Junior Brother Pays Respect to You: Chapter 15 - Sect Forbidden Area
Chapter 15: Sect Forbidden Area
Qin Zheng looked at the brief description and raised an eyebrow. “This has to be fake, right?”
“Forget that cultivators don’t even believe in time manipulation—there’s not even an image for it. I’m not buying it.”
Perhaps because Qin Zheng had slandered his favorite treasure, Qin Shuang shed his usual submissiveness, straightened his back, and scolded righteously, “Do you think the Fourth-Tier Library Pavilion is some random place? How could it possibly contain books with false content?”
Then he added with longing, “The Spirit of Time can allow someone to freely change the past, and there’s no backlash at all.”
“But the Spirit of Time is an ancient treasure. No one has ever seen what it looks like, which is why the illustration is missing.”
Qin Shuang’s firm belief in the Spirit of Time made Qin Zheng, who had been skeptical, begin to believe it too.
After all, he had a Time Scroll in his hands. So the existence of a Spirit of Time wasn’t impossible.
If it was real, and he managed to get it, then he’d have nothing to fear.
Wishful thinking aside, Qin Zheng knew this wasn’t the time to get sidetracked, so he tugged at Qin Shuang and returned to the matter at hand.
“I found a book on medicinal ingredients—it’s on the third floor. You’d better go take a look now, otherwise when morning comes and we’re seen leaving, it’ll be too suspicious!”
By the time the two emerged from the library pavilion with the copied prescription, the sky outside was already turning pale—the sun was about to rise.
Qin Zheng pointed to the papers in Qin Shuang’s hand and yawned. “I’ll leave the prescription to you. Study it well.”
“My cultivation’s too low—I can’t keep going.”
***
While their master was away traveling, Qin Zheng had no scruples about sleeping straight into the afternoon.
The moment he felt rested, he rushed straight to the apothecary.
Strangely, he didn’t see a single soul on his way there, making the sect feel oddly deserted.
“Qin Shuang! How’s the research on the prescription coming?”
Qin Zheng walked through the medicinal hall like it was his own backyard and quickly found Qin Shuang.
At that moment, Qin Shuang was frowning deeply at the table in front of him, glancing now and then at the prescription in his left hand.
In front of Qin Shuang, right in the center of the apothecary, stood a rectangular wooden table used for temporarily placing herbs taken out of the boxes.
Now, the table was covered in all kinds of herbs.
Qin Zheng walked over and asked in surprise, “Don’t tell me all of these are the ingredients needed to make my medicine?”
Last night, though he watched Qin Shuang transcribe the recipe, he was an outsider to alchemy and didn’t recognize which names referred to herbs.
Qin Shuang glanced at his senior brother, then looked back at the table.
“Yes.”
“But we’re still missing one ingredient.”
“Missing one?” Qin Zheng gestured at the room, whose walls—aside from the door—were entirely lined with herb boxes. “Do you mean it’s not here, or we’ve run out?”
“If we’ve run out, we can search the forest. Maybe Master planted some.”
Qin Shuang shook his head. “It’s called Spirit Ginseng.”
“It’s different from normal ginseng. Spirit Ginseng only grows in places with extremely rich spiritual energy.”
“The forest around here isn’t suitable for growing Spirit Ginseng.”
Qin Zheng frowned in frustration. “We finally get the recipe and now we’re short on herbs? This is just to boost my cultivation temporarily—it’s not like it’s a permanent improvement. Why’s it so much trouble?”
Qin Shuang looked at him with a complicated expression. “Senior Brother, if you’d known it would be this much hassle, maybe you should’ve just trained properly. Who knows, you might’ve already reached the third tier by now.”
Qin Zheng shot him a sideways glance and said meaningfully, “There are… reasons you wouldn’t understand.”
Qin Shuang pouted. “Isn’t it just because you’re lazy? What other mysterious reason could there be?”
Qin Zheng glared at this increasingly impudent junior. If he didn’t need his help right now, he might’ve punched him already.
To avoid a pointless argument that could end in violence, Qin Zheng quickly changed the subject.
“Just tell me—where can we find this stuff?”
“But speaking of places with rich spiritual energy, I think our Tianque Sect is one of them.”
In the future, I even became immortal just from staying here long enough.
“I feel like Spirit Ginseng shouldn’t be too hard to find around here.”
Qin Shuang paced a few steps, nodded, and said, “It’s worth a try.”
Seeing that Qin Shuang agreed, Qin Zheng turned and headed outside, calling back, “Then let’s go!”
“No time like the present—and I’m in a hurry.”
Qin Shuang tucked the prescription safely into his robes, then quickly caught up with Qin Zheng.
Qin Zheng led the way straight into the forest surrounding Tianque Sect.
When it looked like Qin Zheng intended to head deeper into the woods, Qin Shuang grabbed him and asked, “Senior Brother, do you actually know where to find the herb, or are you just wandering aimlessly?”
Qin Zheng, still full of energy, thought for a moment and then said matter-of-factly, “Aren’t spiritual herbs always found deep in the mountains?”
Qin Shuang shook his head helplessly. “Not necessarily.” He then closed his eyes, pressed his palms together, and gently opened them again. A glowing orb the size of a fist appeared between his hands.
