Divine Tang Era

"Haha, I've gathered some medicinal herbs."

"What a fine green turtle plant! It's sure to fetch a good price."

"This Ganoderma lucidum is mine now."

Cheers echoed from within the forest as martial arts disciples gathered herbs. Xu Dan and his group had also collected quite a few, each with several well-aged and high-quality herbs in their baskets. While they hadn't found any spiritual herbs, they were nearly there.

Continuing on, Liu Xuan felt the urge to urinate and ran to the side to relieve himself.

While urinating, he turned his head to look around, then suddenly his eyes widened, and he cried out in a trembling voice, "The... medicine..."

Upon hearing this, Xu Dan and the others immediately ran over. Just then, a triangular head rose from the bushes, its mouth snapping open to bite Liu Xuan. Liu Xuan was so terrified he forgot to pull up his pants. Xu Dan swiftly drew his short knife and slashed horizontally, severing the triangular head from its body. The head stared menacingly at the ground, while its body continued to spin behind it.

"It's a Black Wilderness Serpent," Wan Zhen said, looking at the serpent's head.

Liu Xuan's chubby face turned deathly pale, and cold sweat poured down his face.

There's a local saying in Jingning: "If the Wuhuang snake bites you, you'll have no buttocks left." This means that if someone is bitten on the buttocks by the Wuhuang snake, their buttocks will rot, which shows how potent its venom is.

Liu Xuan grew up in the remote borderlands and, though he had never left the city, he had heard of the infamous Black Wilderness Serpent. Every year during the herb-gathering season, how many people in Jingning City died because of it? Its formidable reputation was built on piles of corpses.

"Pull your pants up now," Xu Dan reminded him.

Liu Xuan then remembered and hurriedly tied his pants up, but the bottom of his pants was already half wet.

But no one laughed at him; anyone would react the same way in that situation. Wan Zhen asked, "What elixir did you just mention?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Xuan immediately forgot his fear, turned around to look at himself, and pointed to the distant mountain wall, saying, "Look, what's that?"

Xu Dan and the others looked in the direction he was pointing, and in a secluded corner of a steep mountain wall, a spiritual herb with icy, jade-like bones stood proudly amidst the moss. Their eyes lit up instantly—what a treasure!

However, Xu Dan did not go over immediately, but buried the head of the Black Desolate Snake first.

Otherwise, if someone passes by and is accidentally bitten, they're doomed. A severed snake head is extremely dangerous. A live snake, if bitten, at least knows to run away, but a severed snake head will never let go, injecting a large amount of venom, which will kill the person even if they don't die.

The snake's body is quite large, and its flesh is very fatty.

Having been doused with urine by Liu Xuan, Xu Dan had absolutely no interest in him.

After burying the snake's head, the group headed towards the location of the medicinal herb. This time, Liu Xuan was more obedient and didn't dare to wander off, staying quietly in the group. Fan Meng used a stick to tap the grass and bushes ahead to avoid being bitten by snakes.

Before long, the four arrived at the place and looked up to see the medicinal herb growing on a mountain wall seven or eight zhang high.

The mountain wall was extremely steep, and water seeped from somewhere, constantly flowing down from top to bottom. The medicinal herb grew beside the watermark on the 90-degree right-angled rock face, surrounded by moss. Climbing up there would probably be harder than ascending to heaven.

"What should we do?" Liu Xuan was dumbfounded.

Wan Zhen tried to climb it, but slid down after less than two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters).

This medicinal herb is the renowned Wunu Gentian, found only in high mountains where dogs and women rarely venture. Its leaves grow in opposite, overlapping pairs, with four corners and eight sides, resembling a pagoda. It is used to detoxify and clear heat, making it a precious medicine for healing wounds and treating illnesses. Alchemists use it to neutralize the toxicity of elixirs and remove the heat associated with them; it is highly valuable and a versatile medicinal material.

With such good stuff right in front of us, how can we leave empty-handed?

Xu Dan thought for a moment and said, "Go and cut some wood, and we'll build a ladder to get up there."

