Chapter 28: Precious Potion

Chapter 28: Precious Potion

Guan Yuanfeng was in a deeply mysterious state.

He felt as though his body had become as light as the wind, and that heavy, painful body of his had become light and agile. He was nimble and full of strength. He saw Comet lazily yawning and lying down in his nest. He saw Zhou Yun washing vegetables at the sink, apparently preparing to cook, and went over to help.

As he approached, Zhou Yun looked up, enveloped him with his hand, and smiled.

The wind blew Zhou Yun’s bangs aside, revealing his bright eyes, with a smile rippling at the corners of his eyes and brows. Guan Yuanfeng was so close to Zhou Yun that he could almost feel his breath.

He thought he heard a heartbeat, but wasn’t sure if it was Zhou Yun’s or his own. But the distance was too close... He suddenly opened his eyes and found himself still in bed, the tingling and itching in his legs reminding him that he was still in his broken body.

Was he dreaming?

The scene he had just seen felt so real. Zhou Yun was wearing a blue canvas shirt and rough canvas pants, with some fresh mud on the cuffs. Next to him, in a basket, there were casually piled about a dozen crystal cores, glittering after being washed clean.

Zhou Yun’s fingerprints were very unique. A single line ran across his palm. Although he didn’t understand much about palmistry, one of his subordinates used to love reading palms and had said that such a line indicated a stubborn personality, prone to breaking from excessive rigidity.

But Zhou Yun seemed quite gentle in temperament, though also somewhat self-centered.

He heard the water from the faucet still running outside. Even though the water had been cut off, thanks to Zhou Yun’s previous rainwater filtration tank device, there was still water in the house. Was it just a really vivid dream? He could verify it by going out, but for some reason, he wasn’t in a hurry to get on his wheelchair.

The sound of footsteps broke his thoughts, and Zhou Yun entered, carrying a fruit tray with sliced cantaloupe carefully cut into squares and toothpicks inserted.

Zhou Yun placed the fruit tray by his bedside, and Guan Yuanfeng couldn’t help but look at Zhou Yun’s palm.

Zhou Yun didn’t notice and only smiled. "Were you able to summon the little whirlwind?"

Guan Yuanfeng: "..."

Zhou Yun said, "You have high aptitude. It took me over two weeks to realize I had psychic abilities." In his previous life, it had taken him a long time after arriving at the survivor bases to discover his abilities.

His expression was full of joy, clearly very pleased for him. Guan Yuanfeng looked at him, somewhat dazed. "What did you see?"

Zhou Yun was surprised, his eyebrows slightly raised. "Wasn’t it you who summoned the whirlwind in the house just now?"

Guan Yuanfeng: "...I thought it was a dream." Zhou Yun seemed very confident that he would awaken his psychic abilities, as if it were a natural and certain thing.

Zhou Yun laughed. "The method of using psychic abilities is indeed quite mysterious. It’s hard for me to explain any effective methods. You should practice these qi circulation techniques more. They are the Ba Duan Jin qi circulation methods. I believe that these ancient records, which were useful in the time when there was spiritual energy, might still be effective." He picked a piece of cantaloupe with a toothpick and handed it to him.

Guan Yuanfeng nodded but his eyes involuntarily glanced at Zhou Yun’s palm again. His hand, just out of the water, was fair and slender, with very short, clean nails. Sure enough, there was a line spanning across his palm. He took the melon from Zhou Yun’s hand and tasted it, sweet and refreshing.

Zhou Yun asked with concern, "Is there any other discomfort anywhere else?"

Guan Yuanfeng said, "Only my legs, which have been tingling and itching, with a pain like needle pricks."

Zhou Yun frowned. "You’ve become tolerant to the painkillers. Let me try some acupuncture to see if it helps with the pain."

Guan Yuanfeng shook his head. "No, it’s bearable. Let me practice this qi circulation method more... I can feel my deadened nerves starting to come alive again. Maybe this is what it feels like to come back to life."

