A mere wild wolf was naturally nothing to Yang Heng.
As the wild wolf leaped into the air, Yang Heng's right hand shot out like lightning, his five fingers spreading wide. With an Azure Dragon's Grasp, he seized the wolf by the throat. Veins bulged along his right arm as he swung fiercely, flinging the wolf away like a torn sack.
Bang!
With a tremendous crash, the wolf's head struck the ground hard five meters from the cave entrance. Dirt and rocks sprayed everywhere, while fallen leaves whirled through the air.
The wolf looked utterly miserable now. Its nose had been smashed crooked, blood gushed forth, three or four bloodstained wolf fangs had fallen to the ground, and one of its hind legs was lame.
The wolf howled in pain, raising its head and letting out a long cry at the sky.
If the wolf had possessed human thoughts at that moment, it would surely have been thinking that it had been sleeping peacefully at home, only to suffer such an unforeseen calamity. Where could it possibly go to seek justice?
Was there no law left?
The wolf had been thrown so hard that stars danced before its eyes. Once it recovered, it dragged its body and limped toward the forest.
Wolves were spiritual beasts; it knew Yang Heng was not someone to provoke.
The instant Yang Heng struck, the wolf felt as though its blood had frozen. It was like facing a higher predator. The instincts carved into its very bones awakened at that moment—the inferior obeyed the superior, the law of nature.
It could not resist, nor did it dare to.
Seeing the wolf dragging its mangled body toward the woods, Yang Heng did not stop it. He had no intention of killing it to the last; he had come only to gather herbs.
Since it knew what was good for it, why did he need to play the villain and put it to death?
Yang Heng searched through the wolf's cave and discovered a precious medicinal herb in one corner: Wolf Blood Grass.
Wolf Blood Grass looked like ordinary green grass, except a red thread ran through its stem and leaves, like a blood vessel piercing through its entire body.
This herb was exceedingly precious and often circulated among martial artists. It could soothe the channels, invigorate the blood, and improve one's cultivation.
Legend had it that if Blood Augmentation Pills were refined with Wolf Blood Grass as the main ingredient, consuming five of them would allow an Early Blood Strengthening Martial Artist to break through to the middle stage of Blood Strengthening.
Though Yang Heng did not recognize this herb, its appearance alone struck him as astonishing and extraordinary. It had to be a rare treasure herb, and keeping it on hand might prove immensely useful someday.
Yang Heng crouched down, took out a small wooden shovel, and carefully loosened the soil beneath the Wolf Blood Grass. He did not dare use the slightest bit of force, afraid of damaging its roots and affecting its medicinal potency.
Before long, Yang Heng had harvested the Wolf Blood Grass completely intact.
Yang Heng wiped away the nonexistent cold sweat on his forehead and let out a long breath. Harvesting this herb had actually taxed his focus more than a battle.
After resting briefly, Yang Heng placed the Wolf Blood Flower into a specially made wooden box to preserve it and prolong its medicinal properties.
The apothecary had issued everyone two of these specially made wooden boxes for storing rare medicinal herbs. They were airtight and made from unusual materials, capable of extending the herbs' potency.
They came in handy now.
Yang Heng had four wooden boxes in total. Two of them had been taken from Zhao Er's corpse.
After Zhao Er died, no one had dared step forward to collect his belongings. His body had been too close to the Intermittent Flower; if they disturbed the Silver Ring Snake while gathering his possessions and made it think they were after the Intermittent Flower, they would be in danger.
Risking themselves for someone unrelated to them like Zhao Er simply was not worth the loss.
After Yang Heng killed the Silver Ring Snake, he saw the two wooden boxes lying on the ground as he was leaving and took them without a second thought.
One wooden box was used to hold the Intermittent Flower, while the other was used here.
After putting away the Wolf Blood Flower, Yang Heng carefully searched the wolf's cave again to see whether he might find anything unexpected.
