When Qin Yuesheng added 5 All-Purpose Essences to his physique, his physique increased from 0.3→0.8.
What he didn't expect was that 1 point of All-Purpose Essence would only increase effectiveness by 0.1. Originally, he thought it would start at 1 point.
But it doesn't really matter, the Qin family is well-off, and Qin Yuesheng spends time consuming more precious herbs, surely he can make up for the All-Purpose Essence.
When his physique reached 0.8, Qin Yuesheng suddenly felt his body filled with vitality, his strength surged, and the body that had been drained by wine and women gradually began to return to normal.
"Awesome!" Qin Yuesheng quickly crawled up from the bed, punching and kicking at the air.
After adjusting to his new state, Qin Yuesheng grabbed the robe by the bedside, put it on, and swiftly walked out the door.
Outside the door, two young maidservants were guarding. Seeing Qin Yuesheng come out on his own, they hurriedly urged, "Young Master, why did you come out? The doctor said you need more rest."
"No need, I'm full of energy now, you don't have to worry about me." Qin Yuesheng waved his hand indifferently and directly headed towards the corridor beside him.
The Qin family, being a prestigious family in Cyan Yang City, naturally had many precious herbs stored in the mansion's herbal warehouse. For others, these herbs needed to be consumed cautiously, as overconsumption could harm oneself. But for Qin Yuesheng, they were free All-Purpose Essence. As long as he controlled the quantity, he could reap great benefits.
Having used up all the All-Purpose Essence he had accumulated, Qin Yuesheng naturally had to rush to replenish it.
"Have you heard? A young master from the Lu family didn't believe in the evil of Fuan Alley, and last night, he went exploring with a few household servants. This morning, he was found missing, and the Lu family searched the entire Cyan Yang City but couldn't find a trace."
"Damn, those young masters really have nothing better to do. Is Fuan Alley a place you can go at night? There's been ghostly rumors about it for years. I wouldn't even dare cross it during the day."
"Exactly."
While passing a remote courtyard, two household servants having a casual chat caught Qin Yuesheng's attention. Just as he intended to listen in, they saw him and promptly greeted him respectfully, "Young Master."
"Were you talking about Fuan Alley? Ghostly stuff?" Qin Yuesheng asked.
"Uh... Young Master, forgive us. We were just relaxing a bit, absolutely didn't delay our work." One servant explained hastily.
"No need to forgive, what is there to forgive? I'm not blaming you." Qin Yuesheng beckoned, "Come, tell me more about this. I'm quite interested."
The servant hesitated, exchanged a glance with the other, and finally stepped forward to pour out everything he knew to Qin Yuesheng.
Apparently, nobody knew when it started, but a few nursery rhymes were circulating around Cyan Yang City:
Waiting for the bride in red to get married, but her head is missing, the groom is anxiously searching, everyone sees he's gone mad;
The beggar at the city wall has a charming wife, no rouge, no makeup, carried into the house by a majestic sedan, from then the master is replaced;
Golden alley, silver alley, not entering is a good alley, newcomers enter at midnight, Cyan Yang City gains more graves.
Initially, everyone was puzzled about who made up these nursery rhymes and who spread them, and didn't pay them much attention. But gradually, unknown to when it started, disappearance incidents began to happen frequently in Cyan Yang City. Every few days someone would report missing people at the constable's office.
According to the constables' investigation, it was found that the missing persons were mostly people active at night, like night watchmen, dung cart drivers, those who frequented brothels, drunkards returning home late.
With the constables further investigating, they discovered an important clue: all those people's paths home passed through Fuan Alley.
On a certain night, four constables carrying lanterns walked into Fuan Alley intending to see what was happening. The next day, a farmer discovered a man with all four limbs severed lying at the outer wall corner of the alley, who turned out to be one of the four constables.
This person woke up with a deranged mind, incessantly crying 'It's a ghost' 'There are ghosts' 'Don't enter' and other fragmented words, and within two days, died due to fright and severe injuries.
The incident spread among the market, and various versions flew around, becoming increasingly wild. A scholar then linked Fuan Alley to one of the nursery rhymes, and Fuan Alley became known as 'Ghost Alley,' the citizens of Cyan Yang City all regarded it as a taboo in the city.
The young master from the Lu family encountered it, remains missing with no sign of life or death.
Qin Yuesheng knew the Lu family, one of the five prominent families in Cyan Yang City. Among them, Lu Juncheng from the Lu family and Qin Yuesheng had been drinking and partying buddies for years. Regardless of whether it was going to brothels or visiting gambling dens, they always joined forces and attended meetings, every day was a meat-and-wine gathering, and every night was spent buying girls at the brothel.
"Fuan Alley, is it really this creepy? Looks like I must avoid this place in the future." Qin Yuesheng secretly resolved in his heart.
"Young Master, may we continue? We haven't swept the ground over there yet." Watching the silent Qin Yuesheng, the servant hesitantly asked.
"Go on, go on." Qin Yuesheng also had things to do himself, pulling these two to talk was only because he was interested in their conversation. Now that he got the information he wanted, he naturally had to quickly head to the herbal warehouse.
