From a country cook to a master chef

Inside the Hundred Herbs Garden, Lin Jue's expression suddenly darkened. He looked at Cao Shaoan with a mixture of belief and doubt, then said thoughtfully:

"According to the elder, does the damage to one's spirit leading to soul injury refer to spiritual trauma?"

Ever since two stars lit up behind the Spirit Summoning Seal, Lin Jue knew that forcibly activating the Spirit Summoning Seal could cause damage to his soul, and he would encounter insurmountable obstacles when he broke through his cultivation level in the future.

To break through to the Divine Power Realm, he consumed a large amount of Qi and Blood Powder, Yellow Dragon Pill, a Breakthrough Pill, and the Earth-Emerging Golden Lotus before he could barely advance.

I can't imagine how many pills and spiritual plants I would need to advance to the Divine Illumination Realm.

Cao Shaoan smiled slightly, quite surprised. He hadn't expected Lin Jue to know what soul injury was. He became even more curious about this new disciple who had just entered the inner courtyard.

Stroking his long beard, Cao Shaoan slowly composed himself, first acknowledging Lin Jue's insight, but then shaking his head and saying:

"Your current condition is indeed a form of spiritual trauma, but you're only half right."

"Please enlighten me, Elder."

Lin Jue was taken aback for a moment, then said respectfully.

"Soul trauma will cause a martial artist's comprehension and memory to continuously decline during the martial arts training process. When the martial arts are cultivated to a high level, it will become extremely difficult to comprehend the mysteries within. Advancing to the Divine Power Realm may not have an impact, but advancing to the Divine Illumination Realm in the future will be even more difficult."

Furthermore, injuries to the soul can be treated and recovered with elixirs, so as long as they are discovered in time, they are not really a big problem.

What truly affects a martial artist's cultivation is soul damage, a type of trauma to the soul. While impacting cultivation, if not treated promptly, the martial artist will gradually become incapable of thinking, eventually going insane and becoming a irrational martial arts fanatic. In severe cases, it can even endanger the martial artist's life.

"The Soul Wound is so terrifying. Thank you for reminding me, Elder. You are very knowledgeable. Since you know about this injury, you must know how to recover. I dare to beg you to save me. I will remember this kindness forever."

Upon hearing the other party's introduction, Lin Jue realized that the Soul Shattering might be life-threatening, and he was shocked. He quickly clasped his hands, bowed, and kowtowed, hoping to learn a way to save him from the other party's words.

Cao Shaoan found that Lin Jue was not only exceptionally talented but also had an excellent character and manners, which made him even more fond of him.

I think he's much better than the other brats in the inner courtyard. At least he's an honest guy who speaks frankly and doesn't have many tricks up his sleeve.

He likes straightforward people like that.

Cao Shaoan nodded in satisfaction. Under Lin Jue's watchful gaze, he got up and went to the medicine cabinet. He took out a prescription from one of the cabinets, but instead of handing it directly to Lin Jue, he copied it himself and put it back in its original place.

"This is the method for preparing the Soul Nourishing Formula. You can take the medicine according to the prescription, grind it into powder yourself, and take it three times a day. Remember to take it with water from a rootless place in order to heal your soul injury."

"Elder, I will remember your great kindness and virtue. If you need my help in the future, please feel free to give me your instructions."

Lin Jue accepted the prescription with great joy and quickly thanked him.

Before he could be happy for long, Cao Shaoan poured cold water on him with his calm words, "Don't be too happy yet. This prescription is an ancient one that I obtained in my early years. The ingredients on it are all rare and precious. Even in my Hundred Herbs Garden, you can't find them."

There's a market town north of Tianwu Mountain; you could try your luck there.

"Thank you for the reminder, Elder. I will take my leave now."

After leaving the Hundred Herbs Garden, Lin Jue returned to his residence, casually packed a bundle, and after instructing Yuan Rou, squatted down and patted 'Grows Fast's' head, saying, "While I'm away, you must protect Yuan Rou."

"I'm leaving. Take good care of yourself."

