Medicine Garden

Lu Yang closely followed the Ginseng Doll's pace, looking at the lush herbs around him with curious eyes.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the grass leaves, revealing dappled spots of light that shone on Lu Yang.

After shrinking in size, in Lu Yang's eyes, the herbs became trees that blocked the sunlight, much taller than him.

Before long, the two encountered a rushing stream, which contained innate spirituality. It was used to irrigate the herbs, and some of the herbs' purification would flow into the stream, benefiting both.

"This is the river that the River Spirit protects," the Ginseng Doll introduced.

Surrounding the Dao Seeking Sect's periphery was a stream that was sometimes rapid and sometimes slow, its source being an endless spring of clear water.

That spring had a long history, even before the Dao Seeking Sect was established. It was blessed by heaven and earth, giving rise to a spark of Spiritual Intelligence.

For inanimate objects, the greatest opportunity was to develop Spiritual Intelligence, and that spark of light was of utmost importance.

If the light returned to itself, transforming into Spiritual Intelligence, it would leap to become the darling of heaven and earth.

If the light dissipated into heaven and earth, it would not know how many years of hardship it would have to endure before it could produce that spark of light again.

Inanimate objects drifted with the tide, and perhaps one day they would fall and disintegrate in the battles of cultivators, with no hope of ever producing Spiritual Intelligence again.

The probability of the light dissipating was far greater than the probability of the light returning to itself.

Fortunately, a predecessor of the Dao Seeking Sect passed by this place and discovered this situation. He cast a spell to lock this spark of light in the clear spring, and the clear spring then nurtured true Spiritual Intelligence.

The spirit of the clear spring felt the kindness of the Dao Seeking Sect's predecessor and voluntarily guarded the Dao Seeking Sect.

This stream meandered through various parts of the Dao Seeking Sect. On the periphery, it could protect the Dao Seeking Sect, and internally, it became one of the sources of life.

The spirit of the clear spring was also known as the River Spirit.

From the perspective of ordinary people, the river in front of the two was only about two zha wide, and the flow rate was not fast. Calling it a stream was an exaggeration.

After shrinking, this kind of stream seemed particularly exciting.

A wooden plank was placed over the stream as a bridge. It looked like the Medicine Kings had passed by here and built it in advance.

When Lu Yang walked across the stream, he wondered if it was an illusion that the stream's flow seemed to be accelerating, as if... it was very excited to see him?

Lu Yang wasn't sure.

He also saw a majestic city wall not far away, built of bluestone, each stone larger than his body.

Only after getting closer did he realize that it was the wall of the medicine garden.

The Ginseng Doll dug a few times at the base of the wall, revealing transparent stones, as if something had been drawn away, leaving only empty, transparent glass.

The Ginseng Doll's roots stretched out, as flexible as tentacles, stringing together these transparent glass pieces.

"This is..." Lu Yang raised an eyebrow, feeling that this thing looked familiar.

"I remember these things are called Spirit Stones by you Humans."

Lu Yang suddenly understood. No wonder it looked familiar. Wasn't this just a Spirit Stone after its spiritual power had been drained? It was just that he had never seen such high-quality ones.

"Do you like these things? Little Ba often buries these stones at the base of the wall. When the stones are empty, he asks me to collect them, and he takes them all at once."

Lu Yang understood that planting herbs required a massive amount of spiritual energy. The spiritual energy in the medicine garden was not endless, so the Dao Seeking Sect buried Spirit Stones in the medicine garden to provide pure spiritual energy.

No wonder he felt that the spiritual energy was exaggeratedly rich as soon as he entered the medicine garden. It turned out that it was fed with Spirit Stones.

The Spirit Stones used in the medicine garden must be of a high grade, possibly the extremely rare top-grade Spirit Stones.

The Ginseng Doll used its roots to string the Spirit Stones together and walked in front, with Lu Yang following closely behind.

As the Ginseng Doll walked, it chatted with Lu Yang.

