Chapter 15 – Looking for Medicine inside the Mountain

With his daily training finished, he started his sweeping, which since absorbing the golden skeleton he had been able to complete in only one hour. After he finished sweeping he ran to the Contribution Hall.
Although Kai Yang had decided to go into the mountains to find the herbs, he had no knowledge regarding herbology. He had only heard of the Three Leaved Chaos Spirit Flower and the Dead Jedi Tree Grass, and didn’t know what they looked like.
Most of his preparatory work for his journey into the Black Wind Mountain was done. To avoid an embarrassing situation, Kai Yang hurried to the Contribution Hall to write down the herbs’ appearance.
Originally he had planned to ask Treasurer Meng to teach him, he hadn’t expected Treasurer Meng to give him a book on herbs instead.
Looking at the book, Kai Yang found that it had an introduction to herbs and their medical properties, habitats and illustrations. Though it would give create a feeling of disappointment in those who read it. As it merely contained information on ordinary grade herbs and nothing on the herbs of a higher grade, but it was quite suitable for Kai Yang’s current needs.
Just as practitioners were classified into different ranks, so to were herbs, weapons and medicinal pellets. They were divided into, Ordinary Grade, Earth Grade, Heaven Grade, Mystery Grade, Spirit Grade and Saint Grade. Each of the Grades were then divided into the lower, middle and peak level.
Luckily the herbs that Kai Yang needed were both Ordinary Grade, Lower class herbs so they were in the book. And since they were such a low grade, their value wasn’t high.
After he left the Contribution Hall, Kai Yang went to the General Affairs Office. Afterall he was still a sweeper of Sky Tower’s and this roundabout journey to Black Wind Mountain would take more than a day. So he had to ask to be excused from his work.
The General Affairs Office didn’t make things difficult for him. They gave Kai Yang three days of leave, with his obligations taken care of he set off…
Black Wind Mountain was only twenty miles away from Sky Tower by foot. Since it wasn’t that far, Kai Yang frequently went there to hunt for his meals, making him quite familiar with the terrain.
In this mountain was a vast and diverse range of herbs. But since it was his first time collecting herbs, Kai Yang made sure to be fully prepared. Carrying his water, food supplies, a shovel and a bag, he hit the road.
Rushing over, Kai Yang came to Black Wind Mountain and surveyed the area. The Mountain was like a prehistoric monster, lying down between the heavens and the earth. Imposing, with no end in sight, the mountain with its lush forests, jagged edges proudly stood against the horizon. Standing there, Kai Yang felt a cool breeze blow through his hair.
Within Black Wind Mountain lived many ferocious beasts. Some high levelled ferocious beasts could even make martial practitioners flee with no chance of victory. So generally when people ventured into the mountain, they wouldn’t go too deep. The first thirty or so miles were classified as the safe zone, the next ten miles were the dangerous zone. And the area beyond that, was the life-threatening zone. Basically the deeper you went, the more dangerous it was.
Since Kai Yang was only looking for ordinary grade lower level herbs he didn’t need to venture too far in. So naturally he didn’t have to worry about his safety as he would only be searching within the safe zone.
Currently it was still in the early hours of the morning and Kai Yang was trying to recall whether or not he had stumbled upon those herbs in his previous trips to the mountain. But it didn’t matter whether he had or not, as he was prepared this time to find them equipped with the knowledge from the book.
Thinking back, Kai Yang remembered that there were many potential places for herbs to grow in. In his current situation he didn’t even know the locations of the herbs he wanted to find.
But filled with anticipation, Kai Yang followed the familiar track into Black Wind Mountain.
After half an hour Kai Yang spotted his first harvest hidden within the thicket next to the track he, was a bunch of Li Chi/Sharp Teeth herbs. Harvesting them, Kai Yang put them into his bag and continued his search, thinking to himself this was a good start. Walking down the road, Kai Yang looked at the various vegetation scattered about, and memories of the forest came flooding back, informing him of his location. With his knowledge of the Mountain, gained from hunting, he could accurately create a mental map of where he was in relation to Sky Tower, preventing him from getting lost. By evening Kai Yang had collected four different types of herbs.
When searching for herbs it is naturally very hard,not to mention that many people like to come here to collect herbs, making it even harder to find them. Although Kai Yang only found four herbs, he was still pretty satisfied.
Unfortunately Kai Yang didn’t need these four herbs, to make matters worse their grades were only at Ordinary Grade, lower level too. Nevertheless if he were to take them back, he could exchange them for contribution points, so they were of some value.
At this time the sun had already started to set. Hurrying, Kai Yang finally arrived at an area which was suitable for the growth of many herbs.
This area was very strange, for all its bountiful vegetation it was devoid of any living presence. Especially for an area of thirty feet around around the area of herbs the land was completely dead and nothing grew, not even weeds.
Though in the center of the this wasteland, there were three bunches of grass. They fluttered in the wind, Kai Yang saw that they were brown coloured, and thought that is was just necrosis. But this was just the grass’ natural colour.
After looking at it in more detail Kai Yang recognised them as a type of herb and with a sigh of relief, rushed over. Smiling widely, he quickly dug them all up.
A little while later, these three herbs were collected.
As he held these herbs, Kai Yang took out the herbology book that Treasurer Meng gave him earlier and checked it to see where he had seen them before. They were indeed the Dead Jedi Tree Grass. The illustrations, growth and environment all matched up.
Dead Jedi Tree Grass grew from dead trees, which made it quite easy to find. Basically in the mountains, any place that had dead land, you could find it growing nearby.
Carefully, Kai Yang placed the grass in his bag and took out some water and food, then took out his water and food and looked for a place to eat and rest.
This time when he entered the mountains his main goal was to find the Three Leaved Chaos Spirit Flower and the Dead Jedi Tree Grass, now that he had found the Dead Jedi Tree Grass he need to switch his focus to the Three Leaved Chaos Spirit Flower. Not only did he need to find the Three Leaved Chaos Spirit Flower but he also needed a large quantity of it.. Kai Yang decided he must double his efforts.
Though right now, it was already evening and the sun had set. This was naturally an inconvenient time to search for herbs so Kai Yang decided to find a spot to rest and continue tomorrow.
Previously when he entered/forayed into the mountains, he had never stayed overnight, however as the saying goes “Even if you hadn’t tasted pork, you have at least seen a pig before”. On that note, he naturally knew the dangers of the mountains at night.
(TLN: I think it’s pretty self-explanatory. But for those who are confused, it means that even if you haven’t experienced some things, you should have some knowledge of them.) Man even got to edit the comments, no rest for the wicked
After he found the nearest tree, Kai Yang climbed up and looked for a suitable place to sleep, after locating a place he immediately laid down and closed his eyes.
(ED: Trees are so hard to locate in a forest on a mountain)
By one-thirty am, Kai Yang had yet to fall asleep, so he took out the black book and turned to page three. With a thought, the incense burner floated out.
This was also a little mystery that Kai Yang had solved about the black book. Anything that was stored inside could be called out and returned at will. It was afterall a storage book, and the burner had obviously been placed in there before so this function didn’t come as a complete surprise.
(TL: Our MC isn’t very bright. It’s a storage book, if you could take things out, why couldn’t they be put back in? How did the burner end up in it in the first place? A mystery……..ಠ_ಠ)
What Kai Yang didn’t understand was that apart from the incense burner, other things could not be stored in the book. This made him wonder, was the black book a soul stone? Do soul stones normally have restrictions on what to accept and reject?
After playing with the black book for a while, Kai Yang fell asleep. He had just spent the entire day walking around the mountain after all.
After a peaceful night, Kai Yang got up early the next morning and practised the tempered body record for half an hour. In order to gather a good harvest, he must work very hard for the next two days. He also felt that he was on the brink of a breakthrough, not only did he feel that his atmospheric sense was at the utmost limit, he also felt his body was as well. Kai Yang just needed a final push in order to breakthrough.