Wild Mountain Tea

Early the next morning, Su Ye got up.

Over the past two or three months, he had gotten into the habit of rising early.

It had rained all night, and Su Ye planned to check on the vegetable garden. After all, there were still watermelons in it that he hadn't sold.

Su Ye arrived at the vegetable garden. The watermelons were still lying quietly on the ground, unharmed, but the creek was carrying nearly twice as much water as before, and a great deal of sand and soil had settled along its banks.

At the pool by the creek, a small tree that seemed to have been swept downstream had gotten caught. It was lush and green, and Su Ye walked over, intending to throw it away.

Su Ye came closer and took a careful look. The tree was a little over two meters tall, and its branches and leaves weren't particularly lush. He rubbed a leaf between his fingers, held it to his nose for a sniff, then put it in his mouth and chewed.

"What's this? A wild tea tree?" Su Ye said in puzzlement.

Su Ye had actually wanted to get some tea trees to plant in the Immortal Spirit Space for a long time, but he had never had the chance, so the idea had been put on hold.

He had heard that wild tea was a type of pu'er tea, but because the trees grew in the wild without anyone tending them, their yield was extremely low. The tea brewed from them tasted excellent and was even said to have a miraculous effect on cancer.

Su Ye looked around and saw no one. With a flash, he took the tea tree into the Immortal Spirit Space, dug a hole in a corner with a hoe, planted the tree, and watered it with spiritual energy water.

After leaving the Immortal Spirit Space, Su Ye went for another look around the creek, but he didn't find a second tea tree. He couldn't help shaking his head and sighing. "One is a little too few."

Then Su Ye looked up at Mount Jiuhua.

"I've heard there are jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards on the mountain. Could there be demonic beasts or something too?" Su Ye murmured.

Zhang Erhu had once told him that the village chief had encountered a tiger whose spiritual intelligence had just begun to awaken on Mount Jiuhua. In Su Ye's view, if that story was true, then even if the tiger wasn't a demonic beast, it wasn't far from becoming one.

"I'm not afraid of a tiger. I'm just worried there might be stronger demonic beasts in there. Even if that tiger has already advanced into a demonic beast, it's only at Qi Refining First Layer. I'm at Qi Refining Fifth Layer myself, at least," Su Ye muttered.

Ever since he had begun cultivating the Taihe Sixteen Grotto-Heavens, Su Ye's physical condition had become several times better than an ordinary person's. Now he could lift a stone weighing several hundred jin with one hand as easily as if it were play, though he had never revealed it.

Besides, Su Ye had also mastered several offensive and defensive spells.

"I'll only go in a little way. If there's danger, I'll retreat."

Su Ye was still worried that there might be some powerful demonic beast or something else in there. After all, there were rumors that a flood dragon had once appeared on Mount Jiuhua. The Su Ye of the past definitely wouldn't have believed it, but now... it was better to play it safe.

If I run into danger, I can also duck into the Immortal Spirit Space. It's just that I'll still be in the same spot when I come back out, Su Ye thought.

"Enough thinking. I'll just look around the outskirts and find a few tea trees. Once I have enough, I'll come back."

With that, Su Ye followed the creek up Mount Jiuhua.

"It's been pretty safe along the way. I haven't even seen a single venomous snake."

The peaks of Mount Jiuhua were linked one to another. As Su Ye followed the creek, its once-wide banks had given way to sheer cliffs. Water babbled through the mountain gully, with smooth boulders on either side.

How many years of erosion had it taken to form such a sight?

Towering trees lined both sides, their dense foliage blocking the sunlight that tried to reach the little gully.

Mosquitoes buzzed in the gully, but they clearly couldn't do anything to Su Ye.

Su Ye continued along the creek, walking he didn't know how far. Suddenly, he heard a sound coming from nearby.

"Oink~ oink."

Su Ye listened closely, then sprang onto a large rock and climbed up a vine into a large tree.

Su Ye focused his gaze and saw that a wild boar was foraging with several piglets.

The big boar had a sturdy, imposing body, stiff, sparse bristles, and short, thick legs that looked immensely powerful. Its small ears stood straight up, and its sharp tusks seemed to gleam with a cold light, as though it could deliver a fatal blow at any moment.

The piglets were no match for the big boar. They had no tusks, and their coats were striped.

Su Ye leaped down from the tree, then jogged over and stopped not far from the boars.

At that moment, the boars also spotted the uninvited guest and charged straight at Su Ye without further ado.

Su Ye clenched both fists and sank into a horse stance, his lower body as solid as a rock. Just as the boar was about to reach him, he smashed a fist into its snout.

Both of them retreated several steps. Su Ye shook out his right hand, which had been numbed by the impact.

The boar, meanwhile, shook its head, blood dripping steadily from both its nostrils.

The boar pawed at the ground with its hooves, then rushed at Su Ye again, surprisingly much faster than before. It seemed Su Ye's punch had thoroughly enraged it.

Su Ye showed no weakness either. He kicked off with both feet and flew into the air, then aimed a kick at the boar.

"Boom!!"

With a tremendous bang, Su Ye's kick sent the boar flying three or four meters. It landed on a huge rock with another tremendous crash.

Su Ye then walked over and gave the boar a beating with fists and feet. Blood flowed from its nostrils, its legs went limp, and it breathed out more than it breathed in. It clearly wasn't going to live.

As for the piglets, they kept ramming Su Ye's legs. He ignored them from beginning to end. Even if he stood still and let them butt him for days, he would be fine.

After a while, once he had confirmed that the boar was dead, Su Ye picked up its carcass and put it into his storage bag. Then he knocked out the piglets, tied up their legs with hemp rope, and tossed them into the Immortal Spirit Space.

After that, Su Ye went to the creek and washed his hands, then headed deeper into the mountains.

Along the way, Su Ye saw many strange flowers and plants whose names he didn't know, but he didn't pick them.

Su Ye followed the creek for another three or four kilometers before finally spotting a few wild mountain tea trees on a cliff.

The wild tea trees stood quietly on the cliff, swaying in the wind. There seemed to be signs of a collapse ahead. Clearly, the wild tea tree in Su Ye's vegetable garden had been swept away from here by the water.

Su Ye counted eight tea trees in total, large and small. The largest was already four or five meters tall, with lush branches and leaves. The smallest wasn't even as tall as Su Ye.

Su Ye took a hoe out of the Immortal Spirit Space, climbed up the cliff along a vine, and began digging.

Before long, he had dug up all eight tea trees. With the trees in hand, Su Ye flashed into the Immortal Spirit Space, dug several more holes beside the wild tea tree he had planted earlier, and planted them all. Only after watering them with spiritual energy water did he leave the space.

"Huh? What's that?"

As soon as Su Ye came out of the Immortal Spirit Space, he happened to see a wondrous sight: a faint light flashed inside a stone cave halfway up the mountain.