Chapter 179

Chapter 179: Handing Herbs Over

The one who wants to break the record?

Hearing the way Wang addressed him, Yi Yun nearly choked. This woman sure had a foul mouth. He had only asked a few questions and she was being this sarcastic about it.

But… Alright… Although he did want to break the record, he had not said it out loud.

“Little brother Yi Yun, it’s you.”

Zhao Qingcheng looked at Yi Yun and forced a smile. She transmitted her voice, “This woman is a hedgehog. She wants to prick anyone she sees. She’s also a metallic rooster made of black iron. She’s so stingy that she won’t allow you to pluck out even a single feather! You will know once you hand over your herbs today. She will reduce the price of your herbs drastically. Many rookies can’t even pay the 25 dragon scale runes rent.”

Zhao Qingcheng was full of complaints. She was still worried over the usury.

The few herb-picking girls were all at a loss. To cultivators, dragon scale runes was too precious. They had to pinch every penny to lead their days, wishing they could use one dragon scale rune as two.

“Thank you Sis Zhao’s advice. Why does Sister Wang have such a bad temper?” Yi Yun asked casually.

“Who knows. I heard that she was a cultivator in the Tai Ah Divine City. Then she found another cultivator who she liked and got engaged. Later, due to some mishap, the person she liked died while cultivating. Later on, this Wang woman stayed behind in the Tai Ah Divine City. She’s actually very strong, but is not friendly with anyone, hence she was sent to be in charge of miscellaneous jobs.”

“This…” Yi Yun did not expect for this to happen. Hearing this story, he could feel the brutality of cultivating in the Tai Ah Divine City. It was so easy to die.

“Sis has to tell you. Dragon scale runes are very precious. Every dragon scale rune has to be wisely spent. Do not waste them. It’s difficult for rookies to earn dragon scale runes. You make about 10 or so a day, and there are many places you need to use them in the future.”

Zhao Qingcheng knew this all too well.

Yi Yun nodded. He felt that although Zhao Qingcheng was never serious with her words, she was still a good person.

At this time, Wang had already lifted the steelyard, and said to Yi Yun, “Herb picking is the same for rookies and veterans. 25 dragon scale runes, not one less! If there’s not enough… then we will have to reduce your dragon scale runes to below zero.”

Wang dragged out her tone and played with the pigeon egg-sized weight, knocking it on the table.

“Of course, if you don’t want to sleep on the streets, you can choose to be like those debtors and borrow from the bank. As for the interest… for rookies, it’s less. Only 12%, but of course it compounds.”

While saying this, Wang glanced at Zhao Qingcheng and company. They all turned red with embarrassment. This Wang woman’s mouth was too foul.

Yi Yun was nonchalant upon hearing Wang’s words. He placed his herb basket onto the table.

Wang pulled away the cloth covering the basket and reached in to pull out the herbs.

But, with this grab, a strange expression appeared on Wang’s face.

Having been in the herb-picking office for so long, she was extremely sensitive to herbs. With this reach, she could feel something amiss. Upon looking inside the basket, she gave an odd look.

She flipped the herb basket and her face gradually froze.

“Oh?”

Zhao Qingcheng and company also noticed Wang’s expression, and were curious about what had happened.

“These… were picked by you?”

Wang raised her head and measured Yi Yun from head to toe, as if this was the first time seeing him.

Yi Yun nodded. Zhao Qingcheng and company also came to realize that something had happened. They came over out of curiosity and looked into the basket and were immediately stunned.

“Void Star Flower, Panniu roots. Oh? This is Duskwood Fruit… a treasure among Yellow-ranked herbs, and… what is this…?”

Zhao Qingcheng took out a worm-like object. After looking at it for good while, she recalled the record in the ‘Divine wilderness’ book. “This… it can’t be, Meteorite Grass?”

Zhao Qingcheng had picked herbs for a long time and had only encountered a few low-grade Mystic-rank herbs, which were all very common ones among the Mystic-rank herbs.

And Meteorite Grass was a middle-grade Mystic-ranked herb that nearly approached upper-grade Mystic-rank.

