Heading to the Medicine Fields

He might find it somewhat troublesome to learn other secondary professions such as artifact forging, talismans, and formations, but learning alchemy would be easy.

The Su Family excelled most at cultivating spirit herbs. After years of steady development, they had also made progress in producing herbalists and alchemists.

They had even opened an Alchemy Pavilion in a cultivator market town under the Cloud Sword Sect, where they sold spirit herbs and medicinal pills.

"However, if you want to learn alchemy, it would be best to first become a herb apprentice in the Medicine Fields. Learn to identify spirit herbs, and once you have mastered that, you can take one of the Lineage's elder alchemists as your master." Su Yu was somewhat hesitant.

Leaving the Lineage for the Medicine Fields—although powerful members of the Lineage guarded the place—still carried more or less some safety risks.

Demonic beasts would also occasionally attack the Medicine Fields.

And in the shadows, they had to guard against the Lin Family causing trouble.

After hesitating briefly, Su Yu gritted his teeth and decided to go to the Medicine Fields as a herb apprentice anyway. Now was the best time to do so. He had plenty of free time every day and could not waste it.

Once he had learned enough, he would be able to study Alchemy Technique, which would benefit his future cultivation.

Compared to that, the slight danger of going to the Medicine Fields was nothing much. He could bear it.

Besides, becoming a herb apprentice would earn him another share of monthly resources.

Having made up his mind, Su Yu went to the Grand Elder and accepted a task to become a herb apprentice in the Medicine Fields. Grand Elder Su Mengshan smiled. "The Medicine Fields happen to be short-handed. Take this token, and I'll have someone bring you there to find your Uncle Changyu. He's an old herbalist. You definitely won't go wrong learning from him."

After receiving an identity token that allowed entry to and exit from the Medicine Fields' grand formation, Su Yu followed an elder at the sixth layer of Qi Refining to the Medicine Fields.

The Medicine Fields were not too far from Jiang City, but they were still several hundred li away, located amid a desolate range of mountains. They covered a full ten thousand mu.

However, due to the spiritual energy issue, although spirit herbs could be cultivated there, only relatively inexpensive first-grade spirit herbs could be grown. They could earn the Su Family some money and provide a foundation to stand on, but getting rich was impossible.

These Medicine Fields were the Su Family's most important foundation, protected by layers upon layers of great formations. Entering with the identity token, the view suddenly opened up before them, revealing several mountains and valleys shrouded in mist and clouds.

Su Yu gave a quiet cry of surprise. He discovered that the spiritual energy here in the Medicine Fields was actually denser than at the Su Family residence.

The Medicine Fields were vast, and there were quite a few members of the Su Family here. Apart from over a hundred cultivators, there were also several hundred ordinary clansmen and servants.

A large estate had been built halfway up a mountain, with several hundred small houses scattered throughout.

Su Changyu was a cultivator who had spent nearly thirty years in the Medicine Fields. Because his spiritual root talent was not very good and he could only barely cultivate, after decades, his cultivation was still merely at the third layer of Qi Refining.

For that very reason, he had chosen to remain in the Medicine Fields, where he was responsible for cultivating spirit herbs while training herbalists and herb apprentices for the Lineage.

When Su Yu met him, Su Changyu was busy in the Medicine Fields with three herb apprentices.

"Changyu, I've brought you a newcomer. His name is Su Yu, and from now on, he'll be a herb apprentice under you." After handing Su Yu over to Su Changyu, the elder who had brought him did not linger and soon left the Medicine Fields.

Su Changyu looked like a farmer. He was not tall, around seven chi, dressed in ordinary short robes. His skin was dark, his build sturdy, and his face honest and simple.

Looking at Su Yu's clean brocade robes, Su Changyu chuckled. "It's good that you've come. Young people need to learn a trade. You can't rely on the Lineage to support you for a lifetime. Besides, if you want to raise a wife and children, you'll need to work even harder."

The three herb apprentices beside him were all older than Su Yu. Even the youngest was already in his twenties and had been in the Medicine Fields for five or six years.

The oldest was already over thirty.

At that age, if he remained here, he would be fully qualified to serve as a herbalist in the Medicine Fields.

Herb apprentices in the Medicine Fields had only two paths. One was to stay and wait for the day they could stand on their own as herbalists.

The other was to leave and seek a chance to apprentice under an alchemist as an alchemy apprentice, perhaps becoming a proper alchemist one day.

However, such opportunities were few.

The three apprentices working nearby merely glanced at Su Yu, smiled, and nodded lightly in greeting before continuing with their work.

