Hillside Spirit Herb Garden

An hour passed quickly, but the dense fog showed no sign of dispersing.

At that moment, a frightening thought suddenly arose in Zhao Sheng's mind. It seemed he had been swept into the "Death Treasure Land."

Cold sweat immediately broke out on him.

The sunward and shaded sides of Heaven Pillar Mountain were entirely different worlds.

Heaven Pillar Mountain was too tall and too vast; sunlight simply could not reach its shaded side. As a result, that side remained shrouded in thick fog year-round, never seeing the light of day. Daytime visibility was extremely poor—even at noon, one could not make out scenery a few yards away. At night, it was so dark one could not see one's hand before one's face.

For that very reason, the shaded side of Heaven Pillar Mountain contained vast stretches of unexplored "Wilderness Region." It was a paradise for spirit herbs, spirit plants, demonic birds, and vicious beasts, as well as the burial ground of countless Herb Gatherers.

Unknown and mysterious, incomparably dangerous, yet containing innumerable heavenly treasures and earthly wonders.

"Death Treasure Land" was the joking name countless Herb Gatherers gave to the shaded side of Heaven Pillar Mountain, fully expressing their complicated feelings of both love and fear toward it.

The place where Zhao Sheng found himself was undoubtedly some unknown corner of Heaven Pillar Mountain's shaded side.

After escaping danger, Zhao Sheng unknowingly climbed several hundred more yards up the mountain wall. There had been many perilous stretches along the way. Setting aside venomous creatures and vicious beasts, as the terrain rose higher and higher, the air became thinner and the temperature dropped with unusual speed. Ice formed everywhere along the mountain wall, making the surface wet and slippery. If his hand slipped, he would fall into the sea of clouds, with life and death no longer in his own hands.

He finally found a crevice where he could gain a foothold and catch his breath for the moment.

The cold here pierced to the bone, carrying something of winter's feel.

Yet for Zhao Sheng, the temperature was not the greatest difficulty. The fear was.

The most useful human senses were sight and hearing, and most information from the outside world was gathered through those two.

The dense, heavy fog had "sealed" Zhao Sheng's eyes and ears. Heaven and earth had become abnormally "deathly still." Anything even slightly farther away could neither be heard nor seen.

Having lost both sight and hearing while knowing full well that he was in an extremely dangerous place, most people would instinctively feel fear. Zhao Sheng was no exception.

He knew even more clearly that the nights here were far livelier than the days. The number of vicious beasts swimming through the sea of clouds was at least fifty percent greater than on the sunward side. There were also some colossal creatures roaming the higher, deeper layers of the cloud sea. The slightest release of their pressure was enough to make him, a mere mortal, hold his breath.

In fact, Zhao Sheng had long since consciously entered the Embryonic Breathing state. His spirit-nose ability was working at full force, constantly sniffing out danger in the fog.

The world on the shaded side was more dangerous, bloodier, and harder to fathom. The vicious beasts here were always roaming about as though searching for something, leading to frequent clashes.

In just two hours, four or five exceedingly brutal fights had taken place. Every one ended with the miserable deaths of one side, or even both sides. The scent of blood spread through the air, mixing into the clouds and fog and becoming part of this place's unique ecology.

Only then did Zhao Sheng understand why this place was called the "Death Treasure Land." Without the Divine Sense unique to Foundation Establishment cultivators, even someone at Qi Refining Great Perfection would find it difficult to survive here. Ordinary Herb Gatherers would not even live for a day.

But soon, this world of thick fog showed Zhao Sheng what the word "treasure" meant.

Half a day later, he climbed onto a slope recessed into the mountain wall.

Below the slope, the incline was extremely steep, while above it was somewhat gentler. It curved inward along the mountain wall for dozens of yards. Vegetation grew thickly across the slope, which was highly unusual. This place was normally buried beneath dense fog and saw no sunlight. Aside from mosses and fungi, plants should have found it difficult to survive here.

But the moment he recalled that this was Heaven Pillar Mountain, Zhao Sheng was immediately at ease.

The instant he stepped onto the slope, Zhao Sheng could not help sneezing.

The medicinal scent in the fog was far too strong, as though hundreds of spirit herbs were growing in a single cluster. More than a dozen different fragrances mixed together, making one feel lightheaded after a single whiff.

