Chapter 3: An Introduction to Herbs

Even so, Yun Qing still moved to stand closer to Ye Xiaolang.

The village had over a thousand inhabitants, divided into several squads. Ye Xiaolang belonged to the Seventh Squad, and she had been brought back by him. With nowhere else to go for the time being, she was registered as a temporary member of the Seventh Squad.

The villagers gathered gradually at the square—men and women, adults and half-grown youths alike. Each time someone caught sight of her, they would glance her way more than once. Yun Qing attributed this to her being a new face.

Once everyone had arrived, more than thirty people from the Seventh Squad prepared to search for resources.

Members from the other squads of Leaf Village had also assembled. There were ten squads in total, numbering around three hundred people. The squad leaders registered those who would be venturing out.

At this point, Yun Qing noticed that it wasn't only the Seventh Squad’s members who occasionally looked at her; people from the other squads did as well. She was puzzled. She wasn’t the only wandering refugee—why did they focus on her? Was it because of the conspicuous vitiligo on her face?

When she saw two men at the head of the First Squad, their clothing distinct from the villagers’, she suddenly understood. With the system’s help, she could see that everyone else was dressed in linen robes or coarse animal-hide garments. Only her own clothes stood out, their grade indiscernible—because her level was too low for her attire. Even though her outfit was pitch black and hadn’t been washed out to its original color, it was obvious at a glance that it was of much higher quality than the villagers’.

Yun Qing whispered, “Little Wolf, do you know who those two are in front of the First Squad?”

Ye Xiaolang rolled his eyes. “Don’t call me Little Wolf. If you won’t call me Wolf Bro, just call me Big Wolf.”

Big Wolf? Yun Qing was stunned.

“Big… big…” Her face flushed red; she nearly burst out laughing, unable to say the word “Wolf” at the end. There was nothing wrong with calling him Big Wolf, but Yun Qing worried she’d start to think of herself as Mrs. Pan.

“They’re merchants, not villagers. They come to collect materials—usually once a month.” Ye Xiaolang couldn’t quite understand what she found so embarrassing. Perhaps girls with facial ailments were more thin-skinned. If she wouldn’t call him by his nickname, so be it; he still answered her question.

“Merchants? So they can travel to many places?” Yun Qing had been trying these past few days to learn more about this world, but there were no books or records. She could only ask the villagers and children left behind in roundabout ways.

“That’s right!” Ye Xiaolang’s eyes shone with longing. “They can go anywhere in the Central Continent.”

The Central Continent!

This time, Yun Qing was truly shocked. Ye Xiaolang had just mentioned the Central Continent, yet in the fragments of memory she possessed, the original owner had lived in the Lingzhou Continent.

Yun Qing desperately wanted to know the relationship between the Central Continent and Lingzhou Continent. However, she worried this might be common knowledge and didn’t dare ask directly in public.

“Captain’s here!”

A villager called out, and Yun Qing saw a robust man with a rugged air appear at the head of the group.

Ye Wei, Captain of Leaf Village’s Guard Squad.

Ye Wei was a man of few words. With a wave of his hand, he commanded, “Same rules as always. Move out!”

Yun Qing had no idea what these old rules were. This made her temporarily set aside her questions about the continents, following behind Ye Xiaolang as part of the Seventh Squad.

The resources near the village were all cultivated by the villagers. Their real goal lay in the wild resources over five miles from the settlement.

On the way, Ye Xiaolang eyed the cumbersome grass-woven backpack on Yun Qing’s back and her empty hands, lacking any tools.

In his eyes, the only thing Yun Qing was fit for at present was gathering herbs. Her homemade grass backpack could hold only a few small medicinal plants.

With such meager harvests, she might not be able to feed herself if luck wasn’t on her side. He couldn’t help but ask, “What have you done before?”

Yun Qing thought: studying, exams, gaming, eating, drinking, having fun—none of which she could admit.

When she didn’t answer, Ye Xiaolang went on, “If you want to mine, I’ve brought an extra pickaxe you can use. If you don’t gather much, I can help you carry it back.”

There were many rocks around Leaf Village, some containing ore. One could use a pickaxe to break the stones and extract the ore, but it required skill to know which rocks to mine. Yun Qing obviously lacked this ability, as did her predecessor.

Chopping wood was easier than mining, but not easy for her. It required distinguishing between different trees for various purposes—charcoal, building, campfires—and then hauling them to assigned spots.

Picking wild cotton, flax, medicinal herbs, or edible wild greens was also out of her depth; she couldn’t tell one from another or know what was special about any of them.

Yun Qing smiled. “There’s a lot I don’t know, but I can learn.”

Ye Xiaolang stared at her for two seconds, as if pondering what “a lot I don’t know” meant. He lowered his expectations and asked, “Do you know what flax looks like?”

Yun Qing shook her head.

Seeing her blank expression, Ye Xiaolang seemed to realize the truth. He looked at her helplessly, as if to say: I get it, you don’t know anything.

He hadn’t brought her back to the village just to watch her starve because she couldn’t survive on her own. Deciding to give her one last chance to wise up, he resolved that if she still didn’t get it, he’d pretend not to know her.

Along the way, Ye Xiaolang pointed to a green plant whose linear leaves distinguished it from other wild grasses. “See this? That’s flax. It’s only about two months old now. In a few months, it’ll bloom. The purple flax flowers can be used medicinally, and once it’s mature, the leaves and stems have different uses.”

Yun Qing looked where he pointed. The plant had previously been indistinguishable from other weeds, but now she could see an indicator:

“Flax, cannot be harvested.”

She turned to the black dog walking beside her. “Liuliu, is it because the plant isn’t old enough that it can’t be harvested?”

Liuliu replied lazily, “Focus your mind and look closely.”

Yun Qing did as instructed and saw more details appear above the flax: “Flax, cannot be harvested. Mature flax requires Level 3 Gathering Skill.”

So she needed Level 3 to gather mature flax. Yun Qing checked her attributes and found the relevant skill.

Gathering: Level 1, experience: 0/100.

The little sprite, Liuliu, continued its lethargic explanation. “At Level 1, you can gather materials that require up to Level 5 Gathering. If your skill is lower than what’s needed, you have a high chance of failure. For items with requirements at or below your skill level, you’ll hardly ever fail. If you try to gather things five levels higher, you’ll almost certainly fail.”

Liuliu had said “almost,” implying there were exceptions. Yun Qing praised, “Liuliu, you sure know a lot.”

“Of course, otherwise how could I be called a sprite?”

The praise went straight to its head. Yun Qing decided to tease it. “Liuliu, exit game.”

“That’s a question I cannot answer for now. I’ll study hard, or maybe you can ask differently.”

“Is there a beginner’s gift pack?”

“I’m so hungry—I wish I could eat some meat!”

Yun Qing was left speechless.