Chapter 127 – Enlightenment, a Person’s Turning Point
When Yue Yang, Ye Kong and company reached the Blackstone Square, they saw a man with an extraordinarily tall figure clad in black armour waiting.
This person had fierce-looking facial features, with many terrible scars traversing across his face, making his entire person look as if he was a demon. At first, Ye Kong did not believe that a teacher would really kill a student, but upon seeing this black armoured man’s ferocious demeanour, he could not help but be somewhat suspicious. Maybe this guy would really kill somebody who had defied orders. The black armoured guy had a pair of eagle eyes, which were so acute it as if they were able to penetrate through the hearts of humans. Let alone ordinary warriors, even when Yue Yang looked eye to eye with him once, he felt a shiver in his heart. He had such a frightening aura of death and expression in his eyes. Yue Yang had seen this gaze on two people before. One was the Elder Yue Hai who had fought the battlefield killing countless people and was notorious even in the Demon Abyss; the other was the one who had the title of ‘Thousand Withering Bones’, Feng Kuang.
(Shiro: Imperial Guard Commander Feng Kuang appeared at chapter 112)
If he had never killed and beheaded tens of thousands of people, it was probably impossible to accumulate this much murderous aura. It seems that this eagle-eyed man in front of him was also a military officer who caused much blood to spill on the yellow sands of the battlefield, narrowly managing to escape death himself.
That sort of murderous intent was entirely different from that accumulated by an ordinary warrior who merely hunted beasts.
If this black armoured guy’s murderous aura was a sharp blade for killing people, then the ordinary warrior’s murderous spirit was at most a fruit knife, it was practically impossible to compare the two on the same footing.
The students in the Death Class had rapidly gathered. They were different from Yue Yang and company who had just joined, these people had almost immediately lined up in two columns neatly upon arrival. Amongst the students, there was a very small number was guys, there were only six of them. Most of them were girls and there were about twenty plus of them in total. What surprised Yue Yang was that there was also five small children.
There were both male and female kids, and the oldest amongst them looked not more than ten years old.
But they were all exceptionally solemn and serious, their little heads raised up, their backs straight like ramrods, and their little legs stretched taut, all with the appearance of qualified warriors.
“The five of you allocate yourselves into a small group and stand at the back.” The black armoured eagle eyed guy with a potent murderous aura used his slightly hoarse and extremely magnetic voice to shout at Yue Yang. After waiting for Yue Yang and company to arrange themselves properly, he used his eagle eyes to sweep across his surrounding. Then he coldly spoke. “Our soldiers ran into an ambush at the Dragon’s Intestines Path. Even though they had achieved victory after a bloody battle, there were three hundred people in total who were poisoned. They were bitten by a special type of Demon Worm, and there is a shortage of a type of main medicine at the clinic, hence they are unable to give proper medical treatment. Now, we must proceed into the Demon Abyss to collect and gather a type of especially efficacious medicinal herb to treat the soldiers who were poisoned… In ten seconds, those who want to withdraw, can get lost to enjoy your fine lives. Those brave warriors who are not afraid of death, follow me.”
“……” In Fatty Hai’s heart, he actually wanted to withdraw. A large group of students gathering medicinal herbs in the Demon Abyss – wasn’t that equivalent to seeking death? But seeing that Yue Yang did not say anything and even the few kids in front of him had determined looks on their faces, he found it too embarrassing to say that he did not want to go.
“……” Ye Kong and the Li Clan Brothers were on the other hand, extremely excited.
Previously when they fought back the Demon Army in the Demon Abyss, they were unable to contribute any effort towards the fights. It was all solely done by Yue Yang. He, alone, killed the Demon General, and saved everybody.
This made them feel very ashamed of themselves.
They might not have the qualifications and strength needed to fight against the Demon Army in the Demon Abyss, but to gather medicinal herbs to save people, there should not be a problem.
As for Yue Yang, there was more surprises. The Academy often brought their students out to gain experience. This was quite normal. However, ordinary academies including Shang Jing Academy only went to the various districts within Soaring Dragon Continent, for example places like Wild Horse Plains, Snow Bear Icefield, Wind Wolf Canyon, White Shark Gulf or Goshawk Cliff, to gain practical experience. At the most, they would only visit the First and Second Levels of Tong Tian Tower for practical experience. Even the Third Level was only for the students’ final graduating test.
He did not think that this Ivy Academy would go straight to the Demon Abyss on the first day …
What kind of place was the Demon Abyss? Not talking about other people, even Yue Yang understood that it was definitely a place where death run rampant.
Even if they did not meet the Demon Army, they could still meet all sorts of formidable demons and monsters that were also extremely dangerous.
