Chapter 31 Unlocks a New Talent: Free Gathering of Spirit Herbs
Having suffered a fatal attack, the Greatly Broken Boar twitched a few times before its body gradually stiffened.
Sensing their mother's death, the two little earth pigs cried out in grief, constantly trying to imitate their mother's control of earth-attribute spiritual energy, summoning earth spikes to attack.
Both small, broken earth pigs were at the Qi Refining stage, and the earth spikes they summoned were neither as hard nor as numerous as those of the large, broken earth pig. This meant that the first-tier talismans thrown out later could effectively defend against the earth spike attacks.
Once Song Yin confirmed that the large wild boar was completely dead, she calmly drew her spirit sword and her gaze fell on the two small wild boars.
Witnessing their powerful mother being killed, the two little piglets finally felt fear, quickly stopped attacking, and didn't even dare to grunt loudly.
Song Yin's sword pierced the two smaller ones again; she wouldn't soften her heart just because they were cubs as tall as adults. Both were demonic beasts, and both represented points in her competition. Besides, she could clearly see the hatred in the two little wild boars' eyes!
Having finally killed the target monster and the danger was over, Song Yin instantly felt all her strength drain away. Her body went limp, and she rolled off the monster's corpse, burying herself face down in the ground.
Song Yin: Damn! What an embarrassing fall.
She silently turned herself over; her face and hair were covered in dirt.
...
The disciples watching from the sidelines in the secret realm fell silent.
The once bustling square was now deathly silent...
Their impression was still of Song Yin successfully turning the tables on the Great Earth Pig, her face covered in blood, her expression devoid of joy or sorrow, only showing extreme calmness and indifference.
The impact was so strong that they were unable to calm down for a long time.
Meanwhile, inside the sect's main hall, the elders watching the battle fell silent.
Qi Zibo initially thought Song Yin would face a life-or-death crisis, unable to defeat the Golden Core stage demon beast, and that he would have to rescue her. Actually, it's normal to lose; turning the tables on a higher-level opponent is something sword cultivators can do, but not every sword cultivator can achieve it. Only a small number of outstanding sword cultivators can pull off such a feat.
Elder Xin, the instigator, was also stunned by the final look. He asked Qi Zibo in a low voice, "Are you sure Song Yin hasn't received combat training?"
Qi Zibo was also caught off guard; he was somewhat bewildered, “...No.”
Sect Leader Yan has spoken.
"More valuable than her ability to defeat a Golden Core demon beast of a higher level is her composure when facing a powerful enemy." Like a well-experienced warrior, she calmly handles all unfavorable situations, quickly analyzes the pros and cons, and makes the most advantageous decision.
"She is a natural-born swordsman."
Upon hearing the sect leader's assessment, the elders fell silent once more.
The current sect leader of the Immortal Cloud Sect, Yan Xi, is a powerful sword cultivator herself. The fact that Song Yin has gained her approval shows how talented she is.
Finally, someone broke the silence and asked Qi Zibo, "How do you choose your apprentices? Share your experience with us."
Qi Zibo was still lost in thought, "I just consulted a divination before accepting a disciple."
A sword cultivator elder spoke up: "Why don't you give me Song Yin as your disciple? The sect leader said she's a born sword cultivator."
Qi Zibo snapped back to reality and immediately retorted, "Bullshit! She's a promising alchemist. She can easily refine first-grade pills during the Qi Refining stage, and even broke through to the Foundation Establishment stage while refining second-grade pills. Don't lie through your teeth with such a good alchemist prospect."
Sword Cultivator Elder: "It wasn't me who said it, it was the Sect Master who said it."
Qi Zibo: "Oh, so what? Song Yin is now a disciple of my Danque Peak. She is a gift from heaven to me. She will inherit the Danque Peak tradition in the future, so she will not learn any swordsmanship."
Others: "Sigh, why didn't I suddenly have the idea to take on apprentices this year? It's such a pity to have missed this opportunity."
The person most regrettable among everyone present was not them, but Elder Xin Huailiang.
He felt like he was about to spit out a mouthful of blood. If he had known he should have struck first, he shouldn't have had a year-long observation period.
The elders were in complete chaos because of Song Yin's apprenticeship.
Only Qi Zibo silently wiped his sweat, once again sighing with relief that he had quickly taken Song Yin as his apprentice. That brat, she would become the disciple of whoever was willing to take her in.
She wasn't born a sword cultivator, nor a pill cultivator; she was a genius disciple who could learn anything quickly. Finding a disciple like Song Yin was truly a stroke of luck; thankfully, she consulted a friend before accepting her as a disciple.
After a moment of silence, a heated discussion broke out in the square.
"Did anyone use a photo stone to record that? That was absolutely awesome!"
"Yes, yes, yes, I recorded it all. I'll make lots of copies, and you can all buy them from me, hahaha." Song Yin is practically her lucky charm; she's guaranteed to make a fortune!
"How many spirit stones? We can't afford to overpay."
"I still want to know how she softened the tree trunk to use as vines to bind the target. I remember she had a wood elemental root, right? Wood elemental energy can be used like that?"
"Brother, one of my spiritual roots is the wood element. I can only say that this skill is not something that just any wood element can imitate. None of us with other wood elements can do it."
The crowd was abuzz with discussion, even ignoring the images reflected in the other water mirrors.
Xia Xining, who was watching the competition, was extremely anxious.
Song Yin, stop lying on the ground! Quickly collect the teeth and fur of the Broken Earth Boar! They're excellent materials for refining weapons. Especially the tusks of the Broken Earth Boar!
