Chapter 13: The Medicine is Not Good for Taking

  Yang Zejian said that's about it, waved his hand and said: "Go practice quickly, I also have things to attend to, remember to take the medicine."

  "Yes, the disciple has taken his leave." Lin Feng said, and with a happy expression, he returned to his own room, sat cross-legged, gently breathed in and out, and after adjusting his breath, he took out an Qi-replenishing pill, looked at it, opened his mouth and swallowed it.

  The elixir entered his belly, and before long, a warm current was born in his abdomen. Lin Feng hurriedly activated the guiding qi incantation, directing this warm current into the dantian and merging it with the spiritual energy to circulate along the route of the heavenly cycle. After one heavenly cycle, Lin Feng clearly felt that the spiritual energy accumulated after this circulation of the heavenly cycle was one or two times more than before, and he secretly rejoiced in his heart, thinking that the Qi-Gathering Pill was indeed very effective.

  The elixir is precious and hard to come by, Lin Feng knows that the effect of the medicine is best at this time, he doesn't dare to waste a bit, and hurriedly uses the air-guiding technique again, until after nine cycles, he stops when he can no longer feel the warmth. At this time, the spiritual energy vortex in his dantian has clearly increased, and the speed of rotation has also improved visibly to the naked eye.

  The elixir was indeed effective, and Lin Feng felt a strong urge to take another Qi-replenishing pill. However, he quickly suppressed this impulse, knowing that the effects of the pill lasted for two days. Although he had absorbed most of the medicinal properties and the warm sensation had dissipated, there were still many residual effects in his body that needed to be slowly activated and converted into his own spiritual energy through continuous cultivation. If not, these effects would go to waste, which was clearly unwise given his current financial situation.

  For two consecutive days, Lin Feng practiced twice as much as usual, basically practicing once every three hours. He could say that he had fully absorbed the medicinal effect of the Qi Gathering Pill, and his Qi vortex was slowly increasing in size. Two days later, Lin Feng took the second Qi Gathering Pill again, and the warm feeling remained, but the Qi vortex did not increase as noticeably. Lin Feng knew that the Qi vortex would not grow indefinitely, and it would only become thicker and heavier afterwards, so he wasn't worried.

  For six consecutive days, Lin Feng took the Qi Gathering Pill that Zhao Chun gave him and practiced at double speed. After six days of intense practice, Lin Feng had fully utilized the effects of the Qi Gathering Pill, and his thin air swirls had become noticeably thicker, which made him quite happy. However, after finishing the pill and returning to his normal practice speed, looking at the slowly rotating air swirls, Lin Feng suddenly felt a sense of loss in his heart.

  The refreshing feeling disappeared, and the sensation of true energy surging in the dantian or the speed of the vortex and the circulation of the heavenly cycle greatly decreased. It was as if a high-ranking cultivator who could already control flying swords was suddenly knocked back to being a Qi-refining stage disciple, and could only walk on his legs. The feeling was extremely unbearable.

  But it also further stirred up Lin Feng's desire to refine the elixir. Two days later, Lin Feng, who could no longer bear the slow progress of his cultivation, finally decided to enter the mountains to gather herbs and told Yang Ze about it. Yang Ze did not stop him, only reminding him to be careful. Lin Feng, who had already entered the first layer of the Qi Refining stage, was much stronger than an average adult mortal, and since he had long learned basic sword techniques, as long as he didn't venture too deep into the mountains, there wouldn't be any danger.

  Lin Feng brought enough dry rations, a storage bag, and his fine steel sword, all prepared, and then confidently entered the mountain.

  Fei Ling City was originally situated in a mountainous area, with poor transportation, which can be described as a remote and impoverished region. However, for cultivators, as long as there is a treasure of heaven and earth, and a place with abundant spiritual energy, it is a good place. The mountain range where Fei Ling City is located is barely considered a branch of the Heng Lian Mountains, and locals call it Cui Shi Mountain. As the saying goes, "rely on the mountain to eat from the mountain", most locals rely on Cui Shi Mountain for their livelihood, either by hunting or gathering herbs, and can always make a living in the mountains to support their families.

  Of course, in addition to producing animal meat, fur, wild fruits and medicinal materials for ordinary people, the mountain also produces many spiritual medicines and spiritual minerals that are used by cultivators. This is something that ordinary people do not know about, and it is also one of the reasons why the Yang family settled here.

  The Dan Temple was originally built on the mountain waist, and the back door next to the main hall led directly to the mountain road. This was also specially opened for the convenience of Yang's disciples who were in the Qi Refining stage to find medicine in the mountains from time to time. As for Yang Ze, he was already a master of the Foundation Building stage, and when he went out, he usually flew with his sword, so the mountain road had become just a signpost. However, for Lin Feng, who had just entered the Cultivation Realm, it was quite convenient.

