Chapter 27
Li Qingshan let out a long breath: “So much fun!”
Sick Yellow Tiger’s arms trembled. This was the result from colliding with Li Qingshan’s hands. He looked Li Qingshan up and down from the distance, queerness filling his face: “How do you really train?” This kind of progress speed was simply like a monster.
At first he had taken a fancy to Li Qingshan’s will and martial arts. He thought he’d found an unpolished diamond among a pile of rubble and was determined to temper it, see if he had the qualification to inherit the position of chief hunter. But in the end he discovered that he still had underestimated Li Qingshan.
Li Qingshan thought for a moment: “I recently drank medicinal liquor soaked with ginseng, it’s a prescription left behind by my master.”
Sick Yellow Tiger hesitated a moment: “Can you let me see?”
Originally, following the martial world’s rules he couldn’t carelessly inquire about those things, but he really wanted to know too much what was going on.
Li Qingshan straightforwardly said: “No problem!”
Sick Yellow Tiger asked about the prescription and Li Qingshan told him the truth of it. Sick Yellow Tiger nodded: “This prescription is indeed exquisite, but this kind of medicinal power is really too great. It also uses too much ginseng, you can’t drink too much of it. A small cup a day is enough.”
Apart from that, there wasn’t too much of a difference with ordinary medicinal wines. He especially went into Li Qingshan’s room and tasted it, coming to the same conclusion. He didn’t believe that just drinking medicinal liquor soaked in ginseng could make someone’s strength progress so fast, otherwise wouldn’t people from Ginseng King Village all be masters peerless in the world?
But it wasn’t appropriate to ask any further, so he could only hold back his bellyful of doubts. He didn’t think that the reason lay in the martial art cultivated by Li Qingshan, because there were no extraordinary divine arts among outer martial arts.
Of course Li Qingshan couldn’t tell him that he drank this kind of medicinal wine by the bowl, at least several big bowls of it going down his belly every day. During this time he’d about drank all of it.
“Right, what grade is my current martial ability?”
“It’s barely enough for third-grade.” Sick Yellow Tiger still remembered that some days ago he gave the evaluation that Li Qingshan would have absolutely no problem becoming a third-grade master. Now it became true in the turn of an eye, it was simply like a dream.
Li Qingshan greedily said: “Merely third-grade?”
Sick Yellow Tiger’s eyes stared ahead for a moment. Those who could train their martial skills to third-grade could already be called masters, but this guy was actually not satisfied. Wasn’t that the same as saying that his own martial ability was also “merely third-grade.”
He was someone who had been chief hunter of the Horse Rein Village for many years and wasn’t resigned to lose to this kid in momentum: “What I excel at isn’t martial arts but archery. Merely on martial arts, the Ginseng King Village is a bit stronger than us, but only we dare to call ourselves the Horse Rein Village. We have strong bows and powerful crossbows, even first-grade masters won’t dare fight us head on.”
Moreover another reason was that his disease was already nearing his heart, but despite being called Sick Tiger, the word “sick” was his most taboo one, and no matter what he wouldn’t use it as a pretext.
“Yes, I’ve been practicing the Pearl String Arrows recently. I can already fire out three arrows in succession, but unfortunately the precision is still a little lacking, please chief hunter give me a few pointers.” Li Qingshan had seen Sick Yellow Tiger’s archery with his own eyes and naturally wouldn’t underestimate it.
Pearl String Arrows, can fire out three arrows?! You only trained the art of the bow for a month. Sick Yellow Tiger felt that the psychological attacks he suffered today were a little too much. He waved his hand: “Better go ask Grandpa Cang to guide you tomorrow! I need to go home and have my family reunion meal.”
In his heart he understood that this kid might really have the qualifications to wander the martial world, so he put aside the matter about the chief hunter. If he could have had this kind of progress speed back then, he would certainly not have returned to Horse Rein Village either.
“Right, it’s mid-autumn festival again!” Li Qingshan watched the full moon just risen in the sky. He had no family he could reunite with, but at least he had a monster and a ghost beside him so they could also eat a meal together. He went to prepare.