Now that he had successfully used his psychic abilities, he was filled with hope. He couldn’t wait to meditate again. The pain in his body was no longer the despairing phantom pain representing "weakness" but the birth pangs representing "a new beginning." It was completely different.

Zhou Yun took his pulse. "Your pulse looks strong and healthy now, so I won’t prescribe any medicine for you. Just take some calcium tablets and some vitamins. Try meditating more, but don’t rush. Every other day, I’ll do acupuncture on your meridians to stimulate the acupuncture points. Perhaps it will promote the growth of your legs."

Guan Yuanfeng nodded.

Zhou Yun also advised, "For now, try not to use your prosthetics to avoid irritating the newly regenerated skin and flesh."

Guan Yuanfeng didn't know why the doctor was so confident that his severed limb would regenerate, but a doctor's orders were not to be defied, so he obediently nodded.

Zhou Yun felt relieved. "I'm going to the rooftop. The fish pond is empty, so I'll move the fish from the lotus pond there. How about we have fish for dinner?"

Guan Yuanfeng said, "Sure."

Zhou Yun thought for a moment. "You need to replenish protein and calcium now. I'll make some sesame seed balls for you. Tonight, we'll have steamed fish and beef porridge with eggs. We have freshly laid eggs from the chicken coop today. They're nutritious. Unfortunately, the beef isn't very fresh, but we can make do by slicing it thinly."

Guan Yuanfeng felt like he was being nursed back to health with all the tonics. Before he could protest, Zhou Yun had already left with determination.

Guan Yuanfeng couldn't help but smile wryly. Needing to get off the bed to go to the bathroom, he held onto the handrails and got off the wheelchair.

He was wearing comfy shorts, and his injured stump was exposed to the bright light. He felt a little unaccustomed to it. Seeing a thin blue gauze blanket hanging on the handrail, he pulled it over to cover his lower body. It was just the right size, soft and light, neither cold nor hot.

He suddenly realized that the blanket was meant for this purpose.

A mix of emotions stirred inside him. Zhou Yun's thoughtfulness and gentleness were evident in many small ways, meticulous yet never embarrassing.

On the rooftop.

Zhou Yun used a net to transfer some of the bigger fish from two lotus ponds to the fish pond. The big fish, now enjoying more space, swam happily and freely.

Zhou Yun selected the fish for tonight's dinner and placed them in a bucket to keep them fresh. He then went to the livestock pen, taking the freshly laid eggs from the morning. He watched the poultry eating their vegetables in their cages.

As he inspected each cage, he looked at the geese with their large heads and clear calls. He thought that once the plants at Yuexi Number 3 stabilized, he could bring a pair of geese to the backyard for free-range farming. These geese were lively and resilient, and it wasn't good to keep them caged long-term. Besides, they smelled bad...

The fat rabbits in the rabbit cage munched on grass slowly. When it got cooler, they could be used for hotpot... But the mother rabbit was pregnant and was expected to give birth soon.

Zhou Yun had carefully read books on mother rabbit delivery care and pulled some dandelion and purslane to put in the rabbit feeder. Giving pregnant rabbits herbs before delivery could eliminate their ailments and purify the milk, which was good for the baby rabbits.

Estimating that the birth would happen in the next few days, he took a disinfected box that had already been lined with soft, clean gauze as a delivery box for the mother rabbit.

With the rabbits' astonishing breeding rate, it wouldn't be long before they outgrew the space here. Maybe I should set up a rabbit hutch at Yuexi Number 3 and feed them sweet potato leaves and miscellaneous vegetables. Even if something happens to them, the loss wouldn't be too great.

The sheep and pigs had grown fat, taking up a lot of space. The pigs should also be moved to Yuexi Number 3.

Zhou Yun thought about how none of the livestock he raised had mutated. It was probably because wild animals were more prone to mutation, whereas domesticated animals, with their selectively bred genes, were less affected.

After inspecting his livestock, feeling quite wealthy, Zhou Yun went to the greenhouse satisfied.

His psychic ginseng, various precious mutated medicinal herbs, and his beloved cacti had some parts cut for planting at Yuexi Number 3, but the remaining ones were still thriving.

