Chapter 48

: Deep in the mountains, Xu Yi has come in no less than ten times, and he is very familiar with the paths leading into the depths.

After deviating from the main trail up the mountain, Xu Yi did not choose the trail he took before this time, but entered in the direction of denser forests.

Xu Yi had carefully observed every inch of the places he had been, and rarely missed any medicinal materials. This time he wanted to find something else, so naturally he couldn't take the original path.

The environment in the mountain forest is quiet, the air humidity is high, and the temperature is much lower than outside. Xu Yi wore a long, narrow-sleeved, tight-waisted, collared top, with trousers underneath tied around the ankles. With every step he took, the small cloth bag made of cotton tied to his left waist swayed. It contained dried ginger and realgar, a snake-repelling medicine bag made by Xu Yi.

This is an indispensable item in the mountains and forests.

Xu Yi made a medicine pack to ward off snakes, as well as a powder to repel mosquitoes and insects. Before coming in, dissolve the medicine powder with water and spray it on your arms, legs, and feet to achieve the effect of repelling mosquitoes and insects.

The formula used is also simple. The most commonly used ingredients are mugwort, mint, cloves, tangerine peel, and a small amount of realgar.

Realgar is a very good medicinal material. It can repel snakes, repel insects, and cure snake venom.

When entering the deep forest, it is difficult to guarantee that nothing will happen. Although there are usually detoxifying herbs in places with snakes, Xu Yi does not intend to put himself into a situation for which he is not prepared.

After the summer heat, there are many medicinal herbs that can be harvested in the mountains.

After Xu Yi entered, it didn't take long for him to gain a lot of good things. At this time, he stopped in front of a low-lying area. This puddle had been formed for an unknown period of time. There was a lot of corrosive matter floating on it, and it exuded the fermentation smell of microorganisms.

Just next to this low-lying area, a wild ginseng tree grew.

Wild ginseng has very high requirements for growth conditions. It needs temperatures below 20 degrees Celsius all year round to grow. It is cold-resistant and prefers soil with good drainage. If the temperature exceeds 30 degrees Celsius, it will stop growing. Moreover, depressions and ridges are not suitable for the growth of wild ginseng. It prefers an environment that is not low-lying but windy.

Xu Yi did not expect to see wild ginseng in a low depression.

Observe the leaves of this wild ginseng again. Its leaves are shaped like a palm. Each leaf has five compound leaves. Each compound leaf is from large to small, just like the palm of a human hand.

This wild ginseng has six compound leaves, which are called "six-grade leaves" in insiders. During the growth cycle of ginseng, the leaves will increase with time. By the sixth year, the leaves will grow to five compound leaves, which are called "five-pin leaves" in jargon. However, ginseng can only grow up to six compound leaves, which means that this ginseng tree is more than six years old. [Note 1]

If you want to know how long ginseng actually grows, you can judge it from the reed bowls and growth rings.

Among the first-aid pills Xu Yi wanted to make, one of them happened to use the precious medicinal material ginseng.

Ginseng is hard to find. Xu Yi has been in the mountains so many times, but he just came across one today. He was so happy that he put down the bamboo basket behind his back and started digging for wild ginseng with a small shovel.

He squatted down and checked the leaves and stems first. When wild ginseng grows, it will naturally shed its leaves and stems once in the fourth year.

There are twelve scars on the reed bowl of this wild ginseng tree, which means it is a wild ginseng that is fifteen years old!

Fifteen-year-old ginseng is nothing, but this is a wild one.

Wild ginseng is different from ordinary artificially cultivated ginseng. It is not easy to grow it to this age. The efficacy of one tree is even more than a dozen artificially cultivated ginseng. Can this not make Xu Yi excited?

He carefully dug up the soil around the reed bowl with a small shovel, and then cleared out the soil around the ginseng bit by bit.

The soil in the low-lying area has accumulated a lot of corroded fallen leaves all year round. The surrounding soil is dark and soft. Xu Yi directly dug it out with his hands. It didn't take long to dig out the wild ginseng tree.

After cleaning off the soil on the ginseng, Xu Yi checked the growth rings on the ginseng again. Generally, ginseng will produce growth rings after four years. This one has eleven growth rings. It seems that it is definitely fifteen years old.

Wild ginseng is spread by seeds. If there is one wild ginseng in a low-lying place, there may be a second or third one nearby.

However, Xu Yi felt that the probability was not high. He wrapped the wild ginseng tree in his handkerchief and put it in his arms, intending to search around it first.

As expected, there was no shadow of a wild ginseng tree around.

Xu Yi didn't feel any regret. The low-lying area was not suitable for the growth of wild ginseng. He didn't know how this one got here. Xu Yi felt that it was more of a fluke that he encountered it.

Half an hour later.

Xu Yi walked around in the deep mountains, but he was not discouraged when he couldn't find a second wild ginseng tree, because later, he found several medicinal materials used in first-aid pills.

Medicinal materials are classified into high and low quality, but they don’t need to be broken down in that way. As long as they are used well, every medicinal material is a treasure.

He found another quiet path with satisfaction, raised his eyebrows, and followed a path down the mountain.

Not long after leaving, Xu Yi suddenly heard a weak groan.

He paused, squinted his eyes and listened carefully, and found that the sound was more like a human being.

There are not many people who can go into the mountains. Apart from Xu Yi who is brave enough to do so, there are only hunters who hunt in the mountains all year round.

Xu Yi did not hesitate and walked quickly in the direction of the sound.

After a while, Xu Yi saw a hunter lying down on a slightly sloping slope.