Su Yu bent forward in a respectful bow. "Teacher."

Su Changyu smiled and nodded. He took out a booklet and handed it to him. "This contains records of the spirit herbs cultivated in the Medicine Fields, including their medicinal properties, growth habits, and so on, as well as several spells needed for growing spirit herbs."

"Oh, right. What cultivation art do you practice?"

Su Yu replied, "The Wutong Greenwood Art, currently at the second layer."

Su Changyu's eyes lit up. "That's a good cultivation art. You've learned the Spirit Nurturing Art, right?"

Su Yu nodded. "I have."

Su Changyu said happily, "Then I'll give you half a month to memorize this booklet thoroughly. After that, I'll take you to cultivate spirit herbs."

The booklet was a good thing. After thanking Su Changyu, Su Yu was assigned an empty room in the Medicine Fields estate and temporarily settled down there.

Every day, aside from cultivating his cultivation art and Body Refining Technique, he memorized the knowledge in that booklet regarding the habits of all kinds of spirit herbs.

This was the foundation of a herbalist, and likewise the foundation of becoming an alchemist.

Besides knowledge about spirit herbs, several spells were recorded in the latter half of the booklet, including the Water attribute Spirit Rain Art, the Earth attribute Earth Spirit Art, the Wood attribute Spirit Nurturing Art, and another Wood attribute spell called the Spirit Infusion Art.

Its purpose was to use divine sense to nurture wood spirits, expanding the sensitivity and perceptive range of divine sense. Once practiced to a profound level, one could sense the growth conditions of nearby spirit herbs with a single thought.

The wood spirits nurtured by this spell could not only be used to cultivate spirit herbs, but could also serve as a warning system or help search for spirit herbs in the wilderness. Its usefulness could not be underestimated.

Moreover, this spell was also of great help in practicing Alchemy Technique and becoming an alchemist. It brought many benefits.

It was simply rather difficult to learn.

Of course, that was for other people. For Su Yu, it was merely a matter of how long it took to accumulate proficiency.

The moment Su Yu saw this spell, he decided that the Spirit Infusion Art would be the next spell he practiced.

To his delight, the spiritual energy in the Medicine Fields was denser than at the residence, and Su Yu's cultivation speed improved slightly.

On the night of Su Yu's third day in the Medicine Fields, several startled cries suddenly rang out from outside. "Demonic beasts! Quick, stop them! They're here to steal spirit herbs again!"

The commotion continued for quite a while before it finally died down. It seemed that two demonic beasts had been killed, but some had escaped.

At first, Su Yu thought that demonic beasts from outside had simply been drawn to the Medicine Fields and had wandered in by accident.

But a few days later, traces of demonic beasts appeared in the Medicine Fields again.

This time, he heard several senior brothers discussing it outside.

"They're here again. Why have demonic beasts been appearing so often lately?"

"I heard these demonic beasts are called Earth Rock Beasts. They're a kind of underground-dwelling, social demonic beast, and—"

"It's said that Earth Rock Beast colonies usually occupy Spirit Veins."

"No way. Could the rumors from before be true?"

"Most likely. Didn't Master say before that we weren't allowed to discuss this matter?"

"That would be wonderful. It's right not to discuss it. If it really is as rumored, then our Su Family might soar into the heavens in a single bound and surpass the Lin Family in one stroke."

Inside the room, Su Yu's heart skipped a beat.

Earth Rock Beasts?

He was familiar with these little demonic beasts. They resembled rats and were about the size of cats or dogs.

They excelled at digging tunnels and could burrow through either soil or rock.

They were a kind of social demonic beast he had often cleared out in the early stages of his cultivation game in his previous life. They lived around Spirit Veins, feeding on spirit stones or nearby rocks.

Therefore, for the safety of a Spirit Vein, Earth Rock Beasts needed to be cleared out regularly.

Judging from the current situation in the Medicine Fields, the Earth Rock Beasts should have only just appeared here. That meant—

Beneath the Medicine Fields, or somewhere nearby, there was a strong possibility that a first-grade Spirit Vein was hidden.

In other words, the lowest-grade Spirit Vein.

But even the worst Spirit Vein was still a Spirit Vein.

Neither the Su Family nor the Lin Family currently possessed a Spirit Vein as the foundation upon which to establish themselves and pass down their legacy.

If this news got out, would the Lin Family simply sit by and watch the Su Family monopolize the Spirit Vein?

The nearby cultivation forces and families might also come swarming at the scent of it.

When that happened, the Medicine Fields would become dangerous.

At that thought, Su Yu immediately became too restless to sit or stand.