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Chapter 17: Spirit Herb Again

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In the area of the Backdoor's Forest's first ring, a figure could be seen running between the ancient trees, with a few others following.

The figure at front was a male cat with orange and cream fur, donning clothes that looked to be the inner garments of a formal robe.

The ones trailing behind were a group of wolf beasts.

These wolves had dark gray fur with thin bluish streaks, similar to lighting that ran through storm clouds. They snarled with the ferocity of thunder, and kept releasing a maddened aura of bloodthirsty savageness.

The name of these wolves was Thunderlightning Grey Wolves, a rather well know and widespread species of martial beasts, though these were only at the level of ferocious beasts.

As for the cat, he was Kyu Cao.

Suddenly, from the front, a gray wolf appeared and launched itself at Kyu Cao, claws readied and fangs bared to rip the cat apart.

As wolves, these beasts had an extraordinary sense for group tactics, making them truly dangerous when in packs.

Kyu Cao's expression did not even twitch, calmly observing the wolf's movements.

As expected from a top predator, this attack was aimed at his neck, one the most accessible of his vitals.

Kyu Cao didn't dodge right away.

He waited till the wolf was only a step away, and then he stopped. This stop was unbelievably perfect, as if he had suddenly been frozen in time and space.

Crouching just as swiftly, he allowed the wolf to come above him. Next, with a flowing, gentle-looking movement, he put his paw against the wolf's exposed chest and borrowing from this one's own impulse he threw it away.

The gray wolf spun once in the air while flying several dozens of paces, before heavily falling with a yelp of pain.

Kyu Cao didn't stop idly, and he shoot forward like a fast arrow, reaching great speed with just one step.

The growls of anger increased behind him. The wolves were truly going mad, because not only they couldn't catch him, but the cat had only been playing with them for a while already.

They howled in fury, and more howls responded from the distance.

Hearing this, Kyu Cao knew it was time to hightail.

As if his previous movements were a joke, Kyu Cao exploded with even more speed. His speed could actually be said to be only a bit faster than the thunderlightning gray wolves', but what really pulled the distance apart, was that he seemed to never slow down.

Ups and downs, obstacles and difficult terrain, it was as if nothing mattered to him, giving him great advantage.

Up a slope, he ran up like it was flat; facing a rock, he ran over it like a fast legged beetle sticking to the stone.

Eventually, he began to run over the branches of the trees in an almost unfair manner, and after some time Kyu Cao left the wolves behind.

Enraged howls could be heard in the distance, but that no longer had anything to do with him.

"They were more persistent than I believed." Panting, Kyu Cao was releasing the accumulated heat from his body.

Those wolves had been running after him for almost a third of hour, quite the workout.

These past days, Kyu Cao had spent his time, besides cultivating and practicing his martial arts, exploring the first ring of the Backdoor's Forest meanwhile finding ferocious beasts to spar with.

Though he called it sparing, it would be better to say he went around bullying weak beasts.

After his battle with the three-clawed woody grizzly that day, a sort of fighting intent had awoken within Kyu Cao.

Whether curiosity or thirst for battle, he wasn't sure what it was. But he'd decided to investigate it further.

Just, he couldn't simply go and challenge any martial beast he wanted. After all he, in all the definition of the word, was a complete novice when it came to fighting.

He'd practiced some mundane martial movements before, but this had only consisted of going with the forms and some exercises. Kyu Cao never utilized them in an actual combat situation. He wasn't even sure if these techniques could be actually used in a true fight.

So Kyu Cao had the idea of sparing with ferocious beasts to gain some experience.

This was something that only someone like him, who at his core held a casual mindset toward martial arts, could think of.

Still, the results were such, that any serious and respectable Cultivator would be truly envious, and would be forced to blame the Heavens as unfair.

It seemed that Ti Ping's evaluation had been accurate.

Kyu Cao had no problems to adapt himself to the movements of battle, continuously gaining insights and improving on his own. While he had started with one "sparring partner" at first, very quickly he moved to multiple ones.

That said, with his opponents being ferocious beast weaker than him, Kyu Cao's insights were not very profound, and it could be said that he was only getting the hang of the basics.

"Now I am... where?"

Fleeing around for so long, Kyu Cao now found himself somewhere unfamiliar.

This was easy to tell, as the terrain was more jagged, with elevated rock formations and even more thriving vegetation.

If Kyu Cao didn't know already that he was at the flat top of Tiger Back Mountain, seeing this scenery he would've believed himself to be on the outer edges of another mountain chain.

There was the way he came, which he was confident he could trace back completely. But he didn't think those wolves would be so forgiving as to give up yet, so that was not an option.

According to his estimations, he only knew that he should be somewhere between the first and second rings.

After considering it a bit, Kyu Cao simply decided to take a long detour.

It was his first time going this far into the woods, so he didn't mind at all taking the scenic route.

Kyu Cao had to say, it was truly marvelous how each area of the Backdoor's Forest was like a completely different place, as if he was visiting different locations.

Compared to the outer ring, with its awe inspiring thick-trunked, dense-topped trees and beautifully chaotic terrain, the deeper parts were much more unruly, with a genuine wild feeling to them.

