Chapter 20: Peerless Beauty, A Smile Can Topple Cities  

Besides keeping herself occupied with cultivating, Ling Chunxi had also concocted a few medical powder mixtures. As this was where her strengths lay, it was only natural that it all came easily to her. In this realm, herbs could not only be decocted to be drunk, but refined into medical pills as well. Such medical pills were essentially concentrated essences, so their effects were significant. Additionally, they were a lot easier to carry around. For these reasons, medical pills were more popular.

However, refining medical pills was never an easy task. There was a high rate of failure and furthermore, pill prescriptions were very difficult to obtain. Pill masters were rare to come by, good pill masters were even more uncommon. Due to this, pill masters were held in very high regard. They were subjects of great respect wherever they roamed.

The poison in Ling Chunxi’s body was gradually expelled as she kept taking her medicine on time every day. After a week, most of the red bumps on her skin had receded and her face was no longer swollen. The sight of herself in the mirror astonished Ling Chunxi. This face, why it was exactly the same as her own! Was it really a coincidence that she transmigrated here? Ling Chunxi found that she did not quite believe that to be so. It seemed as though everything was destined.

As Ling Chunxi examined her reflection in the mirror, Aunt Wang brought over a bowl of medicinal soup. Upon seeing how Ling Chunxi looked, Aunt Wang happily exclaimed, “Miss, you are indeed the world’s number one beauty. Just like your mother was.”

This statement surprised Ling Chunxi. “Do my mother and I look alike?”

“Why yes, almost identical. Miss’ mother was the most gentle, beautiful lady in the world. I make no exaggeration. She truly was a peerless beauty. She had a smile that could topple cities.” Aunt Wang had fallen into a reverie of her memories, her face wore an expression of warmth and longing.

Ling Chunxi smiled and kept quiet. For a person as unpretentious as Aunt Wang to speak such words, there should be no untruth in them. Ling Chunxi herself felt surprised as she continued staring at this face—her face, in the mirror. It was without a doubt, beautiful. However, she knew that for a weakling without any support, beauty was not a good thing.

‘Become stronger. I must become stronger. Only then can I protect myself and the people I care about!’ Ling Chunxi clenched her fist as she reiterated the motivation for her determination in her heart.

That night, Ling Chunxi brought out the skill manual her brother had instructed people to send to her. What an old cover it had. She flipped through it, pondering its significance. There was definitely something hidden in this skill manual. She was sure of it. Perhaps it contained a secret so momentous, it had to be transcribed in a way no ordinary person would be able to decrypt.

She extracted a few herbs and started mixing them. Pharmacology and toxicology were the two fields she specialized in. Using special ingredients to write covert messages was a tactic she had used before. Therefore, making secret words reveal themselves was something she could do with ease.

Ling Chunxi prepared an assortment of herbaceous compounds and patiently tested them one by one. After much trial and error, she finally noticed changes in the book when she applied the most complicated mixture she brewed to its pages. Carefully, she brushed on more of the mixture onto different pages and patiently waited for the results she hoped for.

Slowly, more and more words began to appear on the pages of the skill manual. The barely legible blurs upon the cover of the book formed into a title she could read.

The four words inscribed on the cover appeared flamboyantly—Thundercloud Ninth Heaven.

At the sight of this, Ling Chuxi furrowed her brow and flipped through the pages of the skill manual. Reading words that were now visible to her. At first, her face was clouded with doubt, but the more she read, the more she felt the fervor of a pleasant surprise grow in her heart. The contents of the skill manual were so superb, it was shocking! The techniques described in these pages could not be compared to the Ling family’s cultivation method. If one were to say the Ling Family’s Cultivation Method resembled a small blade of grass, then the Thundercloud Ninth Heaven Cultivation Method detailed in this skill manual was a big towering tree! A fair comparison was simply impossible!