Among the middle-grade Mystic-ranked herbs, Meteorite Grass was extremely rare. It was not easy to find one and it was worth a lot. Zhao Qingcheng had never seen the Meterorite Grass in the Tai Ah herb mountain, hence it took a while for her to recognize it .

“Hmph! To pick herbs with your knowledge, even with the herb in front of you, you still cannot recognize it. What’s the point of picking!?”

Wang mocked Zhao Qingcheng. Indeed, herbs in the Divine wilderness were very difficult to find. If one was lucky enough to see one and not recognize it, it would be a great waste.

But, this situation has happened to a lot of cultivators.

Unless one was an alchemist, how would one see the various kinds of herbs? Also, the herbs in the Divine wilderness were different from those in the central plains. Alchemists who did not have enough experience had to learn, on the spot, how to identify herbs.

Typical cultivators would rely on the records written in the ‘Divine wilderness’ book.

But after all, a book was a book. Just from some drawings and description, it was difficult to perfectly describe the different properties of the herbs. It was very common to not recognize one!

It was common for rookies to have dismal results picking herbs. Many herbs were missed due to their ignorance.

In fact, those who could recognize most of the herbs from the herb mountains’ thousands of species of plants using just a book’s record were abnormal!

And now, Yi Yun was one of those abnormal people in Zhao Qingcheng’s mind.

In the Tai Ah Divine City’s herbal mountain, many of the grass, shrubs, woods and plants all looked similar to herbs. It was not easy to distinguish which was which!

Many rookies had situations when they picked the wrong plant. Many spirit plants had some spirit gathered within it, making it look like a herb.

Also, many herbs could hide themselves, making it even more difficult to find them.

For Yi Yun to pick so many herbs on his first time was ridiculous!

“This Void Star Flower… How did you find it?”

Void Star Flower could transform to make itself look like a tree, hiding itself. Zhao Qingcheng had not picked a Void Star Flower in all of her months here.

“Oh… Doesn’t the ‘Divine wilderness’ book say… A Void Star Flower will make itself look like a tree. But the tree it creates will have a speckled texture. Like when clouds clear, leaving behind a void of star-like water droplets, hence the reason for its name.”

Hearing Yi Yun’s explanation, Zhao Qingcheng looked at Yi Yun as if she had seen a freak.

Of course, Zhao Qingcheng knew how the Void Star Flower got its name and how to distinguish the fake tree made by a Void Star Flower and other plants.

But!

How small were the water droplets left behind after the clouds clear?

In the Tai Ah Divine City’s herbal mountain, it was filled with trees and would take a day to travel through it. At the speed a warrior traveled, they would see tens of thousands of trees. Who would notice that a single tree had some sparkles? Especially when the sparkles were about the size of a pinhole!

How did Yi Yun get these eyes!?

Zhao Qingcheng could not believe it.

The four girls crowded around Yi Yun. Yi Yun could not stand it, “Uh… Why are you surrounding me like that… Uh, you are even drooling.”

Yi Yun saw that a girl about the same age as him, who was standing beside Zhao Qingcheng, drooling while looking at the Meteorite Grass in Zhao Qingcheng’s hands.

“Eh?” That thirteen-year-old girl quickly wiped her mouth and sheepishly smiled.

This Meteorite Grass was worth 80 dragon scale runes. It was a treasure. They were going mad from being poor, and they naturally wanted it.

And standing beside the Meteorite Grass, they could smell its milky scent, which was very appetizing.

“That… Brother Yi Yun, how did you find this Meteorite Grass?”

This young girl was a family friend of Zhao Qingcheng. She had just come to the Tai Ah Divine City and was following Zhao Qingcheng, being under her care.

But clearly, Zhao Qingcheng was not doing too well in the Tai Ah Divine City. She could only give limited care to this girl. At most, she could introduce the various rules and bring her around.

When this young girl asked, everyone looked towards Yi Yun. Although the Void Star Flower was difficult to find, at least it had some defining characteristics. It was no wonder he could find it if Yi Yun had ridiculous observational powers.

But for Meteorite Grass, it hid within stones and could not be seen from the surface. Only upon cleaving a rock open would you see it. But there were more rocks than trees in the Tai Ah Divine City’s herb mountain! How could you cleave open so many?