The Growth of a Water-Seeking Medicine Immortal

She had died in these mountains for the third time.

Every time she died, she opened her eyes again. The bruise on her forehead was still there, and so was the dull ache in her ribs, but the fatal wound was gone.

The villagers said she was hard to kill. The village chief called her a curse. Only she knew what had brought her back to life: the red-seeded herb with three stems and seven leaves growing on the mountain behind the village.

Her father had risked his life to test its medicinal properties more than a decade ago. He had written over a hundred pages in his notebook. The last page read: "Tomorrow I'll climb the cliff again and collect the mother plant. If I succeed, there may be hope for Nian's mother's illness."

He never came back the next day.

Now the notebook was in her hands. The water route he had never finished exploring lay beneath her feet. The cliff peak he hadn't dared to approach stood before her.

She had only three steps in mind. First, heal the patients who came looking for her. Second, figure out the properties of the water her father had never understood. Third, climb to the peak.

The village chief wanted to seize her fields, and the alchemy workshop wanted to take her away. They all thought she wouldn't make it through the third step.

But she had already died three times.