A blue-green light shone from Little Qing Yi, carrying a faintly flickering Intent of Plants and Trees.
Utterly unaware, Little Qing Yi stepped into the mountain forest, gripping a firewood cleaver tightly in one hand as she carefully searched among the trees for the medicinal herbs she needed.
She had read many books on plants and trees and knew some of their properties, as well as the kinds of places where these medicinal herbs grew.
Some grew beside water, some on rock faces. Some favored the shade and grew beneath jumbled rocks, while others favored sunlight and grew where no trees sheltered them.
Little Qing Yi kept searching the mountain forest for the herbs she needed. The sound of a flowing stream reached her ears, and she immediately followed it.
Sure enough, a medicinal herb grew beside a huge rock on the riverbank.
Little Qing Yi carefully approached the huge rock and reached out to pick the herb, only for her foot to slip unexpectedly, sending her tumbling into the stream.
The streambed was covered in pebbles. Little Qing Yi fell onto the stones and scraped the skin off her knee.
Crimson blood flowed downstream with the water. Little Qing Yi merely glanced at her knee, then slowly rose without a word, climbed onto the huge rock once more, and picked the herb.
There were no complaints, no words of pain... After picking the herb, Little Qing Yi silently turned to continue her search.
Only her drenched clothes kept dripping water, tinged with a trace of crimson.
Like a little grown-up, she silently shouldered that village's hope...
Only the hand gripping the firewood cleaver trembled uncontrollably, as though telling of her pain.
Little Qing Yi did not gather a large quantity of herbs in one go. She feared the villagers