Douluo Continent: The Legend of the Gods

After leaving the main hall, Xu Jiujiu walked ahead with light steps.

She glanced back at Yun Qinglin and said with a smile, "My brother is the kind of person who tends to overthink things. Don't be scared by him; he may seem amiable, but he's actually very calculating. However, he's genuinely sincere towards you; he rarely cares this much about others."

Yun Qinglin smiled and said, "Your Majesty is a wise ruler."

He gave a long, noncommittal "hmm" and didn't continue the conversation.

She led Yun Qinglin around aimlessly, seemingly without a specific destination.

She was of noble birth and didn't have many friends. Yun Qinglin had a good personality, and she felt that this friend would be a good match for her.

"I have indeed made great progress today. Grandpa Xu said it might be because my mental strength has increased recently. He said that the Star Crown Martial Soul has very high requirements for mental strength, and the stronger the mental strength, the faster the star-attracting power."

Yun Qinglin glanced at her. Her mental energy fluctuations were indeed much stronger than those of her peers. Although not as strong as his, she was already at the top level among six-year-olds.

"Your mental strength is indeed very strong," he said.

Feeling a little embarrassed by his praise, Xu Jiujiu asked, "Will you continue to cultivate at Xingyuantan?"

"Yes."

"Then we can communicate together every day from now on."

"No problem, I'm planning to take a look at the library this afternoon. Would you like to come with me?" Yun Qinglin invited. He had a pretty good impression of Xu Jiujiu. She had a good sense of propriety and, despite being only six years old, she had her own way of handling things.

"Okay." Xu Jiujiu's eyes crinkled into a smile. Every day, besides cultivating, she studied royal affairs. Her brother said that when she grew up a bit more, the Starlight Auction House would be handed over to her to manage, so she had to work hard!

On the other side at this moment.

Xu Jiawei was discussing his twin martial souls with Wang Xian'er. The reason for the increased investment was because Yun Qinglin had awakened his second martial soul.

This made Xu Jiawei feel like he had struck gold.

Not to mention that Wang Xian'er said Yun Qinglin was unwilling to study at Shrek Academy, which made him even happier.

The current attitude of the Douluo Three Kingdoms towards Shrek Academy is very ambiguous. On the one hand, they cannot do without Shrek Academy's support, but on the other hand, they are very wary of Shrek Academy's growing power.

Besides Wang Xian'er, only Xu Jiawei and Xu Huai'ren know about this, and neither of them will publicize it. Even Xu Jiujiu will not know.

He smiled as he watched Xu Jiujiu take the initiative to invite Yun Qinglin.

"Elder Wang, perhaps the rise of our Star Luo will depend on that young man."

Wang Xian'er didn't think Xu Jiawei's description was exaggerated. Her disciple's talent was truly one in a million, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, his potential was immense.

She didn't make any plans for Yun Qinglin's afternoon; sometimes, knowledge learned proactively is more memorable than knowledge learned passively.

The library of Xingluo Royal Academy is much larger than the building Yun Qinglin visited last time. It is one of the oldest buildings in the academy, with gray bricks and blue tiles, and the exterior walls are covered with vines.

Behind the guard post at the entrance sat an elderly man with gray hair, wearing metal-framed glasses, holding a book thicker than his fist.

Hearing the door open, he looked up and glanced over his glasses.

After a long while, the old man's expression didn't change much. He was used to the princess coming every few days.

But when he saw Yun Qinglin behind Xu Jiujiu, his eyebrows twitched slightly. A stranger, and still a child. Although the Star Luo Royal Academy's library was open to the entire academy, it was indeed rare to see someone as young as six.

"Your Highness." The old man closed the book, stood up, and bowed slightly.

"Grandpa Li," Xu Jiujiu greeted with a smile, "I'm here with a friend to read books."

The old man's gaze fell on Yun Qinglin, sizing him up. He was dressed plainly, without a school uniform, and didn't look like a student from the academy.

He possessed an excellent demeanor, standing beside the princess with neither servility nor arrogance, showing none of the awkwardness one might feel when entering the library for the first time.

"And who is this young master?"

"Yun Qinglin, Grandma Xian'er's disciple," Xu Jiujiu said for him.

The old man nodded, sat down again, and didn't ask any more questions. Elder Wang's disciple—that makes sense. He hadn't expected Elder Wang to actually take on a disciple.

"Grandpa Li is a level 91 Title Douluo," Xu Jiujiu whispered to him.

Yun Qinglin was not surprised at all. It has always been an unchanging law that the library has produced masters. I would believe you if you said it contained a level 99 Limit Douluo, but a mere level 91... cough.

But he still feigned surprise, giving the princess a sense that her desire to share had been satisfied.

"Amazing." Yun Qinglin gave a thumbs-up with her little hand and said to Xu Jiujiu, who was looking at her expectantly.

Sure enough, Her Highness immediately became all smiles.

