Chapter 21: Picking Faults

  But looking at its appearance, although it was quite frightened, there was nothing wrong with it, so Gu Yun also felt relieved.

  He patted its head, and Gu Yun handed a yellowish-brown spiritual fruit in front of it, saying: "Little guy, you've been wronged for this period of time. This fruit is considered compensation for you."

  Using a thousand-year-old spiritual fruit as compensation is something that only Gu Yun can do, anyone else would treat this thing like a treasure.

  Looking at the Lingguo in Gyun's hand, Baishi's eyes immediately lit up with delight. He took the Lingguo from Gyun's hand, nodding his head as he ate it.

  Last time he ate one, his cultivation increased a bit, and after eating this one, he should be able to advance, it seems that following this master is really not bad.

  Although he saw that Baishi was fine, Gu Yun did not go back in to look at the things inside the two jade slips his master had given him, but instead brought Baishi out of the Dragon God Seal.

  It's been so long inside, and three or four days have passed outside too. If I don't leave now, there might be trouble. After all, a city lord has been missing for so long, if no one reacts to that, it would be unreasonable.

  It was already evening when he emerged from the secret room, and with a white stone he evaded the open and hidden sentries in front of the city master's mansion, slipped out of the back door to the main street, dodged the guards on the city wall, and left the city.

  Recognize the direction of the imperial capital, and hurry towards it.

  At dawn, Gu Yun was already hundreds of miles away from Jingyang County. He was now riding a white stone horse on a main road, surrounded by many cultivators riding various demonic beasts, making him not very conspicuous.

  On the road, he also learned that the next county town was called Liangping County. However, Gu Yun didn't plan to enter the city immediately. He had obtained a large quantity of medicinal herbs from Li Jinyang and now wanted to refine some high-grade "Ji Ling Dan", but he still lacked several types of herbs.

  He changed direction and rode the white stone into the forest beside him. Except for the cities and roads built in the imperial territory, everything else was a forest, grassland, and various dangerous places.

  Various medicinal herbs in the forest are needed by cultivators, so every piece of forest has many cultivators collecting medicinal herbs. If one can collect a rare herb, they will become rich.

  Of course, there are also opportunities and dangers, and things like murder and robbery are easiest to carry out here.

  It is said that in the forest, there were several groups of cultivators, all in threes and fives, but he had never seen anyone venture in alone like him.

  And the gaze of these people towards Gu Yun was also a bit thought-provoking. In this forest, there were two kinds of people who could be alone like Gu Yun: one was an expert, and he wasn't afraid of these small dangers.

  Another is a rookie, he doesn't understand jungle rules.

  Ancient Cloud looks nothing like the first type of person, so the gazes from people around him are filled with pity, ridicule, and ill intentions. However, Ancient Cloud doesn't care about these things; he is now full of confidence.

  Even an elderly man of considerable age invited him to follow them, looking at this yuan infant stage old man and his several fellow yuan infant stage companions, Gu Yun refused his request.

  It's not that he dislikes their low cultivation, but rather Gu Yun sees that most people in this forest are at this level of cultivation. Having killed cultivators who have formed their cores, he is not afraid of these people and does not think they can pose a threat to him.

  Seeing Gu Yun refuse, the old man didn't say anything else either. He shook his head and walked back to his companions' side, heading deeper into the woods.

  Although he didn't join their team, Gu Yun still had a good impression of these people.

  Now they look like a burden to themselves, and yet they don't even mind their own troubles, still wanting to protect themselves. Compared to people like Li Jinyang who repay kindness with enmity, these people are much better off.

  Gǔ yún qí zhe bái shí, yě xiàng zhe tāmen nà ge fāngxiàng zǒu qù, tā gēn zhè qún rén zhèng hǎo shùn lù, yě jiù yī zhí gēn zài tāmen hòu mian le.

  Along the way, Gu Yun saw many decades-old medicinal herbs, but no one was harvesting them. Some were even helping to clear away weeds and pests around them.

  It is said that Gu Yun didn't know, but this was actually an unspoken rule among cultivators. Since the herbs required by cultivators were mostly over a hundred years old, these decades-old herbs would generally not be picked, and some people would even protect them.

  After advancing dozens of miles, Gu Yun still hadn't found the medicinal herbs he needed. On the other hand, the group of people in front of him, led by the elderly man, seemed to have discovered several excellent medicinal plants and were visibly delighted.

  But they didn't have much joy for long when they found a five-hundred-year-old terrestrial orchid and picked it.

  Six young people surrounded him, Gu Yun took a look and found that the cultivation of these six young people was mostly in the middle stage of Yuan Ying, one had even reached the later stage.

  On the other hand, the eight elderly men only had the strength of the early Yuan Ying stage, and one was even just a late-stage Jin Dan. Although they outnumbered them, their strength was far inferior, clearly not their match.

