Da Zhu delivered the century-old Poria water to the Mo family, where Mo Hua was eating beef noodles in a restaurant just like the other diners.
Liu Ruhua opened the box and upon seeing the luminous blue Poria water, she hesitated, saying, "This is too precious, I can’t accept it."
"Aunt Liu, please take it," Da Zhu insisted. "Mo Hua has been a great help to my master, and he specifically asked me to deliver this."
Liu Ruhua smiled and said, "Hua is just a child, what great help could he have possibly been?"
When Mo Hua saw Da Zhu, he ran to the door with his bowl and asked, "What’s this?"
"This is Poria water," Da Zhu explained proudly. "It can clear heat, calm the mind, and soothe the spirit. A herb gatherer owed my master for crafting a spirit tool and couldn't pay with spirit stones, so he gave this instead. It’s perfect for your health, Aunt Liu."
Mo Hua’s eyes lit up, and he accepted it immediately, "Thank my Master Chen for me!"
"It's nothing, no trouble at all!" Da Zhu waved his hand.
Seeing this, Liu Ruhua could only relent and invited Da Zhu inside, "Haven’t eaten yet? Come in for a bowl of noodles."
Mo Hua pulled Da Zhu inside, "Eat before you go back."
Liu Ruhua served Da Zhu a big bowl of noodles topped with beef, the heat and aroma wafting up.
Da Zhu ate until he was sweating profusely.
Knowing these children often did physical labor and rarely had a full meal, Liu Ruhua served another bowl.
Da Zhu’s face lit up with a smile.
Liu Ruhua glanced at the box of Poria water and said to Mo Hua, "This Poria water is very valuable. When you have time, go and thank Master Chen. If you can really be of help, try to assist more often."
"It’s fine, Mom, whatever array Master Chen needs, I’ll handle it," Mo Hua confidently assured her, then thought for a moment and added, "Anything below first-grade is fine."
He wasn’t yet capable of drawing arrays that contained nine array patterns.
"Be humble," Liu Ruhua advised as she stroked his head. "Don’t boast about things you can’t do."
"Little Mo is very skilled at drawing arrays! My master even praises him, saying he could become a first-grade array master in the future," Da Zhu said naively.
"The future is uncertain, and one must not be arrogant about cultivation," Liu Ruhua chided, though she was inwardly pleased to hear her son praised. She prepared some beef and rice wine for Da Zhu to take back to Master Chen, along with some pastries to treat his fellow disciples.
Da Zhu, carrying several food boxes, went back happily.
That evening, under Mo Hua’s "supervision," Liu Ruhua brewed the Poria water into a medicinal soup, which truly cooled her meridians, although it pained her to use such valuable resources.
Such a fine ingredient wouldn’t have been used if Mo Hua hadn’t insisted.
After his mother had taken the medicine, Mo Hua returned to his room to continue studying array patterns.
"The quality of spirit ink affects the efficacy of the array..."
"The attachment of array patterns and the transmission of spiritual energy vary on different array mediums..."
"The spiritual power at the third level of Qi cultivation is too weak..."
"Practical application indeed enhances memory and comprehension of arrays; I was somewhat unfamiliar with the Magma Array containing six patterns before, but now it feels engraved in my mind, each stroke emerging almost instinctively..."
Learning by doing, Mr. Zhuang was absolutely right!
Drawing arrays on various mediums and making them functionally effective revealed many issues, greatly benefiting his understanding of arrays.
However, finding opportunities for practical application wasn’t easy; nobody would ask a third-level Qi cultivator like him to draw an array, and the arrays used by low-level independent cultivators were too basic, typically containing only two or three patterns. Arrays with more than four patterns were rare.
What to do?
It would be ideal to use an array containing at least five patterns, and the medium should be fine steel, and it would have to be someone he knew; otherwise, they wouldn’t let him draw the array, and any mistakes would be difficult to explain.
Thinking it over, only Master Chen and his furnace were suitable.
But it wasn’t good to dismantle a recently repaired furnace to redraw it.
Was there another furnace?
Mo Hua sneakily glanced at the family stove, feeling that its flame seemed a bit weak.
The next day, Mo Hua tentatively mentioned his idea to his mother, who promptly refused.
"The stove is not only for business but also for cooking meals for you and your father, and the heat is sufficient. Unless it’s broken, don’t even think about messing with it."
Liu Ruhua, Mo Hua’s mother, had watched him grow up and could see through his little schemes at a glance.
Mo Hua had no choice but to give up.
A few days later, Liu Ruhua went to Xinglin Medical Hall to ask Master Feng for a follow-up consultation. Mo Hua accompanied her.
Master Feng took her pulse with the thread method and nodded,
"Good, the nourishment of the heart and lungs is well-managed. You can occasionally use spiritual power to let the meridians adapt, but prolonged activation of spiritual power will still damage the body. As for the residual fire toxin, it’s almost completely cleared."
"I’ll prescribe a few herbs; go fetch them. I’ll make a pill later for you to take home."
Master Feng wrote down several herbs on paper. Liu Ruhua went to gather them and instructed Mo Hua not to wander off, but to keep Master Feng company.
After Liu Ruhua left, Master Feng took a sip of tea and looked up to see Mo Hua staring at the pill furnace in the room.
"What are you looking at that pill furnace for, Hua?"
Mo Hua asked, "Grandpa Feng, can this pill furnace break?"
"Any spirit tool can break," Master Feng stroked his beard.
"Has it broken before?"
Master Feng nodded, "It has indeed broken a few times."
"Next time it breaks, can I fix it?" Mo Hua asked quietly.
Master Feng was slightly taken aback, "You’ve learned to craft tools?"
"Not exactly," Mo Hua waved his small hands, "I mean the array inside. If it breaks, can I fix it?"
Master Feng smiled at him, "Alright, if the pill furnace’s array breaks, I’ll let you fix it!"
Mo Hua smiled, squinting his eyes, "It’s a deal then!"
"It’s a deal!" Master Feng laughed.
When Liu Ruhua returned with several packs of herbs, seeing Mo Hua and Master Feng chatting happily, she couldn’t help but smile warmly, "What are you talking about?"
"Just made a little deal with Grandpa Feng," Mo Hua beamed.
"You’re trying to earn Grandpa Feng’s spirit stones?"
"It’s just about friendship, not spirit stones," Mo Hua said.
Liu Ruhua shook her head with a smile, handing the herbs to Master Feng, "Thank you, Master Feng."
Master Feng smiled and took them, then stood up and walked to the pill room, placing the herbs into the pill furnace, ready to start the fire, but suddenly paused, looking at the furnace with a complex expression.
"Grandpa Feng, what’s wrong?" Mo Hua asked curiously.
Master Feng wiped the edge of the furnace, checked the spirit stones, then said with some resignation, "The pill furnace is broken."
Mo Hua was stunned for a moment, then whispered,
"It didn’t break just because I mentioned it, did it?"