Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit-Cleansing Grass

"Junior brother Yunfei-"

As soon as Chu Yunfei stepped off the flying boat, a woman in red came forward to greet him. "No, I should call you True Person Yungui now. It's only been a year, and you've already reached the same realm as me, junior brother."

"You jest, senior sister."

The Supreme One Divine Sect and the Purple Yang Pill Sect were not far apart and jointly controlled many secret realms, so they were closer to each other than to the other four sects.

That much was clear from the way Chu Yunfei and the woman in red, Chu Hongxiao, interacted.

Unlike the Supreme One Divine Sect, which had sent both Chu Yunfei and Yushang, the Purple Yang Pill Sect had sent only Chu Hongxiao to protect its disciples today.

As the saying went, "Better to provoke a sword cultivator than a pill cultivator."

Pill cultivators might not excel in combat, but their power to rally others was formidable.

If you provoked a sword cultivator, you would merely gain one powerful enemy, but if you earned a pill cultivator's hatred, you would become the enemy of every cultivator in the world who needed pills.

Thus, few cultivators dared to deny the Purple Yang Pill Sect, the foremost sect in the Dao of Alchemy on the Profound Firmament Continent, due respect.

As for those working in secret, there were likely high-realm cultivators hidden nearby, and the Supreme One Divine Sect was no exception.

Yushang had no acquaintance with Chu Hongxiao, so she stayed where she was and settled the disciples in.

Seeing that her junior brothers and sisters wished to befriend the Pill Sect disciples, she let them do as they pleased.

Chu Yunfei and Chu Hongxiao knew when to stop. After exchanging a few words, they turned their attention to the matter at hand.

Before setting out, Chu Yunfei gave the disciples another warning.

He broke the pride of those disciples who thought highly of themselves and intended to stir up a storm in the secret realm and soar to the heavens in a single bound, lest their arrogance cause them to perish there for no reason.

It had to be said that Chu Yunfei was indeed skilled at putting on an act before others.

If Feng Zhuo had not known his true face, he too would have been fooled by his mask.

Once the Purple Yang Pill Sect disciples were also ready, it was time to open the secret realm.

Feng Zhuo stood at the very front, and once the secret realm opened, he was among the first to enter the Green Wood Illusion Forest.

Feng Zhuo took one step forward and appeared in the Green Wood Illusion Forest.

The spiritual power, so thick it seemed almost tangible, pressed against his meridians. No wonder the place could nurture so much spirit medicine every hundred years.

If Feng Zhuo cultivated here for a day, it would be equivalent to three days outside.

The Green Wood Illusion Forest was vast, and the disciples were randomly scattered throughout the secret realm upon entering. With just over two hundred of them, it was almost impossible to run into one another.

Feng Zhuo stood where he was and summoned Yanba, recalling the book he had seen after his death in his previous life.

The book said that Su Ruanruan had obtained a ten-thousand-year-old Spirit-Cleansing Grass in the secret realm.

It did not describe in detail how she obtained it, only saying that after entering the secret realm, Su Ruanruan headed south and discovered a stone cave that should not have been in the forest.

Curious, Su Ruanruan entered the cave and discovered that it held a whole other world within.

Besides picking a ten-thousand-year-old Spirit-Cleansing Grass that later proved immensely useful, she also obtained thousand-year-old Bell Spirit Milk, which could purge impurities from the body and raise one's cultivation.

After consuming the Bell Spirit Milk, Su Ruanruan broke through to the Qi Refinement Eleventh Layer, officially crossing the threshold for Perfect Foundation Establishment.

Now that Feng Zhuo knew about it, how could he not snatch it?

Over the past few months, Feng Zhuo had pocketed every one of the minor fortuitous opportunities Su Ruanruan obtained in the book that he could remember.

And that ten-thousand-year-old Spirit-Cleansing Grass... Spirit-Cleansing Grass was rare, and specimens over ten thousand years old were as scarce as phoenix feathers and qilin horns. How could Feng Zhuo let it slip away?

Telling Yanba to control the fire cloud beneath its feet so it would not burn the trees, Feng Zhuo rode it south, extending his Divine Sense to search for the cave from the book, while also making sure to pocket some of the rarer spirit herbs.

Demon Beasts ambushed him along the way. In the forest, Feng Zhuo could not easily wield spiritual fire against them, and his Wood Spirit Root lacked offensive power, leaving him unable to finish fights quickly.

Fortunately, Yanba was fast and agile enough that they made the journey without serious trouble.

An hour later, a stone cave appeared within the range of Feng Zhuo's Divine Sense, standing incongruously in the forest.

"I actually found it?"

Feng Zhuo was surprised. He had only been trying his luck, since he and Su Ruanruan had entered the secret realm in different locations.

