Back to the Peak

T/N: Hihi~ hope you guys are enjoying the story alongside me so far!

Let me know if the MTL isn’t reading smoothly enough and could use some more editing. I have more time to do rewriting and rephrasing on the chapters that I read over the weekend, which is why the quality of the prose might jump around depending on the day. Sorry as well for all the typos/grammar mistakes I leave in there, haven’t been doing much proofreading.

And once again, if anyone’s interested in giving this story a proper translation you’re more than welcome to~

I’m scheduling my posts to go up every day at the same time (9:30 am eastern), but since NU listings need to be manually updated while Tony’s away, NU might not show the latest til i get around to that.

Chapter 33: Finding the Medicinal Herbs

There were some things that people could do better than machines, but there were also some things that machines could do better than people.

In the field of pharmacy, there existed the problem that machines could not create medication that required radiation energy to prepare. Similarly, in some basic medication, humans could not achieve the precision of machines.

But even so, people still needed to learn to mix those simple medicaments that could be created without radiant energy1. Only when they could skillfully make these medicines could they try to mix more advanced medication, and then move to developing new medicaments.

Doing this was to lay their foundation in experience.

Cheng Ran’s body at birth was deficient. He could only mix medication that did not need radiation energy. No one thought he was suitable to become a pharmacist, yet he still planned to create a second-level antidote!

“Teacher, who is this guy? Is he a freshman? Can he really already mix an antidote?” A male student who came to copy the course materials was surprised. When he first entered the school, he spent half a year just learning how to process medicinal herbs!

“Wang Ya, don’t lose face here. Don’t you know to pay attention to the school forum?” A girl patted Wang Ya on the shoulder with a recorder: “These two people are the most famous among the freshmen!”

“Isn’t Yin Tiancheng the most famous freshman?” Wang Ya obviously had some doubts. At the same time, he logged into the campus forum with his own contact terminal.

Yesterday, Shi Qingyang and Cheng Ran had been put on the campus network. For Cheng Ran, most people were guessing his origin. For Shi Qingyang, his previous experience was not difficult to check as a native of Spark City. People labeled him as Cheng Ran’s lackey.

However, even if people labeled him that way, most people admired Shi Qingyang, especially after they studied the video of the battle between Shi Qingyang and Yin Tiancheng.

Although Shi Qingyang only sent out wind blades, his release speed was far faster than that of ordinary people, and his control power was also amazing – the radiation energy of the arena was weaker, so the damage power of the wind blades was also low. Shi Qingyang accurately let two wind blades cut the same part of Yin Tiancheng’s face.

“How cool!” Wang Ya looked at the connector and spoke in admiration, but in exchange, the girl beside him gave him another smack: “Look at Cheng Ran!”

Wang Ya’s eyes immediately fell on Cheng Ran.

Cheng Ran’s behavior always gave people the feeling that he had never seen the world. It was hard to believe that he had some high background. However, after he ambled over to the mixing station, his temperament completely changed.

Shi Qingyang saw people around him start to take videos, but he didn’t stop them. After Ning An agreed to let Cheng Ran prepare the potion, Shi Qingyang knew that this was Cheng Ran’s chance.

Cheng Ran wanted to get to know more people, but he was ostracized. Unless he could show his talents, others would treat him differently.

Right now was just the right moment.

Cheng Ran had seen the teaching video, but had not practiced it. Now he was entirely making the antidote according to the teaching video. There was no mistake in each step, and he perfectly replicated the process.

Others may be distracted in the process of mixing, or they may not remember how many dozens of herbs were put in, but Cheng Ran didn’t have to worry about this.

“How can he look like the old man who always gives us demonstrations in the online pharmacy course? The old man has a habit of rubbing his fingers, and he’s doing it the same way……” Wang Ya thought this scene looked more and more familiar, and Ning An was thoughtful when she heard his words.

“And I’d said why would someone who didn’t even have rad-energy want to come to Spark Academy? Did he want to learn medicine?” The girl beside him obviously sighed.

Although they felt that Cheng Ran’s coming to study was unfair to many people, they also had some sympathy for Cheng Ran.

To be honest, their proficiency in preparing antidotes was not as good as that of Cheng Ran, but they were Ning An’s favorite students and were expected to become intermediate pharmacists. Cheng Ran, in comparison, couldn’t advance any further. Before that, he could only learn online.

