Chapter 3: Gathering Herbs

  In the mountains, there is no sun and moon, it all depends on the changes of heaven's timing, only then can one understand the subtleties.

  It's already summer, and the mountains are filled with blooming flowers everywhere, and the greenery has dyed almost every corner. However, at the top of the Donglie mountain range in Tiankeng Valley, there is still unmelted snow and ice rocks piled up.

  Yu Ci stood at the edge of the cliff, gazing out into the distance. All she saw was a vast expanse of cloud and mist, with no end in sight. The wind howled and whipped around her, its sound like the crashing of ocean waves, pushing clouds and fog, pounding against the rocks beneath her feet, as if it wanted to sweep the people on the cliff into this boundless sea of cloud.

  Is this the boundary of heaven and earth?

  Although I know this idea is absurd, I still can't help but think this way. Because from where he stands, both north and south stretch out for thousands of miles, all looking the same, with no end in sight to the front. This is what he has measured with his own legs over the past few months, without any exaggeration.

  This endless precipice, although also having a rugged terrain, placed in the vast region of thousands of miles, is already as smooth as a mirror, just like the heavenly god's sword cutting down, dividing the earth into two halves.

  "Heavenly Rift Valley, Heavenly Rift Valley...... A spring emerges to form a river and becomes a valley. I wonder if there will be a day when these clouds disperse and allow me to see the entire landscape of this valley?"

  It's a very normal thought, but during this period of time, he has been going back and forth on the endless cliff for hundreds or thousands of times. Throughout this time, regardless of whether the weather was sunny or cloudy, he had never seen the clouds scatter.

  Yu Ci has been in the Sky Crack Valley for five months, and every day he is busy, with hardly a moment to spare. There are also tens of thousands of medicine collectors nearby who have had similar experiences to Yu Ci, they too came for the shrimp whisker grass, or more accurately, for the generous reward promised by the White Day Palace.

  Bairi Difu is the strongest power in the Absolute Wall City, which is located in the Duanjie mountain range. It firmly controls a vast area within a radius of thousands of miles around the city, and its strength far surpasses that of the Shuangxian Sect where Yu Ciyu once stayed.

  Ten years ago, the White Day Palace issued a long-term task: unlimited time, unlimited quantity, unrestricted purchase of shrimp whisker grass unique to Tianlie Valley, and set up a heavy reward for it.

  The reward includes gold and silver, houses, precious artifacts, and spiritual medicine, which infinitely inspires the get-rich dreams of all kinds of people around. In the past decade, countless herb collectors, rivers and lakes guests, and even ordinary people have flocked to the surrounding areas of Tianlie Valley, regardless of the high mountains and deep valleys, climbing up and down in the cliffs, seeking the treasure in their hearts, betting on their own lives.

  Yu Ci is also one of them. He wandered to the Absolute Wall City half a year ago and was immediately attracted by the reward offered by the White Day House: a unique sword made by the craftsmen in the house, the Three Yang Symbol Sword. This sword combines the strengths of both the Symbol Method and the Artifact Creation Method, its power is secondary, but what's more precious is the thought process behind its creation, which may be a good reference for Yu Ci's stagnant progress in the Symbol Method.

  In exchange for a Three Yang Symbol Sword, you need 1,000 stalks of Shrimp Whisker Grass.

  Yu Ji also joined the ranks of the medicinal herb gathering army. From the Absolute Wall City to here, there are more than 20,000 miles, and it took a whole month to walk on the road, searching for herbs and collecting them took five months, it can be imagined that there must be even longer days spent here.

  "A thousand shares... it's uncertain whether I can finish before winter arrives."

  He waved away the distracting thoughts, calmed his mind and spirit, took another step closer to the cliff edge, facing the strong gusts of wind head-on. He slightly closed his eyes, held his breath, and let the true energy inside him start circulating on its own. Slowly adjusting the rise and fall of his blood and energy, he waited until his body reached a higher state. Suddenly, he stretched out his hand to probe into the void, then wiped it across his nose, unblocking his nostrils at the same time.

  This is the art of capturing wind, a miscellaneous study that I, Yu Ci, have mastered during my wandering days. As the art of capturing wind draws in, the complex smells pour in and are immediately categorized by his mind, like panning for gold, and the result is obtained in an instant. Yu Ci opens her eyes and smiles: "Today's luck isn't bad."

  He jumped down with a smile.

