Longevity: Starting with an infant's innate growth potential

Chapter 4 New Talent: Immortal Wisdom
Early the next morning.

The mountain wind was rather chilly.

As Zhou Shan walked along the mountain path, he looked back at Li Ru, who was carrying a medicine basket and carefully searching for medicinal herbs. He felt a little uneasy.

However, as he moved several miles away from the camp, he dared not be careless and focused his attention on scouting ahead.

Because he was a physical cultivator, his spiritual sense was inferior to Li Ru's.

They weren't as accurate as Li Ru in capturing the aura of spiritual herbs.

Inside the medicine basket, Zhou Ling's delicate white hands gripped the bamboo frame, looking calm and composed.

The combination of "Search for Treasure" and "Crisis Response" in this desolate mountain is simply a perfect match.

With the activation of his [Searching for Treasures in the Mountains] talent, Zhou Ling got up early in the morning and tried it out. Now he can roughly sense the aura of spiritual herbs within a range of three or four zhang.

As Zhou Ling walked to the edge of a mountain valley, a sudden inspiration flashed into his mind.

"Ink Essence Grass!"

He sniffed the air and sensed the scent of an old black jade herb not far away.

[Found Ink Essence Grass, Treasure Hunt in the Mountains +1]

The surrounding grass was relatively lush, and neither Zhou Shan nor Li Ru discovered the existence of this spiritual herb.

"Mom, I need to pee!"

Zhou Ling had a sudden inspiration and hurriedly said while crying.

If I were to tell my mother directly that I had discovered the Ink Essence Grass, that would be too outrageous.

After all, he is not even a year old yet.

His parents might suspect that he is the reincarnation of that great monk.

Upon hearing Zhou Ling's cries, Li Ru quickly stopped in her tracks.

He turned sideways and lifted Zhou Ling out.

"Mom, I need to pee over there!"

Zhou Ling pointed in the direction where he sensed the spiritual herb and said.

Li Ru didn't think much of it and smiled as she hugged him.

"Mom, Mo Jingcao!"

After walking a few steps, Zhou Ling pointed to the bushes and shouted, his voice young and excited.

Li Ru was stunned for a moment, then followed the direction of Zhou Ling's small hand and exclaimed with surprise and joy, "It really is Ink Essence Grass, and it's over six years old!"

Zhou Shan was also startled and hurriedly went over, bent down, and carefully picked the spiritual herb.

After placing the medicine in the medicine basket on his back, his eyes shone brightly, and he said excitedly, "Ling'er can find medicine now! She truly lives up to the reputation of being a member of the Zhou family!"

This Ink Essence Grass is of good age and quality, and could sell for forty or fifty spirit stones.

"What do you mean by looking for medicine? My son needed to pee, and we found it by accident!"

Li Ru glared at him, quickly put Zhou Ling down, and unbuckled his belt.

Zhou Ling shushed for a while before finally urinating just a tiny bit.

Li Ru hurriedly helped him put on his pants, and couldn't help but laugh, "It seems my son is really lucky. He can find a miraculous herb just by walking around."

"When we get back, Dad will buy you some pastries!" Zhou Shan praised with a beaming smile.

It was sensed that Zhou Ling seemed to have a more acute perception of the aura of spiritual herbs than ordinary people.

Li Ru didn't put him in the medicine basket for the time being, but carried him in her arms, and the couple continued on their way.

After traveling another dozen or so feet, Zhou Ling once again detected the aura of the spiritual herb.

However, Zhou Ling unexpectedly sensed danger this time and dared not warn her parents.

Instead, they urged their mother to leave quickly.

And so it wasn't until dusk that the family returned to the camp.

The couple both had smiles on their faces.

Today, heading south, the harvest was much better than yesterday.

Although they didn't find the target medicinal herb, the Mystic Spirit Grass, they were quite lucky.

Two low-grade first-tier purple-veined grasses were found, worth two low-grade spirit stones.

Including other spiritual herbs, this trip yielded more than three low-grade spirit stones.

"Ling'er seems to have a sense of smell far beyond that of ordinary children; she can easily detect the scent of spiritual herbs!"

"What kind of talent is this?"

While munching on beef jerky, Zhou Shan exclaimed with delight and surprise, "Perhaps it's because I grew up surrounded by herbs, that's why I'm a bit special!"

Li Ru stirred the spiritual porridge in the earthenware bowl, her eyes full of smiles.

I earned six low-grade spirit stones in two days, that's a great harvest.

In the past few months, Zhou Shan has only earned a maximum of ten spirit stones each time he went into the mountains.

After deducting six spirit stones for rent, the remaining amount was barely enough to buy spirit rice.

The meat of spirit beasts can only be eaten once every half month.

Of course, the gains were one aspect, but what made her happiest was the feeling that her son's talent seemed quite extraordinary.

Having such talent will give one a significant advantage when entering a Taoist academy in the future.

Of course, Zhou Ling's talent was just a guess made by the couple in secret; they had no idea whether it was true or not.

But regardless, this was enough to make them happy.

After feeding Zhou Ling, she picked up the dry food and started eating.

······.

Ten days have passed in the blink of an eye.

As the weather was getting colder, Li Ru was worried that Zhou Ling would get cold, so she went back early.

Although this trip only lasted twelve days, the harvest was one or two times greater than in the past.

It was a great harvest.

Although there are no first-grade mid-level spiritual herbs, one or two first-grade low-level spiritual herbs can be harvested almost every day.

Roughly calculated, one could earn twenty or thirty spirit stones.

Zhou Ling was also quite suspicious, wondering if it was because this area was on the outer edge of the Black Glow that the spiritual medicines were of low grade.

Or perhaps my current [Searching for Treasures] talent can only find first-grade low-level spiritual herbs.

[Searching for treasure in the mountains!]

[Effect: You can identify 50/100 rare and precious medicines]

Looking at the prompts on the panel, Zhou Ling knew that his [Searching for Treasures in the Mountains] talent would only improve if he identified more than one hundred spiritual herbs and treasures.

Zhou Shan was overjoyed and kept saying with a smile, "My son has brought me good luck."

Not only did their harvest double or triple, but they also didn't encounter a single monster in twelve days, which is quite rare.

In his view, this was the good fortune his son brought him.

When I returned, my condition was completely different from the last time.

Although we were tired, we chatted and laughed, and there was no sense of boredom.

······.

More than half a year has passed, and Zhou Ling is now almost a year and a half old.

He can now run fast, and he has grown quite a bit taller.

It's already level with the medicine basket.

In terms of physical condition, nutrition has also become average (1200/10000).

This was mainly due to the ample nutrition provided by Li Ru and the changes brought about by his physical evolution talent.

This person's physical condition is no different from that of an ordinary child.

His comprehension, however, has improved only slightly, with a comprehension score of (average 8/100).

In the past year or so, I have only increased my comprehension value by 7.

It's not that he doesn't want to improve.

To improve comprehension, the "Resilient to Setbacks" talent must be activated.

Under Li Ru's meticulous care, he has been living a fairly comfortable life these days.

“Ru’er, this is the Dao Academy’s introductory cultivation book. It contains some cultivation texts and terminology. You can teach Ling’er about it from time to time.”

"I want Ling'er to participate in the Dao Academy's spiritual root test at the end of the year."

Inside the hall, Zhou Shan handed a hardcover book to Li Ru and smiled.

During this time, under Li Ru's tutelage, Zhou Ling has also learned many of the characters used in this realm.

[Growth Talent, Immortal Wisdom: Able to enhance cultivation speed and comprehension. Requirement: Read fifty ancient books.]

(End of this chapter)