48: [Soul Comfort]

Through the tangled grass and trees on the cliff face, Su Yuan's gaze was fixed on a red Spirit Medicine.

"That's... a thousand-year blood ginseng!"

Su Yuan recognized it at a glance.

This kind of Spirit Medicine can repair the Origin. Their family had been trying to acquire a low-grade blood ginseng to treat his Older Sister's illness, but they had never succeeded.

"I didn't expect to find it here. The Treasure-Seeking Rat truly lives up to its name."

Su Yuan felt a surge of excitement.

But as his gaze swept over the small red snake beside it, he couldn't help but feel a bit troubled.

As the saying goes, Heaven And Earth Treasure is always guarded by a Spirit Beast.

This small red snake was probably the guardian Spirit Beast of this thousand-year blood ginseng.

"Brother Snake, may I ask if you would be willing to part with it?" Su Yuan asked the small snake, trying to negotiate.

"Hiss," The snake's head swayed twice, its eyes a little confused, as if it didn't understand what Su Yuan was saying.

Su Yuan had no choice but to explain in detail: "It's that Spirit Medicine up there, the thousand-year blood ginseng. Can I dig it up? I really need it."

Spirit Beasts guarding Spirit Medicine generally fall into two categories.

One is when the Spirit Beast waits for the Spirit Medicine to mature and then eats it.

The other is different; it's a symbiotic relationship, where the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi is richer around the Spirit Medicine, so the Spirit Beast likes to stay nearby.

The thousand-year blood ginseng was already ready to be used as medicine,

but the small snake had not touched it at all, indicating that their relationship was likely the second type of symbiosis.

In this situation, there was still a possibility of convincing it to part with it.

The small snake could just find another Spirit Medicine later.

"Hiss, hiss," The small red snake wriggled its body, seemingly displeased, but said nothing.

The little creature twisted its body to the side, seemingly telling Su Yuan to hurry up and pick it.

"Thank you, thank you!"

This time, Su Yuan was truly grateful.

He had just been thinking that if the small snake couldn't be reasoned with, he would have no choice but to resort to force.

He didn't expect Brother Snake to be so understanding.

"The max-level affinity brought by 'King of Beast Taming' is truly something else. The little beasts really treat me as a friend!"

Su Yuan's eyes welled up with tears.

He climbed along the weeds onto the cliff face, carefully moving to the location of the blood ginseng.

Harvesting ginseng was also a skilled job.

Although it wasn't as strict as the rules for ginseng harvesters in old-time novels,

it still required great care.

You could only dig with your hands, and you absolutely couldn't let the blood ginseng's skin break.

Once the skin broke, the medicinal properties would be lost, and its value would be severely damaged.

"What a large blood ginseng,"

Su Yuan pushed aside the surrounding weeds and carefully counted the leaves.

"One, two... nine. Nine-leaf, it really is a thousand-year blood ginseng!"

Su Yuan was ecstatic,

but his hands were meticulous, digging away the soil around the blood ginseng little by little, revealing its blood-red skin.

This was a delicate task, not to be rushed.

After digging for a long time, Su Yuan's back ached before he finally managed to completely dig out all the roots of the blood ginseng.

"Hahahahaha, this is great! The thousand-year blood ginseng is mine!"

Su Yuan held the blood ginseng in his hands, unable to stop himself from laughing foolishly.

"Alright, stop laughing. I've been waiting for you for a long time. Now that you've dug it up, bring it over."

Suddenly, a sharp voice rang out.

"Whoosh!"

Cold sweat immediately ran down Su Yuan's back.

Who was talking!

Damn it, he had been too focused on harvesting the ginseng just now and hadn't noticed that someone had arrived!

Su Yuan stiffly turned around.

Below the cliff face, there were six people in total, four men and two women, all looking at him with playful eyes.

It seemed they had truly been waiting for him for a long time.

...

Su Yuan jumped back down from the cliff face to the ground. He smiled bitterly in his heart, but his expression remained calm. He cupped his hands and said, "Friends, are you also here to hunt in the mountains?"

"Heh, you're trying to get chummy, kiddo," A tall, sturdy man spoke, "Less talk, hand over the thousand-year blood ginseng!"

"This... I dug it out!"

Su Yuan's voice was a little helpless; he was still trying to reason with them.

"If you dug it, it's yours? Heaven And Earth Treasure belongs to the virtuous! Do you know who I am? My name is Huang Youde, and the virtuous possess it, so all Heaven And Earth Treasure belongs to me, understand!" The tall, sturdy man sneered.

Was this some kind of cold joke? Su Yuan cooperatively twitched the corner of his mouth.

