"What a huge tree! It must have been growing for at least several centuries. Father once said that there was a kind of Red-patterned Fir that, once it had grown for a thousand years, would form Divine Ironwood in its heart, dozens of times harder than refined steel. It could be used directly as the core of a flying sword. I wonder what that Red-patterned Fir looks like. Hmph, judging by how ignorant this fellow looks, he definitely hasn't even heard of it."
The dense forest before them was filled mostly with broad-leaved firs. Standing beneath the nearest one, the slender Cai Shu felt as tiny as an ant. Some of the tangled roots of that ancient, enormous fir lay exposed aboveground. Cai Shu jumped onto one of them and compared it with her feet, only to discover that even both her feet put together were not as thick as a single rootlet on the giant fir's root.
The enormous firs and other giant trees blotted out the sky and sun, leaving the mountains damp. The rocks beneath their feet were covered in mottled green moss, while the black earth was mixed with dead leaves, wet and soft. Though it was still noon, the thick forest was gloomy, always making one feel as though they had stepped into an entirely different, shadowy world. Faint rustling sounds reached their ears, as if someone were constantly whispering in the distance. As they walked, strange insects often burst from the bushes without warning. Even Cai Shu could not help imagining whether something terrifying might leap out from behind the trees.
Tianzhu Peak was clearly rarely visited by people, with scarcely any paths to speak of. The people of Shushan presumably would not waste their time in such a forest unless they had business here. Although cultivators generally possessed longer lives than ordinary people, that longevity rested upon equally lengthy cultivation. An ordinary person might spend fifty years accomplishing all that they needed to do in a lifetime—starting a family, building a career, filling their hall with children and grandchildren. But for cultivators, fifty years might not even be enough to comprehend a single cultivation art. Those who cultivated inner elixir techniques might not necessarily manage to form Core even after fifty years.
In cultivation, besides talent and hard work, the most important thing was opportunity.
The human world was vast and boundless; meeting someone was already fate.
Cai Shu's features were pure and lovely, making it easy for people to feel fond of her at first sight. Especially when Luo Bei watched her innocently hopping about on the tree root and comparing its size with her feet, he could not help feeling a measure of warmth toward this young woman, who was about his own age.
"That ignorant fellow should be scared by now."
Yet this lovely young woman, Cai Shu, did not have the slightest realization that meeting was fate. On the contrary, having formed a mistaken first impression of Luo Bei, she found him utterly unpleasant from the start. At that moment, she dearly wished to see fear and alarm on his face. But to her disappointment once again, Luo Bei merely snapped off a long, thin branch, stripped away its twigs and leaves, and began using it to beat aside the surrounding shrubs and grass as he walked. From time to time, he even marked the trees they passed. He did not look frightened in the least.
Though Tianzhu Peak within the Shushan mountain range also presented a wild and primordial scene, it was nowhere near as hot and humid as Luofu. Compared to Luofu's rainforests, where torrential rain could fall for no reason, mud lay everywhere, and brightly colored insects lurked in hiding, this place was far safer in Luo Bei's eyes.
Before Luo Bei became a disciple of Luofu, when he climbed that nameless mountain, he had crossed several miles of rainforest every day. He also had to spend much time searching for edible food amid that peril-ridden jungle. Luofu's rules were warm yet cruel. In Shushan, directly placing newly initiated disciples in the mountains already counted as rather harsh tempering among the various sects, but compared to Luofu's constant trials between life and death, it was simply beyond comparison.
"What an annoying bastard! I won't even look at him!" Having failed to see the expression she wanted on Luo Bei's face, Cai Shu felt inexplicably irritated. Deliberately keeping some distance from him, she refused even to glance his way.
Tianzhu Peak was rich in all kinds of exotic flowers and strange fruits, its abundance second only to Changyou Peak and Yaoguang Peak among Shushan's peaks. As Cai Shu walked along, she suddenly spotted some vermilion fruits growing on a vine to her left. They were each the size of a bird's egg, with thin skins and plump flesh, looking exceedingly tempting. "I wonder whether these fruits are edible, and what they taste like?" Cai Shu was, after all, only a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old young woman. Seeing those alluring fruits, she could not help swallowing. "I'll pick two and bring them back to ask Martial Uncle Ming Hao."
"Senior Sister Cai Shu," Luo Bei suddenly called.
"What is it?" Cai Shu turned around irritably.
"Senior Sister Cai Shu, do you think this is the Liudan Wood Martial Uncle Ming Hao mentioned?" Luo Bei waved a plant at her. It had only three leaves, but the leaves were as thick as bean pods, and the entire plant was somewhat golden-yellow. "It seems even prettier than the one Martial Uncle Ming Hao conjured."
"...!"
"What's wrong, Senior Sister Cai Shu? Do you think it doesn't look like it?"
"It should... be Liudan Wood." Cai Shu's small chest rose and fell again before she finally squeezed those few words through her teeth.
This fellow had actually found a Liudan Wood plant right away!
If she said it was not, this fellow certainly would not throw it away. He would bring it back and ask Martial Uncle Ming Hao whether it really was. If Martial Uncle Ming Hao said it was, would that not only make her seem lacking in discernment?