The richest among them was the scent of Purple Qi Ganoderma.

That was definitely Purple Qi Ganoderma.

Zhao Sheng could never mistake it. Though he could not understand why Purple Qi Ganoderma could grow in a place without sunlight, he trusted his nose and his decades of herb-gathering experience.

His spirits immediately soared, and he cautiously began his exploration.

The more unfamiliar a place was, the more careful one had to be—especially in a "Wilderness Region" that no one had set foot in for thousands upon thousands of years.

Fortunately, there were no large creatures on this slope, only small venomous bugs such as Yin Centipede Ghost Turtles.

The facts proved that Zhao Sheng's nose was sharper than a dog's. This truly was a spirit herb treasure garden rarely seen on Heaven Pillar Mountain.

As far as the eye could see, Blood Sword Grass, Miracle Spirit Branches, Dragon Aversion Fruit, Heartless Flowers, Gold Essence Seeds... spirit herbs of considerable value grew wildly beneath trees, amid the grass, and in cracks between rocks. Each was thick and robust, with an exceptionally long medicinal age.

Of course, the most numerous were the low-grade Purple Qi Ganoderma, some tender white and others indigo blue.

"Eh?" Zhao Sheng suddenly cried out in surprise, his expression turning ecstatic.

On a dead tree root two yards to his right, there grew a strange ganoderma as large as a washbasin, crimson as fire.

Scarlet Fire Ganoderma?!

Zhao Sheng rushed over in a single stride and touched the cap. The distinctive scorching heat of the Scarlet Fire Ganoderma made him realize that he had truly struck it rich.

This really was a Scarlet Fire Ganoderma that could be exchanged for a Foundation Establishment Pill all by itself.

Seeing the dense rings of medicinal patterns across its surface, even Zhao Sheng's hands, steady as boulders, began to tremble faintly.

After carefully counting them, he found a total of eight hundred and thirty-one rings. That meant this Scarlet Fire Ganoderma was more than eight hundred years old and could be exchanged for a High-Grade Foundation Establishment Pill.

Pills came in high and low grades. Taking a High-Grade Foundation Establishment Pill gave a cultivator more than a thirty percent chance of successfully reaching Foundation Establishment, whereas a low-grade Foundation Establishment Pill offered less than a ten percent chance.

A thirty percent chance of Foundation Establishment!

One could imagine how sought-after High-Grade Foundation Establishment Pills were in the Cultivation World.

It was settled!

The Zhao Family's rise into a Cultivation Family was settled!

That was the first thought to surface in Zhao Sheng's mind.

He had never imagined that after setting his life's goal, he would have a chance to exceed it.

With this Scarlet Fire Ganoderma, that useless Zhao Chengle had already stepped half a foot through the gates of Foundation Establishment.

Of course, he first had to cultivate to Qi Refining Great Perfection.

Thinking of Old Eighth's usual behavior, Zhao Sheng wished he could fly back immediately and slap him twice across the face.

Why the hell practice martial arts when cultivating immortality was so much better?

But he had beaten and scolded him already! That damned child was still impervious to all reason.

Zhao Sheng suddenly thought of Han Xuanwu. Could it be that Han Xuanwu had taken a liking to Old Eighth because the two were somewhat alike in temperament? Sometimes, too much happiness could become a source of worry!

There were many spirit herbs growing on this slope, and most had very long medicinal ages. Ones over a hundred years old were everywhere, and he even discovered three that were over a thousand years old.

One was thousand-year-old Blood Sword Grass. It was a natural wood-element artifact; with a little refining, it would become an excellent spirit artifact flying sword.

There was also a Nine Section Ink Jade Dendrobium with twelve hundred years of potency, as well as a thousand-year-old Gold Essence Seed.

Worth mentioning was that he found another Scarlet Fire Ganoderma, though it was only six hundred and eighty years old.

Zhao Sheng did not feel disappointed at failing to find thousand-year-old Purple Qi Ganoderma.

In fact, no one had ever discovered Purple Qi Ganoderma on the shaded side of Heaven Pillar Mountain.

That was because Purple Qi Ganoderma over a thousand years old had already developed spirituality, possessing the innate traits of "turning into mist upon encountering clouds, burrowing away upon encountering earth, and melding away upon encountering wood."