New Talent: Immortal Root Aptitude

Early the next morning.

The mountain wind carried a biting chill.

Walking along the mountain path, Zhou Shan looked back at Li Ru, who carried a Medicine Basket and carefully searched for spirit herbs, and felt somewhat uneasy.

However, once they had left the Camp's vicinity by several li, he did not dare let his guard down. He focused his attention and scouted ahead.

As a Body Cultivator, his divine sense was inferior to Li Ru's.

He was also less accurate than her at catching the traces of spirit herbs.

Inside the Medicine Basket, Zhou Ling gripped the bamboo frame with his tender little hands, looking calm and composed.

[Mountain Treasure Hunt] and [Crisis Reaction] were simply a match made in heaven in this Wild Mountain.

After activating his [Mountain Treasure Hunt] talent, Zhou Ling had tested it a little after getting up that morning. He could now roughly sense the aura of spirit herbs within a range of three or four zhang.

When they reached the side of a mountain hollow, a flash of inspiration suddenly struck Zhou Ling's mind.

"Ink Essence Grass!"

He sniffed, sensing the aura of an Ink Essence Grass with a respectable age not far away.

[Ink Essence Grass discovered. Mountain Treasure Hunt +1]

The surrounding undergrowth was relatively dense, and neither Zhou Shan nor Li Ru had noticed the spirit herb.

"Mother, I need to pee!"

A thought flashed through Zhou Ling's mind, and he hurriedly cried out.

If he directly told his mother that he had found the Ink Essence Grass, it would be far too shocking.

After all, he was not even one year old yet.

His parents might even suspect that he was the reincarnation of some great cultivator.

Hearing Zhou Ling cry, Li Ru hurriedly stopped.

Turning sideways, she lifted Zhou Ling out.

"Mother, I want to pee over there!"

Zhou Ling pointed in the direction where he sensed the spirit herb.

Li Ru gave it no further thought and smiled as she carried him over.

"Mother, Ink Essence Grass!"

After taking a few steps, Zhou Ling pointed at the grass and shouted in a childish, excited voice.

Li Ru froze for a moment. Then, following the direction of Zhou Ling's little hand, she cried out in surprised delight, "It really is Ink Essence Grass—and it's over six years old."

Zhou Shan was also drawn over. He hurried forward, bent down, and carefully picked the spirit herb.

After placing it into the Medicine Basket on his back, his eyes shone as he said excitedly, "Ling'er can seek herbs too! Just as expected of my old Zhou Family's blood!"

This Ink Essence Grass had both good age and quality, and could sell for forty or fifty Broken Spirit.

"What Herb Seeking? Our son needed to pee and found it by accident!"

Li Ru shot him a look and quickly set Zhou Ling down, undoing his waistband for him.

Yet after Zhou Ling peed for a while, only a tiny trickle came out.

Li Ru hurriedly pulled up his pants, unable to help laughing. "Looks like our son's luck is truly good. He can find spirit herbs just by taking a casual stroll."

"After we get back, Father will buy you pastries!" Zhou Shan praised him, his face brimming with joy.

He felt that Zhou Ling seemed to possess a sensitivity to the aura of spirit herbs that surpassed ordinary people.

For the time being, Li Ru did not put him back into the Medicine Basket. Instead, she carried him as the couple continued onward.

After traveling another dozen or so zhang, Zhou Ling sensed another spirit herb.

But this time, he unexpectedly sensed danger as well and did not dare alert his parents.

Instead, he urged his mother to leave quickly.

In this way, the family did not return to the Camp until dusk.

Both husband and wife wore bright smiles.

They had traveled toward the South Side today, and their gains were much better than yesterday's.

Although they had not found their target spirit herb, the Mystic Spirit Grass, their luck had been quite good.

They had found two First-Grade Low-Rank Purple Pattern Grass plants, worth around two Low-grade Spirit Stones.

Together with the other spirit herbs, their haul from this trip amounted to more than three Low-grade Spirit Stones.

