Su Tingyun had to bring out all of her strength, summoning even the strength she had used to drink milk as a baby, only then was she finally able to lift the large bluestone up. Her tanned skin had even turned red. She wanted to boast that she wouldn’t be a burden with her strength, but she couldn’t open her mouth. She was afraid that once she did, her gathered strength would disperse, and if the stone were to fall then it might crush her own leg.
“There’s something under this stone.”
“Elder, hold on for a while longer.” After saying that, Li Xinmei crouched down and used a dagger to carefully scrape off the small black vines wrapped underneath the stone. “This is Rock-Enclosed-Darting-Herb, an ingredient used for the immortal pills. A tael of this can be exchanged for four to five hundred spirit stones.”
The two kids started to excitedly scrape the Rock-Enclosed-Darting-Herb. Su Tingyun wanted to set down the stone and roll it over to a different side for them to slowly scrape, but unexpectedly Li Xinmei continued: “Elder, you must persevere, once it touches the ground, it’ll escape by burrowing into the soil and we won’t be able to stop it. It must be that it didn’t expect you to completely lift the rock off the ground. The moment the stone touches the ground, the rest of it will run away.”
Damn, vines that grow from a stone can even grow their own legs and run off by burrowing into the ground? What a fraudulent world!
Tingyun could only hold her breath, bite her teeth, and firmly hold on to the blue stone. Her forehead was covered with sweat, her two legs trembled nonstop and the hands holding the stone felt as if they were about to break. For a time Zhang Zhizi put down his knife to come and help, but his strength was as small as his body, and he wasn’t any help at all. Su Tingyun only released a bit of her grip over the stone to him but he almost collapsed from the pressure.
If that’s the case wouldn’t it be better to just go scrape the herb? Scrape faster, every bit more is a bit more!
Persevere, persevere a little more, then there’ll be enough for these two kids’ tuition fees. She, as the adult, must at least do something. Su Tingyun felt like her whole body was falling apart, only a surge of sheer willpower kept her going. She even started tasting blood from grinding her teeth before she finally heard Li Xinmei announce they were finished. Su Tingyun suddenly felt all the energy vanish from her body and she collapsed on the ground like a deflated ball with the big stone which almost smashed down on her feet.
“Elder, you’re really amazing, a stone that has Rock-Enclosed-Darting-Herb growing on it weighs at least a thousand Jin*. You can actually lift it up for so long and only put it down when we’ve collected all of it.” Zhang Zhizi smiled until his eyes were slits. Since he’s been crying for some time now, his eyes were swollen just like a walnut but now that he’s smiling it looks less swollen by a fold.
<p style=”padding-left: 30px;”><span style=”color: #99ccff;”>One jin is about .5 kg, so it was about 250kg. To put it into perspective, it’s about half the weight of a polar bear.<span></p>
A thousand jin……
Su Tingyun’s brain is dizzy, she was totally surprised by the weight. She can actually lift something that weighs thousand jin, isn’t her strength almost like a female hercules or a superwoman now? Doesn’t this mean she can even become a weightlifting athlete when she gets back?
“Hehe.” Su Tingyun wanted to laugh but who knows just when she opened her mouth, blood leaked out and after a few coughs even a front tooth fell out……
Just then, because she had grinded her teeth to hold on too hard, she broke a front tooth. Originally she was both old and ugly, now she even blows out air when she talks. Su Tingyun looked at the tooth and felt like her life is such a tragedy, but after seeing the smiling faces of the two kids, she anyhow felt a little better.
Wuliang sect does buy herbs. Though Shi Zhong Teng is a low grade herb, but due to the demand and difficulty collecting it, the price has always never been low. A tael can be sold for four to five hundred low grade spiritual stones. They collected three taels which exchanged for 1400 low grade spiritual stones. Cultivators all had dimensional bags. 1400 low grade spiritual stones can be exchanged for one midgrade spiritual stone and 400 low grade ones, and this only occupied a small amount of space.
“Just with today’s income is already worth our half a year income before. Perhaps we might even be able to gather enough.” Zhang Zhizi was very happy as this time was the first time he got spiritual stones in such a worry-free way, how can he not be happy.
Li Xinmei’s lips formed a faint smile, Su Tingyun was also quite happy as this has proved that she was of help. In this world, she wasn’t useless.
In the days that followed, Su Tingyun always went to hunt spiritual beasts with the two kids.
She has finally realized what is called being frightened at every step. Though they were hunting the most simple earth snake, but the snake was always slithering here and there and could even split out stone thorns which gave them plenty of difficulty. Su Tingyun’s calf was full of pricked wounds and even Zhang Zhizi injured his arm. Most importantly, even if they hunted from morning till night, at most they could only get about 100 low grade spirit stones worth. Not to mention there were a lot of people who were also catching these snakes, so later, the spirit stones they were able to gather became less and less.
Fortunately, Wuliang sect forbids killing for treasure and stealing others properties. Otherwise, the spirit stones they’ve painstakingly collected would have already been stolen by others.