Several of them contained excellent wood-type crystal cores. He planned to use these as mother plants to attempt grafting some non-mutated succulents and aloe into them.

Yuexi Number 3 should also have some large aloe plants, and he would select some mutated varieties to plant there.

With these thoughts in mind, he also went to the domed restaurant. After months of careful cultivation, the greenhouse was filled with thriving herbal seedlings full of vitality.

As autumn approached, he thought of harvesting a batch of honeysuckle, isatis root, codonopsis, and notoginseng, as well as the purslane, to make traditional Chinese medicine and psychic reagents.

There were so many things to do.

Harvesting, cleaning, drying, processing—once busy, time flew by. In less than a week, the domed nursery was filled with the fragrance of medicinal herbs.

Guan Yuanfeng's learning ability was astonishing. Soon, Zhou Yun saw little whirlwinds swirling around the room, some even entering his nursery, making the leaves rustle like playful kids.

Zhou Yun couldn't help but laugh, reaching out to catch the little whirlwinds, only to get a solid electric shock.

Startled, he pulled back his hand. Before long, Guan Yuanfeng had rushed over with his wheelchair, looking anxious and guilty. "Did I shock you?"

Zhou Yun smiled and opened his palm to show him, "It's fine, just a slight tingle. I didn't expect there to be electricity in the whirlwind. Your skill is really nice and very practical."

Guan Yuanfeng, however, looked serious as he grabbed his palm and examined it carefully, feeling it to make sure there was only some redness and that everything else was intact before he could relax. "I didn’t control it properly," he said, his voice filled with frustration.

Zhou Yun said, "Being able to train in dual-attribute psychic abilities, and on top of that, such a practical long-range skill, you're really strong."

You’ve got a lot of talent, especially considering how quickly you’ve mastered both abilities after getting the dual-attribute core. It was a waste that he was given a fire psychic abilities core in his previous life. The fact that you could still use fire abilities for so long shows how naturally gifted you are.

Despite this, Guan Yuanfeng didn’t seem particularly excited. He looked around the herb garden under the dome and asked, "Are you harvesting herbs?"

Zhou Yun nodded, "Yes, they're growing well. It's autumn now, and winter is coming soon. The medicinal potency is at its best now, very effective."

Guan Yuanfeng asked, "Is there anything you need help with?"

Zhou Yun shook his head, "No need. You should focus on practicing your psychic abilities. You might want to consider combining them with your archery skills." Since he could already imbue whirlwinds with lightning, it shouldn't be difficult to do the same with arrows.

Guan Yuanfeng seemed inspired by this and pondered for a moment.

Zhou Yun took out a grey unattributed crystal core and showed it to him, "It seems you've already grasped how to circulate your psychic energy. Let me teach you how to absorb the psychic energy from the crystal core."

He handed the core to him, but Guan Yuanfeng did not take it, "You use it first, I'll stabilize myself more."

Zhou Yun knew he didn't want to use such a precious resource and explained, "This unattributed crystal core is already useless to me. Its level is too low."

The unique aspect of lightning attributes is that all attribute cores are useful to lightning attribute psychics. The same applies to light attribute psychics, which is why all major bases try to recruit lightning and light psychics.

Guan Yuanfeng took it, and Zhou Yun pressed the core against his Laogong acupoint on his palm, "Circulate your psychic energy here."

Guan Yuanfeng's eyes followed his fingertip that was touching his palm, and he couldn't help but become a little distracted.

Zhou Yun gently cupped his palm over Guan Yuanfeng's and said, "Close your eyes and try. Once you can absorb it, immediately circulate the abilities within your body, allowing them to merge and flow smoothly with your own power."

Guan Yuanfeng closed his eyes and began to try absorbing the energy from the crystal core.

Zhou Yun observed that although his brows were still furrowed, the pale and gaunt look on his face had dissipated, and he looked much more spirited.

His gaze fell on Guan Yuanfeng's legs—based on his experience from the previous life, it would take about three months for them to gradually regrow fully.

