Senior Sister? Junior Sister?

"What huge trees! They must be at least hundreds of years old. Father said there's a type of Red-patterned Fir that, if it grows for a thousand years, will produce Divine Ironwood in its heart, which is dozens of times harder than steel and can be directly used as a sword embryo. I wonder what that Red-patterned Fir looks like. Hmph, looking at this guy's lack of knowledge, he's probably never even heard of it."

In the dense forest they were currently in, the most common trees were broad-leaved firs. Standing beneath the nearest one, the slender Cai Shu felt as insignificant as an ant. The ancient, massive fir had some gnarled roots exposed. Cai Shu jumped onto one of them and measured it with her feet, only to find that both her feet together were not as thick as a single root hair of this giant fir.

The enormous fir and other giant trees blocked out the sun, making the mountain range damp. Moss grew on the rocks underfoot, and the soil was black, mixed with dead leaves, damp and soft. Although it was noon, the dense forest was dim, making one feel as if they had entered a completely different, gloomy world. Faint rustling sounds could be heard, like hushed conversations in the distance. As they walked, strange insects would suddenly fly out from the bushes with a pat-pat-pat. Even Cai Shu couldn't help but imagine what terrifying creatures might leap out from behind the trees.

Tianzhu Peak was clearly rarely visited by people, with almost no paths. Unless they had a reason, people from Shushan wouldn't waste their time in such a forest. While cultivators generally lived longer than ordinary people, this long life was built upon equally long cultivation. An ordinary person might accomplish everything they needed to in fifty years – starting a family, building a career, and having a house full of descendants. But for a cultivator, fifty years might not be enough to comprehend a single incantation. Those practicing Inner Core incantations might not even successfully form a Core in fifty years.

Cultivation, besides talent and effort, most importantly requires opportunity.

In this vast human world, meeting is already destiny.

Cai Shu's appearance was delicate and lovely, easily evoking goodwill. Especially seeing her innocently and playfully jumping on the tree roots, measuring with her feet, Luo Bei felt a sense of closeness towards this young woman, who seemed to be around his age.

"Ignorant fellow, must be scared."

But Cai Shu, this delicate young woman, felt no sense of destiny from their meeting. On the contrary, having initially misjudged Luo Bei, she found him completely disagreeable. At this moment, she desperately hoped to see a look of fear on his face. To her disappointment, she saw Luo Bei calmly break off a slender branch, strip it of its twigs and leaves, and begin swatting away the surrounding bushes and grass as he walked. He even occasionally marked the trees he passed, showing no signs of fear or alarm.

Although Tianzhu Peak in the Shushan mountain range also presented a wild appearance, it was not as humid and hot as Luofu. Compared to Luofu, where heavy rain could fall without warning, leaving everything muddy and filled with colorful insects, this place was much safer for Luo Bei.

When Luo Bei was not yet a disciple of Luofu and was climbing that nameless mountain, he had to traverse miles of rainforest every day, spending considerable time searching for edible food in the perilous jungle. Luofu's rules were both gentle and cruel. For new disciples in Shushan to be directly placed in the mountains was already a relatively harsh trial among the sects, but it was incomparable to the constant life-or-death challenges of Luofu.

"What a pest! I won't even look at him!" Not seeing the expression she wanted on Luo Bei's face, Cai Shu felt an inexplicable annoyance. She deliberately kept a distance from Luo Bei, refusing to look at him.

Tianzhu Peak was abundant with various exotic flowers and fruits, its variety second only to Changyou Peak and Yaoguang Peak among the Shushan peaks. As Cai Shu walked, she suddenly noticed some vermilion fruits growing on a vine to her left. These vermilion fruits were about the size of bird eggs, appearing to have thin skins and thick flesh, making them very tempting. "I wonder if these fruits are edible, and what they taste like?" Cai Shu, after all, was a girl of thirteen or fourteen, and seeing these tempting fruits, she couldn't help but swallow. "I'll pick a couple to take back and ask Martial Uncle Ming Hao."

"Senior Sister Cai Shu," Luo Bei suddenly called out.

"What is it?" Cai Shu turned around impatiently.

"Senior Sister Cai Shu, look, isn't this the Liudan Wood that Martial Uncle Ming Hao mentioned?" Luo Bei held up a plant with only three leaves, but the leaves were thick like pods and had a golden hue, shaking it towards her. "It looks even better than the one Martial Uncle Ming Hao conjured."

"...!"

"What's wrong, Senior Sister Cai Shu, you don't think it is?"

"It… should be Liudan Wood." Cai Shu's chest heaved again, and she finally managed to squeeze out those words.

This guy actually found a piece of Liudan Wood so quickly!

If she said it wasn't, this guy definitely wouldn't give up and would take it back to show Martial Uncle Ming Hao. If Martial Uncle Ming Hao then confirmed it was, wouldn't that make her look unobservant?

