Purple Monkey Flower

"Senior Sister Qin, are we just going to let them leave like that?" Watching the receding backs of Zhang He and that Blade Transforming Dock youth, the pretty-featured woman turned and asked the peerless beauty.

"What else can we do if we don't let them leave? The two of them are elite disciples of the Spirit Beast Mountain and the Blade Transforming Dock. Who knows, they might still have some trump-card methods they haven't used yet. If they were to fight to the death, we wouldn't necessarily come out on top.

Furthermore, they have quite substantial connections behind them. In case we fail to slay them, there might be trouble after we get out. Besides, obtaining the spirit herbs is what matters most; there's no need to fight them to the death," the peerless beauty said gently, her voice crisp and pleasant, completely unlike the icy and unfeeling demeanor she had when facing enemies.

"Alright, Senior Sister. Let's harvest the spirit herbs in the hall. Our harvest this trip is really wonderful, hee-hee." After letting go of her misgivings, the pretty woman focused her attention on the spirit herbs.

Inside a narrow and gloomy underground cavern, a black-robed man holding a giant sword was confronting a blue-robed youth in his early twenties.

"Fellow Daoist opposite, we just fought a match, and neither of us could do anything to the other. How about we split the spirit herbs here evenly?" After a long while, the black-robed man spoke up.

"Very well. Continuing to fight is meaningless anyway. With this time, it's better to run to a few more locations; perhaps the harvest will be even greater." The blue-robed youth agreed with the opposite party's proposal.

Just like that, in various places where mature spirit herbs were known to exist, disciples of various sects kept staging scenes of slaying Demon Beasts and seizing spirit herbs. Of course, many conflicts arising from competing for spirit herbs also occurred.

Yet, barring strength that could crush the other side, generally the two parties involved in a conflict would not fight to the death. Usually, as long as the side that knew they were no match retreated, the people on the other side would not press them too hard either. Instead, they would hurriedly harvest the spirit herbs and leave, rushing off to the next location.

The emergence of this situation was mainly because everyone knew the time allowed inside the Forbidden Grounds was limited. With the time spent on such bloody fights, they might as well go to other places to see if they could reap other gains.

When it truly came down to a life-or-death moment, they still had to wait until the final day. By that time, everyone would be returning with full loads; only after everyone had made their harvests would they carry out ambushes and killings. Only then could the risks undertaken be proportional to the rewards. By that time, the Forbidden Grounds would surely be awash in blood once again!

Xiao Yu had not run into these matters temporarily, for the places he went to first were those where the spirit herbs were not yet mature. Basically, no one came to contend with him in these places, so he saved a lot of trouble.

When he finished recovering his magic power and had rested well, he hurried without stopping toward the next pre-selected location.

The Demon Beasts within the Ring-shaped Mountain were truly numerous, and that was no empty boast. Xiao Yu had only traveled through them for a mere few hours when he already encountered six or seven Demon Beasts.

Among them were lower-tier ones as well as intermediate-tier ones. For the four lower-tier ones, Xiao Yu naturally did not stand on ceremony and wiped them out in one go. But when he encountered intermediate-tier ones, he avoided them whenever he could, not wishing to waste time on these useless Demon Beasts.

At this moment, Xiao Yu was fleeing in a sorry state among the dense woods, because right behind him were forty or fifty Fire Crows pursuing him relentlessly without letting up.

These Fire Crows possessed only lower-tier cultivation. Taken out individually, Xiao Yu could destroy them with a wave of his hand, yet gathered together in a group of forty or fifty, the spell attacks they unleashed-not to mention blotting out the sky-were truly continuous patches.

When he first encountered this flock of Fire Crows, he was startled quite a bit by their attacks. That formation looked exceedingly like the way he used large handfuls of talismans to attack others, so he dared not harbor any hesitation and directly fled in panic.

Fortunately, his Wind Riding Art had formidable effects, enabling his speed to be much faster than these Fire Crows. Finally, after running a dozen or so miles away, the Fire Crows behind him gave up their pursuit of him.

After shaking off the Fire Crow flock, Xiao Yu leaped through the trees like flying while constantly sighing!