In the end, he found only a few ordinary medicinal herbs, worth one hundred Copper Coins.
Seeing that the cave had been thoroughly picked clean, Yang Heng stepped out and continued his search for beast lairs.
Time slowly passed, and in the blink of an eye, night fell.
Yang Heng returned to camp.
The medicinal herbs he turned in this time were worth twice as much as yesterday's, amounting to seven hundred Copper Coins.
Including yesterday's earnings, he had now gathered one tael of silver, leaving a shortfall of nine taels.
If he had been willing to hand over either the Intermittent Flower or the Wolf Blood Grass, he could have completed the mission long ago and received a handsome reward as well.
But Yang Heng would not do that.
Wouldn't handing such treasure herbs to the apothecary simply be letting them profit for nothing?
Yang Heng had gained a great deal that day. Apart from the Wolf Blood Grass, the medicinal herbs he gathered were worth four taels of silver in total.
One liang of Dendrobium was worth one tael of silver. The Yin Wind Vine and Coptis Seed together were worth eight hundred Copper Coins, and with the Wood Root and the herbs he found after leaving the wolf's cave, they amounted to four taels of silver altogether.
Naturally, Yang Heng would not be foolish enough to turn in every medicinal herb he had gathered.
If a new apprentice gathered medicinal herbs worth four taels of silver in a single day, there had to be something suspicious about it.
Forget a new apprentice—even an experienced apothecary master with years of herb-gathering experience might not be able to collect herbs worth four taels of silver.
Moreover, none of Yang Heng's herbs were precious treasures like ginseng or Lingzhi Mushroom. They were all herbs that grew in dangerous, remote places, and gathering them all was exceptionally difficult.
A new apprentice could not possibly possess such ability. There had to be something fishy going on.
If the apothecary questioned him closely, Yang Heng would not be able to explain himself.
If Lei Xiong, Master Lei himself, questioned him, then he would be in danger, and his cultivation would be difficult to conceal.
Therefore, Yang Heng decided to proceed cautiously, turning in only a little each day. He would show improvement over the previous day, gather more herbs, and gradually turn in herbs of increasing value.
As his herb-gathering experience accumulated and he grew more familiar with the mountain environment, it was only natural that he would gather more and more herbs of greater and greater value.
Yang Heng had not gone out of his way to learn about the other apprentices' herb-gathering results.
Yang Heng simply followed his plan.
Over the following days, he traveled back and forth between the mountains and the camp. Each day when he returned to camp, he turned in more herbs than before, and their value rose accordingly.
On the tenth day of gathering herbs in the mountains, at dusk,
Yang Heng turned in medicinal herbs worth one and a half taels of silver that day, drawing waves of envy from the apprentices. The apothecary masters also praised Yang Heng highly.
They believed he was a promising talent for herb gathering, possessing a gift in this field beyond what ordinary people could imagine.
In truth, that was not the case at all.
Yang Heng knew that he could gather so many herbs entirely because of his sharp eyes and his own martial strength. He entered ferocious beast lairs as though they were uninhabited, and walked before cliffs as if treading level ground.
With that advantage, he naturally returned laden with a full haul.
As of that day, the medicinal herbs Yang Heng had turned in were worth eight taels of silver. Once he turned in herbs worth another two taels, his mission would be complete.
In truth, the total value of the medicinal herbs Yang Heng had gathered had long exceeded ten taels of silver. He estimated they were worth more than twenty taels.
He simply had not brought them out, instead hiding them together with the two treasure herbs.
Over the past two days, Yang Heng had not gathered herbs in the mountains. Instead, he found a secluded place to practice martial arts.
He had gathered enough medicinal herbs several days ago. Each day, he merely selected a portion from them and brought it down the mountain for the apothecary masters to register.
In reality, now that the mission was complete, Yang Heng devoted himself wholeheartedly to cultivating martial arts, especially the Levitation Technique he had just acquired.
Before you continue