Xia Xining was extremely anxious, but Song Yin was in the secret realm, so she couldn't send a telepathic message to her.
Song Yin was completely unaware of the huge discussion her commotion had caused; she was still hoping that her embarrassing fall face-first to the ground hadn't been reflected in the water mirror.
After lying on the ground for a while, she finally felt her strength returning. She slowly sat up and took out a pill to restore her spiritual energy from her storage bag. Her spiritual energy quickly returned, washing away her fatigue and pain, and her strength began to recover rapidly.
"Having killed three monsters, my score should be far ahead, right?"
Qi Refining stage monsters have the lowest scores, while Golden Core stage monsters have the highest scores.
After Song Yin consumed several recovery pills, her spiritual energy and strength were almost fully restored. She moved her fingertips, and all the tree trunks binding the demonic beasts loosened.
Thanks to Qi Zibo's guidance and training in plant perception after she entered the sect, when the wild boar conjured up earth spikes and walls to remind her, she realized that since earth-attribute spiritual energy could control the earth, her wood-attribute spiritual energy could also control plants. With her exceptionally high plant perception, Song Yin sensed plants in less than a second, establishing a bridge of communication with them. The plants then completely obeyed her commands, leading to the scene where she used spiritual energy to treat tree trunks as vines.
It won't work without tree trunks, as there are no vines around, and even if there were, they would be too thin to bind the monster.
As for softening the tree trunk, that was done using techniques from alchemy. Spiritual herbs cannot be directly refined into pills; they require a series of processing steps. One of these processing methods is to transform the hard herbs into something as soft as water. The tree trunk is too thick to make the herbs as soft as water, but it can be made as soft as thin vines, which is sufficient for this purpose.
After recovering, Song Yin stood up and raised her arm to shake hands.
My strength is still too weak. It's only thanks to my experience fighting mutants that I could have fared well in today's battle. It seems I'll have to specifically learn some other combat skills after the competition ends.
Among cultivators, sword cultivators seem to have the strongest combat power. Why not specialize in learning sword cultivation and become a dual cultivator of alchemy and swordsmanship? At least you can protect yourself if you encounter danger in the future.
After making her decision, Song Yin finally looked at the three monster corpses.
"I remember that the materials from the bodies of demonic beasts can be used as materials for refining weapons and medicines for making pills, and their blood can even be used to draw talismans. Why don't I collect some and take them back? The sect shouldn't make us hand over spoils of war, right?" Song Yin muttered to herself as she pondered.
Hearing Song Yin's voice coming from the water mirror in the square, Xia Xining was so moved she almost cried. My dear sister! You help me collect materials, I'll help you forge weapons; from now on, you can always skip the queue when forging weapons here!
Song Yin made another decision: she would collect the spoils! The corpses were as big as small mountains. Song Yin tried to memorize them, but the wild boar hides were so thick, making them difficult to collect. With no other option, she tried her best to remove the tusks, cut small pieces of hide from the wounds, and collected four or five bottles of blood using a medicine bottle.
This was the territory of these three demonic beasts, and other demonic beasts dared not come here. However, with three corpses on the ground, it was hard to say whether the smell of blood would attract other demonic beasts. In the end, Song Yin decided to change locations. It was still early, so she might as well find a safe place to rest.
After leaving the territory of the monster boar, Song Yin kept her eyes and ears open and did not encounter any more monsters along the way.
She did see some medicinal herbs, so she ran over and bought them for free.
Although it is a common spiritual herb, there are many on Spirit Herb Peak, but who doesn't love something free!
The content displayed on Song Yin's water mirror gradually became boring; everyone preferred watching battle scenes, and collecting spiritual herbs was too tedious. Most people chose to look at other water mirrors, while a few disciples who loved collecting were engrossed, their eyes never leaving Song Yin.
Song Yin deliberately avoided monsters along the way, and only stopped collecting when her storage bag was almost full.
My gaze shifted to the jade bracelet on my wrist...
Hehe, the bracelet has more space!
Meanwhile, on the other side...
Shi Heming originally wanted to find Song Yin, but as the group grew larger and larger, he wondered if Song Yin might join them along the way, so he didn't leave.
Because there are many people, when encountering monsters, everyone can work together to fight and defeat them.
It looks good, but having too many people also has its downsides.
After the monster is killed, the score can only be recorded by the person who killed it last, so everyone inevitably starts vying for the last hit and the fatal blow.
At this moment, Shi Heming realized that the time had come to leave the group.
As the team grew, Cheng Xian felt quite comfortable within it. Everyone knew him, and seeing him would elicit a compliment, calling him a genius, which brought him immense satisfaction.
Upon learning that Shi Heming was leaving, Cheng Xian did not try to stop him, but instead advised the others to respect Shi Heming's choice.
The first day of the competition ended quickly.
Song Yin spent the day slaying demonic beasts and gathering spiritual herbs. While resting that evening, she finally remembered something she had completely forgotten:
I forgot about Shi Heming!
It's all because the collection was too captivating that she momentarily neglected her friends.
Song Yin decided to go see Shi Heming tomorrow.
The next day at dawn, Song Yin did not encounter Shi Heming on her way to find him. Instead, she met Cheng Xian and his group, who had been traveling with Shi Heming for some time.
When Cheng Xian saw Song Yin, his expression was even more unpleasant than when he saw Shi Heming.
"Who are you...?" The person behind Song Tian stepped forward and asked.
"Song Yin".
"You're Song Yin? Your friend left the group last night to look for you."
-----------------------
Author's Note: Song Yin: I don't care, free stuff is always the best! [starry eyes][starry eyes][starry eyes]
_
[Empty bowl]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
