Chapter 8: The Blazing Mountain Range

Before sunrise the next morning, Lou Mu Yan went to the Mercenary Union. When she arrived, Ye Qing Han and the others were already there.

“Young Miss Lou sure is punctual today.” Ye Qing Han said with a smile, looking at the purple-clothed woman walking towards them.

Lou Mu Yan arrived and shrugged her shoulders. “I’m afraid that if I’m late, you guys wouldn’t wait for me.”

“You’re our Physician, even if we don’t wait for others, we must wait for you.” Ye Qing Han smiled.

The two chatted a few more, then the team was ready to leave. They rode the Tier 1 Demonic Beast, Tailwind Horse, as such, they could decrease the time going back and forth.

Ye Qing Han and his party consisted of six people. Aside from Ye Qing Han, Lou Mu Yan only recognised Old Lu. In addition to them, there was a young cold beauty and three other young men. Two of the young men appeared to be hired Mercenaries.

The continent where Lou Mu Yan was located was named Tian’ling Continent, consisting of the four major regions—the Eastern, Western, Southern and Northern Regions—as well as countless large and small regions. Every region also had numerous large and small countries. Yan’zhou Country was considered a country with strength in the middle-low range within the major Eastern Region, and one of Tian’ling Continent’s Ten Treacherous Zones was located right within its border—the famous Blazing Mountain Range.

It took five days to arrive at the Blazing Mountain Range from the Imperial Capital on the backs of the Tailwind Horses. During the five days, Lou Mu Yan and the others only stayed at an inn two of the nights, while they slept in the open for three of them.

The Blazing Mountain Range was rich in cultivation resources, so even though it was considered one of the ten most dangerous places, there were still many Mercenaries and Sword Masters who came. Under normal circumstances, as long as one didn’t traverse deep into the periphery, it wouldn’t be too dangerous.

Looking at the crimson mountain range still far away, she already felt waves upon waves of heat rushing at her. Lou Mu Yan tugged the reins of her Tailwind Horse and came to a halt.

“We’ve arrived at the Blazing Mountain Range.” Ye Qing Han looked to the distance with a smile.

Because they rushed all the way here, Lou Mu Yan’s Spiritual Energy had long dried out again, not to mention this body hadn’t yet recovered well enough, so whenever they took time to rest, she immediately went to sleep to replenish her energy and didn’t converse much with Ye Qing Han and his party.

“You came to the Blazing Mountain Range to capture a Spirit Pet?” Lou Mu Yan asked with a smile.

There was also a profession called Spirit Beast Master in this world. These people had Mental Energy exceptionally stronger than the average Sword Master, could directly imprint a Seal in a Demonic Beast’s Sea of Consciousness, then contract them as a Spirit Pet. As such, the Spirit Pet couldn’t betray their master, could help their master during battle, and their own Tier could also increase.

Ye Qing Han didn’t conceal it either and nodded: “My little sister will be celebrating her fifteenth birthday soon. I want to capture a fire attribute Demonic Beast that’s Tier 3 or above for her to contract as a Spirit Pet.”

“Why didn’t you bring her?” Lou Mu Yan wondered and asked.

“Her body’s not in good health, that’s why it’s up to me.” When mentioning his little sister, his gaze grew softer. Then, suddenly realising something, he turned to Lou Mu Yan, asking: “Young Miss Lou, you’re very skilled in medicine, could you cure foetal poison?”

“Foetal poison? So it’s because she was poisoned in the womb that she’s in bad health?” Lou Mu Yan asked.

Ye Qing Han sighed and nodded, saying: “Yes. She was poisoned when she was in the womb, and many Physicians said she couldn’t live past twenty years old.”

“That’s hard to say. It wasn’t that foetal poison was incurable, but I still need to see your younger sister for the specifics to be able to make a decision.” Lou Mu Yan was still confident in her medical skills. If she could successfully reach the Foundation Establishment Stage of her previous world, and use her Spiritual Energy paired with medicine, it wasn’t difficult to treat that kind of foetal poison.

Ye Qing Han’s eyes lit up. Having hope was better than determining that it couldn’t be cured. He said sincerely: “Then can Young Miss Lou have a look at my little sister? Payment’s not a problem.”

“Apologies, I don’t have any time lately. After the Imperial Academy’s annual competition is over, I’ll take the time to come look.” Lou Mu Yan’s current objective was to first refine the Marrow Cleansing Pill and make a shocking reversal at the annual competition. Ye Qing Han’s sister had been ill for many years already, so there wasn’t a need to hurry. Not to mention she had no Spiritual Energy in her either, so the treatment wouldn’t be very effective.

“That sounds good. Regardless, I’ll be troubling Young Miss Lou.” Ye Qing Han also understood his little sister’s condition. Even though she was weak and had cold symptoms, it wasn’t as if she could be cured within a day or two.

