As Liu Zhu expected, the chief of the village was happy to hear that a relatively powerful cultivator was looking for work and took the time out of his day to meet him. The village chief was an unimposing, wrinkly old man, but as a cultivator who was probably at Qi Emission he still gave off a light pressure. His conversation with Liu Zhu was quick and to the point, covering what jobs the village needed a spare cultivator for and the pay offered. The pay was disappointing, even for a wandering cultivator, but since Liu Zhu was only here to gain experience he didn't pay attention to that, basing his decision solely off of what skills he might gain by doing a specific task. If it wasn't useful in that regard, then it was best to continue wandering and find something else to do.

Apparently the village, like many others, put forth a great amount of effort to forage through the nearby forests for herbs. This foraging was both to keep the village well-stocked with medicinal herbs and other essentials that they could use and to produce trade goods that would eventually be taken from the village, to Border City, and then possibly out of the Northern Wastes entirely. A small village like this might only sell it off to wandering traders, not even taking it to Border City themselves, but the profits from this trade route were still large enough to influence the tribes' behaviors greatly.

This situation concerned the one task Liu Zhu found interesting among the many dull ones he was told of- escorting a group of herb gatherers into the forest. It wasn't particularly glamorous, work but Liu Zhu had recently developed an interest in plants for obvious reasons. Going into the forest with a bunch of locals and guarding them while they gathered herbs would be a good opportunity to learn about various herbs, or at least the ones local to the area. Even if they ended up not being particularly skilled, it was easier to learn from someone else than from a book.

With this in mind, Liu Zhu agreed to keep a group of men gathering herbs safe in exchange for the right to bother them with his questions about herbology. The village chief was expecting to have to haggle with him over their low wages, but after realizing that Liu Zhu didn't care about that, the chief hastily agreed to the condition and ended the conversation, racing to get the deal closed before Liu Zhu changed his mind.

With some decent work found for the time being, Liu Zhu went to find an inn to stay at. Even if the village was small, there had to be someone renting out rooms to travelers. Eventually he succeeded in his search, coming across a long building that had been converted into a single-floor inn. A large window peering into the inn revealed a common room where a random people were eating and chatting, and in front of the inn were several villagers peddling wares. One of them was a tanned old man smoking a cheap-looking pipe, carving something from a piece of wood. He sat on a roughly woven blanket, a random assortment of plants and small wooden sculptures in front of him.

Liu Zhu was about to ignore the man and go inside when he was suddenly intercepted by his sales pitch. "Please, please, take a look young hero! Maybe you need herbs? This Grey Root, you can buy it for four silver from me and resell it for at least five silver and some change in Border City! It's a good deal! Or maybe you're interested in one of my carvings." Liu Zhu was stopped by the man's attempt to market his goods, and stared for a moment at what he had on display. He recognized a couple of the herbs from the guide he had begun reading, which were all the cheapest and most common types. As far as Liu Zhu could tell the Grey Root the man spoke of was probably the most expensive thing he had.

Next Liu Zhu turned his attention to the carvings and started closely examining them. A couple were six-inch tall statuettes of people, and a few more were of trees or normal animals. The rest, numbering eight, were carvings of vicious beasts. Liu Zhu recognized a few of these from the beast horde, and they were honestly pretty good depiction. After he finished looking at the carvings he noticed that there was one more right next to the old man. As Liu Zhu looked more closely at it, he was shocked! The carving had a close resemblance to one of the beasts carved on the walls of the chamber he fell into. This carving didn't look nearly as fierce, but it he knew that it couldn't just be a coincidence.

Liu Zhu quickly hid his shock and picked up the carving. "I like this carving. What is it?" The old man looked up from what he was idly carving and perked up, hoping to make a sale. "That is the a carving of one of the descendants of The Winged God. I've never seen one in person, as they're few and far between, but I've seen many depictions of them. It should be fairly accurate, not that it matters." Still a bit confused, Liu Zhu inquired further. "What's The Winged God?". The old man responded with "Oh, you're new to The Wastes?", slightly surprised. Liu Zhu nodded in response and the old man continued. "The Winged God is one of the Nine God Beasts. Legend says that some time in the ancient past there were nine gods in the form of beasts who watched over us. We worshiped them, and in exchange they protected us. At some points the gods dwindled in number, going from nine to four, and in the end they disappeared completely. Still, there are some who have distant descendants left in the Northern Wastes, and they are revered as holy beasts. If anyone kills one, outsider or not, then the faithful would hunt them down."

The old man took a puff from his pipe before continuing on. "That's the gist of it. I'm a follower of The Winged God, but it's in name only. This old man has never bought into the legends much. This carving was intended to be sold to another tribesman for use as an offering, but I don't mind letting you have it for a few silver." Liu Zhu took three silver out of his coinpurse and in return got a wide grin from the old man as he cackled and passed the carving to him. "Ooh hoo, thanks for the business!" Liu Zhu walked away after that, wanting to spare himself from any more sales pitches, and examined the carving. The more he looked at it, the more he was sure it had a resemblance to one of the beasts carved into the side of the chamber. That meant that whatever that place was, it was probably related to these 'Nine God Beasts'. While these beasts obviously weren't anything as supernatural as gods, they seemed to be extremely powerful given the reverence the locals had towards them. Liu Zhu wouldn't be surprised if they had been stronger than a Soul Foundation cultivator whenever they were alive.

With this small revelation, Liu Zhu had two goals for his stay in this village:

1. Learn about herbology and the herbs local to The Northern Wastes for more effective use of his abilities.

2. Figure out whether going through a month of suffering to consume that bead actually did anything. To this end, learn more about the 'Nine God Beasts', and hopefully find some information concerning any items they may have left behind.

With this decided, Liu Zhu put the carving down and began chatting with the locals, hungry for more information.