Upon hearing Feng Jiu’s words, Guan Xi Lin was taken aback a moment and was unable to speak for a long while as he walked with his head lowered in forlorn silence.
The two people did not just walked without stopping as Feng Jiu’s purpose in the forest was to pick herbs and the route they took was windy as they detoured. Especially after having shaken off the pack of wolves off their backs, they often went through areas thick with weeds and wild vegetation.
Having picked and plucked along the entire way, she managed to accumulate quite a sizable harvest of useful magical herbs, but from her assessment of the grade of herbs she found in this area, they were all of a more common variety and not anything incredibly precious or rare. Afterall, in a ninth ranked little country place, it would be impossible to be able to find herbs of the rarest and most precious kind anyway.
Hence, they continued along on their way and they came to the foot of a mountain peak.
The sharp eyed Feng Jiu was able to spot a clump of magical herbs swaying in the wind near the peak from there and her eyes lit up immediately: "You wait for me here while I go pick those magical herbs." After searching for so long, she had finally found magical herbs that would be able to remove scars, so how could she not be excited?
"Little kid, you..... you will return here right?" Guan Xi Lin asked her a little uneasily.
After having taken a few steps, Feng Jiu was a little startled to hear Guan Xi Lin say that and she walked back, pulling out the roasted meat to hand it over to him.
"I will go pick the herbs now and I will return shortly. You have some of that roasted meat in the meantime. And, it’s best that you climb up one of the trees so that you won’t have to worry even if you come across a wild beast." She looked around and saw a slightly bigger sized tree that towered high towards the sky. She pointed at it and said: "Are you able to climb that tree? I will come back here to find you after I have picked the herbs."
Hearing that she had no intention of leaving him behind, Guan Xi Lin was finally able to smile as he assured her confidently: "Sure I can! Then I will wait for you up upon that tree and you must remember to come back and look for me!"
"Sure." She patted him on the shoulder reassuringly before she turned and went towards the peak.
The steep mountain slope was precipitous and it was rather strenuous for her as she pulled herself up as she climbed. There were times that if she was careless with her footing, loose rocks and stones would become dislodged to roll down the mountain which required her to be extremely careful with every step.
It was about two hour later as she was getting close to the clump of herbs that she saw that there was a small hole beside the clump of magical herbs. A green venomous snake that was about the size of a finger’s width was hissing as it spat out its forked tongue from inside the tiny hole, its vicious eyes staring balefully ay her.
She surveyed the area in front of her a moment and noticed that there was another small hole beside the first one she saw, seemingly linked to each other.
She realised that before she was able to pick the magical herbs, she would need to first get rid of the snake. Having decided, her eyes scanned the surroundings a while and she grabbed at a fist sized rock from the mountain’s face that was filled with mud and stones. She then pushed herself up a little nearer and just as the snake had pushed itself out of the hole a little to take a peek, her hand immediately reached out and stuffed the hole shut.
At the same moment, the snake had speedily swished out, suddenly appearing from the other hole, its mouth opened wide showing its venomous fangs while it struck quickly closing in towards her arm.
With lightning quick speed, Feng Jiu had drawn her dagger and slashed out in an instant. The snake’s head was sliced off in one cut as its body dropped down the cliff. And after that, she carefully dug out the magical herbs from the mud and kept it into her Cosmos Sack.
Having picked the herbs, she climbed all the way to the peak, intending to see the surroundings from a high vantage point. However, she chanced upon a magical herb that was emanating a faint aura of spirit energy just at the side of the peak and she joyously plucked it and put it in her Cosmos Sack as well.
"What luck! I actually managed to find two types of magical herbs in this place!" She said to herself with a smile. Standing upon the high peak and looking down, she could see that a team of people were going deep into the woods on the west side.
The leader among them was a handsome man dressed in a suit of white, and recognised him to be the fiance of the previous owner of her body, the Third Prince of the Sun Glory Country, Murong Yi Xuan. And there was a girl at his side, dressed in a flowing water blue dress, with a face so undeniably familiar to her.....