The first floor of the library is spacious, with neatly arranged bookshelves. There is a unique smell of old books in the air, which is not pungent and, after a while, makes people feel at ease.

Sunlight streamed in obliquely from the high windows, casting beams of light across the aisles between the bookshelves, where dust motes drifted slowly.

Several people were already inside reading, all wearing the uniforms of Xingluo Royal Academy, ranging in age from their teens to their early twenties.

Hearing the door open, someone looked up. It wasn't unusual for Her Highness to be here; she came every few days, and everyone was used to it.

But when they saw a boy of similar age following behind her, some couldn't help but take a second look. When did Her Highness start bringing people with her? And a boy at that.

Some people exchanged glances, but remained silent. The rule of the library was to keep quiet; if you had something to say, you should go outside.

Yun Qinglin paid no attention to the stares. He stood in front of the bookshelves, looking up at the densely packed spines of the books. The library was much larger than he had imagined; this single floor alone had at least a hundred rows of bookshelves. He had absolutely no idea where the book he needed was.

Xu Jiujiu had already walked in with practiced ease. She walked around several rows of bookshelves, stopped at a spot by the window, pulled out a book that was neither too thick nor too thin, placed it on the table, and turned back to wave to Yun Qinglin.

Yun Qinglin asked Elder Li in a low voice, "Excuse me, where can I find books related to soul beasts?"

"Go inside, that row against the wall is full of them. The innermost few are copies made by the Hall of Offerings, you can't see them from the outside," Li Shantang said kindly. Elder Wang seemed to have taken on a very outstanding disciple.

He thanked him in a low voice and went inside.

The bookshelves against the wall were taller than those outside, and the labels on the spines of the books were much older.

He slowed his pace, looking at each row one by one...

"Star Dou Great Forest Soul Beast Compendium," "Species Study of the Far North," "List of Ocean Soul Beasts," "Complete Guide to Soul Beast Habits," "Research on Soul Ring Skills and Martial Soul Compatibility,"...

He read through each book one by one, without rushing to take one out.

Reaching the deepest part of the bookshelf, his gaze fell upon an astonishingly thick book. Its spine was dark blue, without gold foil or a title, except for a faded white label at the bottom, bearing the words "Mu's Manuscript" handwritten in fine ink.

He reached out to grab it, but the book was quite heavy, and he almost dropped it.

What attracted him was this book, titled "The Complete Book of Plant-Type Soul Beasts and Herbs".

He carried the book back to the table, sat down, and opened to the first page. On the title page was a line of writing, the handwriting neat and tidy, each stroke carefully executed.

"Mu Ping, first recorded in the year 2731 of the Xingluo Calendar."

The Star Luo Calendar was adopted by the Star Luo Empire after a great war with the sun and moon.

This Mu Ping must have lived more than two thousand years ago.

He continued flipping through the pages. The manuscript was divided into three parts.

The first part is about plant-type soul beasts. Each one has a detailed sketch, with small print indicating its growing environment, distribution area, differences from ordinary plants, how to determine the cultivation years of the soul beast, and the mutated varieties produced after they are hybridized with ordinary plants.

Some pages still have dried specimens attached, sewn onto the paper with fine thread; the colors have faded, but the veins are still clear.

The second part is about rare and precious materials. This part contains much less information than the first part, but each item is described in great detail.

Thousand-year-old Ganoderma lucidum, ten-thousand-year-old cold jade, earth vein milk, star dew, dragon blood grass, phoenix wood... Each one is marked with the location and time of discovery, and some entries are accompanied by long annotations, which are records of her repeated verification.

One annotation reads: "Earth Vein Milk is obtained from a karst cave three hundred feet underground, and only one drop can be obtained every ten years. I found a place in the eastern part of the Starry Sky Forest, guarded it for three years, and obtained seven drops. This substance can be used as medicine. When used with Blood-Activating Vine and Red Ginseng, it can heal broken bones and regenerate flesh."

However, the dosage is extremely difficult to control; too much will cause the meridians to swell excessively, while too little will reduce the effect by more than half. I tried it seven times, succeeding only once.

The third part is about herbs. This is the largest part of the manuscript, making up nearly two-thirds of the entire book.

There are far more kinds of herbs than plant-type spirit beasts, and they are found all over the continent, from plains to mountains, from forests to swamps, from streamsides to cliffs. She wrote down the characteristics, growing environment, harvesting season, processing method, and medicinal properties of each herb in great detail.

She would include simple recipes for some common herbs, all of which are easy to find in the wild.

He turned to a page and stopped.

That page recorded a herb called "Huoxueteng" (活血藤), with a prescription attached: three qian of Huoxueteng, two qian of red ginseng, and two qian of angelica, decocted in water and taken orally, to treat injuries from falls, bruises, swelling, and pain.

The prescription has a note below it: "This prescription comes from folk medicine. I have tried it and it works very well. However, the three ingredients have conflicting properties and often cause abdominal pain."

Yun Qinglin stared at the line of annotations, his fingers lightly gliding across the paper.