  Tianlie Valley, created by the heavenly power tearing it apart, is so long that its ends are not visible and so deep that its bottom cannot be seen. Yu Ci did not find the beginning or end of this valley, and naturally could not explore its depth. He jumped off the cliff edge and in an instant entered into the clouds and fog, the shadowy tree branches and strange rocks on the precipitous walls flowed past him.

  With a slight boost from various obstacles, Yu Ji's descending speed slowed down more and more, finally spotting a protruding cliff wall's mountain beam, lightly floating down onto it. At this place, the unique fragrance of shrimp whisker grass became even thicker, but with the thick fog in between, it would still take some time to confirm the exact location.

  After lingering on the stone beam for a short while, there was no sign of dispersal in the surrounding fog, but Yu Ci had already locked onto her target. Without hesitation, she exerted force from her legs and shot into the dense fog sideways like an arrow.

  Borrowing force from the cliff wall, he traversed seven zhang in the blink of an eye. Just as he had predicted, there were no obstacles in between. In the fog, the image of a giant pine tree standing slantingly in the rock crevice became increasingly clear. Yu Ci stuck to the rock wall and slid up, lightly landing at the base of the tree, his movements as agile as a cat's.

  As it fell, a strong wind blew through the canyon, causing the giant pines to creak and sway, and also making the surrounding mist swirl rapidly.

  With a stroke of luck, through the thinning fog barrier, I was delighted to see that in front of the giant pine tree trunk, within the layered branches, dozens of hair-like silhouettes were floating, rising and falling, as if they would be blown away by the strong wind at any moment, but more of them were entwined around the tree trunk and branches.

  That's seaweed then.

  Yu Ci must thank his biological parents, for they gave him a gift that exceeded the ordinary. It was the extraordinary sense of smell he had been using before. He was born with a keen sense of smell, able to distinguish between complex odors mixed together and notice subtle scents that ordinary people would overlook. In his daily life, he had relied heavily on this gift, and in the Sky Crack Valley, he relied solely on it to navigate through the boundless clouds and fog, accurately finding the location of the shrimp whisker grass.

  The goal is within sight, and Yu Ciren's mind becomes more calm. He doesn't rush to pick it up, but instead takes out the Shenguang Tongjian from his sleeve, stimulates the Qingguang Lingyin, and uses it to draw a symbol in mid-air.

  The five colors flow and condense to form patterns, blending and transforming into the myriad truths. They govern the divine spirits and conform to the celestial bodies and stars. There are cloud-seal scripts, dragon and phoenix scripts, and demon charts and ghostly markings. All of these take after the forms and postures (of the celestial bodies), for use in communicating with the spirits.

  For over a decade, I have devoted myself to the study of talismans and incantations, and my sole systematic source of knowledge has been the "Shangqing Juxuan Xing Shu Miji Fajing" (The Secretly Transmitted Talisman Scripture of the Upper Clarity's Gathered Mystery Star Axis) from the teachings of the Double Immortals. Although there are nearly a thousand types of talismans in the book, I have mastered only around ten or so, but I am thoroughly familiar with all the accounts within it.

  The "Shangqing Juyuan Xing Shu Miji Fu Jing" records three sets of talisman systems, namely Yun Zhuo Lei Wen, Long Zhang Feng Wen and Yao Tu Gui Wen. Among them, Yun Zhuo Lei Wen imitates the natural world of heaven and earth, yin and yang; Long Zhang Feng Wen absorbs the spiritual movement of flying birds and walking beasts; while Yao Tu Gui Wen borrows from the fierce power of witchcraft and ghostly ways.

  These three sets of talisman systems can all form their own patterns, but truly ingenious talismans are not those that do not combine the three aspects and take their essence.

  Unfortunately, Yu Cixiu's cultivation was not enough and his Tao was not deep. Even with the excellent spiritual source of the Shenzheng Tongjian, he could draw those ghostly symbols without any difference, but he still couldn't activate the powerful abilities of those high-level talismans. Now he can only learn some relatively simple and pure symbol texts that are mainly based on a single system, such as the one he is using now.

  The fingers moved, and the green light trail was drawn in the void, outlining an extremely abstract pattern. The upper part was the bird pattern, the lower part was the tiger pattern, the surrounding constellations were arranged in a row, and the central part was concluded with a curved seal script path. When all the symbols were painted, the green light trails that stayed in the void suddenly lit up at once, then quickly condensed and shrunk until they became a delicate symbol about half the size of a palm, before finally stopping still.

