Infiltrating the Spiritual Plant Garden

The two came quickly and left quickly, without making a sound.

Su Shi'er lay prone in the tree, not daring to make the slightest movement from beginning to end.

When he heard someone approaching, though he had not detected anything, he did not dare act rashly. He merely kept his guard up in silence.

"Thunder Drum Peak? What kind of place is that?"

"But this so-called trial claims that only disciples at Qi Refining Stage Six and below can enter. In truth, that is not the case at all."

"The Tianyin Peak Master can find a way in. What about everyone else? It seems I need to be even more careful in my actions."

As Su Shi'er pondered in secret, three figures swiftly swept past before long.

The three were not highly cultivated, all at Qi Refining Stage Three. They were disciples from Tianhua Peak responsible for patrolling the surrounding area.

The three stood on the slope and quickly swept their gazes over the area. Finding nothing, they soon departed.

Only after the three had left did Su Shi'er drift down from the tree. Secretly circulating the Wind Calling Technique, he stepped upon the clear breeze and approached the Spiritual Plant Garden.

Near the dense fog, there were instead no other guards.

After staring at the fog before him for several moments, Su Shi'er took a deep breath and carefully stepped inside.

The instant he entered, the dense fog surged and churned. An immense pressure poured in from all directions, making it difficult for him to breathe in an instant. His entire body felt as though it had sunk into a swamp, unable to move even an inch.

Su Shi'er hurriedly activated the Blood Light Shield, silently crying out in alarm. If the jade token proved useless, then even if he did not die, he would lose a layer of skin.

"Is this the power of an array?! No wonder those Tianhua Peak disciples did not dare approach!"

A thought flashed through his mind. At that critical moment, he hurriedly took out the jade token, while his other hand tightly gripped an Escape Talisman.

Fortunately, the moment the jade token appeared, it emitted a faint gleam. The violently roiling dense fog seemed to sense something and rapidly receded.

"Thank goodness. It seems this jade token truly is a Passage Token!"

Su Shi'er immediately felt the pressure ease and could not help letting out a breath of relief.

Keeping the jade token tightly in hand, he judged the direction and hurried toward the Spiritual Plant Garden.

The dense fog stretched for several miles around the perimeter. The closer he came to it, the thicker it became, and the brighter the light on the jade token grew.

Su Shi'er secretly guessed that without a Passage Token, the closer one got to the Spiritual Plant Garden, the greater the pressure one would suffer.

When he reached the wall of the Spiritual Plant Garden, he leaped up and, stepping with Shadowless Illusionary Steps, easily vaulted inside.

The moment he entered, he breathed in a cool, refreshing aura. It contained abundant Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, seeping into his heart and invigorating his spirit.

"What rich Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi. Even without spirit herbs, this Spiritual Plant Garden would absolutely be an exceptionally suitable place for cultivation."

Taking a deep breath, Su Shi'er finally turned his gaze toward the garden.

"Damn, there are so many spirit herbs and medicinal ingredients?"

At that sight, he sucked in a sharp breath. His eyes widened at once, and he stared until his eyes went straight.

As far as the eye could see, the more than one hundred acres within the Spiritual Plant Garden had been divided into neat plots of varying sizes.

Several plots were enveloped by arrays. Those arrays seemed seamlessly formed by nature, simulating the growth environments of different medicinal herbs. Shade, sunshine, rain, heat... they were truly wondrous beyond compare.

All kinds of medicinal herbs grew in the plots. Even the lowest were Level 2 low-grade spirit herbs. Many had originally been Level 1 spirit herbs, but their age had accumulated until they became Level 2.

From afar, plot after plot stood in orderly ranks, arranged with perfect neatness. He could vaguely see several Level 3 Spirit Herbs as well.

Altogether, the spirit herbs in the entire Spiritual Plant Garden numbered no fewer than twenty or thirty thousand, perhaps even close to one hundred thousand.

"Hundred-Year Ginseng, astragalus, reishi... Mystic Phoenix Treasure Leaf, Kelan Flower, Dream Dew Fruit..."

