Chapter 69: Searching for Treasures in the Mountains

Because they were entering the mountains, everyone had to walk with a load.

Each person carried a backpack and tools weighing about twenty catties. From the county city to the hinterland of the Great Da Da Qing Shan, it was about a hundred miles.

If this were changed to ordinary people, running to the destination with such a load in one day would be considered not bad.

But for cultivators, running all the way was only about two hours.

Even this was taking care of the new disciples who had just entered the Daoist Academy this year, whose cultivation was at Meal of Mist, Second or Third Layer.

Otherwise, those senior brothers at Meal of Mist, Sixth or Seventh Layer could easily reach the first destination in one hour.

If they didn't care about physical strength, they could reach it in more than half an hour.

Along the way, a group of disciples, especially the disciples who pointed stars this year, were discussing the manual for searching for treasures in the mountains issued by the External Affairs Hall.

Searching for treasures in the mountains is a routine miscellaneous duty of the Hu Jinshan Daoist Academy, once a month.

The manual records 149 types of common medicinal materials in the Great Da Da Qing Shan, 33 types of rare medicinal materials occasionally seen, 34 types of common heavenly treasures, and 14 types of rare heavenly treasures.

Behind each type, the value is marked.

For example, the most common Deer-Horn Grass; if you pick one, the Daoist Academy buys it for one tael of silver. Among the Deer-Horn Grass, there are those that have been growing for years and contain a faint aura of starlight. Cultivators can sense it when they get close. According to the strength of the starlight contained, they are divided into ten-year, twenty-year, fifty-year, hundred-year, two-hundred-year, five-hundred-year, and thousand-year medicinal herbs.

This kind of medicinal herb is more commonly referred to as one-star, two-star, three-star, four-star, five-star, six-star, and seven-star medicinal herbs.

The Daoist Academy increases the purchase price of this kind of medicinal herb by several times or ten times.

Ordinary Deer-Horn Grass is bought by the Daoist Academy for one tael of silver each; one-star, which is ten-year, is bought for five taels of silver each; but three-star, which is fifty-year, is fifty taels of silver each.

The higher the star rating, the more valuable it is.

But relatively speaking, ordinary medicinal herbs are the most numerous, and one-star or two-star can also be encountered, but three-star and above are hard to come by.

For this search for treasures in the mountains, the Daoist Academy has set a lower limit for all disciples.

Each disciple must pick and hand over medicinal materials or treasures worth 200 taels of silver. Reaching this standard earns a qualified evaluation and one small merit.

If they cannot reach it, they will be recorded as failing once. Three consecutive failures, or a cumulative five failures, will lead to expulsion from the Daoist Academy.

If they pick and hand over medicinal materials or treasures worth 1,000 taels of silver, they will be evaluated as good once and receive two small merits.

If they pick and hand over medicinal materials or treasures worth 2,000 taels of silver, they will be evaluated as excellent once and receive three small merits.

Only after accumulating five small merits can one obtain the qualification to purchase the Star-Plucking Token.

For those whose picked medicinal materials and treasures are worth over 200 taels, the Daoist Academy takes fifty percent. For the portion over 2,000 taels of silver, the Daoist Academy extracts twenty percent, and the rest belongs to the individual, which can be converted into silver or starlight of the Star-Plucking Building as needed.

Those who hide private property will be expelled from the Daoist Academy!

Besides this, there are ranking rewards; the top thirty in picked value all have rewards.

This is the basic rule of the search for treasures in the mountains organized by the Hu Jinshan Daoist Academy.

After entering the mountains, one can act in groups or act freely. Each person is issued three emergency signal flares.

It is said to be three days, but the actual time is five days; the two days of entering and leaving the mountains are not included.

Entering on the 9th, after three full days, one can leave the mountains on the 13th. Those who have completed the mission can also return early.

Xu Jin calculated that this time was just right. Returning from the mission on the 13th, then his younger sister would return home on the 14th, and he would also return home.

Many disciples were looking for partners to act together on the road.

Xu Jin, however, was not in a hurry to find one; Xu Jin felt that it was not needed.

It was not that he was confident in his own strength.

It was just that for this kind of thing, if you couldn't find a trustworthy candidate, it was too easy for conflicts to occur, and it was even easy to be pitted.

