NOVEL NEXT 0045: Myriad Herbs Clan
Qinghe took Baiyun to a carriage of sorts and ushered him in.
He only had a vague grasp on its shape at first, but he activated divine touch and sensed its entirety as he sat.
It was made of a seamless silver metal, slender enough that it toed the lines of being a chariot, but still wide enough to sit four. Mechanical wings folded over the doors of the carriage after the two entered, perhaps as additional security.
But what intrigued Baiyun most was the creature pulling the vehicle.
Curved metal reins affixed a wingless mechanical bird to the carriage, its legs long like an ostrich's. Long feathers adorned its head atop its jade-white eyes and formed the shape of a crown, giving it a regal appearance.
Inside its body, nestled within layered formation plates was a series of glass tubing and chambers filled with strange elixirs, leading down to a small black cauldron covered in formation etchings.
This wasn't any ordinary mechanical artefact, its fuel source alchemy instead of spirit stones. Baiyun's eyes glittered as he noticed numerous elixir stains within that did not match current alchemic fuel. It seemed it was able to catalyse multiple types of elixirs for different effects!
Such an interesting marriage between alchemy and artificing... had Qinghe's clan created it? He mused to himself, feeling her clan might be more interesting than he had expected.
Previously, he convinced Qinghe to introduce him to her master. But now with his eyes ruined... his odds of being accepted were beyond low. He could only sigh in regret.
"Qinghe!" Mohei suddenly shouted from outside the carriage. "We came here to see Baiyun and you're just dragging him off like that? You're not even going to let us talk to him?"
Qinghe glanced at him and looked slightly annoyed as he stared at her with pitiful eyes. She pressed a formation node to open a mechanical wing, pushing the door behind it open.
"Do as you please." she said.
Baiyun could only cough awkwardly as he got out. He didn't intend to ignore Mohei and Sanguang, but he was distracted thinking about various things the entire time.
"Sorry, I was-"
"Baiyun! I almost forgot to say this, but you're not hiding anything, right? My dad says hiding your feelings is how you get inner demons! They're super scary so you should be careful." Mohei said in a hurry.
"Idiot. Only cultivators can get inner demons!" Sanguang sneered.
"W-what! You're being mean again! And even if you don't get inner demons, being sad is bad!"
Qinghe's eyes twitched at the sound of them immediately arguing again. She had already endured enough of their needless bickering, long before meeting up with Baiyun again.
"On second thought, lets just ditch those idiots."
She grabbed Baiyun by the back of his robes and tossed him back into the carriage, slamming the door and metal wing shut.
"Hey! What are you doing!" Mohei shouted.
Baiyun was a little speechless, but he leaned towards the window.
"Sorry! Lets talk again at another time, perhaps at the martial temple!"
That was all he had the time to say before Qinghe activated the mechanical bird. Its jade eyes glowed as elixirs catalysed within, hot alchemic steam rushing through its narrow glass pipes. The pressure surged upwards into its neck and its head began to spin rapidly, hot steam escaping from its mouth!
A click rang out as something locked down and stopped the head in place abruptly. Its beak opened with a creak, black smog filled with impurities blasting out of its mouth.
Interesting, a way to discharge impurities automatically, Baiyun mused to himself.
"Wait!" Mohei shouted.
But the mechanical bird stomped the ground before he could say more, shooting into the distance with so much momentum, the carriage bounced off its wheels and went airborne.
"It's all your fault!" Sanguang shouted.
"Huh? No!? Anyone can see it's your fault!?"
Baiyun could still hear their bickering even as the carriage sped away.
"Mohei, Sanguang!" Baiyun shouted from the window. "Lets meet again next time!"
He didn't know if they could still hear him, but he figured he might as well.
Admittedly, he had little impression of Sanguang, apart from how much of a nuisance he was. But since the kid was grateful enough to stay behind and check in on him, he didn't want to be rude.
Formations within the carriage stabilised the momentum inside, but Baiyun still clutched the seats of the carriage as it bounced. The bird was so violent, it was as if the metal carriage weighed less than a feather.
Qinghe was smirking at his reaction without him realising.
The pressure of alchemist steam built up further and was funnelled downwards. Its legs began to grow longer as metal compartments slid past each other, lifting the bird so high into the air, it towered amidst the trees and dragged the carriage airborne.
Without wheels rumbling across the ground, the ride was exceptionally smooth despite the sheer speed. Baiyun was flabbergasted. This was the most ridiculous way to smoothen a ride he had ever seen, toeing the line between a land and aerial vehicle!
From the look on his face and how he turned his head downwards to the ground, it was clear he could feel the empty space beneath them. Qinghe laughed at the sight.
"You didn't expect my carriage to fly, did you?" she asked. "What do you think its powered by?"
She looked at him expectantly.
"Even if I can't see, its footsteps are loud enough for anyone to hear." Baiyun was slightly exasperated.