As a psychic with a strong physique and high-level healing abilities, limb regeneration was possible. Every couple of days, I use acupuncture as an excuse to give you a healing session, so the speed of recovery should improve.

Guan Yuanfeng suddenly opened his eyes, and his gaze immediately met Zhou Yun's. He had meant to say something but momentarily forgot.

Zhou Yun, smiling, asked him, "How is it?"

He looked down at Guan Yuanfeng's palm and saw that the crystal core had indeed disappeared.

Guan Yuanfeng then remembered what he wanted to say, "It seems too little. It's gone as soon as I absorbed it. Did I do it wrong?"

Zhou Yun, surprised, checked his pulse, "There's no abnormality. If there were any issues with absorbing the core, your pulse would have shown signs of distress, but it’s completely calm, which means you absorbed it well."

He examined Guan Yuanfeng's complexion again and felt his pulse on both sides once more, pondering for a moment, "You were in great shape before, weren’t you?"

Guan Yuanfeng replied, "It was alright. My annual check-ups always said I was in good shape. I excelled in all physical fitness tests."

Recalling the situation from the previous life, Zhou Yun concluded, "Your physical condition is better than most, and you’ve been training for a long time, so your energy channels are more robust than others and can hold more psychic energy."

He looked at Guan Yuanfeng's body again, "Once you’re fully recovered, you’ll be even stronger."

Guan Yuanfeng frowned, feeling no sense of joy. What this really meant was that he would need to consume more crystal cores than a typical psychic.

Now that he had awakened his psychic abilities, he hadn't accomplished anything yet. He relied on others for food and drink, and even the crystal cores had to be obtained by others. He had always prided himself on his independence, and this dependency left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Zhou Yun pushed his wheelchair and escorted him back to his room, then found an unattributed crystal core to give to him. "Try absorbing a few more and see how many you need to feel the energy circulate through your body."

He explained, "These crystal cores are just the lowest-grade, unattributed ones from ordinary zombies. The energy contained in them is not high, so the absorption rate is low. Given your excellent innate conditions, focus on meditation to refine the energy."

Zhou Yun felt a deep sense of regret. In his past life, Guan Yuanfeng, with such good innate conditions, was ruined by the transplantation of incompatible cores!

Guan Yuanfeng looked at the pile of crystal cores and took a deep breath. He knew he had to become stronger himself to obtain more cores. He reached out and took another core, closing his eyes to absorb it.

After absorbing five crystal cores in a row, he could finally feel a warm current rising from his palm and flowing into his veins.

It was an extremely comfortable sensation. He closed his eyes and circulated the energy, guiding it to the psychic core in his lower abdomen. Suddenly, he seemed to see the core in his abdomen—a bright diamond-like crystal, glittering like the most precious giant diamond he had seen at a jewelry exhibition.

The diamond emitted a brilliant light, and his entire body felt warm and full of strength.

He unconsciously fell into a meditative state.

Zhou Yun saw his even breathing and peaceful expression, knowing he had entered the state again. It had only been a few days since Guan Yuanfeng received his psychic core, and he was already at the intermediate level of a first-tier psychic.

Whether it was his innate physical strength or mental aptitude, Guan Yuanfeng was far superior to any talented students Zhou Yun had seen before. In his past life...

In his past life, their time together was brief, and they met when they were both too weak.

Zhou Yun quietly left the room, closing the door behind him, and headed back to his nursery. He went to the glass greenhouse and put on two sturdy medical masks before approaching a large pot of mutated purple horn cacti.

The purple horn cactus was a very resilient succulent, its fleshy stem covered with horn-like protrusions. A while ago, Zhou Yun cut into the mutated thorny tendrils and grafted a few purple horn cacti onto them. After catalyzing the mutation, he transplanted them into deep pots.

After the long drought weather some time ago, the purple horn cacti had received sufficient sunlight. With enough temperature difference, dark purple and silver interlaced patterns covered the fleshy stems. The entire one-meter-long deep pot was densely filled with them, and it was time to separate the plants into different pots again.

