[ON HOLD] Defy the Heavens: The Journey of Miss Black Belly

10 I Alga

(*please note that I, the writer, will call our MC Xiren; whereas, other characters will refer to our MC as Chu or shu'ge and/or a'shu. And as for why I made our MC call Tang Di, brother Di = Di'ge is because it's sounds less distant and less formal.)

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Tang Di looked at Xiren as if she were a crazy person.

Heck he was starting to really think that the lad before him really was crazy! Who in the realm would be crazy enough to travel through the forest without any cultivation or hired swords to protect them? Moreover, the lad doesn't even know the most basic survival method to get out of a simple entrapment spells casted by mid-level mages.

Since Tang Di is an apprentice under the great doctor for many years, he is familiar we these kinds of things. After all, his main duty as an apprentice was to travel around the mountains and forest to gather herbs and take them back to his shifu, so how wouldn't he know how to safely get out? In fact, entrapment spells were common since it was a useful way mage's keep ele beasts and other dangerous creatures within the forest; however, that did not exclude human beings---especially idiots.

(A/N: *ele beast are beasts with elemental magic. For example, think of Pokémon lol. Is it obvious that I'm horrible at describing things? ~.~)

Tang Di was speechless. He walked out of the small cave and looked up that the sky with a heavy heart and sigh while thinking to himself, "perhaps the gods like to play jest on people because they seem to bestow both equal amounts of courage and stupidity in young hearts."

In this moment, Tang Di recalled how his own little brother, Tang Yi, was the same way---young, noble-hearted, fearless, full of life, passionate and reckless. And because of it, Tang Yi died [as] a boy. If his brother were still alive, he would be around the same as little bro Shu. Strangely enough, Tang Di liked that about a'Shu---especially the lad's determined eyes. Not to mention he owned the lad for saving his arse. The least that he could do is to take the young fool out of here and show him the ropes once they get to Heian Domain.

But first, Tang Di must find the black scaled algae.

"Little brother Shu, I will go down the stream to search for a rare herb for my shifu. Once I am done we will take leave together to Heian Domain."

Xiren nodded her head with vigor and sprang up towards Tang Di's like an energetic mushroom, tugging on his sleeve. "Let's go find it together. Four eyes are better than two!"

Xiren was trying to hold back her excitement. Her passage out of the forest means that she is one step closer to her goal, so of course she's happy. The faster Tang Di find what he is searching for, the better for her!

Reluctantly, Tang Di didn't refute Xiren and said nothing much. After Tang Di described black scaled algae to her, the two of them wet down the rocky moss-covered stream.

However, once they got down, Xiren found herself rather at leisure sitting on top of a giant overgrown boulder with thick moss.

Since there are many kinds of poisonous snakes and insects lurking about, Tang Di didn't want a'Shu to be in the water, so he told the youngster to go sit and observe instead.

At first, Xiren didn't care. However, after waiting for 3 hours, Xiren was getting impatient.

How hard is it to find a bloody seaweed? Xiren thought.

If Tang Di could read her thoughts, he would surely be bitter.

Xiren couldn't sit ideally by anymore, so she ignored Tang Di's protest and started looking for the black scaled alga too.

In the stream, many algae could be seen. There were black algae, brown algae, green algae of all size, shade, and shape. The dark brown algae were tricky since they could be mistaken for regular black colored algae.

Since Xiren never personally seen it, she decided to pull out as many black algae she could find, mainly aiming for irregular shaped ones.

Tang Di watched a'Shu who was pulling random algae like a diligent gardener pulling weeds. He shook his head in disapproval. "You won't find the black scaled algae like that a'Shu!" Tang bayed. "Do you plan to make seaweed soup with that haul?"

Xiren looked up, Tang Di's voice brought her out of her stupor. Quickly, she went over and handed Tang Di over more than 30 black alga.

"Look and see first. If they're useless, I will go back to the cave and make seaweed soup for lunch." Xiren shrugged her shoulders. She wasn't sure of the haul either. She didn't want to have too much expectation because it would only lead to greater disappointment.

Tang Di took the haul of black seaweed and spread them out evenly on a wide flat rock nearby.

Like he expected, they were all regular black algae. But unexpectedly, when he was tossing them aside, Tang Di noticed a tiny alga that attached itself under a larger alga.

Tang Di eyes widen with surprise.

"It's black scaled alga?!" Tang Di exclaimed. He rubbed his eyes to make sure that what he's seeing was real.

"Really?" Xiren moved closer to Tang Di, who was holding the alga like a newborn baby, to get a better look at the so-called rare alga. The alga in question is the size of fingernail. With close inspection, one had micro scale-like pattern of a reptilian, the other side was smooth similar to the common algae.

"So tiny! Brother Di, why didn't you mention before that he black scaled alga are so small?" Xiren questioned.

Tang Di flushed a bit red and admitted that this was his first time seeing it in person. He had seen the drawing of the said alga in his shifu medical books many times, but he never expected that it would be so tiny!

Meanwhile, Xiren was secretly relieved she didn't have to spend another night in a damp cave. She saved time, that meant she will reach her goal much quicker. With that aside, Xiren desperately wanted to eat delicious seasoned foods and roll around in warm sheets. After three days of consist running and fighting for her life, she began to appreciate the little luxury of life.

However, unlike Xiren, Tang Di was immersed in study. He totally forgot about Xiren's existence until he jolted with pain from being pinched. For a second he thought he was stung by scorpion, but when he looked over his eyes meet with a pair of big gray eyes that evoked pity and indigestion.

He found it funny. Tang Di was sure if a'Shu eyes could talk it would tell him "Bro! Don't look pay attention to that ugly seaweed. Pay attention to only me and take me out of here asap!"