Accidental Herb Gathering

Although the Lian Clan is located in the wilderness and has extremely harsh living conditions, they possess a place that produces abundant medicinal herbs: Lian Clan Medicine Mountain!

The Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi on Lian Clan Medicine Mountain is slightly denser, which allows it to nurture medicinal herbs. This place can barely be considered a Spiritual Ground.

Calling it a Spiritual Ground is only relative to the impoverished Lian Clan. If it were compared to a major clan's territory, Lian Clan Medicine Mountain would be nothing special, as there are many places like this with slightly denser Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi in the Great Wilderness.

Generally, major clans choose auspicious locations to establish themselves, places rich in resources and beneficial for Warrior cultivation.

Most importantly, for reasons unknown, powerful Savage Beasts and even ordinary Beasts usually avoid these "Spiritual Grounds," providing the clan's residents with a crucial layer of security.

Of course, occasionally, some injured or provoked, enraged Savage Beasts might charge in recklessly, leading to the complete annihilation of some smaller clans.

However, every advantage has its disadvantage. While Spiritual Grounds isolate most Savage Beasts and Beasts, they also make animals near the Spiritual Ground extremely rare, making it difficult to hunt prey. Any occasional rabbits or roes are quickly caught.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, only Purple Blood Warriors have the ability to venture deep into the Great Wilderness to hunt prey.

Spiritual Grounds in the Great Wilderness are inherently sought-after resources. The Lian Clan's Medicine Mountain is considered one of the lowest-grade ones. Otherwise, how could the Lian Clan possibly hold onto it?

Despite its low grade, the Medicine Mountain is an invaluable treasure to the Lian Clan; it is the foundation of their existence.

Furthermore, every time villagers go up the mountain to collect herbs, they are strictly searched upon their return to prevent anyone from privately hoarding them.

Yi Yun, carrying his herb basket, walked alongside Jiang Xiaorou. He had just inquired about the realms of martial arts cultivation from her.

The lowest level of martial arts cultivation is called Mortal Blood, and Warriors at this level are known as Mortal Blood Warriors.

Mortal Blood isn't really a distinct realm; it's merely a general term for those who practice martial arts.

Mortal Blood signifies the blood of mortals. Mortal Blood Warriors are, in essence, mortal warriors. Although they practice martial arts, they are not entirely distinct from ordinary people; their nature is still bound by the word "mortal."

However, Mortal Blood Warriors are still far more powerful than ordinary people, capable of tearing tigers and leopards apart and running as fast as horses.

The Mortal Blood Realm is divided into five layers: the first is Valiant, the second is Long Breath, the third is Thunderous Sound, the fourth is Meridians, and the fifth is Qi Induction.

This first layer, Valiant, involves Warriors training through constant weightlifting, running, stamina drills, and combat, supplemented by precious foods like ginseng, deer antler, and beast meat. This gradually improves their physical fitness, greatly enhancing their strength and speed!

Yi Yun is currently at the Valiant level. His strength has increased to two to three hundred jin, and his speed is twice that of Zhao Tiezhu. In this regard, Yi Yun is far stronger than an average Valiant Warrior. Considering he is only eleven or twelve years old, his physical fitness rivals that of an adult man.

Valiant is not even considered the starting point of martial arts.

The second layer, Long Breath, refers to Warriors whose breath becomes long and steady after significant improvement in physical fitness. When Long Breath is truly mastered, one can inhale like a snake and exhale like an arrow. This is most evident in winter, where an exhaled breath can travel four to five feet and even pierce paper!

Furthermore, Warriors in the Long Breath realm have a heart rate only one-third of that of an ordinary person, but each heartbeat is more sustained. Such Warriors can run for half an hour chasing a swift horse without even blushing or their heart skipping a beat.

The third layer, Thunderous Sound, signifies that the physical body has achieved complete integration. The skin, muscles, tendons, bones, and flesh become extremely robust, and every part of the body cooperates perfectly. They are as still as a lurking viper and move like a pouncing lion.

Warriors at the Thunderous Sound level, due to their perfected physical bodies, will emit faint thunderous sounds from their joints when they exert their full strength, hence the name "Thunderous Sound."

The fourth layer, Meridians, refers to unblocking the twelve main meridians and the Ren and Du meridians in the body. Once the meridians are unblocked, Warriors can begin to sense the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi.

