Spirit Land

Fang Yu carefully made his way down the mountain along the ridge.

If this really was the spirit land of a Purple Mansion Aristocratic Clan, the cultivators with profound cultivation should all be living on the mountain. He would be safer heading down.

The mountain path, overgrown with shrubs, was not easy to traverse. Even with Fang Yu's robust physique, he struggled without using Law Techniques. After walking for a little over four hours, his legs felt as though they had been filled with lead.

His taut nerves gradually relaxed, however, and a trace of doubt crept into his mind.

Over all that time, he had encountered no one, only a few animals such as tigers, wild boars, and squirrels.

By rights, a spirit land of such a high grade should have had at least some deacons patrolling the mountain, even if it wasn't covered in cave abodes like Flaming Mountain. Yet he hadn't encountered a single person in all that time.

I'll rest for a bit before continuing my investigation!

He sprang onto the fork of a nearby tree, lay down, and stretched out his legs, slowly pounding his thighs to ease the soreness.

"Crack..."

As he was pounding his thighs, his ears twitched. The next moment, he curled up on the fork of the tree and turned toward the sound.

The sounds of withered branches and dead leaves being crushed underfoot reached Fang Yu's ears, and he unconsciously rubbed the Fire Cloud Ring on his ring finger.

His gaze stayed fixed on the direction of the sound, while his Divine Thought lightly connected with the Yuanchen Pearl, ready to travel back and flee at any moment.

A figure entered Fang Yu's sight. As the person drew closer, he could make out more and more: coarse hemp clothes, a sickle, a mountain hammer, and a grappling hook at his waist, and a wicker basket on his back.

A herb gatherer?

Fang Yu's fingers relaxed their grip on the Fire Cloud Ring. He was a little surprised. Why would an ordinary herb gatherer be in a Purple Mansion Aristocratic Clan's spirit land?

He dropped down and trailed the herb gatherer from a distance as the man crossed a stretch of woodland. He watched him hang from a cliff to gather herbs growing on its face.

Could this spirit land be unclaimed?

A bold idea rose in Fang Yu's mind, but he immediately shook his head.

How could that be possible?

This was a spirit land, and one of the top three grades at that. Even those legendary Purple Mansion Aristocratic Clans would fight until their heads were broken and blood flowed over it...

Suddenly, he froze for a moment and slapped himself on the head.

This is Great Scarlet Heaven, a completely different world from Flaming Mountain. How can I judge Great Scarlet Heaven by the common sense of another world? Maybe this spirit land really is unclaimed here!

At the thought, Fang Yu's heart immediately burned with excitement. If he could claim this unclaimed spirit land, wouldn't he strike it rich?

His body trembled slightly despite himself, and a greedy gleam appeared in his eyes as he stared at the herb gatherer.

Calm down! Calm down! I still need to investigate the situation thoroughly first!

Fang Yu forced himself to calm down and continued following the herb gatherer.

As the sky gradually darkened, the herb gatherer headed toward the mountainside. Fang Yu followed from a distance and soon spotted a building ahead. He slowed his pace and watched the herb gatherer enter.

After waiting a short while without seeing anyone come out, he noticed a fire light up inside. Fang Yu thought for a moment, then stopped hiding his tracks and headed toward the building.

The building was very dilapidated, with parts of it seemingly collapsed. A plaque hung crookedly over the entrance, and he could just make out the words "Mountain Lord Temple" written on it.

So it's a temple built for a tiger!

Fang Yu thought to himself, his suspicion further confirmed. There was no possibility of a temple being built for a tiger within a spirit land. Only nearby mountain folk in the mortal world, such as hunters and herb gatherers who often entered the mountains, would build a temple for a tiger.

He immediately made his footsteps heavier and pushed open the half-closed temple door. He saw the herb gatherer by a wall, starting a fire to boil water. The man looked at him warily, a herb sickle gripped in his hand.

Fang Yu smiled at the herb gatherer. "Sorry to disturb you. My name is 'Zhang Sheng.' I came here on my travels and lost my way in the mountains. I happened to see a light here and followed it. May I ask where this is, brother, and how I can get somewhere people live?"

The herb gatherer loosened his grip on his sickle, though he remained wary. "This is Medicine King Ridge. Even Nine Fragrances Town, the closest place, is three days away. If you don't know the way, you can come down the mountain with me tomorrow."

"That's wonderful!"

Fang Yu walked toward another wall. "I was lucky to meet you today, brother. Otherwise, who knows how much longer I'd have wandered around these mountains!"

The herb gatherer watched Fang Yu sit down by the wall. Without saying anything else, he reached out and added a few sticks to the fire.

By now, Fang Yu was fairly certain that this really could be an unclaimed spirit land, and his heart was already bursting with joy. Still, he resisted the urge to start cultivating immediately and decided to go down the mountain with the herb gatherer the next day and find out everything he could about the surrounding area first.

Silence settled over the Mountain Lord Temple, broken only now and then by the wind outside and the crackling firewood. As time passed, the fire gradually went out.

At the first hint of dawn, a faint sound rang out. Fang Yu opened his eyes and saw the herb gatherer packing his things.

"Are you heading down the mountain already, brother?"

"Mm!" the herb gatherer replied. He packed up his herb basket and other belongings and headed outside, with Fang Yu following him.

The mountain paths were rugged and difficult, but the herb gatherer walked as though on level ground, and at a brisk pace. Apart from stopping along the way to eat some dry rations, he kept moving the entire time.

Fang Yu could plainly tell that the man was trying to shake him off. He could understand, though; after all, anyone who encountered a stranger of unknown origins deep in the mountains and forests would be wary.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye. On the third day, around noon, the herb gatherer brought him to a cliff and pointed at a cluster of buildings in the distance.

"Go down from here and walk for another two hours, and you'll reach Nine Fragrances Town."

"Many thanks!"

Fang Yu said no more. After thanking him, he headed toward Nine Fragrances Town.

When the herb gatherer saw Fang Yu leave him, the great stone weighing on his heart finally fell. "Looks like I was overthinking it. He really was just a wandering swordsman who lost his way!"

Two hours later.

Fang Yu entered Nine Fragrances Town, wandered around for a while, and came to a large tree in the center of town.

Several old men were sitting there, basking in the sun. He walked up to one of them and asked:

"Elder, are there any immortals in Medicine King Ridge?"

"What? You've come looking for the Mountain Lord? Young man, that Mountain Lord became an immortal..."

After chatting with several elderly men in town and making inquiries, he soon learned all about the nearby area:

This place belonged to a mortal kingdom called Great Chu. Medicine King Ridge lay on Great Chu's border, and there were no immortal cultivation sects or powers there.

There were, however, some legends about immortals in Medicine King Ridge. The most widespread was that a tiger in the mountains had become an immortal.

It often ate hunters and herb gatherers who entered the mountains alive, so some mountain folk built a Mountain Lord Temple in the mountains to worship the Mountain Lord.

But all that had happened a hundred years ago, and by now it had become a local legend.

"I'm rich, I'm rich! I'm really going to strike it rich!"

Fang Yu felt a rising excitement. He had not only confirmed that Medicine King Ridge belonged to a mortal kingdom,

but had also discovered that Nine Fragrances Town, where mortals lived, actually had Spiritual Qi as well.

Although it was much thinner than in the mountains and of a lower grade, it was undoubtedly Spiritual Qi. That meant Medicine King Ridge really was an unclaimed spirit land.

He immediately left town and entered the mountains, summoned a "soaring cloud," and headed deep into Medicine King Ridge.