Cave Refuge

After all, the seeds Zachary had purchased were the products of countless generations of artificial cultivation and domestication. Even with the catalysis of Spirit Energy within the Cave, Zachary was uncertain how much this would enhance the medicinal effects of the herbs once they grew.

The medicine fields were not far from the flower beds, and Lillian was also in charge of taking care of both.

Watching the two of them working in the garden at this time, Zachary wondered if he had been too narrow-minded usually, as imitating the plot didn’t always have to take place indoors. Occasionally laying under the sky and sitting on the earth should also be a nice experience.

With this thought in mind, Zachary stopped dawdling. With the song by Brother Hong about the mistakes made in the flower field playing in his head, he learned how he had made mistakes in the first place.

Knowing he had matters to attend to later that night, Zachary’s learning session didn’t last long. After a brief discussion about some major business transactions with the two women, Zachary took out over a dozen varieties of perfume from the Storage Space and placed them on the table. Then, cradling the somewhat languid Heather, he began to categorize each perfume.

As Zachary had anticipated, you get what you pay for. Although the perfumes Zachary brought out this time were either knockoffs or high-grade imitations, after Heather’s classification, their rankings were not much different from their packaging.

The more exquisite the packaging, the higher the perfume ranked in this batch; conversely, the more ordinary the packaging, the lower Heather ranked it.

This was even with Zachary taking measures to prevent Heather from ranking by visual appearance alone, dabbing perfume on test strips every time and having Heather smell the scent released from the strips instead.

When Heather finished categorizing the perfumes on the table, and Zachary saw that there was still some time left before dinner, he practiced a few sets of difficult yoga poses with Heather.

Zachary couldn’t help but think that, although yoga was originally invented for spiritual practice, the postures involved seemed to suggest that yoga was about cultivating the path of joyous Buddhism.

Feeling refreshed, Zachary walked Heather back to her room and sat on the bed. He casually took a block of wood from the Storage Space. Not being very familiar with types of wood, he chose it simply because the cross-section of the wood was attractive. He then used this piece to carve a high-end looking wooden box.

Zachary, who had Divine Sense, had never formally learned carving, but with the aid of his detailed observations through Divine Sense, he still managed to carve intricate patterns into the wooden box.

To highlight the preciousness of the perfume inside the box, Zachary used several colored crystals from the Storage Space as anti-collision filler material for the wooden box.

After getting everything prepared, Zachary glanced at Heather, who had already fallen asleep on the bed, and decided not to wake her, leaving the Cave directly.

Once outside, Zachary first scanned the surroundings with Spiritual Sense Scanning to make sure there were no other people around before he set off back to camp.

Thanks to his previous experience and a special reminder from Robinson William to the special forces members patrolling the walls, Zachary’s return to the camp went very smoothly, without being stopped by anyone. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Since he had many things to do after returning, Zachary simply used his Divine Sense to ensure his parents’ safety. He didn’t visit them in their house but instead went straight to find Madeline.

As soon as Zachary pushed open the door, he realized that Robinson and Madeline had been sitting inside, waiting for him.

Upon seeing Zachary’s return, Madeline urgently asked, "Did you bring the perfume back?"

The question was a challenge to Zachary’s ability, so he rolled his eyes in annoyance, then took out a wooden box from his backpack and casually tossed it towards Madeline.

Zachary threw it carelessly, but since Madeline was also a Martial Artist, she managed to catch the wooden box midair with one hand without any trouble.

After Madeline caught the wooden box, she weighed it briefly and found it to be somewhat heavy. She guessed that Zachary would not be generous enough to pack so many bottles of perfume in it.

However, at that moment, she didn’t open the box right away. Instead, she started to carefully examine it, noticing the box’s polished, glossy appearance.

And the rich hue of the box was obviously its natural color, not something artificially produced later.

Although Madeline was not an expert on wood materials, her broad knowledge helped her identify the type of wood used for the box: Blood Dragon Wood.

This wood was also a high-end material. While Blood Dragon Wood was not as prestigious as ’xiǎoyè zītán’ (a type of rosewood), it was still considered an imperial wood.

But in the eyes of China’s people, the imperial wood of a small foreign country could never compare to their own. Thus, although both were imperial woods, Blood Dragon Wood was considered much less prestigious than the rosewood.

Yet even so, when compared to ordinary wood, Blood Dragon Wood stood apart with pride.

After confirming the material of the wooden box in her hands, Madeline then observed the box’s exterior closely.

Having encountered many wood carvings, she could easily distinguish between handcrafted and machine-made. The wooden box in Madeline’s hand was clearly hand-carved by Zachary himself. But because Zachary wasn’t an experienced carver, the patterns on the box were quite large and not finely detailed.