Divine Level Witch Doctor

After a few moments of excitement, Zhao Yuan calmed down and turned his gaze to the first piece of paper.

’Nine Peaks Mountain... Jiantai Village? I wonder how far away that is.’ Zhao Yuan muttered, pulling out his phone. He opened a map app and typed in the address to search.

The app quickly pinpointed the location of Jiantai Village on Nine Peaks Mountain. It was northwest of West Hua Medical University, over seventy kilometers away.

According to the map’s estimate, the drive would take a little over an hour. However, Zhao Yuan suspected that was inaccurate. Mountain roads were full of twists and turns, and the constant climbing would slow a vehicle down. It would be impossible to get there in under two hours. A round trip would take four hours, and adding in the time to search, even six or seven hours might not be enough.

After a quick mental calculation, Zhao Yuan shook his head and sighed. ”I was planning to make the trip tomorrow and get my hands on the Golden Gourd, but it looks like that’s impossible now. Given the circumstances, it’ll take half a day, if not a full one. I’ll just have to wait until Sunday to go.”

Although Sunday was still a few days away, Zhao Yuan wasn’t worried that something might happen to the Golden Gourd.

’With the Tracking Spell in hand, I can find the Golden Gourd no matter where it goes. What’s there to worry about? At most, I’ll just cast the spell one more time on Sunday morning before I leave to confirm its location.’

Zhao Yuan stood up and stretched. He gathered the used banknotes, put them away in his desk drawer, and played with the little white cat for a moment before lying down on his bed. Closing his eyes, he activated his Concentration Technique and began to immerse himself in the study of Chinese Herbal Medicine.

Time flew by.

The next day, Zhao Yuan woke before dawn, as usual. He slipped quietly out of the dorm and went to his rented room. There, he lit a stick of Soul-Stabilizing Incense, swallowed a Bone Refining Pill, and practiced a round of the Four Saints Technique while soaking in a tub of Blood Circulation Soup.

Ever since his cultivation reached the Peak of Muscle Strengthening, the Four Saints Technique had a much weaker effect on his body’s development. He had learned a new cultivation technique from Wu Peng’s legacy, the Marrow Washing Technique, but he couldn’t start practicing it yet because he still hadn’t gathered all the materials for the Marrow Cleansing Pill. For now, he could only continue to practice the Four Saints Technique.

After his cultivation and a shower, Zhao Yuan checked on the drying Soul-Stabilizing Incense. He packed the finished sticks into a box, placed it in his Storage Ring to deliver to Fang Yi in a couple of days, and then started on a new batch, laying it out on a winnowing basket to dry.

With all that done, Zhao Yuan left his rented room.

This time, he didn’t see any of his neighbors frantically searching for something.

Over the past few days, the neighbors had grown accustomed to the scent of the Soul-Stabilizing Incense each morning, which left them feeling invigorated all day long! After failing to find the source of the fragrance several times, they had stopped trying to hunt it down. In any case, they were more than satisfied just to be able to smell the medicinal aroma every day.

On the way back to campus, Zhao Yuan bought several large bags filled to the brim with steamed buns. He completely cleaned out the bun shop’s steamers, meaning the customers who came after him were unable to buy anything. The shop owner was astonished and assumed Zhao Yuan was purchasing breakfast for an entire company. Little did he know that this supply of buns, enough to feed over a hundred people, was actually just for four.

When he walked into their dorm room, Liu Zhu, Wang Rongfeng, and Wu Yan were already awake. Seeing Zhao Yuan carrying the bags of steamed buns, they all crowded around him.

”Third Bro, you went and bought us breakfast again?”

”Thanks so much! You’ve gone to the trouble of buying us breakfast every day for the past few days.”

”I was just saying how hungry I was, and you show up with breakfast. Talk about perfect timing!”

As they showered him with thanks, each of his three roommates grabbed a large bag of buns and began stuffing them into their mouths like they were starving. An outsider would have thought they hadn’t eaten in days.

While eating, the three tried to pay Zhao Yuan for the food, but he refused to take their money. After all, his three roommates had helped him out countless times when he was broke. Now that he had money, how could he charge them for breakfast? It would go against their friendship.

The three knew Zhao Yuan was doing well financially lately, so when he wouldn’t be persuaded, they put their money away. In their minds, however, they were already planning to find a chance to treat him back. They couldn’t let Zhao Yuan be the only one spending money.

Zhao Yuan took a bag of buns for himself. The White Cat padded elegantly over to him, sniffed the buns with a look of disdain, and then leaped onto the windowsill. It nudged the window open with a small paw and jumped outside. A moment later, it returned to the dorm with a snake in its mouth and began to eat with gusto, making loud chomping sounds.

It was hard to say whether the White Cat had simply developed a taste for snake meat or if the snakes were just easier to catch now that the cold weather was forcing them into hibernation. Lately, the cat had been eating one or two snakes almost every day. The residents of dorm room 301 had progressed from initial astonishment to utter habituation.

Wu Yan licked his lips as he watched the White Cat devour the small snake. ”This cat really knows how to live,” he said, a little envious. ”Salt-baked snake, black pepper snake stew... it’s all so delicious!”

Wu Yan’s family owned a restaurant, so he was a connoisseur of good food and a decent cook himself.

In fact, his father had always wanted him to inherit the family business. If not as a chef, then he should have at least studied something like restaurant management. Unfortunately, Wu Yan’s ambitions lay elsewhere. He was only interested in medicine and had defied his father’s wishes to get into West Hua Medical University, making his old man both proud and furious at the same time.

He was proud because West Hua Medical University was one of the top medical schools in the country, with an incredibly high cutoff score that made it extremely difficult to get into. As for his fury, that was because his son refused to walk the path he had planned for him.

The White Cat seemed to understand Wu Yan. It looked up at him, bit off a piece of snake meat, padded over to him, and dropped it at his feet. It even meowed twice, as if to say, ’You look so pathetic, I’ll deign to give you a piece. No need to thank me. Go on, eat.’

Wu Yan had suffered no small amount of torment from the White Cat over the past few days—the scratches all over his body were proof. So now, seeing the White Cat bestow a piece of snake meat upon him, he actually felt shockingly flattered. Still, he had no appetite for the bloody, raw flesh. He forced a smile and said, ”You’re too generous, Xiaobai, but I really can’t eat raw meat. Why don’t you have it?”

The White Cat shot him a glare, as if to say, ’Humans are so fussy.’ It then snatched the piece of meat back, returned to its spot, and continued to feast.

After breakfast, the four of them washed up, grabbed their textbooks, and headed to the classroom for their first two periods of the day, Basic Theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

As soon as they entered the classroom, they heard the voice of Yang Jing, the class’s arts and entertainment representative.

”Zhang Chao, how’s your magic act coming along?”

A short man with glasses replied, ”Don’t worry, this trick is my specialty. I’ve been practicing it every day. I guarantee it will bring the house down at the New Year’s party!”

”Excellent!” Yang Jing nodded in satisfaction. She then turned to the girls gathered around her and said, ”The New Year’s party is less than a month away. We need to hurry up and rehearse our song and dance number!”

The girls all nodded in agreement.

Spotting Zhao Yuan as he walked into the classroom, Yang Jing called out to him, ”Zhao Yuan, how are the preparations for your performance coming along?”