Blossoming Path

"You sure you don't need any help?" I asked, mostly because it felt polite at this point.

Li Wei didn't even look up from the wood he was chiseling. "Kai, would you want me to help you make an elixir?"

I blinked, caught off guard by the rhetorical question. "Probably not..?"

"Exactly," he said, giving me a quick side-eye before going back to work. “We’ve got this covered. Go play with your plants or something.”

I glanced over at his father, who gave me a nod of agreement, hammering down another beam without missing a beat. Clearly, this was their domain, and I was just some guy who happened to show up with ideas and seeds. They were the professionals. Plus, they looked like they were in their element—thick coats, sawdust everywhere, and not a single break in their rhythm. Meanwhile, I was just standing there feeling... well, unnecessary.

Tianyi fluttered curiously near the half-built foundation, her wings shimmering in the cold morning light, while Windy slithered around the edge of the garden, eyeing the woodpile like it was a challenge. Probably deciding if he could knock it over with his tail.

“Alright, alright,” I said, holding my hands up in surrender. “I’ll leave you to it.”

Li Wei didn’t respond, too focused on whatever intricate wood sorcery he was working on. His dad gave a grunt, which I assumed meant ‘thank you for not getting in the way.’ With one last glance at the growing structure that would soon be my greenhouse, I turned and headed back inside my shop, leaving the carpentry duo to their magic.

Once inside, the familiar smell of herbs and dried flowers greeted me, grounding me back into my world. I shut the door behind me, blocking out the cold and noise, and made my way to the table where the Golden Bamboo seeds sat, waiting for me.

I plopped down into my chair and pulled out the stack of notes Guowei Wang had sent me. Despite the numerous failed attempts recorded in the letters, the information had been invaluable. Every failure was a clue, showing me what didn’t work. Cultivating Golden Bamboo was like asking the heavens to hand over a divine treasure. The seeds would sprout, yes, but then they’d just stop. No growth, no energy. Just… there. A tiny little shoot that gave up on life before it even started.

I flipped through the pages, reviewing the detailed notes. One of the more promising attempts mentioned a seed that had sprouted—full sun, well-drained soil—basically treated like any other bamboo. It had even grown a few inches before it stubbornly refused to grow any further. That had led me to my current theory: the soil probably needed to be well-drained, just like regular bamboo, but it must require something more—something beyond just sunlight.

"More sunlight," I muttered to myself. How do you get more sunlight when it’s already planted in full sun? Build a second sun? Did there use to be another celestial body in the sky that disappeared centuries ago?

I stared at the seed in my hand, rolling it between my fingers. There had to be something I was missing, something I wasn’t seeing. Maybe I was overthinking it? I closed my eyes and activated my Plant Whisperer skill, feeling the familiar tingle crawl down my spine, spreading out to the tips of my fingers.

The seed hummed with life beneath my touch. It wasn’t dead, not by a long shot. It felt eager, like it was just waiting for the right conditions to explode into growth. But those conditions were still a mystery.

I let out a sigh, dropping the seed back onto the table.

My head was starting to spin from all the cross-referencing and thinking, so I decided to take a quick break. Grabbing a few herbs from the shelf, I began preparing a revitalizing tonic. The herbs mixed together easily in my hands, their aromas familiar and calming. Within minutes, I had extracted their essence, creating a potent, energy-boosting drink.

Tossing it into a couple of vials, I headed back outside where Li Wei and his father were still hard at work. They hadn’t slowed down in the slightest, but even carpenters needed a boost every now and then.

“Thought you could use a pick-me-up,” I called out, holding up the vials.

Li Wei finally stopped chiseling long enough to give me a skeptical look. “What’s in it?”

“Trust me, you’ll feel like you could build ten greenhouses after this.”

His dad took the vial without hesitation, downing it in one go. A second later, his eyes widened slightly, and he straightened up, his energy clearly restored. “Not bad, Kai,” he grunted, giving me a nod of approval.

