"Thanks for your understanding, old man" Mo Fan teased the treasurer, making his nerves bulge. He then turned towards the young beauty, "So, what I wanted to ask, Xia Ning Chang, was..."
...
"The other day I read about some herbs that could help me improve my meridian network" Mo Fan said, his voice being slow and calm as he wanted her not to miss anything out. "They are the Blue Eqisia, the Rose Petals and the Death Flowers."
"Have you ever heard about them?"
"No, these names don't say anything to me, but I am sure that, if you describe their effects to me, I'll probably be able to help you" She replied with a beautiful smile on her face.
"Thank you, Xia Ning Chang, so..." Mo Fan began, responding to her smile with one too. "The Blue Eqisia is a herb that has the form of an azure leaf and that, when eaten, melts one's entire meridian network, putting this into a malleable state"
"Melts the meridian network... malleable state..." those words repeatedly echoed in Xia Ning Chang's mind.
"I think I know what you are searching" she said, heading to one of the treasury's shelves and grabbing a wooden box out of it. She then opened it, revealing a red dried out stalk of grass inside of it. "This is a stalk of Scorching Sun Grass"
"Born as a normal stalk of grass, after hundreds of years of absorbing the Sun's Yang Qi, it gained the same effects as the Blue Eqisia you just described." She explained as she took it out of the box with her small and delicate hands.
"Wow, it's beautiful..." Mo Fan remarked, his sapphire eyes unable to move away from it. "Just out of curiosity, what grade is it?"
"Top Earth grade" Xia Ning Chang said, still smiling.
"Ah, r-really?" The golden haired kid was sweating. "And h-how much does it cost in contribuition p-points?"
"It's a-" Xia Ning Chang started answering, but she was interrupted by her master who replied for her "It's ten thousand contribuition points"
At his words, Mo Fan's jaw dropped. He had been barely able to save a thousand points in four years! How was he supposed to buy that thing?! Was he supposed to buy the Scorching Sun Grass after saving for fourty fricking years? No way he would have waited that long. "Ah, I can't afford it, but I don't have to worry because you're my friend, right?"
"And friends give things to each other without asking for anything." He said, trying to deceive Xia Ning Chang into giving it to him without any pay, but it didn't work as Meng Wu Ya immediately jumped yelling, "Do you think my disciple is that easy to deceive?! Friends don't do this kind of things!"
"What do you know, do you perhaps have any friend?" Mo Fan said, making the old treasurer fall in deep thoughts: he had a nostalgic look on his face as if the happiest memories of his life resurfaced on his mind at the golden haired kid's words. "Ehy, old man, I am talking to you"
"Shut up a bit," the smile that the old man had quickly disappeared at the boy's words. "Just take the herbs you need and scram! I don't want to see you anymore!"
...
At Mo Fan's hut.
"I still can't believe that the old man really gave me them without making me pay anything." the golden haired kid chuckled as he looked at a wooden box that contained the three herbs: the Scorching Sun Grass, the Harmonious Ivy and the Withered Flower.
"And what was that nostalgic look?"
"Well, not that it matters" Mo Fan said with a determined look on his face. "Now I have to heal my meridian network!"
He immediately sat on his bed in a lotus position and ate the first herb, the Scorching Sun Grass. As he gulped down it, he felt his throat burning and after a while so was doing all of his body.
Sweat was covering his forehead as his entire physique was 'yelling' in pain: he could feel each one of his acupuncture points burning, as if there was a fire inside of them, and his meridian quickly melting just like a lit up candle.
But despite his hands being completely paralyzed by this excruciating pain, he had to rush to eat the next herb or, like Xia Ning Chang warned him, he would have died as the energy of the Scorching Sun Grass would have destroyed all of his meridians entirely. So, thanks to the help of his sole will, he managed to pick up the Harmonious Ivy and eat it.
In an instant, all of his pain was immediately replaced by a warm feeling and all of that scorching energy wasn't rampaging casually anymore, but harmoniously flowing inside of his meridians, making them bigger and perfectly uniform in every single part of them.
Mo Fan could have stayed there enjoying that feeling for hours, but he couldn't permit himself such luxury as, if he let his meridians get too big, they would eventually smash all of his veins, muscles and organs, eventually leading to his death. So, once he felt his meridians big enough, he ate the Withered Flower.
If he thought that the pain from eating the Scorching Sun Grass was unbearable, this was straight hell: his life force abandoning his body; his meridian being repeatedly striked and given form as if they were a lingot of iron being transformed into a weapon by a blacksmith; his lungs not working properly and so his breath missing; his eyes burning as if they came in touch with the spiciest pepper in the world...
Strike by strike, he felt his meridians solidifying and becoming stronger than ever, but, coupled with this feeling, the pain was rising together them.
...
Only after ten minutes did the pain stop: Mo Fan could now feel every ounce of Qi that entered and left his body and he could even control it!
"Old man, you said that I would have never been able to heal myself, but here am I..."
"I hope you've seen me succeding from the heavens..."
...to be continued
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I know it's not one of the best chapters, but was in a rush, and I didn't want you guys to wait another day to have a chapter.
Remember to check my other work "Uniqueness Emperor"