  Yu Ciren stretched out his hand and pointed, the talisman flew out instantly. The flight trajectory was very strange, it revolved around Yu Ciren's pointing finger as its axis, flying in a circle that got bigger and bigger, the talisman also flew farther and farther away, until it completely disappeared into the thick fog, only then did Yu Ciren withdraw his hand.

  This is the Five Phases Spiritual Symbol, which Yu Ci learned from the "Upper Clarity's Secretly Transmitted Scripture of the Mysterious Star Pivot". It is one of the most complex talismans at this stage. Although it mainly uses Dragon Seal and Phoenix Script, it also slightly involves the systems of Cloud Thunder and Demonic Ghosts. For just this one symbol, Yu Ci practiced for a full five years before barely being able to apply it.

  This symbol has no attacking power, but can refer to oneself and detect all intense activities of living beings within a radius of five miles, and feed back to the practitioner's mind, with sensitivity that is unimaginable. Yu Ci uses it as an alarm.

  Everything was ready, and Yu Ci finally came forward. Like walking on a single-log bridge, he slowly arrived at the edge of the giant pine tree.

  The shrimp whisker grass is already within reach. Yu Ci, however, was not in a hurry and took out a stone box that had been prepared beforehand from her sleeve, carefully placing it on a natural platform formed by the intersection of several pine branches, which was a stable base, but Yu Ci still didn't feel at ease, so she used another talisman to secure it firmly.

  Then he bent down and carefully picked some lemongrass.

  The grass leaves are only as thick as a hair, and when they wrap around the tree trunk, they also get tangled with the uneven bark. If you're not careful, it's easy to pull them apart. Because of the medicinal properties required, when harvesting, the roots must be taken together, so Yu Ci had to carefully untangle the intertwined grass leaves one by one, until she found the roots, before she could pull them out.

  This kind of work is a complete waste of time, it's very testing on one's patience and also fears unexpected events.

  It's okay, Yu Ji's luck today is not bad. For more than three hours, without any external disturbance, Yu Ji successfully picked up this shrimp whisker grass, roughly intact, with about 100 to 110 roots. As she picked them, she placed each one in a stone box on the side.

  Just as he said to Xuan Qing that day, the shrimp whisker grass can absorb the spirit of the second wood, and it is also restrained by the golden air, so it cannot be stored in metal or wooden boxes. Only this white stone box issued by the manager of the Day Division can be used. In the stone box, the shrimp whisker grass has been laid flat in a shallow layer, with about three to five hundred roots, which is all his harvest for four months.

  These herbs were taken back to the steward of the White Day Estate, who would carefully sort them according to their quality and condition, and then offer a price that was at least 20-30% off. As for the discount, it was naturally up to the White Day Estate to decide. This was the usual practice, and there was nothing that scattered individuals like him could do about it.

  After doing all this, the sky had darkened, and the half-fallen sunset weakly shone its remaining rays into the clouds and fog. Yu Ci put away the stone box, withdrew all sorts of magic, and relying on those horizontally growing branches and cracks in the rocks, climbed up the mountain wall like a monkey, several hundred feet high. When she reached the top of the cliff, a strong gust of wind blew, and only then did she realize that her underclothes had been soaked through with sweat, chilling her to the bone, making her feel extremely uncomfortable.

  Today's work will stop here. Yu Ci was also tired, found a place to avoid the wind, took a short rest, waited for his clothes to dry, and then set off. After a few leaps, he disappeared into the vast mountains behind him.

  For more than five months around the Sky Crack Valley, Yu Ci had been traveling back and forth, his resting place changing all the time. The place he had arranged in advance yesterday was over a hundred miles away, and it would take almost an hour to get there just on the road.

  But it's still worth running these roads. In the past few months, Yu Ji has seen people coming to collect medicine here more than once. For a few stalks of shrimp grass, they have been at odds with each other until death, and the cruelty is unimaginable for those who haven't personally experienced it. As the saying goes, "people die for wealth, birds die for food", that's exactly what happened.

  Yu Ci is not a person who fears trouble, but after working hard all day, he naturally wants to find a safe place to rest and recuperate. Where does he have so much spare time to deal with those greedy people?

  After entering the dense forest, night fell quickly, and the field of vision became increasingly dark. Yu Ci's speed did not decrease at all. The unique breath of the mountain forest blew past his nose, and he could distinguish the hidden dangers lurking in the midst of the thousands of mixed smells, changing direction in time to avoid countless troubles.

