Under the Bamboo Parasol

The next day, Feng Yun went to the medicine shops to gather some ingredients. She went to a medicine shop that was in an isolated part of the city. There were many of these medicine shops, and they were all owned by the clan. This particular shop did not have many customers, it was the best place to go to avoid getting noticed.

Just as she entered, an old man immediately came to greet her and said: "Miss Yun, what brings you to this small shop?" Although the man looked old, he was not to be trifled with. The man had carefully hidden his aura and only those more experienced than him could faintly sense it.

"Shopkeeper Tong, I just came for some ingredients. Can I pick them out myself?" Feng Yun asks. Today she was not dressed in blood red nor did she have her veil on. This gave her a slightly less oppressive aura, making people feel more comfortable when speaking to her.

"Yes, yes. Right, this way miss Yun." Shopkeeper Tong nods and guides Feng Yun to the back of the shop where the smell of medicine gets stronger and stronger. They come to an area where there are drawers of herbs, and in the middle was a large table of unsorted herbs. It was a herb lover's dream.

Feng Yun quickly found most of the herbs that she needs and puts it into her bag. There was one missing herb that she could not find.

She asks: "Shopkeeper Tong, do you have the Python root?"

"We do not have that. It is extremely poisonous, thus no one would dare to touch it even if they found it." Shopkeeper Tong replies, wondering why elder Yun would want such a thing.

"Never mind, it's alright." Feng Yun sighs as she pays the shopkeeper.

[It looks like I'll have to find it myself ] she thought as she gave an unenthusiastic sigh.

When Feng Yun goes back on the bustling streets, it was almost noon. She walks towards the large gates capital, where there are all sorts of people entering and exiting the capital, and walks out through the large gates, making her ways toward the wilderness with a small bamboo basket hanging at her waist.

She finds herself going up the treacherous terrain of the forest mountains. This place was a place that no commoner would go to. Going deeper, and deeper in would mean more dangers. Feng Yun follows the trail of poisonous insects until she finds the blue scorpion spider, which would always be around whenever the python root was around. There, she sees a large brown root wrapped around a dead thin tree in the forest, the root was just like a python that strangled the small tree to death. The root had bright blue colored small berries growing on it, it was a bright color that was very attractive to the eye, but it was meant to ward off unwanted predators. It was truly strange how humans were naturally attracted to bright and vibrant colors, which made the berries' point of warding off unwanted pickers quite useless. Either way, those berries were very deadly as they could kill anything it came into contact with.

Feng Yun reached out, with her bare hands and plucked the bright neon blue berries from the root to put into the basket, she even took a part of the root. As soon as her bare skin made contact with the berries, her skin began to feel pain, like that of a thousand needles piercing the skin at the same time. However, she paid it no attention as she continued to pick those berries until she had a fair amount in her basket. The root of those berries could have killed a person within ten minutes of contact to the skin, in fact, it was a poison that was favorable to use in assassinations, as it left no detectable trace and was quick reacting, but not too quick that a poison taster might die instantly. The only problem was getting the python root, as it was extremely hard to acquire, one careless touch and someone's life was gone.

Once her basket had been filled, she made her way back to the city gates. By then, the sun had already begun to set, but the streets were as busy as always. She made her way back to the manor.