Another night passed. As soon as Elara woke up early in the morning, she headed straight for the medicinal herb garden, wanting to observe if there were any changes in those few herbs.
Before she even entered the herb garden, she suddenly smelled several strong, rich aromas of medicinal herbs.
Elara was slightly taken aback, but then a thought stirred in her heart: Could it be...
She couldn't help but quicken her pace, finally arriving in front of the few herbs that were emitting the strong fragrance.
Were these the same herbs from yesterday? Elara simply couldn't believe her eyes. She slapped her still slightly sleepy cheeks hard a few times, only stopping this self-abusive behavior when she felt some pain.
"The edges of this 'Dragon's Tongue Herb' are tinged with a faint purple, the 'Moonlight Lotus' has actually bloomed nine petals, and the skin of the 'Serenity Berry' has turned a deep black... Haha! Haha!" Elara could no longer contain herself. Even though she could usually maintain a heart as calm as still water, at this moment, she couldn't help but throw her head back and laugh out loud.
"I've really struck gold this time! Overnight, these herbs, which originally only had one or two years of medicinal efficacy, have all transformed as if they had grown for over a dozen years! Look at the color of the leaves, the shape of the fruits, the fragrance of the petals—they are completely rare medicinal materials that have matured for many years!" Elara carefully examined the herbs again, confirming that their characteristics perfectly matched the descriptions in the pharmacopoeia; they were indeed precious medicinal materials with many years of efficacy.
"If I can mature herbs in this way, wouldn't I have as many precious medicinal materials as I want! Moreover, I can sell the herbs I don't use to others; this way, I can earn back any amount of silver coins!" Elara could no longer suppress the excitement in her heart and began to let her imagination run wild.
The more Elara thought about it, the more excited she became, her thoughts drifting further and further. She felt she had truly stumbled upon a treasure this time. She suddenly did a few excited somersaults on the ground. At this moment, she no longer possessed her usual calm and composure; her way of expressing excitement was no different from that of a fourteen or fifteen-year-old youth.
After a long while, Elara gradually calmed down, her mind regaining its usual sharpness. She began to consider some of the difficulties she would have to face to enjoy this "great windfall" that had fallen from the sky.
Firstly, these herbs seemed fine on the outside, but their actual medicinal properties still needed to be tested. After all, they had absorbed that strange liquid to become like this; who knew if they contained any mutated components. She had witnessed the miserable fate of those rabbits yesterday with her own eyes; it was better to be cautious.
Secondly, the emerald droplet in the mysterious little phial had been used up. It was unknown whether it would exhibit any unusual phenomena again and continue to produce this droplet. It might be a one-time thing; she would have to confirm this tonight.
If there were no problems with the above two aspects, she still needed to truly and specifically grasp the details and steps of this method for maturing medicinal materials, to completely control this incredible method.
After careful consideration, Elara identified these several pending issues. Without solving these problems, this "great windfall" would be nothing more than a fleeting illusion to her.
After considering everything thoroughly, Elara began to take action.
She first went to the communal kitchen outside the valley and bought two more grey-furred wild rabbits from the steward. Elara's action made the kitchen steward both happy and somewhat puzzled: Why did this youth keep buying live rabbits? Was he planning to slaughter rabbits himself to practice his cooking skills?
Elara didn't care what others thought. This time, she didn't tether the wild rabbits in the herb garden but instead tied them to the doorpost of her own hut, so she could observe their changes at all times.
Then, she went to the herb plot, carefully harvested the matured herbs, and, referring to the pharmacopoeia, prepared several potions capable of strengthening sinews and bones. She then mixed the prepared potions into the wild rabbits' favorite food and fed it to them three times a day to test if these herbs were poisonous.
After doing all this, Elara anxiously awaited the arrival of night. After what felt like an exceptionally long time, night finally came as she had hoped.
As soon as it grew dark, Elara ran outside, took the small phial from her pouch, placed it on the ground, and then, with rapt attention, waited for the phial to change.
A quarter of an hour passed; the phial showed no movement.
Half an hour passed; the phial still showed no movement.
Three quarters of an hour...
As time passed, Elara's heart grew heavier and heavier. It was almost dawn, but the phial still showed no unusual activity.
She was thoroughly dejected. Was this phial really a one-time consumable? Or had she done something wrong?
Elara forced herself to rally her spirits and looked at her surroundings.
"Nothing suspicious, apart from the sky being a bit dark," Elara muttered to herself.
She suddenly froze, then sharply raised her head to look at the sky. The sky was dark and gloomy, a sheet of dark clouds, nothing visible. The phrase "the sky being a bit dark" suddenly enlightened Elara.
"Could it be because it's overcast, with no starlight or moonlight?" Elara remembered that in the past, when the small phial underwent its strange transformations, it was always on clear nights when the sky was unobstructed and the stars and moon were visible. But today was gloomy, with dark clouds pressing down like a pot lid.
Elara had a thought, her spirits lifting slightly. Seeing that the sky was already faintly whitening at the horizon, she knew nothing would happen tonight. She put the small phial away, preparing to try again when the sky cleared.
However, unexpectedly for Elara, not only did the sky not clear up in the following half a month, but a continuous fine rain began to fall. This weather persisted until now.
Elara looked at the drizzling rain outside her hut, feeling extremely frustrated. The more anxiously she waited for the weather to clear, the more endlessly the rain seemed to fall, showing no intention of stopping.
She looked back at the two wild rabbits taking shelter under the eaves of her hut. Their lively and energetic appearance made Elara even more depressed. Ever since these two wild rabbits had eaten food mixed with potions made from the matured herbs, not only had they not shown any problems, but they had become even more energetic than before. For these past dozen or so days, Elara had carefully observed them every day, confirming that the rabbits showed no symptoms of poisoning and had, on the contrary, become even stronger from eating the sinew-and-bone-strengthening potions.
This positive result, instead of making Elara happy, made her feel somewhat anxious about potential gains and losses, unable to calm down. For her, whether the small phial could produce the emerald droplet again had become the key to all these problems. And this lingering, wretched weather prevented this mystery from being solved, how could it not make Elara feel extremely frustrated!