The Hundred Herb Garden-as its name readily suggested-was a field of spirit medicines.
According to Tao Ye, the Hundred Herb Garden was planted thick with spirit medicines, many of them rare treasures. It was even highly likely that sacred medicines had emerged over the long years.
But after Divines and Saints had spilled their blood there, it had become a blood-soaked demonic land. Going there to gather spirit medicines would most likely mean going to one's death.
Moreover, runes and Treasure Tools were useless in that place. One could rely only on the raw strength of one's body.
"It should be... in that direction." Di Yi looked at the light source overhead. The corpse of a bird was glowing, nourishing this little world like the sun.
He paid the light source no mind. It was merely a bird's corpse that could glow; after all, the Golden Hou could also radiate golden light and serve as a light source.
He was simply using that light source to establish his approximate bearings, following the method Tao Ye had described.
As he traveled onward, Di Yi discovered that this little world brimmed with vitality and had no shortage of living creatures.
He just did not know whether they were descendants of creatures that had lived here since ancient times, or of creatures that had failed to leave within the allotted time after the Hundred Broken Mountains opened.
Either way, it showed that this little world had native inhabitants. It was not radically different from the outside world: it too had mountains, water, plants, and life.
"Roar!" The Golden Hou had been walking along peacefully when it suddenly sensed malice and roared toward a particular direction.
There was a creature native to this little world. Judging by its size, it was probably a Primordial Remnant or something similar, and it eyed the two uninvited guests, Di Yi and the Golden Hou, with greedy intent.
But the Golden Hou's roar subjected it to tremendous pressure. It took to its heels in fright, driven by instinctive terror, very nearly scared out of its wits.
"Roar!" The Golden Hou huffed in disdain, but did not pursue it. With the dignity of a king, it pardoned this offense.
"Was that a Flying Python? What a strange creature." Di Yi looked at the fleeing creature. It resembled a python, but had a pair of wings growing from its flanks that allowed it to fly.
The journey was long. After several similar little incidents, he felt that reaching the Hundred Herb Garden this way would probably take far too much time. This would not do.
The next moment, he unleashed the Precious Technique he had gained through True Understanding of the Divine Vine, the Heaven Mending Pavilion's Sacrificial Spirit. He constructed a passage and traveled onward using Void Crossing.
After adjusting and confirming their direction several times, Di Yi finally arrived at the Hundred Herb Garden with the Golden Hou.
Even from far away, they could see auspicious vapor rising from that area. All kinds of plants shone with light, brimming with potent medicinal properties that made the spiritual energy exceptionally dense.
The mountain forest was lush and green. Di Yi stood with the Golden Hou on high ground and gazed toward the Hundred Herb Garden. Thick, hazy vapor enveloped it like a heavy mist, peaceful and serene.
"Crack!"
Suddenly, a sound came from the mountains. The Golden Hou sprang into action, lightning flashing and thunder rolling as it cleared an entire stretch of forest.
The next instant, blood flashed there. A hideous-looking creature had been slain, its entire body wrecked by lightning and its blood evaporated clean away.
"Roar!" After finishing off that hideous creature, the Golden Hou raised its head and roared at the sky. Golden light surged around its body as its gaze locked onto several directions.
For a moment, the mountains became "lively."
The vicious beasts, Primordial Remnants, and other creatures lurking in the shadows sensibly chose to retreat. Wild as they were, they still had to submit to a stronger king.
"No wonder the Heaven Mending Pavilion disciples who came here didn't dare venture deep into the Hundred Herb Garden." Looking at those enormous creatures, Di Yi finally understood why this place had yet to be fully explored.
The reason was simple. Never mind entering the Hundred Herb Garden-even making it through these mountains was no easy task.
The creatures living in this little world clearly also knew how precious the Hundred Herb Garden was.
They could not possibly allow outsiders to compete with them for it. Whenever outsiders invaded, they would briefly unite, forming an unimaginable "army." "One wave after another... Has it already been several hundred years? Someone has actually come again."
In the mountain forest, a powerful creature was startled awake by the Golden Hou's imposing aura and erupted from its slumber with a boom.
This was a powerful Primordial Remnant. Living within the Hundred Herb Garden's sphere of influence, it had naturally received immense benefits and was evolving toward pure blood.
Its ability to speak human language was a manifestation of one stage in its evolution toward pure blood.
"Roar!" The Golden Hou was surprised. It had not expected a Primordial Remnant to dare challenge its authority, and charged straight in that direction.
As far as it was concerned, if killing one vicious beast could not establish its might, then it would slay a remnant to intimidate the rest.
"Boom!"
All the ancient trees nearby exploded at once. Bearing the might of thunder and lightning, the Golden Hou appeared before that creature in an instant, its attack incomparably fierce.
Light surged all over its body, as though it were bathed in an illusory ocean, and it immediately unleashed a Precious Technique.
"Aaah..." The creature howled. Its body was broken apart on the spot, blood spraying as it suffered grievous wounds.
It had never imagined that, powerful as it was in these mountains, it could not last even a single exchange. Deeply aware now of the Golden Hou's terrifying strength, it turned and fled.
"Roar!" How could the Golden Hou possibly let it go? For daring to challenge its authority, it would have to pay in blood.
The next instant, a hoof that looked cast from gold stepped forward. Trees and earth were utterly fragile beneath its feet. Spreading golden radiance silently pulverized everything as it caught up with the creature.
"Boom!"
In an instant, the area erupted. The noise shook heaven and earth, and the mountainous terrain shattered and collapsed completely.
Just as people differed in strength, so did Primordial Remnants-let alone purebloods and those of impure blood.
The Golden Hou could dominate a region in the true Great Wilderness, and it unquestionably possessed the strength to match. It was far more powerful than that creature.
What was more, it commanded the power of lightning, something every living creature feared. That was a supreme source of destruction, inherently far above many innate divine abilities.
"Roar!" The Golden Hou rose high into the sky and savagely crushed the creature. Then, amid brilliant golden radiance, it looked down over the entire mountain region, proclaiming its kingly authority.
It was an uncrowned king in the Great Wilderness, and here it would naturally be one as well.
It could tolerate insolence from creatures below the rank of vicious beasts, but would never tolerate it from remnants and their ilk.
"That's enough. Come back." Di Yi signaled for the Golden Hou to return. In fact, he had long since noticed the creatures spying from the shadows and their ill-intentioned gazes.
That was why he had not stopped the Golden Hou when it acted.
His original intention had merely been to let the Golden Hou frighten them a little, so they would not foolishly seek their own deaths.
He had not expected things to unfold differently from what he had imagined.
But it did not matter. Those two creatures that had dared provoke them were simply too repulsive, grotesquely shaped and devoid of any beauty. Di Yi could not muster the slightest fondness for them.
"Roar!" The Golden Hou returned to Di Yi's side with its head held high and an expression that said, Hurry up and praise me.
"Let's go." Di Yi stroked the Golden Hou's head, then headed toward the Hundred Herb Garden, drawing near the medicinal garden said to have been established by Primordial Divines and Saints.
"Rrr..." The Golden Hou savored the soothing caress, then followed close behind Di Yi into that place of shimmering colors and delicate fragrance.
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