Luo Bei, completely unaware of Cai Shu's gnashing teeth, was delighted when she confirmed it. He chuckled happily, put the foot-long Liudan Wood into the cloth pouch at his waist, and said to Cai Shu, "Senior Sister Cai Shu, Martial Uncle Ming Hao said everyone has to collect one item. We still need to find another one."

"We? Who is 'we'?" Cai Shu thought to herself, then casually plucked a leaf and began to crush it fiercely...

"Senior Sister Cai Shu, I found this Liudan Wood on a rotten tree root. Perhaps Liudan Wood grows on rotten roots. You can pay attention to the base of dead trees," Luo Bei kindly advised her.

"Hmph! He dares to lecture me now!" Cai Shu's fair little hands crushed the leaf even more vigorously.

"Senior Sister Cai Shu..."

"Stop calling me Senior Sister!" Cai Shu couldn't take it anymore. She suddenly turned and 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 understanding why this delicate young woman was so angry.

"..." Cai Shu was speechless. She glared at Luo Bei for a long time before turning her head away with extreme helplessness. "Call me whatever you want, but don't talk to me from now on!"

"Junior Sister Cai Shu..."

"Didn't I tell you not to talk to me! Why are you talking to me again? Don't you think it's improper for a man and woman to be so close and pestering a girl? It's rude!" Cai Shu saw Luo Bei nod in surprise, but after only a few steps, Cai Shu, who was looking at the bushes to the side with her head tilted, heard Luo Bei call her again. This time, Cai Shu finally couldn't help but shout angrily. Pfft, at that moment, the ground beneath her feet softened... Cai Shu smelled a sour, foul odor... a pile of animal droppings of some kind. Cai Shu's shoe had just stepped into the pile.

"Luo Bei! You were right behind me, why didn't you warn me!" a furious roar startled some birds in the forest, causing them to fly out in a flurry.

"Junior Sister Cai Shu, I was just about to warn you. But you told me not to talk to you..." Luo Bei said innocently.

"Gurgle, gurgle." In the silent forest, a sound suddenly echoed again.

The sound came from Luo Bei's stomach, beneath his green robe.

"This guy looks around everywhere, why doesn't he step in a pile!"

Cai Shu, thinking this to herself, heard Luo Bei's stomach rumble and resentfully thought, "What a pig-headed guy. He ate so much before we left, and now his stomach is rumbling so loudly."

The sun was already beginning to set, and unconsciously, half the day had passed. In another hour or two, it would be dark. When they crossed the suspension bridge to enter the mountain, Ming Hao had told everyone that he would release a Flying Flame Talisman. Upon seeing this talisman, regardless of whether they had found all five herbs, they were to return to the precipice-like iron chain bridge to gather.

By this time, both Luo Bei and Cai Shu had in their cloth pouches: a stalk of Zhu Yu Grass with green flowers shaped like scallions, a three-leaved Liudan Wood, and a Water Chestnut Fruit with a soft, slightly fuzzy, yellowish-green shell.

Of the five herbs, Luo Bei and Cai Shu had found three.

"It seems we need to pick up the pace, but we can't go too deep. We can only speed up our search in the vicinity, otherwise, we won't make it back in time and will miss the deadline." Luo Bei, who had been practicing the Eternal Life Sutra of Delusion without stopping these days, now ignored his hunger, his mind filled with this thought.

Just then, with a bang, a red light shot into the sky, exploding into dozens of red rays.

A Flying Flame Talisman!

This Flying Flame Talisman shot out from a mountainside in front of Luo Bei and Cai Shu, clearly not Ming Hao signaling them to return.

Seeing the suddenly appearing Flying Flame Talisman, both Luo Bei and Cai Shu's hearts tightened.

"I wonder which Senior Brother or Junior Brother is in danger."

"I hope it's not Senior Brother Lin Hang."

Luo Bei and Cai Shu exchanged a glance and instinctively moved towards the direction where the Flying Flame Talisman had originated. However, after walking less than fifty steps, they saw a sword light, like a fleeting glimpse of a swan goose, flash across the sky.

"It must be Martial Uncle Ming Hao or one of his people who went." The two felt a sudden sense of relief, lowering their heads. When their eyes fell on the scene before them again, both let out an involuntary gasp.

A deep mountain chasm.

Only then did they notice that less than twenty feet away from them lay a deep gorge. It was about ten feet wide and not very long, only a few miles, so they could go around it. It looked like a rift carved into the mountainside by divine craftsmanship. But on the edge of the opposite cliff, a small patch of flowering plants with purplish-red blossoms grew. Their stems and leaves resembled bracken, and the flowers were a pale yellow. This was the last herb they needed, aside from the Ci Tong Grass they hadn't yet found – the Fine Xin.

***

(Hehe, your votes today aren't fierce enough, so I'm taking it easy... not going all out... for now, I'll maintain a daily output of six thousand words with quality and quantity. Keep up the effort with your support, everyone! As soon as the votes get exciting, I won't be able to resist unleashing my stored power.)