Chapter 33

Lu Yang followed closely behind the Ginseng Doll, observing the lush, verdant medicinal herbs around him with a sense of wonder.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, casting dappled spots of light upon Lu Yang.

After his size was reduced, the medicinal herbs appeared to Lu Yang like trees blocking the sun, standing much taller than he was.

Before long, the man and the ginseng encountered a rushing stream, which contained a natural, heaven-sent spirituality used to irrigate the herbs; in turn, the herbs would purify some of their own essence back into the stream, a mutually beneficial relationship.

"This is the river guarded by the River Spirit," the Ginseng Doll introduced.

Circling the outer perimeter of the Seeking Dao Sect is a stream that flows sometimes rapidly and sometimes slowly, its source being an endless, clear spring.

That clear spring has a long history, dating back to even before the Seeking Dao Sect was established; it was blessed by heaven and earth, giving birth to a single spark of spiritual light.

For inanimate objects, the greatest stroke of fortune is to develop spiritual intelligence, and this spark of light is the most crucial element.

If the spiritual light returns to itself, it develops intelligence and leaps to become a darling of heaven and earth.

If the spiritual light dissipates into the world, who knows how many long years of hardship must pass before another spark can be generated.

Inanimate objects drift with the current, and perhaps one day they might be destroyed in the battles of cultivators, losing all hope of ever developing spiritual intelligence.

The probability of the spiritual light dissipating is far greater than the probability of it returning to itself.

Fortunately, a predecessor of the Seeking Dao Sect passed by this place, discovered the situation, and used a spell to lock this spark of light within the clear spring, allowing the spring to finally conceive true spiritual intelligence.

The Spirit of the Clear Spring, feeling gratitude for the predecessor of the Seeking Dao Sect, voluntarily undertook the task of guarding the sect.

This stream winds through every part of the Seeking Dao Sect; on the outside, it can guard the sect, and on the inside, it becomes one of the sources of vitality.

The Spirit of the Clear Spring is also known as the River Spirit.

From the perspective of an ordinary person, the river before the man and the ginseng is barely two spans wide, and the flow is not fast; calling it a stream is already being generous.

After shrinking, however, this stream appears exceptionally thrilling.

A wooden plank is laid across the stream as a bridge. It looks like it was built in advance by the Medicine Kings who passed through here.

When Lu Yang crossed the stream, he didn't know if it was an illusion, but the current seemed to speed up, as if... it were excited to see him?

Lu Yang wasn't entirely sure.

He also saw a magnificent city wall not far away, built of bluestone, with every stone larger than his own body.

Only after getting closer did he realize it was the wall of the medicinal garden.

The Ginseng Doll dug a few times at the base of the wall, revealing transparent stone blocks, as if something had been extracted, leaving only empty, transparent glass.

The Ginseng Doll extended its roots, flexible as tentacles, and strung these transparent glass pieces together.

"This is..." Lu Yang raised an eyebrow, feeling that these things looked familiar.

"I remember these things are called spirit stones by your human race."

Lu Yang suddenly realized; no wonder they looked familiar, aren't these just spirit stones after their spiritual power has been drained? It's just that he had never seen such high-quality ones.

"Do you like these things? Little Ba often buries these stones at the base of the wall, and when the stones are empty, he lets me collect them, and he takes them away all at once."

Lu Yang understood; planting medicinal herbs requires a massive amount of spiritual energy, and the spiritual energy in the medicinal garden is not infinite, so the Seeking Dao Sect buries spirit stones in the garden to provide refined spiritual energy.

No wonder he felt the spiritual energy was exaggeratedly dense the moment he entered the medicinal garden; it turned out it was fed by spirit stones.

The spirit stones used in the medicinal garden must be of a high grade, and they might even be the extremely rare top-grade spirit stones.

The Ginseng Doll used its roots to string the spirit stones together and walked in front, while Lu Yang followed closely behind.

As the Ginseng Doll walked, it chatted with Lu Yang.

"Beneath our feet is a grand array covering the medicinal garden, called the Eternal Evergreen Array, which helps us herbs grow healthily; these transparent stones are part of the array."

