Chapter 63: Chapter 63: The Spirit Monkey Catches Snakes, The Origin of Medicine Valley

When Zhou Chun left the Hongya Marketplace, he had a nefarious idea in mind.

Deliberately swaggering, he led Liu Shiyun out of the marketplace, crashing through on their way towards the mountains beyond.

If any shortsighted bandit cultivator dared to attack them, it would be an excellent opportunity to counter-kill with the help of the Green Wood Spirit Ape.

However, to his disappointment, they had not encountered any attack by the time they stepped out of the Hongyan Mountain Range.

Seeming to recognize his disappointment and knowing his previous thoughts, Liu Shiyun spoke softly,

“My father once said that for those bandit cultivators who muddle along in the Hongyan Mountain Range, the most important thing for a long life isn’t cultivation strength but rather vision.”

“Taoist Friend Zhou, you’re young yet your cultivation level is already at the late stage of Qi Refinement, and you’re accompanied by a young female cultivator at the fifth layer of Qi Refinement like my humble self. Such a combination, daring to swagger through the Hongyan Mountain Range, must surely have something to rely on.”

“Therefore, those bandit cultivators definitely wouldn’t make a move before they can assess the situation.”

Zhou Chun had not considered this point.

Hearing her address this, Zhou Chun’s interest was piqued, and he immediately asked, “Then Taoist Friend Liu, could you tell Zhou how you, as loose cultivators, typically maintain your well-being while traveling in the cultivation world?”

“Are you interested in that, Taoist Friend Zhou?”

Liu Shiyun looked at him with some surprise, seemingly not expecting a family cultivator like him to be interested in such matters.

“These are matters of surviving and settling down in the cultivation world; naturally, Zhou would like to understand more to avoid being caught unaware in the future!”

Zhou Chun was unabashed, candidly expressing his reasons for interest.

Hearing his words, Liu Shiyun’s eyes flashed with a different light, and she gently nodded, “Since Taoist Friend Zhou is interested, I naturally won’t withhold anything.”

“My father always says that we, as loose cultivators traveling in the cultivation world, must remember the ‘three don’t provoke and the three don’t concern’.”

“Among the ‘three don’t provoke’ are: one, don’t provoke disciples of large sects in uniform; two, don’t provoke those with great disparities between their age and cultivation level; three, don’t provoke elderly men with white hair.”

“No one knows the strength and background of large sect disciples; provoking them could bring endless troubles; people with great discrepancies between their age and cultivation levels are either from significant backgrounds or they’re pretending to be weak; and white-haired old men, having lived to an old age, are proof enough of their extraordinary abilities compared to ordinary people.”

“As for the ‘three don’t concern,’ first is not to intervene in others’ quarrels, second is not to interfere in others’ fights, and third is not to care about what others say.”

“Moreover, we loose cultivators, when entering and leaving marketplaces, looking for companions, or even selling items, also have matters to be cautious about.”

Liu Shiyun did not hide anything from Zhou Chun, immediately sharing with him all the living experiences of loose cultivators she had learned about.

This benefited Zhou Chun immensely, and he learned quite a few things.

In this way, after leaving the Hongyan Mountain Range, the two traveled across mountains and ridges, and even stopped to rest and recover their mana and spirits within a cultivator family’s sect territory before reaching the valley where Liu Shiyun initially discovered the medicinal herbs three days later.

This valley was indeed very secluded.

It wasn’t large, merely a fissure in the mountain less than twenty zhang long and three zhang wide, which couldn’t even be accessed from below—entry and exit were only possible from the gap above.

Ironically, the gap overhead was covered with vines, and the green branches and leaves concealed most of the opening perfectly, with thorny bushes growing thickly on both sides.

This special terrain made it quite difficult for anyone, whether from the sky or the ground, to discover its existence.

Liu Shiyun had discovered this medicinal valley due to a random glimpse of two Emerald Crown Flying Serpents descending from the sky to hunt into the valley.

Arriving outside the valley, Zhou Chun used his flying artifact to survey from above, then returned to the ground to release the Green Wood Spirit Ape.

He then took out several large snake-capturing bags from his storage pouch and handed them to the Green-Haired Giant Ape.

These snake-capturing bags, which were used by the Zhou family to capture medium and small Demon Beasts, were woven from tough Demon Silkworm Silk, impervious to both water and fire, and resistant to serpent venom.

Zhou Chun had also previously scattered a large amount of sedative powder inside them that could cause the Demon Snakes to fall asleep or become unconscious; once these Emerald Crown Flying Serpents were caught and put inside, they were guaranteed to lack the strength to stir for a few days.

“Elder Yuan, I entrust the capture of those Emerald Crown Flying Serpents inside to you. If possible, it would be best not to harm them!”

Wooh~ Wooh!

Facing Zhou Chun’s admonishing, the Green-Haired Giant Ape simply beat its chest to show understanding.

It then took the bags and strode towards the medicinal valley.

Zhou Chun and Liu Shiyun kept their distance, watching warily in case the Emerald Crown Flying Serpents attacked them suddenly.

They saw the Green-Haired Giant Ape provoke the flying serpents inside the valley somehow, leading to twenty or thirty green snakes flying out, their mouths spraying venom as they attacked.

These emerald-green snakes were not large; the biggest of them was less than ten zhang long and the smaller ones were only four to five zhang in length.