"There's a large formation covering the medicine garden under our feet, called the Eternal Evergreen Formation, which can help our herbs grow healthily. These transparent stones are part of the formation."

Lu Yang had heard of the Eternal Evergreen Formation. It was the most advanced formation used in cultivating Spiritual Medicine, and it was expensive, using a massive amount of Spirit Stones every year.

"By the way, I heard Little Ba say that our Dao Seeking Sect is very poor. To support us, they're almost out of food. When they have some kind of Cuju competition, a group of people fight to the death just to grab a ball. Is that true?"

Lu Yang didn't dare to answer. Old Man Ba looked kind, but he didn't feel any guilt when lying to the Medicine King.

"This is called Illusion Breaking Immortal Wood. It has the ability to break illusions and see the truth. It can be called the nemesis of illusions. If you are caught in an illusion, hold this wood tightly in your hand, and you can break the illusion."

Lu Yang followed the Ginseng Doll's gaze and saw a cactus.

"That's a Sun Blazing Flower, one of the essential materials for cultivating the Blazing Sun Dharma Body. In addition to cultivating the Dharma Body, adding it to any fire-attribute pills can increase a trace of the Blazing Sun True Intent, which is of great benefit to cultivators with fire-attribute spiritual roots."

"The highest quality of Sun Blazing Flower is Nine Revolutions. The Nine Revolutions Sun Blazing Flower has an effect even on those in the Tribulation Crossing Stage. This area is full of Six, Seven, and Eight Revolutions Sun Blazing Flowers."

"That's the Enlightenment Grove. The leaves can be soaked in water to gain Enlightenment, and the wood is also a raw material for making high-quality magical treasures. I heard that it's been speculated to a sky-high price outside. Every autumn, Little Ba picks a large number of Enlightenment Leaves for you to take."

Lu Yang had seen descriptions of the Enlightenment Tree many times in books, using various flowery words to describe it, praising it as a fairy seed and a divine tree. The Human Race's rapid rise in ancient times was closely related to the Enlightenment Tree.

However, it was his first time seeing a real Enlightenment Tree.

The Enlightenment Tree, which was tens of meters high, looked like the legendary Jianmu Tree leading to the sky in the eyes of the three-inch Lu Yang. Looking up made people dizzy, as if the Great Dao was roaring in their ears.

"I heard Little Ba say that low-level cultivators should not take Enlightenment Leaves. Low-level cultivators lack Dao Heart and foundation. Taking them too early is like pulling up seedlings to help them grow, which is not conducive to future cultivation and Enlightenment."

"This is the same principle as not fertilizing our herbs too much when they are young."

"The older the tree, the better the Enlightenment ability of its leaves. The oldest Enlightenment Tree is older than me. It's also a Medicine King. You'll see it in a while."

"This is called Lovesick Grass. It's one of the main materials for refining the Lovesick Bright Moon Pill. When the bright moon hangs in the sky, if two people far apart can take the Lovesick Bright Moon Pill at the same time, they can communicate with each other and talk across time and space."

"Legend says that in ancient times, there was a pair of lovers. The man was from a prominent family, the son of the clan leader, while the woman came from humble beginnings, a descendant of slaves. The man met the woman while hunting, and they fell in love at first sight, promising to be together for life."

"But as the son of a great clan's leader, he had no right to choose his spouse, let alone marry a slave. The clan forced him to marry the daughter of another great clan's leader. They were well-matched, and after the marriage, the relationship between the two great clans became even closer."

"The man refused and secretly slipped out of the clan on his wedding day, eloping with the woman."

"The elders of the clan were furious when they learned of this and sent experts to hunt them down, killing the woman. The woman died in the man's arms, and the man was filled with grief and indignation, committing suicide. Their blood merged into a wild grass, and even its roots were dyed red, becoming Lovesick Grass."

Lu Yang was drawn in by the story and subconsciously asked, "So touching. Did this really happen?"

"It's fake. Someone made up the story to sell Lovesick Grass at a high price. I was there when they made it up."

"..."