Zhou Yun waved his hand over the flowerpot, and under the green glow, the purple horn cacti seemed to stretch out as if alive. The plump stems bloomed with black-purple, star-shaped flowers that spread in a five-pointed pattern, each petal covered in fine white fuzz.

As each flower bloomed, a strong pungent odor began to fill the room.

Comet had followed him into the nursery, but now it let out a yelp and bolted out of the greenhouse.

Zhou Yun couldn't help but laugh. Even with two layers of masks, he could faintly smell the terrible odor.

He took scissors and carefully cut off all the flowers, then trimmed the long branches, collecting a full basket of purple horn cactus flowers and leaves. These were the main ingredients for the zombie attractant.

In his past life, after many experiments with various smelly plants, they found this to be the most effective.

Of course, strongly scented plants like Houttuynia cordata and Photinia were also proven effective for zombie attractants, but ordinary plants were not as effective. Only mutated plants showed significant effects, and succulents were the easiest to mutate. Using mutated cactus as rootstock could induce mutation.

The purple horn cactus was originally a very easy-to-grow succulent. Compared to other plants, the mutated purple horn cactus was easier to mass-produce, making it more suitable for creating zombie attractants.

With the experience from his past life, he didn't need to take any detours now.

And where there was a zombie attractant, there was also a zombie repellent.

Zhou Yun continued to another deep pot, this one containing the mutated Stapelia grandiflora. Under his deliberate cultivation, the silver-striped, four-angled stems had grown many buds, like delicate cone-shaped balloons.

The Stapelia grandiflora produced large flowers, measuring 15 to 20 centimeters, with deep purple veins running through the petals. The flowers were large and rich in color. Like the purple horn cactus, they emitted a strong odor to attract flies for pollination.

The odor was intensely like rotting flesh, and most people avoided it. The mutated Stapelia grandiflora was even more pungent, truly like a biological weapon.

For example, now, as Zhou Yun's hand brushed past, the deep green stems of the Stapelia grandiflora whipped around like four-angled whips, densely filling the entire deep pot.

The buds emerged like balloons, "pop!" blooming one after another, like stars twinkling in a dark green sky.

The pungent stench filled the entire glass medicinal garden. Zhou Yun saw Comet, which had already run off, was now even farther away, tail tucked between its legs, while nearby chickens, ducks, and geese became restless.

Although both had foul smells, the extract from the mutated Stapelia grandiflora flowers could attract zombies to fight over food, while the extract from the mutated Stapelia grandiflora had the effect of repelling zombies.

In their previous life, their research initially concluded that the stimulating carrion smell of the mutated Stapelia grandiflora might resemble the warning scent emitted by a powerful zombie king, like the king of beasts in a pack, monopolizing or warning and driving away other beasts.

However, the stench of this repellent was truly horrifying, and even humans couldn't bear it, so it was only suitable for emergency use in field combat or when surrounded by zombies, offering immediate but temporary relief to drive zombies away and avoid being encircled.

For regular use on people or around houses to cover up human scent, it was better to use other fragrant flowers like jasmine. Zhou Yun thought of the mutated jasmine downstairs and felt a stir in his heart, looking for a chance to transplant it to Yuexi Number 3.

He quickly snipped the Stapelia grandiflora flowers and branches, placing them in another glassware, submerging them in purified water and sealing them with a lid, preparing to make an extract.

Both the repellent and zombie-attracting potions were highly sought after and rare in their previous life, essential for psychics, zombie hunting squads, and ordinary people alike, who all needed to keep a few packs on hand.

In his previous life, after developing a method for mass production, Zhou Yun earned a significant amount of crystal cores for the lab with these potions.

Zhou Yun sealed all the glass lids and then turned on the ventilation system to quickly disperse the horrifying smell from the glasshouse.

These two potions needed to be made into final products as soon as possible.

Considering Guan Yuanfeng's situation, a large number of crystal cores were needed for psychic ability upgrades, making large-scale zombie hunts essential.