The next day, Ye Lingyue went to find her mother, Ye Fengyu.
"Mother, I won't be going to the martial arts hall in the next month. I want to go to the mountain," Ye Lingyue told Ye Fengyu about the bet she made with Ye Qing.
She initially thought her mother would scold her. However, Ye Fengyu fell silent after hearing the story. She then went to her room and returned with a bag containing a bottle of alcohol ointment and three-days worth of dry food.
"Lingyue, you're all grown up now. You already know how to tell right from wrong. Your martial arts cultivation has been growing at a fast pace in the last few months, but you haven't had a proper fighting experience yet. That's only a superficial strength. This is the luggage I bring with me when I go to the mountain, so take it with you. I don't have any other requests, as long as you come back a month later and defeat Ye Qing during the inter-family competition." Ye Lingyue took to heart Ye Fengyu's words.
"Mother, if I meet a small wild beast in the mountain, how should I tame it?" Before Ye Lingyue left, she suddenly thought of something.
The little fox-dog in her space was especially cute, but it kept its guard and was very quick. Ye Lingyue wasn't able to catch it at all.
Yesterday, she left a bowl of goat's milk for it, but it didn't even touch the bowl at all. It seemed like the little thing didn't like milk.
Perhaps she could think of other ways to tame it.
In the many years that Ye Fengyu had gone to the mountain, she encountered different wild beasts. She even caught some rabbits for Ye Lingyue before. However, Ye Qing and his people would snatch the foolish Ye Lingyue's rabbits to grill, and they ate them instead.
After so many times, Ye Fengyu stopped catching wild rabbits to avoid making the foolish girl sad.
"You cannot tame a mature wild beast, but you can try feeding it some raw meat or grass if it's a young wild beast. However, wild beasts are unfeeling, so it's not much of a use to tame them. A spiritual beast pup, on the other hand, is a different story," Ye Fengyu answered casually.
"What's the difference between a wild beast and a spiritual beast?" Ye Lingyue remembered that the little fox-dog's speed and agility were definitely different from the usual wild beast.
"Spiritual beasts have feelings and can even form a spiritual contract and bond with humans. However, it's more of the fact that only larger sects possess the methods to form spirit contracts with the beasts. They are incredibly rare in the Great Zhou nation as well. Real spiritual beasts are often of high nobility and wouldn't take the initiative to form a contract with humans." In Ye Fengyu's thirty years of life, she had only seen spiritual beasts in the Great Xia nation's large cities.
From Ye Fengyu, Ye Lingyue found out that in the Great Xia nation, they classified wild beasts into three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Meanwhile, they ranked spiritual beasts into nine levels.
In the wild mountain outside of Autumn Maple town, there were usually only some beginner herbivore wild beasts and intermediate carnivore wild beasts.
"Lingyue, after you have entered the mountain, you can only move around the middle portion of the mountain and the mountain valley. You're not allowed to go up to the top," Ye Fengyu warned Ye Lingyue.
Those in the third level of body tempering would be able to deal with elementary and intermediate wild beasts. However, there were only a handful of people at the top of the mountain, so it was hard to say what kind of wild beasts lurked there.
Ye Fengyu had given her a few more instructions before Ye Lingyue took her luggage and left the northern estate.
Before she entered the mountain, Ye Lingyue went to the medicinal shop first.
After she had broken through to the third level of body tempering, the Gathering Elemental potion was no longer of use to her.
She also knew that the older the Gathering Elemental herb was, the more expensive they were. It was rare to find a wild Gathering Elemental herb that was a decade old. However, in Hongmeng Sanctuary, one year was only a day's time in real life.
Ye Lingyue had stored several Gathering Elemental herbs and she would be able to sell them now.
Inside the shop, the manager that had attended to Ye Lingyue before had been staring at the door in anticipation for the past two weeks.
The moment he saw Ye Lingyue's familiar figure, the manager immediately welcomed her.
"Miss, you're here. Are you here to sell Gathering Elemental herbs again?" The manager's eagerness weirded Ye Lingyue a little.
"I have ten fifteen-year-old Gathering Elemental herbs, twenty ten-year-old ones and the remaining thirty are all about four-years-old." Ye Lingyue took out the Gathering Elemental herbs she had.
Fifteen years, ten years… The manager didn't even take a proper look at the herbs and immediately took out the money and passed them to her.
"Manager, you gave me 10% more money." After counting the money, Ye Lingyue was a little shocked.
"The extra money is especially for you. If you have any Gathering Elemental herbs in the future, we will take all of them." The manager was smiling so brightly that it formed into barely visible slits.
The manager happily stared at the batch of Gathering Elemental herbs. Even though he paid Ye Lingyue 10% more, he would still earn twice the amount he used to buy the Gathering Elemental herbs by reselling it to a medicinal shop in the city.
While this 10% wasn't much for the medicinal shop, it was different for Ye Lingyue.
Because of this, she got over two silver taels more. Summing up all that she had received, she already saved up 28 silver taels.
Ye Lingyue said nothing else. After she bought some bug-repelling powder from the shop, she was about to say goodbye but halted.
"Manager, there isn't enough green-wood fruit in the store. Without it, we won't be able to make any alcohol ointment." One of the staff in the shop looked terribly worried.
Alcohol ointment was a very commonly used ointment. It wasn't hard to make and any medicinal shop could make it. One of the ingredients used in making alcohol ointment was green-wood fruit.
"Then let's not sell alcohol ointment for the time being. You should know that green-wood fruit grows in the back of the Seven Stars mountain. Several people recently went to harvest herbs there, but some beasts attacked them and some of these people died. Now, who would dare to go harvest any more herbs?" The manager sighed. This matter had troubled him lately as well.
Hearing this, Ye Lingyue glanced at the green-wood fruit the staff was holding and kept it in her mind.