Welcome to the Ability Shop!

Chapter 7 A roundabout way to save the store
Chen Xuan focused his attention on alchemy.

There are quite a few useful elixirs here... such as Longevity Elixir, Rejuvenation Water, and Strength Pill. Just by looking at the names, they are very marketable. Take Strength Pill for example. According to the description in the study of elixirs, it can instantly increase a person's strength by five to six times. If a weightlifter were to take one, the results would be unimaginable.

As for the Longevity Pill, a miraculous elixir that can genuinely extend lifespan, it is likely to attract a frenzy of pursuit from the world's wealthiest people.

However, the materials they require are also quite varied.

There are no corresponding items here, such as the Nine Heavens Spirit Flower, the Moon-Guiding Vine, or the Dragon Blood Grass.

This makes sense.

There are obvious differences between the two worlds, so it's no wonder that the formulas are not interchangeable.

But this does not mean that alchemy is useless.

It's essentially a specialized discipline, and the underlying logic is to adapt to local conditions and prescribe the right medicine for the right ailment. If you encounter medicinal materials not included in alchemy, you can certainly add them yourself.

Chen Xuan rummaged through the tea cabinet for a while, found a packet of goji berries, and then poured out two and put them in his mouth.

That's right... The core technique of alchemy is tasting hundreds of herbs!

As long as something is put into her mouth, Liu Shuyue can roughly identify its five elements attributes and pharmacological effects. Now that this ability is entirely hers, she should be able to do the same.

His guess turned out to be correct.

"Hmm... Three parts Yang Chi, one part Jin Lie, no medicinal properties, no spirituality... medicinal value... lower grade nine auxiliary material."

The moment Chen Xuan bit into the goji berry, he immediately understood the properties of this "medicine".

The medicinal properties are not described, so it cannot be used as the main prescription.

Without spirituality, it is basically impossible to use it for alchemy.

Although goji berries weren't ideal, he at least knew the method would work.

With the plan set, Chen Xuan immediately called a car and took him to the largest pharmacy near the neighborhood, Baicaotang.

This shop is located next to a hospital that integrates traditional Chinese and Western medicine. Situated in a bustling area, it boasts a grand entrance guarded by six stone lions. The interior, with its red brick and green tile roofs and wisps of incense smoke rising from the burners, exudes an air of grandeur. In the center of the main hall is a medicinal herb display area, showcasing thousands of Chinese herbs arranged in clean and aesthetically pleasing glass boxes. Rows of chestnut-colored Chinese-style wooden cabinets surround the area for the staff to retrieve the herbs.

Moreover, there are quite a few customers who come here to buy medicine. At a glance, there are at least thirty or forty people, with long queues in front of the cashier and the decoction room.

"Hello, do you have a prescription?" a sales assistant greeted her with a smile.

"No," Chen Xuan shook his head. "Is a prescription absolutely necessary to buy medicine?"

The sales assistant looked puzzled, but still replied politely, "We can't expect patients to fill their own prescriptions, can we? If you're unsure which medication to get, you can consult our resident doctor."

"Um...can I try some?"

This time the other party was stunned. "You mean, try getting one packet to see the effect?"

"I'd like to try the herbs directly... like the ones that are displayed in the box."

The sales assistant's smile vanished. "You must be joking. Herbs need to be decocted before consumption. How can you eat them raw? You'll get poisoned."

Chen Xuan hadn't expected that trying out a medicine would be so troublesome, so he had to first find a resident doctor to prescribe a decoction for clearing heat and detoxifying to treat a cold.

Only after receiving the prescription did the sales assistant help me pick up the medicine.

According to the description on the menu, this soup contains six ingredients: Isatis root, reed rhizome, rehmannia root, turmeric, anemarrhena rhizome, and acorus tatarinowii. Although the sample size of this one herb is relatively small compared to the thousands of medicinal herbs listed, the advantage is that you can taste it immediately.

The sales assistant was about to cook the medicine after dispensing it when Chen Xuan quickly stopped her.

"No rush, let me check it first."

He took the medicine packet and walked aside, pretending to check if the herbs were in sufficient quantity. After dawdling for about two minutes, when the sales assistant finally stopped paying attention to him and turned to attend to other customers, Chen Xuan grabbed a piece of dried herb and stuffed it into his mouth.

