Collecting herbs (2)

After leaving the Mercenary Guild, Lin Fan and Xiao Yue headed out the same gate that they had entered through yesterday, but this time they had gone out without their cloaks.

Yesterday was a special situation where they didn't have their identification yet, so they didn't want to cause any trouble by revealing themselves. However, now that they had received their Mercenary License, that was no longer a problem.

That was one of the benefits of registering as a mercenary, the license that you received was recognized as a legal ID in most cities. In most cases, they even allowed you to avoid paying the city entrance fees.

That was if you entered alone and didn't have much luggage with you. If you did have a lot of luggage, you would be charged the normal tariff, but just the Mercenary License also made it much easier for you to enter the city since the guards would usually skip the check of your goods.

It just went to show how much influence the Mercenary Guild had, even most cities recognized it and gave those that registered with the Mercenary Guild special privileges.

Before leaving the Mercenary Guild, Lin Fan had made sure to pick up one of the free maps that the Mercenary Guild offered. As well, before they left, Lala had helped them by marking down the location of the herb that they were looking for on their map, so it didn't take them long before they reached the area.

As soon as they arrived, the first thing that hit them was the smell of herbs.

Then when they came closer, they were able to find the herbs that they were looking for just by looking down. When they looked around, they found that the herbs for this mission were all around them and it wouldn't take them long to collect all of them.

Lin Fan couldn't help giving a nod when he saw this.

This really was a mission that was suited for beginners, the herbs were this easy to find and there were so many of them, it really would be hard to fail this mission.

Of course, what he didn't know was that the reason why this mission had such a high reward was because these herbs had a fickle blooming cycle. No one knew exactly what caused these herbs to bloom, but they bloomed randomly, so it all depended on one's luck.

Lin Fan was that kind of lucky as the herbs had bloomed right before he had arrived, which was why there were so many of them in front of him right now.

Wasting no time at all, Lin Fan and Xiao Yue started picking the herbs around them.

However, halfway through this process, Xiao Yue suddenly stood up and came over to Lin Fan.

Lin Fan was surprised to see her coming over, so he asked, "What's wrong?"

Xiao Yue knitted her brows and said in a cold voice, "They're here?"

Lin Fan revealed a confused look as he asked, "Who?"

Xiao Yue didn't say anything in response, so Lin Fan focused his senses and he was able to hear the rustling of leaves that came from behind them.

Lin Fan's senses had become much sharper since he had become a cultivator, so it wasn't a surprise that he would be able to hear this. As for Xiao Yue, while she was vigilant, that wouldn't have been enough for her to hear this with the senses of a normal person.

The reason why she had been able to hear it was because she had also become a cultivator.

Not a full cultivator per say, but she had started on the path of cultivation as well.

Lin Fan knew that for her to follow him, it wouldn't be enough for her to stay as a mortal, so he offered her the option to cultivate.

She had started last night and it turned out that she had the talent for it.

Well, she wasn't as talented as Lin Fan who was assisted by the system and had directly broken through, but she was still talented when compared to normal people.

In just a single night, she had reached the Pseudo Qi Gathering Realm, which made her half a cultivator.

While she didn't have much spiritual energy as a normal cultivator, she still had some that she could use to become stronger than normal humans.

After they figured out where the people behind them were, the two of them continued along, moving into the forest where there was cover.

When the people who had been following them saw this, they knew that it was their chance to strike, so they followed them into the forest, hiding among the bushes.

Finally when Lin Fan and Xiao Yue stopped in a clearing to take a break, they finally found their chance.

There were three people who were following Lin Fan and Xiao Yue, so they split up in three different locations, perfectly keeping Lin Fan and Xiao Yue right in the middle of them.

Once all three of them were in position, one of them took out a few small balls from the pouch at their waist.

These balls were white in colour and didn't look that special, but when they were thrown out, they immediately exploded with light the moment that they hit the ground. It was a very dazzling light that if anyone were to look at it, they would have no choice but to look away or at least squint their eyes.

However, both Lin Fan and Xiao Yue were prepared for this ambush, so they were able to at least cover their eyes the moment that these balls were thrown out.

After the balls exploded with light, the three people surrounding them all charged forward with their weapons raised. It was clear that they weren't here with good intentions.

But since they were ready for them, it didn't take long for Lin Fan and Xiao Yue to pull out their weapons to face them.

Both of them were using the weapons that they had received from the bandits, so they weren't of the highest quality, but that didn't matter since they had spiritual energy to strengthen their weapons with.

The three people attacking were all in the Pseudo Qi Gathering Realm, but when they were facing a real cultivator in the Qi Gathering Realm, they stood no chance. After all, there was a large difference in the amount of spiritual energy wielded by the two sides.

Lin Fan was able to cut right through their swords with his sword covered in his spiritual energy. He could have also cut right through them as well, but he held back and only knocked them out.

On the other side, Xiao Yue was having more trouble since she wasn't as skilled at fighting compared to the other person, but she was still able to adapt during the fight. As the fight continued on, Xiao Yue gained more and more of an upper hand until she was the one suppressing the other person.

However, by that time, Lin Fan was already finished with the other two and had already come over to help.

Seeing this, that person had no choice but to give up.

Xiao Yue was about to finish him off even though he had already surrendered, but Lin Fan stopped her just in time.

Xiao Yue looked like she wanted to finish the job, but Lin Fan looked at her with a serious look and shook his head as he said, "No."

Xiao Yue could hear the serious tone in his voice, so she had no choice but to bring her hands down. However, it was clear that she was very unwilling to let this person live.

Lin Fan knocked this person out and then gathered all three of them together.

After finding some rope that these people had, he tied them all up before waking them up by throwing their water in their faces.

These people all had shocked looks when they had been suddenly woken up by the water, but they also quickly reacted as they remembered what had happened and looked around themselves. Seeing that they were tied up, they knew what had happened and turned to look at Lin Fan with apprehensive looks.

After all, their lives were no longer in their own hands, so it would be hard for them not to be apprehensive.

Lin Fan looked at them with a cold glare for a bit before suddenly raising his sword.

They had thought that Lin Fan was going to cut them, so all three of them flinched as they closed their eyes. However, when they didn't feel anything, they opened their eyes to see that the rope holding them had been cut.

Lin Fan said in a cold voice, "Get lost. If you ever have these thoughts again, I won't show any mercy next time."

The three of them were surprised when they heard what Lin Fan said.

They couldn't believe that he was letting them go, but it didn't seem like he was lying to them.

The three of them slowly stood up while keeping their eyes on Lin Fan as if they were afraid that he would suddenly make a move. However, once they were standing and they saw that Lin Fan wasn't doing anything, they immediately turned without any hesitation and started to run.

They didn't even look back as they started running out of the forest.

Lin Fan let his guard down for a second here and then something happened before he could stop it.

Before anyone could react, Xiao Yue had already charged forward and thrown three knives accurately at the back of their heads.

The three of them had been relieved that they had been let go, so they had let their guards down at the last minute.

It was this momentary letting down of their guards that had cost them their lives in the end.

The daggers accurately pierced the back of their heads and all three of them fell to the ground without a single vital sign left in their bodies.

Lin Fan just looked on at the three people who had suddenly turned into corpses in shock.