“A young doctor managed to cure the heroic astronaut, Meng Bo. That young man is Ning Tao. He graduated from Shan City Medical University. He has unveiled to us the miracles of Traditional Chinese Medicine… Right now, we will switch to our correspondent there, reporting live.”

“Good day to our friends in front of the TV. I am Correspondent Yang Lili. Standing with me now is the Dean of Shan City University Hospital, Professor Chen Zhengyi. Hello, Professor Chen. Do you have anything to say to our TV audience?”

In the courtyard house, Ning Tao was chewing a cucumber. His eyes were staring straight at the news report on TV.

On TV, Chen Zhengyi nodded to the reporter solemnly, before taking up the mic. “I am Dean Chen Zhengyi from Shan City University Hospital, affiliated to the university. Ning Tao is our best general practitioner. He has cured many patients with rare and chronic ailments, and has always been a fine individual and role model to our medical staff. Our hospital feels proud having nurtured such an outstanding doctor… ”

Ptooey!

Ning Tao spat out the mouthful of chewed cucumber he was about to swallow. Shan City University Hospital did not even allow him to be an intern there, so when had he been their doctor in that affiliated hospital? And when was he ever an outstanding individual and role model to their medical staff?

Sometimes when a man is shameless, even ghosts fear him.

Such news was not only widely reported on TV, but also on the internet.

While chewing the cucumber, Ning Tao had seen a headline on News Today—A Reincarnation of Hua Tuo? Our very own Chinese miracle doctor subverts medical history. A face-to-face interview with this Miracle Doctor Ning, Ning Tao!

He clicked on the headline. The result was an advertorial promoting tonics.

No one else could have ridden on this wave of popularity like them.

Since he was bored, Ning Tao switched off the TV and logged into his Practitioners’ Club WeChat group.

Bai Shengsheng, White Hare Spirit: @Doctor Ning, come in. I’m asking a favor from you. Please help ask Meng Bo, that astronaut, if there’s a Chang’e, Jade Lake or White Hare Spirit on the moon. I want to know if I have siblings there.

Zhang Chengdong, the imperial Qing physician: Why ask this, White Hare Spirit? I know that hare. She’s female. Don’t even think about it.

Bai Shengsheng, White Hare Spirit: Ptooey! You damned cur!

Sure-to-be-Immortal Liu Qiangzhong: Let’s be serious. My Master once told me there’s a Jade Lake on the moon. According to myths, a practitioner immersing himself in the lake can turn into a human spirit. It will greatly benefit practitioner friends in the Out-of-Body Realm.

Lei Zhenzi from Lingxiao Sect: What bullshit. You believe in myths? If there really is a Jade Lake, tell me how to visit it. On rockets? There’s no oxygen in outer space, and the inner pressure will implode you. That’s scientific knowledge for you! What’s scientific knowledge? Let me revise your popular science knowledge: There’s no atmosphere on the moon. There’s no water there. So since there’s no water, there can’t be any Jade Lake. Jade Lake my foot!

Sure-to-be-Immortal Liu Qiangzhong: Must you refute me? Find a time and venue, let’s have a showdown.

Lei Zhenzi from Lingxiao Sect: You think I’m scared of you? Let’s fight then. We won’t visit Mount Hua. Let’s fight in the Forbidden City.

Sure-to-be-Immortal Liu Qiangzhong: Ptooey! Just admit you’re a coward. You’re trying to trick me to visit the Forbidden City. The moment I unsheathe my sword there, the national guards will fire at me!

Ning Tao could not help but laugh. This WeChat group had always been lively. There were ordinary folks in this real world, as well as many so-called losers. There were also many cucumber-chewing folks in the practitioners’ world, as well as self-termed plebeians. The friends in this WeChat group were really commoners and plebeians. They might be hiding in towns or quite rich, enjoying life while cultivating. Their everyday life was quite leisurely. To be honest, he really envied them. Unlike him, they did not live amidst daily schemes and strife.

Just when Ning Tao was preparing to exit the WeChat group, another practitioner friend released a message.

Wolf from the Northwest: Let me say something serious. I heard that Spiritual Cat Deity, a powerful alchemist, has developed a new elixir drug. He is inviting practitioners to try it during the press conference at Wudang Mountains. I have already received his invitation. Has anyone else received it?

Bai Shengsheng, the White Hare Spirit: I haven’t. Wait… I just received an SMS. It is indeed an invitation to attend the elixir conference at Wudang Mountains… Good lord, is he so poor that he can’t afford a decent invitation letter? He simply sent me an SMS and is done with it!

Wolf from the Northwest: Ahem, I received an SMS too.

Zhang Chengdong, the imperial Qing physician: I just received one too.

Sure-to-be-Immortal Liu Qiangzhong: Such a coincidence. I received it too. Are you guys going?

Lei Zhenzi from Lingxiao Sect: Of course, of course we are going. Why not? We’ll have good food and drinks there. There might even be a babe or two.

Beep, beep, beep…

Ning Tao’s cell phone also received an SMS. His heart fluttered and he opened the SMS he just received.

The message read: Practitioner friend Ning, I have long esteemed your eminent name. Please attend our press conference at Soaring Cliff in Wudang Mountains this coming Saturday. You can sample our new elixir there, and we can exchange cultivation pointers. The Spiritual Cat Deity awaits your attendance. My deepest gratitude.

