Eagle Cliff

According to the regulations of the Herb Gathering Hall's Secret Manual Room, once a Herb Gathering Apprentice is promoted from a Herb Gathering Apprentice, they are permitted to obtain a second secret manual.

Ye Qin recalled this matter. Before setting out to gather herbs, he made a special trip to the Library Pavilion's Secret Manual Room, hoping to find an external martial art or movement technique that offered offensive power to enhance his safety and strength.

The young guard there informed him that while a Herb Gathering Apprentice could indeed take a second manual, they no longer enjoyed the free access granted to Herb Gathering Apprentices; instead, they had to pay to acquire one.

The prices varied by the grade of the manual. One gold leaf could secure a low-grade manual, while intermediate manuals cost ten or more gold leaves, and high-grade manuals required thirty to forty gold leaves or more.

The young guard even took the initiative to recommend several manuals, such as the Mad Dragon Palm, priced at seventeen gold leaves, which boasted immense power when wielded by a master with internal energy. There was also the Cloud Spirit Thirteen Sword Arts, a high-lethality sword technique costing twenty gold leaves. Both were suitable for a Herb Gathering Apprentice to learn.

Upon hearing the prices quoted by the young guard, Ye Qin stood stunned for a long while.

One gold leaf for a single low-grade manual?

He only earned five silver leaves per trip into the mountains; it would take at least twenty trips, nearly two years, just to earn that much. Twenty gold leaves... he would have to work for free for over twenty years. This manual shop was truly black-hearted.

Helpless, Ye Qin could only shoulder his herb basket, leave the county town, and honestly head deep into the mountains, abandoning the thought of learning a high-level martial art. He thought to himself that in a couple of years, once he had saved up a few gold leaves, he would just learn one or two low-grade internal energy or movement techniques, and that would suffice.

More than ten days later, Ye Qin appeared on a cliff atop a mountain peak in a deep valley hundreds of miles away, his back laden with an herb basket and his face drenched in sweat. It had taken him nearly two hours just to climb this peak, though fortunately, he had managed to gather several herbs along the way worth a few copper coins, so the time hadn't been entirely wasted.

Ye Qin had gradually discovered that gathering herbs alone allowed him to collect far more than when he traveled in a group of five.

By himself, he only needed to gather an average of sixteen or seventeen copper coins' worth of herbs per day to complete his monthly quota of five silver leaves' worth of herbs. Of course, excluding the five days spent traveling there and the five days returning, he actually needed to gather about twenty-five copper coins' worth of herbs during the twenty days in between.

If five people traveled together, they would have to gather an average of eighty-three copper coins' worth of herbs every day. Excluding the five days for the journey there and back, they would need to gather a staggering one hundred and twenty-five copper coins' worth of herbs during the twenty days in between, which was extremely difficult.

Because the amount of herbs along any given path was limited, having too many people in a group naturally meant there wasn't enough to go around.

Conversely, traveling alone made gathering herbs much easier.

However, there were disadvantages to go along with the benefits.

While walking through the deep mountains and old forests, Ye Qin inevitably encountered jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards that would relentlessly pursue him. One or two were manageable, and if he steeled his heart, he could hack them down. But groups of three or five were troublesome.

Although Ye Qin carried a wood-chopping knife for protection, he dared not fight a pack of wolves, so he could only run for his life. He wasn't particularly fast, but by climbing mountains and wading through streams without stopping, he managed to tire out the pursuing jackals and shake them off.

He wasted quite a bit of time on the road just to avoid these predators.

He had climbed to this cliff on the mountain peak specifically to avoid a pack of jackals in the valley below. Even if there were snakes or eagles on the cliff, they were easier to deal with than a pack of jackals. Moreover, this cliff stretched for several miles, enough for him to search for herbs for several days.

Ye Qin found a giant boulder on the mountaintop that could provide shelter from the wind and rain, and he set up camp beneath it. He put down his herb basket, water skin, cloth bag, small pot, and bags of oil and salt.

He then found a grass snake in the crevices of the rocks on the summit, chopped off its head, and cooked a delicious pot of snake soup. He enjoyed a hearty meal to restore his expended energy.

After resting for a short while, Ye Qin grabbed his wood-chopping knife and shouldered two bundles of rope, beginning to search for herbs all over the peak. It was quite fruitful; in less than half a day, he found over a dozen herbs on the summit, worth at least forty or fifty copper coins.

After two or three days of work, Ye Qin had searched the entire mountaintop within a range of several miles, harvesting all the mature herbs that had several years of medicinal potency. As for the immature ones, he didn't touch a single one. It was a rule among herb gatherers to never touch those that weren't ready. The foolish act of draining the pond to catch all the fish was a major taboo in the herb-gathering trade. The appraisers at the Herb Gathering Hall wouldn't accept herbs that lacked sufficient age, anyway.

After searching the entire summit, Ye Qin had no choice but to start taking risks and head to the cliff face to gather herbs. He could even see herbs growing on the cliff from the top, and it would be a great pity not to harvest them.

The next morning, after everything was prepared, Ye Qin tied his two bundles of thick and thin ropes securely to a large tree and a giant boulder on the summit. He then tied the thin rope firmly around his waist before slowly beginning his descent along the rear cliff face of the mountain.

There were eagles on the mountain, and these beasts often viewed rock-climbing herb gatherers as threats to their nests and would attack them.

Ye Qin had been prepared for this; he had spent half the previous night weaving wild grass into a camouflage suit. Wearing it, he moved slowly, carefully avoiding the eagles while occasionally reaching out to pluck a few herbs growing sparsely on the cliff face.

By midday, he had reached the middle of the rear cliff. This was a protruding section of the cliff, and a few feet below his feet was a ledge that could support a person. There were clearly several eagle nests on the cliff wall there. Around the nests, a few herbs seemed to be growing.

Ye Qin only glanced at them without looking closely, hesitating over whether he should continue downward.

It would be very troublesome if he were discovered by these sharp-beaked, sharp-clawed beasts. They would pester you relentlessly all day, constantly attacking with their talons. It was especially difficult now that he was hanging halfway down the cliff, where his movements were restricted and it was hard to counterattack.

However, the eagles had all left their nests, so it was temporarily safe. If he could gather a few more herbs, he would complete his task for the day and could have a good rest in the afternoon.

Ye Qin looked toward the protruding cliff and carefully identified the herbs there to see if they were worth the risk.

Suddenly, he was slightly startled.

He saw a solitary little green grass at the edge of the platform. It looked very fresh, with only a single leaf, upon which a clear dewdrop condensed, refracting the sunlight. It was high noon, and all the other wild grasses had long since withered under the sun, so how could there still be dew? Yet this little grass was strange; it looked as if it had just emerged in the morning, completely unaffected by the scorching sun.

Over the past few years, Ye Qin had learned to identify at least a thousand types of common herbs. Even if he couldn't identify the specific species, he could roughly determine its grade. He didn't recognize this little grass, but judging by its quality, it was at least a rare-grade plant. He just didn't know if it could be used as medicine.