Seeing Qin Yuesheng leave, the servants couldn't help but sigh with relief, "Phew, seems like the Young Master is in a good mood today, didn't blame us."
"Stop talking, hurry and get to work."
...
When Qin Yuesheng arrived at the herbal warehouse, he saw several medicine boys idly sitting under the corridor watching the drizzling rain beyond the eaves, chatting away.
Recently, with continuous rainfall in Cyan Yang City, the herbs couldn't be taken outside to dry, making the daily work of these medicine boys much easier.
Qin Yuesheng stealthily approached the herbal storage from another direction, then climbed in through a half-opened window.
The doctor who treated him earlier had told him not to consume any more precious herbs during this period. Qin Feng, being fond of this cherished son, naturally wouldn't let Qin Yuesheng have any more chances to access herbs for the sake of his precious son's life. If anyone from the Qin Mansion discovered Qin Yuesheng sneaking into the herbal warehouse for herbs while still recovering, they would definitely run to inform Qin Feng, which would be troublesome then.
So Qin Yuesheng, as the Young Master of the Qin Mansion, was now resorting to such sneaky actions.
The Qin family truly lives up to being one of the three prestigious families in Cyan Yang City; the reserves in this herbal warehouse are quite astounding. At a glance, it was like a dazzling array, with ginseng, Lingzhi, deer antlers, caterpillar fungus, Snow Lotus, Polygonum multiflorum, musk, dragon's saliva fragrance, Huangjing, sea horse, Saffron... It made Qin Yuesheng's eyes shine brightly, almost flashing light.
"Whoa, truly, whatever you do, you need a powerful father. If I wasn't born into a good family, where would I find so many precious herbs?" Without hesitation, Qin Yuesheng directly picked up a piece of Huangjing and put it in his mouth.
Herbs stored in the herbal warehouse had been cleaned by the medicine boys before being stored, thus there was no need to worry about dirt issues.
Huangjing is ingested.
All-Purpose Essence +1
All-Purpose Essence +1
You pick up a piece of deer antler.
All-Purpose Essence +1
All-Purpose Essence +1
You pick up a handful of cordyceps.
All-Purpose Essence +1
All-Purpose Essence +1
As Qin Yuesheng was eating, he suddenly felt his vision blur, and he immediately felt like someone with a fear of heights who had just stepped off a roller coaster. His legs went weak, and he fell straight to the ground on his butt.
"Ouch!" Qin Yuesheng felt dizzy, nauseous, and quickly spat out the half-chewed lingzhi residue from his mouth, "Looks like my body has reached its limit in absorbing these herbs. If I continue eating, I'll probably end up like last time."
Everything needs to be taken gradually, this is something Qin Yuesheng knows. Since his body couldn't take it anymore, he didn't force himself. He put all the herbs he was holding back in their place and then brought up the super assistant to start checking.
****
Personal Attributes:
Strength: 0.4 (Weak) (+)
Agility: 0.3 (Slow) (+)
Constitution: 0.8 (Average) (+)
Spirit: 0.9 (Normal) (+)
Charm: 0.8 (Plain) (+)
All-Purpose Essence: 12
...
Personal Skills:
Theft (0/10) Novice (+)
Flying Knife Skill (0/10) Novice (+)
****
This time of recklessly consuming the herbs increased Qin Yuesheng's All-Purpose Essence by 12, a pretty good harvest.
As usual, the body is the investment of the revolution, so Qin Yuesheng continued to add points to his constitution. But when his constitution reached from 0.8 to 1.0, the plus sign turned grey and could no longer be selected, losing its point-adding function.
"There's a limit?" Qin Yuesheng was taken aback. He originally planned to keep adding points to his constitution while relying on this method of alternating consuming herbs and adding points to quickly generate a large amount of All-Purpose Essence, but the current situation broke his plan.
No choice, the remaining 10 All-Purpose Essence could only be added to other attributes.
Hesitating slightly between 'absolute power' and 'speed as the ultimate technique,' Qin Yuesheng eventually decided to allocate the All-Purpose Essence to agility.
Just as he had read in those books in the study, many bizarre and indescribable events had occurred in this world, even in Cyan Yang City there existed such things as Ghost Alley, which truly made him feel unsettled.
Agility, a combination of reaction speed and movement speed, would be more beneficial to Qin Yuesheng than just adding to strength.
After all, the Qin family had many Hospital Guards, and if something happened, Qin Yuesheng wouldn't need to confront it directly; he just needed to be quick enough to escape.
Once agility reached 1.0 and lost the point-adding function, Qin Yuesheng allocated the remaining 3 All-Purpose Essence to strength.
Thus, his personal attributes became:
Strength: 0.7 (Weak) (+)
Agility: 1.0 (Normal) (+)
Constitution: 1.0 (Normal) (+)
Spirit: 0.9 (Normal) (+)
Charm: 0.8 (Plain) (+)
All-Purpose Essence: 0
Originally, Qin Yuesheng wanted to add some points to charm, after all, as the saying goes:
"Being strong is temporary, being handsome is for a lifetime."
But considering that the world wasn't peaceful and his life wasn't even guaranteed, being handsome wouldn't be of any use. Attributes like charm, which don't significantly boost strength, could be added later.