Isatis root... it has neither medicinal properties nor spiritual properties.

Rehmannia... same. He quickly tasted all six packets of medicine.

To his disappointment, none of the six herbs met the requirements for alchemy. Not only did they lack any spirituality, but their medicinal properties were also practically nonexistent. At best, they could only be used as auxiliary ingredients to adjust the five elements.

It seems that simply buying one serving of heat-clearing and detoxifying soup is not enough.

But Chen Xuan vaguely felt that something was not quite right.

He could understand the lack of spirituality; according to records of alchemy, spiritual herbs were longevity-enhancing substances that absorbed the essence of the sun and moon, some even so old that they could become sentient. However, the herbs in the shop were semi-finished products that had undergone drying and sun-drying processes, so their spiritual energy had naturally dissipated.

But it was somewhat unexpected that it had no medicinal properties.

It's not that Baicaotang sells fake products—these Chinese herbs can certainly be made into decoctions to drink, but they cannot pass the identification of alchemy.

why?
Is it because the two have different definitions of "medicine"?

If these six herbs don't work, then other herbs will probably encounter the same problem.

At this moment, the sales assistant came closer again, "Haven't you finished checking yet?"

Chen Xuan didn't want to wait for the Chinese medicine to be decocted into soup, so he handed the medicine packet to the sales assistant and walked out of Baicaotang.

If traditional Chinese medicine shops don't work, should we try Western medicine?
It's really strange to think about using aspirin to make pills!

Suddenly he saw a fruit shop across the street, where the staff were promoting a tasting event at the entrance.

Looking at the plates of freshly cut fruit, Chen Xuan paused in his tracks. After a moment's thought, he crossed the street to the fruit shop, pointed to the sliced ​​watermelon, and asked, "Can I try this?"

"Sure, the toothpicks are on the table," the clerk replied.

Chen Xuan picked up a slice of watermelon, put it in his mouth and savored it. His tongue actually gave him a corresponding response—two parts water element, one part wood element, no medicinal properties, and one part spirituality.

That's right! I was wrong from the start!
Chen Xuan suddenly understood.

The medicines sold in the herbal medicine shop are selected based on the medical experience of this world, while the "tasting hundreds of herbs" in alchemy uses a completely different set of judgment criteria. He only focuses on ready-made medicinal materials, which is equivalent to artificially limiting the exercise of his abilities.

Any plant or fruit that can be eaten may have the potential to be used in alchemy!
If we add the conditions of "fresh" and "old"... he should go not to a pharmacy, but to the wild where there are a wide variety of natural plants!
There happens to be such a place nearby: Lushan Mountain.

As a mountain, it is quite well-known, and its vegetation and trees are well protected, including many ancient trees that have lived for thousands of years. At the same time, it is also a scenic area, making it very convenient to climb, without having to risk one's life like ancient herbalists to search for rare medicinal herbs deep in the mountains.

Without hesitation, Chen Xuan hailed a taxi and headed straight for the foot of Lushan Mountain. He then walked along the winding asphalt road, picking everything he could find—flowers, grass, vines, bark, leaves—anything that belonged to the plant family, he popped into his mouth. Of course, to respect the rules of nature conservation, he only picked about the size of a fingernail each time.

“Mommy…that person is eating grass…” a little girl cried out, pulling her mother’s hand.

"Shh!" The woman quickly pulled the child away. "Be careful, that man is crazy."

Chen Xuan was both amused and exasperated.

However, his curiosity had been completely aroused, and no gaze could stop him.

This tasting lasted all day.

He didn't find a deserted spot by the roadside until the sky was completely shrouded in darkness and the time was 8:30.

The next second, he was back in that magical little shop.

It really is mandatory to clock in...

That saved me the cost of my return trip.

Chen Xuan poured all of his day's findings onto the table—two mineral water bottles were stuffed full of grass leaves, with a few crawling insects visible at the bottom. Some of these leaves came from camphor trees, some from ginkgo trees, and some roadside weeds he couldn't name. They weren't anything rare, but they met the medicinal requirements for alchemy. He also made an additional discovery: even though they were all apricot leaves, their quality varied greatly; just because the leaves from one tree were useful didn't mean they would be from another.

He rubbed his hands together excitedly. Now that all the medicinal herbs were ready, he could finally start refining the pills!

(End of this chapter)