On the way back to her dwelling, Elara Stonefield didn't encounter many people. Only a few senior apprentices who occasionally passed by showed a hint of surprise on their faces when they saw her limping and walking with difficulty, but none of them stopped to say anything to her. It seemed that not many people paid particular attention to this inconspicuous junior apprentice.
Returning to her simple little wooden hut, she felt the pain in her foot seem to intensify. Elara quickly sat down on the edge of her bed, carefully and gently removed her coarse cloth soft shoes and thick cotton socks, and meticulously examined her injured area.
Oh, heavens, it was truly swollen! The big toe of her right foot was now raised high, forming an unnaturally large lump. The skin around the injury, stretched taut by the internal bruising and swelling, was red and shiny, looking alarmingly like a ripe, red chili pepper about to burst.
Elara hurriedly reached for the simple pillow made of hardwood at the head of her bed and fumbled underneath to pull out a small medicine phial. This bottle contained a special highly effective medicinal salve for external injuries, personally concocted by Physician Morus. It was said to have an immediate and miraculous therapeutic effect on all sorts of bruises, contusions, and even open, bleeding wounds. She had managed to wheedle this out of Physician Morus with great difficulty, originally intending to have it ready for Tyg in case he suffered any serious external injuries while cultivating that cruel "Might of the Stonehide." She never expected that she herself would be the first to use this precious salve.
As soon as she opened the cap of the small medicine phial, a rich, fragrant, and unique aroma of medicinal herbs immediately filled the simple little hut. Elara carefully tilted the phial and gently poured the fine medicinal powder onto her highly swollen toe. Almost instantly, a soothing coolness spread from the injury, immediately alleviating much of the burning pain. It truly deserved to be called Physician Morus's personally concocted special healing medicine; the effect was truly immediate! Physician Morus's medical skills were truly beyond reproach!
Elara then found a relatively clean old cloth strip from the low cabinet beside her bed and carefully bandaged her injured toe, now coated with the salve, into a bulging poultice. After doing all this, she put her socks and worn soft shoes back on.
Hmm! Fortunately, after this treatment, the pain in her foot had significantly lessened.
She tentatively took a few slow steps back and forth within the hut, feeling quite satisfied with her quick and effective treatment of the injury.
Now then, it was time to properly deal with that mysterious little phial—the true culprit behind her "glorious injury" this time.
Elara carefully took out the heavy little phial from her tunic. She found another relatively clean cloth and meticulously wiped clean the dirt and stains that had previously adhered to the surface of the phial. Only then did the complete original appearance of this mysterious little phial truly and clearly present itself before her eyes for the first time.
This small phial was not very large; a single palm could completely enclose it. It was even slightly smaller than the little medicine phial she had previously used for her injury salve. The entire phial was a faint, very soft, light green, like the tender leaves of early spring. Several peculiar, deep ink-green patterns were meticulously etched onto its surface. The shapes of these patterns resembled the leaves of some unknown plant, their veins clearly visible, carved so vividly they seemed real. Gently touching them with a finger, one could clearly feel a slightly raised, three-dimensional texture, as if real, gossamer-thin, strange leaves had been directly inlaid onto the phial's body and then solidified through some special process.
Elara weighed it in her hand; it still felt just as heavy and weighty. However, this object was clearly not made of any common metal Elara knew, nor was it any precious porcelain or gemstone within her range of knowledge. Because, when she touched it, she didn't feel the characteristic bone-chilling coldness of ordinary metal, nor the extremely smooth and delicate texture typical of porcelain or polished gemstones.
Elara held the mysterious little phial in her hand, turning it over and over, examining it carefully for a good while, before she could finally be certain that this phial must be made of some special material she had never seen before and whose name she did not know at all. The pleasing light green color of the phial also looked like a completely natural hue, seemingly an inherent color of this special material itself, and definitely not something added later through dyeing or some other processing method.
When Elara's gaze fell upon the cap, which looked seamlessly integrated with the phial's body and was firmly sealed, her curiosity could no longer be suppressed. She decided to open this mysterious little phial immediately and see if there was anything inside.
She once again placed her slightly slender fingers tightly on the small cap, then took a deep breath, mustered all her strength, and twisted hard. Once, twice, three times...
However, the cap and the body of the phial seemed as if they were carved from a single piece of material, unmoving. The little cap showed no sign of yielding.
Elara couldn't help but be astonished. She remembered that when she had just picked up this little phial, she had tried to twist it, but had not succeeded at that time. However, back then, she was preoccupied with the injury to her foot and hadn't been inclined to exert much effort, so she hadn't paid much attention to it. She had originally thought that now, by concentrating and using all her strength, opening such a small cap would be an easy matter, wouldn't it? She never expected that the result would still be failure.