Xu Jin's attitude was to prefer nothing rather than something inferior!

"Brother Xu, have you found a partner to act together?" Suddenly, Lu Lu Xianbing leaned over.

"Not yet."

Xu Jin thought Lu Lu Xianbing wanted to partner with him. Although he had some understanding of Lu Lu Xianbing, he didn't understand him deeply, and Xu Jin didn't plan to partner for the time being.

Of course, in terms of cultivation, Lu Lu Xianbing was still qualified, being at Meal of Mist, Sixth Layer, one of the only three at Meal of Mist, Sixth Layer in this star-pointing season.

Just last night, Ren Ren Xiaoxiang broke through to Meal of Mist, Sixth Layer.

Just as Xu Jin was thinking about how to refuse, Lu Lu Xianbing suddenly lowered his voice, "If you are confident in your own strength, it is best not to partner. After all, there are so many instructors, teachers, and even vice academy heads, so safety is not a big problem.

But if you partner, it means your harvest might be halved.

If you don't want to partner, you can refuse, or say you have already partnered with me."

Suddenly, Xu Jin understood. Lu Lu Xianbing was not only giving a well-intentioned reminder but also looking for a shield—the kind where they would be each other's shield.

After all, those who came to find partners were all disciples of the Daoist Academy, and refusing directly would hurt people.

This official-family disciple really knew how to behave.

Sure enough, on the subsequent road, quite a few people came to find them to partner, and there were even quite a few senior brothers at Meal of Mist, Fifth, Sixth, or even Seventh Layer, but more people came to find Lu Lu Xianbing, over a dozen, while only two or three came to find Xu Jin.

He refused them one by one.

Xu Jin also saw it clearly; those senior brothers at Meal of Mist, Sixth or Seventh Layer who came to partner with Lu Lu Xianbing didn't really want to partner; they might be trying to get to know Lu Lu Xianbing for his connections.

Regardless of Lu Lu Xianbing's future cultivation, the fact that his father, Lu Chang, was the County Lieutenant made his value for making connections explode.

Don't look at Lu Lu Xianbing as usually taciturn, but if they were familiar friends, he would talk quite a bit.

He said a lot of information Xu Jin didn't know.

Of course, this was very normal; Lu Lu Xianbing's information sources were different.

For example, the Daoist Academy's monthly search for treasures in the mountains, the real purpose is the resource supply of the Star-Plucking Building. The Star-Plucking Building is an ancient divine object, its power is unfathomable, many functions are extremely powerful, and it has irreplaceability. Every country and every star palace has a main building, and in every province and county, and even at key locations, there are branch buildings.

But after these Star-Plucking Building main buildings and branch buildings are built, it is not a once-and-for-all thing.

The operation of the Star-Plucking Building consumes massive amounts of starlight.

Not to mention anything else, just the fact that when fighting in the Practice Arena Secret Realm, as long as you die, your starlight is immediately restored—the practitioner has no consumption, but for the Star-Plucking Building, it actually has consumption.

Including starlight transmission of books, etc.

Therefore, every country and every star palace must regularly invest various treasures containing starlight into the Star-Plucking Building to supplement the Star-Plucking Building's consumption.

And the starlight demand of the Star-Plucking Building branch buildings in each province and county is supplemented by the shared users after dividing the shares.

Currently, the Star-Plucking Building branch building in Hu Jinshan County is shared by three families: Hu Jinshan Daoist Academy, Lord Tianyang Branch, and Cangming Branch, among which the Hu Jinshan Daoist Academy has the largest share.

Along the way, Xu Jin learned more.

At noon, all disciples arrived at the Hu Jinshan Branch Academy at the entrance of the hinterland of the Great Da Da Qing Shan.

More than a dozen large pots were lined up, all meat.

All disciples, after eating their fill, collected a four-day dry food bag and a water bag, and could enter the mountains by themselves.

Watching the disciples entering the mountains one by one, Xu Jin couldn't help but sigh.

A world with extraordinary power is different.

If it were his previous life, a group of fierce men without outdoor experience entering the deep mountains and old forests alone to survive for three or five days—out of ten, eight would die.

But with starlight as a foundation, it's different.

