Shen Yuan did not waste any more time.

He walked towards the nearest patch of herbs and crouched down.

Unlike before, he no longer pulled them out carelessly.

Candy had taught him enough about medicinal herbs to know that if the roots were damaged, the value of the herb dropped significantly.

Using a small medicinal shovel from his inventory, Shen Yuan carefully dug around the first herb before lifting it out together with the surrounding soil.

The next moment, it disappeared.

"Stored."

A faint smile appeared on Shen Yuan’s face.

The inventory could even preserve medicinal herbs in the exact condition they were stored in.

One after another, the herbs disappeared.

One-Star herbs.

Two-Star herbs.

Even some plants Shen Yuan could not recognize.

He took them all.

The scar-faced wolf simply laid there with its head resting on its paws, occasionally opening one eye to look at Shen Yuan before closing it again.

By the time Shen Yuan was finished, the once lush shoreline looked noticeably emptier.

Only ordinary grass remained.

"That should be everything."

He dusted the dirt off his hands before walking towards the edge of the lake.

The crystal clear water reflected his battered appearance.

"..."

"I almost forgot why I came here."

He crouched down besides the water.

"If herbs can be stored..."

"I wonder if water can too."

Shen Yuan reached his hand into the lake and curled his fingers.

Wooosh!

The water around his hand suddenly vanished.

A small hole appeared on the surface of the lake before the surrounding water rushed in to fill it.

Shen Yuan’s eyes lit up.

"It actually worked."

He immediately opened the inventory.

One slot.

[Fifty Litres of Water.]

"It even stacks."

Without wasting another second, Shen Yuan started storing more.

Large patches of water disappeared one after another.

Fifty litres.

A hundred.

Five hundred.

A thousand.

Slot after slot filled with nothing but clean mountain water.

The water level of the lake visibly dropped.

Eventually...

Nearly half the lake had disappeared.

Only then did Shen Yuan finally stop.

He wanted to see whether the lake would recover on its own.

The stream flowing down from the mountain continued pouring fresh water into it without interruption.

Minute after minute...

The water slowly rose.

Half an hour later, the lake had already recovered most of what was missing.

Less than an hour after Shen Yuan had emptied nearly half of it...

The lake looked exactly the same as before.

"..."

"So it is a renewable resource."

A satisfied look appeared on Shen Yuan’s face.

"Good."

He stepped into the lake.

The cool water washed away the dried blood covering his body.

His muscles slowly relaxed.

For nearly half an hour, Shen Yuan simply cleaned himself, scrubbing away every trace of blood, dirt and sweat accumulated over the past month.

By the time he climbed out...

His skin had returned to its original pale complexion.

He reached into his inventory.

A familiar bathtub appeared in the space before him. Shen Yuan had snatched it right before leaving his house just in case someone came looking.

He collected the woods and lit a fire near the lake before boiling the water inside it.

Once it was ready, a familiar jade jar appeared in his hand.

"Dragon Bone Paste."

Removing the lid, Shen Yuan scooped out a handful before spreading it across his chest.

Then his arms, shoulders all the way to his legs.

The cool medicinal paste quickly covered every inch of his body.

A familiar warm burning soon followed.

A frown appeared on Shen Yuan’s face as he climbed into the barrel.

His body had already got used to the pain of the boiling water, and the medicine was just a warm embrace for him.

The scar-faced wolf was lying in a corner staring at the clean patch of land where the herbs were once dancing beautifully.

But now...

Everything was gone! It regretted ever bringing the nasty human to this place. Suddenly the wolf lifted its head and sniffed the air.

Its nose twitched several times before it let out a dissatisfied huff and turned its head away.

"You don’t like the smell either?" Shen Yuan chuckled before leaning against the side of the barrel. ’I should leave some low-ranking herbs for it before getting out of here.’

While the paste was working its magic, Shen Yuan closed his eyes. ’I may not find another place with this much spiritual qi anytime soon. Might as well take it to review the contents of that cultivation technique I took from the underground cave.’

Divine Star Cultivation Manual.

He did not take out the book because he was worried someone would sense the powerful aura it carried. So he decided to read the information he had stored in his mind after flipping through the Chapters of the book while he was inside the underground dungeon.

Although the information had already been filed in his brain, he had yet to review it. It was like a blurry picture waiting for him to click on it.

And now... he finally did it.

The Second Profound Grade Cultivation Technique he ever got his hands on.

From what the notes said, it seemed to be as powerful as the cultivation techniques of Earth Grade.

The Cultivation Techniques was divided into 2 sections.

Each section had 4 parts.

Shen Yuan flipped through the first section of the book in his mind and realised it was similar to what he already knew, but the book went into much more detail about Body Tempering.

As it turned out, Body Tempering Stage was a part of Body Cultivation System.

’Without a strong body one cannot step into the realm of cultivation and temper their minds.’ According to it, for a stronger interior, one needed an even stronger exterior.

The more one tempers their body, the less trouble they will have gathering qi or storing it in their dantians.

Shen Yuan flipped through the pages of the first part, which was all about body tempering, and went to the real cultivation realm, which he knew about from the information he read in books and The True Scripture Of Bloody Moon.

’I wonder how the details of the Qi Condensat—’ Shen Yuan paused as the name of the cultivation realm flashed in his mind. ’Why is the name of the cultivation stage after the Body Tempering Realm called the Qi Gathering Realm?!’