“Ruizhi, over there! There’s a purple reishi mushroom!” A clear and melodious voice sounded in the deep thickets. It startled all of the nearby birds, causing them to flee into the air.

Zhu Junyang raised his head and followed the little golden kitten as it jumped around. He was light on his feet as he leapt onto a tree that had a trunk thick enough for several people to put their arms around it. There were plenty of old and majestic trees like this one in the forest. Towards the top of the tree, he could see a giant hole in the tree at the top. He couldn’t tell if it appeared because the tree had gotten hit by lightning before or for some other reason.

The little golden kitten stopped right outside that hole and lazily looked back at him. It used its paw to point at a stalk of purple reishi mushroom that was growing out of the hole in the tree. They had already been in the mountains for three days now and Zhu Junyang had gotten used to this little kitten surprising him from time to time. He inspected the reishi mushroom. It had a dense purple color and seemed to have an inner glow. Even someone like him, who didn’t know much about medicinal materials, could tell that it wasn’t a common object.

He took out a dagger from his boot and carefully cut out the reishi mushroom along...