  Seeing the destination in sight, Yu Ci hesitated for a moment and then slowed down her pace.

  The place where he was, the trees had become sparse, and in their place were rugged rocks, dark and hard. In the black night, it was extremely desolate. Because of this, a few miles away, a cluster of firelight could penetrate through the gaps in the trees, flickering in his eyes. More distinct than the firelight was the "human smell" brought by the mountain wind. Besides, although extremely weak, Yu Ci was still able to capture the unique fragrance of shrimp whisker grass.

  Even if separated by the stone box, no matter how capable Yu Ci was, it would be impossible to smell that faint scent at this distance. There is only one possibility in this situation, and that is someone opened the stone box to observe or count the shrimp whisker grass stored inside.

  Yu Ciren was certain that there were more than fifteen people on the other side. The owner of the stone box could do this without any scruples, so these people should be a group, traveling together to pick herbs in the Sky Crack Valley. On this side of the valley, it's considered a relatively large team.

  Thinking of this, he couldn't help but scratch his head. He could go around, but the problem was that the hiding place he had set up with great effort yesterday was just near those people, and if he went around now, he would probably have to spend the night in the wilderness tonight.

  Just as he was thinking, his face changed slightly, and the wind had just reversed, but he hadn't noticed that seven or eight more people were approaching from the side, only half a mile away from where he was. His left hand withdrew into his sleeve, grasping the Shenguang Tongjian.

  What bad luck, two days ago he was robbed by bandits and that excellent sharp sword he bought with five pieces of gold in the city of Absolute Cliff was broken during the fight. He lost his trusty weapon and if he encounters another battle, he will likely be at a disadvantage.

  But soon his keen nose picked up some information: it seemed like someone familiar!

  The people over there finally discovered Yu Ji. A distance of half a li, what's the point of that? Even in the dark of night, it was only two or three breaths before they faced each other. The group of people who had just emerged from the forest were all startled, and the atmosphere became tense at any moment. However, soon someone on the other side started laughing.

  "Ha, Brother Yu, long time no see, you're looking well!"

  It was indeed an acquaintance. Before the other party spoke, Yu Ci identified him based on the aura of those people. The speaker's name was Lu Bing, who was the leader of this group and also the one who knocked on the door frame outside the desolate mountain temple a few months ago, facing the empty gate. He was a man of refinement, and Yu Ci had a good impression of him.

  Lu Bingben was a Jianghu guest, with a cultivation base that had reached the peak of Long Xi, his true energy filled his body, and he had the power to split tigers and leopards. Except for not having Ling Ying, there was no substantial difference between him and Ming Kuan's realm. In the Jianghu, he also had a certain reputation. This time, he also accepted the task of Bai Ri Fu, gathering more than a dozen fellow Taoists, coming to Tian Lie Gou to collect medicine, which was a rare team combination in this area.

  Everyone has been together for a few days since that night, and they also have some friendship. Yu Ci stepped forward two steps, clasped his fists and smiled: "Brother Lu is good, and so are all of you..."

  As they spoke, Yu Ji glanced at the team and saw that their number was less than half of what it had been initially, her brow furrowed.

  Those who are absent will probably meet with misfortune rather than good fortune.

  It's not easy to pick the shrimp whisker grass, on the steep cliffs and precipices, every moment requires careful attention to the raging wind and fog, and also beware of poisonous insects, fierce birds, and ferocious beasts, a slight carelessness would result in a fatal outcome. Moreover, what makes you think that the Sky Crack Valley is just a simple place for picking herbs?

  As they spoke, the two sides drew closer. Lu Bing saw his thoughts, but this kind of Jianghu heroic guest had long been indifferent to life and death, and just laughed, shifting his attention:

  "Brother, it's better to meet by chance than to make an appointment. The firelight up ahead is from a group of brothers we've recently met, all of them are straightforward people. This forest is dark and gloomy, walking alone isn't much fun, why not come together and have a gathering?"

  Yu You's pre-arranged resting place was occupied, and he was worried about how to arrange for the night. Upon hearing this, he readily agreed. However, his left hand continued to lightly pinch the edge of the Sheng Shen Tong Jian, always keeping a bit of vigilance in mind, thinking that the other party was also like this.

  In the months since Skybreak Valley, anyone who didn't have this kind of thought had probably long since died off.

  Dear book friends, don't forget to collect before leaving, and it's best to add a definite red ticket!