Chapter 178: The one who wants to break the record
Yi Yun had originally intended to pick a few herbs on his first day. If he picked hundreds of herbs on his first day, it would be too amazing. After all, in the future, if Yi Yun carried on picking so many herbs, it would arouse the suspicions and doubts of others.
Zhong Yi’s record was due to the quality of herbs he picked, not the quantity.
With a keen perception and a certain amount of luck, it was not surprising to pick exquisite herbs. Just by picking a few herbs that were worth a thousand dragon scale runes, one could easily get tens of thousands dragon scale runes.
Hence, it was reasonable to break the record this way.
If he did not use this method, and broke the record in terms of quantity by picking ten to twenty times more herbs, then something would be amiss.
Hence, Yi Yun wanted to win according to the quality of herbs he picked, not the quantity. There had to be a gradual process in breaking the record.
After collecting these herbs, Yi Yun began to concentrate on training his movement skills.
He practiced for most of the day. While practicing his movement skills, Yi Yun still managed to find some herbs here and there. After some hesitation, Yi Yun also plucked these herbs.
One of the Yellow-ranked herbs he picked was a Duskwood Fruit. The Divine City exchanged this Duskwood Fruit for 50 dragon scale runes.
This Duskwood Fruit was one of the best herbs among the Yellow-ranked herbs. It was worth even more than some of the low-grade Mystic-ranked herbs.
Today’s harvest was estimated to be about 200 dragon scale runes. This was 7-8 times what a normal cultivator could obtain!
Yi Yun touched his nose and helplessly smiled. He had accidentally picked more than 200 dragon scale runes. For a typical rookie to pick 30 odd dragon scale runes, just barely enough to pay the rent, was considered pretty good.
By slowly accumulating experience, one was able to pick about 40-50 dragon scale runes worth of herbs.
To pick 200 in his first day was somewhat exaggerated.
But upon careful thought, compared to Zhong Yi who left the record of 19,000, he was still inferior. Zhong Yi’s average returns each day was above 300 dragon scale runes. That was every day!
This number was quite amazing!
For Zhong Yi to pick so many highly ranked herbs, it clearly could not be explained by mere luck alone.
Of course, picking herbs needed luck. Picking a Heaven-ranked herb due to luck was not surprising. But luck was not something that was unlimited. One or two lucky days was possible, but not every single day.
“This senior Zhong Yi must have had some keen perception, or some other advantage. He must have had some special ability to leave behind such a record…”
In this world, there were extremely few people who had natural sharp instincts. Some people could observe their surroundings and remember every detail of the scene, such as the position of each blade of grass. These people were like alert animals. It was very difficult to sneak up on them.
This intuition might not bring much to a person’s fighting strength; but, if they entered a dangerous mystic realm, this intuition would often save their lives.
Yi Yun believed Zhong Yi was such a person.
With Zhong Yi’s record, if he picked 200 dragon scale runes worth of herbs, it should not attract too much attention. People will just think he was lucky.
In the evening, when Yi Yun saw the setting red Sun, he spat out a mouthful of foul air and sat down to meditate.
When the Sun completely set, Yi Yun arranged his herbs and went through the teleportation array back to the Tai Ah Divine City.
Besides his harvest of herbs, Yi Yun could clearly feel that during his herb-picking journey, the 200 cauldron Flowing Mercury Gown had been forging his body. It made his body better and allowed him to perfectly absorb the primordial species’ energy. At the same time, under the huge pressure, he had managed to gain better control of his strength, allowing him to have a deeper understanding of the large success stage of Minute Subtlety.
Upon returning to the job office, Yi Yun saw a bunch of girls with herb baskets handing over their herbs.
These herb-picking girls, regardless of origin, wore coarse clothes in the Tai Ah Divine City. They did not put on any make-up, making them look like simple village girls, and were like a breath of fresh air.
“Sister Wang, you pressed too hard with the steelyard! I can’t even afford my meals, and you still want to press it like that.”
A little girl said with a pettishly charming voice.
However, Wang was completely immune to it. With a foot-long rod, a pigeon egg-sized weight, and a shiny plate, she measured the weight of the herbs.
The herbs handed over by the girl was placed into a moisture-removing array by Wang before its weight was measured. The herbs’ weight was checked by Wang, and it would not be a big deal if she made some tiny changes to the number she recorded. But she was incorruptible and mean, so no one could gain any advantage from her.
“Next.”
Wang impatiently waved and ignored the petulant loli.
The loli spat out her tongue and retreated. Behind her were a few of the girls that Yi Yun had met here earlier.
