Chapter 24: Risking One's Life to Pick Medicine

  Sorry about that, everyone. I forgot to upload it at noon and just remembered now.

  Li Wenjun had thought of buying several medicinal herbs, including Wangyueyancao, from Sun Baicao. When he was copying the data of Wangyueyancao and other medicinal herbs at Sun's home, he asked Sun Baicao in a roundabout way.

  Sun Baicao told him that the several herbs he had inquired about were extremely rare in Wufeng Mountain, and it was possible that they might not even encounter one plant in a year or two. Even if other herb collectors had them, wanting to buy them would definitely be a sky-high price, without tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of silver coins, it's simply impossible to buy.

  Not to mention whether he can gather all the herbs from the medicine collector, even if he can, it will definitely cost a lot of silver coins. By the time he gathers all the herbs, he will be left with almost no silver coins. He still needs to eat and live, so he must keep some silver coins for himself. Moreover, by doing this, there is an unavoidable risk that will attract attention to him, and if he accidentally summons a thief, he will have nowhere to cry.

  With a stone, Wenjun cracked open several walnuts and peeled off the hard shell with great effort. He looked around for the path forward. The weather was fine today, sunny and breezy, and it was approaching the 15th day of the lunar month, so tonight would definitely be a moonlit night, which was an excellent opportunity to search for the Moon Viewing Cliff grass. He had planned to search for the Moon Viewing Cliff grass several more times in the next few days, and if he couldn't find it, he would have to head down the mountain.

  As the sky was about to darken, Li Wenjun found a cliff and spread a piece of felt on the ground. He then lay down at the edge of the cliff, poking his head out over the edge, observing the plants growing on the cliff face.

  Li Wenjun forcibly memorized the location, size and shape of these plants. In this way, if there is a Wangyue Cliff grass on this cliff, he can lock it in the fastest speed by comparison.

  Lying on the edge of a cliff is not an easy thing.

  Once the rocks on the cliff edge fall off, he will be smashed to death. The wind here is usually quite strong, and if you're not careful, you might also be blown down, which would still be fatal. Moreover, this kind of thing is dull and tedious, making it easy to doze off, and the danger of falling asleep on the cliff edge goes without saying.

  Li Wenjun thought of many ways to avoid risks, he usually looked for trees or huge rocks and used ropes to tie himself up, preventing him from falling off the cliff. In this way, even if he fell asleep or the rocks fell, at least he wouldn't fall down.

  However, not every cliff edge has trees or boulders that can be used to secure himself. At this time, Li Wenjun would take a wild chili pepper he had inadvertently discovered on the mountain, bite into it, and rely on its intense spiciness, which made him feel like his mouth was about to catch fire, to stay awake for a long time without dozing off.

  The sky darkened, and the nearly full moon rose into the sky. Li Wenjun's eyes widened as he stared at the plants on the cliff. He could clearly see the plants within ten zhang of the cliff, a distance that far exceeded ordinary people's vision. However, cliffs were generally high and deep, with heights of over a hundred zhang being common occurrences. Cliffs of several hundred or even thousands of zhang were also not uncommon.

  Li Wenjun's rope length is limited, only more than thirty zhang, beyond this distance, he can't reach it. And in the distance between ten zhang and thirty zhang, he needs to use torches or something like that to see clearly.

  According to common sense, the simplest way would be to light the torch and throw it down the cliff. However, Li Wenjun did not dare to do so. The most likely consequence of doing so would be to trigger a mountain fire. With dry weather and ruthless flames, if he were surrounded by the fire, he wouldn't have a chance to escape unscathed.

  What's more, he threw the torch away and couldn't control its trajectory. What if it fell on the cliff where the moon-viewing grass grew? Wouldn't that be a disaster? Besides, making the torch itself was a painstaking and time-consuming task.

  Li Wenjun thought of a way to solve this problem. He found a withered branch over two zhang long, made it into a pole, and found some tree vines to put several rings on the pole. He then threaded the rope through these rings, used branches and ropes to make a bracket, hung the bracket at the end of the rope, lit the torch, inserted it into the bracket, stretched the pole out of the cliff, slowly lowered the rope down, and searched for the situation on the cliff with the firelight emitted by the torch.

  Of course, doing so, Li Wenjun still can't completely control the trajectory of the torches. Once the mountain wind blows, the torches may hit the cliff and ignite the plants on the cliff. The possibility of burning the Wàng Yuè Yá Cǎo grass still exists. However, apart from this method, he really couldn't think of any other way. He had already thought it through, next time when entering the mountain, he must bring several lanterns and more candles.

