"The current sect master's surname is Dongfang?" Xiaoyao asked. He wasn't very clear about this matter.
"Yes, our sect master has a very domineering name, Undefeated," Cui Xu continued, maintaining his pride as if this Sect Master Dongfang were his own father.
"Pfft..." Xiaoyao spat out his food, asking dazedly, "Dongfang Bubai?"
"That's right. Dongfang Bubai! How about it, isn't it very domineering."
"Indeed... very domineering..."
"Why is your expression so strange?" Dongfang Wunian asked somewhat puzzledly.
"Nothing much. I read a novel that also had someone called Dongfang Bubai..." Xiaoyao said.
"Really? What kind of person was that Dongfang Bubai?" Dongfang Wunian immediately asked.
...
...
"Well... I can't really say. You should find that book and read it yourself. It's called “The Smiling, Proud Wanderer,' written by a literary master over a thousand years ago. The story inside is very exciting." Xiaoyao said awkwardly. He could only guide Dongfang Wunian to read it herself, he didn't dare say what kind of person this Dongfang Bubai was.
He believed that if he spoke, the people here might get excited and hack him down.
"Oh, then I'll take a look if I have the chance," Dongfang Wunian nodded.
"You won't be disappointed..." Xiaoyao replied, then continued following the team. Looking at the situation along the way, if he discovered anything, he would run over.
"My name is Dongfang Wunian," Dongfang Wunian suddenly said.
"??" Xiaoyao didn't understand for a moment, not knowing why Dongfang Wunian suddenly announced her name. He reflexively replied, "I'm called Le Xiaoyao."
"Le Xiaoyao, a very good name," Dongfang Wunian said.
"Yours isn't bad either. Wunian, no thoughts means no desires, and no desires means no wants," Xiaoyao replied.
"My name doesn't have so much meaning. Because my sister is called Wuqing, I just casually chose Wunian." Dongfang Wunian said.
"Wuqing is also a good name. Ruthless, having no feelings toward all things in the world, treating everything equally, never destroying, never desiring, with only one's own sky in the heart, not bound by anything, and never interfering with anything," Xiaoyao said, interpreting the word "ruthless" from another angle.
"You're the first person to speak of my sister this way. If sister heard your words, she would definitely be surprised. But speaking of it, sister is exactly this kind of person, indifferent to everything, doesn't like dealing with people," Dongfang Wunian looked at Xiaoyao with some surprise, very much agreeing with his words.
Seeing the way Dongfang Wunian looked at him, Xiaoyao felt he had said too much and seemed to have gained her favor. At this time, it would definitely attract Cui Xu's attention.
Damn, it was indeed so. Looking at his expression, he seemed like he wanted to eat me alive.
"Um, there's a nice medicinal herb ahead. I'll go pick it," After leaving this sentence, Xiaoyao ran toward a nearby slope. Chi Chi bounced along following Xiaoyao, and one person and one monster beast left the team.
Xiaoyao's departure didn't change the team's behavior. This wasn't because Xiaoyao was a small figure, but because herb gatherers were allowed to do this as long as they didn't leave a certain range, no one would interfere.
Herb gatherers were responsible for gathering herbs. When gathering herbs, it was impossible to always follow the team, they would leave for a while, sometimes going to more distant places. Sometimes if too far, rescue might not arrive in time. Generally, someone would be assigned to protect them.
Xiaoyao's current situation didn't seem to require assigning someone, but people would constantly watch Xiaoyao's situation. After all, herb gatherers were becoming increasingly rare.
Originally, training an herb gatherer wasn't easy, they needed to memorize the appearance of vast quantities of medicinal materials. Herb gathering was also a high-risk profession. Not to mention the monster beasts nearby, sometimes the places where medicinal materials grew, like cliff edges, were very dangerous locations.
Every year, Heavenly Gate would lose quite a few herb gatherers due to various accidents. Because of this, Xiaoyao was so easily recruited into Heavenly Gate. Otherwise, even becoming a servant would be very difficult, the threshold was almost no lower than some sects' disciple.
Because people who entered Heavenly Gate could all learn some of Heavenly Gate's basic cultivation methods and martial techniques. Although these were foundational within Heavenly Gate, they were very superior skills when taken outside.
At the same time, Heavenly Gate servants could also advance to outer disciples through examinations. This meant that becoming a Heavenly Gate servant provided the opportunity to enter Heavenly Gate's inner circle, an opportunity others could only dream of.
"Hey, this one's not bad, I'll keep it. This one goes to the sect,” When gathering herbs, Xiaoyao divided them into two types: ones he wanted to use himself went into his cloth bag, while ones he didn't need were thrown into his basket.
No one would specifically check this, because all herbs were gathered by the herb gatherers themselves. They could take some out or keep some for themselves. For what they turned in, Heavenly Gate would give different rewards based on the herbs' quality.