After giving his instructions, Lin Jue left Tianwu Mountain without looking back and headed straight for the market town to the north of the mountain.

"Cordyceps sinensis, vine fruit, black bone vine, purple snake mushroom, chalcedony lotus root..."

Unexpectedly, the medicinal herbs recorded in Uncle Cao's prescription are also auxiliary ingredients for refining the Reversal of Five Elements Pill. If we can acquire all of these herbs on this trip, it will be killing two birds with one stone.

On his way to the market, Lin Jue secretly pondered that the most urgent task at hand was to resolve his own soul injury, and only then could he consider refining the Reversal of Five Elements Pill.

The biggest challenge for him was that the refining of the Five Elements Reversal Pill required the spiritual roots of fifteen Foundation Establishment cultivators as the main ingredient.

In the eyes of ordinary people, it is already difficult to see cultivators in the Qi Refining stage, let alone those Foundation Establishment stage cultivators who appear and disappear like ghosts.

Lin Jue couldn't possibly hunt down Foundation Establishment cultivators just to refine the Reversed Five Elements Pill.

Among the six righteous sects, Foundation Establishment stage disciples are the backbone of their sects. Putting aside whether it can be successful, simply killing Foundation Establishment stage disciples from the six sects would definitely attract a siege from all six sects, resulting in more harm than good.

As for rogue cultivators, those who can cultivate to the Foundation Establishment stage are all extraordinary individuals. If they are not careful, they may very well capsize in a ditch and lose both their wife and their army.

Therefore, to gather fifteen Foundation Establishment cultivator spiritual roots, it is probably only those evil cultivators who can accomplish this.

The market town to the north was dozens of miles away from Tianwu Mountain. Lin Jue hurried along the way and finally arrived near the market town on the evening of the second day.

However, he did not rush to the market immediately. Instead, he hid in the forest, changed into an ordinary black cloth shirt, and put away the identity token that symbolized him as a disciple of Tianwu Mountain. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief and slowly walk into the market.

It was the dead of winter, the weather was getting colder and colder, and heavy snow was falling.

There were still quite a few pedestrians on the street.

Perhaps because the Lunar New Year is approaching, children are running and playing innocently in the streets, their laughter echoing everywhere.

After traveling for two days, Lin Jue was exhausted. He found an inn to stay in, planning to get a good night's sleep first and then go to buy the necessary medicinal herbs the next day.

The method of nourishing the soul is a matter of life and death, so Lin Jue dared not be careless. He placed it under his pillow before he could fall asleep peacefully.

The next morning, he got up quickly, dressed neatly, took out a few silver notes and put them in his bundle, and went to the money exchange to exchange them for more convenient small change.

With a clear goal in mind, Lin Jue carefully observed the shops in the market he passed along the way, memorizing the medicine shops he saw. Once he had exchanged his silver, he could go directly to the shops to buy medicine, saving him some time searching.

In less than half an hour, he had exchanged his money and visited several herbal medicine shops, where he was fortunate enough to find four or five of the herbs he needed.

After visiting all the herbal medicine shops in the market, Lin Jue had a great haul, and was only missing two herbs.

The first is the Golden Rock Fruit, a rare medicinal fruit that grows near golden rocks. Because it grows near gold, it is often accidentally damaged, making it extremely rare.

The second is the Long Arc Thousand Knot Leaf, which is one of the essential raw materials for Qi Refiners to make Foundation Building Pills, so it is often in short supply.

"If you want to buy medicinal herbs, why don't you go and take a look at the auction ahead? There's a special auction for medicinal herbs being held there. Maybe you'll find some herbs that catch your eye."

As Lin Jue was leaving a pharmacy, he was met by a young man in a gray shirt who smiled and recommended the auction in the market.

This situation reminded Lin Jue of the ox Pan Mang he had met in Yucheng.

As he was pondering this in his mind, he suddenly heard a loud voice coming from the auction hall ahead.

"Okay, deal done. Congratulations to the customer who won the bid for the Golden Horned Rhinoceros."

"The next item up for auction is a precious medicinal herb!"