After a brief period of contemplation, Ji Yin took out a small booklet from his Pregnant and handed it to Song Wen.
"This is a summary of my own experience in cultivating spiritual herbs. Take it back and study it carefully. From today onwards, you will be responsible for the spiritual field to the east. As long as you manage it well, in half a month, the entire spiritual field will be handed over to your care. At that time, I will bestow upon you great benefits."
The western spiritual field was planted with arrowhead and daphne, which were auxiliary herbs for refining Blood Qi Pills. They could be found in the deep mountains of Yan City and were not considered precious.
Ji Yin felt at ease entrusting them to Song Wen for practice.
As for the benefits Ji Yin promised, they were merely a deception. In his view, allowing Song Wen to live for two more years was already a tremendous grace.
"Thank you, Master. This disciple will do his best to cultivate them and live up to Master's expectations," Song Wen said respectfully, taking the booklet.
Song Wen left the second floor with the two books. Having taken on the task of cultivating spiritual herbs, he couldn't immediately tell if it was a good or bad thing.
"I should try my best to cultivate the spiritual herbs well. Perhaps this will delay the time for me to be tested with medicine," Song Wen murmured to himself.
Upon returning to his room, Song Wen first read Ji Yin's handwritten notes on cultivation experience. Ji Yin only cultivated eight types of spiritual herbs, all of which were needed for refining Blood Qi Pills.
Then he flipped through "Detailed Explanation of Low-Grade Spiritual Herb Cultivation," found all eight types of spiritual herbs cultivated by Ji Yin, and carefully pondered the methods of cultivating spiritual herbs, matching them one by one.
After gaining a certain theoretical foundation, Song Wen went to the eastern medicinal field.
This medicinal field was not large, about half an acre.
Ji Yin had taken good care of the spiritual field, arranging it into rows and planting thirty plants each of arrowhead and daphne sparsely.
Song Wen carefully inspected the spiritual field, pulling out a small amount of weeds along the way.
He examined each spiritual herb one by one, numbered them, and recorded them in a ledger, detailing the growth and watering status of each plant.
Ten days later, Ji Yin, who had observed all this, handed over the entire medicinal field to Song Wen's care.
Ji Yin himself entered seclusion once again; he was going to refine Blood Qi Pills again.
After repeatedly urging Song Wen to take good care of the crimson blood vine, Ji Yin entered the alchemy cave and closed its stone door.
The crimson blood vine was the most important and rarest ingredient for refining Blood Qi Pills. In order to find the crimson blood vine, he had mobilized the power of the Tian Sha Gang, almost searching half of Gan Country before finding this fifty-year-old crimson blood vine. Each time he refined medicine, he only dared to take a few branches, fearing it would affect the crimson blood vine's growth.
From Er Niu, Song Wen learned that Ji Yin's seclusion for alchemy usually lasted ten days or more. Song Wen's heart began to stir with excitement; he felt that the opportunity to escape was approaching.
Song Wen walked into a small wooden house in the medicinal field without a trace, where the farming tools needed for cultivating spiritual herbs were stored.
Song Wen searched through the wooden house, hoping to find some tools that could help him escape. However, after searching around, Song Wen found nothing useful except common farm tools.
However, he found a twenty-centimeter-long dagger.
The dagger had a leather sheath. When the sheath was removed, the dagger appeared black, and its blade gleamed with a sharp, chilling light, captivating the heart.
"Good blade!" Song Wen exclaimed silently in his heart. He gripped the hilt tightly and chopped at a piece of wood in the wooden house.
Immediately, a stick the size of an inch broke in response.
Song Wen's eyes shone brightly. This dagger was definitely a top-grade divine weapon, an excellent self-defense tool.
Song Wen inserted the dagger into its sheath and put it into his boot.
After searching the wooden house again and finding nothing else, Song Wen carried a hoe out of the wooden house.
While cultivating in the spiritual field, his eyes occasionally darted between the alchemy cave and the western cliff.
The lowest part of the cliff was also over ten meters, and the highest part was over twenty meters. It was completely bare, with no trees or weeds growing, but there was a lot of damp moss.
However, too much moss clearly increased the difficulty of climbing.
Song Wen then thought about using tools to climb the mountain, but he didn't find any usable ropes in the entire courtyard. If he were to cut down trees to make a ladder, it would be difficult to avoid the attention of the guards and Er Niu.
"Should I go and cooperate with Er Niu and Zhang Cheng? But I'm not sure what they're thinking. Given their respect for Ji Yin, I'm afraid it would be very difficult to persuade them, and I might even expose myself."
It was not easy to wait for Ji Yin to go into seclusion and have a chance to escape, but being trapped by the terrain and unable to leave, Song Wen's heart became a little anxious.
His hoe became unsteady, missing the weeds and almost digging up a spiritual herb.
Song Wen was startled; he realized that his actions today were a bit reckless.
Those who achieve great things must have sufficient patience.
After calming himself down, Song Wen began to carefully manage the spiritual field.
That night.
Song Wen tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep.
He got out of bed, tiptoed to open the door, and went outside.
The moon was bright, the stars were sparse, and everything was silent.
Song Wen stared at the cliff, lost in thought. He didn't expect this ten-meter cliff to become an insurmountable barrier to his escape.
In a daze, Song Wen saw a flickering firelight on the mountaintop.
"Someone on the mountain?" Song Wen was surprised and looked closely. Indeed, there was a cluster of firelight flickering on the mountaintop.
"Could there be Tian Sha Gang members stationed on the mountaintop?" Song Wen seemed to have discovered another piece of information unfavorable to him.
Upon closer thought, there should indeed be Tian Sha Gang stationed on the mountaintop.
The Tian Sha Gang had fortified their entire territory like an impregnable fortress, even building a low-grade version of a city wall on the outskirts and guarding it with heavy troops. There was no reason for them not to take any precautions against this mountain.
Moreover, setting up a sentry post on the mountaintop would also facilitate monitoring the movements of the entire Yan City. If a large army were to besiege the Tian Sha Gang, it could provide timely information to the Tian Sha Gang and also serve as a retreat route for them.
Thinking of this, Song Wen completely rejected his plan to escape from the back mountain. With his current strength, which was only slightly stronger than an ordinary person, it would be absolutely impossible to break through the blockade of the well-trained Tian Sha Gang members in the mountainous terrain, not to mention that there were many martial arts masters among them.
Song Wen returned to his room somewhat disheartened. He no longer slept and began to cultivate.
Only by accumulating enough strength would it be possible to escape from the Tian Sha Gang.
In a flash, ten more days passed.
With Song Wen's continuous diligent cultivation day and night, his cultivation had quietly reached the middle stage of the first layer of Qi Condensation.
On this day, Song Wen, who was working in the medicinal field, suddenly saw the stone door of the alchemy cave open, and Ji Yin walked out of the cave, beaming with satisfaction.
Song Wen's expression changed slightly, and his heart was filled with unease.
"It seems a new round of medicine testing is about to begin. I just don't know who will be tested this time, and if I will be dragged in for it."