Immortal Herb

Jiang Che dragged his exhausted body into the cave.

The Profound Water Turtle followed behind him.

The floral fragrance gave Jiang Che a wonderfully comfortable feeling, seeping into his heart and lungs.

The farther he walked, the more luminous moss covered the stone walls, making it even brighter than the cave entrance.

The passage wound downward, and the fresh fragrance grew ever richer, carrying a hint of sweetness that gave Jiang Che's overdrawn body a moment of relief.

After roughly the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the passage suddenly opened up.

Jiang Che stood at the end of the passage, completely stunned.

He even rubbed his eyes in disbelief, thinking his exhausted body had made him hallucinate.

Before him lay a vast underground space, its vaulted ceiling densely covered in countless luminous fungi and patches of moss, like a river of stars hanging upside down.

Beneath that ceiling lay a sea of purple flowers.

These flowers were as thin as cicada wings, each roughly palm-sized, their slender stems standing straight and tall.

At the heart of each flower gathered a faint cluster of purple fluorescence.

Jiang Che crouched down and carefully examined these strange flowers glowing purple.

"What flowers are these?"

At the center of the sea of flowers, the ground rose slightly, forming a small mound shorter than a person.

On that mound grew a solitary plant, utterly different from those around it.

It was a stalk of grass roughly two feet tall, its pale golden stem covered in fine, dense fuzz that gleamed softly.

It had only three leaves, spread open, with golden patterns flowing between their veins like living meridians.

Most striking of all was the unopened flower bud at the top of its stem.

Jiang Che suddenly remembered that Today's Shop seemed to have a book introducing all the rare and wondrous plants of the Douluo Continent.

As for whether it actually included every rare and wondrous plant in the world, Jiang Che did not know. That was simply what the description said.

[Record of Ten Thousand Herbs: (Price: 200 Skill Points)]

After glancing at the price, Jiang Che frowned slightly. After much deliberation, he redeemed it anyway.

[Current remaining Skill Points: 356.]

This book was not particularly useful to Jiang Che.

Right now, however, he desperately wanted to know what the plant on that mound was.

Deep down, he had a faint premonition that he was about to stumble upon a treasure.

After redeeming the Record of Ten Thousand Herbs, Jiang Che took it out of the System Storage.

A thick book appeared in his hands, with roughly several hundred pages.

"Damn, this is a massive undertaking!"

Jiang Che opened the book, and there on the very first page was Blue Silver Grass, an extremely common plant on the continent.

He flipped through it page by page, comparing the illustrations one by one.

He had to admit, the Record of Ten Thousand Herbs contained illustrations of both immortal herbs and medicinal herbs commonly found along the roadside, along with detailed explanations and instructions for consuming them.

It even mentioned which pills certain medicinal herbs were suitable for making.

Soon, Jiang Che found an illustration on one of the pages that looked exactly like the flowers before him.

[Name: Stars Grass]

[Often grows in dark, damp underground environments, emitting a pale purple glow. There is an extremely small chance that a king will be born among a cluster of Stars Flowers: the Star King Flower...]

The book's description of the Star King Flower's appearance matched perfectly.

What made Jiang Che's breathing quicken even more was that the book actually classified the Star King Flower as an immortal herb!

"I really have stumbled upon a treasure!"

Jiang Che stepped into the cluster of Stars Flowers.

The Profound Water Turtle followed cautiously behind him.

When he reached the Star King Flower, Jiang Che crouched down, and an extraordinarily rich, fresh floral fragrance wafted into his nostrils.

"It hasn't even fully bloomed, yet its fragrance is already this strong. What will it be like when it opens completely?"

How could Jiang Che pick it immediately?

The Star King Flower was at its most valuable at the very instant it bloomed.

Unlike ordinary Stars Flowers, the Star King Flower had a very short blooming period, so Jiang Che had to remain beside it without leaving for even a moment, waiting to absorb it completely the instant it bloomed.

Jiang Che sat cross-legged beside the Star King Flower and began restoring the Soul Power and True Qi within his body.

Meditating among the Stars Flowers, he clearly felt his Soul Power recovering considerably faster.

The Profound Water Turtle rested quietly at Jiang Che's feet. When bored, it would eat a Stars Flower; when hungry, it would go catch some fish beneath the pool's surface to eat.

Jiang Che remained seated for three days.

Those three days were enough for his strength to return to its peak.

On the morning of the fourth day.

When Jiang Che opened his eyes, he discovered that the Star King Flower's bud was undergoing changes visible to the naked eye.

Fine, dense patterns emerged on the surface of the pale golden bud, like tiny golden rivers flowing slowly.

A small crack began to open at the tip of the bud, and its rich fragrance abruptly rose to another level, even carrying a faint sense of oppressive might.

"It's about to bloom!"

Jiang Che's heart gave a violent thump, and he immediately focused his mind.

The Record of Ten Thousand Herbs stated clearly that the Star King Flower took no more than half the time needed to drink a cup of tea to go from first opening to full bloom.

During this period, he had to envelop the entire flower in Soul Power and draw its essence into his body the instant it bloomed. Otherwise, once it fell to the ground, its medicinal potency would be greatly reduced.

Time ticked by, second by second.

The crack in the bud grew wider and wider, golden light spilling through it and bathing all the Stars Flowers within three feet in a golden radiance. Those ordinary Stars Flowers, which had been emitting a pale purple glow, actually leaned to either side as though bowing in worship, revealing a path leading to the king flower.

Suddenly.

Jiang Che frowned.

He had heard a sound.

An extremely faint rustling came from the direction of the passage. It was not the sound of wind.

The Profound Water Turtle also noticed something amiss. Its lazily sprawled body abruptly tensed, and its little eyes watched the passage entrance warily.

"Don't move."

Jiang Che stopped it with a low command, his gaze fixed firmly on the passage.

At most, there was only the time needed to drink a cup of tea before the Star King Flower bloomed. If anything went wrong now, all his previous efforts would go to waste.

The rustling drew closer and closer.

In the darkness, a pair of scarlet compound eyes first appeared at the end of the passage, followed by densely packed black jointed limbs, each as thick as an infant's arm.

It was an enormous centipede, its entire body pitch-black as ink, rows of dark purple markings lining its back. It was a full thirty feet long, and the sound of its hundred legs moving together made one's scalp prickle.

"A Purple-Patterned Iron Centipede!"

The fragrance released by the Star King Flower as it neared full bloom had attracted the attention of these Soul Beasts that lived year-round in the dark, damp depths underground.

The Purple-Patterned Iron Centipede was a Soul Beast mentioned in the Record of Ten Thousand Herbs. Though not among the very best, its entire body was as hard as iron and it moved swiftly. Most dangerously, it was naturally extremely sensitive to the scent of Stars Flowers.

This Iron Centipede had clearly come for the Star King Flower that was about to bloom as well.

Jiang Che felt slightly relieved. This Purple-Patterned Iron Centipede was not particularly old; judging by its appearance, its cultivation was at the thousand-year level.

Jiang Che acted decisively. Turning his palm, he summoned the Blue Silver Longsword once more and sent a wave of Blade Force slashing toward the Purple-Patterned Iron Centipede.

The blade cleaved the Purple-Patterned Iron Centipede in two.

Yet even after being cut in half, the Purple-Patterned Iron Centipede seemed completely unaffected.

It simply abandoned the lower half of its body and lunged at Jiang Che.

Its scarlet compound eyes locked onto the Star King Flower in front of Jiang Che. With a piercing screech, its remaining half abruptly sprang into the air.

"So fast!"