Chapter 23: Moonlit Cliff Grass

  Outside of the spiritual realm, it is basically an unsuitable place for cultivators to practice, and these places are generally referred to by cultivators as "impoverished remote areas". The "poverty" referred to here does not refer to poverty in terms of wealth, but rather refers to a lack of spiritual energy.

  Li Wenjun sighed depressingly, if he continued to cultivate in the county seat of Sanshan County, he would never achieve anything in his life. By the time he was about to die, having skills like Lao Dao's would be considered very good. He had to think of a way to change this unfavorable situation for him.

  Li Wenjun's first thought was to leave Sanshan County and search for a spiritual place. However, it's easy to think about but hard to do. Not to mention the slim chance of finding an unoccupied spiritual place, even if he could find one, who knows how much time would be spent and how many life-and-death trials would be experienced? He hasn't even crossed the threshold of cultivation yet, and once he encounters a black-striped giant python or other cultivators, he'll undoubtedly die.

  For the time being, Li Wenjun did not have the strength to search for a spiritual place, so he turned his attention to other methods.

  "In the Miscellaneous Discourse on Cultivating Immortality", it is said that there are many methods for absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, such as alchemical elixirs, crystal stones, the flesh and blood of demonic beasts, spirit grasses and fruits from previous years, etc., which can all rapidly increase a cultivator's cultivation speed.

  At the back of "Changchun Gong", there are records of two kinds of Dan medicine formulas, one called Juqi San and the other called Jinchuang San. The former can increase the cultivation speed of the cultivator, while the latter is a healing medicine.

  Thinking of the Dan medicine, Li Wenjun immediately thought of those few bottles of Dan medicine that he had obtained from Lao Dao. He hastily took them out and opened each one to observe. Except for one bottle of Dan medicine that was somewhat consistent with the description of Jin Chuang San - but even this, he didn't dare to be 100% sure it was Jin Chuang San - the other few bottles of Dan medicine did not match the description of Ju Qi San at all. What they actually were, Li Wenjun couldn't judge.

  Li Wenjun had no choice but to put away all the elixirs, it seemed that he wanted to continue using the old Taoist's legacy, but that was impossible, and he could only rely on himself to think of a solution.

  After sitting for a short while, Sun Jianing's voice came from outside the house. During this time, the Sun family often invited Li Wenjun to go over and have dinner with them.

  Upon hearing Sun Jianing's cry, Li Wenjun suddenly thought that the Sun family were hereditary medicine collectors, and San Shan County was surrounded by three mountains. There were many wild medicinal herbs on the mountain, and there had been cases of passing cultivators buying medicinal herbs from certain medicine collectors. This suggests that in these three mountains, perhaps hidden are medicinal herbs capable of refining Gathering Qi Powder.

  Thinking of this, Li Wenjun hastily went with Sun Jianing to the neighboring Sun's house.

  After dinner, Li Wenjun asked about the rumor of the immortal buying medicine, and he mainly asked which of the three mountains this rumor occurred in.

  Sun Baicao advised Li Wenjun a couple of sentences, telling him not to be overly optimistic, but seeing Li Wenjun's determined attitude, he still told him that the rumor occurred at Wufeng Mountain.

  Li Wenjun's understanding of medicinal herbs was basically zero, after such a long time of contact, he knew that the people in Sun's family were relatively honest and reliable, so he simply asked again about the situation of several medicinal herbs needed to configure Qi Xuan San.

  Sun Baicao mistakenly thought that Li Wenjun had taken an interest in the profession of medicine collector, and he secretly sighed. He had always believed that Li Wenjun should take the imperial examination path, who knows, maybe one day he would get a government position.

  Sun Baicao didn't persuade Li Wenjun again, but instead let Sun Jianing take out a set of worn-out books. This was a thick book written with a brush pen, recording various experiences accumulated by generations of medicinal herb collectors in the Sun family. It also included records of various medicinal herbs they had collected, including the most likely places where these herbs would appear, what to pay attention to when collecting them, and so on.

  These were the Sun family's unspoken secrets, and Sun Baicao showed them to Li Wenjun without reservation. This was a great favor. Sun Baicao also intentionally repaid the debt of gratitude for sending messages and saving people.

  Li Wenjun carefully flipped through it and was delighted to find that the seven herbs required for the Gathering Qi Powder, as well as a medicine guide, were all recorded on it. He asked Sun Jianing to bring over pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, then began transcribing them. Out of caution, he copied down several more herbs.

  "Wen Jun, if you want to go up the mountain to pick herbs, let Jianing accompany you." said Sun Baicao.

  Li Wenjun politely declined Sun Baicao's kindness, saying: "No need, Uncle Sun. Let Jianing take care of you at home instead. You can't leave people by your side either. I'm not really going to the mountains to pick herbs, just a little curious."

  Sun Baicao sighed and didn't say anything more.

  After Li Wenjun left, Sun Baicao asked Sun Jianing to send a set of medicinal tools to Li Wenjun, and then asked Sun Jianing to recopy the book that recorded the medicinal herbs, preparing to give it to Li Wenjun after finishing the copy.

  The next day, Li Wenjun stuffed enough food, water, fire starters, pickles and other items into the bundle.

