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Translator – Erza
Editor – Ben
Finalized Editor – Silavin
With his daily training finished, he started his sweeping, which since absorbing the Golden Skeleton he had been able to complete in only one hour. After he finished sweeping he ran to the Contribution Hall.
Although Yang Kai had decided to go into the mountains to find the herbs, he had no knowledge regarding herbalism. He had only heard of the Three Leaved Chaos Spirit Flower and the Dead Jedi Tree Grass, and didn’t know what they looked like.
Most of his preparatory work for his journey into the Black Wind Mountain was done. To avoid an embarrassing situation, Yang Kai hurried to the Contribution Hall to write down the herbs’ appearance.
Originally he had planned to ask Treasurer Meng to teach him, he hadn’t expected Treasurer Meng to give him a book on herbs instead.
Looking at the book, Yang Kai found that it had an introduction to herbs and their medical properties, habitats and illustrations. Though it would give create a feeling of disappointment in those who read it. As it merely contained information on ordinary grade herbs and nothing on the herbs of a higher grade, but it was quite suitable for Yang Kai’s current needs.
Just as cultivation level had different ranks, so to were herbs, weapons and medicinal pellets. They were divided into, Ordinary Grade, Earth Grade, Heaven Grade, Mystery Grade, Spirit Grade and Saint Grade; and each grades were then divided into three levels – lower, middle and peak level.
Luckily the herbs that Yang Kai needed were both Ordinary Grade, Lower class herbs so they were in the book. And since they were such a low grade, their value wasn’t high.
After he left the Contribution Hall, Yang Kai went to the General Affairs Office. After all he was still a sweeper of High Heaven Pavilion and this roundabout journey to Black Wind Mountain would take more than a day. So he had to ask to be excused from his work.
The General Affairs Office didn’t make things difficult for him. They gave Yang Kai three days of leave, with his obligations taken care of he set off…
Black Wind Mountain was only twenty miles away from High Heaven Pavilion by foot. Since it wasn’t that far, Yang Kai frequently went there to hunt for his meals, making him quite familiar with the terrain.
In this mountain was a vast and diverse range of herbs. But since it was his first time collecting herbs, Yang Kai made sure to be fully prepared. Carrying his water, food supplies, a shovel and a bag, he hit the road.
Rushing over, Yang Kai came to Black Wind Mountain and surveyed the area. The Mountain was like a prehistoric monster, lying down between the heavens and the earth. Imposing, with no end in sight, the mountain with its lush forests, jagged edges proudly stood against the horizon. Standing there, Yang Kai felt a cool breeze blow through his hair.
Within Black Wind Mountain lived many ferocious beasts. Some high levelled ferocious beasts could even make martial practitioners flee with no chance of victory. So generally when people ventured into the mountain, they wouldn’t go too deep. The first thirty or so miles were classified as the safe zones; while the next ten miles were the dangerous zone. And the area beyond that was the life-threatening zone. Basically the deeper you went, the more dangerous it was.
Since Yang Kai was only looking for ordinary grade lower level herbs he didn’t need to venture too far in. So naturally, he didn’t have to worry about his safety as he would only be searching within the safe zone.
Currently it was still in the early hours of the morning and Yang Kai was trying to recall whether or not he had stumbled upon those herbs in his previous trips to the mountain. But it didn’t matter whether he had or not, as he was prepared this time to find them equipped with the knowledge from the book.
Thinking back, Yang Kai remembered that there were many potential places for herbs to grow in. In his current situation he didn’t even know the locations of the herbs he wanted to find.
But filled with anticipation, Yang Kai followed the familiar track into Black Wind Mountain.
After half an hour Yang Kai spotted his first harvest hidden within the thicket next to the track he, was a bunch of Li Chi/Sharp Teeth herbs. Harvesting them, Yang Kai put them into his bag and continued his search, thinking to himself this was a good start. Walking down the road, Yang Kai looked at the various vegetation scattered about, and memories of the forest came flooding back, informing him of his location. With his knowledge of the Mountain, gained from hunting, he could accurately create a mental map of where he was in relation to High Heaven Pavilion, preventing him from getting lost. By evening Yang Kai had collected four different types of herbs.
When searching for herbs it is naturally very hard, not to mention that many people like to come here to collect herbs, making it even harder to find them. Although Yang Kai only found four herbs, he was still pretty satisfied.
Unfortunately Yang Kai didn’t need these four herbs, to make matters worse their grades were only at Ordinary Grade, lower level too. Nevertheless, if he were to take them back, he could exchange them for contribution points, so they were of some value.
At this time the sun had already started to set. With much haste, Yang Kai finally arrived at an area which was suitable for the growth of many herbs.
This area was very strange, for all its bountiful vegetation it was devoid of any living presence. Especially for an area of thirty feet around the area of herbs the land was completely dead and nothing grew, not even weeds.
