One more essence infusion tonight at six o'clock. We hit the ranking charts at midnight tonight, all votes welcome!

According to the regulations of the Herb Gathering Hall's Secret Manual Chamber, a Gathering Apprentice is permitted to receive a second secret manual upon promotion from a Gathering Page.

Ye Qin recalled this matter and, before setting out on a gathering expedition, deliberately paid a visit to the manual chamber attached to the Scripture Pavilion, hoping to find an external martial art or movement technique with offensive power to enhance his safety and strength.

The young guard there informed him that while a Gathering Apprentice could indeed take a second manual, they were no longer entitled to study the techniques for free as a Gathering Page was. Instead, a fee was required to take the manual.

The prices varied according to the manual's tier. A single Gold Leaf could procure the lowest-grade manual. Mid-grade manuals could cost upwards of ten Gold Leaves, while high-grade ones might require thirty or forty Gold Leaves or more.

The young guard even went out of his way to recommend several manuals to him, such as the Raging Dragon Palm, priced at seventeen Gold Leaves, which was said to possess immense power when wielded by a master proficient in internal energy. There was also the Thirteen Swords of Cloud Spirit, known for its high killing power in swordsmanship, costing twenty Gold Leaves. Both were deemed suitable for a Gathering Apprentice to learn.

Ye Qin stared blankly for a long moment after hearing the prices quoted by the young guard.

One Gold Leaf for the lowest-grade manual?

He only earned five Silver Leaves from a single trip into the mountains. It would take at least twenty trips, nearly two years, just to earn that amount. Twenty Gold Leaves... he would have to work for free for over twenty years; these manuals were priced outrageously high.

With no other recourse, Ye Qin shouldered his herb basket, left the county town, and dutifully headed into the deep mountains, abandoning the thought of learning another advanced martial art for the time being. He resolved that in a couple of years, once he had amassed a few Gold Leaves, he would then learn a low-level internal energy technique and a movement art.

More than ten days later. Ye Qin, drenched in sweat, appeared on a cliff face of a peak deep within a mountain gorge hundreds of li away, his herb basket slung across his back. It had taken him nearly two hours just to climb this mountain. Fortunately, he had managed to gather several medicinal herbs along the ascent, worth a few copper coins, so the time hadn't been entirely wasted.

Ye Qin was also gradually realizing that gathering herbs alone was indeed more productive than working in a group of five.

On his own, he could average sixteen or seventeen copper coins worth of herbs daily, allowing him to complete the task of gathering five Silver Leaves worth of herbs in a month. Of course, subtracting the initial five days for travel and another five days for the return journey, he actually needed to gather herbs worth about twenty-five copper coins per day during the twenty intermediate days.

When traveling in a group of five, however, they collectively needed to gather herbs worth an average of eighty-three copper coins daily. Subtracting the initial five days and the final five days, they were forced to gather herbs worth a staggering one hundred and twenty-five copper coins during the intermediate twenty days. This was extremely difficult.

This was because the amount of herbs along any single path was finite; with more people, there naturally wasn't enough to go around.

Conversely, traveling alone made gathering herbs easier.

However, with advantages came disadvantages.

As Ye Qin traversed the dense, old forests, he inevitably encountered wolves and tigers that relentlessly pursued him. One or two were manageable; with a determined effort, he could strike them down. But three or five in a pack spelled trouble.

Although Ye Qin carried a woodsman's axe for protection, he dared not engage a wolf pack head-on. He could only run for his life. He wasn't exceptionally fast, but by traversing streams and scaling slopes ceaselessly, he managed to exhaust the pursuing wolves until their legs gave out, shaking them off.

He wasted considerable time on the road avoiding the wolves.

He climbed the cliff face on this gorge peak specifically to evade a pack of wolves inhabiting the valley below. Even if there were eagles on the cliff, they were generally easier to deal with than a wolf pack. Moreover, this cliff spanned several li, giving him enough ground to search for herbs for several days.

On the summit, Ye Qin found a large boulder that offered shelter from the wind and rain, setting up camp beneath it. He laid down his herb basket, water bladder, cloth sack, small pot, and bags of oil and salt.

After searching crevices among the rocks and sparse grass on the summit and catching a grass snake, he quickly decapitated it and cooked a pot of delicious snake stew, enjoying a satisfying meal to restore his depleted energy.

After a short rest, Ye Qin took his woodsman's axe and two bundles of rope, and began searching the mountaintop for herbs. Success came quickly; within half a day, he had found over a dozen medicinal herbs on the summit, worth at least forty to fifty copper coins.

Over the course of two or three days, Ye Qin scoured the entire mountaintop area spanning several li, plucking all the herbs that had matured and developed their full medicinal potency. He touched none of the unripe ones. The rule among gatherers was never to touch unripened herbs. The foolish act of depleting resources was a major taboo in the gathering trade. The Herb Hall's assessors also would not accept herbs lacking sufficient maturity.

Having exhausted the summit, Ye Qin was forced to take risks and begin collecting herbs from the sheer cliff faces. He could even see herbs growing on the vertical rock walls from the peak; to leave them untouched would be a great pity.

The next morning, after making all preparations, Ye Qin securely fastened the two bundles of rope—one thick, one thin—to a large tree and a massive boulder on the mountaintop, then tied the thin rope securely around himself before slowly beginning his descent down the back side of the peak's cliff face.

The peak was home to flying eagles; these beasts often viewed rock-climbing gatherers as threats to their nests and would attack.

Ye Qin was prepared for this. He had spent half the previous night weaving some wild grasses into a camouflage cloak, which he draped over himself. Moving slowly, he carefully avoided the eagles, occasionally pausing to pluck a few herbs growing sparsely on the cliff face.

In less than half a day, he reached the halfway point of the back-cliff face. There was an overhanging ledge several zhang below him—a platform wide enough to stand on. Several eagle nests were clearly visible on the rock wall there. It appeared a few medicinal herbs grew near the nests.

Ye Qin only glanced briefly and did not examine them closely. He hesitated, wondering if he should continue further down.

If those sharp-beaked, clawed beasts discovered him, it would be troublesome. These creatures would harass him relentlessly throughout the day, constantly attacking with their sharp talons. This was especially true since he was currently suspended halfway down the cliff, rendering his movements extremely restricted and making counter-attack difficult.

However, the eagles were currently out of their nests, so the area was temporarily safe. If he could gather a few more herbs, his collecting quota for the day would be met, and he could rest well in the afternoon.

Ye Qin stared at the protruding ledge, carefully scrutinizing the herbs growing there, judging whether those few plants were worth the risk.

Suddenly, he paused slightly in surprise.

He saw a solitary, tender green sprout clinging to the edge of the platform, bearing only a single leaf upon which a drop of clear dew clung, refracting the sunlight. It was the height of noon, and all other wild grasses were already wilting under the sun; where did the dew come from? This little sprout was strangely vibrant, as if it had just emerged that morning, utterly unaffected by the blazing sun.

Over the years, Ye Qin had learned to identify at least a thousand common medicinal herbs. Even if he couldn't determine the exact species, he could generally assess its quality tier. He didn't recognize this little sprout, but judging by its appearance, it was at least a rare-grade herb, though he couldn't tell if it had medicinal properties.