28 Roasted Mulberry Tea Leaves. (1/2)
”Good morning! Master!” the three disciples greet their master altogether, and bowed 90 degrees facing him. Although the three subordinates had seen this scene yesterday, to see it once more still gave them a shock, especially when the three of them were serious about all this master-disciple relationship.
”At ease, let's have the breakfast together, and everyone will return to their own duties. Tang Yuan, did you went to the Knowledge Pagoda to view some of their cultivation manuals?” Zhang Wu Ji paid his attention first at Tang Yuan, his first subordinate. It was important because the fact did he understand his motive to advise him to visit the tower will lead him to see how well can this subordinate perform.
”Yes, Master Senior. I found out the weaknesses in my cultivation, and I had made a copy of a cultivation art. Can Master senior please check their contents if it suits me?” Tang Yuan withdraws a manual from his chest, and hand it over to Zhang Wu Ji with both hands. This was the basic manner one needs to follow when facing a senior, or their masters.
Eagle-Soaring Cultivation Art
-Usage 1: Agility +3
-Usage 2: Strengthen the user with 1 Strand of Fighter Qi in every 72 hours
-Usage 3: Strengthen the user with 14 strands of Inner Qi in every 72 hours
-Durability: 4/4
”Not bad, it was a good choice.” Zhang Wu Ji flips through their contents for a quick glance, but in reality, he was going through the description of the Item as he flips their pages. After he finishes his act, he returned the book to the subordinates, trusting that their speed of cultivation will be depending on how frequent is their speed of learning.
”Master Senior, Xia Hua, and Ya Pin also found some Qi Essence Silkworm. Unfortunately, the few that we have were not healthy enough to be spun for their essence silk. We will need a few materials before we can start to feed them with the Yuanning's Mulberry Leaves. We cannot simply purchase a large amount of the leaves to feed them because if they were fed with withered leaves or those without proper moistures inside, the Qi Essence Silkworm will end up with a disease.”
”I would suggest that we plant our own Yuanning's Mulberry Tree, and for the purpose of feeding the Qi Essence Silkworm alone. This way, we can directly control the Qi Essence Silkworms diet so they can produce more of the essence silk. But to succeed with this, we will need one to two person to specialize in handling this matter, because the Qi Essence Silkworm is very sensitive to their surviving environment.” Zhao Xiao Hua finished her first starting followed by Zhang Ya Pin with the ending.
With their explanation are so detailed, Zhang Wu Ji agreed with their request to plant the Yuanning's Mulberry Tree. Since this plant's purposes are only to be made into Xuan Paper (With the exception of his specialized Mulberry Xuan Paper) or Qi Essence Silkworm's food. In fact, without cultivating their own tree, they can easily gather the leaves from the wild or purchase them from the Botanist Hall, but the two subordinates were questioning their quality.
It was a correct approach because the mass-produced leaves might come with a disease, unethical fertilizers or method, or any others tricks for the sake of increasing their sales. Since the Qi Essence Silkworm was a sensitive lifeform, a slight change in their food will end up destroying the whole batch of materials. This was accurate, because their end product, the Qi Replenishing Pill's quality will be affected by the Essence Silk they gathered.
”Master Senior, can Ya Pin give a suggestion for now?” he daringly came out with a temporary solution, but still, it was important to be approved by Zhang Wu Ji before he proceeds with it.
”Go ahead, I am all ears.” Zhang Wu Ji replied. This kind of personality is what made his subordinates dare to suggest, and will not hesitates to find the way for the best approach in their task. As long the quality wasn't disturbed, it will be good changes.
”I believe I hear that the Hunting Department in the Apprentice Hall were available to dispatch? Can we utilize their expertise and strength to escort me to collects the wild Yuanning's Mulberry Leaves for now? I will personally go to the Outer Zone of the Southern Bamboo Forest to collect sufficient numbers of the leaves and return. It will be a simple mission.” Zhang Ya Pin suggested.
”That is out of the question for now. You're barely a 1st Stage Inner Qi Cultivator. Even at the outer zone of the forest is slightly safer, we cannot put aside the fact Young Wild Beast and Peak Wild Beast resides in this zone. If the Hunting Team were to encountered the Flame Eye Bear, you're toast!” Zhang Wu Ji rejected the suggestion. It was a good idea nevertheless, but it was still too dangerous.
”Master, can this disciple made a suggestion?” the Department Elder participates in their conversation.
”Go ahead, it was good that there was an additional suggestion when we're questioning a possible way to cultivates those Qi Essence Silkworms.” he was opened for a suggestion since they were still in the part of looking for a solution method.
”This disciple does have his own variety of cultivated Yuanning's Mulberry Tree. Because the sundried Yuanning's Mulberry Leaf is perfect to be made into tea, the three of us are very obsessed into the making and cultivating of the leaves and the main tree. If the master needs the seeds for the tree, this disciple has many stored inside of his shared manor.” unexpectedly, his disciple is the one that provided a solution method to Zhang Wu Ji.
”This three old man. I forget that back in my world, the Mulberry was used and planted for their high concentration in anti-oxidation and anti-aging effects! It was also used as blood sugar controlling medicine for the diabetic patients! How did this three know that it was perfect to be made as tea?” Zhang Wu Ji smiled when he looks at the three new disciples.
How ironic. Will this matter can be concluded in such an easy way if he did not accept this three as his disciples?
”It was worth taking them in. Since this three were so obsessed with drinking Mulberry Tea, they should have quite a good number of plants right?” Zhang Wu Ji was having a good expectation at their collection, and without wasting his time, he decides to went to see their collections!
”Bring me there, the three of you, follow me as well, let us pay a visit to my three disciple's shared Manor,” he ordered. And full of expectation, the three of them quickly lead the others to follow along until they reach a manor so tightly covered by the pots of shrubs. From afar, the identity of the plant already revealed themselves.
Yuanning's Mulberry Tree, or better to say, shrubs.
They were grown in a controlled environment, thus, their height and also the number of growing fruits were controlled to preserve their utmost quality. Fruits that were grown from these well-maintained plants are always better in comparison with the other natural grown trees, thus when they were dried and harvested for the seeds, it can be grown into a more healthier and stronger tree.
Based on the number of trees in their small garden, It seems that the three of them did not lack patience in growing the tree. A touch on the still unripe fruits revealed all their effort placed at cultivating all the trees here.
Yuanning's Hybrid Mulberry Fruit
-Usage 1: consuming this fruit will enhance the longevity of the consumer by 1 minute
-Usage 2: the seed in the center of the fruit can be cultivated and grown into a new Yuanning's Hybrid Mulberry Tree. The speed of the seeds growth will be matured in one month.
-Usage 3: by drying their leaves under the natural sun, it will enhance consumer's aging process by 1 second, effective one time every day.
-Durability: 14/14
It was a very good plant, plus, the plant he was inspecting at this moment was the youngest among the 31 pot arranged in a circle. If this plant's fruit were to be replanted again and again, very soon, all the other pots will be replaced by a higher quality Yuanning's Hybrid Mulberry Tree.
”Make sure you leave this fruit for me when it was dried. Pass it to Tang Yuan or Ya Pin so they can start to cultivate our own. As for the leaves, it seems that there were over three thousand leaves for Ya Pin to select, do you mind giving some to your master to cultivates his own Qi Essence Silkworms?” Zhang Wu Ji reminded them to present the first seed to him for cultivating purposes and requested to be given a small portion of the leaves.