Every time his gaze swept over another section, Su Shi'er could not help twitching at the corner of his eye, his heartbeat quickening by a few beats.

He recognized most of the spirit herbs here, but quite a few were not even recorded in the complete compendium of medicinal ingredients.

After swiftly looking over the whole garden, his heart began pounding powerfully. It felt as though it might leap straight out of his throat.

"So many medicinal herbs... their value is probably greater than that of an entire peak."

"With these, even without relying on the mysterious pill furnace, I will not lack pills. I can rapidly improve my cultivation."

"No, I need to hurry and put away these medicinal herbs, then run. That Tianyin Peak Master is an array expert. She will probably be able to get in within two days!"

His thoughts raced. Su Shi'er quickly calmed his excitement, not daring to waste even a moment.

He rushed to a nearby plot planted with over a hundred five-hundred-year ginseng plants and immediately got to work.

He ran swiftly, using both hands and feet to harvest the spirit herbs one by one and place them into his Storage Pouch.

This was truly a moment of bumper harvest!

However, to prevent anyone from discovering that the spirit herbs had been taken, after harvesting each section, he deliberately expended much True Yuan to scorch the soil dry, disguising it as barren wasteland.

To that end, he even left behind some withered or half-dead spirit herbs.

For the hundred-acre Spiritual Plant Garden, Su Shi'er spent a full two days sweeping away eighty or ninety percent of its spirit herbs.

At this moment, every Storage Pouch on him was filled with spirit herbs. His storage ring was packed with quite a few as well.

"Good thing I got this storage ring. Otherwise, even if I got in, I probably could not have carried so many spirit herbs."

"The remaining spirit herbs are all of good quality. I should finish collecting them and leave. Calculating the time, that Tianyin Peak Master is probably about to get in as well."

Early that morning, after collecting another section, Su Shi'er muttered quietly to himself. Sweeping his gaze around and seeing that only two areas remained, he looked toward the closer one.

There was only a single giant tree in this plot, a hundred meters tall and wrapped in dense fog.

Its branches and leaves were luxuriant, and seven fist-sized round fruits of a smooth, vivid red hung from it.

Su Shi'er was feeling puzzled when his eyelids twitched. Meng Tianyi's words from that day suddenly surfaced in his mind: within the Spiritual Plant Garden grew a Hundred-Year Vermillion Fruit Tree that took two hundred years to sprout, two hundred years to blossom, and two hundred years to bear fruit.

"Wait... this is... Hundred-Year Vermillion Fruit?"

Staring at the giant tree before him, Su Shi'er's heart began thumping wildly once again.

Hundred-Year Vermillion Fruit was a genuine Level 3 Spirit Herb. Though only low-grade, its ability to increase cultivation was enough to make all cultivators fight over it.

Forcing down the excitement in his heart, Su Shi'er hurried forward, about to pick the Hundred-Year Vermillion Fruit.

If he could harvest these Hundred-Year Vermillion Fruits, this trip would not have been in vain.

"That is... a high-tier demon beast??"

Noticing several mottled traces on the Cinnabar Fruit Tree, Su Shi'er's eyelids twitched, and he suddenly stopped.

Only after examining it closely did he notice a thick, powerful, enormous giant python coiled around the branches. Its entire body was covered in fiery red patterns.

That immense body made it clear at a glance that it was no ordinary beast, but a serpent-type demon beast of exceedingly formidable strength.

The giant python had its eyes closed, as though asleep. Yet with every breath, it swallowed clouds and exhaled mist, releasing thick fog that shrouded its entire body.

Had Su Shi'er not been cautious and deliberately used the Heavenly Eye Technique to inspect it several more times, it would have been nearly impossible for him to discover the giant python's presence.

In his eyes, the giant python's aura was especially weak, making it appear not particularly powerful.

Yet that solid, condensed aura gave him the exact same feeling as when, before entering the trial, he had first laid eyes on Tianyin Peak's Mysterious Stunning Woman.