Qing Yi left Xuan Hao behind at the small river stretching through the spirit valley as she ventured deeper into the forest just besides the small river.
The forest was not dense, and light easily came through openings in the trees above, allowing Qing Yi to easily see in front of her without much trouble.
Looking at the ground, Qing Yi instantly noticed a stark difference compared to a normal forest like the one that was just outside the Bright Sun City, herbs! And not normal herbs, no, they were Mortal Grade herbs!
The entire forest floor was completely covered in them, from deep root spirit shrooms, to sunlight flowers, Qing Yi could see all kinds of mortal grade herbs covering the forest floor.
This was amazing, normally something like this would be considered a precious gathering ground for powers like her Qing family, yet here it was, countless low grade herbs just growing freely without any human interference!
"Maybe I should inform dad when I return to the Qing family again in the future, it is after all not that far away from the Bright Sun City." Thinking about this, Qing Yi walked deeper into the spirit valley.
At this point, even a few Earth Grade herbs had showed up along the way.
Qing Yi had not held back in the slightest as she gathered all of them, stuffing whatever pockets she had full of herbs, making her look quite funny with herbs sticking out from several places on her robe.
Earth Grade herbs were normally useful for people in the Foundation Establishment Realm, so Qing Yi gathered all that she encountered. Not sparring even the most degraded and bad quality Earth Grade herb.
"…"
Back at the shore besides the river, Xuan Hao was quietly eating his newly grilled fish as he sent out his divine sense to check in on what Qing Yi was up to.
What met him was a big round ball with herbs sticking out from every possible place, if not for the small face sticking up from the top of the ball, Xuan Hao would never believe that the wandering ball of herbs was his disciple and even then, he still doubted whether the wandering ball of herbs was his cute little disciple…
His disciple seemed to be a little greedy… Maybe she was not as innocent as he had first thought?
"No way…" Xuan Hao shook his head slightly as he retreated his divine sense, his disciple was definitely not someone greedy! She was just… Helping the forest clean up by removing some of the older herbs, so the younger ones could get a little more sunlight and grow better…
Yes… That was the reason!
Not thinking anymore about Qing Yi, Xuan Hao returned to relaxing by the river as he peacefully ate the fishes he had caught.
"Ah, if just life could always be so relaxing!"
…
As Qing Yi slowly made her way deeper and deeper into the spirit valley, she came upon a ravine in the middle of the forest.
The ravine was not too large but was still more than 1 kilometre long and a few dozen meters wide.
This, however, was not the interesting thing about the ravine. Instead, it was the thing that Qing Yi saw at the bottom of the ravine.
A Spirit Grade Herb!
Qing Yi immediately narrowed her eyes to observe her surroundings, making sure that nobody was looking and only then did she slowly start to make her way down towards the spirit herb at the bottom of the ravine.
Xuan Hao observed from a distance with the help of his divine sense as the ball of herbs known as Qing Yi slowly struggled her way down to the bottom of the ravine.
Only after 10 minutes of struggle did she manage to pick up the spirit grade herb and return to the top of the ravine again.
Normally, someone with her cultivation would have been able to do the same thing within a minute or less, but Qing Yi simply had too much extra weight on her. Making moving around normally quite difficult.
"Hah…" Seeing that Qing Yi was finally making her way back towards him, Xuan Hao let out a sigh of relief.
If she did not stop gathering more herbs, Xuan Hao honestly had no idea how they would even be able to carry them all back to the sect, he only had so much space in the small bag he had brought with him…
Time passed by quickly and Qing Yi soon rolled her way back to Xuan Hao, as he watched with a wry smile as she unpacked all of her spoils and sorted them into various categories.
From fire related herbs she could use, to edible herbs, to sellable herbs.
"Let's stay here for the night, it's already gotten dark by now and we have still not crossed the Red Dust desert yet." Looking up at the sun disappearing in the horizon, Xuan Hao told Qing Yi as he waved his hand, causing a few nearby trees to breakdown and form into the shape of a small wooden house.
"Okay… Can I also make a house like that in the future?" Looking at the small wooden house that appeared in front of her all of a sudden, Qing Yi put down some of the herbs she was sorting into Xuan Hao's bag, as she asked with an excited look plastered on her face.
"Sure, when you become strong enough, even reshaping an entire mountain into a palace will be child's play." Smiling upon seeing her excited expression, Xuan Hao walked over and told her, causing Qing Yi to be even more excited.
"For now go to bed or meditate, you need to have some rest, you can sort out the herbs you picked up tomorrow!" Putting on a slightly stern expression, Xuan Hao told her as he walked into the house and sat down in a meditative position to cultivate until the night passed.
"Fine…" Carefully entering the small wooden house with her herbs, Qing Yi took out a small pillow she brought with her and sat on it as she began meditating just like her master.