Did everyone have to treat him like he was blind? Well, he was blind, but...
"Oh." Qinghe sounded vaguely disappointed.
The carriage shot ahead with great speed, nearly matching half the speed of Yingtao's bull, Rampage.
With not much to do, Baiyun decided to ask various questions about the mechanical bird. Qinghe was happy to oblige, giving a brief overview of its functions and explaining how its mechanisms worked. Apparently, the bird could go into various elemental combat modes or even attain true flight if the right elixirs were given to it.
Baiyun was pleasantly surprised. With how in-depth her understanding of the artefact was, she clearly wasn't just some rich kid playing with toys she barely understood. There was a good chance her clan truly did manufacture the mechanical bird like he hoped.
Stolen story; please report.
Though, since Qinghe mostly talked about formations, most of it went over his head, something he found truly unfortunate. He really needed to pick up some formation knowledge somehow...
Before long, their destination was in sight, towering sections of stone walls Baiyun couldn't see coming into view. The bird bent its knees and grinded to a halt before a giant metal gate, the carriage softly landing on the ground behind it.
Qinghe tapped Baiyun on the shoulder and he nodded, the two of them getting off. He quietly squatted down to prod the ground with Divine Touch. But as he only had a single hand occupied by the mole, it was rather awkward. In the end, he decided to wrap the mole in a bundle of cloth and tied it around his neck like a backpack.
Baiyun suddenly felt self conscious about squatting down to poke the ground with his fingers. He could listen to the air to get vague bearings of his surroundings too, but it was less effective in places with little wind. He thought for a moment and reached into his bag to retrieve a broom, plunking off its head of dusty straw.
There! He held the bare wooden rod and raised it with satisfaction. As he tapped the ground with it, he channelled Divine Touch downwards to sense the earth, confirming his idea worked. It did slightly reduce the radius he could sense, but he was willing to pay the price for convenience.
Qinghe stared at him as he prodded the ground with the wooden stick and shook her head, feeling he was rather pitiful.
She pressed a jade onto a slot beside the gate, formation lines glowing as the large gates swung open with a rumble. Baiyun frowned at the faint metallic squeak of the gate hinges. From the sound of it, these were very large gates that were quintuple their height. If someone was carelessly standing in front, they could be easily crushed to death! He suddenly thought back about Qinghe's previous artefacts and wondered if her clan had poor safety standards.
But his thoughts were interrupted as a scent suddenly entered his nose. No, thousands of them! He stood in a daze as his mind subconsciously began to identify essence by essence with blinding speed from fragrance alone.
This was unmistakably an enormous herb garden, likely stretching as far as the eye could see!
Normally, Baiyun would be running around excitedly and taking in the sight of the herbs. But without his eyes, all he felt was immense frustration. That accursed mantis... it took away such a precious sight from him! He gritted his teeth in fury, swearing he would crush it to death one day.
As Qinghe led the way and he prodded along a stone pathway, he continued to channel divine sense down his makeshift walking stick.
Most of his attention was focused on the various herbs that grew; they were well taken care of and of high quality. With divine sense prodding the ground like so, he could even assess the quality of the soil and roots.
He noted poles jutting from the ground, lantern heads tied to them and emitting light of various colours. But these were no mere decorations, they had alchemic contraptions within emitting formulaic qi uniquely tailored for the growth of each plant.
Baiyun nodded. These were far from as groundbreaking as the World Cauldron, but it was still an interesting approach to plant care.
He suddenly paused as he heard the faint rumble of huge footsteps. As it slowly approached, divine touch revealed its shape; it was a towering earth golem 4 metres in height, marching across a designated path of compacted earth!
Potted herbs and boxes were secured to the ridges of its body with ropes, storage artefacts built into each finger. Cupped in one of its massive hands was a giant clump of dirt with a small tree of red fruits, its roots sticking out between fingers.
Baiyun previously couldn't sense the spirits here as they were airborne, but he now felt the presence of several earth spirits piloting the golem from within. Various other spirits laughed as they flitted through the golem, annoying the earth spirits and being swatted away.
The golem marched to a patch of empty soil and bent down, reaching a finger of its free hand towards the earth. One of its spatial fingers activated, devouring the soil it touched and leaving a large pit, which it placed the small tree into.
Qinghe frowned as Baiyun faced a random direction and mused to himself, concerned about how he kept pausing and nodding at random. She began to worry if he had suffered mental injuries during the mantis attack. After hesitating for a moment, she grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him along, not wanting to delay her return any further.
Baiyun felt a little awkward, but he continued to examine the area with divine touch as his stick dragged along the path. He noted there were quite a lot of those golems meandering about, each ranging from 3-5 metres tall.
But his eyes suddenly twitched.
This section of soil had countless burrows beneath them, filled to the brim with Gardener Moles! A few of them were hard at work tending to the plants from their roots, but most of them could not be bothered and were merely sleeping.
