Slow and steady cultivation
Wang Caoyao tried to persuade Ye Qin with a mixture of threats and incentives, forcing him to work even harder to collect herbs. There was a reason for this. As the master, Wang Caoyao had the right to take a share of the profits from the herbs collected by his apprentice. Of the money earned from selling the herbs, 5% went to Ye Qin himself, 10% went to Wang Caoyao, and the rest went to the Medicine Collection Hall. Therefore, it was only natural that Wang Caoyao hoped his apprentice would collect as many herbs as possible.
Ye Qin understood this very well, but simply lowered her head and remained silent in response.
In a year, he earned sixty silver leaves, still far from the amount needed to buy a low-grade secret book with one gold leaf. Without sufficient martial power, how could he easily go on an adventure? The medicine was someone else's, but his life was his own. To lose his life for the sake of collecting medicine, no matter how he calculated it, didn't seem worth it to him. As for Yang Yicheng and Feng Xiao, if they wanted to risk their lives, that was their business.
Ye Qin was worried, not just because every month he would be scolded by Wang Cai, the pharmacist.
What worried him even more was his own cultivation progress.
In the past year of diligent practice, he had only managed to increase the brightness of his white light sphere by less than one-tenth. At this rate, it would take him at least ten years to double the brightness of the light sphere.
The lowest level of the first realm of "Zuò Wàng Jīng - Zuò Wàng Wú Wǒ" requires at least a doubling of the light ball to be considered complete. The second level requires even more energy, which is doubled again.
Making a rough estimate, it takes ten years to complete the first level of cultivation, twenty years to complete the second level of cultivation, and thirty years to complete the third level of cultivation.
When Deng Ye Qin finished practicing the first, second and third levels of "Zuo Wang Wu Wo", he was already an old man in his 70s or 80s, then he passed away.
His life was just eighty-one years old.
At this age, it was clearly engraved on his primordial spirit monument, and every day that passed meant one less day. Although Ye Qin didn't know why the stone monument had his lifespan on it, over the past year, he had come to deeply trust that monument.
At the thought of dying at the age of eighty-one, Ye Qin felt a faint sense of powerless fear in his heart. The fear of death is human instinct, especially when one knows that he will die on a certain day, this fear becomes even more intense. This has nothing to do with how brave or cowardly he is.
After knowing when he would die, Ye Qin was no longer interested in the things he had told Wang Caisheng about being promoted to a medicine collector, making a name for himself in the Medicine Pavilion, getting married and having children.
Apart from these, Ye Qin's body also underwent some changes.
Because the first to third layer of Gongfa in "Zuò Wàng Jīng · Zuò Wàng Wú Wǒ" requires gathering all external Qi, to avoid any leakage of Yuanqi during cultivation.
The first layer converges and leaks out "expression", trying to avoid expression fluctuations.
The second layer converges and leaks "emotions", trying to avoid emotional fluctuations.
The third layer converges "heart power", trying to avoid doing things that exhaust one's mind and waste heart power.
This way, it can converge all the essence and spirit, accelerate the cultivation effect. If you can't converge, it will cause extra loss of essence and spirit, which will slow down the cultivation speed to some extent.
Ye Qin has just started cultivating the first layer, so he needs to restrain his expression.
Throughout the year, whether it's windy and rainy with thunder and lightning, scorching sun or cold winter, or others' cold ridicule and hot criticism, he has maintained a demeanor - indifference. Because this expression can be sustained for years on end without expending any energy.
He also gradually became less talkative, because speaking too much can easily change one's demeanor.
Now, Ye Qin's emotions were still fluctuating violently in her heart, but her mind was clearer and more sensitive in thinking, yet her expression didn't change at all.
Others may not be aware of the reason, but in the eyes of those who know Ye Qin, he has undoubtedly become somewhat aloof and difficult to approach.
In the past three years of picking medicine, Ye Qin was calm and gentle in his dealings, never intimidating or aggressive, with a natural air of youthful vigor. He didn't have Yang Yicheng's competitive spirit, nor did he have Feng Xiao's petty calculations about trivial matters, which made him seem like a pedantic merchant. Among the five brothers, Ye Qin was undoubtedly the easiest to get along with.
Qian Ruoxiu and Sun Ying, these two fellow sisters both liked to quietly find him to chat, share some interesting things with him, and bring some special pastries they made for Ye Qin to taste. Girls are always more mature than boys, and their thoughts are also cleverer, already thinking about their future affairs.
But since becoming an apprentice to a herbalist, over the past year, they only occasionally saw each other when returning to the county town every month. They had many things they wanted to share with Ye Qin. However, Ye Qin became increasingly indifferent, showing no reaction to their joyful and exciting experiences, just like a stranger hearing about something that didn't concern them. This "heartlessness" hurt them deeply, causing them to resent him instead and ignore him.
What else can Ye Qin do but feel a little bitter in her heart?
Even if it's bitter, it's bitter in heart, and on the face, it's already impossible to reveal half of the expression except for indifference.
He is like this with these two sisters, and his relationship with Shixiong Yang Yicheng and Shidi Feng Xiaoyu naturally deteriorates even further.
Yang Yicheng once invited Ye Qin to go drinking with him and a group of apprentices from the Medicine Hall, but Ye Qin refused because he didn't want to go to such a lively place. Yang Yicheng thought that Ye Qin had lost face for him and wasn't being brotherly enough, so he looked down on Ye Qin.
Feng Xiaozhe thought Ye Qintai was a bit too proud, and Ye Qintai never smiled when greeting him, which made Feng Xiaozhe resentful. The relationship between the two brothers-in-law, which had been barely tolerable before, became increasingly distant over the year. Occasionally, they would only exchange greetings when they met, and rarely had the opportunity to chat together.
Wang Caizong, the medicine master, was not in the least concerned about Ye Qin's change. He himself had a cold and icy face all day long. In Wang Caizong's eyes, Ye Qin's indifference was very much to his liking. This was the attitude that an apprentice of medicine collection should have. What's the use of being so enthusiastic? It can't be eaten as rice. Doing a good job is the most important thing.
The only thing that comforted Ye Qin was Cheng Da Niu.
Ye Qin would visit Yang's iron shop every time he returned to Zhukai County, where Big Cow had become an apprentice blacksmith and a sturdy fourteen-year-old boy. He was able to make some iron farming tools with Uncle Yang and could take care of himself. Big Cow was still the same as before, not distant due to his calm demeanor. However, their relationship was no longer like that of close brothers who shared joys and sorrows together; instead, Big Cow showed more respect towards him.
Ye Qin's heart was gloomy. This respectful expression, he had seen it in the eyes of many residents in the county town, that was the ordinary people's respect for the Jianghu people. However, as long as Big Cow could pass through Yang's Iron Shop safely, he would be at ease. He couldn't afford to have too many extravagant hopes now.
He knew that if this situation continued, no one in the Medicine Pavilion could tolerate his increasingly strong indifference. From the moment he started cultivating "The Sutra of Forgetting and Emptiness", it was likely that he would have to walk this path alone.
