Chapter 17 - Little Turtle (1/2)

Chapter 17 - Little Turtle

On the dawn of the second day, Bai Xiaochun walked out of his wooden hut early in the morning. He immediately noticed that the spirit bamboo planted in the spirit field had actually grown to half the height of a human. Only after nodding his head in satisfaction did he head out the yard and walk along the mountain trail towards the Ten Thousand Medicine Pavilion.

The morning sun rose in the distance, its rays illuminating a distance of tens of thousands of zhang. Mist swum amidst the sunlight like golden koi, an incredibly spectacular sight. Bai Xiaochun’s posture was relaxed and at ease as he walked forwards without making any stops. Gradually, he began to see many outer sect disciples along his path. Only, since he did not recognise a single one of them, he could not help but miss his Brothers of the Burning Stoves Kitchen.

[TL: One ‘zhang’ is equal to 10 feet.]

“I wonder how Eldest Brother is doing now, and also Black Fatso Three…” Bai Xiaochun felt a sense of wistfulness in his heart. By the time the sun had risen completely, he could see the ten breathtaking stone steles of the Ten Thousand Medicine Pavilion in the far distance.

These ten steles were the symbol of the Ten Thousand Medicine Pavilion. Each stele glowed with a soft blue light. They were at least ten zhang tall and as majestic as a rainbow, as though ten giants with an extraordinarily formidable presence were standing at that spot.

On the steles, rows and rows of characters could clearly be seen. They represented the top 100 rankings.

However on each stele, there were no names written, only symbols. Each symbol was the mark of a medicine master who was the pride of the outer sect and who had left an awe-inspiring reputation within the Ten Thousand Medicine Pavilion.

Every medicine master had a mark unique to themselves that they would carve on the spirit medicine that they had satisfactorily refined. Since these medicines would spread through the ages, the marks symbolised glory for the medicine master and were of great importance.

That day when Hou Yunfei had brought Bai Xiaochun to this place, he had introduced it briefly. Now, Bai Xiaochun had come by himself. As he closed in, he read the rankings on the ten stone steles.

The most eye-catching one was the first symbol on the stone stele right in front of him.

It was an Aquarius symbol!

Hou Yunfei had once told Bai Xiaochun that this flask was the symbol of… Zhou Xinqi!

This name was not new to Bai Xiaochun. When he had still been a handyman, there had been a time when he heard Zhang Fatso One speak about this Zhou Xinqi while he lamented and savoured ginseng roots under the moonlight.

That girl was originally from an ordinary family. Numerous years ago, a predecessor of the sect had sensed her shocking latent talents and persuaded her to join the sect. After a careful examination of her qualifications, the entire Spirit River Sect had instantly been stirred into a furor.

In fact, she possessed the extremely rare flora spirit pulse. Not only was her cultivation speed multiple times faster than a normal person, her potential talent in refining medicine was even greater. Eventually, she had entered the Scented Cloud Mountain and became Li Qinghou’s only disciple. She was seen as Li Qinghou’s successor and one of the medicine masters who would be one of the future pillars of the sect.

According to the rules of the Spirit River Sect, no matter how high a person’s qualifications were, they still could not directly become an inner sect disciple. Therefore, this girl, along with the other talents of the other two mountain peaks, had started out as an outer sect disciple in order to hone her skills. Even so, it was the inner sect who granted her supplies for her cultivation.

Anyone could understand that it would not be long before this Zhou Xinqi would justifiably become an inner sect disciple.

It just so happened that this girl was beautiful enough to move people’s hearts, causing countless male disciples to admire her incessantly.

Because of those reasons, her reputation among the disciples of the outer sect was monumental. There was not a single person who had not heard of her. Disciples of the inner sect had already considered her as an a member of the inner sect. Even the traditionalist inner sect approached this girl with fear.

As he thought about this, Bai Xiaochun was filled with curiosity towards Zhou Xinqi. He gazed at the stone steles as he walked in a large circle around them, feeling increasingly breathless as he inspected them one by one.

“This Zhou Xinqi is too powerful! Ten stone steles, yet she’s number one on eight of them. The remaining two didn’t have her name, but that’s probably because she hasn’t competed for them!” Bao Xiaochun widened his eyes as he scanned the stone steles.

At this moment, the disciples surrounding the Ten Thousand Medicine Pavilion gradually began to increase. Very soon, a large sea of people had gathered. Bai Xiaochun had been searching for the position of the second herb almanac but when he noticed that the number of people here was increasing by the second, he became very curious. He didn’t understand why there were so many people here today so he pushed his way to the front. Suddenly, he heard an uproar spread from his surroundings like the waves of an ocean, moving in his direction.

“Senior Sister Zhou is coming!”

“Haha, to be expected, the rumors that have been circulating for the past few days are true. Senior Sister Zhou would definitely be coming here in these few days. Waiting here for so many days is worth it.”

“This time, Senior Sister Zhou is already first in the fifth volume of herbs and the third volume of spirit beasts. This time for sure, she’s going to challenge the fourth volume of spirit beasts!”

As surrounding discussion suddenly surged, the crowd began to squeeze against each other. Bai Xiaochun was trapped inside. Fortunately, his body was not too fat. After being squeezed back and forth, he finally forced his way out of the crowd. He lifted his head to see a long streak of light flying rapidly from a distance.

That long streak of light was actually a blue damask. There was a girl dressed in the robes of an outer sect disciple on the damask. Her hair was floating in the wind like strands of silk, her eyes were like the stars and the cold moon. Her beautiful complexion and delicate figure were elegant and refined.

In an instant, the streak flew straight towards one of the ten stone steles. Amidst the cheers of the surrounding outer sect disciples, the girl landed. She did not even glance at her surroundings as she seemed to only have eyes for the ten orderly wooden huts lined in a row beneath the stone steles. She picked a hut and walked inside.

It was only now that Bai Xiaochun noticed that below each of the ten stone steles, there was a wooden hut. At this moment, apart from the stone stele that the girl had chosen, there were many other people entering and exiting the wooden huts beneath the other steles.