Rivers of the Night

'As expected...'

The jade used to house the Echo Pill had a very particular fragrance to it. This sort of jade was known as Verdant Bloomstone, and it had a unique floral scent.

This scent was actually a product of its ability to suppress and restrict the aura of what was on the inside. It was used to preserve pills for this very reason, as it was very good at stopping medicinal effects from leaking out.

However, this jade fell out of favor for two main reasons. First, it took time for this floral scent to build up and for the Verdant Bloomstone to thus gain its suppressive effects. And secondly, it was found that over a sufficiently long period of time, the floral scent that built up over time would actually begin to influence and change what was stored on the inside.

As such, in modern times, more neutral jades were chosen as the superior storing items.

This ability of Verdant Bloomstone was important for another reason, though. There were special coding methods that could be hidden within the jade. By layering various pills, herbs, or plants of the like, it could store unique patterns in a very distinctive smell that could be deciphered by those skilled enough to do so.

This was all to say that if Theron's nose was sharp enough to decipher the pattern used to layer the particular unique scent of this Verdant Bloomstone, then he had a feeling that there was an interesting secret waiting for him here.

'It's hard to tell how long this Echo Pill has been suppressed within this bottle. It's possible that it's already lost much of its effectiveness. But this...'

The wooden tablet was clearly something that Yonowai didn't understand, otherwise he would have exposed its secrets long ago.