Returning to the County Seat

During the time he spent living in seclusion, alone in the deep mountains and forests, cultivating.

For the first month, eating just one small Dew Grass each day left his entire body's meridians swollen with pain, as if they were about to split. He could barely endure it. Still, he gritted his teeth and bore it. His cultivation speed that first month was ten times what it had been before.

As his cultivation of the technique deepened and the little glowing orb gradually brightened, his meridians began to grow stronger, too.

By the second month, he could just manage to eat two stalks a day—twenty times as much as before.

By the third month, he could force himself to eat three stalks of small Dew Grass every day.

Each month, he managed to add another stalk, and his cultivation progressed at an astonishing pace.

In the first ten days of the fifth month, he completed the first level of Sitting and Forgetting Selflessness, a level that should have taken ten years to cultivate. The thumb-sized glowing orb had grown twice as bright. Before, it had been as faint as a wisp of smoke, as if it might vanish at any moment. Now it had thickened considerably and was no longer frighteningly dim.

Ye Qin also felt as though his five senses had suddenly awakened, and the world around him had become extraordinarily vivid.

To his amazement, everything before his eyes had grown so bright. Every movement within a radius of several yards, whether he saw it or not, was almost entirely within his grasp. He had never experienced this kind of control before.

His ears twitched. He could hear a cricket lurking in the grass more than a dozen paces away, making a faint chirring sound. He could also hear insects buzzing past within several yards, their wings beating. His eyes were as clear and bright as if washed by a mountain spring. He could make out the veins of leaves on an old tree and every strand of a spiderweb. His nose could pick up the faint scent of flowers dozens of paces away, as well as the rich, damp smell of the forest.

Ye Qin's heart stirred. He abruptly turned to look several yards to his left. A silver-ringed viper lay perfectly still, glaring at him with venomous eyes. After watching him for a while, it slid into the grass and a crack between the rocks, trying to escape.

Silver-ringed vipers could be used in medicine. As if driven by some unseen force, Ye Qin habitually picked up a pebble and flicked it away. With a sharp snap, the pebble shattered the viper's skull several yards away, and it crumpled to the ground.

After flicking the pebble, Ye Qin froze, staring in amazement at his nimble hands.

A strength he had never felt before seemed to fill his body. He tried out some basic attacks—punches, palm strikes, kicks, and sweeping kicks—and found himself astonishingly quick, powerful, agile, and precise. When he tested his speed, he could throw dozens of punches in the blink of an eye.

Even a drop of water falling from a treetop could be sliced by his fists into ten smaller droplets in an instant. His attacks might not be especially powerful, but his reflexes were astonishingly fast. Even without having learned any martial arts, he now had some ability to protect himself. When he jumped from a treetop several yards high, his body felt light and nimble, and he landed without a sound. The effect was nearly as good as ordinary lightness skills.

He was sure that if he picked up a woodcutter's hatchet now, he could trade a few moves with the wandering heroes he had seen before.

Ye Qin was delighted. For the first time, he felt that the Sitting-in-Forgetfulness Sutra wasn't as useless as he had imagined. It had some special effect on the body. He wondered what would happen if he completed all three levels of the Sitting and Forgetting Selflessness technique.

Over these four or five months, Ye Qin had also gathered some ordinary medicinal herbs in the surrounding mountains, in addition to cultivating, to complete the Herb Gathering Hall's collection tasks.

Afterward, Ye Qin began cultivating the second level of Sitting and Forgetting Selflessness. It required twice as much Dew Grass as the first level. In other words, he would need twice as much Dew Grass to complete it.

But he discovered, to his dismay, that he had almost run out of Cyan Rock.

Over the past four or five months, he had consumed a great deal of Dew Grass, using up a large piece of Cyan Rock every day to cultivate it. As the days passed, the big pile of Cyan Rock stored in his Purple Mansion was quickly used up. Only a small pile of Cyan Rock and a little piece of exceptionally pure Cyan Rock Marrow remained.

Without Spirit Stones to supply it, he could no longer cultivate Dew Grass, and his cultivation progress would have to stop there.

Helpless, Ye Qin could only search the deep mountains and forests for Spirit Stones like Cyan Rock. But Dew Grass and Cyan Rock were both exceedingly rare medicinal herbs and stones. How could they be easy to find?

The piece of Cyan Rock halfway up Gray Eagle Peak had long since been completely dug out by him.

Ye Qin spent more than half a month searching the mountains and forests, but found no spiritual object that he could move into his Purple Mansion. Instead, he wore himself out. He had to use his spiritual sense to keep trying to move different plants and stones into his Purple Mansion, to see whether he could find anything like small Dew Grass or Cyan Rock. Using his spiritual sense this way was extremely taxing and could also damage his vital energy.

After more than half a month, Ye Qin was thoroughly disheartened and gave up on searching ordinary plants and stones for rare spiritual objects. It seemed that small Dew Grass and Cyan Rock were both things one could only find by chance. Zhuqi County covered more than a thousand miles, with countless remote mountain gullies. Where could he possibly find such rare things?

He had been away for nearly half a year, and his large herb basket was already full of ordinary herbs. Ye Qin decided to return to Zhuqi County first and turn in his collection tasks, then spend the second half of the year searching for Cyan Rock in the perilous peaks scattered across the region.

Ye Qin walked very quickly. Ten days later, he appeared at Zhuqi County, five or six hundred miles away, with his large herb basket on his back.

On this return to Zhuqi County, Ye Qin was surprised to find many unfamiliar-looking martial artists in town. Heroes and heroines had gathered in groups at the courier stations, restaurants, and inns. Many wore distinctive insignia belonging to various gangs. During the three or four years he had lived in Zhuqi County, he had never seen so many martial artists from outside gangs in town.

What was going on?

Ye Qin felt vaguely uneasy and quickened his pace toward the Herb Gathering Hall. Fortunately, everything inside and outside the hall was as usual. The apprentices and disciples were as busy as ever, which put him somewhat at ease.

Ye Qin first went to the herb appraisal office in the inner hall and handed over all the herbs he had gathered. In return, he received a reward of ninety Silver Leaves. On average, he had earned eighteen Silver Leaves a month, more than three times the minimum quota.

Afterward, Ye Qin went to pay his respects to his master, Herbalist Wang. It was something he always did whenever he returned to the Herb Gathering Hall.

The Herb Gathering Hall had a strict hierarchy. As a disciple, he had to regularly report his whereabouts to his master and receive his instruction and guidance.

Herbalist Wang was very pleased when he learned how much Ye Qin had gathered over the past six months. Among the twenty or thirty herb-gathering apprentices who had joined the Herb Gathering Hall at the same time as Ye Qin, this result ranked above average. If he maintained this level and worked a little harder, then as long as he didn't die, he would have a good chance of becoming a Herb Gathering Artisan in five or six years.

Ye Qin chatted with Herbalist Wang for a few moments, then asked his master why there were so many martial artists in Zhuqi County.

Only then did Ye Qin learn from Herbalist Wang that a major event had taken place in Zhuqi County. Medicine King Gang, the owner of the Herb Gathering Hall, planned to hold a grand trade fair for medicines and medicinal herbs in Zhuqi County in the second half of the year, and had invited all the major gangs throughout Ping Province.