Lu Yang had heard of the Eternal Evergreen Array; it is a top-tier array used in cultivating spiritual herbs, costing a fortune and consuming massive amounts of spirit stones every year.

"By the way, I heard Little Ba say that our Seeking Dao Sect is quite poor, and to raise us, they can barely make ends meet; like when they hold those football matches, a group of people fight until they are bloody just to grab a ball, is that true?"

Lu Yang didn't dare to answer; this Master Ba looks kind-hearted, but his conscience doesn't feel a shred of guilt when he tricks the Medicine Kings.

"This is called the Truth-Breaking Immortal Wood; it has the ability to break illusions and see the truth, and can be called the nemesis of illusions. If you are caught in an illusion, hold this wood tightly in your hand, and you can break the illusion."

Lu Yang followed the Ginseng Doll's gaze and saw a cactus.

"That is the Explosive Yang Flower, one of the essential materials for cultivating the Blazing Yang Dharma Body. Besides the ability to cultivate the Dharma Body, adding it to any fire-attribute elixir can increase a trace of the Blazing Yang True Intent, which is of great benefit to cultivators with fire-attribute spiritual roots."

"The highest quality of the Explosive Yang Flower is nine-turn; a nine-turn Explosive Yang Flower is effective even for those in the Tribulation Crossing stage. This whole patch is six-turn, seven-turn, and eight-turn Explosive Yang Flowers."

"That over there is the Dao-Enlightenment Forest; soaking the leaves in water has the ability to aid in Dao enlightenment, and the wood is also a raw material for making high-quality magic treasures. I heard it has been bid up to a sky-high price in the outside world. Every autumn, Little Ba picks a large number of Dao-Enlightenment leaves for you all to consume."

Lu Yang had seen descriptions of the Dao-Enlightenment Tree many times in books, described with all sorts of flowery language, praising it as an immortal species and a divine tree. The human race's rapid rise in ancient times had a lot to do with the Dao-Enlightenment Tree.

However, this was his first time seeing a real Dao-Enlightenment Tree.

To the three-inch-tall Lu Yang, the tens-of-meters-tall Dao-Enlightenment Tree looked like the legendary Jianmu tree leading to the sky. Looking up made one feel dizzy, as if the Great Dao were roaring in one's ears.

"I heard Little Ba say that low-level cultivators should not consume Dao-Enlightenment leaves. Low-level cultivators have deficiencies in their Dao heart and foundation; consuming them too early is like pulling up seedlings to help them grow, which is detrimental to future cultivation and enlightenment."

"This is the same principle as why we herbs cannot be fertilized too much when we are young."

"The older the tree, the better the Dao-enlightenment ability of its leaves. The oldest Dao-Enlightenment Tree is even older than me and is also a Medicine King; you will see it in a moment."

"This is called Lovesickness Grass, one of the main materials for refining the Lovesickness Bright Moon Pill. When the bright moon is hanging in the sky, if two people separated by a great distance can consume the Lovesickness Bright Moon Pill at the same time, they can communicate their thoughts and talk across time and space."

"Legend has it that in ancient times, there was a pair of lovers. The man was from a great clan and was the son of the clan leader, while the woman was of humble origin, a descendant of slaves. The man met the woman while out hunting, and the two fell in love at first sight and promised their lives to each other."

"However, as the son of a great clan leader, he had no right to choose his spouse, let alone marry a slave. The clan forced him to marry the daughter of another great clan leader. The two were well-matched in social status, and after the marriage, the relationship between the two great clans became even closer."

"The man refused to comply, and on the day of the grand wedding, he snuck out of the clan and eloped with the woman."

"The elders of the clan were furious when they learned of this and sent experts to hunt them down, killing the woman. The woman died in the man's arms, and the man was filled with grief and indignation, committing suicide. The blood of the two gathered on a wild grass, and even the roots of the grass were stained red, becoming the Lovesickness Grass."

Lu Yang was attracted by the story and asked subconsciously: "How touching, did this really happen?"

"Fake. It's a story made up by someone to sell the Lovesickness Grass at a high price. I was right there when they made up the story."

"..."