Soon, they crossed a weathered valley of black rock and reached the ruins of an ancient cultivator site.
At a glance, this had once been a medicinal garden for cultivators.
Most of the broken white jade fence had collapsed, and the ancient spirit-gathering array patterns on the ground had long since dimmed. Yet a spiritual plant just over a foot tall still grew in the patch of black spirit soil at the garden's center.
Three fist-sized fruits hung from the plant's tip, their surfaces gleaming ocher yellow. They were fifth-tier earth spirit fruits.
An outside force had already torn a breach in the damaged ancient restriction enveloping the earth spirit fruits.
Three cultivators in deep blue Daoist robes stood inside the ruined garden.
Their leader was a gaunt middle-aged man with a vertical crease between his brows. A pale blue-green Lifebound Flying Sword, three inches long, hovered beside him, its blade faintly rippling with the spiritual power fluctuations of the mid fourth realm.
The other two, younger cultivators were in the third realm. Holding specially made Jade Shovels, they carefully cut through the soil around the earth spirit fruits.
Hearing footsteps, the fourth-realm sword cultivator abruptly turned his head.
When his gaze landed on Su Yueli and her two companions, taking in their dull, coarse-cloth outfits and the heavy iron sword on Han Yu's back, a cold severity instantly surfaced on his gaunt face.
He neither asked where they had come from nor wasted any words.
In the eyes of a Canghai Sword Sect disciple, there was only one explanation for mortals without the slightest spiritual power fluctuations daring to approach this garden: they were mortal thieves hoping to fish a share out of troubled waters.
"Mortal thieves who don't know whether to live or die, daring to covet my