"Ling'er's sense of smell seems far sharper than an ordinary child's. He can easily smell the aura of spirit herbs!"

"What kind of talent is that?"

Chewing on Beef Jerky, Zhou Shan spoke with delight and astonishment on his face.

"Maybe he grew up among medicinal herbs from such a young age, so there's something a little special about him!"

Li Ru stirred the Spirit Porridge in the Clay Bowl, her eyes brimming with laughter.

They had earned six Low-grade Spirit Stones in two days—this was a bumper harvest.

Over the past few months, each time Zhou Shan entered the mountains, even at his best, he had only earned ten Spirit Stones.

After setting aside six Spirit Stones for rent, what remained was barely enough to buy spirit rice.

They could only afford to eat Spirit Beast Meat once every half month.

Of course, the harvest was one thing. What made her happiest was the feeling that her son's talent seemed far from ordinary.

And with such talent, he would hold no small advantage when he entered the Dao Academy in the future.

Of course, Zhou Ling's talent was merely something the couple had secretly guessed at. They had no certainty in their hearts as to whether it was true.

But no matter what, it was already enough to make them happy.

After feeding Zhou Ling, she finally picked up her dry rations and began to eat.

In the blink of an eye, ten days passed.

As the weather gradually turned colder, Li Ru worried that Zhou Ling would catch cold, so she returned early.

Although they had only spent twelve days in the mountains this time, their harvest surpassed the usual by one or two times.

It was truly a bumper harvest.

Though they had not found any First-Grade Mid-Rank Spirit Herbs, they harvested one or two First-Grade Low-Rank Spirit Herbs nearly every day.

By a rough estimate, they could earn twenty or thirty Spirit Stones.

Zhou Ling was also rather doubtful. He did not know whether it was because this region lay on the outskirts of Black Mist, where the Spirit Herbs were naturally of lower grade.

Or because his current [Mountain Treasure Hunt] talent could only discover First-Grade Low-Rank Spirit Herbs.

[Mountain Treasure Hunt!]

[Effect: You have identified Spirit Herbs and treasures 50/100]

Looking at the prompt on the panel, Zhou Ling knew that he would have to identify more than a hundred Spirit Herbs and treasures before the [Mountain Treasure Hunt] talent could improve.

Zhou Shan, meanwhile, was overjoyed. From time to time, he would say with a chuckle, "My son has brought us good luck."

Not only had their harvest doubled or even tripled, but in twelve days, they had not encountered a single Demon Beast. That was a rare sight indeed.

In his eyes, this was the luck his son had brought him.

When they returned, their entire mood was completely different from last time.

Though they were tired, they laughed and chatted, without that oppressive gloom.

More than half a year passed again, and Zhou Ling was now nearly a year and a half old.

He could already run quickly, and he had grown quite a bit taller.

He was now level with the Medicine Basket.

His physique had also become Nutrition: Mediocre (1200/10000).

This was mainly thanks to the ample nutrition Li Ru provided him, as well as the changes brought by his Physique Evolution talent.

His physique was now no different from that of an ordinary child.

His comprehension, on the other hand, had improved only slightly: Comprehension (Mediocre 8/100).

Over the past year or so, it had only increased by seven points.

It was not that he did not want to improve it.

For his comprehension to increase, the [Stronger from Adversity] talent had to react.

Yet under Li Ru's attentive care these days, he had been living quite comfortably.

"Ru'er, this is an introductory cultivation book from the Dao Academy. It contains some cultivation script and terminology. Teach Ling'er when you have the time."

"I plan to have Ling'er take the Dao Academy's Spiritual Root test at the end of the year."

Inside the hall, Zhou Shan handed Li Ru a finely bound book and said with a smile.

During this time, under Li Ru's guidance, Zhou Ling had also learned quite a few of the characters used in this realm.

[Growth Talent, Immortal Root Aptitude: Can increase cultivation speed and comprehension. Requirement: Read fifty ancient books.]