Chapter Thirty: Five Hundred Years of Silver Ginseng

  Walking out of the room that had been stagnant for nearly ten days, looking at the somewhat dazzling sunlight outside, Lu Qing took a deep breath, and it was another new day.

  "Huh?" Lu Qing suddenly froze, because he found that not far away in the courtyard, beside a bamboo table, sat a young man of about eighteen or nineteen years old. The young man wore a white martial arts uniform, and was extremely handsome, with a head of black hair scattered randomly like Lu Qing's, but his hand grasped a white ceramic wine jug, drinking continuously, his eyes somewhat dazed, the whole person exuding a decadent air.

  But even so, Lu Qing would not underestimate him. Not to mention that in the Chaoyang Peak, only the top three disciples and the closed-door disciples of various protectors had the qualifications to wear white martial attire. Just that one move, which was so close to himself yet he couldn't detect it, proved that this person's cultivation was definitely far higher than his.

  "May I ask, brother, what brings you here?" Lu Qing asked as he approached the young man. However, the closer he got, the less he could sense the other's aura. This person's ability to control and hide his presence was frightening!

  Unable to hold back, Lu Qingyun activated the Soul Refining Incantation and released a refreshing air current from his Divine Court Sea of Consciousness towards the probing presence.

  Suddenly, the young man raised his head and looked up, with a sharp gleam in his eyes like a sharp sword, which made Lu Qing's soul-retrieving technique pause for a moment, and his breath also involuntarily drew back.

  He glanced at Lu Qing and finally spoke up, "In the future, don't use your divine sense to casually probe others, this is very impolite behavior, others will think you have ulterior motives."

  "That's a divine sense?" Lu Qing murmured, and now he finally knew the true identity of that cool air flow, but it also surprised him. It turned out that the sword yuan skill cultivated by the ancient swordsmen actually allowed him to possess a divine sense at the sword master level before building his foundation, and could even release it externally like a sword guest stage.

  "You don't know?" The young man looked at Lu Qing with some surprise, but then immediately asked: "You're one of the new ones who just arrived recently, right? What about your Third Senior Brother?"

  "Third Brother?" Lu Qing furrowed his brow, but immediately smiled again. Having gone through life and death, some past matters were also let go of. "Third Brother is in closed-door meditation at the Chao Yang Cave in the rear mountain, and has yet to return."

  "What about your Seventh Shixiong and Duan Qingyun that little brat?"

  "They have taken on the task of Foreign Affairs Hall and won't be back for another half month."

  "Oh, I see."

  The young man looked down and pondered for a moment, then sized up Lu Qing from head to toe. "Since they're not here, this advantage is yours. Follow me." He stood up and walked out.

  Lu Qing was taken aback at first, but the young man's tone seemed to be on good terms with Zhao Qianye and the others, and he didn't have anything worth worrying about, so he also followed along. The two of them walked out of Chaoyang Palace, and as they passed by, whether it was outer sect disciples or inner sect disciples, they all stepped aside respectfully, without Lu Qing hearing even a hint of gossip. However, Lu Qing noticed that the gazes directed at him were somewhat strange.

  What identity is this young man? How can he have such prestige, the two walked out of Chaoyang Palace and headed towards a side mountain, not long after, they entered a dense and lush evergreen forest.

  "Be careful here, this is the gathering place of spiritual beasts on Chaoyang Peak. Although the highest is only two levels, the attack methods of spiritual beasts are varied and unpredictable, so it's better to be cautious. Moreover, spiritual beasts are born with spiritual intelligence, although not as clever as us, they can't be intimidated by just drawing a sword."

  It sounded fine at first, but after hearing the back, Lu Qing was a bit puzzled. It turned out that he didn't believe in his own strength. However, he couldn't say anything. Even though he had already built his foundation, he wasn't confident that he could defeat a first-stage spiritual beast.

  The two of them went deeper, and along the way, Lu Qing discovered that this young man seemed to always be able to avoid encountering the spiritual beasts by taking a detour. As a result, even after they had gone deep into the forest for several miles, not a single battle had occurred, which also made Lu Qing's desire to see the young man's true strength go up in smoke.

  Half an hour later, the two arrived at a cedar forest near the mountain body. The young man stopped and pointed to a stone cave about dozens of meters away, which was attached to the mountain wall: "We're here, this is the den of one or two second-order six-eared violent bears."

  "What do you want to do?" Lu Qing asked somewhat uncertainly.

  "Do you know ginseng?"

  "Ginseng?" Lu Qing was taken aback, but of course he knew. As someone who had read extensively from a young age, he had also studied medicinal herbs and was familiar with the precious ginseng. He replied immediately: "Ginseng grows mainly in high mountain forests at altitudes of 500 to 1,000 meters. It has the effects of tonifying the five organs, calming the spirit, settling the soul, stopping fright, eliminating evil energy, brightening the eyes, opening the heart, and benefiting intelligence. Long-term consumption can prolong life, and according to its age, it can be divided into ginseng under 100 years old, hundred-year-old 'ginseng king', 500-year-old 'silver ginseng', thousand-year-old 'golden ginseng', and the legendary 'ten-thousand-year-old precious ginseng'."