The potion was finally ready. Just now, because the pharmacist was so aggressive, Cheng Ran took the initiative to stand up against her. But now he couldn’t help but be afraid. He didn’t even give the potion in his hand to Ning An, who had already stretched out her hand, but instead gave it to Shi Qingyang.

Shi Qingyang handed the medicine over to Ning An, and Ning An’s expression improved a little.

“Bring out a recorder, and I’ll pass the course materials to you.” Ning An looked at the bottle carefully and sighed.

Like Shi Qingyang, Cheng Ran was just as exemplary, yet limited. If only Shi Qingyang’s qualifications were not C-, if only Cheng Ran had radiant energy…

Shi Qingyang soon handed over the prepared recorder.

After copying the course materials, Shi Qingyang saw that the person who had been waiting next to them gave them a thumbs up.

This showed that Cheng Ran had gotten their recognition… Although Ning An held onto the antidote made by Cheng Ran, it was obviously worth coming here.

Although only pharmacists who could mix medicines that cannot be prepared by machines could be considered valuable, ordinary junior pharmacists were also popular. Many radiation warriors liked to ask junior pharmacists to help process the medicinal herbs they had found, which was much cheaper than buying the medicine directly. As for selling medication, many pharmaceutical factories did not purchase uncertified medicinal herbs, and the price was also very low.

The production cost of a bottle of antidote was not low!

No one knew what Shi Qingyang was thinking. If Ning An knew what he thought, safe to say getting those course materials wouldn’t have been so straightforward.

“Qingyang, I can do distance learning online2. Why should I come here to get course materials?” Outside, Cheng Ran asked.

“Distance learning is just the most standardized learning material, and it doesn’t have any tips and such. It’s fine to take a look at the course materials. And don’t you want to make friends? If others know that you can make potions, they’ll be willing to be friends with you.” Shi Qingyang smiled.

“I don’t want to be friends with them anymore.” Cheng Ran frowned: “I’ll only have you!” Yesterday, because he had no radiant energy, Ying Yuan, who originally said he would play with him, immediately disappeared. In contrast, Shi Qingyang was the best and would not dislike him.

“I’ll only have you as well.” Shi Qingyang resisted the urge to rub Cheng Ran’s head and took him back to the classroom.

The classroom of class 10 was already full of people. Ping Haiyan was talking about precautions at the podium. Shi Qingyang and Cheng Ran were late, but he didn’t scold them. He smiled: “Go to your seats and sit down.”

There was only space left at the end. Shi Qingyang and Cheng Ran sat at the joined table. After sitting down, Shi Qingyang directly laid on the desk to make up for sleep.

The freedom pass could only be obtained at noon. Without the freedom pass, they simply couldn’t leave the school gate during class periods. It was better to take advantage of this time to make up for sleep.

In addition to the ordinary students with double C- talents in class 10, there were nearly half of the students who spent money. These people were the ones who followed Yin Jinru to find fault yesterday.

They wanted to please the Yin family yesterday, but ultimately got into trouble, so they were severely punished by their parents when they came home. Naturally, they hated Shi Qingyang very much. They planned to teach Shi Qingyang a lesson when they arrived at school and let Shi Qingyang see how powerful they were, but they didn’t dare to be late the first day. Instead, Shi Qingyang and Cheng Ran were late!

It was fine to be late. But after Shi Qingyang arrived, he fell asleep on his stomach. Although Cheng Ran didn’t sleep, he kept looking at who-knows-what on his recorder. He didn’t notice their anger. They stared for a long time, but the two didn’t even give them a look!

“Er Shao3, these two guys are really annoying!” The young man sitting beside Yin Jinru was full of anger.

“Just wait, we’ll give them a good look!” Yin Jinru gnashed his teeth and suddenly thought of something: “Why can he sleep and I can’t sleep? I’m gonna lie down for a while!” As soon as he finished speakinng, he gave Shi Qingyang a fierce stare and then laid down on the table and stopped talking.

The young man next to Yin Jinru was unable to react, but he didn’t have the courage to stop Yin Jinru. He had to look at the teacher on the platform, but found that Ping Haiyan just didn’t see it.

The teacher seemed to ignore them completely… He thought about it for a while and began to chat with his girlfriend on the contact terminal.

If there is one, there will be two, and more and more people became distracted.

When Ping Haiyan saw this scene on the platform, he wanted to cry without tears. He was always timid and afraid with a good temper, so he always took class 10. But in the past, even if he took class 10, everyone would still respect him as a teacher, but now…

Of course, discontent is discontent, and he still did not dare to reprimand them.