The trees were less thick, but they stood unbelievably tall, more than double the size of those at the safe area. It was only far from the ground that their equally thin branches began to spread with incredible reach. However, these were not as numerous or as dense in foliage, creating an image of scantiness in comparison.

Weeds and unknown bushes covered the ground haphazardly, and rock formations like tiny mountains were commonplace.

Even the sky above seemed to be another; a layer of grey clouds lingered, seemingly intending to hinder the light of the sun permanently.

Originally, this kind of terrain was one which was difficult to traverse on, even for young Cultivators of the sixth level.

But all this didn't matter to Kyu Cao, whose Treading the Frozen World was a skill which specialized in overwhelming mobility.

"This is kind of beautiful too." This was Kyu Cao opinion of the scenery.

He was walking randomly, when he came across a peculiar rock formation.

While this formation could be easily missed among the trees because of its shape, once you noticed you would realize that it is actually quite eye catching.

This was because this rock formation was shaped like a mushroom or an umbrella.

It was shaped like a pillar, supporting a wide rock platform several paces off the floor.

Seeing this peculiar rock formation, Kyu Cao expression didn't change, but his tail swished merrily behind him.

He approached it, and came to stand below it. Under this cloudy sky, the shadow casted on him was darker and gloomier.

Kyu Cao inspected the area and studied the pillar, a bit impressed about how it could hold up the whole weight of the platform.

Looking up, it was like looking at the tall ceiling of an old edifice.

Though uneven, the underside of the stone was somewhat uniform and slightly convex, clean and devoid of any vegetation. It was like an archaic dome.

Of course, the area below was not what would attract most people's attention. With such shape, what most would wonder would be what could be on top of the rock.

At least, this definitely applied to Kyu Cao, whose stare seemed to want to bore a hole through the stone.

Looking around, there didn't seem to be any obvious method of climbing up.

It was useless to think of going up through the stone pillar, since the umbrella shape of the top simply seemed designed to block the pass from below.

But this was a forest.

There was no lack of tall trees, much taller than the rock structure in fact, to at least climb up and take a look from some distance.

Kyu Cao walked to the base of the closest tree, suddenly feeling a familiarity with the situation.

But instead of climbing using his paws, he broke into an instantaneous run.

He ran up the tree's trunk, as if it didn't matter that it was a vertical surface.

Like this, it only took him a moment to reach a branch and climb up on it.

These branches didn't seem too reliable, so Kyu Cao remained sticking to the trunk where it was the most firm. Then, he turned toward the top of the rock formation.

He was at the lowermost branch, but this was already higher than the mushroom pillar. When Kyu Cao sight landed on its top, he was a bit taken aback.

The basic appearance of the rock's top was just as how he imagined it, a slightly curved surface. However, it was bare; not even a blade of grass seemed to be growing there.

The stone there was, much like the rest of it, mostly uniform yet somewhat uneven. The best way to describe it would be to compare it to a figurine which had been roughly carved, the clumsy cuts from the knife visible everywhere.

Kyu Cao thought it a bit, and decided to take a closer look.

The branch he was standing on wasn't very thick, but it wouldn't snap with only a bit of weight. It also stretched far, reaching a dozen or so paces away from the mushroom rock.

This was enough.

Finished preparing, Kyu Cao ran again, this time over the branch.

Luckily for him, it wasn't dense with foliage, making it easier for him to traverse it.

He ran quite steadfastly, the flexible branch seemed to not even shake from his heavy steps.

Even when he reached the thinner, more far off part it, the branch only drooped slightly and gently, as if a weight was being carefully being placed on its end. But even this only lasted for the brief moment it took Kyu Cao to jump from the branch to the rock formation.

Though not very graceful, he landed safely on top of the rock mushroom's cap.

The stone was cold under Kyu Cao's footpads, with a surprisingly smooth feeling to it.

Now here, he began to do a close inspection.

This circular area was not bigger than twenty paces from extreme to extreme, not too big but not too small. From this close, Kyu Cao could see that the seemingly carving cuts weren't really smooth, and they were indeed natural.

However, the stone really gave a clean and polished feeling on his pads, without a speck of dirt or dust. Actually, not even the fallen leaves from the surrounding trees littered the cap's surface.

Looking up, the branches from some trees did hang over, but the rock platform could be described as spotless, truly curious.

Kyu Cao's attention was pulled to the surrounding trees, and looking long enough he began to get the feeling that the branches seemed to form a wide dome shape over the rock formation.

Because various branches still trespassed into the inside area, it was not perfect and hard to notice, but someone imaginative and willing enough would see it.

Curiosity picked, Kyu Cao followed each branch, mentally constructing an image.

It was here that he noticed another thing.

He noticed that there was a line of moss on the trees surrounding the rock.

While moss on a tree was nothing new, Kyu Cao discovered that this streak of moss was located on a high part of the trunk. But what was truly peculiar was that on each tree, it began at the same height, and all patches of moss grew facing the same direction, toward the rock formation's.

That's to say, if connected, the moss on the trees would form a ring hanging over it.

Kyu Cao was intrigued by this, so he came down from the platform to go and have a look.