The orb rose as if it had a life of its own, circled above his head, and slowly floated off into the distance.
Qin Shuang shouted, “Follow it!”
Qin Zheng hurried after it, asking curiously, “What is that?”
“It’s an essential spell for alchemists. It leads us to areas with the densest spiritual energy. That’s where we’ll have the best chance of finding the herb.”
Qin Zheng, uncharacteristically impressed, patted Qin Shuang on the back. “I’m actually starting to think you’re becoming kind of reliable.”
Flustered by the sudden praise, Qin Shuang scratched his head in embarrassment.
The two of them followed the glowing orb through most of the Tianque Sect.
By now, Qin Zheng—whose cultivation was still low—was gasping for breath, hunched over but still stubbornly keeping pace with Qin Shuang.
“Huff… Just… when… are we… going to get there…?”
Right after Qin Zheng asked, he noticed that Qin Shuang had stopped in front of him, and immediately heard the two words he had been hoping for:
“We’re here.”
Qin Zheng quickly straightened up and looked ahead.
Not far in the distance, a lake had somehow appeared without them noticing. Qin Shuang’s glowing orb was circling above it.
Suddenly, Qin Shuang patted Qin Zheng on the shoulder and pointed at a rock just a meter to their right. “Look over there.”
Following Qin Shuang’s direction, Qin Zheng saw two faintly glowing golden characters on the stone: Forbidden Area.
Qin Zheng looked around in surprise. “Tianque Sect actually has a forbidden area?”
“Have I just been wasting my years here?”
As he spoke, Qin Zheng stretched out a hand and slowly walked toward the lake.
He expected to encounter a barrier that would block his path, but to his surprise, he made it all the way to the lake’s edge without feeling any resistance.
Standing at the lake’s edge, Qin Zheng muttered in confusion, “Why is there no barrier for a forbidden area?”
Qin Shuang, who had just caught up, retrieved his glowing orb and nervously asked, “Senior brother, this is a forbidden area. Is it really okay for us to be here?”
Qin Zheng gave the now hesitant Qin Shuang a disdainful look. “Where did that reliable attitude of yours go?”
“This is different,” Qin Shuang said quickly.
Qin Zheng wasn’t completely confident himself. He looked around and urged, “Forget it for now. Let’s just look for the spirit ginseng. If we don’t find it, we’ll leave right away.”
“If it weren’t for the circumstances, I wouldn’t step into a forbidden area either.”
Qin Shuang nodded.
The two of them carefully searched the waist-high grass around the lake.
Since Qin Zheng couldn’t recognize herbs, they couldn’t split up like last time.
Unable to help, Qin Zheng just stood silently nearby.
Bored and trailing behind his junior, Qin Zheng glanced over at the nearby lake surface.
“Hey, hey, Qin Shuang, do you think there might be fish in that lake?”
Focused on finding the herb, Qin Shuang responded absentmindedly, “I don’t know.”
Qin Zheng looked around, pulled up a random piece of grass, and tossed it toward the lake.
He was wondering if any fish would mistake it for food and come up.
However, just as the grass was about to touch the lake’s surface, it seemed to hit something and fell to the edge of the lake instead.
Suddenly, a conical barrier shimmered into view above the lake. Three five-meter-tall pillars stood around its edge.
Like water, the shield rippled from the disturbance before gradually returning to its invisible, transparent state.
Qin Zheng, eyes fixed on the lake, tapped Qin Shuang behind him. “Hey, hey, did you see that?”
“So the barrier is here. I knew it—there’s no way a forbidden area wouldn’t have a barrier.”
Qin Zheng kept talking, but got no reply from Qin Shuang. He turned around to check.
He saw that Qin Shuang was already staring at the lake, his eyes filled with a deep, unreadable mix of emotions.
“I wonder what’s hidden in this lake?” Qin Zheng muttered, slowly stepping closer to the lake to see what kind of magical thing required a sealed barrier.
Since the barrier was now invisible, Qin Zheng misjudged the distance.
As he approached the edge, the barrier suddenly lit up again.
Looking down, Qin Zheng realized his hand had unknowingly touched the barrier.
At that exact moment, something strange surged into his body through the point of contact.
Although it all happened in an instant—just long enough for him to notice and retract his hand—whatever had entered him made Qin Zheng feel like he was going to explode.
He staggered back from the lake, head throbbing with pain, grabbed Qin Shuang for support, and pushed him to leave.
This place is seriously cursed!
***
When Qin Zheng woke up, he found himself lying in his own room. He immediately sat up in alarm.
He looked at his hand, then touched his head. After confirming he was still intact, he finally sighed in relief.
Creak—
The door opened from the outside.
Qin Zheng turned and saw Qin Shuang walk in—followed surprisingly by Qin Su.
“Senior brother, you’re finally awake! If you stayed unconscious any longer, I wouldn’t have known how to explain it to Master.”
But Qin Zheng ignored the chattering Qin Shuang completely. Instead, he smiled brightly at his future sect leader junior brother.
“Qin Su, did you come to visit me?”
Qin Su replied calmly, “Master is back. If you don’t return to the first-tier room to cultivate soon, you’ll be put in confinement again.”
----------
If you like my translation, please support me by buying me a coffee:
0 comments: