For the initial month, Ye Qin could only consume one stalk of Little Dew Grass daily. This would cause his meridians to swell to the point of agonizing pain, almost unbearable. Yet, he gritted his teeth and endured it. His cultivation speed in that first month was ten times faster than before.

As his mastery of the cultivation technique deepened, and the little ball of light inside him gradually brightened, his meridians’ capacity for endurance began to strengthen.

By the second month, he could just manage to consume two stalks a day—twenty times his previous rate. In the third month, he could forcefully consume three stalks of Little Dew Grass daily. Increasing by one stalk each month, his progress was extraordinarily swift.

In the early part of the fifth month, he completely mastered the first layer of the technique, a stage that normally required ten years of cultivation. The thumb-sized ball of light inside him had brightened by a full half, and what was once faint, seeming like smoke that might dissipate at any moment, was now substantially thicker and no longer terrifyingly pale.

Ye Qin felt as if his five senses had suddenly opened spiritual apertures; the outside world became intensely vivid. For the first time, he was astonished to find everything before him so bright. Within a range of several zhang, virtually everything happening—whether seen or unseen—was almost entirely within his grasp. This sense of control was something he had never experienced before.

With a slight twitch of his ear, he could hear a cricket lurking in the grass ten paces away, making a faint chirping sound, and the buzzing of insects flying past within a few zhang. His eyes felt as if they had been washed clean by spring water—bright and clear—allowing him to distinctly see the texture of the leaves on old trees and every single thread of a spider’s web. His nose could detect the faint, musty odor of distant blossoms, dozens of steps away, mixed with the thick smell of moisture in the forest.

A slight thought moved through Ye Qin, and he abruptly turned his head toward an area several zhang to his left. A silver-banded viper with mottled scales lay utterly still, fixing him with a malicious gaze for quite some time before slithering into the grass and rock crevices, attempting to escape.

Silver-banded vipers could be used in medicine.

Ye Qin habitually picked up a small pebble. With a flick of his finger, he shot it out. A gust of sharp wind rose, followed by a "snap." The collarbone of the silver-banded viper several zhang away was shattered by the small stone, and it collapsed limply onto the ground.

After flicking the stone, Ye Qin paused, staring with astonishment at his own incredibly nimble hands.

There was a feeling of power within his body unlike anything he had known before. He tested his limbs, executing basic attack movements—punches, palm strikes, kicks, sweeping kicks—and found them to be surprisingly fast, fierce, agile, and precise. In the blink of an eye, he could generate dozens of phantom fist images. Leaping down from the treetop thirty feet above, his body was light and free, landing without a sound; the lightness effect was nearly comparable to standard Qinggong.

Ye Qin immediately tested his fastest punching speed. A small drop of water dripping from a forest branch was instantly sliced into more than ten smaller droplets by the shadow of his palm. While the destructive force might not have been overwhelming, his reaction speed was astonishingly fast, shocking him.

Even without learning offensive martial arts, he now possessed a certain degree of self-preservation capability. He was certain that even armed with a wood-chopping knife, he could now exchange a few blows with the martial arts masters he had encountered before.

Ye Qin was overjoyed, feeling for the first time that this technique was not as useless as he had imagined, but rather possessed some unique, potent effect on the body. He wondered what the result would be if he completed all three layers of the scripture.

Over these four or five months, besides cultivating, Ye Qin had also gathered common medicinal herbs in the surrounding mountains to fulfill the collection quotas set by the Herb Gathering Hall.

Subsequently, Ye Qin began practicing the second layer of . The Dew Grass required for the second layer was double that of the first. This meant he needed to consume twice the amount of Dew Grass just to complete the second layer.

However, he discovered with frustration that the Green Rock Stones he possessed were running critically low. Over the past four or five months, he had consumed an enormous amount of Dew Grass, requiring a large piece of Green Rock Stone daily to nurture it. As the days passed, the large pile of Green Rock Stones stored in his Purple Mansion was quickly depleted, leaving only a small remaining heap of stones and one small, highly pure piece of Green Rock Marrow.

Without the supply of spirit stones, the Dew Grass naturally could not be cultivated further, and his cultivation progress would halt here.

Helplessly, Ye Qin could only search the deep mountains for spirit stones similar to Green Rock Stone. But rare herbs like Dew Grass and rare stones like Green Rock Stone were exceedingly hard to find.

The Green Rock Stone on the mountainside of Gray Eagle Peak had long since been completely excavated by him.

Ye Qin buried himself in searching the deep mountain wilderness for over half a month, finding nothing that could be moved into his Purple Mansion, and exhausting himself in the process. He needed to continuously use his divine sense to probe various plants and stones, attempting to move them into his Purple Mansion to see if anything similar to Little Dew Grass and Green Rock Stone could be found. This constant use of divine sense was extremely draining on his spirit and damaged his vital essence.

After more than half a month, Ye Qin grew deeply disheartened and abandoned the idea of finding rare spiritual objects among ordinary flora and rocks. It seemed that Little Dew Grass and Green Rock Stone were treasures only encountered by chance. Within the thousands of miles surrounding Zhuqi County, there were countless deep mountains and ravines—where could he possibly search for such rare things?

Considering that he had been out for nearly half a year, his large herb basket was long since full of common medicinal herbs. Ye Qin decided to return to Zhuqi County Town first to submit his collection quotas, and then spend the latter half of the year searching various treacherous peaks for Green Rock Stone.

Ye Qin's travel speed was remarkably fast; ten days later, he appeared in Zhuqi County Town, five or six hundred li away, carrying his large herb basket.

Upon returning to Zhuqi County Town this time, Ye Qin was surprised to find many unfamiliar, oddly dressed martial artists in the town. The post stations, inns, and hotels were teeming with groups of heroes and heroines, many wearing distinct emblems signifying various guilds or factions on their clothes. In the three or four years he had been in Zhuqi County Town, he had never seen so many martial artists from outside organizations present.

What was happening? A subtle unease crept over Ye Qin, and he quickened his pace toward the Herb Gathering Hall. Fortunately, everything inside and outside the Hall seemed unchanged; the apprentice disciples were as busy as usual, which offered him some small measure of relief.

Ye Qin first went to the Medicine Appraisal area in the inner hall and submitted all the herbs he had collected, receiving a reward of ninety Silver Leaves in total. On average, this amounted to eighteen Silver Leaves per month, more than three times the minimum quota.

Afterward, Ye Qin went to pay his respects to his Master, Master Wang Cai—a mandatory activity every time he returned to the Herb Gathering Hall. The hierarchy within the Hall was strict; as a disciple, he needed to frequently report his whereabouts to his Master and receive instruction and guidance.

Herb Master Wang Cai was very pleased upon learning Ye Qin's collection volume for the past six months. This achievement placed him among the upper-middle tier of the twenty or thirty apprentice collectors who had joined the Hall around the same time as him. If he could maintain this standard and put in more effort, promoting to Herb Artisan in five or six years would not be an issue, provided he stayed alive.

Ye Qin exchanged a few casual words with Herb Master Wang Cai, asking him about the sudden influx of martial artists in Zhuqi County Town.

It was from Master Wang Cai that Ye Qin learned a major event had occurred in Zhuqi County Town. It turned out that the owner of the Herb Gathering Hall, the Medicine King Gang, planned to host an exceptionally grand medicine and medicinal material trade conference in Zhuqi County Town during the latter half of the year, inviting major factions from across the entire Pingzhou region.