Chapter 17: Collection

Looking closer, behind the dozen or so demonic birds, even farther away, there was a huge flock of flying demonic creatures, densely packed, blotting out the sky and sun.

"Descend quickly, descend quickly, extreme plunge into water." This place was already far from the snowy mountains; Jiang Yu had long noticed a river below.

Lu Ruochan tapped with her toes, poured most of her spiritual power into the flying vessel, and firmly controlled the balance during descent.

But her magical power and divine sense were limited; at such high speed she fell into the water, inevitably capsizing.

No matter how quick-witted Jiang Yu was, she was merely a low-level Qi Refiner, unable to fly across a river tens of zhang wide in an instant.

She mobilized more water spiritual power, thickening her protective spiritual light, and scanned the surroundings with her divine sense, but detected no sign of Lu Ruochan or any other living beings.

Originally planning to swim up quickly, she suddenly noticed something odd beneath the riverbed, unknown what strange object could cause her divine sense to pause for a moment as it passed over.

Hesitating no more than three seconds, Jiang Yu continued sinking and swimming toward that strange spot.

Then she discovered that the riverbed here was very low.

As she sank, she felt the water pressure increasing, her surrounding water spiritual light shield trembling, with a constant risk of being crushed.

The physical resilience of a Qi Refiner destined that she could not rely solely on a spiritual energy shield to remain for too long at depths of several hundred meters.

She was not Jiang Tu.

Thinking of Jiang Tu, she suddenly recalled that before departure, her companions had tossed her a complete turtle shell, saying it could be used to save her life, and at that time she had not yet imprinted it with divine sense to recognize a master.

Although not currently life‑threatening, she could use the river water to open the turtle shell, after all they are innately compatible.

Unexpectedly, as her spiritual power just began to flow into the shell, she heard a mental transmission from the little turtle: "I forgot to tell you, after recognizing a master and carrying the turtle shell, besides life‑saving protection, it also has the function of a water‑avoiding pearl."

Moreover, any aquatic creature below the fifth rank will not dare to approach within a one‑li radius of you underwater.

The specific method of recognizing a master is……"

Jiang Yu was astonished; she immediately silently recited the little turtle's taught incantation, performed a blood‑drop recognition of master, then poured in spiritual power.

The turtle shell instantly enlarged before her eyes; amidst flickering black spiritual light, her whole body was enveloped by a transparent spiritual light bubbling with steam.

Jiang Yu rummaged in her storage bag, pulled out an old set of robes she used before, and tied the shell to her back.

The little turtle Jiang Tu, far away in the sect, sensed it the instant she activated the turtle shell.

It muttered to itself with slight worry: "So soon, have you already encountered a life‑or‑death crisis?"

No, not at all; and with the turtle shell protecting her, Jiang Yu's breathing became smooth, and she quickly swam to the riverbed.

She looked around, again scanned the spot where divine sense was blocked, then took a talisman in one hand and gripped her spirit sword with the other, moving closer.

It was a water vortex only the size of a fist, continuously sucking in water.

Jiang Yu again probed with her divine sense; the feeling of obstruction became even more obvious.

She stepped back a few paces, swished a water‑arrow talisman at the vortex; the talisman's light flared and instantly died.

She then tried a metal‑cone talisman and a fireball talisman; the result was the same.

Jiang Yu thought to herself, "Could this be a hidden cave dwelling below?" After a moment's thought, since the secret realm contained no demonic beasts above the fourth or fifth rank, she believed she could break in.

Having made up her mind, she swung her sword with speed; the vortex responded by opening a crack about a chi wide, aside from a chill radiating outward, there was no other attack.

Not daring to delay, she slashed repeatedly; soon the vortex's gash extended several zhang deep, revealing below a block of ice no less than two chi in diameter, oval‑shaped.

At its center was a cluster of flame about to go out, while the vortex was merging at a speed visible to the naked eye.

At this moment there was no time to determine what kind of fire it was; in short, it was a treasure.

Jiang Yu had no suitable large jade box on her person; she hurriedly emptied her old second‑hand storage bag and employed the Object‑Control Technique to store this item.

But the ice block would not budge; no matter how many hand signs she made, she could not collect it.

Jiang Yu knew her limits; she would not touch strange things with her hands, and had not refined or recognized the flame as her master.