This meant that if Xiaoyao gathered very precious medicinal materials, Heavenly Gate would give great rewards. If he gathered natural treasure types, the rewards would be even greater.
Because of this, Heavenly Gate naturally wouldn't care whether you hid herbs, because under normal circumstances, the benefits of turning them in far exceeded those of keeping them privately. Heavenly Gate's rewards sometimes included high-grade pills, sometimes cultivation methods and martial techniques, and then there were sect contributions recorded on file.
These were all necessary conditions for improving one's status within Heavenly Gate. High-grade pills and cultivation techniques could improve one's personal strength, while sect contributions could greatly increase the possibility of advancement.
But for Xiaoyao, these were completely unimportant things. Therefore, if he gathered good items, he would definitely consume them himself and wouldn't spit them out for Heavenly Gate.
Because of this, Xiaoyao preferred to gather herbs alone and didn't like doing it with others.
However, since herb gathering could originally be handled by one person anyway, even if Xiaoyao did this, not many people would care.
Several days passed like this. Xiaoyao followed the team deeper and deeper into Heavenly Heart Mountain. The deeper they went, the more and better herbs he gathered, forcing him to abandon some he had taken before and reorganize his cloth bag.
During these days, they had also killed quite a few monster beasts, mostly intermediate level ones. Low-level ones were becoming rare, as they had difficulty surviving here. The numerous ones were intermediate level.
These intermediate monster beasts already possessed considerable strength. If one wasn't careful, they could kill a General-level martial artist. High-level monster beasts generally had King-level and Emperor-level strength.
They had been very lucky these past days, not encountering high-level monster beasts yet. However, these intermediate monster beasts were enough to keep this training team busy, and the training effects were beginning to show.
After being baptized by intermediate monster beasts, they should have some confidence dealing with high-level monster beasts, which fit the leading elder's thinking, it was best if he didn't need to act.
The leading elder's existence was to prevent high-level monster beasts from suddenly appearing when the training team wasn't accustomed to them. He just watched from the side.
There was another question, what if the Monster Clan appeared?
If the Monster Clan appeared, the leading elder would very decisively abandon training, communicate with them, then peacefully withdraw. Generally, the Monster Clan had wisdom and wouldn't bicker with humans. As long as you didn't provoke them, there wouldn't be major problems.
Moreover, the Monster Clan wouldn't appear here. They generally stayed at the very center, which was still far from here. Even if lost, they couldn't possibly wander here.
Today, the team had killed another intermediate monster beast. Just when everyone thought they could call it a day, Xiaoyao pounced forward and began dismantling the monster beast's corpse with a small sharp knife, dissecting the body completely clean. The speed of his knife work was somewhat dazzling.
"Xiaoyao, what are you doing?" Dongfang Wunian couldn't quite understand. Usually, Xiaoyao would at most dig out some needed materials from monster beast corpses. Why was he so excited today, dismantling the entire monster beast corpse?
At the same time, Dongfang Wunian discovered with puzzlement that Xiaoyao's knife technique was very interesting, always at the connections of tendons and bones, never touching bone, and the knife technique was also very fast. This kind of speed and precision made even the disciples here who practiced with blades feel somewhat inferior.
"This is good stuff, can't waste it," Xiaoyao said.
"What good stuff? Can this be used as medicinal materials?" Dongfang Wunian asked. In her current impression, Xiaoyao should focus on gathering herbs. Medicinal materials weren't just herbs, there were also many things from animals' bodies, and monster beasts had even more things that could become medicine.
"This has no medicinal value, unless there's an inner core." Xiaoyao shook his head in reply.
"Then what good stuff can't be wasted?" Dongfang Wunian asked Xiaoyao.
"Of course it's good stuff. Although it can't be medicinal materials, it can be food ingredients. Eat this once and I guarantee you'll want to eat it a second time," Xiaoyao said somewhat excitedly, obviously looking forward to making this into food.
"Oh, I see. But if you don't want to eat it the first time, would there be a second time?" Dongfang Wunian looked into the distance, speaking somewhat distantly.
"How could there be a second time without a first? However, this just needs a first time," Xiaoyao replied casually. He didn't notice Dongfang Wunian's distant tone, this tone seemed a bit off.
At this moment, Xiaoyao didn't pay attention to anything else, concentrating on dismantling the monster beast. He took out some seasonings, marinated some things, then classified them by use and put them in bags, placing them on a monster beast that was carrying cargo.
(End of Chapter)
Dongfang Bubai, is a villainous character in Jin Yong's wuxia novel The Smiling, Proud Wanderer.
To master the martial arts skills in the stolen "Sunflower Manual", Dongfang castrated himself, becoming the most powerful martial artist of his time.