The Wisdom of the Immortal Herb

Shi Feiyang flew above the Queen Mother Grass and called softly, "Come out! Let's talk!"

A Little People emerged from between the green grass and the black lingzhi. He stood barely a foot tall, black all over except for two emerald leaves draped over his shoulders like a shawl. Warily, he straightened and looked up at Shi Feiyang, speaking and gesturing with little "ee-ee, ah-ah" sounds.

One was a dragon and the other an herb, both nonhuman beings. Though they did not share a language, they could roughly grasp each other's meaning. By working backward from that understanding to the patterns of their sounds, they soon established a simple means of communication.

The Little People was the Queen Mother Grass, and the red-scaled, single-horned strange snake was his guardian beast, who had accompanied him for more than three hundred years.

He said that if Shi Feiyang would refrain from eating him and protect him instead, he was willing to live alongside Shi Feiyang for their mutual benefit. His saliva had miraculous properties and could bring living creatures back from the dead. No matter how grave their injuries, even if they had truly died, he could revive them.

Shi Feiyang had never intended to eat him anyway. Though doing so would greatly increase his power in a short time, it would be no different from killing the hen for her eggs. Queen Mother Grass of such attainment was a miraculous treasure rarely found in the world. Keeping him close so they could help each other flourish was the proper course.

Only after Shi Feiyang nodded his agreement did the Queen Mother Grass breathe a sigh of relief. This Black Dragon was the strongest creature he had ever seen. If the dragon resorted to force, he would have to burrow underground and flee at once. Though he could escape, his roots and leaves would remain behind. He would have to find somewhere else to take root anew, losing at least a thousand years of Dao Practice.

From his initial observations, he judged that this Black Dragon could be reasoned with, which was very good indeed. Having him replace the Red-Scaled Strange Snake as his guardian beast would give him a mighty backer and spare him many future calamities.

"This place isn't safe enough," Shi Feiyang said. "I have a Cave Abode atop Dinghu Peak. I'll transplant your roots and leaves there."

The Queen Mother Grass pointed at the Red Snake's corpse in the distance. "He guarded me for more than three hundred years. Now that I'm leaving, I can't just abandon him like this. Please wait a moment."

He set off on his two short legs, riding a streak of traveling light as he raced toward the snake's corpse, his feet barely touching the ground.

The Red-Scaled Strange Snake had been cut into three pieces by the White Light Sword. He first found the section with the head, worked his little mouth a few times, then turned his saliva into a stream of milky-white mist and sprayed it over the severed surface. He gave the matching surface of the middle section another spray.

Shi Feiyang knew he intended to save the Red Snake. He neither helped nor stopped him, his enormous body looming overhead as he watched how the little figure went about it.

The Queen Mother Grass ran back to the snake's head and sprayed a stream of mist into his nostrils.

Less than five seconds later, the Red Snake's eyes suddenly opened. Seeing the Queen Mother Grass, he realized he was being saved and struggled to twist his body, flopping like a fish stranded on shore toward his middle section. He pressed the severed surfaces together. After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the two sections grew back together, and he slithered onward. By then, the Queen Mother Grass had sprayed mist onto the severed surface of his tail section as well. The two ends met and soon healed together again...

Shi Feiyang found it miraculous too. Beyond his amazement, he rejoiced that he had truly stumbled upon a treasure this time!

As far as he remembered, there were only two or three spiritual medicines in Mount Shu capable of reattaching severed limbs. The most famous were the Ten-Thousand-Year Dipsacus Grass of Unfixed Island, the Thousand-Year Dipsacus Grass of the Purple Cloud Palace, and Venerable Poison Dragon's Bone-Setting Golden Elixir. Though the Queen Mother Grass was said to bring the dead back to life, he had assumed that at most it could revive a creature that had only just breathed its last. He had never expected it to rejoin the body of a creature chopped into three pieces. This effect surpassed even the Ten-Thousand-Year Dipsacus Jade Paste painstakingly refined by Ancestor Hollow Space!

The Red-Scaled Strange Snake was over thirty feet long, with scales as red as fire, a single horn on his head, and a red tongue flickering from his mouth. After the Queen Mother Grass's treatment, he was completely back to normal, lively and vigorous, apart from two rings marking the breaks that temporarily remained.

The Red Snake slithered before Shi Feiyang, first prostrating himself and touching his head to the ground to show reverence and admiration, then hissing and flicking his tongue to express his wishes.