He laid green grass for the green bull, took meat and wine for himself, and he also prepared incense and ritual paper money for Little An.
All things were properly in place, but he couldn’t see trace of Little An’s shadow. “Brother bull, where did Little An go.”
“No idea!”
Li Qingshan mumbled to himself: “This little ghost has been playing wild lately, he’s not clinging to me anymore. It’s really weird, let us wait him for a bit!”
A full moon rising, silence reigning over the Old White Peak.
The bright moon sprinkled its pure splendor through the gaps between the clouds.
Several people wearing bamboo hats lay prone on the lush grass, watching the highest cliff on Old White Peak, as if waiting for something.
“So much effort and blood spent, so many people dead, a hatred of life and death forged with Horse Rein Village, but we haven’t seen even one single hair of the spirit ginseng. Now even the people from Horse Rein Village have already gone down the mountain to reunite with their families, but we still need to keep watch, what’s the village master’s brain thinking about.”
“What do you understand, the spirit ginseng is something that possesses spirituality. After being alarmed like this it’ll naturally conceal itself out of sight, but today is the night of the full moon. The spirit ginseng will certainly appear and receive the moonlight. The village master has made plans long ago, as long as we can obtain the spirit ginseng, the village master’s power will greatly increase. By that time what we would need to fear a Horse Rein Village. When the time comes we’ll flatten Horse Rein Village, rob all their food and wealth, thoroughly play with their women. Only this could count as taking revenge for our hatred.”
Someone chided in a low repressed voice beside: “Be quiet, don’t ruin the village master’s grand matter!”
The human voices immediately fell down, leaving only the soon to be dead autumn bugs quietly singing. The full moon rose to its peak.
A small man a foot tall suddenly drilled out from the ground. It hesitatingly walked toward the high cliff where the moonlight was brightest. Looking carefully, how was it a small man. It was a ginseng, it was just that it had a vaguely humanoid shape, and in the dimness of the night it looked like a small man. It walked light as a feather, as if it were floating.
The ginseng gatherers hiding among the grasses suddenly held their breaths, not daring to make a single sound. They had never seen such a miraculous spirit herb in a lifetime of gathering ginseng.
The spirit ginseng looked left and right for a while, apparently making sure there was no one, then floated to the highest point of the mountain cliff. The silks of moonlight intertwined around its body when it settled down.
“Let’s go!” With this order the ginseng gatherers acted together. A net dropped from the sky, rushing toward the spirit ginseng.
The spirit ginseng was in the middle of immersing itself in the moonlight, and it was captured in the net before it could react in time, then lifted from the ground. This net was woven from bull muscles and tendons, so no matter how it struggled it couldn’t break free.
Four ginseng gatherers raised their brows in delight and beamed in joy. They crowded in and carefully observed it.
“There are many cliffs on this Old White Peak, and we have people ambushing all of them. This ginseng actually bumped into our hands, it’s really the heavens assisting us. When we go back we’ll surely have some soup to drink, and maybe we can even become masters.”
“And maybe we could eat the whole root and become divine immortals!” The several men laughed loudly.
A ginseng gather’s laughter suddenly froze. A sword point bright as snow emerged from his throat. It would have been a challenge to turn his head back.
The sword point shrank back and he immediately flopped on the ground. He only saw a vague black shadow as he fell.
The other ginseng gatherers reacted with angry roars and drew out their waist sabers, slashing toward the black shadow. The edge of a sword flitted across their necks like a spirit snake, and several bloody blooms splashed around.
In an instant, four ginseng gatherers died a violent death without the time to even use one move. It was obvious how high the martial arts of the newly arrived was.
“I didn’t think that the rumors were true. Hmph, even this bunch of wild mountain laborers dare to enjoy this kind of spirit treasure.” A young man in luxurious clothes stylishly recovered his long sword, stretching his hand to catch the spirit ginseng falling to the ground at the same time. He couldn’t repress the excitement in his heart either. As long as he obtained this treasure, it would certainly help greatly increase his martial power.
But at this moment something strange suddenly happened. The spirit ginseng that was falling down suddenly moved aside, making the man clutch empty air.