Chapter 64: Chapter 64: Highly Poisonous, Purple Ink Mandala
The usually silent Qin Tian spoke up, causing Zhu Tianyou and the others to tense up, instantly rushing over to his side obediently.
"Brother Qin Tian, do you have any instructions?"
The chubby kid squeezed out a smile, his eyes narrowing into slits, looking quite amusing.
Looking at the three with their rather tense expressions, Qin Tian slowly said:
"We’re here to find someone this time; the target is a group of star pirates. I believe they must be extremely vigilant, so any slight disturbance around could catch their attention."
Qin Tian didn’t spell it out, but the three immediately understood what he meant.
"Sorry Brother Qin Tian, we were too noisy, we’ll change right away."
Zhu Tianyou promptly apologized, sliding to his knees so quickly that it made the mouths of the two beside him twitch.
Hey, it’s fine if you say it yourself, why drag the two of us into it?
We just wanted to play a little longer.
To be honest, everyone knows that the chances of completing this mission are extremely low.
After all, Twilight Ridge is simply too vast; a group of experienced star pirates entering here is like fish entering the sea, almost impossible to find.
While everyone is after those thousand academic credits, there’s also a bit of a leisure motive involved.
Twilight Ridge is a famous primal forest on Silver Gray Star, with rich ecological resources, and if lucky, one might encounter some spirit beasts or spiritual medicine.
Young people’s ideas are all quite optimistic.
If we can find the star pirates, great; if not, bringing back a few plants of spiritual medicine, or taking some photos of fighting spirit beasts isn’t bad either.
The most important thing is to have fun.
They don’t want to be timid and cautious like an old ox, diligently looking for people.
How boring is that~
However, under Qin Tian’s calm yet oppressive gaze, the two of them could only obediently lower their heads and follow behind him.
It’s all your fault!
Huang Xiaojia wrinkled her nose at Xiaopang, glaring fiercely, silently mouthing a few words.
Xiaopang spread his hands, looking helpless, as if saying, what can I do, I’m also in despair~
Xiong Gang sighed, he could already imagine that other classmates were happily running wildly in the forest, swinging between trees with vines, while they had to silently follow behind Qin Tian, even speaking cautiously.
Who on earth divided these groups?
I hate it!
Just like that, the four walked silently, without any communication, only the rustling sound of their feet stepping on the fallen leaves.
After a long time, the lively and cheerful Huang Xiaojia felt stifled and tugged at Zhu Tianyou’s clothes to talk in a low voice, carefully watching Qin Tian’s reaction at the same time.
Seeing that Qin Tian ignored their small talk, she couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief, gradually relaxing.
"Xiaopang, what do you think this group of star pirates has done to make our entire school come out? You have the best sources, you must have heard something, right?" Huang Xiaojia asked.
"I don’t know exactly what they did, but..."
Xiaopang glanced at Qin Tian and puffed out his chest slightly, "I asked my family to help inquire, this time not only our school, but also spiritualists from the two major legions are involved, with tens of thousands of spiritualists conducting a carpet search in Twilight Ridge, you can imagine what big deal this group of star pirates has gotten into."
"But I’m puzzled about one thing, the school usually specifies the detailed strength of the target person when releasing a task, but this time, there’s only a description of their appearance, without even names. Don’t you think that’s strange?"
"Yeah, seems like it really is."
Xiong Gang nodded, as a first-year student, most of the tasks in the school were actually not suitable for them, so they usually didn’t pay much attention to the task details.
But after Xiaopang mentioned it, they suddenly realized that this task does seem a bit odd.
"Hey, why didn’t you mention this in the classroom before?" Huang Xiaojia pouted, complaining.
"At that time, everyone was attracted by the high academic credits, who could pay attention to such details."
Xiaopang explained for himself, not to mention he didn’t notice at the time, even if he did, as a man, he wouldn’t be the first to withdraw in front of all the classmates.