Shi Qingyang really fell asleep. He didn’t wake up until class was over and everyone started moving. As soon as he woke up, he saw that Yin Jinru was having a tantrum because he had pressed his eyes while sleeping, and now they were red.

Yin Jinru yelled over there to ask someone to prepare a pillow suitable for sleeping on his stomach in class, while Shi Qingyang looked at his contact terminal.

The freedom pass had been completed. He and Cheng Ran could go home as long as they brushed their contact terminals at the door.

“Shi Qingyang, Cheng Ran, hello.” A fat boy walked to Shi Qingyang and Cheng Ran with a smile: “I’m the monitor of class 10. There are some class arrangements, do you want me to tell you?”

“No,” Shi Qingyang spoke.

“If you don’t participate in some volunteer activities, it will affect your final evaluation.” They, the students, often organized together during the holidays to do things like cleaning the city’s protective covers and digging moats outside the city. Because they all used machines, these jobs didn’t make them tired, but could make students get used to the bad environment outside the city.

“Are there any other alternatives?” Shi Qingyang asked.

“There are rules that someone can do it for you…” The monitor’s round face was full of smiles.

“Then I’ll have to trouble the monitor.” Shi Qingyang smiled and took out a bottle of Radiant Energy Soother made by Cheng Ran a few days ago and gave it to the monitor.

The monitor clearly saw the bottle in his hand and was flattered: “I will definitely help you with your future activities!” Although such a soothing agent was very cheap compared to other medicines, it was still unaffordable to some people, so they naturally cherished it greatly.

It obviously wasn’t a bad idea to befriend Cheng Ran.

“Ranran, let’s go back.” Shi Qingyang smiled.

“Okay.” Cheng Ran nodded.

Many people stared at Shi Qingyang and Cheng Ran, and were dumbfounded when they saw the two swagger out of the school gate.

Some people wanted to follow them out, but no matter how they brushed the contact terminal on their hands, the gate remained motionless.

Spark Academy was famous for its strict management. How could anyone come and go freely? In the end, someone with a flexible mind thought of the freedom pass.

Cheng Ran couldn’t learn anything at all in school. Shi Qingyang’s level was obviously higher than that of the freshmen. They really met the conditions for getting a freedom pass, but they got it on the first day… even Yin Tiancheng still obediently attended classes!

Yin Jinru was furious in the classroom. He asked people around him to inquire about the freedom pass, and also asked Ping Haiyan to get one. Finally, Yin Tiancheng, who was in class one, came over and reprimanded him in a few words before he stopped, picked a corner to suffocate in, then fell asleep on his stomach. He said that he wanted to do tasks in the game at night, so he made up his sleep in advance.

Although Yin Jinru was really nothing compared with Yin Tiancheng, but no one dared to provoke Yin Jinru, and naturally no one paid attention to whether he was really asleep.

Yin Jinru didn’t sleep at all. He kept his eyes open. Last night, many people were punished. The most lenient parents were only willing to reprimand their children. Even the most serious ones were only punished with not eating dinner or surfing the Internet. But Yin Jinru, on the other hand, was beaten and his body burned with pain.

However, this time he didn’t cry anymore. It wasn’t easy to hide his red eyes.

After returning from Spark Academy, Shi Qingyang began to exercise. He had already talked with Gu Changjin and would continue to leave the city tomorrow.

But, Gu Changjin wasn’t the only one he’d had a good conversation with.

The next day, Shi Qingyang and Gu Changjin left the city early in the morning as usual. This time, Shi Qingyang was much calmer, completely controlled his emotions, and concentrated on finding the herbs.

Gu Changjin always thought that Shi Qingyang was going out of the city to find out the truth about his parents’ death, or to hunt, but he didn’t expect that this time, Shi Qingyang avoided almost all the mutant beasts who didn’t actively attack, and carefully looked in the shaded areas, like in the stone crevices by the streams.

Shi Qingyang was really looking for herbs?

Close to the safety zone of the city, there was still relatively flat land extending in all directions. However, such places didn’t exist far from the safety zone. Shi Qingyang asked Gu Changjin to park his car beside the road the mobile fortress had trampled flat on its way to Anhang City, and then they walked on their feet.

It was difficult to find herbs only from their appearance and smell. Although Shi Qingyang heard those people say that guanzhong4 and bai niuxi were very common in the Research Institute, he still didn’t think he could find them anytime soon.

But in fact, he was very lucky this time. It didn’t take long for him to see the plant in question under a big tree near a stream. After breaking off a small leaf and tasting it, Shi Qingyang was sure.

