The Vanishing White Radiance

Baili defines the basic function of the Purple Mansion (Floating Island) as "farming." He has also established a relatively comprehensive set of rules for the entire Purple Mansion system.

However, one person's ideas are ultimately not as numerous as those of a group. If brothers and sisters have any thoughts or suggestions regarding the functions of the Purple Mansion, feel free to post them and share your input to contribute to its refinement. If the ideas are good, they might be incorporated into the article. I believe the more such suggestions, the better.

Ye Qin considered for a long time and decided to devote more time to herb gathering and cultivation, using time to slowly fade the relationships between himself and his fellow apprentices. As long as enough time passed, whether it was resentment or grudges, they would eventually vanish without a trace.

Ye Qin submitted a request to Herbalist Wang, hoping to enter the mountains for three to five months or even longer before returning to the Herb Gathering Hall. This way, he could collect more herbs and avoid wasting too much time traveling back and forth.

Furthermore, he vaguely explained that he did not wish to contend with Yang Yicheng and Feng Xiao over anything.

Herbalist Wang was somewhat surprised.

There were many veteran herb gatherers at the Herb Gathering Hall who only returned to Zhuqi County once every six months or even a year. The vast majority of young herb-gathering apprentices could not endure such loneliness and would run to the county town every month to alleviate the boredom of gathering herbs at the local taverns. Even those young herb gatherers were unwilling to stay in the deep mountains for long, returning after a month or two.

Since Ye Qin wanted to settle his mind and gather herbs, Herbalist Wang naturally granted his permission.

Ye Qin shouldered his large herb basket, packed a full six months' worth of oil and salt, left Zhuqi County, and headed toward a region over a thousand miles away. The territory under the jurisdiction of Zhuqi County spanned over a thousand miles, filled with deep mountain gullies, treacherous peaks, and countless streams and brooks.

The places most frequently visited by the gatherers of the Herb Gathering Hall were within a range of two to five hundred miles, reachable within one or two months. Many remote, old gullies had never been visited by anyone from the Herb Gathering Hall.

Traveling further afield actually made gathering herbs more convenient. He might even be able to find top-quality herbs that were decades old.

Several days later, Ye Qin, panting slightly, climbed a steep mountain peak with a pickaxe in hand. He had visited this peak a year ago, where he had plucked a rare Dew Grass from a protruding rock on the back hillside and eaten a grey egg he had scavenged from an eagle's nest. He had even nearly perished under the sharp claws of a flock of Grey Eagles.

Every change in his life had stemmed from that adventure.

He had once searched through almost all the herb identification books in the Library Pavilion of the Herb Gathering Hall, but he had found no records of that little green grass. He had even specifically asked an experienced old herbalist, but that man had never heard of such a plant and did not believe that a grass capable of producing dew at high noon could exist in this world.

Because he did not want to risk gathering herbs there again, he had gradually forgotten about this place.

A year later, suddenly remembering the incident, Ye Qin decided to return and take a look. Since there had been one plant here once, there was a high probability of finding a second, or even more. For an herb gatherer, discovering a rare plant but being unable to identify it was a very frustrating thing.

Ye Qin reached the summit of the peak and, after half a day's effort, arrived beneath a giant boulder at the top.

Nothing had changed here; it looked almost exactly as it had when he left. Even the bones of the grass snake he had once cooked and eaten were still there, though the ashes from the pot he had used had been scattered by wind and rain, leaving only faint traces.

Ye Qin placed his large herb basket on the grass, found some wild game on the summit, and cooked it for a meal. Looking at the sun shifting westward, he saw it was already afternoon. It was not ideal to climb cliffs to gather herbs at this hour, as it would be easy to lose sight once darkness fell. It was better to rest early and set out first thing tomorrow morning.

He sat cross-legged beside the giant boulder on the summit and began to close his eyes to practice.

As usual, he first continuously circulated his internal energy through the major meridians, transforming the essence within his body into white light—the primordial energy mentioned in the Sitting-in-Forgetfulness Sutra.

Then, his consciousness sank into the floating island within the endless void, manifesting as a white ball of light.

He chased and absorbed the white light on the floating island, strengthening the energy of the light ball.

Ye Qin was already very proficient in this process. Every absorption, though the increase in energy was extremely limited, brought him a sense of refreshing joy. He drifted freely on the floating island, chasing after those wisps of white light.

As he grew more familiar with the floating island, Ye Qin gradually learned that the purple lightning in the endless void would not easily approach this island. Even if he encountered it by chance, as long as he hid within the protective light shield of the Life Primordial Spirit Stele, the purple lightning could not enter to hunt him down.

On this floating island, he was very safe.

After Ye Qin had "eaten" six wisps of white light, he was carefully searching for the final wisp of the day. He circulated his energy through seven major meridians daily, so he would have exactly seven wisps of white light each day.

It was very strange; he did not know where that wisp of light had drifted, as he could not find it in mid-air.

Even a sliver of meat is still meat. Back when he was wandering, Ye Qin had developed the habit of not letting any bit of food go to waste, and he had no intention of letting this one go.

Ye Qin drifted several feet in the air, carefully examining the undulating, barren rocky terrain of the floating island, which spanned nearly a mile, trying to find the trail of that wisp of white light. The floating island was primarily flat, but it also had some rocky hills.

Could that wisp of white light have hidden inside a rock crevice?

If it were in a rock crevice, it would be very difficult to find. There were many uneven rocks on the island, and he might spend half a day and still find nothing.

Ye Qin was not in a hurry to search; instead, he hovered in the air above the island to wait.

Under normal circumstances, even if a wisp of white light dove into a rock crevice, it would swim back out before long, allowing him to see it.

However, Ye Qin waited for a long, long time, but he did not see the wisp of white light emerge, which made him secretly anxious. After thinking for a moment, he immediately descended and drifted toward the crevices in the rock cluster, wanting to see what was going on.

There were too many rock crevices, making it very difficult to search.

Ye Qin darted in and out of numerous narrow rock crevices, poking his head in and looking around curiously. Some of these gaps were only half an inch wide, while others were just tiny holes. If he were not a small ball of light now, he would never have been able to enter. He rarely ventured into these barren, grey rock crevices because there was nothing there; if not for the sake of finding that wisp of white light, he would never have come here.

As he was drifting, he suddenly stopped, alert.

He sniffed hard.

An extremely faint fragrance, somewhat like the scent of herbs, and somewhat like the smell of moist dew in the grass at dawn—what was it? This scent was just like the smell of the herbs he had gathered in the forest that morning.

Ye Qin paused, quickly scanning his surroundings, but he did not see anything special.

He followed the scent as he drifted.

From a slightly greater distance, a few feet away, the scent became undetectable; he had to be very close to smell it.

After circling a few times in the rock crevices, the scent grew more intense.

Passing through a gap, suddenly, the view before Ye Qin opened up.

Five fresh, tender Dew Grass plants, each with a single leaf, each leaf tip hanging with a tear-like drop of dew, grew crisply on a small patch of grey rock. Even their roots were still clinging to a bit of soil.