Ginseng plants

When Cheng Shan saw the massive river and admired the power of nature, he did choose to follow the path, upstream. He was still thinking about the best place to gain some benefits, but before that, he had to leave some mark at least.

Looking to the right, a meter-wide tree could be seen, and he approached it, and picked some stones to make marking until he changed his mind. He was after all practicing martial arts, he needed to have some demeanor as such and this made him try to strike towards the tree.

He did not make any posture but rather just slapped towards the tree and to his surprise, his casual strike seemed to gather almost all the energy in the body. In the moment it felt different and the palm landed on the tree before it seemed to sink slightly.

He saw a palmprint several mm deep when he observed the tree. It was not the outer layer that had been pressed inwards but the inside too. This was already an indication of how strong his casual move was, and he was more interested as such he tried again but this time he used to speed.

Boom! Boom!

With two successive slaps at the fastest speed he could muster, the palm prints seemed to sink even deeper several centimeters. This made him aware of how strong his attack was and at the same time the energy control he had attained, even though not perfect, it was not that bad.

Cheng Shan moved through the forest, and the sound of the river water seemed surprisingly calming. The drizzle seemed to also become more intense and before he knew it, the trees seemed to reduce the downpour. He could still move unhindered and at the same time, almost all the animals and insects in the forest seemed to have retreated.

  "Huh..."

A gust of wind blew past him and he could not feel the sensation of coldness as compared to before. His physique was already abnormal, but it had yet to reach the limit of the human body.

In the sky, a storm seemed to be brewing, or that is the feeling he had as he looked toward the river beside him. He did move further away from the river, after all, he did not want to have some weird accident.

His face did not change at all, he was unbothered by the change in weather, as he had no attachments at home. Of course, that is not the case for other people as they have to deal with some responsibilities to either their families or their boss.

"This life..."

He could feel this life was somewhat unrestrained, and he could do what he wanted, and even without money, he might survive.

The village was indeed a good place and with his increase in strength perhaps he might be able to hunt for prey in the forest.

But for the moment he had yet to meet any animals, but he was sure that the weather might not be the only reason for it. This was the same reason he was moving toward the depths of the forest. He was sure that animals only move close to the river to drink water and then leave.

Since he wanted to find some ginseng and the fastest way to get it was to move close to the river near the trees. He was not someone that had experience in this but assumed that it would be easy to find what he wanted that way.

In this weather, he was still not giving up, but that could not be put in the same category as normal people doing it.

He seemed to want to use the chance but he was not someone with luck, since he has heard some rumors growing up in the village.

When the rain got on his body it seemed to result in some steam, obviously, his body was too warm.

As he moved, he seemed to be lost in thought, he could see the raindrops coming towards him.

  "Huh?"

He looked at the raindrops and raised his hand, one drop falling towards him. When it reached his hands, he kept observing the movement of the droplet reach a standstill before it splattered.

With his eyesight, he could actually see the entire movement as though it was going through slow motion. What Cheng Shan had forgotten was that his aura was oppressive and probably capable of scaring animals away.

As he kept moving he eventually seemed to have moved a certain distance off from the main river in the forest, but he eventually seemed to find some small stream.

The stream was smaller than the one back at his mountain home, more than that, the rainwater seemed to increase the water flowing in it. Some distance over the stream, he could see some leaves that resembled ginseng and moved towards it.

When he looked over, he could see more than one flower, and this made him excited after all the Basic Sword Technique seemed to consume his blood energy and he had to recover from food before he could continue. In the period he practiced it, he had to consume meat, and it was more useful in recovery.

With enough ginseng, he could be able to temper his bones faster with the sword technique, and this place might be his chance.

Restraining his excitement he moved toward the leaves and slowly looked at it before confirming it was indeed the case. He dug the first one out, and it was impressive when he looked at the massive thing. With the ginseng in his hands, he moved closer to the stream and had the ginseng dipped into the water, before cleaning it up.

"Let me see the effect of this ginseng, after all, I have never really tasted this stuff when fresh." With this thought, he broke a small part and put it in his mouth, after chewing it he felt some bitter taste, and then it was followed by some difficult-to-detect heat, flowing through his body. He could however detect it due to the level of his body and spirit improvement. Looking at the arm-length ginseng, he started to chew on it until everything had been consumed.

Feeling the change this time being intense, he looked around and found a smaller branch, that he used as a sword to practice the basic sword moves.

Every move seemed to be pretty much having the same effect as in the past, but the energy from the ginseng seemed to be going towards the tempering of the bones.

"Indeed, this stuff works, and the blood energy in my body seemed to be less consumed practicing this basic sword technique." Actually, this basic sword technique seemed to have some drawbacks and he had overlooked it due to his state of physique. Those that practice it seemed to have met these problems and thus stopped. It is after all not easy to deal with the problems when blood energy in the body is being consumed.