Ning Tao was dazed for a long time before saying, “Has someone sold my personal information? How did this Spiritual Cat Deity know my cell phone number?”

Someone had betrayed his practitioner information. So what else in this world could you not sell?

He returned to the Practitioners’ Club WeChat group. They were discussing Spiritual Cat Deity as well as the upcoming press conference this weekend. Ning Tao took a glance and soon lost interest. He turned off his cell phone screen, opened a convenient door, and returned to Sky Clinic.

He had not encountered anyone with great merits of good intention recently. The evil energy in the good-evil tripod was dense and heavy, while the good energy was thin. Ning Tao did not even dare treat more evildoers with sins of evil intention, let alone cultivate by the tripod. He went immediately to his spiritual field inside the Scriptures & Scrolls Store.

Scores of spiritual materials were growing in the spiritual field, occupying more than 30 square kilometers. Some seeds of spiritual materials had also germinated. The once empty spiritual field was now crowding with herbs after his careful tending. It seemed he must expand the field soon.

For reasons yet unknown to him, an image from Meng Bo’s brain started to surface in Ning Tao’s mind. Within the massive crater, under the whitish layer of “ice”, a green region presented itself to his view in first person…

It couldn’t be spiritual soil, could it?

If so, there was a square kilometer of it. He would likely be the greatest farmer of spiritual soil in the practitioners’ world!

But he still found it absurd. How could there be such a large tract of spiritual soil? Ning Tao could just daydream about it, that was all. He squatted down, bit his right index finger until it bled, and started writing runes with his spiritual power.

No matter how busy he was, and no matter what environment he was in, Ning Tao would always ponder the cultivation methods developed using Professor Jade’s notes. Even a little understanding would delight him. He had mastered a few runes over the past period, and was now impatiently writing them in the spiritual field.

He inscribed the runes in an area of spiritual soil no bigger than his palm. The soil immediately became animate matter. Its spiritual energy increased. The scintillating spiritual lights were like stars sparkling quietly in a night sky. Even the new herbal sprouts in the spiritual field showed some changes. Its rate of growth and quality underwent a subtle but palpable improvement.

After inscribing them, Ning Tao dressed the wound on his finger. He went out of the Scriptures & Scrolls Store to the lock wall. He opened a convenient door and went to Chen Pingdao’s cave.

Yin Molan, Bai Jing, Jiang Hao, and Qing Zhui were all cultivating in their retreat.

Ning Tao stared at them all and felt astonishment in his heart. The fourth version of the Ancestor-seeking Elixir was so powerful. It had been days, yet not one of them had emerged from the retreat. But seen from another perspective, this could be a good thing. The more this was so, the more likely the four of them would have a chance to break past the Core Formation Realm into the Nascent Soul Realm.

Ning Tao did not dare disturb them, nor did he visit Chen Pingdao’s house. He immediately opened a convenient door and went to the stone hut in the Pointe-Noire settlement.

Under the dim moonlight, Ning Tao could see piles of things in the stone hut. They were not spiritual materials but fruits—bananas, mangoes, and some other unknown fruits.

Ning Tao could not help but laugh quietly. “Who do they think I am? Why am I offered fruits?”

But he had not hoped this settlement would keep providing him with spiritual materials. If he found a large quantity of spiritual materials inside each time he visited, those spiritual materials would be worth nothing.

Ning Tao did not visit Chieftain Male Eagle either. He came to the pool under the waterfall and climbed up using his herb-collecting rope. Following his original track, he walked down to the bottom of the cave.

The cave with the phantom bats was dark. The light from within the cave was so weak as to be negligible.

The ice Jiang Hao had frozen was now gone. After all, he was in Africa, where the climate was hot. Even the ice she froze would eventually melt.

Ning Tao stopped at the position where he first encountered those phantom bats. He shone his refined tactical flashlight into the cave, through a few cracks.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…

The sudden noise of bats fluttering their wings emerged from the fissures. Soon, a large horde of bats swooped down from within. They avoided the flashlight and headed straight for Ning Tao.

Ning Tao remained standing and did not move. He only pulled his Heavenly Gem Magic Garment’s hood down a little, trying his best to cover his mouth and chin. Then he raised his hands to shield his neck. In that instant, countless phantom bats collided against his body, biting him with their fangs and tearing at him with their claws.

The sharp fangs and claws of the phantom bats were after all not flying swords. Only magic tools on the level of flying swords could tear the Heavenly Gem Magic Garment. After suffering their onslaught. the phantom bats must have felt it impossible to assault this intruder. They all flew back into their lair.

What treasure was in these phantom bats’ lair?

The curiosity in Ning Tao’s heart grew in intensity. He was wearing the Heavenly Gem Magic Garment and had survived the attack of those mad phantom bats. His impulse to explore their lair became stronger and stronger too.

Shoosh!

The herb-collecting rope darted directly into a cliff face opposite him, plunging in. Ning Tao grabbed the rope and started to retract it. The rope carried him along and flew towards that cliff wall. After steadying his feet on the cliff, he pulled out the herb-collecting rope and flung it to another spot above this. After a few tries, he reached the uppermost, longest and also widest crevice at the top of the cliff.

After tying the rope to his body, Ning Tao’s hand extended the refined tactical flashlight into the cave. Its bright light shone in…