Thunderstruck Wood

There were six of them, and they were no pushovers. The strongest had already reached the Fourth Layer of Jade Purity, which was a very respectable level of cultivation. Ye Yun's fourth and fifth senior brothers had both been disciples for decades, yet they had only reached the Third Layer of Jade Purity. And it was worth remembering that they belonged to the Qingyun Sect. That showed just how impressive the Fourth Layer of Jade Purity was; otherwise, the Qingyun Sect wouldn't have allowed its Fourth Layer disciples to go down the mountain and gain experience.

The six were quite cautious. They had been leading Ye Yun on a roundabout chase through the city for half an hour, but he was sure they hadn't noticed him. They had even returned to their hideout in the city along the way. There were valuable medicinal herbs hidden there, but to avoid alerting them, Ye Yun had left them untouched.

Just as Ye Yun was growing impatient with the circling, the group finally changed their tactics. When they reached the north gate, they suddenly picked up speed and dashed out of the city, vanishing into the woods beyond in the blink of an eye. Anyone else who had managed to follow them without being spotted would surely have been shaken off by that sudden move. Unfortunately for them, their pursuer was Mo Mo. Their speed was nothing to him.

Ye Yun waited a while after the group entered the woods before leisurely following. It didn't take him long to catch up with the man who had reached the Fourth Layer of Jade Purity. To Ye Yun's surprise, after traveling some distance, the man suddenly made a wide turn and headed west.

"Now that's clever. Not only did you use the others to draw attention, you even sent them in the wrong direction. If I didn't know a little about you and keep my eyes fixed on you, you might actually have pulled it off. Too bad you ran into me." Watching the man ahead travel west with the art of controlling objects, Ye Yun couldn't help admiring how carefully they had planned things. Unfortunately, they were facing someone far stronger than themselves. No amount of careful planning could make up for that.

Ye Yun followed the man for a full hour before his flying speed finally slackened. After checking his direction, the man continued on foot, searching carefully as he went. Ye Yun realized that he probably didn't know the Spiritual Spring's exact location either. He likely only knew the general area. As for how they had learned there was a Spiritual Spring here, Ye Yun had no idea.

Since the man didn't know the Spiritual Spring's exact location, there was little point in following him. And given the man's level of cultivation, he would certainly search more slowly than Ye Yun. So Ye Yun closed his eyes and carefully sensed the distribution of spiritual energy around him, then flew on his sword toward the right, where it was more abundant.

As the saying went, the higher you stood, the farther you could see. From the air, Ye Yun could survey a much wider area than he could from within the woods, so he searched quickly. In just a few minutes, he had covered an area nearly a thousand meters across. After flying in a wide circle nearby, he successfully narrowed his search to the peach grove beneath him.

The wild peach grove wasn't very large, spanning only about a thousand meters, but the trees grew vigorously. Several of them bore many large peaches, each as big as a fist. Their pale flesh was tinged red, and they looked delicious. Ye Yun picked one, rubbed off the fuzz, and took a hearty bite. Sweet juice instantly filled his mouth. What surprised him most was that the peach was rich in spiritual energy. It wasn't quite a spiritual herb, but eating it regularly could still help prolong one's life.

"Looks like I found the right place. That Spiritual Spring really is somewhere in this peach grove." The peach made Ye Yun even more certain of his guess. But he had a problem: once he entered the grove, the spiritual energy around him no longer changed in concentration. In other words, he would have to search slowly, one step at a time, to find the spring.

"Since this is a Spiritual Spring, the plants around it must have been affected by its nourishment. They're bound to be different somehow. So if I find a peach tree that stands out from the rest, I'll be close to finding the spring."

With that thought, Ye Yun didn't hesitate. He changed his sword gesture and slowly rose into the sky, taking in the whole peach grove. But the grove was quite large, and nothing but green stretched as far as the eye could see. Finding anything unusual would still be difficult.

Ye Yun was lucky. Half an hour later, he found a peach tree unlike the others. It was dead—a thing that shouldn't have been possible. The Spiritual Spring's water was full of vitality and could rejuvenate old trees and bring dead wood back to life. That made this dead tree highly suspicious.

When Ye Yun flew over the dead tree, he knew he had found the right place. Not far from it, a clear spring about half a meter across was bubbling up. Even more astonishingly, though water continuously poured from it, the level in the little pool never changed.

Only after finding the Spiritual Spring did Ye Yun have time to examine the surroundings. That was when he realized the peach tree had been struck by lightning. It was a lightning-struck peach tree. Its sturdy trunk and thick, weathered bark showed that it had to be very old. What surprised Ye Yun most was that it wasn't completely dead: little buds had sprouted from the branches reaching toward the Spiritual Spring.

"This is a real treasure. A lightning-struck peach tree brought back to life—not only does it contain the power of thunder, it also holds boundless vitality. It's an exceedingly rare wood-type spiritual material, perfect for refining a magical treasure. I'll cut it down first."

Ye Yun had originally planned to take the whole peach tree, but just as he was about to act, he remembered that he had no storage treasure. The tree was much too large, and if he carried it around, he wouldn't be able to do anything else. In the end, he had no choice but to abandon the idea of taking the whole tree. He cut off only the section that had been directly struck by lightning. It was still over a meter long, but that was enough for him. Since he had taken only the upper part of the trunk, the peach tree could continue to grow.

With the lightning-struck wood in hand, it was time to deal with the Spiritual Spring. But Ye Yun wasn't powerful enough to move mountains or overturn seas, so although he had found the spring, he couldn't take it with him. Just as he was fretting over this, the system's voice suddenly rang in his mind.

"Host, there is a tiny spiritual vein beneath this Spiritual Spring. However, it is about to dry up due to the impact of the power of thunder. You can simply put your hand into the spring and let the system absorb the spiritual vein's energy. Once this system has absorbed all the spiritual energy in the vein, the Spiritual Spring will soon dry up."

"Absorb the spiritual energy in the vein? Then go ahead. It's about to dry up anyway. Rather than wait for it to dry up on its own and waste all that energy, I might as well put it to good use."

Having made up his mind, Ye Yun went straight to the spring. He checked that it was safe, then put his hand into the water. The instant his right hand touched the spring, Ye Yun shivered. He was so comfortable he nearly groaned. The moment his hand met the water, a warm current enveloped him, as if he were soaking in a hot spring. But that wasn't even the best part. The warm current seemed to massage every cell in his body, leaving him tingling all over with a wonderful, soothing sensation.