Unfortunately, people couldn’t connect to the Internet outside the city. Otherwise, he could immediately know the common name of this medicinal plant by connecting to the Internet.

Guanzhong was a type of fern, with a large clump growing in the same place. Shi Qingyang unceremoniously took it all away, packed it in a special bag and carried it on his back. Then he began to look for bai niuxi5.

After a few steps, he saw a plant similar to bai niuxi. Unfortunately, it was just similar in shape.

At noon, Shi Qingyang and Gu Changjin ate some meat paste, and then went on.

The periphery of the safety zone was covered with dense plants and many mutant beasts. Just as they avoided a bug beast, they saw a white butterfly with wings one meter long flying out from the side, and were obviously shocked.

The white butterfly beast did not eat meat. It was not as beautiful as some butterfly beasts, but it was the most harmless. Shi Qingyang stared at the white butterfly beast for a while, and suddenly found that there seemed to be bai niuxi under a stone nearby.

There was no mistake this time. It really was bai niuxi!

It was two o’clock in the afternoon when both herbs were found. Shi Qingyang and Gu Changjin went back together. They saw a lot of bai niuxi on the road, and if it weren’t for Shi Qingyang being unable to carry them, he would’ve swept them all away.

With these two herbs, he could could take care of his body and never repeat the mistakes of his previous life. Moreover, he could start further cooperation with Cheng Xuze.

Back at the place where the tank was parked, Shi Qingyang saw a man in an anti-radiation suit standing there. Seeing them, the man threw a chip over.

“Did you find out so quickly?” Shi Qingyang asked. When he bought the little white rabbit robot yesterday, the charming female shopkeeper gave him an account number on the bill. Last night, he contacted the account. The person at the other end of the account didn’t reveal anything, only that he would help him find out the cause of his parents’ death.

If what he expected was right, this man should have a grudge against the Yin family.

When he expressed his dissatisfaction with the Yin Family in the previous life, the Yin family was immediately beseiged, and finally had to find someone to come beg to him… On the one hand, there were people who had wanted to kiss up to him, and more importantly, the Yin Family had provoked many enemies through their own sins.

“I have some connections,” The man said, but the voice turned out to be that of a woman. As soon as her voice fell, she jumped onto the vehicle next to her and left quickly.

“Have you contacted another person?” Gu Changjin was in a complicated mood. Shi Qingyang was becoming more and more adept at borrowing the strength of others.

If Shi Qingyang had nothing to do with him, he would appreciate it very much. But now, he couldn’t help thinking about it. Was it possible that Shi Qingyang’s behavior might implicate Cheng Ran?

“Grandpa Gu, don’t worry. I won’t let Cheng Ran get hurt,” Shi Qingyang spoke, more determined to get Cheng Xuze on his side.

“Remember what you said.” Gu Changjin sighed.

T/N

I looked up the medicinal herbs on baidu this time and saw that there’s really no English equivalent for their names… I reverted the names back to pinyin, but if you guys feel some way about that let me know. I could drop the scientific names in there instead.

Footnotes

1 – Radiant Energy: Just figured since the MTL swaps between ‘radiation energy’ and ‘radiant energy’ that I’d confirm they are the same thing. If you’re unfamiliar with radiant energy and happen to, like me, think of it as holy energy because of D&D, radiant energy scientifically refers to electromagnetic and gravitational radiation. [return]

2 – Distance learning: Assuming he means like online courses. Basically, not attending classes in-person. [return]

3 – Er Shao: Second Young Master (as opposed to Yin Tiancheng being Eldest Young Master), respectful title for sons of prestigious families. Leaving it in Chinese ‘cause saying “second young master” is a mouthful. [return]

4 – Guanzhong: So there are two kinds of ferns listed in Baidu under this plant name “guanzhong” 贯众. I’d taken the first result of fortune’s holly fern for the translation earlier, but then found there was another guanzhong that had some medicinal effects, which I figure is more appropriate. This one doesn’t seem to have a common English name, and its scientific name is Dryopteris crassirhizoma, so I’m reverting back to the pinyin in the translation. This is the plant, but specifically its roots are used in medicine. [return]

5 – Bai niuxi: Again reverting to pinyin as I’d rather keep things consistent. The name in Chinese is 白牛膝, literally “white ox knee”. It seems to be a Chinese plant without much info available in English. The actual plant looks very ordinary, but the closeup of the flowers looked quite nice. [return]