The head of these girls was Zhao Qingcheng, and they were all from the Luohuo Association.
Zhao Qingcheng saw Yi Yun at the outset, but she did not greet him this time.
“Low-grade Yellow-ranked herbs, 545 grams. Rounding down to the nearest 50 grams, it will be counted as 500. A total of 100 dragon scale runes!” Wang deftly kept her steelyard. She rattled off a string of words rapidly. It was impossible to tell what she said without carefully listening.
In fact, with Wang’s cultivation level and keen perception, she could accurately tell the weight of the herbs using her hand. But she liked to use the steelyard to measure because by sliding the scale back and forth, it also pulled on the hearts of many cultivators.
“95 grams…”
Hearing this number, the jovial Zhao Qingcheng could no longer smile.
Typically, only middle-grade Yellow-ranked and above herbs would be computed one by one. Most of the low-grade Yellow-ranked herbs were all mixed together and dried using an array and given 10 dragon scale runes for every 50 grams.
By rounding down the last 45 grams, it made her heart ache!
She just needed 5 more grams!
Although low-grade Yellow-ranked herbs were not valuable, to these herb-picking girls, this was their main source of income. The higher grade herbs were too difficult to find. For example, Yi Yun’s Meteorite Grass was hiding inside a rock. Only by cutting open the rock would one see it, who could find something like that?
Zhao Qingcheng’s little group had four girls. With all their middle-grade and upper-grade herbs, their days’ combined revenue was 166 dragon scale runes.
Subtracting the 100 dragon scale runes rent, there was only 66 left, averaging to about 15-16 dragon scale runes per person.
This income was terrible…
“Ai, why the hell didn’t I pick one more herb. Just a few leaves would make up 5 grams…”
Zhao Qingcheng heart chagrined. She looked at Wang and persisted, “Sister Wang, I’m just short of 5 grams to reach 550 grams. Just let it pass. Do you know, Sister Wang, we had found an extremely good elixir a few days ago. And the price was reasonable and was perfect for us sisters to use. We bit our teeth and borrowed 200 dragon scale runes from the Divine City’s bank and, together with our savings, we bought the elixir. This loan has a 15% interest rate, and the interest compounds. If we can’t return it in 3 months, we sisters will be sleeping on the street.”
“Seeing that it’s nearly the end of the month…We are just short of the 200 dragon scale runes. If we have enough, we can return it. If we can’t return it, we still need to pay a month’s interest! What do you…”
As Zhao Qingcheng said it, she stared at Wang with a watery, wide-eyed, appealingly innocent gaze and fluttered her eyelashes.
Wang had put down her steelyard and was about to take her precious mirror. Hearing Zhao Qingcheng say so much, she did not even raise her head. She adjusted her hair and after a while said coldly, “What has all that crap you said have to do with me?”
Zhao Qingcheng’s smile froze. She carried on smiling obsequiously, “Sis Wang’s mirror is so exquisite… I say, Sis Wang is so pretty. If I were as pretty as Sis Wang, I’ll never part from the mirror.”
“Thanks.”
Wang accepted Zhao Qingcheng’s praise, and then… carried on fiddling with the small mirror in her hand.
She was impenetrable!
Zhao Qingcheng was wrecked. No matter how she counted, there was no way she could pay that sum of dragon scale runes.
15% interest would mean another month of scrimping and saving. If they still couldn’t return it, they had to sleep on the streets.
For a bunch of girls to sleep on the street, and looked at by a bunch of male animals in the Tai Ah Divine City, this was an absolute disgrace!
Yi Yun heard the conversation between Zhao Qingcheng and Wang.
This was the first time he knew that the Tai Ah Divine City had a bank. So it was possible for people with negative dragon scale runes to maintain a decent living by relying on loans.
But…15% compounded interest meant the bank was pretty much an usury!
By lending 100 dragon scale runes, the next month would be 115, and the following month 132!
Even a lot of usuries were not that bad!
No wonder Zhao Qingcheng was under so much pressure. If they could not return the loan to an usury within the short period of time, it would be nearly impossible in the future. Who would want to keep bearing a high-interest loan during their 6 years of training? And the interest kept rolling up!
Of course, this had nothing to do with Yi Yun. At this time, Wang put down her mirror and allowed Yi Yun to weigh his herbs.
“Hey, aren’t you the one who wants to break the record? What are you standing there for, hurry and hand them over!”
Wang appeared very impatient. Her expression said to hand over the herbs quickly and go to a corner, don’t waste this elder sister’s precious time.