Chapter 165: Medicinal herb gathering team
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Mo Wen shrugged his shoulders and didn’t bother about FRB. Since someone was reluctant to tell, he was also not interested to know.
Although he felt that the conduct of the lady next to him was a bit weird, it was none of his business.
The vehicle continued on its way and moved forward gradually.
After a while, FRB seemed to be bored and found herself a subject to talk about.
“Why do you go to Baishan City?”
“Touring Changbai Mountain,” Mo Wen looked askance at Mo Fumei and said indifferently.
“You are also going to Changbai Mountain…”
Surprise flashed across FRB’s eyes, but seemed to realize that she had spilt the beans and immediately said, “There are many foreigners on this bus who are touring Changbai Mountain.”
Mo Wen looked at FRB quizzically. Why was she explaining? Whether or not she was going to Changbai Mountain had nothing to do with him.
In the afternoon, the big bus drove into Baishan City West Bus Terminal, and the passengers alighted from the bus accordingly.
Mo Wen stretched his back while looking at the unfamiliar city before his eyes and curled his lips slightly. The world is so big, but he had been to very few places. When he had time, he would definitely travel to places around the world.
After he had alighted from the bus, FRB had also alighted the bus with her four bodyguards. They behaved hurriedly, as if they had made a pre-arrangement. There were two cars waiting outside the bus terminal for quite some time, and they fetched them immediately.
Mo Wen opened up the map to verify the location of Changbai Mountain, then he found a tour group which was going to the scenic spots of Changbai Mountain. With the guide of the locals, he would avoid many detours.
The tour group would depart the next morning, so Mo Wen checked into a hotel in Baishan City that day. The next day, he finally went on his way with the tour group.
Changbai Mountain had many scenic spots that the tourists would take more than a few days and nights to complete them. However, compared to enormous size of Changbai Mountain range, the scope of the scenic spots could only be considered as the tip of the iceberg. In the deep Changbai Mountain range, many regions were mostly uninhabited.
The tour group of about more than twenty people consisted of young and old of different genders. Mo Wen followed the tour group, but didn’t talk to anyone and was always behind the group. Sometimes, the tour group members had almost forgotten about his existence.
“Hey, what are those people doing? Why are they travelling around the mountains with a bamboo basket on their back? Could they be the aboriginals of the Changbai Mountain?” A young female tourist said who seemed to have discovered something and pointed suddenly at the forest below while standing on the suspension bridge in the middle of the mountain.
Those were primeval forests of the Changbai Mountain where the normal tourists wouldn’t tread on. They would at most linger around the manmade scenic spots.
The female tourist’s questions had immediately attracted the attention of the other people, and everyone looked in the direction of the forest below. There were indeed four or five people wearing simple ancient costumes with a bamboo basket on their backs, traversing briskly in the lush forest. Soon, they disappeared from the eyes of the people and were concealed by the primeval forest.
Those weird people piqued the interest of the tourists who came from the outside world. Many people immediately picked up their cameras and started taking photographs, in fear that they might be too slow in getting a picture of these aboriginals.
“That is the medicinal herb gathering team in Changbai Mountain. Some of them are the villagers around Changbai Mountain range who gather medicinal herbs for a living, and they rarely have contact with outside world. There are some who belong to the medicinal herbs gathering team from the outside world. They usually come well-equipped and could find some rare precious medicinal herbs,” The female tour guide smiled and explained.
Medicinal herb gathering teams were considered a normal thing, and they frequently roamed around Changbai Mountain to find some rare, precious, medicinal herbs. They usually had great knowledge of the medicinal herbs in the wild and traversed in the deep mountains. Once they found any rare medicinal herb, they would be able to fetch an exorbitant price.
Some rare herbs were very precious and could usually fetch thousands of dollars, hence, it attracted many people to search for medicinal herbs in the Changbai Mountain.
However, to find medicinal herbs in the deep mountains and virgin forests was not an easy task, as it was easy to meet with dangers. Many of the precious, medicinal herbs grew on the precipitous walls of the cliff or very secretive places, not to mention the beast and vermin in the mountains.
In order to find some of the medicinal herbs, there were frequent cases of the herb gathering team members falling off the cliff.
Other than this, due to the lack of law restriction in the deserted places in the wild countryside, there were some robbers who hid themselves in Changbai Mountains who robbed the medicinal herb gathering team members so as to reap benefits without putting in any hard work, hence, many medicinal herbs gathering teams had been robbed by these robbers.
Although the medicinal herb gathering team usually became rich overnight, medicinal herb gathering remained a very dangerous profession. There were many medicinal herb gathering team members who were lost in the deep mountains and never appeared again. There was even a case of a whole medicinal herb gathering team disappearing into thin air.
After the tour guide’s explanation, all the tourists went into jaw dropping silence as the medicinal herb gathering team was a classic example of the Chinese saying, “Humans die in pursuit of wealth while birds die in pursuit of food.”
Mo Wen glimpsed at these people who gradually disappeared into the deep mountains. A radiance flashed in his eyes, and he raised his brows before following them quietly. The rest of the people didn’t realize that a person had been missing from their tour group.