Just for a few hundreds soldiers’ lives, Ivy Academy was going to send these thirty plus most outstanding cream of the crop students to the Demon Abyss to gather medicinal herbs? Amongst the elites, there was even Emperor Jun Wu You’s daughter, the small girl in front who was also one of the youngest in age, Little Princess Bei Bei, who had played with clay together with Yue Shuang during the New Year’s Celebration.
It was hard to imagine that at only six or seven years of age, she was already sent to the Demon Abyss to train. No wonder she could score eighty marks for her tests, what kind of education was this?
It was practically an education system fitting for it’s name, hell class…
Sweating, Yue Yang thought, this guy Jun Wu You was really demanding. He really had the makings of being an emperor.
A middle-aged doctor who was responsible for the teleportation circle and explaining medicine related knowledge came forward. In his hands, he separately held two bottles.
“The medicinal herb that we want to collect is ‘Black Eared Shrivelled Heart Orchid’, it is an extremely poisonous herb. Before boiling, if anybody takes even a drop of it, or infected his wound by even a smidgen of it, he will spurt blood by the seven apertures of his head and die within one minute. At the same time, it is very similar to ‘Rat Spot Flying Yang Grass’. The former’s leaves has spikes at their corners, whereas the latter has hairs growing at the corners of their leaves, but there are only a few of these, and it is practically impossible to tell the difference with the naked eye, one must rely on touching or using beasts’ special response abilities. The bottle on the left is ‘Black Eared Shrivelled Heart Orchid’, while the bottle on the right is ‘Rat Spot Flying Yang Grass’, all of you can let your beasts smell them for a bit. After boiling, the toxicity of ‘Black Eared Shrivelled Heart Orchid’ is greatly reduced, and is able to cure wounded persons; but the toxicity of ‘Rat Spot Flying Yang Grass’ increases greatly after cooking, and would cause immediate death if taken. Also, there is another kind of plant which grows close to them, called ‘Silver Fragment Leaf Smelly Flower’, normally the plant which grows taller than it is ‘Black Eared Shrivelled Heart Orchid’, the plant which grows shorter than it is ‘Rat Spot Flying Yang Grass’, but one must take note that the young sapling of ‘Rat Spot Flying Yang Grass’ will be a lot shorter than ‘Silver Fragment Leaf Smelly Flower’.” The words of this middle aged doctor made Yue Yang sweat profusely, these three plants grew close to one another?
If they gathered one or two herbs wrongly, and let the poisoned soldiers take them as medicine, would it not completely wipe out the entire army?
Not even thinking about the lives of the soldiers, the Academy letting kids six or seven years old into the Demon Abyss to gather medicinal herbs, this was also not a good idea …
If, in the process of proceeding into the Demon Abyss, there was an accident and Little Princess Bei Bei or some other kid did not manage to return, how would the Academy be able to answer to Jun Wu You? Also, in the group, there were new students who, like him, had absolutely never heard of what ‘Black Eared Shrivelled Heart Orchid’ or ‘Rat Spot Flying Yang Grass’ was before, the probability of gathering the wrong herb could be estimated to be over ninety percent… With this, this trip to the Demon Abyss had really unimaginable consequences.
The situation however was one where Yue Yang could not think much longer. The gigantic teleportation circle had momentarily opened and it could be maintained for only one minute.
If they were not able to complete their mission and return within two hours, then all the poisoned soldiers would die.
“Everybody get one delivery scroll each. If you meet a demon which you cannot defeat, you are allowed to use the delivery scroll to return to the Academy. Go.” The eagle-eyed guy did not say much. With a wave of his hand, he led the team out.
All the students of the Hell Class had allowed their beasts to smell the liquids in the two bottles.
Other than letting Hui Tai Lang smell it, Yue Yang himself also sniffed at it. Realising that it was odourless, he scolded the middle aged doctor in his heart, calling him a quack and swindler.
These two liquids of Black Eared Shrivelled Heart Orchid and Rat Spot Flying Yang Grass had completely no difference from each other, because they were both odourless liquids… The colours were also the same, and were both slightly black with a tinge of light purple. How could they asked somebody like him, who cannot differentiate between salvia miltiorrhiza and codonopsis root, or between licorice root and atractylodes macrocephala, or even between wolfberry and magnolia vine, to find the difference between Black Eared Shrivelled Heart Orchid and Rat Spot Flying Yang Grass, which appeared to look exactly the same on the surface?
This level of difficulty was even higher than scaling the skies.
The Demon Abyss, as always, had a blood-red sky.
However, the place they were teleported to was not the ancient battlefield, but a gloomy and frightening damp valley.
Countless Demon Worms were crawling about. As they were afraid of the human students’ numerous beasts, they temporarily did not dare to attack, but faced with fresh and tasty human meat, they were also unwilling to retreat.
