After He Shenyan proved he was fully capable of carrying out the Trial of the Grasses, what he needed now was a witcher apprentice and the materials for the "Grasses": Forktail spinal fluid, Manticore venom glands, the tongue of an albino Bruxa, Bryonia, Ribwort, and Mandrake Root.
The last three could all be found in Kaer Morhen's cellar, but the first three were far harder to come by.
A Forktail was a draconid creature, named for the long, sharp protrusions at the end of its tail. A strike from that tail could split even an oak shield in two—not to mention the arm holding it. Though its name might bring cutlery to mind, the usual result of fighting one was nothing like a dinner feast. It was very likely to end in death.
Manticores were described in far less detail. They had "two horns on their heads," "fleshy wings on either side of their bodies," and "a lion's mane"—all extremely vague, without even mentioning where one might find them. Bruxae, on the other hand, were described in such detail that He Shenyan even suspected the author of the book had something going on with them.
A Bruxa was an agile humanoid vampiric monster, a creature that appeared after the Conjunction of the Spheres, an intruder into our world. She looked like a beautiful woman cloaked in a cape and was often found among ruins. Bruxae possessed pale, bloodless skin and dark hair, gloomy yet beautiful, but once they attacked, they were deadly beyond measure—they were extraordinarily quick and could unleash piercing shrieks that made one dizzy and deafened the ears. A Bruxa would usually take a victim as her lover, who would also become a constant source of nourishment.
Bruxae were quite rare creatures. They seldom appeared in caves and