Chapter 33

Lu Yang followed closely in the footsteps of the Ginseng Doll, looking at the lush, verdant medicinal herbs around him with a sense of wonder.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the grass leaves, casting mottled spots of light that shone upon Lu Yang.

After his figure shrank, in Lu Yang's eyes, the medicinal herbs became trees blocking the sun, standing much taller than he was.

Before long, the person and the ginseng encountered a rushing stream, which contained the spirituality nurtured by heaven and earth; it was used to irrigate the herbs, and some of the herbs' purification would flow 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 Congwendao Sect is a stream that flows sometimes fast and sometimes slow, its source being an endless clear spring.

That clear spring has a long history, dating back to before the Congwendao Sect was even established; it was favored by heaven and earth, producing a single spark of spiritual light.

For inanimate objects, the greatest opportunity is to develop spiritual intelligence, and this spark of spiritual light is the top priority.

If the spiritual light returns to one's own body, it becomes the birth of spiritual intelligence, leaping to become a darling of heaven and earth.

If the spiritual light dissipates into heaven and earth, it is unknown how many more years of hardship must pass before such a spark can be produced again.

Inanimate objects drift with the tide, and who knows when they might collapse and disintegrate 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 one's own body.

Fortunately, a predecessor of the Congwendao Sect passed by this place and discovered this situation, so they cast a spell to lock this spark of spiritual light within the clear spring, which is how the clear spring gave birth to true spiritual intelligence.

The Spirit of the Clear Spring, feeling grateful for the kindness of the Congwendao Sect's predecessor, voluntarily guarded the Congwendao Sect.

This stream winds through various parts of the Congwendao Sect; on the outside, it can guard the Congwendao 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 person and the ginseng is no more than two spans wide, and the flow is not fast; calling it a stream is already being generous.

After becoming small, this kind of stream seems 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 stream's flow seemed to be accelerating, as if... it were excited to see him?

Lu Yang wasn't very sure either.

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 that it was the wall of the medicine garden.

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

The Ginseng Doll's roots elongated, flexible like tentacles, stringing these transparent glass pieces together.

"This is..." Lu Yang raised an eyebrow, always feeling that this thing looked familiar.

"I remember these things are called spirit stones by you humans."

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

"Do you like these things? Little Ba often buries these stone blocks at the base of the wall, and when the blocks 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 medicine garden's spiritual energy is not infinite, so the Congwendao Sect buries spirit stones in the medicine garden to provide refined spiritual energy.

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

The spirit stones used in the medicine garden certainly couldn't be of a low grade; they might even be the extremely rare high-grade spirit stones.

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

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

"Under our feet is a large array covering the medicine garden, called the Eternal Evergreen Array, which helps us medicinal 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 when cultivating spiritual medicine, with a high cost and requiring a massive amount of spirit stones every year.

"By the way, I heard from Little Ba that our Congwendao Sect is quite poor, and to raise us, they are almost unable to put food on the table. Like when they hold those cuju matches, a group of people fight until their heads are broken and blood is flowing, just to grab a ball; is that true?"

Lu Yang didn't dare to answer; this Master Ba looked kind-hearted, but when it came to deceiving the Medicine Kings, his conscience didn't feel the slightest bit of condemnation.

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

Lu Yang looked in the direction of the Ginseng Doll's gaze and saw a cactus.

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

"The highest quality of Blazing Sun Flower is the Nine-Turn; the Nine-Turn Blazing Sun Flower has an effect even on the Tribulation Transcendence stage, and this whole area is filled with Six-Turn, Seven-Turn, and Eight-Turn Blazing Sun Flowers."

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

Lu Yang had seen many descriptions of the Enlightenment Tree in books, using various flowery language to describe it, praising it as an immortal seed and a divine tree. The rapid rise of the human race in ancient times had no small connection to the Enlightenment Tree.

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

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

"I heard from Little Ba that low-level cultivators had best not consume enlightenment leaves. Low-level cultivators lack both 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 us medicinal herbs not being able to be fertilized too much when we are young."

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

"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 converse 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."

"Alas, as the son of a great clan leader, he had no right to choose his spouse, let alone marry a slave as his wife. The clan forced him to marry the daughter of another great clan's 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 upon learning 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 the grass was stained red even to its roots, 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 were making up the story."

"..."