Medicine Garden

Lu Yang followed closely behind the Ginseng Doll, looking around at the lush medicinal herbs with fresh curiosity.

Sunlight filtered through gaps between the leaves, revealing dappled points of light that fell across Lu Yang.

After shrinking, the medicinal herbs looked like trees blocking out the sunlight in Lu Yang's eyes, standing far taller than he did.

Before long, the man and the ginseng encountered a rushing stream. It contained spiritual essence naturally nurtured by Heaven and Earth. It was used to irrigate the herbs, while some of the herbs' purified essence flowed back into the stream, benefiting both sides.

"This is the river guarded by the River Spirit," the Ginseng Doll introduced.

Surrounding the Ask Dao Sect was a stream that alternated between rushing and slowing. Its source was a clear spring that never ran dry.

The clear spring had a long history. Even before the Ask Dao Sect was founded, it had received Heaven and Earth's favor and produced a single spark of spiritual light.

For lifeless things, the greatest opportunity was to develop intelligence. That spark of spiritual light was of the utmost importance.

If the spiritual light returned to its body and transformed into intelligence, it would leap forth as a favored child of Heaven and Earth.

If the spiritual light dispersed into Heaven and Earth, who knew how many years of trials and tribulations it would take before another spark could form?

Lifeless things drifted with the current. Perhaps one day they would be destroyed in a battle between cultivators, losing all hope of ever developing intelligence.

The chance of the spiritual light dispersing was far greater than the chance of it returning to its body.

Fortunately, an ancestor of the Ask Dao Sect passed by this place and discovered what was happening. They cast a spell to lock that spark of spiritual light inside the clear spring, and only then did the spring give birth to true intelligence.

The spirit of the clear spring, grateful for the kindness of the Ask Dao Sect's ancestor, willingly took on the task of protecting the Ask Dao Sect.

This stream ran through every part of the Ask Dao Sect. On the outskirts, it protected the sect; within the sect, it became one of the sources of vitality.

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

From an ordinary person's perspective, the river before the man and the ginseng was barely two handspans wide, and its current was not fast. Calling it a stream was already flattering it.

After shrinking, even such a stream seemed extraordinarily thrilling.

A wooden plank had been laid across the stream as a bridge. Judging by its appearance, the Medicine Kings must have built it in advance when passing through.

As Lu Yang crossed the stream, he wondered if it was merely an illusion, but the current seemed to be speeding up, as though... it was terribly excited to see him?

Lu Yang was not entirely sure.

He also saw a magnificent city wall in the distance, built from blue stone. Each stone was larger than his body.

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

The Ginseng Doll dug several times at the foot of the wall, revealing chunks of transparent stone. It looked as though something had been extracted from them, leaving behind only empty, transparent glass.

The Ginseng Doll's roots stretched out, flexible as tentacles, and threaded the transparent glass together.

"These are..." Lu Yang raised an eyebrow. He felt that the things looked strangely familiar.

"I remember your human race calls these spirit stones."

Lu Yang suddenly understood. No wonder they looked familiar. These were spirit stones whose spiritual power had been completely drained—except he had never seen ones of such high quality.

"You like these things? Little Ba often buries these stones at the foot of the wall. Once they're empty, he has me collect them, and he takes them away all at once."

Lu Yang understood. Growing medicinal herbs required an enormous amount of spiritual energy, and the medicine garden's spiritual energy was not inexhaustible. Thus, the Ask Dao Sect buried spirit stones in the garden to provide pure spiritual energy.

No wonder the spiritual energy had felt absurdly dense the moment he entered the medicine garden. It had been nourished with spirit stones.

The spirit stones used in the medicine garden certainly could not be low-grade. They might even be extremely rare high-grade spirit stones.

The Ginseng Doll threaded the spirit stones together with its roots and walked ahead, while Lu Yang followed close behind.

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

"There's a great formation beneath our feet that covers the medicine garden. It's called the Everlasting Verdancy Formation, and it helps our medicinal herbs grow healthily. These transparent stones are part of the formation."