Men, they have to save face.
"Do you think this mission could be very dangerous?" Huang Xiaojia said, a bit scared.
Many times, some decisions are made in moments of passion or under the sway of opinions from all around.
But when calm follows, many people start to feel regret.
"Should be... fine, I guess."
Being asked like this by Huang Xiaojia, Xiaopang also suddenly felt a bit scared.
Standing in front of them, Qin Tian, upon hearing this conversation, had a slight curve at the corner of his mouth.
Now they finally know fear.
"What are you afraid of? When soldiers come, we resist with generals; water comes, we use soil to stop it. It’s not like all star pirates are strong, we’re not too shabby either."
Xiong Gang said in a deep voice, full of masculinity.
In front of girls, in front of new classmates, he didn’t want to appear timid and cowardly.
"Yeah, what Da Xiong said is true."
Xiaopang immediately changed his stance, nodding in agreement.
While speaking, Xiaopang’s peripheral vision caught a glimpse of red, he rushed over, squatted down, brushed aside the weeds, and said joyously:
"Look, I found a red mulberry flower."
Red mulberry flower?
As they got closer, Huang Xiaojia asked curiously:
"What is a red mulberry flower? Is it worth anything?"
Xiaopang explained, "Red mulberry flowers are auxiliary materials for several kinds of elixirs, a single plant is about 5,000 yuan."
"Tch, only 5,000."
Hearing the number, Huang Xiaojia pouted, for her as a wealthy heiress, 5,000 was just equivalent to a price for clothes or a meal.
"5,000 is a lot, wealth is accumulated little by little."
Xiaopang put down his backpack, took out a glove and a small shovel, giggling, "Good thing I came prepared, I expected we might encounter some valuable herbs in Twilight Ridge."
Xiaopang carefully dug up the red mulberry flower with its roots intact, placed it in a special medicine box, and said while working:
"I’ll keep the red mulberry flower with me for now, and I’ll calculate the price when we get back, and we’ll split it evenly among the four of us."
"Suit yourself." Huang Xiaojia and Xiong Gang didn’t care much; they all came from wealthy families and weren’t concerned about earning one or two thousand at all.
Qin Tian watched Xiaopang with interest; even though one or two thousand wasn’t a significant amount for him either.
However, it was apparent that this chubby kid was meticulous and had different financial values compared to other rich kids, understanding the power of accumulation.
In the future, Xiaopang might not become a powerful spiritualist, but could very likely become an outstanding businessman.
The group continued their journey, and along the way, it seemed Xiaopang’s eyes were equipped with a locator, always accurately spotting herbs hidden in grass, crevices between rocks, and branches, some worth thousands, some worth tens of thousands.
It was at this time Qin Tian realized that Xiaopang’s family business was in herbal medicine, exposed to it since childhood, making him an expert in this field; he could detail the effects, uses, and growing environment of herbs with just one glance.
"Huh, what’s this herb? It’s the first time I’ve seen it."
Amid the moss-covered crevice of a rock, a purple nine-petal flower swayed in the breeze, its petals covered with intricate lines like a series of strange drawings.
"There are herbs you don’t recognize?" Huang Xiaojia asked.
Xiaopang chuckled to himself and waved it off modestly, "Oh, I’m not that great; there are plenty of herbs I don’t recognize. Although I don’t know it, I have a way to identify it."
Xiaopang activated his smart wristband, took a picture of the herb, and uploaded it to an app.
"This is the herbal compendium software produced by the Dongfang Clan. After uploading a picture, the system backend can accurately identify its type, usage, market price, etc. However, using this software requires a membership fee, 5 million a year, not something ordinary people can afford."
Di di
Very soon, the system returned an answer.
Seeing the words on it, Xiaopang shivered, taking two steps back.
"Oh my god, it’s a Purple Ink Mandala, a highly poisonous flower!"
Highly poisonous flower?
Qin Tian’s eyes lit up.