[NR] Cultivating A Flower - Chapter 715

Rosha was now onto excavating her meridians. It isn’t quick. In fact, she is slower than Courtney. All to where she asked Jason multiple times if her talent is that bad.

Jason’s response is simple enough. Rosha simply didn’t have the experience needed for this kind of thing. Excavating the meridians isn’t like anything she had done before. On the other hand, Courtney had practice in multiple different tasks that could help. It was the old trope of “wax on, wax off”, where a skill with cleaning magically cross trains you for something else.

After all, you are basically cleaning out your meridians. Though what would be more applicable is if someone was trained to excavate fossils or some such. The ability to know when to chop away at the stone and when to delicately pick at it. Though this wrapped back around to them, asking how Jason is doing with his extraordinary meridians.

Jason shrugged, “Even though I have a couple unlocked, that doesn’t excavate them. If the regular meridians have a plug, the extraordinary ones are packed tight. It wouldn’t be wrong to say nature did not mean for them to be excavated.

“They are open as you develop in the womb, allowing the energies of the mother to flow through the child. Similar to how nutrients flow from the mother to the child, power does the same. Once born though, they quickly clog tight and are locked down, as they’re not able to handle atmospheric energies.”

Courtney, “Is it possible that the number of unlocked extraordinary meridians has something to do with how close the mother’s energies are to the child or the environment?”

Jason shrugged, “Maybe someone has something on that, but from everything I know? If that has any effect, it is so small as to basically be meaningless. This is especially true on the mother to child thing as bloodlines can pass down affinities and even small families would notice such a thing.”

Rosha, “Eugh, bloodlines? That’s going to add another layer on the pseudo-nobility ‘were better than the little people’ nonsense I have to deal with.”

Jason laughs, “They are going to do that no matter what. Such claims were around even when inbreeding was causing their bloodlines to rot out from underneath them. Even if having a bloodline caused each generation to be worse than the last, they’d be marrying in new blood all the time behind closed doors while claiming their blood is pure, which is why they’re so powerful.”

Courtney nods, “They basically do that now.”

Rosha sighs, “Eugh, whatever. I’ll deal with it when things come up. Courtney, how is the plan to get Jason into the mystical version of a farmer’s market?”

Courtney, “The problem comes down to timing. We can’t be seen moving him around and so need a local meet. That will be happening soon, but by irl timing and not NeoRealm time.”

Jason sighs, “I suspect if I tried to go anywhere outside of my current arcology, I’d be stopped by some sort of red tape.”

Rosha shrugs, “I had to basically sneak out of my previous arcology. I’m sure we could get you out if needed.”

Jason smiles, “Oh, that was never in question. If I wanted to leave? I’d be gone. The problem is that if I left, they would notice.” He shrugs, “And for the moment I don’t want to rock the boat.”

Rosha sighs, “There was a time where I’d believe you couldn’t rock the boat.”

Courtney nods, “Then he rocked the boat so hard it got swamped with water.”

Jason laughed, “I wouldn’t say I personally rocked the boat. Though I did cause a big reaction. I’d more compare it to being in a lake that someone spilled oil into and then I came along like a drop of soap. A large reaction, but only because the area was set up to react to my presence rather than any effort on my part.”

After that, they continued to grind away. Jason working on his stats, Rosha and Courtney gaining levels, and all three excavating their meridians. Though the thing that broke the peace first wasn’t any of that.

Rather, Jason’s farm field ends up causing a bit of a stir. His energy herbs aren’t of interest, seeing as he’s the only one using the stuff. No, it was one of his test herbs from the Deep Wilds.

The plant was interesting enough that he tried to plant it in his planter. This did not work. Jason’s best guess is that it required something specific to the Deep Wilds to grow.

The leaves were a nice shade of emerald green with a single tiny flower that looked as if it was carved from mutton jade. Their effect is simple enough. Used raw, it doesn’t do much.

With only a minor amount of processing, the flower acted like a Mana or Qi recovery item. Or rather, processed one way and it made a Mana recovery pill. Processed another and you got a Qi recovery potion. Not literally, though, rather, that is just what the effects mimic.

This is only of note because the more common recipes are the reverse. Potions and pills being separated by how they cause you to recover. Potions are packed with the power which is then pushed into your pool. Pills instead pull power into you from outside.

The difference between the two is not in how much you recover or how quickly. Rather, the method used has their own overdose mechanics. You can drink too many potions, take too many pills. However, if you’re almost overdosed on potions, you can still take pills.

So to have a herb that can produce the reverse of what you normally get? Oh sure, they aren’t prohibitively rare or anything. But having a source of them nearby? Well, there was money to be made!

Jason’s only regret is not thinking of a name for the herb fast enough. Because before he could name it something sensible, the herb ended up picking up the name “mirrored jade blossom” which doesn’t exactly flow off the tongue.