He inspected the space for several hours but could not find anything from it. He then pulled his consciousness out from the wooden slip and visually checked it. "Seems like this thing is somewhat special but I don't even know how to use it".
He then kept the slip on his Cube not expecting much from it since he just found it at a lair of a low level monster.
Again, he checked every part of the place to ensure he didn't miss a single treasure. On a corner, he noticed a flower, it was small and didn't even possess much presence. The flower felt like it was one with the tree. If it was someone else without the same art as Ming Li, they would definitely fail to notice the flower.
Ming Li squinted his eyes trying to observe the flower. After a few breaths, his eyes slowly went wide as he said "This is what I am looking for! Tree Leech Flower!"
He immediately harvested the flower and kept it in his cube then felt delighted that he found two flowers without much trouble.
After keeping everything useful, he exited the place and continued his travel, he continued to travel for hours through the branches of the trees, yet he did not meet any monster along the way.
"So this place is actually a bad hunting ground, Maybe that's why nobody goes here." Ming Li thought while glancing around. After another hour, he arrived at the face of the cliff. He glanced up and felt discouraged as he saw the cliff face span so high that he cannot get an approximate measurement for the total height of it.
He grabbed his Cube and took out the map he had. Then he checked the map several times to look for an alternative route, but unfortunately he can't find one. Sighing deeply, he decided to climb the cliff in front of him since this is the only way for him to get back to the village.
The cliff was extremely steep and one wrong move can cause one to fall. Ming Li did not dare to look down as he continuously climbed the cliff without rest. The speed he climbed was slow, since there are not much footing on the cliff.
Two days passed, he was still climbing the cliff without sleep. It was a good thing that he stored food and water on his cube. Whenever he gets a good footing, he eats and drink as much as he can and proceeded climbing.
On the third day, he was climbing as he stared at the clifftop with eyes bloodshot, but within his eyes one can see his determination to continue. In the three day of continuous effort without sleep, he only climbed half of the cliff.
Days passed, and on the sixth day Ming Li was breathing ruggedly due to exhaustion. He had no sleep, but he was still full of spirit since the top of the cliff was almost in front of him. His speed did not decrease even faced with extreme exhaustion and continued to fight his exhaustion with determination. Ming Li was used to extreme conditions without sleep or food for several days, since he lived alone when he was small without relying on anyone.
As he reached the clifftop, he extended his hand grasping the grass on the clifftop plane. He pulled his body with all his strength and successfully stood on the edge of the cliff as he gasped for air. Then after a few breaths, he fell on the ground face first as he lost consciousness.
....
When he woke up, it was still the same time as he lost consciousness, but he was starving. "I guess I slept for a whole day or even two days. I lost track of time."
He took food from his cube then ate 'till he was full. Since it was already late in the afternoon, he decided to continue resting beside the cliff to fully recover his energy. He sat crossed legged with closed eyes and went into meditation to circulate his energy which can help his body recover from all the fatigue he experienced.
As the sixth sun sets, the First Moon rose. With the rising moon, he can clearly see several lights flickering below the mountains. He stared at those lights and saw that they were from fireflies. The view was captivating which calmed his mind.
Trying to observe its beauty, he gazed at several direction. When his gaze fell near the cliff wall on his left side, he saw a brighter light which he observed closely. After some time, the corner of his lips raised into a smile as he murmured "Moon Viewing Flower".
He stood up and went beside the cliff directly above the flower. The flower was located three quarters from the bottom of the cliff. It would take a day to get the flower and another day to get back up.
Since Ming Li recovered his strength, he decided to get the flower and started going down the cliff. Because he recovered all his strength, it only took him exactly one day. He immediately grabbed the herb and stored it in his Cube.
When he was about to start climbing back up, he felt a gust of wind on his back. As he turned back, he saw a giant red horned sparrow hovering behind him. The sparrow closed by and immediately grabbed him with its talon then wrapped around him.
It flew at fast speed immediately arriving at the top of the cliff, and then continued to fly at amazing speed above the forest.
Ming Li knew that when this bird lands at an appropriate place, it will kill him. He did not attack the bird since if he fell at the height they were flying, he would certainly die. He observed below to get a good spot to land before he attack the sparrow.
An hour has passed, and the bird was still flying at amazing speed. He saw a lake ahead of them then he gathered his energy to create several water balls. He made them spin rapidly, and upon arriving directly above the lake. Without much hesitation, he waved his hand and shot the water cannons at the wings of the sparrow. The sparrow screeched and lost control as it swirled in the air then fell into the lake.
Ming Li shot several water ball at the talon of the bird while they were swirling in the air. luckily, the sparrow loosened its grip and he immediately materialized the water shield which opened the grip of the sparrow.
When he freed himself, he shot down directly at the lake along with the sparrow, creating a huge splash on the surface of the water. The sparrow panicked as it sank in the water, since it does not know how to swim.
Ming Li swam as fast as he could at the shore of the lake. He immediately looked for safety before catching his breath. Upon series of dangerous encounters, he developed an instinct to only rest when the area is safe.
