Chapter 853 - The Gathering
Panda Novel
The streets were filled with laughter.
After agreeing on a time and place for the duel, the group left while laughing.
“What an idiot!” They laughed, treating it as a joke.
Soon, the news spread.
Everyone was shocked when they heard that the recently popular Tang Ritian was actually a fake prodigy, and he had stolen the recipe of Cloudcore Valley.
The latter was unconfirmed, but the former was absolutely true. Tang Ritian did not have a master at all. His medicine-making skills were above average but were not spectacular.
The master medicine makers praised him earlier because of the recipe, not because of his skills.
For a moment, Tang Ritian’s reputation plummeted.
“Damn, so he’s a fake! I thought he was really amazing!”
“Maybe he really stole something from Cloudcore Valley!”
Then, an even more important piece of news came.
Tang Ritian actually challenged the Cloudcore Valley to a duel!
The impact of that news was almost the same as Ballsy Bro from before.
The difference was that they admired Ballsy Bro for his boldness, but they thought that Tang Ritian’s challenge was a joke.
Challenge Cloudcore Valley to a duel?
Who did he think he was? He was only a single individual, yet he dared to challenge an ancient pill-making sect. He was really overestimating himself!
Everyone was talking about it. Even the people in Nanping town were full of criticism.
That evening, sales in the shop plummeted. The next day, barely any people visited Ritian Pavilion. They only managed to sell about forty pills in the morning.
On other days, they would have already sold a thousand pills by now.
“Sigh!”
Zhao Liu sighed dejectedly as he sat by the door and looked at the deserted street outside.
“Hahaha! Tang Ritian, this is retribution!”
“Surely you didn’t expect that karma will eventually come back to bite you, Tang Ritian!”
The people next door were mocking loudly. Their sales fell after Ritian Pavilion opened.
They were so happy that they wanted to celebrate with firecrackers.
“You must have a death wish, you old geezers!”
Zhao Liu was indignant. He rushed out of the door and shouted.
“Ol’ Zhao Liu, you idiot! You don’t know what’s good for you. Why are you still on that kid’s side?” The storekeepers shouted.
“I dare you to say that again!” Zhao Liu glared at them and said fiercely.
Those people retreated into the store.
Soon, an attendant came out and shouted, “We are celebrating Tang Ritian’s end today. Everything in the store is half off!”
Zhao Liu cursed and walked into the store.
“Sigh! What should we do, Brother Tang? If this goes on, we’ll eventually have to close down. Also, do you really want to go to that duel? There will be a lot of people there. What if… what if we lose?”
Tang Hao stood up and walked straight out. “I’ll leave the store to you!”
“Huh? What’s your plan, Brother Tang?”
“I’ll make some preparations so that I can slaughter them all!” Tang Hao turned around and said with a smile.
Zhao Liu was stunned. He laughed dryly.
Slaughter them all?
That sounded like a big joke. Brother Tang’s opponent was Cloudcore Valley, not some random person on the street. They were considered the pinnacle of medicine making, so how could Tang Hao hope to defeat them?
Back at the inn, Tang Hao sat down and took out many thick tomes from his pocket dimension. The tomes formed a small hill next to him.
These were all the medicinal tomes that Tang Hao had been collecting.
He was not on Earth after all, and the Scripture of the Divine Herbalist did not have a complete record of all the herbs that could be found.
That was why he had been going around collecting tomes to supplement his knowledge.
The knowledge of medicinal herbs was not a big secret in that world. He bought those tomes in the city, and they recorded the characteristics and uses of each herb in great detail.
However, there were simply too many of them. The total number of entries exceeded one hundred thousand.
It was an arduous task to remember all the names of the medicinal herbs. Furthermore, it was even more difficult to familiarize oneself with the various medicinal properties and use them freely.
A typical medicine maker only needed to familiarize himself with a few hundred types of medicinal herbs. An experienced one would know at least a thousand types, and a master would know at least ten thousand.
Only a pill maker would need to master more than ten thousand types of medicinal herbs.
Tang Hao flipped through the books one by one and memorized the contents by heart. From time to time, he would take out boxes that contained various types of medicinal herbs.
He would mash, pinch, and smell the herbs.
He immersed himself in the world of medicinal herbs and completely forgot about time.
Five days passed in the blink of an eye.
That morning, Tang Hao packed his things, put on a clean robe, and walked out of the room.
“He’s out!”
In the lobby of the inn, many people looked at him strangely.
Tang Hao smiled at them, walked out of the inn, and slowly walked toward Maple City.
The duel would be held in Maple City.
Meanwhile, in Maple City, an stage had been set up in front of Cloudcore Valley’s store. People had gathered early in the morning, ready to watch the show.
The street was packed with people. There were people on the rooftops too.
“Wow, it’s so lively! It’s been a long time since the last duel!” Someone exclaimed.
“It’s that Tang Ritian fool. He thinks that he can take on Cloudcore Valley! Everyone is here to watch him make a fool of himself.”
“That’s right! That Black Tiger has hidden himself. There’s not much drama going on nowadays.”
Many people agreed.
Everyone discussed and waited patiently.
When the sun was up, a group of people passed through the crowd and walked up the stage.
There was a commotion all around.
“Oh my god! That’s a golden embroidered robe. Cloudcore Valley’s pill maker is here. The two dragons indicate that he’s a level two pill maker! There’s more than one of them too!”
Everyone turned to look in that direction. They were shocked when they looked at them clearly.
Pill makers were on a different level than medicine makers. There were not many pill makers in Cloudcore Valley that deserved an embroidered dragon. This time, three of them came.
Behind those master pill makers were a group of well-known old men.
That was a dream lineup!
Behind them, there were many young people. They were all prodigies of Cloudcore Valley.
“Damn! What’s there to challenge? Tang Ritian might as well kneel and beg for mercy if he doesn’t want to be humiliated! I don’t think he can even win against one of them!”
Everyone was shocked.
They did not expect that Cloudcore Valley would treat that trivial challenge so seriously. All the people they sent for the challenge were experts.
They stepped onto the stage and took their seats.
Then, representatives from many sects came and took their seats beside them.