  Now he knew that it was a treasure that could store things, called a storage package. The internal space of this storage package was not very large, and about half of the Eight Immortals table could be stuffed in.

  Everything was ready, he put the medicine basket on his back, sent the big dog to Sun's house, and asked Sun's family to take care of it for two days. Then, Li Wenjun rushed straight to Wufeng Mountain without looking back.

  By the time it was almost noon, Li Wenjun climbed to the halfway point of Wufeng Mountain and met Wang Liehu again.

  Now, it's the Mid-Autumn Festival season, and the weather has cooled down a bit. Wang Liehu is wearing a single layer of clothing with his chest exposed, sitting in the courtyard, making stone arrows for himself. He breaks stones into pieces, selects sharp-edged ones, polishes them slightly, ties them to a relatively straight branch or shrub with a rope, and then fixes feathers like chicken feathers to the other end of the branch. In this way, a stone arrow is made.

  When he saw Li Wenjun, Wang Liehu greeted him warmly. Upon learning that Li Wenjun was going to climb the mountain alone to pick herbs, he first expressed his desire to follow Li Wenjun up the mountain. After Li Wenjun declined politely, he then pulled Li Wenjun to have lunch at his home. During lunch, Wang Liehu shared some of his hunting experiences with Li Wenjun, mainly about what to do when encountering wild beasts on Wufeng Mountain.

  For example, if you encounter a wolf, don't panic at all. First, see if there's an opportunity to escape. If there is, be sure to escape. If not, then think of ways to fight the wolf.

  Climbing a tree is not an effective way to avoid wolf attacks. Some wolves have excellent jumping ability and can easily jump up to the lower branches of trees, where they can bite you. More importantly, wolves are extremely patient wild animals. It's foolish to try to outlast them by staying in the tree, waiting for them to leave.

  Wang Liehu's words to Li Wenjun were all his own experiences, precious lessons summed up with life and blood. Li Wenjun listened attentively, remembering them in his heart.

  After finishing lunch, Li Wenjun bid farewell to Wang Liehu. As he was about to leave, he took out a few copper coins as payment for the meal, but Wang Liehu refused to accept them.

  Bidding farewell to Wang Liehu, Li Wenjun continued up the mountain to find his medicinal herbs.

  Wufeng Mountain is over a hundred miles in circumference, and relying solely on his legs, he wants to measure the entire mountain. Without one or two months of time, it's simply an impossible task. In such a large mountain, looking for the few herbs and medicine guides needed to refine the Qi Gathering Powder, the difficulty can be imagined. Especially since Li Wenjun had no experience in searching for and collecting herbs before, the difficulty has increased by several degrees.

  The difficulty of collecting medicinal herbs far exceeded Li Wenjun's expectations, and in the blink of an eye, he had been in the mountains for over a month. The supplies he had brought with him were consumed more than half a month ago.

  During this time, he relied on collecting wild fruits and hunting small animals for a living. There are many wild fruit trees such as mountain walnuts and sour jujube trees on Wufeng Mountain, and now it's just autumn, so it's not hard to find something to eat, and water is even less of a problem, with several mountain springs on Wufeng Mountain.

  To ensure safety and prevent poisoning, Li Wenjun always chooses wild fruit trees that have small animals picking fruits or mountain springs with fish or small animals drinking water.

  This was also what Wang Liehu repeatedly reminded him of. In the book that Sun Baicao showed him, there were similar records.

  In the month or so that Li Wenjun had been staying on the mountain, he had made some gains. He had already collected six of the several herbs and medicine guides needed to refine the Gathering Qi Powder, but was still missing one herb - Wang Yue Cliff Grass.

  The Moon Cliff Grass is quite magical, it only grows on the cliff walls that can be illuminated by moonlight. During the day, its branches and leaves will shrink, making it difficult to see. Only on nights with a full moon will it stretch out its branches and leaves, and the more moonlit it is, the more its branches and leaves will spread out. This is the best time to find the Moon Cliff Grass.

  For this, Li Wenjun risked his life every night, running to the side of the cliff, lying on the mountain and looking down, hoping to find a trace of Wangyueyancao, but for more than a month, he hadn't seen even one plant. As for Yao Yin, Li Wenjun didn't see any shadow of it either.

  The medicine guide required for the refining of Gathering Qi Powder must be a spiritual grass that is over 100 years old. Such spiritual grasses are also the targets that herbalists like to search for, and once found, they can be sold at a good price. Wufeng Mountain has long been searched by herbalists, and the spiritual grasses that are exposed in plain sight have already been picked clean. Only in some places that people don't notice may there still be a possibility of finding them. Of course, places that people don't notice may not necessarily be suitable for the growth of spiritual grasses.

  As the weather gets colder and colder, it will soon be winter. Before winter arrives, Li Wenjun must leave Wufeng Mountain. Once winter sets in, there is a possibility of snow at any time, heavy snow blocking the mountain, making it difficult to find food, he may starve to death; The road is slippery and steep, he may fall to death; The weather is cold and frozen, he may be frozen to death, anyway, staying on the mountain in winter is not a good idea.

  Li Wenjun is preparing to spend a few more days on the mountain, and if he still can't find Wangyueyan grass, he will have to go down the mountain. He can only come back up the mountain again next spring.