"This... can you share some with me? My Older Sister is seriously ill at home and urgently needs blood ginseng for treatment..."

"If you're sick, go die! What kind of life is so precious that it's worth a thousand-year blood ginseng? You don't even look at whether you're worthy. Can your lives compare to a thousand-year blood ginseng?" The tall, sturdy man had a fierce expression, as if he would strike at any moment if they disagreed.

...

Su Yuan clenched his fists, looking at the six people opposite him.

All six looked to be in their twenties or thirties.

Adventurers of this age, as long as they weren't too lazy, likely had cultivation levels of the second or third realm.

He assessed the strength of both sides.

He sighed helplessly in his heart.

"Heaven has endowed me with talents for a purpose; a thousand gold coins scattered will return again."

"With the help of the Treasure-Seeking Rat, I will surely find more Heaven And Earth Treasure in the future. It would be unwise to risk my life over one blood ginseng."

"As long as the green mountains remain, there will always be wood to burn!"

Thinking of this, he smiled freely, as if he had come to terms with it.

"My friend speaks wisely. Then this thousand-year blood ginseng, I will give it to you all, my friends."

Su Yuan placed the thousand-year blood ginseng on the ground and stepped back a few paces.

He cupped his fists.

"Green mountains remain, and green waters flow. I shall take my leave first. Friends, may we meet again if fate allows!"

With that, he turned to leave!

"Whoosh!"

A short spear flashed quickly before Su Yuan's eyes, embedding itself in a tree behind him, its tail still trembling.

"Did I say you could leave?" The leader of the six men slowly spoke.

"What do you mean by this, friend?" Su Yuan's face darkened.

If he hadn't dodged quickly just now, he would have been pinned down.

The other party clearly had no intention of holding back!

"Leave everything you have on you!" The leading man said lightly.

...

Su Yuan took a deep breath and shook his head: "This blood ginseng is my only gain today. Other than that, I have nothing. I hope, friend, you will show some leniency today, so we may meet again in the future."

"Meet? Meet your sister! Meet again, and still trying to be eloquent with me," The tall, sturdy man had a short temper. He walked forward and picked up the thousand-year blood ginseng from the ground.

"Leave that sword on your back, your bag, and the clothes on your body. You can leave with just your underwear!"

"No, the underwear has to come off too!" One of the women among the six spoke, her eyes even more playful.

"You, you... are going too far!" Su Yuan gritted his teeth. The things on him weren't expensive,

but he felt that the other party probably had no intention of letting him go. Asking for his clothes and weapons was just to make him disarm.

If he disarmed, he would truly become a lamb to the slaughter!

His gaze sharpened, and he made a decision in his heart.

"Little Red, bite him!"

Su Yuan had already seen that the small red snake had not left; it was coiled in the tree branch above the six people's heads.

When Su Yuan spoke at this moment, the six people still didn't understand his meaning.

Then, a red light flashed.

The next moment, one of the men among the six cried out, clutching his neck.

The small red snake had bitten him on the neck by surprise... [Dear readers, this book is making its debut today, and being placed on the paywall is equivalent to being put on shelves!]

Being put on shelves usually comes with a message, and I hope everyone subscribes.

The author would also like to take this opportunity to say a few more words and hopes that readers can give a good review.

[Dear readers, please be gentle with your criticism! How can it all be bad reviews?!]

At noon, the author saw five more reviews and nervously clicked to view them.

I only saw two: one three-star and one two-star.

There were three others that I don't know if they were one-star, so the System automatically blocked them to spare my feelings... In the afternoon, I saw three more reviews.

I clicked in and only saw one two-star bad review.

Then, I just checked again, and there was another two-star bad review.

So now, the book should have a total of nine reviews.

The author's backend can see four: three two-star and one three-star.

How can the reviews be so bad!

How can there not be a single good review!

Is it that bad?

The author is confused!

Brothers, don't mess with me. Can you give a five-star good review?

Please, I beg you ╥﹏╥!!

I've been restless all day today, constantly wanting to check the data.

The author is a bit exhausted.

I've never been this anxious when putting a book on shelves on other platforms... A few years ago, when Tomato wasn't called Tomato, the author wrote a urban soldier king type of book here.

The data was truly dismal.

For several years after that, I never opened a book on Tomato again. This is now my first book back on Tomato.

I don't know if it suits the taste of my fellow readers.

Actually, before starting the book, I tried to learn some Tomato-style elements, adding things like 'All people' (all people), 'Awakening in public' (public Awakening), 'school beauty' (campus belle) and so on.