Elara, refusing to give up, gathered her strength again and twisted hard more than ten times in a row. She felt her arm already aching from the excessive force, but that stubborn cap still showed no sign of loosening. Helplessly, she had to stop for the time being.
She shook her somewhat sore arm and gently flexed her slightly stiff wrist. She had used too much force just now, and her wrist joint seemed to have suffered a slight strain as a result.
She brought the little phial back under her gaze and examined it again meticulously, not missing any detail. Unfortunately, she found no hidden small mechanisms or special opening grooves on the body or cap of the phial.
Now, Elara was truly a bit troubled. If she couldn't open this cap, how could she know if there was anything inside? If there really was something inside, given that the phial itself was so exquisitely and strangely made, and so tightly sealed and difficult to open, then whatever it contained must surely be extremely precious and extraordinary, right?
Elara gripped the mysterious little phial tightly in her hand, her bright eyes fixed on it, lost in thought, just staring blankly for a good while. Finally, she seemed to have made some sort of decision. She decided to find Tyg, who was much stronger than her, and ask him to try if he could unscrew this stubborn cap with his extraordinary brute strength. After all, Tyg, ever since he started cultivating that "Might of the Stonehide," had grown astonishingly strong. It was said that he could now lift a huge water bucket weighing dozens of pounds, filled with water, in each hand, and still move like the wind, dashing up and down the rugged mountain paths. Nowadays, all the large water vats for daily use in Quietstream Valley were almost single-handedly filled by him, on time, every day.
Having made this decision, Elara immediately got up and went to the small wooden hut where Tyg lived, intending to wait for him there. She couldn't help but secretly hope that Tyg would finish his cultivation for the day quickly and return soon.
The taste of waiting for others was truly not pleasant. Elara felt that time was passing so slowly, it was almost as if it had frozen. She felt as if she had been waiting in Tyg's room for a very, very long time before she finally heard a faint "creak" from outside the door—it was the sound of Tyg pushing open the wooden door and entering the room.
Elara looked up and saw Tyg, dressed in a thin, sweat-soaked, light blue short tunic, faint wisps of white steam rising from his entire body, his head drenched in sweat, walking in from outside. Elara knew this was a normal physical phenomenon after he had just finished his arduous cultivation under the waterfall, so she didn't find it strange at all.
When Tyg saw Elara in his room, he was slightly taken aback at first, appearing somewhat surprised. Before he could even speak, Elara, who had been waiting impatiently, immediately thrust the mysterious little phial directly in front of him and said eagerly, "Tyg, come help me with something! Can you help me open this phial?"
"Huh? Where did you find this? This phial looks really pretty!" Tyg, after a slight daze, reached out and took the small green phial, examining it curiously in his hand.
"Hngh! Hngh! Hngh!" He grunted with effort.
"Hey! This thing is really sturdy! Why is it so hard to unscrew! What on earth is this made of?" Tyg was also a straightforward and decisive person and didn't waste words. After taking the phial, he immediately used both hands, exerting all his strength, and twisted fiercely. However, even with his current extraordinary brute strength, he still couldn't open the small cap even a fraction.
"No good, Elara, I really can't twist it open." After trying several times, Tyg, his face flushed red, shook his head at Elara somewhat apologetically, then tossed the still intact little phial back to her, and also offered her another suggestion: "Why don't you go ask some of the stronger senior apprentices in the Outpost to try?"
"What? Even you can't unscrew it?" Hearing this, Elara instantly felt a bit anxious and couldn't help but feel disappointed. She couldn't stop herself from pacing restlessly back and forth in Tyg's small, cramped hut.
"Hey! Elara, what happened to your foot?" Only then did Tyg suddenly notice that Elara's gait today seemed a bit off, as she was limping.
"Oh, it's nothing serious, I just accidentally kicked a stone while walking earlier." Elara didn't know why, but she didn't want to tell Tyg the whole truth about this mysterious little phial. Perhaps, it was just a subconscious action; she seemed to have already considered everything related to this little phial as her own little secret.
Elara now felt very disappointed and didn't have much energy to chat with Tyg about other things. She just casually asked him a few questions about his cultivation progress for the day, then got up to leave Tyg's hut, intending to return to her own little hut and figure out how to solve the problem of this stubbornly sealed mysterious phial herself.
After returning to her simple little wooden hut, Elara placed the mysterious little phial upright on the rough wooden table in the center of the room. She herself leaned over one side of the table, her bright eyes staring intently at the unmoving little phial. At the same time, her little mind was working rapidly, trying hard to come up with a good way to properly solve this tricky problem before her.