Liu Ye went into the forest with Su Maoxian and Qin Jia. They searched for herbs along the way and picked the useful and grown herbs among them. Liu Ye also searched for some soft rocks for making ink. After searching for a whole day, they set up a tent, had some rest.
Early morning, Liu Ye sat near a tree, inside an Essence gathering formation. This formation is used to extract a particular wood element qi or essence from a source.
Liu Ye slowly absorbed the wood qi from the trees and tempered his body with it. Liu Ye didn't suffer from any excruciating pain as he didn't force the qi to enter his body. Liu Ye took in small amounts of wood qi and hardened his skin with it, letting his skin get used to the wood qi. He is transforming his skin to make it more adaptable and sensitive to wood qi.
Liu Ye's skin slowly turned pale green and started to have a soft glow. Liu Ye slowly dissipated the wood qi from his body. In five days, he transformed his skin.
Liu Ye dismantled the essence gathering formation and had a bath. After eating, the group got ready to continue their search.
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Qin Jia was searching for a "deep moonflower". It can only found in places with at least 10 hours of uninterrupted moon shine for a week. The ground on that land will be covered with the light blue coloured flowers. They have a life span of one week. It had been four days and Qin Jia still didn't find them.
Liu Ye used his system to detect the herbs and plants around him. His system can identify the surrounding objects at a distance of 5 metres.
{Blue Gentian} x 06
{Hard Lily} x 05
{Earth Caterpillar} x 01
{Dull Sin Bug} x 27
{Plane Redwood Tree} x 7
Suddenly. A notification from the system surprised Liu Ye.
{Moon Flying Rabbit} x 01
He thought about it and looked towards the direction shown by the system.
He slowly walked along the navigation path while signalling to Qin Jia and Su Maoxian to keep quiet.
As he tried to hold the moon flying rabbit in front of him, it moved. The moon flying rabbit's eyes stared at Liu Ye.
The rabbit turned its body to fly away.
Qin Jia shot his Qi to bind the rabbit, he tried to not cause it any harm. But the rabbit's fur absorbed the Qi energy. It flew faster after the attack.
Qin Jia immediately flew towards the rabbit after he shot the another qi energy at it. The rabbit stopped flying and fell into the forest. It ran into the bushes and flew when there are no bushes.
Qin Jia stood in air and sent a powerful and faster qi energy to stop the flying rabbit, the qi hit the rabbit's body on its side. Blown away by the power of the attack, the moon flying rabbit bumped into a tree and fell down. Su Maoxian reached the moon flying rabbit and stepped on it to keep it from escaping.
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"How should we make it lead us to the deep moonflowers?" Su Maoxian asked while holding the ears of the moon flying rabbit.
"Tie a leash on it. Feed it with qi, it will take us there at night." Liu Ye said.
"We don't need to do anything other than that?" Su Maoxian asked with doubts.
"No. We just have to groom it, let it have enough qi to stay in the air." Liu ye replied.
"Okay."
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Under the moon shine falling in the valley, the path in the forest is clear. The three people followed the flying rabbit smoothly, with their vision unobstructed.
They reached the river flowing from the valley and followed along its riverbank.
Qin Jia with the best vision saw a small land beside the river covered in deep moonflowers. He could see the faint glow from the batch of deep moonflowers. He removed the leash on the rabbit and let it free.
The moon flying rabbit flew into a burrow near the deep moonflowers.
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"Thank you, brother Qin." Lan Yue offered her thanks with a sweet smile. "Do you want to go to the new 'Peacock restaurant'. I want to talk to you more about some business. It's my treat."
"Okay." Qin Jia agreed.
"Brother Qin, we won't be coming. We have something else to discuss." Liu Ye said with a faint grin.
Su Maoxian nodded with a face that tried to look serious.
Lan Yue looked at them with a bright smile. "I will let my people send you parcels from the restaurant."
"Thank you, Miss Lan." Su Maoxian grinned. He never ate food from expensive restaurants.
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"Brother Qin, you should be familiar with the recent increase in beast activities in the Blazing Parasol Valley, shouldn't you?" Lan Yue asked as she narrowed her eyes and looked at him.
"Yes, of course, I'm familiar. Lately, I've been frequently assigned to hunt in the valley due to the increased presence of beasts. From your question, I assume you might know the reason behind it?" Qin Jia asked Lan Yue as he remembered about the increasing beast activities in the valley for the past few weeks.
Qin Jia joined a hunters' gang and frequently enters the Blazing Parasol Valley to gather medicinal and spirit herbs.
He accompanied the gang several times and observed the forest. Even the day before, he stayed in the forest searching for deep moonflowers, so he knew that the beasts in the forest were more active than before.
"Yes, Qin Jia. I came to Blazing Parasol City during this period precisely because of this matter. Not only I, but a few of my senior brothers are also coming for this matter. Qin Jia, you might have heard of Spotted Fire Grass, actually?" Lan Yue asked him.
"Yes, I am familiar with it. That's a third-grade fire elemental spirit grass. I even collected a few strands of it yesterday. Is there any connection between it and your visit to Blazing Parasol City?" Qin Jia asked Lan Yue in confusion. For a 3rd grade spirit grass, she doesn't need to come to this city by herself. And he doesn't know what is the relation between a 3rd grade spirit grass and the increasing activities of the beasts.
"Yes." Lan Yue said in a gentle tone.