But I'm not really good at that, and the result was very poor.

Looking back now, I feel like it was a bit counterproductive.

It probably would have been better without these... Regarding the issues mentioned in the bad reviews, the author would like to explain.

I never wrote that others could plunder talents!

Some of these are actually plot holes I dug and foreshadowing I buried.

The book states that there has never been any mention of seven-colored talents in the world. The protagonist suspects that perhaps everyone else keeps it a secret like him and doesn't reveal it.

But that's not the case, nor is it because the high-level consortiums have blocked the news.

It's because only the protagonist possesses seven-colored talents!

It was mentioned earlier that only 'Demonic Dismemberment' can touch talents. This is a true setting.

Besides 'Demonic Dismemberment', only seven-colored talents can touch talents.

All seven-colored talents are related to talents, such as stealing, exchanging, or... Others will not have seven-colored talents,

so there's no such thing as consortiums raising Geniuses to seize talents!

As for Older Sister's talent mysteriously disappearing, wasn't that in the news? It made the news precisely because it was unheard of, and it wasn't because the talent was stolen... Explaining too much here might affect the normal reader experience,

so I won't explain it.

However, I still hope that you won't give bad reviews because of this aspect.

For me, the logic is sound; perhaps it's my writing ability that failed to make it clear.

Also, about the 'As-You-Wish Iron Rod', I think the name is quite good.

And this wasn't a name I came up with.

I thought everyone remembered it, so I didn't explain too much.

This is the name of the Six-Eared Macaque's weapon!

Sun Wukong's is the Ruyi Jingu Bang, the Tongbi Ape's is the Qingtian Baiyuzhu, the Chijiri Macaque's is the Jiaohai Zijinliang, and the Six-Eared Macaque's is the As-You-Wish Iron Rod.

Changing size and shape is indeed the ability of the As-You-Wish Iron Rod!

----

Above are the areas where I feel I have no problems.

Below are the areas where I do have problems.

First, it's said that 'Equality of All Beings' shouldn't be a Golden talent. This can be slightly explained by saying that there are also useless Golden talents.

However, after so many chapters, 'Equality of All Beings' has not yet played a role.

This is indeed a big problem.

In the original setting, 'Equality of All Beings' had already started to play a role,

because originally, I wanted to arrange talents like 'Calling a Deer a Horse' or 'Zhang Guan Li Dai' (attributing someone else's achievement to oneself) for Qin Zijin.

That is, the protagonist can only be evenly matched with someone named 'Xiao Yu', while the female lead can designate anyone to be called 'Xiao Yu'.

Male and female cooperation, it was originally a very good setting (which I copied)!

But... I'm not very good at writing female leads; I'm better at writing no female leads!

At that time, because the keyword 'campus belle' was very popular on Tomato, I wrote the 'campus belle' character.

Later, I found that I wrote it too poorly,

so I changed the setting and greatly reduced the female lead's scenes!

It's better to let the protagonist draw 'Calling a Deer a Horse' or 'Zhang Guan Li Dai' himself.

It's just that the previous talents have already been arranged,

so 'Calling a Deer a Horse' can only be arranged later.

This has led to 'Equality of All Beings' not yet playing a role.

This is one problem.

Another is the issue with the 'Taking Advantage of an Opportunity' talent that can steal weapons and the talent that steals Cultivation Techniques.

Many readers scold the protagonist for being stupid, not knowing about the talents for stealing weapons and Cultivation Techniques.

Actually, I, the author, am aware of this,

but I wrote that the protagonist hadn't realized it yet.

This is indeed my problem; it does feel a bit like forcibly suppressing his intelligence.

It was mainly to find a reason for the protagonist to steal from Xiao Yunfei.

But don't worry, the protagonist will realize it in these two chapters.

Please look forward to it!

Also, regarding the later content, the next talent can help the protagonist's mother remove 'No Further Progress', and the culprit who caused Older Sister's talent to disappear will also be revealed next.

The upcoming plot will become more and more exciting.

I hope everyone doesn't abandon the book!

...Recent news, I just finished typing and went to check, and three more reviews appeared.

Among them, 1 is four-star, and 2 are two-star.

Oh my goodness,

a total of 12 reviews, 1 four-star, 1 three-star, 5 two-star,

the rest are probably one-star.

I can't even imagine how low the rating will be when it comes out.

Can it even reach 5 points?

Mainly, a bad-looking rating is actually fine, but a low rating affects the exposure!

Exposure means the website's recommendations, which means readers.

Without exposure, without readers, how can I live!

Please, please, give a good review (⋟ ﹏ ⋞)

Please give a five-star good review!!