Suddenly, Charles Bennett felt the ancient painting scroll tied closely around his waist rapidly heating up, becoming scorching hot.

Charles Bennett was astonished. He quickly put down the bone and untied the ancient painting scroll from his waist.

But as soon as he took it off, the ancient painting scroll immediately cooled down.

“What’s going on? Strange!”

Charles Bennett realized it was a false alarm.

He tied the ancient painting scroll back around his waist and picked up the white bone fragment again, wanting to determine its value.

But the ancient painting scroll at his waist started to heat up again.

Charles Bennett couldn’t help but feel annoyed.

He untied the ancient painting scroll from his waist and placed it on the ground.

Charles Bennett stared at the ancient painting, then looked at the white bone fragment in his hand, finding it rather odd.

Since obtaining the ancient painting scroll more than ten days ago, he had never encountered such a sudden heating of the scroll. Only today, when he accidentally picked up this bone fragment! …Right, there’s something wrong with this bone fragment!

“What connection could this white bone fragment have with the ancient painting scroll?!”

Charles Bennett widened his eyes, deep in thought.

He carefully placed the bone fragment on top of the ancient painting scroll, wanting to see what would happen.

The ancient painting scroll flashed with a faint light. “Whoosh!” The bone fragment immediately disappeared from above the painting, sucked into the scroll.

“This Immortal Mansion ancient painting scroll can not only plant herbs in the medicine garden, but can also absorb other things?!”

Charles Bennett was shocked, gasping in surprise.

He watched the ancient painting scroll nervously, paying close attention to any changes inside.

The scene within the ancient painting scroll reacted.

In the painting, the small pavilion on the floating island with the signboard “Refining Pavilion” began to emit wisps of light smoke.

At the same time, a faint glow appeared on the ancient painting scroll, gradually growing brighter, and the colors of the painting were restored.

After a while, the Refining Pavilion in the painting stopped smoking, and a small pile of bone powder fell out.

Charles Bennett pinched a small amount of bone powder with his fingers and saw that it was the remains of the bone fragment from earlier, now completely dull and devoid of its white glow.

At this moment, the ancient painting was already rich in color, looking much more beautiful than its previously dull and gray appearance.

“This bone fragment originally had a faint white glow, and the Refining Pavilion absorbed all of it. Now the painting’s color is warm and lustrous, even better than when I first obtained it. Does this mean the painting has recovered some ‘field energy,’ and I can continue planting herbs in the medicine garden?”

Charles Bennett guessed joyfully.

“This ‘Immortal Mansion’ ancient painting scroll truly is a treasure passed down by immortals! The small house, the acre of medicine garden, the Refining Pavilion, the Alchemy Pavilion, the beast pen on the Immortal Mansion island—each must have great uses!”

Charles Bennett wasn’t entirely sure, but this speculation was probably correct. So far, he had only discovered the uses of the medicine garden and the Refining Pavilion; the functions of the others were still unknown.

“Now, using the medicine garden to plant herbs should yield even more herbs!”

Charles Bennett suppressed his excitement.

Before coming here, he had been worried that in ten days or half a month he would run out of mid-grade herbs, and wondered how to restore the field energy of the medicine garden in the painting. Now that it had absorbed the white glow from the bone fragment, it had already begun to recover some field energy, and the herbs he could grow would probably last him a month or two.

“I wonder if there are any more treasures like this among these old books!”

With this thought, Charles Bennett continued searching through the pile of books.

He nearly turned the entire pile upside down, going through thousands of volumes. But to his disappointment, he found no other bone fragments, bamboo slips, or jade pieces in the old book pile that could make the ancient painting scroll heat up.

Even when he placed ordinary bone fragments or bamboo slips on the ancient painting scroll, the painting had no reaction and would not absorb them.

“Could it be that only that white bone fragment was a treasure?”

By evening, Charles Bennett had finished sorting through hundreds of classics, locked the door, and left the old book repository, still feeling puzzled and regretful.

The cultivation life at North Slope Academy went on day after day.

Every morning, Charles Bennett practiced the second move of the “Tiger Leaping Blade Technique”—Tiger Leaping Slash—at the training ground.

He would practice for three or four hours at a stretch, almost to the point of breaking his own bones.

Such intensity of training was extremely rare even among the young students of the upper academy, drawing the attention of many students from noble families, and even provoking much ridicule and criticism.

“Just watch, this guy is training so desperately. Although he’s making rapid progress in the short term, without top-quality herbs to temper his body, within a year or so, his meridians will be ruined! He’ll be stuck at the fourth or fifth level of the Body Refining stage for life, progressing slower and slower, and will never reach the later stages!”

“He’s just a poor kid—can he even afford mid-grade body-tempering herbs? …Ha, I almost forgot, the academy’s herb shop doesn’t even sell third-grade or higher herbs; they’ve all been bought up by the noble families! We’re all children of noble families and can get subsidies from our clans, receiving fourth-grade or higher herbs to temper our bodies. How could a poor kid like him ever get such high-grade herbs!”