When those words hit Xu Qing’s ears, his eyes widened even further. He had previously only dreamed of being able to go into that tent to listen to Grandmaster Bai’s lessons. Trying to mask his excitement, he clasped hands, bowed deeply, and said, “Many thanks, Grandmaster!”

He spoke the words in complete earnest. Only after a long moment passed did he rise from his bow and leave.

This time, he didn’t look back to see if Grandmaster Bai was watching him. However, he did hear the grandmaster loudly criticizing his two apprentices.

He thrummed with excitement as he hurried back to the residence. When he broke the news to Sergeant Thunder, the old man was delighted. And seeing Xu Qing so happy made him smile even more broadly.

The old sergeant felt emotions tugging at his heart as he thought about how Xu Qing had been visiting the forbidden region so often lately. Although Xu Qing never said why he was doing it, Sergeant Thunder knew that at least one reason was to look for lifespan flowers. The Kid was devoted and loyal, and had literally saved his life. In the cold and bleak world they lived in, that was something worth treasuring. However, whenever Sergeant Thunder saw Xu Qing coming back exhausted and bedraggled so often, he felt bad.

And thus, Xu Qing’s exuberance filled him with joy. Heading to the kitchen, he cooked a sumptuous feast for dinner, during which he repeatedly exhorted Xu Qing to show respect to his teacher, be deferential, and listen carefully to the lectures. Xu Qing, of course, took all the advice very seriously.

After dinner, Xu Qing went to his room, still feeling excited. Given that he couldn’t stop thinking about going into that tent the next day, he wasn’t able to sleep.

As he fretted about what could go wrong, and hoped about the things that could go right, he found himself thinking back to his time in the slums, when he and some of the other kids had met one of their scholar teachers for the first time.

Finally, he opened his trusty sack, pulled out an empty, brand-new sack, and dumped about half of his spirit coins inside, as well as a large collection of white boluses. Xu Qing knew that knowledge was priceless, and that even if he gave Grandmaster Bai all of his savings, it wouldn’t count for much. But he had to think about Sergeant Thunder, so he held some back.

With that, he felt a bit more at ease. Closing his eyes, he started his breathing exercises and cultivation routine.

That night passed very slowly for Xu Qing.

When the sun rose, he put on a fresh set of clothes, washed his hands, and walked outside.

He was about to step out the gate when Sergeant Thunder called for him to wait. The old sergeant had taken to sleeping in lately, but was up early today.

The sergeant again went into detail with many reminders of how to be a good student. Xu Qing didn’t mind. He just nodded and listened carefully. Finally, Sergeant Thunder straightened Xu Qing’s clothes, then offered him a sack. “You can’t go into that tent empty-handed.”

“I wasn’t going to,” Xu Qing said quietly, refusing to take the sack.

Sergeant Thunder glared at him briefly, but could see the determination in his eyes, and pulled the sack away. Then he went back into his room and came out with a jug of alcohol.

“I happen to know Grandmaster Bai likes to drink. Take this for him.”

This time, Xu Qing didn’t refuse. Taking the alcohol, he left the courtyard, walked a bit, then looked over his shoulder and waved at Sergeant Thunder. Then he hurried toward Grandmaster Bai’s tent.

Watching Xu Qing leave, Sergeant Thunder smiled. The Kid’s even happier than when I took him to harvest seven-leaf clovers.

Feeling both happy and nervous, Xu Qing walked up to the tent he had stood outside on so many occasions over the past month or so. Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the main tent flap.

“Come in,” Grandmaster Bai said. Xu Qing looked down at his clothing, quickly adjusted the fold of his robe and smoothed out some wrinkles, then opened the flap. Inside the tent were the guards, plus Grandmaster Bai and his two apprentices.

As Xu Qing looked at them, they looked back.

Grandmaster Bai had a placid facial expression, but the two apprentices did not. The young man named Chen Feiyuan looked a bit resentful, while the girl, Tingyu, seemed curious.

Xu Qing clasped hands and bowed to Grandmaster Bai, then took out the sack he’d prepared along with the alcohol. As he’d learned in class in the slums, he bowed at the waist and offered them with both hands.

Though he was in a bowing position, he saw a bit of warmth in Grandmaster Bai’s eyes.

Grandmaster Bai didn’t touch the sack. But he did accept the alcohol. He even opened the jug and drank a sip in a formal way, like it was some sort of ceremony.

Then he put down the jug and said, “Let’s begin.”

