Chapter 7: Gathering Herbs

  The crowd that had surrounded them looked at Xu Fei's disheveled escape, all with expressions of schadenfreude. Afterwards, they nodded to Mo Tian and Ye Chen before dispersing.

  "Thanks a lot, Mo Tian! If it weren't for you, I'd probably be out of luck!"

  Ye Chen was truly grateful to Mo Tian at this moment, after all, Mo Tian had come to help him despite the pressure from Xu Feng.

  Upon hearing this, Mo Tian let out a hearty laugh and patted Ye Chen's shoulder: "Forget it! Who are you to me, anyway!"

  Ye Chen smiled slightly.

  "By the way, where's Shen Xian? Why isn't she with you?" Mo Tian only then noticed that Shen Xian, who was originally inseparable from Ye Chen, wasn't here. He jokingly said: "You didn't make your little wife angry, did you?"

  Ye Chen burst out laughing and said: "Mo Tian, how can your mouth be so poisonous!"

  Mo Tian's cunning smile, said: "What, I'm wrong again! Haha!"

  At this time, Shen Xiang rushed over from a distance, ran to Ye Chen's side, looked at Ye Chen with a tense face, and asked urgently: "Chen Ge, are you okay?"

  Ye Chen looked at Shen Qian's worried expression, a warm current surged up in his heart, and he shook his head slightly with a faint smile.

  Mo Tian, who was standing aside, looked at the two of them being affectionate and chuckled, jokingly saying: "Be careful! There's still me here! Don't ignore others, especially a single guy like me who hasn't been loved by any woman yet!"

  Shen Xiang listened to Mo Tian's words without refuting them, her face flushing red as she stood beside Ye Chen, looking like a little wife.

  "Alright, Mo Tian, aren't you going to host? Why are you still here?" Ye Chen also said somewhat awkwardly.

  Upon hearing this, Mo Tian slapped his forehead and hastily said: "You didn't say it, I really forgot. Alright, you guys go take a stroll! I won't stay here being a light bulb!"

  As soon as he finished speaking, Mo Tian also ignored the two of them and turned around to hurry away.

  Ye Chen watched as Mo Tian ran away, letting out a light sigh. Who would have thought that at this gathering, he was also one of the hosts?

  Shen Xian was so clever, seeing Ye Chen's somewhat disappointed face, comfortingly said: "Chen Ge! I believe in you, one day, the glory that belongs to you will come!"

  Ye Chen smiled and said: "Right! What good things did you exchange?"

  Shen Xian hastily pulled out an ancient-looking book from his bosom and handed it to Ye Chen: "Brother Chen, I almost forgot! This is the martial skill I was going to exchange with you!"

  Ye Chen looked at the martial skill in his hand, crying and laughing, to think that he already possessed a fourth-grade martial skill, Dragon Subduing Hand, how could he still be interested in another martial skill.

  Ye Chen handed the ancient scroll back to Shen Xin without even looking at it, and smiled slightly, saying: "Xin'er, I don't need it, you'd better keep it for your cultivation!"

  Xiaoyu's slender willow eyebrows furrowed, and she hadn't even taken the scroll handed over by Ye Chen. With a hint of dissatisfaction, she said: "Brother Chen, I gave it to you, so just keep it! I don't need it at all right now!"

  Ye Chen looked at Shen Xiang's somewhat dissatisfied expression, smiled wryly, nodded and didn't insist on letting Shen Xiang accept it, because he had already made up his mind to take Shen Xiang to the secret room after a while, where the martial skills were all the most precious ones of Lianyun Sect.

  Ye Chen slowly opened the scroll in his hand, Sheng Tao Zhang, a first-class martial skill with three forms. The first form can be cultivated after one fragmentation of the body, and the third form can be cultivated after three fragmentations of the body.

  Ye Chen looked at the introduction of the martial skill in his hand, speechless: This is too trashy, two first-class elixirs, Shen Xiang actually only exchanged for this lowest-level Jingtao Palm.

  Ye Chen gently shook his head, not blaming Shen Xiang at all. After all, Shen Xiang was obtained for himself, and besides, with the alchemy technique he possessed now, these first-class elixirs were no longer valuable to Ye Chen.

  Shen Xiang looked at Ye Chen shaking his head, her small mouth pouting, somewhat angrily said to Ye Chen: "I spent half a day bargaining with others to buy it, how can it not meet your standards?"

  Ye Chen looked at Shen Qian's angry expression and hastily put the scroll into his arms, explaining: "No ~ no ~ you misunderstood Qian'er!"

  Shen Xian looked at Ye Chen's flustered appearance and smiled sweetly: "Hehe, gotcha!" Then she took out the two elixirs that Ye Chen had just given her from her bosom and put them back in his hand: "I'm not an idiot, here, these are the elixirs you gave me!"