This prescription... if red ginseng is the same as danshen... plus licorice to harmonize the other herbs, is the basic prescription for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis in traditional Chinese medicine from my previous life.

The three medicines have conflicting properties, but adding licorice can neutralize them.

She didn't know anything about the concepts of monarch, minister, assistant, and guide, nor did she know anything about the theory of meridian tropism, but through her own exploration, she gradually arrived at a conclusion that was almost identical to that of the traditional Chinese medicine practitioners in her previous life.

"There are still capable people..." Yun Qinglin was somewhat surprised by the manuscript. Some of the prescriptions were correct, some were wrong, and some were just one step away from success.

He silently memorized the correct answers, used his knowledge from his past life to correct the wrong ones, and made up for any mistakes he was just one step away from. It wasn't because he was smarter than Mu Ping, but because he had thousands of years of accumulated knowledge and countless paths taken by his ancestors to follow.

Mu Ping didn't have any of these; she was all alone. But this greatly shortened the time it took him to summarize the theory. For each herb, he would first look at the morphological guide, then the medicinal properties description, and then compare it with the knowledge from his previous life.

Write down the ones that are the same, mark the ones that are similar, and make a separate table for those that you have never seen before.

He flipped to the last page and saw the appendix. The appendix was a short essay, the handwriting more sloppy than the previous ones, the writing style not as strong as before, as if it were written in his later years.

"I have been practicing plant-type martial souls since childhood, and have made it my profession throughout my life, eventually reaching the level of Soul Saint. When I was young, I entered the Star Dou Great Forest and almost lost my life to a soul beast. Fortunately, I was saved by my master, and thus I resolved to study plant-type soul beasts and herbs."

For a hundred years, I have traveled all over the mountains and rivers of the mainland, recording thousands of kinds of plants, of which seven or eight out of ten can be used as medicine. I have often thought that if this book could be circulated among the people, ordinary people could collect herbs to treat minor illnesses and pains without having to seek help from spirit masters or go bankrupt.

However, I also know that this matter is absolutely impossible. Knowledge of herbs has always been monopolized by nobles and soul masters; few commoners are literate, and even fewer know about herbs. If this book were to fall into the hands of the ignorant, they might mistakenly use poisonous herbs, thus endangering lives.

Furthermore, nobles profit from medicinal herbs; how could they allow commoners to gather and use them themselves? All my life's learning has ultimately failed to be widely disseminated, a great regret indeed.

Yun Qinglin stared at that text and remained silent for a long time.

She knows everything. She knows that this knowledge should belong to everyone, and that ordinary people can't afford medical care not because there's no medicine available, but because medicine is monopolized.

But she couldn't change it. How could a Soul Saint fight against an entire class? So all she could do was write down what she knew, seal it in this library, and wait for someone who might appear at any time.

This book may not have been opened for a long time, and may have been sealed away at the very back of the library.

Xu Jiujiu flipped through her own book beside him, occasionally glancing up at him.

He looked very focused when he read, not with the kind of strained, brute force, but with a kind of composure that she didn't quite understand—as if he were comparing something, confirming something.

The two sat by the window, creating an almost empty space around them.

"Did you study herbal medicine before?" she couldn't help but ask in a very low voice.

Yun Qinglin paused, carefully considering his words: "I've learned some."

He didn't ask any further questions for a long time, just said "Oh," and lowered his head to continue flipping through his book.

Yun Qinglin glanced at her. She was reading a book called "Basic Principles of Soul Guidance Devices," the pages of which were brand new, suggesting she had only recently borrowed it.

She didn't flip through the pages quickly, but she did it very carefully. When she encountered parts she didn't understand, she would point to the words with her finger and read them out one by one before flipping back to the previous chapters.

"Are you interested in soul tools?" Yun Qinglin asked.

After a long while, he raised his head, his eyes brightening slightly: "A little. My elder brother said that the Sun Moon Empire's soul tools are developing very quickly, much more advanced than ours. He said that if we don't keep up, we'll suffer in the future."

She paused, then lowered her head and turned to another page: "But many people don't think that way. They say soul tools are external objects, and that soul masters shouldn't rely on those lumps of iron. I don't really understand these things, but I just feel that since the Sun Moon Empire can become stronger through soul tools, why can't we learn from them?"

She spoke softly, but Yun Qinglin could tell that she had thought about those words many times. It wasn't just something she said casually; she had genuinely considered it carefully.

He looked at her and smiled, "You're right. Soul tools aren't external objects; they're tools. Tools aren't good or bad; it's how the soul master uses them that matters. We can learn about soul tools together in the future."

She paused for a long time, stunned. Then her eyes crinkled into a beautiful smile. "Really?"

"Really," Yun Qinglin said. "My teacher also said that a Soul Master's cultivation cannot be stagnant. Soul tools are another power system, and it won't hurt to learn more about them."

After a long while, he nodded vigorously, unable to hide the smile on his face.