  Along the mountain path, after crossing the mountain peak where Dan Temple is located, a vast expanse of towering mountains and dense forests unfolded before him. Looking at the deep and mysterious forest, Lin Feng's heart skipped a beat, and he couldn't help but feel a sense of fear. But thinking about the wonders of the Qi-gathering Pill, Lin Feng made an effort to suppress this feeling of fear.

  It's probably because he's still too young, otherwise with Lin Feng's current cultivation base at the first level of Qi Refining, if he were to release his spiritual energy, three or five ordinary mortals wouldn't be a match for him and there would be no need to worry about encountering any dangers in the mountains.

  He took a deep breath and suppressed the unease in his heart, plunging into the depths of the dense forest. As he walked, he kept an eye out for any possible places where spiritual herbs might appear. Unfortunately, after walking for over two hours, all he saw were some ordinary herbs used by mortals, not even a single sprout of low-grade Spiritual Dew Grass, let alone the more valuable Wind Sun Fruit.

  Fortunately, Lin Feng was able to calm down and thought that since they were close to the city, any good medicine would have already been picked by others. He believed that if he walked further in, he would definitely be able to find some good medicine. With this idea in mind, Lin Feng continued on his way deeper into the dense forest. As he walked, he carefully looked around and often made a point to circle back to those hidden places where people rarely visited, hoping for a surprise discovery.

  But after walking for almost an hour and still having nothing to show for it, Lin Feng began to get a bit impatient. It was clear that this wasn't because someone had picked the herbs before him, but rather because the spiritual medicine was truly very rare. After all, this was the wilderness, not his own medicinal garden. Even with such vast and continuous mountain ranges, even the most experienced person wouldn't be able to pick the herbs so cleanly. The only reason was that the spiritual medicine was originally very scarce.

  Realizing the difficulty of collecting medicine, Lin Feng, who was still confident when he came out, was suddenly hit hard. After walking for two or three hours, feeling hungry and thirsty, he decided to rest before making a decision.

  After recognizing the direction, Lin Feng found a relatively sunny slope and sat down casually. He took out dry rations and water, eating and drinking while thinking about where he might be able to find the spiritual medicine in the afternoon. However, with layer upon layer of mountains and vast dense forests, it seemed like everywhere was similar, and he really didn't know which direction to head in.

  With a full stomach and enough water, Lin Feng simply didn't think about it anymore, lay down on the spot, deciding to rest first before doing anything else.

  "Ouch!" Lin Feng, who had never been in the mountains before, didn't have much experience. He was still thinking about things and forgot that he wasn't on his bed at home. This time, he lay down heavily and a rock under him pressed against his back, causing pain. Lin Feng turned sideways to grab it, wanting to throw away the rock, but found that what he grabbed wasn't a rock, but a root.

  "What is it?" Lin Feng moved his body and took a look, suddenly laughing happily: "Haha, it's a wild ginger root. It looks so much like the yellow earth color, no wonder I didn't see it earlier."

  He didn't expect that the first spiritual herb he picked would be obtained in such a way, and the unexpected joy made Lin Feng's fatigue disappear instantly. He quickly took out his fine steel sword and carefully dug up the soil, pulling out the entire root of the herb. He held it in his hand for half a day before happily putting it into his storage bag.

  Having gained hope, Lin Feng took a short rest before continuing his search for the medicine. With the benefit of hindsight, Lin Feng walked while constantly recalling the records of spiritual medicines in the Spiritual Plant Compendium - color, scent, growth environment all flashed through his mind, and he carefully searched every place within sight.

  Good fortune did not come again until the sky turned dark, and Lin Feng was unable to find another spiritual herb. The mountain at night was not safe, Lin Feng did not dare stay overnight in the mountains, so he had no choice but to head back.

  The next morning, Lin Feng, still feeling unfulfilled, entered the mountain again, this time changing direction. His luck was better, and soon after entering the mountain, he encountered two stalks of Lingluo Grass growing together. Without hesitation, his fine steel sword lightly dug them up, and the two stalks of Lingluo Grass were in hand. However, his good fortune ended there, and Lin Feng had no further gains for the rest of the time.

  The third day, nothing was gained. The fourth day, same, nothing at all.

  On the fifth day, Lin Feng looked at the four spiritual herbs in front of him, roughly estimating that they were worth about fifteen pieces of low-grade spiritual stone. Not even enough to make a furnace of pills, and if he took them to Yang Ze to exchange for pills, he could only get two Qi-boosting Pills.

  It's been five days since I've wasted my training time picking herbs, and the two Qi-boosting pills aren't enough to make up for it. In other words, relying on picking herbs and refining pills to increase my cultivation speed is not feasible; at most, it can only be used to collect materials to improve my pill-refining skills.