  Six people surrounded the eight of them, and then a young man from Yuan's later period said: "Everyone, where you are is our Liuhe Gate, so please hand over the various spiritual medicines you have collected. We will not pursue your trespassing offense."

  "Of course, considering everyone's hard work in collecting them, our Liuhe Men will compensate each of you with a low-grade Ling Stone for every herb."

  Although these words were spoken politely, the effect was no different from a daylight robbery. The Liuhedoor is still over a thousand miles away from here, so how did this place become theirs?

  Each of these herbs is worth at least one lower-grade spirit stone, and the old man's herbs are each worth at least ten lower-grade spirit stones. That 500-year-old Earth Lotus Flower must be worth at least a hundred lower-grade spirit stones.

  Now they each get a low-grade spirit stone, which is basically robbery.

  But now the situation is stronger than people, their six people can't beat them, let alone they have a Liuhe Gate behind to support them. The Liuhe Gate is the largest gate in Liangping County and several surrounding counties, which is not something they can afford to provoke.

  The old man turned his head and looked at his companions, seeing that they all had a face full of anger, frustration, and sadness.

  With a reluctant expression, they took out all the medicinal herbs they had collected today from their own storage bags. If they were to take them to the city to sell, they could at least get one or two hundred low-grade spirit stones, but now...

  Then he asked somewhat discontentedly: "Everyone, it's not easy for us to collect these herbs, can you give a reasonable price?"

  Since the herbs are going to be wasted anyway, might as well earn two more.

  "Old man, stop wasting words, hand it over quickly. You're lucky I'm not holding you responsible, or else you wouldn't even get a single spirit stone."

  He heard him say that, and the late-stage Yuan Ying guy immediately shouted.

  The old man sighed, took one last look at the medicinal herb in his hand, and handed it over to the young man who was in the later stages of his Yuan Baby. Just as the young man was about to reach out to take it, a voice with a hint of mockery sounded in their ears, "Tsk tsk tsk, the spiritual medicine here is really cheap, one low-grade spiritual stone can buy a plant of such good spiritual medicine, it's really worth it."

  Several people turned their heads and saw a young man wearing all white clothes, riding a more than three-meter-long white bear, coming out of the woods.

  This man was naturally Gu Yun. He had a good impression of this old man, so he followed them from behind to see if they needed help in case something happened. Now, indeed, something has happened.

  Looking at this young man riding a white bear, Lin Shan and several others changed their faces, they couldn't see through the cultivation of this young man in front of them.

  But looking at the mount he was riding, a demonic infantile creature, it was clear that this person wasn't someone to be trifled with. They couldn't tell the difference between spiritual beasts and demonic beasts, so they thought Gu Yun's mount was a demonic beast.

  In fact, many cultivators now have a demonic beast as their mount, which can also serve as proof of their strength to others. After all, capturing and taming a demonic beast is not an easy task.

  "This junior, Lin Shan, is a disciple of the Liuhe Gate and is handling some business here. I don't know what brings you to this place, senior." Lin Shan said with a bow.

  "Hehe, no big deal, I just think these herbs are quite cheap and they happen to have what I need, so I thought of buying them. Would you all mind doing me a favor?" Gu Yun said with a smile.

  As soon as the old man spoke, several people's faces turned somewhat unsightly. They had come down the mountain to practice and happened to run into these few medicine pickers, who had picked a 500-year-old terrestrial lotus flower - this was actually one of the main medicines for refining "Azure Sky Dan".

  "Bì Kōng Dān" is a kind of elixir that can increase one's cultivation. With his current level of cultivation, eating one would immediately bring him to the stage of breaking through. However, the medicinal herbs required for this elixir are extremely difficult to find, with each ingredient requiring at least 300 years or more, and some even needing a thousand years.

  Moreover, they are not very familiar with the places where they grow, and can only rely on luck to find them.

  Unexpectedly, I met one of the main medicines "Dilianhua" here today, which is 500 years old. I was about to use the power of my sect to force a purchase.

  But didn't expect someone to intervene, and this person himself couldn't see through it. Judging from the situation, he should be a master, not someone that people like us can afford to offend.

  Suppressing the fire in his heart, Lin Shan asked with a dark face: "Then what price does the senior plan to acquire?"

  "Hehe, I'll also contribute a Ling Stone, how about that?" Gu Yun said with a smile, looking at Lin Shan's dark face.

  "Senior, this price is a bit low, isn't it?" As soon as Gu Yun spoke, Lin Shan's face turned even darker.

  "Then it's two, you've earned double." Gu Yun added the price again, but it was just for fun. As for this kind of arrogant and deceitful goods, Gu Yun didn't have a good feeling about them at all.

  "If seniors are going to be unreasonable, then we won't be polite." After hearing Gu Yun's words, the six of them exchanged a glance, and Lin Shan said. Looking at it this way, this guy is probably here looking for trouble.