Nine Turns Mountain Range

For Qin Yi's assignment this time, he needed to gather seven kinds of medicinal ingredients, ten portions of each.

Fire Salamander Bone, Thousand-Li Grass, Heavenly Maiden Bamboo, Emerald Wood, Twin-Tone Grass, Rhinoceros Horn Stone, and Deep Yin Water.

Among these materials, Fire Salamander Bone came from a kind of fire salamander. They would need to find this beast, kill it, and extract its spine.

Apart from that material, which required dealing with a beast, the others all had to be searched for across the mountains, relying on luck.

On previous assignments, these items would be allocated according to the number of people.

For example, Fire Salamander Bone was relatively difficult to obtain, so it would be assigned to the strongest person.

The others would split up to search for the remaining materials, each focusing on one or two kinds. If they came across other materials, they could gather those along the way too.

Although their team only had four people this time, fortunately, aside from Fire Salamander Bone, the other materials involved little danger.

After leaving the Famous Sword Sect, the Willow Leaf Boat crossed countless mountains and plains under Miao Xiufeng's control, finally landing in an area called the [Nine Turns Mountain Range].

"Senior Brother Qin, please divide up the work for this assignment."

Miao Xiufeng knew his place. Once they arrived, he let Qin Yi allocate their tasks.

After learning from Gu Yiyi how things had been arranged in the past, Qin Yi said to him, "How about this? There are only four of us, so leave the Fire Salamander Bone to me. Each of you three can search for two of the other materials. Sound good?"

Gu Yiyi agreed. "I'll look for [Thousand-Li Grass] and [Heavenly Maiden Bamboo]. I searched for them last time, so I know where to go."

Miao Xiufeng nodded too. "Then I'll look for [Emerald Wood] and [Twin-Tone Grass]. I know where those two are more likely to appear."

Qin Yi said, "Then the remaining [Rhinoceros Horn Stone] and [Deep Yin Water] will go to Junior Sister Xu. Any problems with that, Junior Sister Xu?"

As a reserved, introverted, and quiet girl, Xu Xinran naturally had no objections.

"I... can do that." She nodded.

Once the tasks were assigned, Miao Xiufeng was the first to leave.

When he left, the Willow Leaf Boat was handed over to Qin Yi.

Once packed away, the Willow Leaf Boat was only palm-sized, and Qin Yi put it in his pocket.

They had collected it from the Assignment Pavilion and would need to return it after completing the assignment. If they lost it, they would have to pay for it.

It was far from cheap.

As its name suggested, the Nine Turns Mountain Range was named for its many twists and turns. Not only were its mountain paths rugged, they were also exceptionally treacherous.

On top of that, the entire Nine Turns Mountain Range was shrouded in white mist, making sword flight impossible in the air above it.

Even with the Willow Leaf Boat in hand, they could not use it, because flying through the mist would leave them unable to see anything clearly either.

Thus, to find the assignment materials here, they could only climb the mountains on foot and search every corner for opportunities.

After Miao Xiufeng left, Xu Xinran also set off alone. This was not her first assignment either; perhaps she also knew where to find [Rhinoceros Horn Stone] and [Deep Yin Water].

Once the two of them had left, Gu Yiyi pointed in a direction and said, "Qin Yi, let's go too."

Qin Yi caught up with her in a few strides, then took her small hand in his while she was not paying attention.

"W-what are you doing?"

Gu Yiyi shyly tugged her hand, but failed to pull it free.

Her favorability toward Qin Yi was now at 90 points, which meant she liked him very much. Naturally, she would not refuse to hold hands.

It was just that no boy had ever held her hand before, so she was still a little shy.

"We're holding hands and walking together. There's so much mist in these mountains. I couldn't bear to let my junior sister face danger. If anything dangerous happens, remember to hide behind me, Junior Sister Yiyi."

Both shy and nervous, Gu Yiyi said, "W-who needs you to protect me... I... I've been here lots of times. Though it can sometimes be a little dangerous, the... the chances are very small, after all."

"It never hurts to be careful." Qin Yi held her hand tightly and simply refused to let go.

After they had walked together for a while, Gu Yiyi gradually came to accept the gesture.

For some reason, having a boy hold her hand actually brought a trace of sweetness to her heart.

"You have to go deep into the mountain range to find Fire Salamander Bone. It's the hardest material to obtain for this assignment," Gu Yiyi said.

"No rush. Since Fire Salamander Bone is difficult to get, let's help you find [Thousand-Li Grass] and [Heavenly Maiden Bamboo] first, Junior Sister Yiyi."

"Here, take this." Gu Yiyi suddenly reached into her pocket and pulled out a beast-hide map.

It depicted the shapes and descriptions of the various major materials found in the Nine Turns Mountain Range, along with their locations.

"In the past, it was quite easy to find materials here, but after a place has been harvested for too many years, its resources gradually run dry. The material locations marked here can only serve as a reference now. You can't take them as certain. But the map itself is very accurate. If you get trapped in the mist, you can use it to find your way out."

"Thank you, Junior Sister."

Qin Yi only glanced over the whole map a few times before he had more or less memorized the terrain and the appearances of the materials.

Since Gu Yiyi had been here more than once, she led the way this time.

They walked along the mountain paths for more than four hours before reaching a gorge.

A stream rushed down through it, and Thousand-Li Grass and Heavenly Maiden Bamboo could only grow along its banks.

Everywhere here was like a primeval forest. There were no paths through the mountain woods at all. Even if someone had hacked their way through last time, the forest recovered so quickly that weeds would soon overgrow the path.

Thus, they did not move quickly. There were also particularly large numbers of snakes, insects, rats, and ants in the forest, and strange ferocious beasts appeared frequently.

Though Gu Yiyi was a woman, she was not frail. With her past experience, whenever danger approached, she would repeatedly thrust out her blue-green longsword, using Sword Qi to keep the danger three meters away.

It took them nearly an hour to find their first stalk of [Thousand-Li Grass].

The grass grew in a crack in a rock and was difficult to spot without looking closely.

When Gu Yiyi was about to harvest it, Qin Yi stopped her. "When gathering medicinal herbs, you shouldn't take everything. Leave either some offshoots or some roots. That way, after some time, it might grow back. If you take the whole thing at once, naturally there'll be less and less in the future."

He carefully pinched off a section of the [Thousand-Li Grass]'s roots and left it in the soil, handing the rest of the [Thousand-Li Grass] to Gu Yiyi.

Gu Yiyi asked, "Will that really work?"

Qin Yi said, "Trust me. It definitely will."

"But it took us so long just to find one stalk. Won't it take several days to find all the materials?" Qin Yi asked.

Gu Yiyi nodded as though it were only natural. "Yes. Every time we go on an assignment, it takes at least four or five days before we can go back."

Qin Yi said, "Then does that mean we'll have to spend tonight out here in these remote mountains?"

Gu Yiyi said, "Yes."

Spend the night!

Qin Yi had originally been somewhat averse to this remote wilderness, but with Junior Sister Yiyi spending the night with him, he suddenly began to look forward to nightfall a little.