Fang Mo happily bought the Basics of Cultivation manual. After spending more than half of the money he had earned from selling Ren Xiuying and seeing the prices of items related to cultivation, Fang Mo realized just how poor he was. He needed a way to make money.
"Do you have books on herbs?" His plan was to familiarize himself with the local flora. After that, it would be easier to work as a medic. No matter the place, medics were always in high demand, especially during times of war.
"Customer, do you perhaps mean spiritual herbs?" The blond clerk looked at him with interest. Most who studied herbs were alchemists, a profession that brought in a lot of money but also required spending a lot to learn.
Fang Mo shook his head. He was sure he couldn't afford herbs used by cultivators. "I meant herbs used by mortals."
"Ah, unfortunately, we only deal with items used by immortals here."
Fang Mo nodded and then left with the cultivation manual in hand. He was excited to stop and read it, but decided to first buy a book with information on plants.
To his horror, he had only walked a few meters when he saw a wanted poster with his face glued to a wall. A reward of five thousand gold coins was offered to anyone who captured him, dead or alive.
Fang Mo's expression darkened. As far as he knew, there was only one person who wanted him dead and had the power to offer such a hefty reward. Does my uncle have that much influence in the state's capital? How?
He knew he had to leave the state as soon as possible, or he might never have the chance. For his uncle to put a wanted poster here, it meant that the State Lord, or someone with enough authority, had approved it.
He pulled his hood lower, further shadowing his face beneath his clothes. With light steps, he made his way toward a few shops. Though Fang Mo was in a hurry to leave Wei Zhou State, he needed something to protect himself. A knife he had no experience using in combat was far from enough.
He bought a leather satchel with a strap to sling over his shoulder and a few poisonous herbs before leaving Qinghe City. Because of the war, no one was willing to travel from Wei Zhou State to Cheng Hou State. However, a few braver merchants still made trips to cities near the front lines to sell goods at inflated prices. For the right amount, all of them agreed to take people along.
After the carriage set off, Fang Mo sighed in relief. He knew his situation was far from stable, but at least the chance of being discovered had been greatly reduced.
The trip would take about three days. Fang Mo decided to begin by concocting a few poisons. He mixed the herbs he had bought earlier and placed the resulting mixtures into small spherical flasks, which he had purchased along with the herbs.
With that done, Fang Mo moved on to what interested him most: cultivation.
Opening Basics of Cultivation, he began reading silently.
'Some say cultivation is a way to defy mortality, that only a few special people born with immortal spiritual roots have this chance. But I disagree. Cultivation is not about defying mortality, but about defying the heavens. Mortality is nothing but a side effect of the Heavenly Laws.'
Fang Mo's eyes widened at the first lines. Didn't everyone say that only those with immortal spiritual roots could cultivate? Wasn't it strange that a foundational book would contradict that belief? Still, he pushed aside his doubts and continued reading, ignoring the first sentence for now, which, to his disappointment, the author never delved further into. The rest seemed more conventional.
'The cultivation realms are divided into the Mortal, Earth, and Heaven Realms. Each realm is divided into three stages, which are further divided into nine levels, with a hidden tenth level that only the most exceptional geniuses have a small chance of reaching.
To embark on the path of cultivation, one must use their spiritual roots to stimulate the meridians in their body. Only after exciting and opening these meridians can a cultivator gather enough spiritual energy to step into the first stage of the Mortal Realm, called Opening Meridian.
The more meridians a person can open, the stronger and smoother their cultivation path will be. The greatest genius I ever saw possessed supreme immortal spiritual roots and was able to open 102 meridians, reaching the 10th level of the Opening Meridian stage.'
The remainder of the book discussed the circulation paths of spiritual energy and similar topics. With Fang Mo's medical background, understanding those parts was easy. What he didn't know, however, was how he was supposed to open his meridians when he only had mortal roots.
He felt like tossing the book aside. It claimed that people with mortal spiritual roots could cultivate, but never explained how! What a bastard of an author. Then, a sudden thought crossed Fang Mo's mind: his cancer vaccine!
Cancer occurs when a cell undergoes a mutation that disrupts its normal functions. Due to the evolutionary history of multicellular organisms, cancer is essentially an expected outcome. Even if a being could live forever, it would eventually develop cancer and die.
Every day, a person's immune system identifies and destroys mutated cells that could become cancerous. When the immune system fails, a tumor forms. If the tumor grows abnormally and poses a threat to the organism, it is classified as cancer.
Many mutations can occur in cancer cells, including some that help them evade the immune system. How could developing a vaccine be easy under such conditions, especially when most vaccines rely on that very system?
But Fang Mo had done the impossible on Earth; he had created one. In truth, he didn't specifically create a vaccine for cancer, but rather a liquid that could boost a person's immune system.
By combining Western and Eastern medicine, Fang Mo discovered that all humans were born with meridians that were closed and clogged. These meridians didn't seem to serve any function in the human body, but through his experiments, Fang Mo found an interesting relationship between them and the immune system.
When meridians were opened, the immune system grew stronger, and the more clogs one could remove, the better the effect. Theoretically, opening and fully unclogging all meridians would create a powerful immune system capable of resisting any disease.
But that was only in theory. Opening meridians was already extremely difficult; unclogging them was even harder. Fang Mo's initial formula could open meridians completely, but it also killed the subject. Only by drastically reducing its potency did he manage to create a version that opened a very small portion of a meridian without killing the person.
People with stronger bodies could survive longer exposure, but they would eventually die as well. It was as if the meridians were never meant to be used—an evolutionary remnant with no real purpose. But Fang Mo had finally understood: it wasn't that the meridians had no purpose; Earth simply lacked spiritual energy!
If I can recreate my formula here… I'll be able to open the meridians and use them to gather spiritual energy!
Fang Mo knew it would be difficult to recreate his formula in this world. He would need time and resources he didn't currently have. On top of that, his body was too weak. He needed to strengthen it if he wanted to survive the effects of the full-strength formula. The version he exposed to the world as a cancer vaccine was far too weak. He was sure it wouldn't be nearly enough here.
Fang Mo finally knew what he had to do: strengthen his body, make money, and resume his research on the meridian-opening formula. Determination flashed across his face, but it was quickly replaced by surprise as a swoosh sound, followed by the crack of splintering wood, rang out beside his left ear.
Just a few centimeters from his head, an arrow was embedded in the carriage wall.
"Bandit attack!" shouted the guards, followed by the clash of metal on metal ringing out from outside the carriage. Fang Mo's expression darkened. He slipped his book into his satchel and peeked through small holes in the carriage wall to see the situation outside.
It didn't look good. The bandits had the element of surprise and outnumbered the guards. Worse, they didn't look like the type to care about sparing lives. At best, they might let the women live, but their fate would be even worse than death.
Fang Mo wasn't the only one who realized this.
"The guards are losing! We need to escape now!" shouted the merchant in charge of the convoy, a man with narrow eyes and a large belly. He urged everyone to leave the carriage immediately.
Seeing the person in charge panicking and telling them to flee, the passengers did just that. Panic spread like wildfire as everyone scrambled to get out, afraid they wouldn't escape in time.
But the fat merchant didn't leave with them. Only after several people had rushed out and died did he escape, using the fleeing crowd as a human shield. Fang Mo, the only one who hadn't run immediately, narrowed his eyes as he stayed behind.