Mo Wen jumped from a slab of the cliff into the forest. A figure flashed and disappeared into the forest towards the direction of the medicinal herb gathering team.
He realized the medicinal herb gathering team members were not ordinary people; they were ancient martial arts practitioners with cultivation. Their origin was definitely different from what the tour guide had mentioned. Perhaps he would find out something by following them.
He came to Changbai Mountain to find medicinal herbs, but he was not familiar with the local environment, so he was like a blind man. Hence, it would be difficult to find Silver Tooth Grass successfully.
Following the people who had frequented the deep mountains all their lives would lead him to the region with massive growth of medicinal herbs.
“Third Sect Senior brother, those sealworts in Blue Wind Valley should have matured. Do we go over and collect them?
Among the team of five ahead, a youngster with delicate features asked the youngster with a bigger built beside him.
“Although those sealworts in the Blue Wind Valley were good, they were less than fifty years old. It is of little use to gather them now, so it would be better to leave them till later.”
The leading youngster shook his head, rejecting the Junior’s suggestion.
“So where should we go now? The elders in the Sect instructed us to gather the medicinal herbs with task restriction, so we would be severely punished if we couldn’t complete the task,” Another youngster said worriedly.
Although Changbai Mountain produced massive amount of different medicinal herbs, some places were no longer producing medicinal herbs after the constant yearly gathering. The remaining ones were newly grown with insufficient age and maturity, so it would be useless to gather them.
However, the precious medicinal herbs that were not gathered would definitely grow in places that were hard to reach, which was the reason for their survival. Whether they were able to find them was purely based on luck. The task of gathering medicinal herbs these days was indeed difficult for anyone.
“Senior, should we try our luck at Crouching Tiger Gorge? It was said that in the recent years, Crouching Tiger Gorge has been producing some good medicinal herbs,” A youngster suggested.
“We’ll try Crouching Tiger Gorge then.”
The leading youngster nodded his head, as he couldn’t think of a better suggestion.
They didn’t know that, not far behind them, there was a tail that was following them.
……
“Miss, I reckon we will reach Cedar Peak after we climb go over this mountain.”
In the forest, there was a group of five: four young men in black suits with stern expressions and a beautiful girl in sports attire and trekking shoes with a backpack on her back.
This group of people continued to climb the mountains, intending to get to some place.
“Do we have to climb over this mountain?” The girl asked, while gasping for breath and wiping the perspiration off her forehead.
After walking in the forest for a long while, her white sports attire was already smeared with dirt, and her face had scratches left behind from the thistles and thorns of the branches.
As for the other four bodyguards, their images were no better, as their bodies were also in a sorry state.
These few people would surely be recognized if Mo Wen was around – they were none other than FRB and her four bodyguards.
“I reckon we can’t get there today. We can only get there tomorrow.”
The leading bodyguard looked at the mountain ahead. It looked close, but in actuality, it was far away from them. Even if it was a flat land, not to mention the forest, it would take a long time to get there.
FRB took out a map from her backpack. After scrutinizing it carefully, seemingly verifying her destination, she put the map back into the backpack.
“Let’s press on a little and try to get to the base of the mountain before we pitch our tents for the night.”
A flicker of determination flashed in FRB’s eyes, then she continued to trek on without the fragility of an ordinary lady but strength instead.
They just walked for a while and soon met another group. That group from afar walked towards their direction.
“Miss, some people are coming our way.”
One of the bodyguards furrowed his brows and caution flashed in his eyes. The primeval forest of Changbai Mountain was not a peaceful place; anything could happen. So to meet a group of people in the deep mountains and virgin forests was not exactly a good thing.
“How many people are there?”
FRB was nervous as she heard him. She heard long ago of the heinous robbers who hid in the Changbai Mountain – would they be so unlucky as to meet them?
“Only five of them. By their appearance and attire, they seemed to be the local aboriginals. They should be the medicinal herb gathering team who were gathering medicinal herbs in the mountain.”
The bodyguards next to FRB were a little relieved that there were only five people in that group.
From their appearance: the people were wearing simple ancient costumes, simple clothes, and cloth shoes with a bamboo basket on their back – they looked similar to the villagers around Changbai Mountain.
Many of the villagers around Changbai Mountain hunted and gathered medicinal herbs for a living, so it was not a strange thing to meet them in the deep mountains.
“We will disregard them and continue to go on our way.”
FRB heaved a sigh of relief when she heard the reply and also verified that there were only five of them, which should not be a big threat to them.
Furthermore, she had bodyguards from the world’s renowned security company which trained high quality professionals who would be able to handle ordinary people with ease. Furthermore, they had guns on them so there was nothing to worry if anything happened.
“Senior, there was a group ahead coming towards us,” One of the five youngsters with delicate features told another young man who was called the senior and dressed weirdly.
They were none other than the medicinal herb gathering term of five who passed through the scenic spot. They were walking leisurely in the mountain for a while but they didn’t find many precious medicinal herbs – instead they met FRB’s group.