A level four Earthly Warrior would already be starting to develop a resilient body.

But when Kyu Cao landed, he still felt his legs tremble and go numb with a prickling tingle, requiring a moment to recuperate.

He then climbed one of the trees in the same manner as before, reaching the place where the moss grew without many problems.

Instantly, a smell of heavy rain tickled his nose.

Kyu Cao stared at the dark, jade green moss intently, noticing that the smell came from it.

He got close and sniffed it, finding the scent truly refreshing. The moss did carry the moldy and damp smell of stagnating water, but rather the humidity and freshness of the cool air before a storm.

Kyu Cao thought it for a moment, before he began to collect it.

Such peculiarly fragrant moss, maybe it could be a medicinal plant that he didn't know about, so he gathered it just in case.

Now that he thought about it, since the day he formally became a Personage Apothecary he hadn't gone again to the infirmary, since that was also the day he'd come across the Seven Deep Hells Frozen Record and had began cultivating.

Maybe he should show his face once, to let Old Che know that he was fine.

"Eh? This..."

As he was collecting the moss, Kyu Cao suddenly felt a tingle on the skin of his pawpads, which like an electric current quickly climbed up his arm.

This feeling was one of abundant Qi and energy, joyfully stirring his Spiritual Veins.

This was a feeling that he'd felt only once, but that had been actually not long ago.

"Spirit herb?"

Carefully probing with the tips of his pads, he managed to outline a small delimited patch of moss, not bigger that his central pawpad. It was this rather small portion that emitted that feeling of abundant Qi.

Kyu Cao had no more doubts, this was certainly a feeling equal to the Devilish Catnip, that of a spirit herb.

This patch of moss looked no different from the one around it, but to the touch, it actually felt thicker and denser, with certain plumpness. Kyu Cao quickly realized that it was because the moss was not only a thin layer on the bark, but rather, it had grown inward into the wood, probably caving a small hole.

"This is lightning Qi."

The feeling of the Qi was especially energetic and invigorating, with certain sharpness and an indomitableness to it. It also caused a tingling, lightly numbing feeling on his pads, quite ticklish.

Kyu Cao removed and collected first the rest of the moss, leaving only the part that could be called the spirit herb.

Then he began to consider how to collect it.

Obviously, if he didn't recognize this moss before, then now it had become even more unfamiliar.

How to harvest the spirit herb without damaging it, he didn't know the exact method. Thus, he decided to go for the generic one of scooping the whole area where the plant grew on.

Only, digging the ground might be somewhat easy. But a chunk of the middle of a tree's trunk, not so much, especially if you didn't have any tools or even a weapon.

"... I cannot do the same as before."

This time, he decided that couldn't leave and go for materials and think of returning later, just like the time at the cliff.

Even if this place was much more far off and the spirit herb quite inconspicuous, nothing guaranteed that he would find it here once he returned.

Kyu Cao didn't believe he was being paranoid.

It was just, that luck truly seemed to favor the decisive ones. He didn't want to become someone who constantly lost opportunities because of comparatively trifling issues.

He would have to think of a solution here.

"Maybe that?" Kyu Cao mumbled to himself.

He raised a paw, and stared at it for a moment. Then, with a flex of his muscles, he brought out his claws.

He concentrated on them.

Shortly, these acquired a glossy finish.

It wasn't moist-like, but rather it looked as if a fine layer of tiny ice crystals had covered not only his claws, but part of his fingers as well. This snow dust-like sheen made his fur look especially beautiful and ethereal.

With a glint of decisiveness in his eyes, Kyu Cao scrapped the area around the moss patch with his claws.

Like cutting soft tofu, the hard wood easily came off as if peeling an apple. But these peels were not too thin, and still somewhat durable, signaling that for them to be produced this easily his claws' sharpness was no joke.

Seeing this, confidence burst inside Kyu Cao and he put more earnestness in his work.

Luckily, the patch of moss was not big, neither too deep, so it only took some time before he managed to scoop out the entire chunk.

A small, joyous smile couldn't help but sprout on Kyu Cao's muzzle.

Rather than thinking of the preciousness of this spirit herb, or the benefits it could bring to him, what Kyu Cao was the most satisfied about was the accomplishment of having gotten it.

It felt like he won.

He then remembered the other patches of moss on the other trees.

Storing the chunk of wood in his extra space ring, he quickly ran over the branches to the next tree and began to feel it around.

At the end, from the twelve trees around the rock formation where the moss grew, three of them had a spirit herb moss.

Kyu Cao felt his luck was pretty good today.

Of course, for a mere level four Earthly Warrior to find three stalks of spirit herb, if others knew, a mere word like good wouldn't cut it, and with red eyes they would call it simply abnormal.

"Grrrrrr!'

Kyu Cao was already on the ground, concentrating on examining one of the moss patches, when a threatening growl suddenly broke the atmosphere.

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By the way, I committed an error in an earlier chapter about the alignment of wood. It is actually Yang --quite surprising, personally--... or so say a lot of pages. Anyways, I will stick with this new setting since I already made an excuse found a reasonable explanation. No need to go back though, it's a minor change in terms of editing.