Thus she pulled down the turtle shell to use as a shovel, swiped it against the ice bottom; she could only scoop out the vortex, still unable to put it into her storage bag.

However, once the ice and fire separated, the vortex vanished extremely quickly.

Left with no choice, she had to use the turtle shell to bring it up from the riverbed; after cautiously checking that the river surface was clear of people, she then swam to the shore.

Now looking again, the ice block rapidly shrank upon contact with the outside world, while the flame inside seemed to have absorbed ample yang energy and unfurled.

This yang is the yang of the sun; at this moment it is exactly high noon.

Jiang Yu quickly laid out her Four Symbols Dragon‑Binding Formation by the riverside; upon activation of the formation, she looked back and saw the ice block reduced to only half a chi in size.

She hurriedly fetched the largest jade box to store it; when that failed, she reduced the turtle shell supporting the base, and saw that the ice and fire shrank together.

She tried once more and managed to store it smoothly in her storage bag; she could not help but sit on the ground and grin foolishly.

A moment later, just as she was about to pull out some dried meat to eat, several transmission talismans flew to the outside of the formation and triggered its restraint.

She had thought it was Senior Sister Lu, but it turned out to be a transmission from Senior Brother Lin: "Jiang Yu, are you still safe?"

The second and third transmissions both asked about her safety, reminding her to pay attention to fellow disciples fighting over spiritual herbs, and definitely not to join the fray.

The fourth, Lin Yuan's voice urgent: "Jiang Yu, the demonic birds in the secret realm have lost control for unknown reasons and are gathering toward the southern paulownia forest; if you encounter them, avoid them at once."

Jiang Yu reported her safety to him, then sent a transmission to Senior Sister Lu, and decided to explore in the direction opposite the demonic birds.

Unexpectedly, as soon as she sent the transmission, Lu Ruochan's message arrived, likewise a series asking where she was and whether she was injured.

Immediately afterward she received another: "Jiang Yu, wait for me where you are; we'll be there right away."

"We?"

Jiang Yu halted her collection of the formation, uncertain which fellow disciple Senior Sister Lu was with, and felt awkward sending another transmission to ask.

While she was pondering, suddenly a black dot appeared in the distance, speeding forward; as it drew near she saw it was a flying vessel.

She swooped out of the formation, waving at Lin Yuan and Lu Chenxia and others aboard the flying ship: "Senior Brother Lin, over here."

Lin Yuan did not wait for the flying vessel to steady; he leapt down, Lu Ruochan closely followed, and grabbed her to examine up and down: "Good, you're not hurt."

"I stalled and rushed several li out, then came back to look for you, but couldn't find you anywhere; I even thought you'd been washed downstream by the water."

"The river is too deep; once sunk, you cannot sense the outside at all."

"When I emerged from the water I didn't see you, so I thought I'd wait a while at the original spot." Jiang Yu's original intention was that; as for the ice‑flame, it's not worth mentioning to outsiders.

Just then, several people disembarked from the flying vessel; after Lin Yuan introduced her, she learned they were all personal disciples of the sect's Golden Core elders.

Everyone met up, prepared to form a team to go to a place called Wanhua Ridge to collect mysterious ginseng.

The direct disciples invited each other and made it clear that whoever harvested it would keep it.

Jiang Yu also gladly followed at the back to save effort; a top‑grade flying boat powered by top‑grade spirit stones covered a thousand li in just over an hour.

The place truly lived up to the name Wanhua; the mountains and valleys were brimming with flourishing flowers and grasses, and the water, wood, and earth spirit energy was extremely abundant.

Remarkably, the demonic birds that usually guarded the area were all absent today.

Unfortunately, the ridge's ornamental spirit plants, which are more for viewing than medicinal value, make it necessary to search inch by inch among the hundred‑flower thicket to find the elusive mysterious ginseng.

Jiang Yu marked out a patch for herself, separating from the senior brothers and sisters; her storage bag held more than eighty sprouts of purple monkey fungus, and she was no longer particularly attached to ginseng and medicines.

Instead, she hurriedly collected top‑grade Hundred‑Year Seven‑Star Herb, which is one of the ingredients that can make high‑quality talisman paper.

After harvesting for a moment, another flying boat suddenly descended, and several fellow sect members clad in teal cloud‑patterned robes rushed straight toward her.

Approaching her, they said, "We've claimed this patch; junior sister, you can look elsewhere."