Li Wei followed suit, taking a swig and blinking in surprise as the tonic hit. “Okay, maybe you’re good for something,” he admitted, handing back the empty vial.

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“Glad to be of service,” I said with a smirk.

As they got back to work, their energy noticeably renewed, I couldn’t help but grin. It wasn’t every day I got to play a supporting role in someone else’s craft. Maybe I couldn’t build a greenhouse, but I could keep the builders going strong. Watching them work, I noticed a clear difference in their working styles.

Jian Wei, Li Wei’s father, worked with the steady, methodical precision that came from years, no, decades of experience. He used marking knives with familiar ease, carefully outlining the wood with smooth, deliberate cuts. Each motion was purposeful, measured, as if the wood itself were an old friend, and he knew exactly how to coax the best out of it.

Li Wei, on the other hand, was like a storm. Where Jian Wei was slow and deliberate, Li Wei moved quickly, his hands flowing over the wood in almost a blur. He didn’t even bother with marking knives. Instead, he cut freehand, trusting his instincts and skills without a second thought. And yet, despite his speed, his cuts were precise—almost unnervingly so. He’d pause occasionally, step back to examine his work, then dive right back in with a quick adjustment that brought everything perfectly into alignment.

It was mesmerizing to watch, the way the two styles contrasted yet complemented each other. The father, with his years of expertise, and the son, with his natural talent amplified by something more.

As I watched, Li Wei suddenly looked up from his work and called out to his father. “That guideline’s off by a fraction. Left by two millimeters.”

Jian Wei paused, squinting at the wood before adjusting it slightly. I blinked. From where I was standing, I couldn’t see any difference at all, but somehow Li Wei had caught it from across the foundation.

“Wait,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “How did you even see that?”

Li Wei shrugged, casually wiping his hands on his tunic. “Harmonic Carpentry.”

“What?”

“The skill I unlocked about a month ago,” he explained as if this was the most normal thing in the world. “It’s called Harmonic Carpentry. Helps me see the balance in materials, or visualize grid lines or paths in the things I’m working on.”

“Grid lines?” I leaned in, intrigued. “So it’s like your vision has... boundaries?”

“Sort of.” Li Wei gestured to the beam he’d been working on, and I swear I could almost imagine the faint outlines he was describing. “It lets me dabble in other things too, like masonry, even metalworking. All the materials, they’ve got their own rhythm. It’s just a matter of tuning into them.”

I couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe as I listened. It reminded me so much of my own skills, like the Refinement Simulation technique—how I could visualize the reactions inside the furnace, see the paths ingredients would take before I even added them.

“Have you learned the Memory Palace technique?” I asked, suddenly curious if his skill set paralleled mine even further.

Li Wei’s eyes flicked over to me, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. “I did, actually. Got it as a quest reward. It’s been useful, especially when working on more complex structures. You?”

When everyone was special, no one was, I suppose. First Feng Wu, then Zhi Ruo, and now him? Everybody was getting all these supposedly 'rare' skills, even though Elder Ming said it was unheard of to have unless you were an Essence Awakening stage cultivator!

I shook my head and nodded. “Yeah. I use it for remembering a lot of things, and revising recipes, techniques, and whatnot.”

“Huh.” Li Wei scratched his chin thoughtfully. “I guess we’re more similar than we thought.”

That realization struck me harder than I expected. How had Li Wei, someone who had been a promising carpenter until recently, reached such a high level so quickly? What had prompted the Heavenly Interface to give him these quests and abilities, allowing him to eclipse his father in skill in just a few months? Was it something in his potential, or had the Interface been waiting for him to tap into it?

Before I could ponder it further, Li Wei gave me a curious glance. “What about you? What abilities did you get?”