For all he knew, the cave could have been south of Su Ruanruan and north of him.

He had not expected to actually find it.

Yanba was also surprised that a stone cave existed in the forest and urged Feng Zhuo to go inside and investigate.

The cave was precisely what Feng Zhuo had come for.

After making sure his Divine Sense could retrieve Sword Qi talismans and thunderbolts from his storage ring the instant he encountered danger, Feng Zhuo led Yanba into the cave.

After Feng Zhuo entered...

The cave collapsed into ruins in an instant!

No one could enter it again after that.

Yet Feng Zhuo, walking inside the cave, noticed nothing. By the light of the magma flowing between Yanba's scales, he ventured deeper inside.

Another half hour passed.

"Who was it!!!"

Su Ruanruan stamped her feet in distress. Looking at the cave that had been reduced to ruins before her, she knew someone had gone in ahead of her.

But in the original work, the protagonist had clearly not discovered the cave until the next day, so it could not possibly have been the protagonist who went in. It had to be someone else!

"System! There really is someone besides me who knows the plot! Who is it?! Is it Yun Li?! Xuanfeng?! Or one of those two hundred-odd people?!!"

Su Ruanruan was in a complete panic. If someone else knew the plot, her only golden finger would be useless. In a world where the weak were prey to the strong, how could a modern person like her possibly compete with the locals!!!

Could she rely on this fucking idiot of a system that knew nothing but the original plot?!!!

[Please calm down, host.]

Su Ruanruan's voice was trembling. "You were the ones who told me I was the only transmigrator in this world! You were the ones who brought me here! You told me I could have the life I wanted here! But now there's another transmigrator! You're human traffickers! I want to go back! I-"

[Beep! Host's regret detected. If not dealt with promptly, there is a greater than 20% probability of a negative impact on task completion. System No. 006 is consulting the Main System-]

[System No. 006 has finished consulting the Main System. Altering host's memories-]

[Memory alteration complete!]

[Ding-dong-dear host, System No. 007 is at your service!]

[Current degree of plot deviation from the main storyline: five percent.]

[Unknown factors have appeared in the plot: "regressor"/"transmigrator".]

[The next point in the main storyline is about to begin: the Demon Venerable Li Tianxing flees into the Supreme One Divine Sect with grievous injuries, is discovered by the protagonist Feng Zhuo, and dies at the Supreme One Divine Sect.]

[System scanning-]

[Scan complete.]

[Likelihood of successfully conquering the Demon Venerable Li Tianxing: 99.99%. Formulating conquest plan-]

Feng Zhuo did not know that Su Ruanruan had also arrived half an hour after he entered the cave.

At that moment, Feng Zhuo looked at the stone basin filled with accumulated thousand-year-old Bell Spirit Milk and the Spirit-Cleansing Grass not far from it. His joy went without saying.

Yanba's lion nose had caught the fragrance of the Bell Spirit Milk from far away, and now that it saw the milk, it kept begging Feng Zhuo to share some.

Feng Zhuo's main objective on this trip was the Spirit-Cleansing Grass. Since Yanba wanted the Bell Spirit Milk, Feng Zhuo was not stingy. He took out the jade bottles he usually used to hold pills and collected half, leaving the rest to Yanba.

The book described Su Ruanruan encountering no danger in the cave.

After entering, Feng Zhuo had also carefully scanned the cave three times with his Divine Sense. Only after confirming there was no danger did he take the Bell Spirit Milk.

The half basin of spirit milk filled two jade bottles, and Feng Zhuo headed straight for the Spirit-Cleansing Grass.

The book only said that Su Ruanruan had obtained one stalk of ten-thousand-year-old Spirit-Cleansing Grass in the cave, but as soon as Feng Zhuo entered, he discovered that there was far more than one stalk: there was a whole clump.

Besides the one in the middle that was over ten thousand years old, there were quite a few thousand-year-old and hundred-year-old stalks here as well.

Ordinary Spirit-Cleansing Grass had silvery, threadlike spiritual markings between the veins of its leaves, but the ten-thousand-year-old stalk's markings were golden, and they even seemed to form a mysterious pattern.

Although Feng Zhuo did not want to leave any for Su Ruanruan, he did not want to cut off other cultivators' fortuitous opportunities either, so he ultimately showed restraint.

He picked only the ten-thousand-year-old Spirit-Cleansing Grass and a few stalks each of the hundred-year-old and thousand-year-old ones.

Meanwhile, Yanba swallowed all the Bell Spirit Milk and curled up into a ball to digest the spiritual power. It would probably become a sixth-tier Demon Beast before long.

Feng Zhuo put Yanba into his spirit beast pouch.

With all the fortuitous opportunities in hand, there was no need to remain in the cave.

As he prepared to leave the cave, Feng Zhuo suddenly turned around!