Though at the centre of this wasteland, there were three bunches of grass. They fluttered in the wind; Yang Kai saw that they were brown coloured, and thought that is was just necrosis. But this was just the grass’ natural colour.
After looking at it in more detail Yang Kai recognised them as a type of herb and with a sigh of relief, rushed over. With a wide grin plastered on his face, he quickly dug them all up.
A little while later, these three herbs were collected.
As he held these herbs, Yang Kai took out the herbalism book that Treasurer Meng gave him earlier and checked it to see where he had seen them before. They were indeed the Dead Jedi Tree Grass. The illustrations, growth and environment all matched up.
Dead Jedi Tree Grass grew from dead trees, which made it quite easy to find. Basically in the mountains, any place that had dead land, you could find it growing nearby.
Carefully, Yang Kai placed the grass in his bag and took out some water and food, then took out his water and food and looked for a place to eat and rest.
This time when he entered the mountains his main goal was to find the Three Leaved Chaos Spirit Flower and the Dead Jedi Tree Grass, now that he had found the Dead Jedi Tree Grass, he needed to switch his focus to the Three Leaved Chaos Spirit Flower. Not only did he need to find the Three Leaved Chaos Spirit Flower but he also needed a large quantity of it. Yang Kai decided he must double his efforts.
Though right now, it was already evening and the sun had set. This was naturally an inconvenient time to search for herbs so Yang Kai decided to find a spot to rest and continue tomorrow.
Previously when he entered/forayed into the mountains, he had never stayed overnight; however as the saying goes “Even if you hadn’t tasted pork, you have at least seen a pig before”. On that note, he naturally knew the dangers of the mountains at night.
(Erza: I think it’s pretty self-explanatory. But for those who are confused, it means that even if you haven’t experienced some things, you should have some knowledge of them.)
(Ben: Man even got to edit the comments, no rest for the wicked)
After he found the nearest tree, Yang Kai climbed up and looked for a suitable place to sleep, after locating a place he immediately laid down and closed his eyes.
(Ben: Trees are so hard to locate in a forest on a mountain)
By one-thirty am, Yang Kai had yet to fall asleep, so he took out the black book and turned to page three. With a thought, the incense burner floated out.
This was also a little mystery that Yang Kai had solved about the black book. Anything that was stored inside could be called out and returned at will. It was after all a storage book, and the burner had obviously been placed in there before so this function didn’t come as a complete surprise.
(Erza: Our MC isn’t very bright. It’s a storage book. If you could take things out, why couldn’t they be put back in? How did the burner end up in it in the first place? A mystery……..ಠ_ಠ)
What Yang Kai didn’t understand was that apart from the incense burner, other things could not be stored in the book. This made him wonder, was the black book a soul stone? Do soul stones normally have restrictions on what to accept and reject?
After only playing with the black book for a short while, Yang Kai fell asleep. He had just spent the entire day walking around the mountain, exhausting himself to no ends.
After a peaceful night, Yang Kai got up early the next morning and practised the tempered body record for half an hour. In order to gather a good harvest, he must work very hard for the next two days. He also felt that he was on the brink of a breakthrough, not only did he feel that his atmospheric sense was at the utmost limit; he also felt his body was as well. Yang Kai just needed a final push in order to breakthrough.
Amount till the next bonus chapter:
[give_goal id=”997″ show_text=”true” show_bar=”true”]
I’m starting to realize why this novel is over 6000 chapters.
(Erza: Our MC isn’t very bright. It’s a storage book. If you could take things out, why couldn’t they be put back in? How did the burner end up in it in the first place? A mystery……..ಠ_ಠ)
starting to see why people wanted you to shut up. 😂
Aye. I don’t know if there’s a way to hide these TL notes.
Hint is not in the real word, probaly world building will be done slowly
Not sure what the author is doing.
He makes the MC wonder around this book, without telling us what he should know.
He can read, and he’s a student here. Surely they have books and manuals?
Then again, that would mean worldbuilding. Yeah. We don’t even know where and when this story happens.
Hint is not in the real word, probaly world building will be done slowly
The MC know a bunch of things about this world and the cultivation system due to his background but is not ideal to stop the things here and start to do a bunch of exposition because: 1-This would interupt the natural flow of the story so far and 2-Yang Kai immediate needs are to grow stronger using the Black Book and increase his cultivation level(which are basically one in the same). Now about the Soul Stone, not even Yang Kai knows what it in fact does, he knows about the stones use to make spacial rings but that mineral is a rank lower than the Soul Stones but the Black Book is not accepting anything that Yang Kai is trying to store in it, except the incense jar. So if the Soul Stone has the same properties than a Spacial Ring why the book isn’t storing his other itens?