“Well, since you asked...” I plucked a sprig of mint from a nearby plant, holding it up as I activated my Essence Extraction skill. Instantly, the essence of the mint began to flow from the plant, gathering into a shimmering ball of energy at the top of my palm.

Li Wei’s normally aloof expression brightened, his eyes sparkling with interest. He reached out to touch the essence, his hand brushing against the surface.

The moment his fingers made contact, the energy dropped from my palm, liquefying into a glowing liquid that slid off my hand and onto a nearby astralagus plant. The plant shuddered as it absorbed the liquid, its leaves taking on a strange, vibrant hue that shimmered under the light.

I stared at the plant, my brain struggling to process what had just happened. “Uh… that’s not supposed to happen.”

"My bad. I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay." I crouched down to observe the astralagus, which stood out prominently among its standard, purple counterparts. "it just... absorbed it?"

As I crouched beside the plant, its now vibrant and odd shade of bluish green pulsed slightly, almost as if it were breathing. The realization struck me like a bolt of lightning.

Have I been able to do this all along?

I looked up at the teen, who was still watching with curious eyes. "Do you know what this means?"

He shrugged, unaware of what just transpired. "The plant's gone bad now?"

I waved my hand dismissively. "No, no. I can put these essences into other plants! I could create entirely new hybrids! Imagine the possibilities! What if I could make pills and elixirs using these hybrids that no one has ever seen before?"

Li Wei’s expression didn’t change much, but his eyebrow did raise a fraction. “You mean like a... mint-astralagus hybrid?”

“Yes!” I exclaimed, the excitement building. "But bigger! What if I took the essence of a rare herb and merged it with a common plant? Or combined two powerful herbs into one super-plant? I could make pills and potions that don't lose their effectiveness as quickly because they’re unique every time!"

Lan Sheng's words echoed in my mind about how most pills lose their potency with repeated use because the body grows accustomed to them. But what if I could make entirely new variants, hybrids with never-before-seen properties? Pills that would keep their potency no matter how many times they were consumed because each batch would be fundamentally different from the last.

The clinking of gold coins started to ring in my ears. My mind flashed to the possibilities. Creating a line of hybrid elixirs, selling them far and wide, becoming renowned as the alchemist who discovered a new way to enhance herbal medicine. My face split into a wide grin as the fantasy of endless riches began to form in my head.

Suddenly, I couldn't contain myself. I shot to my feet, arms flung wide, and shouted at the top of my lungs, "I’m rich! I’m rich!"

Before Li Wei could react, I lunged forward and hugged him tightly, nearly knocking the poor guy over with the force of my enthusiasm. "Li Wei! This is the luckiest accident of my life!"

Well, second luckiest. Running into the ancient ruins where the Heavenly Interface laid dormant was even more ridiculous.

Li Wei, clearly startled and caught off guard by my sudden outburst, stiffened for a second before awkwardly patting me on the back. "Uh, yeah... sure. Congratulations."

"Do you understand what this means?" I pulled back, practically bouncing on my feet. "This changes everything! I could make an entirely new branch of alchemy! I’m going to be a legend! An immortal alchemist known across the land for creating life-changing elixirs!"

“You sure you’re not getting ahead of yourself?”

“Nope! Not even a little!” I beamed, spinning around to look at the astralagus plant, still marveling at what had just transpired. "This is just the beginning!"

Tianyi fluttered over, sensing my excitement. She landed softly on my shoulder, and her wings glimmered with a soft blue glow, reflecting the mood of the moment. Even Windy slithered closer, curious about what had happened.

“Just think of it,” I said, grinning from ear to ear. “Unique elixirs, unheard-of pills. I'll change the world of alchemy! And all because of one little accident.”

“Well, good luck with that," Li Wei said, returning to his work on the greenhouse. "Let me know when you've made a mint-ginger hybrid. Might help with the cold."

I laughed, my mind already racing ahead with ideas. There was no turning back now. If this worked, the possibilities were endless. I was going to make history, one plant at a time.