He suddenly remembered a detail from the guidebooks he got from the insurance frauding bookstore owner in the Forest Tortoise Town, where Ying Shi's hunting party stayed while waiting for the Twisted Forest to bloom.
"
"
...Qinghe's clan was almost certainly the irresponsible Myriad Herbs faction the guidebook mentioned. He turned his focus to the mole sleeping peacefully in the cloth tied around his neck.
It was really hard to tell how old the mole really was, but if it wasn't as young as it looked, there was a good chance some of the moles here were family to it.
His mole was still snoozing peacefully, blissfully unaware. Actually, perhaps it was sleeping a bit too soundly. Did Qinghe or Mohei feed it something? For a moment, he wondered if he should wake the mole and let it meet the others, but he decided not to despite feeling slightly guilty.
If the mole got too attached and he had to drag it away forcefully, that would be only for the worse. Besides, if he let the mole dig down and tried to retrieve it later, the golems and spirits would think he was a thief trying to steal a mole and apprehend him!
Qinghe continued to drag him along the path, and they soon arrived before a massive mansion of white stone with a black roof. Decorative pillars that held up nothing surrounded it, covered in various spirit vines that blossomed with flower and fruit.
Baiyun tapped the ground with his stick and sensed 2 giant pots to the left and right of its front gate. Inside them were sentient presences, so he couldn't extend his divine sense into them without their detection.
But he heard the sound of twisting vines as something from each of the pots turned to face them, droplets of sweetened dew falling to the ground.
A forked tongue-like vine suddenly flicked across Baiyun's face before he could respond, and he jumped back in shock a moment later. He wiped the "slobber" off his face in disgust, but realised it was the same dew from before.
"Hungry... hungry..." a shrill voice spoke in soulsense from the left pot.
"He's a guest, don't eat him." Qinghe said casually.
"Just one bite... just one bite..."
More droplets of dew dripped to the ground as it drooled. Baiyun tensed and prepared to dodge at any moment.
But the creature from the other flowerpot suddenly lunged over and slammed into the first, their pots both rattling noisily!
"Idiot! Master angry, you die!" a stringy voice shouted. "Maybe I die too! Idiot!"
"Gr..."
Baiyun sweated at Qinghe's lack of response as she walked past them and straight to the mansion doors. Had she not mastered soulsense enough to hear their voices?
She turned to see Baiyun apprehensively walking after her.
"Can you tell what they are? You seem weirdly aware of them." she asked.
...She was asking this after one of them brazenly licked him?
"I don't know, but they seem dangerous." Baiyun said gingerly.
"Don't worry about it. They remember guests and only attack thieves." Qinghe said.
"Then what was that rattling and lunging from earlier?"
"Oh, they do that sometimes. It's just their way of playing." she shrugged.
Blissful ignorance... Baiyun nodded with a forced smile, wondering why in the world the clan elders didn't discipline those plant monsters better. It seemed like the better trained one was the only thing preventing a tragedy. Qinghe might not be able to hear them, but they should be able to.
They entered the mansion, vines reaching out to shut the gates behind them.
Something changed, the very air feeling lighter. Baiyun tapped the ground with his stick, sensing they seemed to be in a greenhouse of sorts. Hundreds of unique herbs brimming with precious essences were planted in sigil engraved pots, maids and butlers milling about with spirits as they tended to the plants.
While he couldn't extend Divine Touch over them without risking detection, he could sense from the remnant qi in the air that the weakest of them were still in the Foundational stage, a Core Shaper supervising them.
Baiyun extended his senses further upwards and realised there were formations on the ceiling altering the environment. He didn't understand them but he recorded their intricacies in his mind anyway as he inched along the path. He even felt the urge to touch the ceiling with his stick to get a better view, but he resisted the temptation.
The air seemed to grow colder suddenly as he walked, and Qinghe suddenly grabbed his shoulder.
"Where do you think you're going?" she huffed. "I open the doors one second and you've already wandered away!"
The maids and butlers gave them strange looks as she dragged him away from the colder area and down a hallway.
"What was that area?" Baiyun asked.
"It's just some nonsense the sect master wasted too much money on." Qinghe said. "Don't worry about it."
Baiyun could not help but feel annoyed by her vagueness.
"Careful, we're going up stairs now."
She dragged him up a staircase and arrived before a single door, pushing it open and entering.
A jovial old man hummed to himself as he snipped at a potted plant with shears. The room had shelves full of potted plants, trays of herbs, disks of stone with carving tools, piles of alchemic equipment and a small study table covered with notebooks. Some were left open, showing detailed sketches and messy scribblings about various herbs, the ink still fresh on one of them.
The room was so cluttered that it took Baiyun a moment to notice there was a small bed in the room. This was supposed to be a bedroom?
"Clan master, I've brought a guest today," Qinghe said with a bow.