After taking a day to rest at the Herb Gathering Hall, Ye Qin finished his meditation practice for the day. Feeling that his cultivation was progressing too slowly and growing a little restless, he left the Herb Gathering Hall's residence and wandered around Zhuqi County.
Looking at the bustling streets, Ye Qin felt a mixture of familiarity and strangeness, and couldn't help but sigh.
Ever since he had come to Zhuqi County and joined the Herb Gathering Hall, he had never really explored the town. Usually, he was either busy learning to identify and gather herbs or busy meditating and cultivating. He had never had the time to stroll through the streets.
First, he went to one of the largest money houses in Zhuqi County, the Jin Firm, and withdrew the more than one hundred and eighty Silver Leaves he had saved from gathering herbs over the past five or six years. For an ordinary household, this was quite a sizable sum. One Silver Leaf could be exchanged for a hundred copper coins, and ten copper coins were enough to buy an ordinary man a full day's meals in the county town. The whole sum was worth five years' worth of food for an ordinary man.
With the money tucked away in his robes, Ye Qin wondered what valuable things he could buy to increase his strength. He wasn't particularly concerned about the fight with an inner hall disciple in ten days. What he was most eager to find now was a Spirit Stone that could help him cultivate the Sitting-in-Forgetfulness Sutra and grow the little Dew Grass.
Ye Qin knew there was a trade market in the western district, where people from the martial world could buy and sell goods. There were also several decent jade shops in town that sold jade, but he didn't know whether they had the kind of Spirit Stone he needed.
With that in mind, Ye Qin headed for the trade market in the northwestern district.
As more outsiders from the martial world arrived in Zhuqi County, the number of martial artists trading at the market had also begun to surge. It was now early evening, and the whole market was bustling. Hundreds of martial artists had gathered, some sitting on the ground behind their stalls, others inspecting goods and haggling over prices.
Walking among them, Ye Qin didn't stand out. He was a little over sixteen, strong and healthy, with steady, powerful steps and a composed, keen gaze. He was hardly any different from the other martial artists.
With his strength having risen greatly over the past few years, Ye Qin no longer felt any awe toward those burly heroes and knights from the martial world.
There was still some time before the Medicine King Gang's Medicine Conference, so the true experts of the martial world had yet to arrive in Zhuqi County. Most of those at the market were second- or third-rate martial artists. There were no first-rate experts, and hardly anyone there caught his eye.
Ye Qin surveyed the stalls one by one, carefully picking through the wares. Most of them, however, did not interest him. There were broadswords, long swords, spears, bows and arrows, throwing knives, iron armor, soft inner armor, bracers, greaves, and long cowhide boots of every sort. They weren't too expensive, at several dozen Silver Leaves apiece, but they simply weren't what he wanted.
Now and then, he spotted a low-level martial arts manual at a stall. He could cultivate it, but unfortunately, it cost several Gold Leaves—he might as well buy a low-level manual from the Herb Gathering Hall's Secret Manual Room for just one Gold Leaf.
Besides, he had already outgrown low-level manuals.
The stalls also held all kinds of strange raw materials: metal ores used in smithing, black, dull-looking chunks of iron said to be meteoric iron, and all sorts of medicinal ingredients, including bear gall, rhinoceros horn, rhinoceros sinew, and tiger shinbones. Many stalls also had inferior medicines in pill bottles, such as Hemostasis Powder, Pain Relief Powder, and Golden Wound Medicine; a few had mid-grade medicines like Collateral Activating Powder; and some even had rare, high-grade medicines like Black Tendon-Mending Ointment.
Hemostasis Powder, Pain Relief Powder, and Golden Wound Medicine were obviously used for specific purposes. These inferior medicines all had fixed prices, and their costs were stable: one Silver Leaf per dose. A dose of the mid-grade Collateral Activating Powder cost ten Silver Leaves. High-grade medicines like Black Tendon-Mending Ointment were extremely rare, and had no listed price.
Ye Qin spotted a stall piled high with goods, where a bottle of Black Tendon-Mending Ointment was on display. His interest piqued, he went over to ask about it.
"Brother, how much for this Black Tendon-Mending Ointment?"
The stall owner was a dark-skinned, middle-aged man. Seeing Ye Qin ask the price, he immediately gave him a thumbs-up and praised him. "Young brother, you've got a sharp eye! This Black Tendon-Mending Ointment is a rare treasure for anyone who travels the martial world. If your hand or leg tendons are severed by an enemy's weapon in a fight, as long as you reconnect them within a day and apply this ointment, you can recover fully in two or three months, with no effect on your future training. If you want it, I'll give you a discount: one Gold Leaf per dose."
"What if the tendon was severed four or five years ago? Could it still be reconnected?"
Ye Qin asked.
The dark-skinned man's expression stiffened, and he hurriedly waved his hands. "What are you talking about? If the tendon was severed four or five years ago, not even an immortal could mend it. This medicine saves those who can be saved, but it can't save someone who's beyond saving. You don't look like you've severed a tendon, young brother!"
"Of course I'm not injured. A brother of mine injured a tendon in his lower leg, and it happened four or five years ago. If this medicine won't help, then forget it. There's no point in buying it."
"Hey, don't go, young brother! I've got plenty of other good things here, all essentials for traveling the martial world. I'm sure there's something you can use. How about a bottle of Collateral Activating Powder? It can activate the meridians throughout your body, clearing those blocked by blood stasis. Just ten Silver Leaves. Better safe than sorry—keep a dose on you, and you won't have to worry about your meridians getting blocked if you're injured."
"My meridians are in perfect shape. Why would I spend so much on Collateral Activating Powder I don't need?" Ye Qin shook his head and turned to leave, intending to look at other stalls.
"Don't go, young brother! I've still got good stuff here."
The dark-skinned man put on a pained expression and pulled a book about medicinal herbs from inside his robes.
"From the way you're dressed, you must be a disciple of the Herb Gathering Hall here in Zhuqi County. I have an Illustrated Guide to Rare Herbs that records dozens of exceptionally rare medicinal herbs, along with recipes for making medicines from them. You might find it useful."
"An Illustrated Guide to Rare Herbs, with dozens of exceptionally rare medicinal herbs?"
At that, Ye Qin stopped and couldn't help but laugh.
Could anyone in Ping Province have collected more herb guides than the Herb Gathering Hall of the Medicine King Gang? That would be a joke. Over the centuries, the Medicine King Gang had gathered countless herb guides from the martial world. It would be unbelievable if something wasn't recorded by the gang.
Even so, he turned back to the stall and took the Illustrated Guide to Rare Herbs from the dark-skinned man, then casually flipped through it. If he could find one or two herbs in the book that he hadn't seen before, he would buy it.
Ye Qin shook his head again and again as he read.
The herbs listed in it were indeed rare, but he had already seen them in the Herb Gathering Hall's herb guides. This Illustrated Guide to Rare Herbs was worthless.
He patiently kept flipping through the pages. When he reached the last few and saw a familiar herb illustrated there, his hand suddenly trembled almost imperceptibly. Then he quickly shut the Illustrated Guide to Rare Herbs.
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