Having seen a "true dragon," the snake was filled with admiration and longed to place himself under Shi Feiyang's command as a subordinate, hoping that Shi Feiyang would shelter him and teach him methods of cultivation.

Shi Feiyang found the snake quite interesting. Although he could have killed Sikong Hu even without his help, the snake had volunteered his assistance, after all, and he acknowledged that favor. "Come find me on Dinghu Peak after tomorrow. We'll discuss it in detail then."

Seeing a glimmer of hope, the Red Snake was delighted. He prostrated himself again and kowtowed in thanks.

Shi Feiyang returned and cast a spell, lifting an entire patch of earth several yards across with the Queen Mother Grass at its center. Along with the Queen Mother Grass itself, he took the black lingzhi as well, placing everything inside the Heaven and Earth Box.

Upon returning to Dinghu Peak, Shi Feiyang first cast a spell to raise the lake water sixty feet, creating a waterless space on the lake bed.

He was a dragon and could remain submerged for long periods, but the Queen Mother Grass was not an aquatic plant. Though his cultivation was advanced enough that immersion would not kill him, spending too long underwater would still erode his Dao Practice.

The water here was so clear because a spring on the lake bed poured forth fresh water day and night. There was also a drainage hole halfway up the wall, through which excess water flowed into Lianjin Creek outside. The total volume of water thus remained constant and never overflowed.

Shi Feiyang first hollowed out a small pool around the spring, then used magic to carve thirty-six steps of a heavenly stairway into the sheer wall. The emerging spring water first filled the pool, then rose, borne by the earth's energy, along the stairway until it reached the ring of Golden Seal Heavenly Talismans. It then followed the strokes of the talismans, moistening the entire ring before finally flowing into the water overhead.

He planted the Queen Mother Grass and the black lingzhi beside the pool. Emerald grass, black lingzhi, and murmuring spring water made an elegant scene.

The Queen Mother Grass's Little People jumped down from his original body and ran all around the cave, thoroughly satisfied with his new home.

The lake bed offered ample safety and nourishing spring water. His only regret was the lack of sunlight. The Little People told Shi Feiyang that he would go outside at noon each day to absorb the sun's rays.

Shi Feiyang spat out the Divine Fire Core. "This core of mine was refined from Solar True Essence. Its light and heat are no different from the Greater Yang's. Each day, I refine it for two hours, and the True Solar Fire it releases will be enough for you. I'll also give you a strand of core energy to aid your cultivation."

He sent the core circling through the cave several times, drying out the damp rock walls. The Little People joyfully ran after the fiery core beneath it, spreading his arms to embrace the sunlight in utter delight. The True Solar Fire refined by Shi Feiyang was pure and clean, with True Yang Immortal Fire contained within it. Two hours of it each day would advance his cultivation faster than half a month of basking in the Greater Yang's light on his own!

Shi Feiyang infused a strand of core energy into the Little People's body. Compared with the Little People, his magical power was simply too strong. A mere wisp as fine as a hair filled the Little People from head to toe. Swaying as though drunk, he flew back to his original plant, gave his body a shake, and vanished into it to cultivate and absorb the energy.

After the time it took to eat a meal, the Little People reappeared, radiant and full of vigor. Cheering and leaping with joy, he ran onto Shi Feiyang's body, his eyes brimming with affection. He could not have been more pleased with Shi Feiyang, his new "guardian beast"!

Long and the herb began communicating again. Sitting on Shi Feiyang's finger, the Little People slowly recounted his past.

As it turned out, this Queen Mother Grass had not cultivated for a thousand years, but for ten thousand—or, to be precise, more than nine thousand nine hundred years of Dao Practice.

An Immortal Herb like him was coveted by every other living creature. Humans were only the beginning: members of both the righteous and evil paths would invariably harvest him on sight, and no demon, ghost, fiend, or spirit that encountered him would let him go either.

To survive, he had devised many methods, one of which was finding guardian beasts.

After gaining spiritual awareness and the ability to transform, he had deliberately provoked venomous snakes and poisonous insects into killing and devouring one another. The final surviving "Gu King" would become his guardian beast.

During this process, he would help those willing to live with him for mutual benefit kill those who wanted to eat him.

Over nearly ten thousand years, his guardian beasts had changed again and again. The one who stayed longest was a Three-Legged Golden Toad, who accompanied him for more than a thousand years. Then one day he left and never returned.