Some distance from the lake, he leaned at a tree catching his breath. He took out his map and immediately studied his location. Upon glancing at the surrounding several times and comparing it to the map, he breathed a sigh of relief. Since his current location was actually closer to the village, he was currently only fifteen days away from the village.
He continued his travel more cautiously as he encountered several more monsters during his five days walk. Day and night, he would kill monsters nonstop and collect their cores.
Normally a rank five beginner level would not last a day in this forest, but Ming Li can rely on his pills and healing skill. Also, he was stronger than normal level five at the beginners realm since his core got bigger and his aptitude in the control of natural energy was higher because of the blue orb in his core.
His clothes were covered in blood, yet the smell of herbs still covered his body. When he has time to rest, he concocts pills. He did not sleep, instead he relied on his pills to regain his energy.
The only good thing was that he has no shortage of food, since he can eat the monster he killed everyday. He also absorbed all the monster core he got. Even with continuous absorption of monster cores and pills, he noticed that his level was not increasing.
Only at this moment, he realized that increasing levels was really hard even with resources. Back then when he was a normal boy, he thought that if he was given enough pills and cores he would surely increase his strength in no time. That's why he didn't think highly at those people in the higher levels.
As he gets near the village, he started to encounter black and blue wolves. He can now kill wolves at a fast rate, but as long as a black wolf sees him it can call another group of wolves. So he fought hundreds of wolves and he was injured a lot of times.
He always traveled near a river to continuously heal his wounds while fighting the wolves. In three days of fighting with the wolves, he got almost a hundred monster core, and he continuously absorbed them as he fight with the wolves.
Days passed while continuous fighting, Ming Li got badly wounded and blood can be seen all over his body. He could now beat ten blue wolves without getting badly wounded, his level did not increase but his fighting experience grew exponentially.
He grabbed the map and thought "I'm almost there. The reward is at hand."
Near the outskirts of the town, Ming Li saw an old man standing with a smile on his face. Ming Li stopped his steps and slightly nodded and said "Thank you."
"You did good kid". Chao Shi said and walked to the nearby hut. Ming Li followed while dragging his battered body into the hut. Chao Shi handed him a pill and the first thing he did was inspect the pill. He focused for some time, but he gave up since he could not detect what sort of herbs were used to create the pill.
He popped the pill on his mouth and instantly felt better, his energy was restored, and even the small scars disappeared. One will know that the pill was something extremely valuable. Ming Li looked thoughtfully at the old man and bowed.
He now looks differently at the old man after his one month fighting experience in the forest and his continuous pill concocting. He was treating Chao Shi without much respect since he was ignorant to energy refinement and pill creation. Now that he gained knowledge, his respect for Chao Shi grew. Since if not for the guidance of the Chao Shi, he would not last a day in the forest alone.
He then went out of the hut, and sat at a corner to start concocting pills to cure the poison for the old man in the village. The good thing was that he can create ten batch of pills with the herbs he got. All the rare herbs needs only one petal each to create the pill.
He then took out his furnace and all the herbs. After some thought, he ignited a fire and placed the furnace above it. He slowly took the essence of each plant. Also, one can obviously see that his method of creating pills was at a very low level.
He then mixed everything in the furnace and focused his energy on it. His energy materialized and circulated around the furnace like a glowing strands of silk. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead as he put all his focus on the process.
The furnace started to glow, and float as the flame started to grow bigger. All the essence inside the furnace slowly combined and formed into a brown spherical pill. The pill glowed and slowly floated, but after three breaths of time it began to crumble and turn to ash.
It was a failure!
Ming Li stared at the pill turning to ash and sighed. He realized that the pill cannot be made easily and the process which he was using was probably not the best one. When the pill completely vanished, he closed his eyes and began to formulate processes which will improve the success rate of the pill. He meditated for full five hours until he gave up.
He took the three rare herbs along with the three normal herbs which was included in his ingredients. Then he stared at them trying to grasp more of the nature of the herbs. He may have the art which allows him to immediately know the characteristics of any plant, but it is still at a low level where he can only see through the plants most basic characteristics. This art should be continuously used and trained to have a deeper understanding of plants.
Ming Li slowly started to enter into meditative state while staring at the plants. All the information of the plants slowly started to form inside his head. It was a weird state where he was like communicating with the plants. Multiple information rushed into him. It was like the time he grabbed the seed of the art, but this time the information was lesser and easier to grasp. There were also multiple false information. It was up to Ming Li to select all the true information based on his own understanding. One wrong information could lead to failure. The art is only a guide. It would be up to the user on how proficient he would be able to use it.
Chao Shi stood nearby looking at him with warmth a master would have to his beloved disciple. Then after a while, he waved his hands causing mist to appear and cover a 30 meter area. This was the same mist he used at the wolves to save the warrior. When the mist completely filled the area, Chao Shi faded and completely disappeared.
After a while Ming Li's eyes glowed with golden light. The light did not stop and only grew stronger until Ming Li slowly closed his eyes. When he suddenly opened them, the light was gone, but an obvious enlightenment can be seen on his face.