Liu Xuan and the other two thought this method was feasible, so they put down their baskets, picked up their weapons, and ran to cut down trees. Xu Dan wasn't idle either; he went into the forest and cut down some old vines to use for binding later.

Before long, the three of them each brought back a tree.

The martial arts disciples who came out to gather herbs had all practiced the martial arts school's foundational fist technique, the Demon-Subduing Fist. They had a certain physical foundation, were stronger and more powerful than ordinary people, and were able to subdue ferocious beasts and kill low-level demonic beasts. Otherwise, the Mo Clan Martial Arts School would not have brought them out.

Xu Dan used a knife to cut off the tender tips and excess branches of the tree, leaving only the trunk and a branch that a person could stand on.

After that, the three trees were secured against the mountainside.

These trees, each a little over three zhang (approximately ten meters) tall, were still some distance from the rock face where the Wunu Dragon Gall was located, so Liu Xuan and his companions went to cut down more trees. Although the three were strong, they were still panting heavily from cutting down the trees and helping to secure them against the mountain wall.

"How is it? Are you done yet?" Liu Xuan asked, panting heavily, his face covered in sweat.

"It should be fine now," Wan Zhen said, looking up at the tree trunk leaning against the stone wall.

Xu Dan tied the tree trunk to the top, climbed up, and dug the Gallbladder of the Wunu from the stone wall.

There were five gentians growing in clusters, with several seedlings below them. He didn't touch them, leaving them for later harvesting, as a way to leave a path for future generations. On his way down, he happened to look up and suddenly saw a bunch of things growing at the bottom of the cliff beside him. Overjoyed, he quickly went down and cut and pushed down the vines binding the tree trunks to prevent anyone from climbing up to collect the herbs.

"Here you go." Xu Dan handed the Gallbladder of the Black Slave to Liu Xuan.

"Why give it to me? We picked it together. Just leave it with you, and we'll split the profits when we get back."

"What do you mean by 'divide equally'? You're the one who discovered it."

"But we gathered them together." Liu Xuan said solemnly, "Have you forgotten our borderland rules? When we team up to hunt for treasure and gather herbs, the person who initiates the hunt or makes the first discovery gets the lion's share, and the rest split it equally."

"How come I don't know?" Xu Dan had never heard of it.

"My father always said that when going out to hunt for treasure and herbs, fairness is paramount. If it's not fair, at best there will be infighting, at worst resentment and murder for the treasure. There have been many examples of this in the past, and after experiencing so much, this rule has been established in our borderlands. Anyone who breaks this rule will be scorned and cut off from everyone; from then on, no one will team up with them to hunt for treasure and herbs," Fan Meng said from the side. His father was a herb gatherer, so he had the right to speak.

Don't let his big size and seemingly silly appearance fool you; he's actually not silly at all.

"Okay! I'll keep it for now."

Hearing them say that, Xu Dan didn't refuse. He put the gentian root into his basket, planning to share it back home. To be honest, he didn't care about the small amount of food at all; friendship was more important to him.

"Do you know what I saw up there?" Xu Dan said mysteriously after putting his things away.

"What?" Liu Xuan asked curiously. Wan Zhen and Fan Meng also turned their gazes towards him.

"Come with me, and you'll see when we get there."

So, led by Xu Dan, the group walked to the side. They brushed through the grass and arrived at a cliff on the right side of the mountain where the *Gentiana scabra* was located. Without Xu Dan needing to say anything, the group stared in disbelief at the honeycomb-like structures hanging like fans below the cliff.

"I've struck it rich."

"How do we handle something so tall?"

"Build a ladder."

"It's too high to climb."

The cliff face where the beehive is located is more than 30 feet above the ground. Even if a wooden ladder could be built, it would take one or two days. How could we manage for such a long time? Should we go back?

Xu Dan thought for a moment and said, "Go and look around to see if there's a way up. We can go up and use ropes to lower ourselves down to harvest the honey; that should be easier."

Upon hearing this, Liu Xuan and his two companions immediately moved to the side. A short while later, they found a path leading upwards.

Xu Dan led them to the woods and cut a bunch of vines before carrying them up the mountain together.