really be a magical artifact used by cultivators?”

Charles Bennett could not hide his shock.

If this really was an immortal’s magical artifact, news of it would shake the entire Wu Kingdom. Countless swordsmen, sabermen, and ninth-level body-refining experts would flock to the Northern Slope Academy, frantically vying for this treasure. Once a martial artist breaks through the ninth level of body refinement, they can enter the Nascent Soul stage and become a cultivator. Who wouldn’t want to own a magical artifact used by immortals?

“I’ll try again and see what happens!”

Charles Bennett thought for a moment and tried placing a red blood vine on the ancient painting scroll.

“Whoosh!”

A twenty-year-old red blood vine vanished into thin air.

And inside the ancient painting scroll, in the one-mu medicinal field, a red-blooded vine sprouted, lifelike and vivid, almost indistinguishable from the real thing.

Charles Bennett widened his eyes and held his breath.

This red blood vine began to grow rapidly at a speed visible to Charles Bennett's naked eye, becoming thicker and stronger.

Before long, the red blood vine “plopped!” out of the ancient painting scroll.

“So this is how it works!”

Charles Bennett was overjoyed and used all three sets of his herbs to experiment.

After trying several times, he gradually figured out the trick to using the ancient painting scroll. Each time he put a herb in, once it had grown to a certain extent, it would automatically fall out.

“This ancient painting scroll is much dimmer than before. The painting used to have a bit of a glossy sheen, but now it’s becoming dull and completely lusterless.”

After using it many times, Charles Bennett noticed changes in the ancient painting.

When he put in the last ‘ten-year snake gall fruit’ herb, it barely grew at all in the medicinal field, gaining less than a year’s potency before falling out.

“Why has the ancient painting stopped working?”

After noticing this, Charles Bennett was startled and didn’t dare use it again.

“Could it be that the field in the ancient painting, just like real farmland, gets depleted after repeated use?”

He was the son of a common farming family in Wu Kingdom, and knew that farmland, after years of growing grain, would lose its fertility, resulting in poorer harvests. It would need to lie fallow for a year or so to recover its strength.