Four months passed by in a flash and of the once distant deadline for the registering fee there were only three days left.
Su Tingyun looked at the two kids’ suffering expressions. Zhang Zhizi’s lower lip was pressed so high up that it could probably even hang up a vase. Su Tingyun also felt anxious for them too. Last time they got a mid grade spirit stone from selling the rock-enclosed-darting-herb, but after that the income they earned from hunting spirit beasts was really low. Even now they haven’t enough for two mid grade spirit stones, they didn’t even have enough to cover one person’s fee.
“Can’t we pay by loan?”
In her previous world there was something called the impoverished student’s loan, perhaps here they can also ask for some leniency? Su Tingyun feel that these two kids are very outstanding, their aptitude definitely isn’t low. They are still so young and especially Li Xinmei who has natural talent in laying battle arrays, she definitely counts as talented. For such good students, they should be able give them a bit of a backdoor somehow.
“Outside of Wuliang mountain, there are a lot of low rank spirit beasts as they are specially prepared in advance for the people who come for apprenticeship. As long as they have enough ability, collecting two midgrade spirit stones is definitely not hard. This is actually the first requirement they have for accepting disciples.” Li Xinmei’s injured hand hasn’t been treated well, so now her face is pale and even her lips are turning dark purple.
“Either you have the ability, the background, or the luck. There are those who just casually kick a stone and happen upon a treasure. The cultivating world also takes note of this kind of great fortune..” Zhang Zhizi’s round cheeks have already become so thin. He looked at the big tree in the distance then said: “I heard there was once a boy who wasn’t able to collect enough spirit stones just like us, and was bullied and thrown under the tree. In the end his back was pierced by a protruding sharp stone. Who would have thought, that stone was an artifact and a very amazing artifact at that…”
“After that the boy entered the Wuliang mountain, and he seems to have been taken as an advanced disciple by a great elder. Those that bullied him that time were all…” Zhang Zhizi paused for a bit, Su Tingyun’s back grew cold from the pause, could it be they were all killed? So bloody.
In the end, she heard him continued: “Beaten by him until their noses were bloody and their faces swollen and they kneeled kowtowing, admitting their faults.”
Li Xinmei forced out a laugh, “Nonsense, the higher one’s cultivation is, the wider their view of the world, the more magnanimous they are, and the smoother their cultivation becomes.. Beneath Wuliang mountain where can someone be bullied to, at most he’d only be chased out like us. He already became an advanced student and yet still remember such boring old grudges, he definitely must be a narrow-minded person who won’t achieve high heights. If it really is like that, there is no way he would be noticed by the great elder.”
Zhang Zhuzi rubbed his nose saying: “I just heard it from others. Just really envious of his luck. Actually, grandma Su’s luck is also not bad. If she could just find another rock-enclosed-darting-herb, it would be great.”
As soon as they returned to the topic of spirit stones, the atmosphere turned heavy again.
With only three days left, they don’t even have enough spirit stones for one person. Do they really have to wait for ten years?
After ten years, they would definitely have enough spirit stones, but as twenty years olds, they would at least need to get to the Concentration Middle Stage in order to be accepted. No matter how they cultivate by themselves, without guidance from the masters of the sect, getting into Concentration Middle Stage is even harder than ascending to heaven. Furthermore, if they missed this chance, even if they have extremely incredible luck, they would still only be low rank cultivators, never being able to achieve a high status.
Su Tingyun really wanted to find that convenient husband of hers to ask about opening a back door, but unfortunately, although she arrived here for so many days already, those female cultivators didn’t get in touch at all. She also wanted to try to climbing the high stairs, but before she even got close she was chased out like a fly.
Chasing her were not even Wuliang sect disciples but some servants of cultivator families. The dog thugs that had came to serve their young masters and young misses who were here to apply to be disciples.
Does she really have to shout that she is the official wife of you guy’s genius Golden Core Stage Spiritual Master?
She’d definitely be beaten to death……
“Let’s try hunting second grade spirit beasts.” Li Xinmei moved her arm a bit. “My hand is nearly healed. Grandma is strong and can help, so hunting second grade beasts is possible.”
Just the first grade beasts are already so fierce, now they have to hunt second grades?
Su Tingyun’s body has already has quite a few holes made by the first grade beasts, she naturally knew of the savageness of the spirit beasts. But looking at the kids, there was no way she could advise them against it. Instead, she even tried to encourage them: “Yep, there definitely won’t be any problems. I have such great strength. I’ll just smash the beasts straight to death.”
Without that sword using Brother Xu, they couldn’t hunt the herd type of second grade beasts. The one Li Xinmei chose was the trihorn deer. This type of deer has a triangle pattern on its head, and there are even three horns. Normally, it doesn’t attack people, but when attacked, it would turn very aggressive. Its deer horn can drill a hole on the human’s body, and it can even shoot wind blades. According to their present cultivation, if they get cut by the wind blade, then there’ll be big problems.
They have to first make a pitfall at the riverside where the three horned deer normally drinks, only when it’s trapped would they act.
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