Chapter 8: Spirit Medicine Valley
Lin Feng carefully walked into the hall, and his first glance fell on Yu Bo. Beside Yu Bo was that arrogant disciple in charge. As soon as Lin Feng entered, the disciple in charge haughtily shouted at him: "You're the newly arrived miscellaneous disciple Lin Feng, right? Hurry over, I have a task here that needs someone to do!"
Lin Feng walked to the side of the steward's brother and said calmly: "However, I have already completed today's task. According to the rules of Qingdan Gate, for the next six hours, I can return to my own cave to rest and meditate!"
"Hmmph, Qingdan Sect has another rule you don't know? Being rude and defiant to a senior brother of higher status than yourself will result in punishment!"
Yu Bo is a Grade A apprentice of Qing Dan Sect, and if he takes one more step forward, he will become an alchemy apprentice. In terms of seniority, he is far superior to you, and his cultivation is also stronger than yours. Today, you offended him in the medicine garden, according to the rules of Qing Dan Sect, you should be punished!
Lin Feng argued strongly: "I didn't provoke him at all! He's just looking for an excuse to retaliate!"
The temple's steward scowled: "Whether or not you have offended him is not for you to say, but for the Executive Hall to decide!"
Lin Feng's eyebrows rose: "Since it's up to the Execution Department to make the decision, what right do you have to assign me a task without even interrogating me?"
The disciple sneered, "You're just a miscellaneous disciple, what qualifications do you have to be interrogated by the Executive Hall? Doesn't the Executive Hall already have enough troubles every day? Where would they have the leisure to bother with your trivial matters?"
"Are you saying I don't even have a chance to defend myself?"
The servant disciple threw over a jade slip with a "pa" sound, and then said in a mysterious tone: "Hmph, the judgment result is already out, don't believe me? Look for yourself!"
Lin Feng picked up the jade slip, his divine sense entered it and with just one glance, his face suddenly turned very unsightly!
It only said on the jade tablet: "Miscellaneous servant disciple Lin Feng, for no reason clashed with fellow senior brother, according to regulations should be punished! Considering it's his first offense, physical punishment can be exempted, however, he needs to complete extra duties to make up for the mistake." The jade tablet had the mark of the Executive Hall, and it was impossible to fake.
Lin Feng stood there dazed, his fists clenched and crackling with energy. The steward disciple continued, "How about it? Do you believe now?"
Lin Feng remained silent, but the steward disciple was getting impatient. He picked up another jade slip from the table and casually tossed it to Lin Feng, then said seriously:
"This is the rear mountain map of our sect, and it's also the latest spiritual medicine cultivation base opened up by Qingdan Sect. Your duty is to go to the rear mountain to take care of these spiritual medicines and prevent nearby demonic beasts and other sect disciples from causing trouble!"
Lin Feng finally couldn't bear it anymore, and angrily said to the managing disciple: "Take care of the demonic beast? Do you think a cultivator at the 6th level of Qi Refining can withstand several levels of demonic beasts?"
"That's for you to consider yourself, I'm just in charge of assigning tasks."
Lin Feng placed his hands on the table, staring straight at the steward: "My two hands are empty, how can I deal with those cunning demon beasts? You want me to do this chore, at least give me the proper weapons for self-defense?"
The lazy disciple said, "Our sect's low-grade artifacts have always been in short supply. I don't have a single one to spare at the moment. As for mid-grade or higher ones, even if there were any, they would require you to be in the Qi Refining stage to use them, which isn't suitable for you."
"So, how long do I need to take care of it?"
The servant's apprentice glared with his eyes cast down: "One month!"
Lin Feng almost jumped up: "A month? I go to the medicine garden to do chores during the day, and at night I still have to go to the back mountain to take care of the demon beasts. Do you think my physical strength is infinite?"
The servant disciple sneered, "If I had known today, why did I have to provoke my senior brother in the first place? Moreover, watching over the demonic beast at night doesn't require actually fighting it. Your physical strength can fully recover, not affecting your labor duties for the next day."
Lin Feng snatched the jade map and glared at Yu Bo, before turning around and walking out the door. Yu Bo sneered at him:
"I've heard that the mountains behind often have fierce demonic beasts appearing, infantile and first-level demonic beasts are nothing to be feared, but second and third level demonic beasts are a different story!"
The servant disciple also echoed: "Yes, if you encounter a level 4 demon beast, even a high-ranking cultivator in the foundation stage will lose their life. This Lin Feng junior brother must be careful!"
Lin Feng listened to their cold words and when he reached the door, he just stopped for a moment, then turned around and walked towards the back mountain without looking back.
The back mountain of Qingdan Gate is a very deep and secluded valley, with towering stone walls on all sides that touch the clouds. Except for flying demons, ordinary demons cannot enter or leave the valley.
At that time, the valley had been idle for a long time. As various spiritual herbs became increasingly scarce, the spiritual herbs cultivated by the Spiritual Herb Plantation were far from meeting the demand. Therefore, the Qingdan Gate opened up the valley behind the mountain and planted some spiritual herbs suitable for growing at the bottom of the valley.
Outside the valley, it's hard for monsters to come in and harm the spiritual medicine, but those born and raised in the valley are a big headache for Qingdanmen. These monsters are very familiar with the terrain of the valley, and Qingdanmen has repeatedly implemented encirclement and suppression against them, but to no avail. The arrays set up in the valley have also been broken one after another, and the loss of spiritual medicine is severe.
As time passed, the Qingdan Sect no longer paid much attention to this spiritual medicine production area in the valley, and casually assigned a miscellaneous disciple to guard it, as long as they could guarantee some income.
The monsters in the valley seem to be very clever, they don't plan to eat all the spiritual herbs, but instead leave some of them behind, so that the Qingdan Gate will continue to cultivate here, and the monsters will always have spiritual herbs to eat.
The higher-ups of Qingdan Gate were well aware that sending a miscellaneous disciple here was just for show, and in reality, it would have no effect at all. Even if they sent a Foundation Establishment stage disciple, they still wouldn't be able to stop the demonic beasts from stealing the spiritual medicine.
The only purpose of sending miscellaneous disciples here is actually to prevent other sects' disciples from coming to steal medicine. Although the valley in the back mountain of Qingdan Gate is very deep, it can be easily flown in with flying instruments. If there is no one on guard, the spiritual medicine will be stolen soon.
To prevent miscellaneous disciples from stealing spiritual herbs in the valley, their storage bags were all registered in advance. Every time they entered and exited the mountain valley, there were special disciples to check their storage bags, so that they would not take the spiritual herbs in the valley for themselves.
Lin Feng arrived at the back mountain summit, in a very narrow small house, saw an old monk who was dozing off. The old monk had only reached the fourth layer of the Qi Refining stage, and his lifespan was almost exhausted, so he had no hope of advancing to the Foundation Building stage. Therefore, he was hiding here, passing the days in idleness, wasting his time in a dull and listless manner.