He was merely on the outer periphery of the Ring-shaped Mountain yet had already bumped into so many Demon Beasts. If he waited for a period of time to go deeper into the hinterland of the Ring-shaped Mountain, the Demon Beasts he encountered would probably be even more numerous and their cultivation higher.

Merely dodging Demon Beasts would waste a lot of time, so his time for searching for spirit herbs would inevitably be greatly reduced in this fashion.

No wonder the spirit herb hiding spots in the materials issued by the sect were so few! As it turned out, most disciples who entered didn't have that much time to search for spirit herbs.

Fortunately, he had previously slain a few disciples from other sects and integrated their materials with his own, leaving roughly a dozen places available for him to search. There were still two days left now, which should be enough for him to run through all these places.

Thinking thus, Xiao Yu identified the direction and sprinted directly toward a secluded cave that frequently produced Purple Monkey Flowers.

"It should be right here!" Several hours later, Xiao Yu stood upon a person-height rock, sizing up a small waterfall not far away as he muttered to himself. He wondered how that disciple back then had managed to find such a secluded place.

According to what the materials stated, there was a cave behind this waterfall, and the Purple Monkey Flower grew inside the cave. Only, this place had been patronized by someone a few decades ago, so the spirit herbs inside were definitely still immature.

After the time it took to brew a cup of tea, Xiao Yu repeatedly confirmed that there were no Demon Beasts or other people lying in ambush nearby before slowly flying toward the waterfall.

Braving a protective barrier to pass through this small waterfall, a gloomy cave appeared before his eyes.

The cave entrance was entirely natural, its whole body made of pale cyan mountain stone without a trace of artificial chisel-drilling inside. The thick water vapor in the surroundings made the ground and rock walls within a range of one zhang from the cave entrance extremely damp, the rock walls covered completely in moss.

A short moment later, Xiao Yu's figure flashed, and he quietly slipped into the cave. But after walking merely a dozen steps, Xiao Yu halted his figure again, for after passing a corner, the interior was already pitch-black.

Thinking for a moment, Xiao Yu reached out a hand to probe inside his Storage Bag, and a Moonlight Stone the size of a chicken egg appeared in his hand. As soon as this item appeared, that soft white light immediately illuminated the vicinity so that it was clearly visible.

He had originally wanted to sneak into the depths of the cave silently to see if there were Demon Beasts guarding it or other dangers. Yet now that the Moonlight Stone had appeared, he had turned into an extremely obvious lighthouse, and his hidden intentions naturally could not be realized.

Since it was like this, Xiao Yu simply took out and deployed the Spirit Turtle Shield, silently reciting an incantation as a red protective barrier appeared on his body. After making his defenses, he swaggered as he walked inward.

This cave was extremely narrow and long. After Xiao Yu walked for a full half-15-minute period, he still saw no sign of reaching an end.

Just when he suspected whether he had found the wrong place, he rounded two more corners, and the cave finally reached its bottom.

Utilizing the light of the Moonlight Stone, Xiao Yu made out the situation at the end of this cave.

This was a natural stone hall of no small area, its roof growing many sparkling stalactites hanging upside down in varying lengths. Some stalactites were even dripping water downwards, landing in small puddles on the ground to emit "drip, drip" sounds that appeared exceptionally distinct in this silent cave.

On a small patch of purple rock wall closest to the interior grew three pale cyan small flowers with single stems and multiple leaves.

These small flowers were about an inch in size, their several petals strangely curling toward the same direction to unexpectedly join forces in forming a unique shape. Viewed from afar, it was as if several little monkeys were hanging there-this creation of nature was truly miraculous!

Judging by their shape, these small flowers are definitely the Purple Monkey Flower. Although the color of their stems and leaves is cyan, that's because their maturity is too shallow! The moment Xiao Yu saw these flowers, he thought with immediate joy.

Yet when his gaze shifted and landed upon the ground beneath the purple rock wall, he actually saw a giant spider several feet in size crouching there. Looking at its pitch-black and glittering fangs and its eight long limbs covered in dense black hair, it looked fierce and terrifying.