A quarter of an hour later, Xu Jin and Lu Lu Xianbing entered the mountains after taking their supplies.

After crossing a mountain ridge, the two parted ways.

Xu Jin's goal was a deep and long valley that could be seen in the distance, named Ghost Pine Valley on the map. The valley was full of wild wolves, and it was suggested that disciples at Meal of Mist, Fifth Layer or above should go there.

The benefits of practicing the Flying Fei Xing Bu were now reflected.

When crossing mountains, occasionally exploding a Flying Fei Xing Bu, he could leap five or six meters high in an instant, enough to cross most steep places, and the speed of the journey was also very fast.

More than half an hour later, Xu Jin arrived at Ghost Pine Valley.

But not long after entering Ghost Pine Valley, he discovered six or seven wolf corpses, the blood hadn't dried yet, so senior brothers from the Daoist Academy should have arrived first, and there was more than one person.

After searching a circle, he only found seven Ghost Pine Towers, worth three and a half taels of silver.

Looking at the map, Xu Jin pondered for a long time and decided to adjust his strategy.

What he could see on the map, other senior brothers could also see, especially the locations suggested for Meal of Mist, Fifth or Sixth Layer disciples to enter; the safety was actually very high.

Even Meal of Mist, Fourth Layer could come to try their luck.

So, to get a big harvest, one must go further, to more dangerous places.

This time entering the mountains, Xu Jin set a goal for himself: to obtain at least the cultivation resources for the next month.

Currently, Xu Jin consumes at least three hundred and fifty taels of silver every five days, and for a month, it would be over two thousand taels.

And first, he had to hand over two hundred taels of harvest to the Daoist Academy. For anything under two thousand taels, the Daoist Academy takes fifty percent, and for anything over two thousand taels, after the Daoist Academy extracts twenty percent, the rest belongs to the individual.

In total, he had to pick over four thousand.

Xu Jin's ideal goal was to pick over five thousand.

Because he still had to upgrade the Arena.

After thinking about it, Xu Jin finally set his goal at the Golden Eagle Peak on the very outskirts of this search for treasures in the mountains. Here, it was only suggested that Meal of Mist, Seventh Layer and above disciples should go, and further out was the dangerous area not suggested for Meal of Mist Realm disciples to go.

Xu Jin decided to go here and try to explore the dangerous area.

One was that he had a trump card for saving his life, and the other was that after so many days of actual combat in the Practice Arena Secret Realm, Xu Jin had a real understanding of his true combat power—with his ability to instantly cast Star Arts, he should be able to fight a portion of Meal of Mist, Seventh Layer experts and win without damage.

Of course, if not necessary, Xu Jin didn't want to waste his trump card for saving his life.

The Fourth Tier Dawn Pattern given by the man in green was worth a thousand taels of gold on the market, even the Third Tier Blade-Spinning Pattern given by Ning Ning Yuchan was worth four thousand taels of silver a piece. If he really used it, the loss would outweigh the gain.

Of course, if he had to use it, he would use it.

Xu Jin didn't want to be reckless, but to get more harvest, taking a little risk was also necessary.

Having set his destination, Xu Jin didn't detour and, relying on the Flying Fei Xing Bu, directly crossed mountains and ridges, heading straight for the Golden Eagle Peak.

An hour later, before the sky turned dark, Xu Jin didn't care about the consumption of Star Power and finally arrived at the Golden Eagle Peak. On the way, he picked up more than ten taels of silver in harvest and threw it into his backpack.

Perhaps because Xu Jin didn't care about the consumption of Star Power to hurry, there were no people on the Golden Eagle Peak for the time being.

After searching for only a few minutes, he found over a dozen sprigs of pine-moss grass beneath a cliff.

Xu Jin was overjoyed.

A single sprig of pine-moss grass is worth two taels of silver, and two of them faintly emitted star power, so they should be one-star pine-moss grass.

One-star pine-moss grass is worth ten taels of silver.

With a light leap, he hung upside down from the cliff and picked thirteen sprigs of pine-moss grass; two of them were likely one-star pine-moss grass.

As he obtained the pine-moss grass, Xu Jin's Arena of Battle suddenly flickered slightly with starlight.

Xu Jin, who had already played with the Arena, was overjoyed in an instant.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 70 =====