This hunter looked to be only in his early twenties, a little rough-looking, carrying a crudely made wooden bow, and a machete in his hand. Next to him, there was a poisonous snake chopped into two sections. .

His face was pale and cold sweat broke out on his face. His slightly opened mouth trembled unconsciously, and he uttered meaningless moans intermittently. He was still conscious and had a strong desire to survive. Even though his body was breaking out in a cold sweat, he still endured the biting coldness in his body and raised his voice from time to time in an attempt to be heard by the people passing by.

However, this can easily attract other animals.

When Xu Yi came over, he saw a wild dog coming over sniffing.

Xu Yi frowned, threw a tree branch at the wild dog that was eyeing him, and rushed over with a machete. He was fierce and scolded in a low voice. The wild dog was startled by his sudden appearance. Seeing that Xu Yi was not easy to deal with, he ran away with his tail between his legs. It was reluctant to leave, but it did not continue to move forward.

Xu Yi waved the machete a few times and came to the hunter without letting down his guard.

Only then did he see that Orion's left ankle had stepped on the animal trap, and the sharp iron teeth of the animal trap dug deeply into the flesh of his ankle.

Fortunately, the hunter didn't open the trap because of panic, and the blood loss was not huge.

He would be sweating all the time because he was bitten by a poisonous snake.

Hearing footsteps approaching in his direction, Zhang Tiegou resisted the drowsiness and opened his eyes. When he saw the person, he breathed a sigh of relief and fell into silence when he saw Xu Yi's face again.

This man... is too young.

Xu Yi opened his eyes when he saw him and said, "How do you feel?"

Zhang Tiegou was a little confused, but he still said weakly: "I think I'm going to die."

"Yeah." Xu Yi nodded, "If you don't deal with the poisonous snake, The bite wound is really going to kill you."

Although he said this, he already squatted down and tore open the place where Orion was bitten by the poisonous snake. He looked at the two purple-black tooth holes and covered the surrounding area with a handkerchief. , squeeze out slightly darker blood.

After squeezing out the poisonous blood, Xu Yi wiped it with a handkerchief.

Zhang Tiegou took a strong breath, struggled to sit up, looked at the busy young man in front of him, and sighed: "Stop working, I know that poisonous snake. If you don't have an antidote within an hour after being bitten, you will die.

" This is how the old hunter was bitten to death.

People like them who go to the mountains all the year round and rely on the mountains to make a living always have to give something back. He didn't look at the almanac when he went out today, so he didn't know if it was inappropriate to go out.

The medicine pack I bought to ward off snakes didn't work.

Look, I really can't trust those smugglers and sell them fake medicine kits.

What poured out was not realgar and other medicines, but an unknown weed.

Xu Yi said calmly: "Then what is your last wish?"

Zhang Tiegou: "..."

This man is very direct.

But when it comes to this, it's better to have someone with you than to die alone in the mountains where no one knows.

He was no longer so sad. He shook his head and said, "I haven't gotten married yet, and I'm the only one in the house. If you don't mind, my husband, you can collect my body for me. I still have eight guan of money at home. I've been saving it for a long time and want to get it." It's my wife's payment for collecting the corpse."

Xu Yi couldn't help but smile: "It seems to be a good deal."

Zhang Tiegou was infected by his smile and also laughed: "That's it. It's natural. I, Zhang Tiegou, never take advantage of others."

This time, Xu Yi did not answer him.

While talking to him, Xu Yi had already opened the medicine bag tied around his waist, poured out some of the crushed medicine powder inside, and applied it to the place where the poisonous snake had bitten him.

Zhang Tiegou also noticed it at this time and opened his mouth: "You..."

He recognized what kind of medicine it was.

Xu Yi said: "It's realgar and dried ginger. These two herbs can detoxify snake venom, but you were bitten for a long time, so you need to take something else."

The other things he said were naturally herbs that can detoxify snake venom. .

There was a kind of herb called duck tuocao around where Zhang Tiegou was lying.

The herb can cure snake bites, relieve symptoms caused by inhaled miasma poison, causing coma, arrogance and gibbering, and also has a therapeutic effect on febrile dysentery. [Note 3]

Xu Yi walked over and dug up a few plants. However, conditions did not allow for this, so he smashed a duckweed with a stone, applied it to the injured area, and then tied a cloth strip to fix it.

Zhang Tiegou saw his quick and skillful movements and knew that he had met an expert. At this time, he finally had the energy to observe Xu Yi.

So he discovered that Xu Yi was carrying a large bamboo basket, which contained many strange "weeds" that he had seen and never seen before.

Zhang Tiegou: "..." Why didn't he see it just now? Hope was suddenly reborn.

"Xiao Langjun, are you a doctor?" He swallowed and asked with a dry throat.

Xu Yi nodded and said that he was a doctor, and then went to check the injuries where he was trapped in the animal trap.

Zhang Tiegou asked, "Then I don't have to die?"

Xu Yi said, "I can't die."

After saying that, he raised his eyes to look at his face and said slowly, "You don't sweat anymore."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Tiegou felt The chill in my body was gone. Although there were bursts of bone-chilling pain in his ankle, the panicked feeling of powerlessness was no longer there.

Could it be that the snake venom on his body has been cured?

"Thank you, Mr. Xiaolang, for saving my life. Don't worry, even if I don't die, the eight pieces of money will still belong to Mr. Xiaolang. Hahahahahaha..." Zhang Tiegou laughed happily, and his leg suddenly hurt, " Ah!" The ground screamed in pain.

It turned out that the animal trap at his ankle had been pulled out by Xu Yi with both hands.