Can't Eat Too Many? I'll Eat and Eat and Eat and Eat and Eat!
Day and night turned, the sun rising at dawn and sinking at dusk.
Starting from Nuoding City, Ye Qiu rode two fine horses in rotation, using Kamui as a stable as he galloped on without regard for day or night.
When one horse grew tired, he switched to the other.
When he grew tired, Ye Qiu returned to Peach Blossom Village to rest, occasionally making love.
He tied his horse beneath the peach tree beside the house,
and hoed the fields, pushed the cart, and dug the well for his Sister Yun'er...
By balancing work and rest,
even after more than ten days in the saddle,
Ye Qiu remained refreshed and in peak condition throughout.
Before long, he arrived near Heaven Dou City, in the heart of the Heaven Dou Empire, one of the two most prosperous major cities on the entire continent.
To avoid unnecessary complications,
Ye Qiu did not enter Heaven Dou Imperial City, instead riding straight for Sunset Forest.
Sunset Forest
lay over a hundred li east of Heaven Dou City.
Aside from the Star Dou Great Forest, it was the largest Soul Beast forest on the entire continent!
It contained a great number of Soul Beasts,
most of them with hundred-year or thousand-year cultivation, and Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts were not uncommon either.
There simply weren't as many as in the Star Dou Great Forest,
and the Soul Beasts' quality was often inferior as well.
Ye Qiu's ultimate goal lay at the very center of the depths of Sunset Forest.
Concealed beneath an extinct volcanic crater and protected by a poison formation laid down by Dugu Bo,
the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well!
As night deepened,
Ye Qiu resolutely entered Sunset Forest alone.
Weaving between the tall, dense trees,
Ye Qiu's pair of blood-red eyes shone brightly all the while.
He paid no heed to the Soul Beasts in the forest, nor did he fear Dugu Bo's Jade Phosphor Poison Formation.
With both eyes' Kamui, he had enough to handle the vast majority of dangers in this world.
"..."
Gradually,
the air began to grow warmer, and the scattered starlight and chilly moonlight
were all replaced by a rising sun!
In the hazy morning light, dark green poison mist swirled and churned around a chimney-like mountain.
In a place like this, resembling a volcanic crater,
only by flying into the air and breaking through the poison mist at the summit could one see the scenery beneath it.
Water vapor billowed in the valley,
with red and blue light faintly visible, reflecting off each other within it.
Beyond those two masses of red and blue light,
treasured lights of every color dotted the scene, making it a magnificent sight!
At the bottom of the valley, near the stone wall,
stood a few simple thatched huts, looking particularly out of place.
Whoosh-!
The air surged.
The poison mist showed no sign of disturbance, nor was any figure to be seen.
In the valley shrouded by poison mist, an invisible spatial vortex quietly appeared...
A youth stepped out of the distortion.
With short, tousled black hair and a handsome face, he stood atop a thatched hut, his fitted black clothes swaying gently in the breeze that flowed through the valley.
His blood-red eyes were particularly striking.
"The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well!"
Ye Qiu's blood-red eyes stared fixedly at the strange spring deep in the valley,
his face full of excitement and exhilaration!
It looked like his luck was good. Dugu Bo was not here at the moment.
Within his field of vision,
the red and blue spring waters, two opposing, extreme forces, occupied the same space, distinctly separated and never encroaching upon each other.
Drifting water vapor constantly billowed up from where the two springs met,
and the immortal herbs and precious medicines around the spring shimmered with flowing colors,
making for a breathtaking sight.
But Ye Qiu had no time to admire the beauty here. His gaze was gradually drawn to the familiar immortal herbs!
The Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass, Infernal Delicate Apricot, Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum, Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew, Lovesick Heartbreak Red, Aromatic Silk Beauty, Aromatic Silk Immortal Treasure... Ye Qiu recognized all these immortal herbs and more at a glance!
"Haha~ I've really struck it rich this time!"
Wild with joy, Ye Qiu paid no mind to the stinging in his eyes from keeping them active for so long and immediately pounced toward the immortal herb he had long since set his sights on.
Ye Qiu had not lost his reason, however.
Though he recognized these immortal herbs and knew some had to be harvested with jade or iron implements, he was not quite sure how to store most of them once they had been picked.
Picking them recklessly would only waste their medicinal potency, and the loss would outweigh the gain.
Therefore,
Ye Qiu did not pick all the immortal herbs he recognized at once. Instead, he planned to take them one at a time, absorbing one before picking another.
What?
You can't eat too many immortal herbs!
Then how did Tang San eat three?
Ye Qiu wouldn't fall for that. He was going to eat more!
As long as their medicinal properties didn't conflict, it would be fine!
In Ye Qiu's plan, the immortal herbs he intended to consume numbered more than three!
The first immortal herb Ye Qiu had set his sights on was a plant that was entirely jade-green, with three snow-white leaves bearing dewdrop-like beads of water.
It was called Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew.
The Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record made the exaggerated claim that consuming it could cultivate fiery eyes and golden pupils, granting one the ability to see through the myriad wonders in all directions.
Ye Qiu naturally scoffed at that.
The Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record also said that Guanyin's Tears could make Guanyin weep, and Bodhi Blood could make Bodhi bleed.
Was that possible?
Of course not.
But exaggeration aside, there was no doubt that Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew was immensely beneficial to the cultivation of Dōjutsu!
It could be said to be the immortal herb in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well most suited to Ye Qiu.
Genjutsu was one of the Sharingan's basic abilities,
and was closely tied to the strength of one's ocular power.
Ye Qiu had long since dabbled in Genjutsu, but had always concealed his skill and never shown it to anyone.
After consuming Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew, Tang San had been able to absorb a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring with level-forty cultivation, aided by his Purple Demon Eye.
That meant that after his Purple Demon Eye received the boost from Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew,
his spiritual power had already become comparable to that of a level-fifty Soul Master!
In other words,
although Ye Qiu's current cultivation could not match Tang San's at that time, as long as his Mangekyō Sharingan received the boost from Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew, his ocular power could soar to at least the Soul Ancestor level!
Controlling an ordinary Soul Ancestor with a single glance would be no trouble at all!
Ye Qiu strode swiftly forward and easily picked the Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew, then used his Soul Skill and was drawn into a spatial vortex.
The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well looked peaceful,
but the two utterly opposing forces swirling around it would constantly assail living things nearby. Getting too close and staying too long carried the risk of one's body exploding.
Ye Qiu was naturally well aware of this.
That was why he chose to absorb and refine the immortal herb in the Kamui Dimension.
For one thing, he could avoid interference from the environment;
for another, he could guard against a sudden visit from Dugu Bo.
"..."
The valley was silent, with only one rather inconspicuous immortal herb missing.
Inside the Kamui Dimension,
Ye Qiu sat cross-legged and gave his wrist a light flick. The dew on the Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew flew off and landed in his eyes,
while the stem and leaves in his hand swiftly withered, crumbling into powder and scattering.
Seeing this,
Ye Qiu was not surprised. He quickly closed his eyes and began circulating the Soul Power within his body, doing his utmost to absorb its medicinal potency!
From sunrise to sunset,
only then did Ye Qiu reappear in the valley. He picked another immortal herb and returned to the Kamui Dimension to continue digesting and absorbing it.
"..."