They were all green as bamboo leaves, with a crest-like growth on top of their heads, and on their sides were two pairs of membranous wings resembling those of a dragonfly.

The main offensive means of these Demon Snakes was their venom; they could turn their fatal snake venom into poisoned darts or toxic liquids to attack enemies, and use their high flying speeds to strike their prey.

If bitten by one, unless one was promptly prepared with an extremely effective anti-snake venom medicine, a cultivator at the late stage of Qi Refinement wouldn’t live half a day.

“`

However, the Green-Haired Giant Ape, being a second-grade mid-tier Demon Beast, would not be injured by these little snakes.

With a roar from its mouth, a layer of green light was released from its body, easily blocking the poison arrows and poison water.

At the same time, with a wave of its giant palm, the green light interwove into a large net, capturing several Emerald Crown Flying Serpents on the spot, then retracting the net, it struck a few blasts of mana onto the heads of the serpents, stunning them into unconsciousness.

Employing this technique, not much time passed before a group of Emerald Crown Flying Serpents were all captured and knocked out by the Green-Haired Giant Ape and packed into bags.

Zhou Chun and Liu Shiyun exchanged glances at the scene, both shocked by the strength of the Green-Haired Giant Ape.

Oh oh!

Arriving beside Zhou Chun, the Green-Haired Giant Ape handed over the bag in its hand, signaling Zhou Chun to inspect it.

But Zhou Chun hesitated and also trusted the other party very much, immediately laughed and said, “Elder Yuan, there’s no need for this, please keep these bags under your care.”

After speaking, he took out a jade box containing several types of Spirit Fruits from his Storage Pouch and passed it to the Green-Haired Giant Ape.

“Please enjoy these Spirit Fruits at your leisure, Elder Yuan. I will go and pick those Spiritual Medicines in the valley now.”

Oh oh oh—

The Green-Haired Giant Ape cried out happily several times, contentedly taking the jade box and began to slowly savor it while sitting on the ground.

Seeing this, Zhou Chun nodded to Liu Shiyun, and the two walked towards the medicine valley together.

Isn’t this why it is said that Spirit Beasts reared by Cultivators are sensible!

Although the Green-Haired Giant Ape had fought a battle with those Emerald Crown Flying Serpents outside the medicine valley and even entered the valley for a sweep to ensure none remained hidden inside, it did not harm any Spiritual Medicines, showing great restraint.

Now in the valley, Zhou Chun looked around and saw the stone walls and the ground of the valley covered with various Spiritual Medicines, some of which were over a hundred years old.

Golden Bamboo Orchid, Yellow Essence, Wild Mountain Ginseng, Poria, Condensing Fragrant Grass, Red Oil Flower…

Just by sight, Zhou Chun could identify more than a dozen types of Spiritual Medicine, and there were quite a few that he could not recognize at the moment.

Looking at the densely grown Spiritual Medicines, he murmured to himself, “Strange, there are too many different types of Spiritual Medicines here. It’s quite hard for such a variety to grow in the wild!”

“Hearing Taoist Friend Zhou say that, it indeed seems unusual,” Liu Shiyun also nodded while revealing a puzzled expression.

Despite their scrutiny, the two could not find any signs of human activity in the area, let alone that the place had been a dwelling for a group of Emerald Crown Flying Serpents before.

In the end, Zhou Chun could only wave his hand and say, “Forget it, let’s just collect the herbs.”

He then took out a large number of empty jade boxes from his Storage Pouch, and together with Liu Shiyun, they carefully started digging up various Spiritual Medicines with their hoes.

As they did so, while excavating a patch of Tiger-Claw Golden Thread next to the stone wall, Zhou Chun suddenly noticed something unusual about the vine-covered wall.

Upon clearing away the vines, he found a stone door!

The moment he saw the stone door, Zhou Chun had a flash of insight, immediately realizing where all the Spiritual Medicines in the valley came from.

“Who would have thought, hidden in such a wilderness, lies a Loose Cultivator’s abode!” he exclaimed in surprise as he looked at the moss-covered stone door, figuring out the truth.

Indeed, if there was a Loose Cultivator’s abode hidden here, the valley’s many different varieties of Spiritual Medicines would no longer be surprising.

Some Loose Cultivators who opened abodes in the wilderness indeed had a habit of scattering Spirit Medicine Seeds at random, leaving it to fate to see if they would grow.

Even many Family Cultivators and sect Cultivators scatter some Spirit Medicine Seeds near their residences, hoping for a future harvest.

After all, except for some rare varieties, the seeds of most common Spiritual Medicines are not hard to come by.

Looking at the valley filled with Spiritual Medicines and the presence of those previous Emerald Crown Flying Serpents, one could tell that the owner of the abode behind the stone door must have long since abandoned the place.

When Zhou Chun opened the stone door, what he saw inside confirmed his speculation.

The stone chambers behind the door, apart from some decayed wooden furniture and previously stored moldy books and clothes, were devoid of anything else.

This suggested that the original owner had never returned after leaving.

The likelihood was that they had died while out!

“Is this a case of the previous person planting the medicine and the next person enjoying the shade?” Zhou Chun wondered, shaking his head at the unharvested Spiritual Medicines outside, no longer pondering these matters.

“`