  Ye Chen was taken aback for a moment, then couldn't help but smile slightly and shook his head: "What's given to you is yours! Let's go take a look around and see if there's anything else!"

  As soon as he finished speaking, Ye Chen turned around and walked inside. Actually, Ye Chen had already thought it through, he decided to take advantage of this gathering to exchange some herbs for elixirs, which would be the fastest way to improve his cultivation.

  "They know your heart, and you're not unaware of it, so why do you always pretend to be clueless?" Shen Xiang looked at the departing Ye Chen, muttering somewhat coquettishly to herself before quickly following after him.

  Before long, Ye Chen stopped in front of a young man who was dressed rather shabbily and looked at the various herbs displayed on his stall with a delighted smile.

  Ye Chen lightly squatted down, picked up a grass with seven leaflets, looked at it, and instantly appeared in his mind the introduction of this herb: Seven Insect Grass, also known as Seven-lobed Leaf Grass, because the tip of each leaflet resembles an insect's head. It is a top-grade herb. A 50-year-old Seven Insect Grass has only one red leaflet, while a 10 to 15-year-old one has fifteen to twenty... forty-five to fifty years old have seven colors, which is a third-grade herb. Top-grade Seven Insect Grass is the main material for making top-grade nourishing liquid.

  Rejuvenation Liquid, a supplementary medicinal material, is used during the fragmentation period. After cultivation, soaking in Rejuvenation Liquid every day can quickly restore damaged muscles and bones. It is an essential item for fragmentation period cultivation. The preparation of medicinal materials requires Seven Insect Grass over 15 years old, Huangshen over 5 years old, Yuyang Flower over 5 years old, and Ling Shan over 5 years old.

  Ye Chen's face lit up with excitement, this nourishing liquid was exactly what he needed most now. If he had the assistance of this nourishing liquid, breaking through to the Gathering Qi Realm in half a year would probably be extremely easy.

  However, this seven-pest grass in front of me already has red and orange colors, it's already fifteen years old, the effect of refining nourishing liquid is also the best.

  Thinking of this, Ye Chen wondered how he could give up on the medicine in front of him. He immediately put on an air of nonchalance and asked the stall owner, "How much for this Seven Insect Grass?"

  The young man lazily glanced at Ye Chen and said in a soft voice, "Only exchanging martial skills! If you don't have any, then leave! Don't interfere with my business!"

  Ye Chen furrowed his brow and said in a low voice, "With just this, you probably won't be able to exchange it for martial skills!"

  The young man glanced at Ye Chen and said with great impatience: "Don't bother about it, if you don't want to then just leave!"

  Shen Xian, standing beside Ye Chen, looked at the sloppy young man with great dissatisfaction and pulled Ye Chen's hand, saying: "Chen Ge, let's go, this thing is useless!"

  Ye Chen made a silencing gesture to Shen Xiang, then took out the martial skill "Zongyun Yan" he had originally cultivated and handed it directly to the sloppy young man.

  The young man looked at the "Riding Cloud Swallow" in his hand, and his eyes emitted a very dazzling light. Although they were all outer door disciples, Ye Chen was one of the top ten masters of the outer door back then, and the martial skills he possessed were naturally much more precious than those of these ordinary outer door disciples.

  The excited young man facing Ye Chen said, "Enough! Enough! This is enough!" He immediately threw the seven-insect grass on the ground stall directly at Ye Chen and hastily said, fearing that Ye Chen would regret it.

  Ye Chen smiled lightly and shook his head, saying: "This is not enough, apart from this one, I also want to choose three more herbs!" In fact, Ye Chen had discovered early on that among the items on this young man's stall, apart from the Seven Bug Grass, there were actually three other items that were ingredients for the Nourishing Body Liquid, namely Huang Shen, Yu Yang Cao, and Ling Shan.

  The young man's mind was now completely focused on the "Riding Clouds and Swallows" that Ye Chen had handed over to him. He didn't even bother to respond to Ye Chen, simply waving his hand indifferently and saying, "Whatever, whatever!"

  Ye Chen smiled slightly, crouched down and carefully put the few medicinal herbs he needed into his bosom, stood up and looked at the sloppy young man, saying in a soft voice: "Brother, if you have such medicinal herbs again in the future, please keep them for me, I will buy them all!"

  After a moment, the young man's excitement also passed, and he carefully put 'Zongyun Yan' into his arms like a treasure, looked up at Ye Chen, frowned: "You are that Ye Chen who was abandoned by Xufeng?"

  Upon hearing this, Ye Chen nodded slightly in embarrassment, indicating his tacit agreement.

  But Shen Xian, who was standing beside him, suddenly flared up and pointed at the slovenly young man, shouting: "What's wrong with you? Can't you speak properly?"