“The clinic said that we can find ‘Black Eared Shrivelled Heart Orchid’ in the depths of this bug-infested valley. For those who have Beast Mounts, ride them, if you don’t, then follow us and run behind. Our time is tight. Students who find the Black Eared Shrivelled Heart Orchid, only need to gather about ten of them, and return immediately. Every one of the medicinal herb is able to save one soldier’s life. Time is life, do it as fast as possible.” The eagle-eyed guy took out his crystal and summoned a Level Five Bronze-Ranked Mail-Plated Beast. Mounting it, he took the lead and sped towards the depths of the bug-infested valley.
“Gosh… There’s not even a demonstration, how do we pick?” Yue Yang, Ye Kong and company hurried to catch up with him.
But the more Yue Yang travelled, the more he was puzzled.
Because he found that along the way, apart from continuously killing Demon Worms, the eagle-eyed guy also gathered the herbs at the same time, and wherever he went, he practically left not even a blade of grass and not a single plant behind. All herbs and plants had been picked and placed into his bag. If it was only a student assignment, why would this guy need so many herbs? Also, he picked not only one or two types, but all of them, which was really strange.
As he walked, Ye Kong lowered his voice and spoke to Yue Yang. “There’s something fishy. I am guessing that the number of poisoned people is not only three hundred … … ”
His words made Yue Yang’s heart jolt slightly when he heard them and he suddenly realized something.
If an army encountered an ambush and were poisoned, then the number of people who were poisoned would definitely not only be just three hundred. Because the Human Union Army was weaker than the demons, for the purposes of marching an army, they must have formed a tens or thousands men strong legion, so that in dispatching together they would be safe. If it was only three hundred people, it was not even enough to let the Demon Worms nibble at. According to the words of the eagle-eyed guy, the human army even in a situation where they encountered an ambush still achieved victory. If so, the human union army must have been superior in terms of military strength… In such a situation, how could the number who participated have only been three hundred? How could the number who were poisoned have only been three hundred?
“So you meant that we are only one squadron who are coming to the Demon Abyss to pick the medicinal herbs earlier? There are still other squadrons who are carrying out the same mission at the same time, but just not here?” After Yue Yang said this, he immediately mentally associated with another frightening matter. If the poison was deliberately administered by the demons, then would the Demon Army and Generals set up an ambush of hidden troops at the place where the Black Eared Shrivelled Heart Orchid grew?
If there were ambushes by the Demon Commander and Demon General in this bug-infested valley, with the eagle-eyed man bringing everybody into the valley and falling head first into this trap, wasn’t it akin to courting death?
Once Yue Yang thought of this, he immediately wielded the Hui Jin Magic Blade in his hands and took measure of his surroundings with a guarded expression on his face.
In picking the medicinal herb, he could not help much.
However, he must at least protect everybody in safely gathering the Black Eared Shrivelled Heart Orchid and returning.
Now Yue Yang had finally realised the importance of basic knowledge. If he could differentiate between Black Eared Shrivelled Heart Orchid and Rat Spot Flying Yang Grass at one look, then there was no need to let so many people take the risk into this foray, he could complete the mission just by himself.
Unfortunately, he was a guy from a different world, so he had to learn everything from the beginning …
Yue Yang was suddenly enlightened in his heart: today’s lesson, this journey to the Demon Abyss, was going to be a turning point in his life. After he returned, quickly master his primary major in physical skills then concentrate on medicinal studies. If he was able to better his knowledge of medicine, then the mysterious knowledge in his mind would be able to unleash its formidable power. In the future he would definitely be able to create a pill better than [Spirit Beast Awakening Knowledge Pill]. When that time comes, not only he himself would benefit, but his beast’s capabilities would also be increased.
As for knowledge relating to beasts, mechanics and runes, he would also pursue his studies in them.
If he knew of all the weaknesses of all the beasts, and once again encountered powerful beasts, then it would no longer be disadvantageous for him. If he mastered knowledge on mechanics, he would not only be able to create Puppet Beasts, but he could also inherit the Secret Grimoire left by Ghost Genius Yue Gong in the Puppet Palace. As for runes, they looked useless on the surface, but they were the only key to opening the Ruins Shrine…
“Big Brother, you don’t know how to pick the herbs, right? You guys should be our bodyguards and we will complete the mission together. But all of you must listen to our instructions.” A few kids riding Flying-type beasts flew beside Yue Yang and company, and started to negotiate with them conditions of being their bodyguards.
“Did you guys discover something?” Yue Yang’s brain worked faster than anybody else, and he understood a little after hearing this. These little imps must have found something good.
These little imps were not that simple, now Yue Yang did not dare to underestimate them too much.
What good things did they actually find?