  He paused, and Lu Qing continued: "And just now that was only for ordinary people, for us swordsmen, ginseng can enhance the sword energy in our bodies, and also has the effect of solidifying and cultivating the foundation. However, at least it must be a hundred-year-old ginseng king of this rank. In today's Ten Thousand Great Mountains, those with such a long lifespan have almost all been searched out by various large sects or some family forces, ordinary people can hardly see them."

  He looked at Lu Qing with some surprise, and the young man nodded in satisfaction: "I didn't expect you to know so much, so I won't hide it from you. In this cave, there is a 900-year-old top-grade silver ginseng."

  "Nine hundred years of silver ginseng!" Lu Qing was shocked, this place actually still had a 900-year-old silver ginseng, to know that with the status of his Lu family in Chaoyang Town, he had also searched for several hundred-year-old ginseng kings for him to take, otherwise with his qualifications, at least it would have taken him until he was 14 years old to build his foundation, which saved him almost two years of time. As for the five-hundred-year-old silver ginseng, Lu Qing had never heard that his family had searched for or had any news about it before, showing how precious it was.

  He nodded affirmatively and the young man continued, "This was discovered by chance when I went out to practice two days ago. Unfortunately, these two six-eared violent bears have been adults for a long time and are really troublesome. I don't have the confidence to break through their defense and take away the silver ginseng without harming a single hair."

  So, Lu Qing thought to himself, being able to contend with two second-tier spirit beasts that had been mature for a long time, at the very least required the strength of a Sword Guest Great Heaven. He calmed his mind and looked at the young man, saying: "What do you want me to do?"

  Haha, with a smile, the young man finished his last mouthful of wine and threw away the wine jug. "I said it's for your benefit, of course I won't let you, a small Swordsman, risk your life fighting the Six-Eared Violent Bear. Later, I'll lure them out and tie them up or lead them away. You just need to seize the opportunity to enter the cave and retrieve the Silver Spear. The rest is my concern."

  After some thought, it seemed there was no flaw, Lu Qing nodded.

  "Alright, refreshing!" The young man burst out laughing and suddenly sprang up, incredibly crossing a distance of tens of meters in an instant. A cyan-colored long sword was drawn from behind his back with the blade facing downwards, and a dazzling flash of cyan light appeared. In Lu Qing's nearly shocked gaze, a more than one-meter-long cyan sword energy broke through the air, accompanied by a whistling wind sound, fiercely shooting into the cave.

  Rumbling sounds came from the cave, followed by two loud roars. Lu Qing stood on a camphor tree, his eyes fixed intently on the two giant yellow bears that emerged from the cave, each about one zhang tall. Their six small ears stood upright, and their beady eyes flashed with fierce flames, staring at the young man in front of them. Clearly, they had recognized this old enemy.

  Roar——roar——

  Letting out two irritable roars, the two bears suddenly stood up on their hind legs at the same time. A dazzling yellow glow flashed in their mouths, and instantly, two yellow Yuanqi balls the size of human heads whizzed towards the young man.

  Boom——Boom——

  The youth's figure turned into a residual shadow in Lu Qing's eyes, although the shadow was somewhat crooked, it gave people an indescribable sense of elegance and leisure, as if strolling in a courtyard. The yuanqi ball was easily dodged, but the soft ground where the young man originally stood was smashed out of two holes with a diameter of several feet and a depth of more than one foot. Wet mud flew everywhere.

  The youth's figure flashed, each flash passing through a direction, and the long sword in his hand shot out a sword energy. For a moment, the air seemed to be pouring down a dense rain of swords, all shrouding the two six-eared violent bears.

  Four bear paws danced in succession, thick bear paws popping out several sharp claws, with a few feet of yellow gas emanating from the surface, grabbing and shattering the incoming sword energy. However, it was clear that the young man's sword energy wasn't so easy to catch, every time they broke through several sword energies, the two bears would retreat a small step back, until finally, they even retreated back to the entrance of the cave over a dozen feet away.

  As if enraged, the two bears simultaneously let out a shrill roar, and a faint yellow glow appeared on their bodies. The yellow glow quickly condensed, and in an instant, it dispersed, leaving behind two bears that seemed to be carved from yellow jade, with a layer of bright yellow crystals covering their entire body, about an inch thick. Under the sunlight, they sparkled with a dazzling light, and at the same time, an even more powerful aura burst forth, stirring up two dragon-shaped whirlwinds several meters high. (Ten Steps Rushing to the Newcomer Chart, urgently seeking recommendation votes and collection, hoping everyone will generously assist, letting Ten Steps truly take ten steps to kill one person, leaving no trail behind, killing all the way to the top ten!)