As usual, he started with some testing. This time, Tingyu and Chen Feiyuan seemed on par with Xu Qing. They had done their homework, and answered all the questions correctly. Then they looked at Xu Qing.

He kept his attention on Grandmaster Bai as he answered all of the questions. Afterward, Grandmaster Bai nodded and started the lecture.

Xu Qing listened attentively. The opportunity to listen to Grandmaster Bai’s lectures from inside the tent was precious to him, so he didn’t allow himself to be distracted in the slightest. Chen Feiyuan and Tingyu were doing the same thing, which caused Grandmaster Bai to smile in his heart.

A dozen or so days passed. Xu Qing was already used to listening to lectures, and now that he was officially part of the class, he did not take it any less seriously. As a result, his base of knowledge grew.

That said, it only took a few days for Chen Feiyuan to go back to his old ways. In contrast, Tingyu kept pace with Xu Qing, and paid close attention in class.

After the lecture was over, she would even talk to him a bit. Most of her questions were about life in the basecamp, and though Xu Qing was reluctant to go into details, he did offer simple explanations.

As for Chen Feiyuan, he still seemed resentful of Xu Qing, and had hardly spoken more than a few words to him.

Xu Qing didn’t care. He had never been great with social interactions, and always did his best to leave the tent as quickly as possible after the lecture. Then he would go into the forbidden region. However, now he had a new goal while there: to find plants and vegetation that he had learned about.

Before he had begun attending lectures, the plants in the forbidden region had all seemed the same. But things were different now.

Now Xu Qing frequently ran across plants he knew about, and seeing them in real life added to his depth of knowledge. However, as time passed, he came to realize that the vast majority of plants in the forbidden region were the unhealthy yin type that were poisonous. Vital yang plants were rare. As a result, his personal research into plants started to focus on poisons.

After harvesting numerous such plants, he started keeping them in a small hut in the same canyon where Squad Thunderbolt had harvested seven-leaf clover from. That place became his personal laboratory, where he focused on studying poisons.

Given that he was inherently capable of breaking down poisons within his own body, it gave him a lot more confidence in working with dangerous plants. After quite a bit of experimentation in different combinations, he eventually created a completely new and unique poisonous serum.

It was created by combining eight types of poisonous plants plus viper venom. It had violently corrosive properties, such that, after some testing and refining, Xu Qing found it could dissolve an entire mutant beast corpse in only five breaths of time. It only worked that well on corpses. When used on living beings, it wasn’t as effective. Regardless, this poison serum was the first medicinal mixture Xu Qing had personally invented, and he was very pleased with it. After drying it in the sun to turn it into a powder, he decided to give it a name: Corpse-Ravaging Powder.

Vital yang plants were rare, but he did find some, and was thus able to experiment with combining the poles of yin and yang. As a result, he created a medicinal liquid using seven-leaf clovers to suppress mutagen.

He showed it to Grandmaster Bai and asked if it might help Sergeant Thunder with his condition.

Grandmaster Bai said that nothing other than a lifespan flower would do any good for the sergeant. Even the medicine he was already taking would slowly lose effectiveness.

He was absolutely right about that. Sergeant Thunder always took his medicine, yet he kept growing weaker and weaker. Xu Qing could only watch it happen.

On one particular day, the two of them were eating dinner when Sergeant Thunder seemed about to say something, then hesitated for a while. Finally he told Xu Qing that, for health purposes, he needed to leave the scavenger basecamp. In fact, he was already preparing to purchase a residency permit in a nearby city.

“Kid, I know your path is going to lead you far away from this little camp. You have a bright future. I don’t want you sticking around with me while I grow old.”

Xu Qing stopped eating and looked down for a long moment. Then he quietly said, “Are you going to come back?”

“Of course! I’ll definitely come back to visit.” Smiling, Sergeant Thunder reached out to tousle Xu Qing’s hair. Inside, he sighed. The truth was that he didn’t want Xu Qing facing the dangers of the forbidden region for his sake.

Xu Qing’s instinct was to avoid Sergeant Thunder’s hand. But he didn’t. And thus, the sergeant tousled his hair and smiled again. “Besides, you can come visit me anytime you want.”

Xu Qing nodded.

That night during Xu Qing’s cultivation routine, he frequently looked in the direction of Sergeant Thunder’s room. He felt glum, but kept it hidden.

Every day, he went to Grandmaster Bai’s for the lecture, then spent as much time as possible in the forbidden region, looking for lifespan flowers.

Unfortunately, as Grandmaster Bai had said, such flowers could be encountered by chance but never searched for and found.