Chapter 7: First Day in Golden Moon. The sun had just risen above the horizon when Yao Jun opened his eyes. After spending the entire night immersed in meditation and absorbing the Raw Qi in the air around him, Yao Jun was surprised to notice just how filled with energy was. It was indeed just like they had said, substituting sleep with meditation was a very good idea. Of course, that was only if you managed to persist with your meditation throughout the night. Yao Jun found that he had no problem persisting the entire night, in fact, he completely forgot track of time as he meditated, completely immersing himself in the pleasant feeling of merging with the Raw Qi around him. After stretching his body for a bit, Yao Jun left the small house and headed to the provisions department. The provisions department was located in the main mansion and was responsible for handing out some necessities as well as giving the disciples their monthly salary. The provisions department was in fact just a long counter placed in front of the storeroom. You would go to the person responsible for whatever chores you were assigned, and then that person would head into the storeroom and fetch out the things you were entitled. The person in charge of the medicine garden chores was a seemingly middle aged woman clad in the standard black Yao clan robes. She had long flowing black hair with some shades of gray, a buxom figure and a pleasant voice. She seemed like a very pleasant and seductive woman, but what subtracted from her charm was that her forehead was very wrinkled. She also had a very bad temper, almost flaring up at Yao Jun for requesting his initial salary and the book that held all the information he needed to know about his chores. After some silent grumbling, the woman, who he learned was called Xuan Yijun, entered the storeroom and came back with a small leather pouch and a small green book. “You can keep the book for a maximum of one year, after that you have to return it, if it is damaged or ruined, you will have to pay for it.” The woman flicked her hand and the book and pouch landed on the counter in front of Yao Jun. After that she sat down and took out a small purple rock that she held in her hand as she started silently meditating, no longer paying attention to Yao Jun. The small purple rock was something called a Mortal Grade Spirit Stone. Spirit Stones were the crystallization of Raw Qi and were used as cultivation tools by lower ranked cultivators as well as currency by higher ranked cultivators. The lowest ranked ones were Mortal Grade, after that was Spiritual Grade, Earth Grade and then Heaven Grade. There were also legends that above heaven grade was something called Primordial Grade and Empyrean Grade, but Yao Jun was currently far too weak to even know if these legends were true. He could barely get his hands on Mortal Grade at the moment. The monthly salary came in the form of 1 Mortal Grade Spirit Stone, and 10 silver coins. Coins were used by non cultivators or low ranked cultivators as currency. 1 silver was worth 100 copper. 1 gold was in turn worth 100 silver. 1 spiritual gold was worth 100 gold. The book he was given was an encyclopedia of spiritual herbs. Spiritual herbs had the same classification as Spirit Stones, and were mostly used to make pills or other concoctions. The encyclopedia was not specialized for the Yao clan, so it contained information on every herb that had been discovered so far. Yao Jun's job was to study and memorize this encyclopedia and use the information within to maintain the medicine mountain. Yao Jun left the main mansion and the Yao clan area, following the main road to find a small miscellaneous store. Yao Jun entered the store and spent 5 of his silver, buying a small basket, a few tools, and a small book that he could carry with him. The tools and basket were to be used for the herbs, the tools would make it easier to pick some of the herbs and maintain others. The basket was a specialized herb basket that prevented the herbs from losing their accumulated medicinal properties and energy, while the small book was just so he could have something that he could use to write down any notes that he had. Ever since Yao Jun had absorbed the corpse of the Lightning Tiger and awakened his powers, he had acquired an eidetic memory, but the act of taking notes on things he felt that he needed to remember had already been ingrained in his body after doing it for so long, so he was incapable of stopping himself from doing so. After he bought what he needed, he returned to the Yao clan and entered his little house. Before he headed to the medicine garden, it would be wise to accustom himself to some of the more common herbs, so he started by reading the encyclopedia he had gotten. Thanks to his eidetic memory he had no problem remembering the information about the herbs, and once he had gotten halfway through the book, he heard a small knock on his door. Putting away the book and heading to the door, he was greeted by a slender girl clad in the standard Yao clan robes. She had raven black hair, limpid blue eyes, a rosy complexion, a nice figure and small dimples on her cheeks that were formed from smiling. “You should be junior brother Jun right? I'm Yao Pianzi and I can be considered your senior since im a year older than you.” The girl, Yao Pianzi, spoke with a bright smile as she grabbed Yao Jun's hand and forcefully shook it. “Ah, yeah i'm Yao Jun, nice to meet you.” Yao Jun spoke somewhat awkwardly, he had spent most of his life training alone, so he was not accustomed to being with others, especially beautiful girls around his age, so he was slightly at a loss, not sure what to do. “Hehe, I heard that out medicine garden group was getting a new member, so I came to greet you and take you for a tour around the medicine garden. If I'm not wrong you shouldn't have been there yet.” Yao Pianzi spoke with a large smile as she dragged Yao Jun out of his house without waiting for his reply. Yao Jun honestly just wanted to stay in his house and continue reading the encyclopedia, but he was unsure how to turn down Yao Pianzi. He was afraid that she would be a bit sad if he just suddenly turned her down, so he could only sigh in his heart and follow her to the medicine garden. Golden Moon Town was surrounded by forests on all sides, only being connected to the other towns by winding roads that went through the forests. The forests outside of Golden Moon Town were used by the Yao clan and the Peng clan to both train their younger disciples, as well as store their medicine gardens. The Raw Qi was thicker in the forests due to the gathering of Demonic beasts and herbs, so it was better to place their medicine gardens there than to place them in the town. The path leading to the medicine garden was protected by small array stones, beads injected with arrays, so no Demonic beasts would attack people as long as they were on the roads. The Yao clan medicine garden occupied an entire small mountain and was protected by a larger array formation that not only protected the herbs from Demonic beasts and trespassers, but also gathered the Raw Qi from the surroundings and converged it onto the mountain, promoting the growth of the herbs. To pass the protective array, all one had to do was hold one of the Yao clan's identification jades and the array would completely ignore you. Entering the array, Yao Jun took a deep breath, feeling the thick Raw Qi submerging the entire area gave him a carefree and pleasant feeling, like he was floating amongst the clouds. Yao Pianzi took him on a tour around the entire mountain, explaining to him what he had to be careful about and other things to keep in mind. With her explanation, Yao Jun got a much better understanding of what was expected off him and what he had to do. After they went around the entire mountain, they returned to Golden Moon Town and walked around town a bit together. Yao Pianzi showed him around town, showing him which stores had the best items and prices, showing him some of the better places where one could buy specialized goods or food. They walked around town for most of the day before returning to the Yao clan. “You should go rest early junior brother Jun, tomorrow we still have to head to the medicine garden to pick some herbs.” Yao Pianzi gave Yao Jun a sweet smile as she waved, returning to her own housing. And just like that, Yao Jun's first day in the Golden Moon Yao branch passed.