The fifth layer, Qi Induction, complements the fourth layer. After sensing the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi, Warriors can draw it into their bodies. When Qi Induction reaches its extreme, the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi transforms the body, completing a process of metamorphosis. At this point, the Warrior officially enters the next major realm: the Purple Blood Realm.

Strictly speaking, the Purple Blood Realm is the true beginning of martial arts cultivation.

This realm is called the Purple Blood Realm because when Warriors cultivate their physical bodies to a certain extent, transitioning from quantitative change to qualitative change, upon breaking through to the Purple Blood Warrior realm, their entire blood becomes as dense as mercury. If a small amount of this blood is placed under sunlight, one can see specks of purplish-gold luster within it.

The Purple Blood Realm gets its name from this!

Warriors who enter the Purple Blood Realm are already very powerful, capable of supporting a small clan single-handedly. Therefore, Purple Blood Warriors enjoy extremely high status in the Great Wilderness.

A Purple Blood Warrior entering a small to medium-sized clan is essentially like an emperor. All clan members obey their commands, holding the highest power and authority over life and death within the clan. They can arbitrarily enjoy all the most beautiful women in the clan, and these women would feel honored to be favored by a Purple Blood Warrior, even the clan leader's daughter would obediently climb into your bed.

There's no helping it. Imagine a young girl who eats thin porridge daily and lives precariously. One day, a hero appears with the vitality to bring her the most abundant food and the most comfortable life; how could she not throw herself into his arms?

In this era, people worship strength, especially women!

"Yun'er, I'll climb up to pick the herbs. You catch the ones I throw down."

As Jiang Xiaorou spoke, she had already started climbing a vine. The Lian Clan's Medicine Mountain covered a vast area and had a very treacherous terrain!

Most precious medicinal herbs grew on sheer cliffs, making them difficult to collect.

Climbing cliffs to collect herbs was a dangerous job, often resulting in death. Yi Yun had fallen to his death this way before.

Now that Yi Yun had miraculously come back to life, Jiang Xiaorou absolutely did not want him to climb any more cliffs.

Yi Yun couldn't let Jiang Xiaorou take such a risk. He said, "Sister, you pick up the herbs below. Leave the climbing to me!"

"Yun'er, don't be foolish! You just recovered; where do you have the strength to climb up..." Jiang Xiaorou's words caught in her throat. She watched in disbelief as Yi Yun leaped up and grabbed a vine, climbing with the agility of a monkey.

"Yun... Yun'er..." Jiang Xiaorou's eyes widened. She watched Yi Yun "scramble" upwards, moving on the vertical cliff face as if it were flat ground. When did Yun'er become so agile?

Collecting herbs on a cliff wasn't just about being able to climb high; it also required experience and familiarity with the habits of herbs and their most likely growing spots.

For example, some herbs prefer shade, some prefer sunlight, some prefer dry conditions, and some prefer moisture, and so on.

Although Yi Yun had crammed some knowledge about medicinal herbs yesterday, his understanding was still limited.

He originally intended to compensate for this deficiency with his agile skills, but he soon realized he wouldn't need to...

After Yi Yun had climbed seven or eight meters up the cliff face, he suddenly saw a faint light emanating from beneath a large rock not far ahead.

This light lingered in the air for a few seconds before suddenly flying towards him and directly merging into Yi Yun's chest.

Following this, the faint coolness of the Purple Crystal became much more apparent, and the energy spread along his blood vessels to his limbs and bones, making Yi Yun feel incredibly comfortable.

Undoubtedly, the Purple Crystal was absorbing energy.

"Could it be..."

Yi Yun scrambled over with quick movements, poked his head out, and looked under the large rock. Beneath the boulder, a fist-sized, fiery red fruit was clearly visible!

A Pill Fruit, a low-grade Purple Blood Realm medicinal ingredient. Judging by its appearance, it was at least twenty years old.

Yi Yun's heart leaped with joy. Just as he was about to pluck it, he noticed another light spot slowly emerge from the Pill Fruit's surface and fly into his chest!

A few seconds later, a third light spot, then a fourth.

More and more light spots appeared, while the luster of the Pill Fruit seemed to subtly dim, almost imperceptibly. If one didn't look closely, they wouldn't even notice.

The Purple Crystal was absorbing the energy essence from the Pill Fruit!