Chapter 123: Waiting
When Jiang Yue was young, a favourite manhua was adapted into a drama.
He waited eagerly for the drama to be released, but the end result was disappointing.
This was because the dialogues were heavily and badly dubbed to pass censorship.
After that, Jiang Yue began to learn lip reading.
With this skill, he could discern the actual words spoken by the actors rather than the dubbed conversations.
At that time, he didn’t expect this skill would come in handy in a situation like this.
"Can you tell?" Yu Nianzhen asked.
Jiang Yue nodded but didn’t answer.
Since the person speaking to Jin Xuan had a cloth over the lower half of his face, Jiang Yue couldn’t read his lips.
In this case, he could only focus on Jin Xuan and hope to understand the situation from his side alone.
’How many?’ Jin Xuan asked.
The other person said something, and Jin Xuan frowned. He seemed a little agitated and took a few moments before he spoke.
’Is he also there?’
The other person nodded and once again said something.
’What about the purple crystal fruit?’
’How many days?’
’The formation...’
From the one-sided conversation, Jiang Yue had a basic understanding of what was going on.
However, what he knew gave him pause.
"What’s wrong?" Yu Nianzhen whispered.
"One of the people on the enemy’s side is known to Jin Xuan. They seem to know each other well, and the relationship is more than a passing acquaintanceship."
When Jiang Yue said this, Yu Nianzhen immediately understood.
If Jin Xuan meant well, he would have told everyone about this before the task started. He at least should have revealed the cultivation and talent of the other party.
Although this information wasn’t much on a large scale of things, it could still save a life.
However, Jin Xuan and his party kept this information to themselves.
This confirmed they were treating everyone else like cannon fodder.
Their true role in this task was to risk their lives while Jin Xuan and his people harvested the benefits.
’They are taking us too lightly.’ Yu Nianzhen looked at Jin Xuan, and ruthlessness flashed in his eyes.
It was one thing to issue a dangerous mission and another to knowingly use people to block the danger.
’I will fulfil him if this is how he plans to handle things.’
"What else?" He asked.
"Jin Xuan is only after the fruit at the core of the herb. It’s called the purple crystal fruit."
"Just the fruit?"
"En."
Yu Nianzhen found this strange.
For high-rank herbs, each part was useful.
Even though one part was more useful than the others, the others were not useless.
It was highly suspicious that Jin Xuan only wanted the fruit and didn’t plan to divide the cabbage leaves surrounding it.
Most importantly, the cabbage leaves weren’t part of the reward for the thirty who took the mission.
’Does he want to escape while we fight over the cabbage leaves or...’ Yu Nianzhen frowned.
At this point, everything was just speculation.
However, he didn’t plan to be passive in this matter.
They needed to ensure they wouldn’t come out at the losing end when this matter was over and done.
"It looks like the herb will mature in forty-eight shichen." Jiang Yue said.
"Four days..." Yu Nianzhen muttered.
A lot could happen in four days, and he didn’t dare to be complacent.
After thinking about it, the two revealed everything they knew to Li Futian, Xuan Ke, and Wang Xue’er.
"Should we withdraw?" Wang Xue’er asked when she heard everything.
Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue looked at each other and then shook their heads.
"We don’t plan to withdraw." Jiang Yue informed.
Although everything was dodgy, this was a good opportunity.
Not only did they have a chance to rob spirit stones, herbs and other treasures, they now had a chance to grab the leaves in addition to the roots of the purple crystal herb.
"I will also not withdraw." Xuan Ke said, and Li Futian also answered in the same way.
When she heard their answers, Wang Xue’er didn’t continue to ask.
In the end, she also didn’t want to withdraw.
The only reason she asked the question was because she wanted to make sure that everyone held the same view.
"Now that we agree, we should make a plan. I don’t want to be taken advantage of." Jiang Yue said, and the others agreed.
At dusk on the third day, the camp moved closer to the medicinal field where the purple crystal herb grew.
’It’s strange that no one bothered us over the last three days.’ Jiang Yue thought and heightened his vigilance.
In three days, his group had gone on patrol twice.
Unfortunately, the five were in one group and couldn’t take advantage of being in different groups to learn more news.
However, those two patrols garnered a lot of information.
Because of them, Jiang Yue knew the enemy group had more people than them.
This meant their group would be outnumbered when the fight broke out.
Fortunately, the enemies’ qi presence showed their strength was not too much above their collective thirty.
What worried Jiang Yue was that the enemy had yet to break the formation surrounding the medicinal field.
This was highly unusual, especially because Jiang Yue could make out a dozen spirit-rank herbs in the medicinal field.
Now that their party moved closer to the medicinal field, he looked at the herbs.
Of the dozen spirit-rank herbs, he could identify all. Eight were already in Yu Nianzhen’s jade box, and there was no need to get more.
’We should focus on the remaining four.’
Jiang Yue looked at Yu Nianzhen, and the other nodded his understanding.
"The purple crystal fruit looks different from before." He said.
The others had also noticed this.
In the image shown by Jin Xuan, the herb looked like cabbage, and the core was an ordinary purplish fruit.
However, when the five first went on patrol, they noticed the herb was different.
At that time, the herb and fruit were still purple but a little translucent.
Now, not only had the herb become completely translucent, but it had also acquired a crystal-like property.
"It should mature soon." Xuan Ke stated.
His brows were creased in a frown, and he had the same worries as the others.
However, he could only sigh and stare more closely at the enemy group on the other side of the medicinal field.
"The key is to see who moves to break the array first." Yu Nianzhen said.
From their position, he couldn’t tell what kind of formation surrounded the medicine field.
However, he was experienced after encountering many formations in the thousand herbs garden.
’The more valuable the herbs, the more complex and dangerous the formation.’
In this case, he expected the formation to be even more dangerous than the underwater garden.
Given that, whoever made the first move to break the array would lose.
"It’s too bad my formation knowledge is still elementary." Jiang Yue lamented.
If he was more skilled in arrays, he wouldn’t care about going first or last.
This was because he would have the confidence to enter the array without triggering danger.
Unfortunately, he was still weak in this area and would inevitably allow others to fish in troubled waters.
"Let’s see what he plans." Li Futian said as his closed eyes landed on Jin Xuan.
With his current clairvoyance level, Li Futian couldn’t see too much into the future, but he could still perceive that a fight would break out soon.
"That’s all we can do." Wang Xue’er agreed.
"Don’t let your guard down." Li Futian warned.
His face was solemn, and without saying another word, he sat cross-legged and began to cultivate.
When the four saw this, they could tell Li Futian knew more than he was letting on.
However, they couldn’t ask too much, so they nodded and also sat to cultivate.
There was still some time before the herb matured, and they wanted to take that time to adjust their condition.
’Unfortunately, the time is too short.’ Jiang Yue lamented.
If he had a choice, he wanted to spend more time on lullaby.
However, if he entered immersive cultivation and was interrupted partway, he would lose more than he would gain.
After considering this, he forced himself not to think about lullaby and began to refine the almost non-existent impurities in his qi.
At the same time, Yu Nianzhen was lost in thought.
Although he had a master, Yang Xu was not a swordsman.
He could teach many things by relying on books, but everything else had to be figured out by Yu Nianzhen.
Since entering the thousand herbs garden, Yu Nianzhen had encountered many things and many people.
All these encounters had become fodder for his practice, but the current him was feeling bloated.
He felt he had absorbed too many experiences but failed to properly integrate the information into his practice.
At the moment, he planned to begin assimilating all his experiences since he arrived in the Cangxing world.
By doing this, he wanted to slowly separate the chaff from the rice.