  This time, Li Wenjun first searched the situation within a radius of ten zhang, and he did not find any signs of the existence of Wangyueyancao. He took out his self-made tool, slowly released the rope, lowered the torch, and used the weak light of the torch to search for Wangyueyancao.

  After the rope was released, there was still no sign of the Moon Viewing Cliff Grass. Li Wenjun was unwilling to give up, he stretched his upper body out of the cliff as far as possible, opened his eyes wide and searched hard for any trace of the Moon Viewing Cliff Grass.

  Li Wenjun's eyesight was far superior to that of ordinary people, but it also had its limits. Within a range of fifteen or sixteen zhang (about 50-60 meters), he could still see clearly. Once beyond this distance, no matter what grew there, he could only make out a vague outline and couldn't see clearly.

  Suddenly, a plant with several peach-shaped leaves appeared in Li Wenjun's line of sight. Judging from the distance, this grass was growing thirty zhang away from the top of the cliff, and Li Wenjun could no longer see clearly, his vision had become very blurry at this point.

  During the day, Li Wenjun clearly remembered that he had not found any plant traces in this position, and the leaves of Wangyueyan grass were peach-shaped. In this way, Li Wenjun was quite sure to confirm that this was the long-sought Wangyueyan grass.

  To ensure he didn't misjudge, Li Wenjun pulled the torches up and then tied three of them together, re-fixing them on the frame. The three torches burned simultaneously, emitting a brightness that one torch couldn't match. When Li Wenjun released the rope to its end again, with the help of moonlight and firelight, he faintly saw the plant with peach-shaped leaves once more.

  It's possible! It should be!

  Heaven willing, it must be!

  Li Wenjun was worried that something unexpected would happen, so he put away the torches and sticks, then found a place near the cliff to wait for dawn. He was excited but also nervous, and didn't fall asleep until the second half of the night.

  The sky was just bright, and Li Wenjun woke up. He rushed to the edge of the cliff in one step, stuck his head out of the cliff, and looked down. In the place where he saw that plant with peach-shaped leaves yesterday, there was almost nothing to see now.

  Moon Viewing Cliff Grass! It must be Moon Viewing Cliff Grass!

  Li Wenjun was excited, he would do whatever it takes to get his hands on this moon cliff grass. He began making preparations to climb down the cliff and pick the moon cliff grass.

  On this cliff, there were several trees growing. Li Wenjun tested their firmness and then tied one end of the rope to the thickest tree trunk. Then he threw the rope down the cliff, put a few tools that might be used into the medicine basket, and put it on his back. Immediately afterwards, he grasped the rope with both hands, stepped on the outer wall of the cliff, and slowly slid down little by little.

  These are the complete set of medicinal herb collection tools given by Sun Baicao, which were specially made based on the experience accumulated from the Sun family's hundred-year history of collecting herbs. They can ensure safety to the greatest extent, but that doesn't mean there is no danger at all.

  Li Wenjun didn't dare to be careless, he carefully controlled the speed of his slide, choosing where to land. Very smoothly, he slid to the end of the rope, but at this time, he was still about one zhang away from the Wàng Yuè Yá Cǎo.

  At this moment, Li Wenjun's position was such that he couldn't reach the sky or the ground. The distance from the top of the cliff was more than 30 zhang, and his feet were 40 to 50 zhang away from the bottom of the cliff. If he fell down, it would be a fatal fall, with no chance of survival.

  If there was enough time, Li Wenjun would not have chosen to take risks, but what he lacked most now was time. If he went back to the county town to fetch a longer rope, it would only be possible to enter the mountain again next spring. By then, whether this Wàng Yuè Yá Cǎo grass was still growing here or not was hard to say.

  This also means that if this time is missed, whether it can be met again next time depends on luck.

  Li Wenjun didn't think much, he decided that this time, no matter what, he would get the Wangyueyan grass. He first pulled out the dagger with only half of its blade left and dug several footholds on the cliff. Although the dagger was almost worn out, it was still sharp, digging into the stone on the cliff was as easy as cutting tofu.

  After securing the landing site, Li Wenjun fixed the rope to prevent it from drifting away in the wind. Then he untied the knot that tied him and the rope together, and using his hands and feet, he climbed down the cliff by clinging to crevices and protruding rocks, inching his way down like a gecko.

  This was absolutely the first time for him, he had no experience and nobody to guide him, he completely relied on his strong desire to get the Moon Cliff Grass to support him in completing this extremely dangerous task.

  It was slightly fortunate that the cliff he was on was a straight up and down one, without any dangerous areas with protrusions or recesses. Human strength sometimes reaches its limits, if the cliff had been more rugged, Li Wenjun would have had no choice but to give up his desire to tread the path of cultivation, and there would have been only one dead end.