Lu Yang had heard of the Everlasting Verdancy Formation. It was one of the highest-grade formations used to cultivate spirit medicines. It cost a fortune to build and consumed an enormous quantity of spirit stones every year.

"By the way, I heard Little Ba say that our Ask Dao Sect is pretty poor. We're nearly bankrupt just raising us. Like when you held that cuju tournament, a bunch of people fought until their heads were bloodied just to snatch a ball—is that true?"

Lu Yang did not dare answer. That Lord Ba looked kind and good-natured, but when it came to deceiving the Medicine Kings, his conscience did not suffer the slightest pang.

"This is the Immortal Wood of Shattering Delusions. It can shatter delusions and see through truth, making it the bane of illusions. If you fall under an illusion, grip this wood tightly in your hand, and you can break out of it."

Following the Ginseng Doll's gaze, Lu Yang saw a cactus.

"That is a Sunburst Flower, one of the essential materials for cultivating the Blazing Sun Dharma Body. Aside from its use in cultivating a dharma body, adding it to any fire-attribute pill can increase its Blazing Sun True Meaning by a trace, greatly benefiting cultivators with fire-attribute spiritual roots."

"The highest quality of Sunburst Flower is Nine-Transformation. A Nine-Transformation Sunburst Flower is effective even for Tribulation Transcendence cultivators. This entire patch consists of Six-, Seven-, and Eight-Transformation Sunburst Flowers."

"That place is the Enlightenment Grove. Steeping its leaves in water grants enlightenment, while its wood is also a material for crafting high-grade treasures. I hear it sells for a sky-high price in the outside world. Every autumn, Little Ba plucks great swaths of Enlightenment Leaves for you to consume."

Lu Yang had seen countless descriptions of Enlightenment Trees in books, praised with all manner of ornate language as immortal seeds and divine trees. Humanity's rapid rise in ancient times had been closely connected to Enlightenment Trees.

Still, this was his first time seeing a real Enlightenment Tree.

The Enlightenment Tree, dozens of meters tall, looked like the legendary Jianmu reaching into the heavens from three-inch-tall Lu Yang's perspective. Gazing up at it made his head spin, as though the Great Dao were roaring beside his ears.

"I heard Little Ba say that low-level cultivators should best avoid consuming Enlightenment Leaves. Their Dao hearts and foundations are lacking, and taking them too early would be like pulling up seedlings to help them grow, harming their future cultivation and enlightenment."

"It's the same principle as how we medicinal herbs can't be given too much fertilizer when we're young."

"The older the tree, the stronger the enlightening power of its leaves. The oldest Enlightenment Tree is even older than I am, and it's also a Medicine King. You'll be able to see it in a moment."

"This is Lovesickness Grass, one of the primary ingredients in refining Lovesickness Bright-Moon Pills. When the bright moon hangs in the sky, if two people separated by distant lands take Lovesickness Bright-Moon Pills at the same time, their hearts will connect, allowing them to speak across time and space."

"Legend says that in ancient times, there was a pair of lovers. The man was born into a great clan and was the clan leader's son, while the woman came from a lowly background and was the descendant of a slave. The man encountered the woman while hunting outside. They fell in love at first sight and pledged themselves to one another."

"Unfortunately, as the son of a great clan leader, he had no right to choose his spouse, much less marry a slave's daughter. The clan forced him to marry the daughter of another great clan leader. They were well matched in status, and after their marriage, the two great clans grew even closer."

"The man refused. On the day of the wedding, he secretly slipped out of the clan and eloped with the woman."

"When the clan elders learned of this, they flew into a rage and sent experts to hunt them down. They killed the woman, who died in the man's arms. Overwhelmed by grief, the man took his own life. The blood of the two gathered on a wild herb, dyeing even its roots red and turning it into Lovesickness Grass."

Drawn in by the story, Lu Yang asked without thinking, "How moving. Did this really happen?"

"No. Someone made up that story to sell Lovesickness Grass at a high price. I was right there while they were making it up."

"..."