They travelled forward and only took a little more than an hour to arrive at the entrance to the Blazing Mountain Range. There were quite a few people who travelled here as well.

“Does anyone of you want to purchase a map of the Blazing Fire Mountain?” Seeing that the clothing on these few people weren’t something commoners could wear, a young man in a light blue robe came up with a smile to sell his products, “I also have the Blazing Mountain Range’s Spiritual Herbs and Demonic Beasts records. I promise it’ll be useful to you all.”

“The Blazing Mountain Range map?” Ye Qing Han smiled, clearly disbelieving, as even Sword Monarchs wouldn’t recklessly enter the central area of the Blazing Mountain Range, so how could this young man have any map?

The blue-robed young man also knew what Ye Qing Han was thinking, so he smiled and said: “I indeed don’t have the map for the entire Blazing Mountain Range, but I do have the map for the entire periphery. This map was a summary of the information brought out by the Mercenaries that entered. My Master used ten years to finish this map. If it’s not accurate, I don’t want any money.”

“Price?” Lou Mu Yan saw that the young boy’s eyes were clear and clever and didn’t look like a liar.

“One hundred black-gold coins for one.” The young boy quoted the price.

On Chi’huo Continent1 there were three types of common currencies—gold coins, black-gold coins, and purple-gold coins. It was at a ratio of one to one hundred—that is, one black-gold coin was equal to one hundred gold coins, and one purple-gold coin was equal to one hundred black-gold coins.

“Your price is a bit expensive isn’t it?” A baby-faced young man beside Ye Qing Han said.

The blue-clothed boy smiled and shook his head. “My price corresponds to the quality of the product. This map isn’t some fake like the others. I’ve been here selling maps for more than a year, if it’s not accurate, you can come back to find me.”

“Are the Spiritual Herbs and Demonic Beast maps you have also of the periphery?” Lou Mu Yan was more interested in them.

“I have everything on the periphery. I also have a map on the border between the periphery and the outer ring of the forest. But the price is more expensive, but I can also promise accuracy.” The blue-clothed young man said with pride—this was the crystallisation of his Master’s ten years of work.

Lou Mu Yan showed interest, and asked: “Then are the locations of where the Spiritual Herbs grow and where the Demonic Beasts roam also accurate?”

“The booklet only records the approximate location and can’t determine the exact position. If you want to search for them, you can only go according to the location. The areas of some Spiritual Herbs and Demonic Beasts couldn’t be determined, after all, not many Mercenaries want to enter the border between the outer ring and the periphery.” The blue-clothed young man thought for a bit before telling Lou Mu Yan the truth.

“Then give me a copy of each, how much altogether?” Lou Mu Yan wasn’t familiar with the Blazing Mountain Ranges, and though she followed Ye Qing Han and his party, this was a place full of danger. If they were separated, she had an extra guarantee.

Seeing how generous the beautiful purple-clothed young girl was, the blue-clothed young man smiled merrily and took out four books from the cloth bag he was carrying on his back and said: “The map is one hundred black-gold coins, the Spiritual Herbs and Demonic Beasts map were one-hundred black-gold coins each, and the map of Spiritual Herbs and Demonic Beasts on the border was three hundred black-gold coins, so a total of five hundred black-gold coins2.”

Lou Mu Yan’s small vault was still rather rich, and Grandfather Lou even gifted her a precious interspatial ring after she regained consciousness. So she took out the entire five hundred black-gold coins without a care and handed it to the blue-clothed young man.

“Keep it safe.” The young man handed the books to Lou Mu Yan, then cautioned with a smile: “Miss, ensure you don’t enter the outer ring, it’s truly too dangerous there.”

“I understand, thank you.” Lou Mu Yan nodded. Her impression of the blue-clothed young man was pretty good.

“Let’s go.” After she bought the book, Lou Mu Yan said to Ye Qing Han and the others.

Ye Qing Han naturally had information on the Blazing Mountain Range, but he didn’t stop Lou Mu Yan from buying it. He smiled and nodded, then lead the rest into the Blazing Mountain Ranges.

1author wrote Chi’huo Continent…? (赤火大陆) but there have never been any mentions of that continent. I’m pretty sure Tian’ling Continent (天灵大陆) is the overall world they’re in while Chi’huo Continent specifically refers to the one she’s on. Maybe native speakers understand the difference despite the same usage of the word ‘大陆’. Or the author made a mistake (but she mentioned it again in a later chapter), or I made a mistake. I’ll come back to fix it if I realise I need to while translating.  

2pretty sure I translated it correctly, but the author wrote the price wrong. Here’s the original: “地图一百墨金币，灵草和妖兽录各一百墨金币，外围灵草妖兽录三百墨金币，一共五百墨金币。”

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