Luo Bei had no idea that Cai Shu was grinding her teeth in fury. Hearing her confirm it, he chuckled happily. As he placed the foot-long Liudan Wood into the cloth pouch at his waist, he said, "Senior Sister Cai Shu, Martial Uncle Ming Hao said each person must gather one of each. We still need to find another one."
"We? Who's 'we' with you?!" Thinking this, Cai Shu casually tore off a leaf and fiercely kneaded it over and over...
"Senior Sister Cai Shu, I found this Liudan Wood on a rotting tree root. Perhaps Liudan Wood grows on decayed roots, so you can pay attention to the bases of dead trees." Luo Bei kindly reminded her.
"Pah! He actually dares to teach me!" Cai Shu's pale little hand kneaded the leaf even more vigorously.
"Senior Sister Cai Shu—"
"Stop calling me Senior Sister all the time!" Cai Shu could no longer hold back. Whirling around, she shouted at Luo Bei, "Do I look older than you?"
"...Then should I call you Junior Sister Cai Shu?" Luo Bei looked at Cai Shu innocently, not knowing why this lovely young woman was so furious.
"..." Cai Shu was truly left speechless. She glared at Luo Bei for a long while before turning away her little head in utter helplessness. "Call me whatever you like, but from now on, don't talk to me!"
"Junior Sister Cai Shu..."
"Didn't I tell you not to talk to me?! Why are you talking to me again? Don't you know that men and women should not touch hands when giving or receiving things? Isn't it terribly rude to keep pestering a girl to talk?!" Cai Shu saw Luo Bei nod in astonishment, but after she had walked only a few steps, she heard him calling her again while she tilted her head to inspect the bushes beside her. This time, Cai Shu finally could not endure it any longer and shouted furiously. "Pfft!" At that moment, her foot sank into something soft... A sour, foul stench wafted into Cai Shu's nose... Her shoe had stepped right into a pile of some unknown animal's droppings.
"Luo Bei! You were right behind me, so why didn't you warn me?!" Her furious shriek startled some birds in the forest, sending them fluttering out of the woods.
"Junior Sister Cai Shu, I was about to warn you. But you told me not to talk to you..." Luo Bei said innocently.
"Gurgle, gurgle." Such a sound suddenly rang out in the quiet forest.
The sound came from Luo Bei's stomach beneath his blue robes.
"Why does this fellow keep looking everywhere without stepping in a pile too!"
As Cai Shu thought this, she heard Luo Bei's stomach rumbling and thought resentfully again, "What a pig-like fellow. He obviously ate so much before we set out, yet his stomach is already growling this loudly."
The sun had now begun to slant westward. Without them noticing, half the day had already passed. In another hour or two, the sky would grow dark. When they crossed the suspension bridge into the mountains, Ming Hao had told them that he would release a Flying Flame Talisman at the appointed time. Once they saw it, whether or not they had found all five medicinal herbs, they were to immediately return to gather beside the iron-chain bridge that hung like a natural chasm.
At this point, both Luo Bei and Cai Shu already had a Zhu Yu Grass in their cloth pouches, its blue blossoms resembling scallions; a three-leaved Liudan Wood; and a greenish-yellow Water Chestnut Fruit with a soft shell covered in fine fuzz.
Of the five medicinal herbs, Luo Bei and Cai Shu had found three.
"We need to move faster, but we can't go too deep. We can only search the nearby area more quickly, otherwise we won't make it back in time and will miss the hour." Luo Bei, who had not stopped practicing the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion these past days, paid no attention to his hunger. This thought alone surfaced in his mind.
Just then, with a bang, a streak of red light shot into the sky and burst into dozens of red rays.
A Flying Flame Talisman!
This Flying Flame Talisman had also risen from a mountainside before Luo Bei and Cai Shu. Clearly, it was not Ming Hao signaling for them to return.
At the sight of the Flying Flame Talisman suddenly soaring skyward, both Luo Bei and Cai Shu felt their hearts tighten.
"I wonder which Senior Brother or Junior Brother is in danger."
"I hope it isn't Senior Brother Lin Hang."
Luo Bei and Cai Shu exchanged a glance and unconsciously began heading toward the direction from which the Flying Flame Talisman had been released. But before they had walked several dozen steps, they saw a sword light streak across the sky like a startled rainbow.
"Martial Uncle Ming Hao or one of the others must have gone over." Both of them immediately relaxed. Lowering their raised heads, they looked ahead again—and both let out cries of surprise.
A deep mountain ravine.
Only then did they notice that less than twenty zhang away lay a deep gorge, around a dozen zhang wide and only several li long. They could go around it. It was like a cleft split into the mountain by ghosts and gods wielding axes. Yet along the cliff edge on the opposite side grew a small patch of flowers and grass with purplish-red blossoms, pale-yellow stems and leaves resembling fern fronds. They were the final medicinal herb besides the Ci Tong Grass that the two did not know: Fine Xin.
***
Hehe, everyone's votes still weren't vicious enough today, so I took it easy too... I didn't unleash anything fierce... For now, I'll keep delivering a solid six thousand words a day. Keep feeding me your support, everyone. As long as those votes get flamboyant, I, who have been storing up my strength, definitely won't be able to hold back.
Before you continue