  The young man listened to Shen Qian's soft voice, as if she wasn't talking about him, and only glanced at Shen Qian before looking at Ye Chen with a puzzled expression, saying: "Is what you're saying true?"

  Ye Chen gently pulled one, the furious Shen Xin, smiled slightly at the sloppy young man and said: "Yes! Do you have any extra medicinal materials? I'll take them all!"

  The young man's face lit up with joy as he listened to Ye Chen's words and hastily said: "Yes! Follow me!"

  The slovenly young man immediately packed the medicinal herbs on the ground stall directly into his bundle and turned around to walk out of the field.

  Ye Chen didn't dare to stay, pulled up Shen Xiang, and also hurriedly followed.

  Ye Chen and Shen Xian followed behind the lazy person, without walking too far, they arrived at the entrance of a very secretive small cave.

  The vigilant young man glanced around cautiously, then turned to Ye Chen and said in a low voice: "All my medicinal materials are here, take a look and see if you need any!"

  Shen Xian was after all a woman, looking around at the quiet and soundless surroundings, she felt a thread of fear, tightly grasping Ye Chen's arm, unwilling to let go.

  Ye Chen comfortingly patted Shen Xiang lightly and then looked at the disheveled young man, asking in puzzlement: "Why did you put the medicinal herbs here?"

  The sloppy young man rolled his eyes, looking at Ye Chen with a "you're an idiot" expression: "Do you think we all learn from you? We are four people living together. If these things were put in our own rooms, would you feel comfortable?"

  "Ah!"

  Upon hearing this, Ye Chen smiled awkwardly and said: "Alright, bring out all the medicinal materials! Let me see if there's anything I need?"

  The young man didn't stay, turned around and walked into the cave that only allowed one person to pass through. A moment later, he came out with a big bag of things, not caring if it would damage the medicine inside, and threw it in front of Ye Chen: "It's all here, take a look!"

  Ye Chen hastily squatted down, rummaging through the contents. The more he looked, the more excited his face became: two pearls, seven insect grasses were all between ten to fifteen years old, three stems of five-year-old or older Huang Shen, three stems of five-year-old or older Yu Yang Hua, and two stems of Ling Shan.

  The medicine here plus what Ye Chen just bought is just enough to make six portions, which will be sufficient for Ye Chen's use for a month.

  Ye Chen hastily took out the medicinal herbs he needed and asked the slovenly young man: "I'll take all of these!"

  The slovenly young man looked at Ye Chen and saw that he had bought so many, a joyful expression appeared on his face, saying: "Considering you've bought me so much medicine, I'll give you a discount! Give me two first-class martial skills books, and take everything away!"

  At this, Ye Chen smiled awkwardly again and said reluctantly: "I don't know, can dan medicine be used as a substitute?"

  "Ah!" The slovenly young man was taken aback, his face even more excited, and he hastily asked: "Do you have elixirs? What kind of elixir? How many?"

  It's worth noting that martial skills are precious, but currently they're all first-rate, and compared to elixirs, they're slightly inferior.

  Ye Chen gently took out three dan medicines wrapped in oil paper from his bosom and said softly, "One Strong Body Pill, I have three!"

  These three 'Strong Body Pills' were among the seven awarded to Ye Chen when he became one of the top ten outer sect experts. He had taken two before, but never dared to take any more since then. Earlier, he gave Shen Ying two pills, so now he only has these last three left. However, for Ye Chen who now understands alchemy, these are no longer valuable, and one pill can be exchanged for enough medicinal materials to brew two portions of 'Nourishing Liquid'.

  The young man's face lit up with extreme excitement as soon as he heard it was "Strong Body Pill", and he hastily said, "Great! Great! Three pills!"

  Ye Chen smiled slightly and shook his head, saying in a soft voice: "I can only give you one of these things! You should know the benefits of 'Strong Body Pills'!"

  The young man pondered for a moment, then looked up at Ye Chen and said, "Alright! One for one! Deal!"

  Ye Chen's face cracked a smile, and he directly tossed a dan medicine over, then gathered all the herbs he had picked out from the ground into his own carrying package. He stood up, thanked the slovenly youth, turned around and was about to leave with Shen Xiang.

  The young man hastily stepped forward and grabbed Ye Chen, who was about to leave, and said urgently: "Do you still need it? In the future, if you need it, I'll exchange these medicinal materials for your 'Strong Body Pill'."

  Ye Chen turned his head to look at the sloppy young man, and smiled slightly: "Good! Two stalks of double-colored seven-bug grass, two stalks of five-year-old or older Huang Ren Shen, two stalks of five-year-old or older Yu Yang Hua, two stalks of five-year-old or older Ling Shan, in exchange for one 'Strong Body Pill'!"

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