Chapter 575: The Sage Fledgling Grass
Those from the Walkabout Sect didn’t want to be left behind either. They also dashed in under Elder Wu Hen’s guidance, followed closely by the Regal Pill Palace and Dark North Sect. The Tristar Sect was hot on their heels, and the three young geniuses from the Sacred Sword Palace naturally brought up the rear.
Wang Han was livid as he watched the Walkabout Sect charge in first. He cursed inwardly, “Wu Hen that old bastard talks a good talk about taking care of us, but he runs faster than a rabbit! Even mountains will fall if you rely on them, and so will water flow away if you try to rely on it. Relying on yourself is the way!”
He spoke to his two junior brothers, “Junior brother Jin, junior brother Du, keep a low profile after you go in. Be on your guard against the Regal Pill Palace.”
Wang Hang was well aware that the Regal Pill Palace and Sacred Sword Palace were absolutely irreconcilable. The Regal Pill Palace would have the best opportunity to start trouble after entering the herb garden.
Du Lihuang nodded. “The Regal Pill Palace shouldn’t be so bold as to start something if we don’t leave Elder Wu Hen’s line of sight.”
With how things had developed, they still had to shamelessly stick to Elder Wu Hen despite his obvious unreliability. Otherwise, the Sacred Sword Palace disciples would be in for a world of trouble if those from the Regal Pill Palace encircled them.
“We’ll keep as low a profile as possible in the first three days. When our people come in with the third batch, how will we be afraid of them when our Sacred Sword Palace is so strong?” Another genius called Jin Feng responded.
“Yep, so let’s settle on this. Let’s go in.” Wang Han waved his hand and brought his two junior brothers charging in with him.
Jiang Chen followed the Regal Pill Palace elders into the water curtain, leaping up the simple stone steps. There seemed to be no end to them as they endlessly twisted and turned. Several thousand steps later, it opened up to a beautiful valley carpeted in green. Clouds and mists wreathed the valley, and the air was thick with spirit power. As they looked into it from afar, the sight of spirit power whirling into the skies made everyone wonder if they’d set foot in an immortal realm.
“The ancient herb garden!”
These words immediately flashed through everyone’s minds. They all knew of it, but had never dreamed that there would be such a large mountain valley hidden within. Judging from the scene in front of them, it was at least a hundred kilometers in radius.
This ancient herb garden is this big? As Jiang Chen pondered the view, those who had entered all shot towards the valley like dumplings being dumped into a pot of water. Each figure vanished into the haze and mist like stones thrown into water. Jiang Chen didn’t hesitate either, streaking towards the mist as well.
He felt a surge of power enclose him like a ripple of water, accelerating him as well as cushioning his descent as he landed on the ground. When his vision recovered from the sudden speed, he discovered that he was deep within the mountain valley. Interestingly, there was no one around him. It seemed that everyone had been sent to different locations. Jiang Chen looked around with God’s Eye and secretly summoned a few hundred Goldbiter Rat elites. He silently commanded them, “Go, take all spirit herbs that are saint rank and above. You get half of everything.”
Jiang Chen wasn’t going to be shy about things at all. He was here already, so why hold himself back? If it wasn’t out of consideration that the other Goldbiter Rats were too weak and easily exposed, Jiang Chen would’ve released all the Goldbiter Rats.
That would’ve been a bit too over the top though.
If several million Goldbiter Rats had all surged out from the Millionditch Stonenest, they would absolutely be able to make off with everything in the ancient herb garden in the span of a day. But Jiang Chen wasn’t that impulsive.
Some of the ordinary Goldbiter Rats’ cultivation levels weren’t even in the spirit realm. They’d definitely be exposed if they were all released. Once their existence was known and those experts struck back in fury, there would be no end to the ways they could annihilate the Rats. The Walkabout Sect alone could cause a genocide with their poison techniques, let alone any of the other sects. So although Jiang Chen really wanted to make off with the entire ancient herb garden, he was sensible enough to keep his head.
The Goldbiter Rats had the unique gift of a rather sensitive sense of smell. They were very attuned to spirit herbs and thus highly efficient in finding them. The joint operation from several hundred Goldbiter Rats was enough to lead to large scale gains as well.
As for Jiang Chen himself, he was the epitome of caution. Although there was no one around him, everyone was alone after entering the ancient herb garden, and no one could guarantee that they wouldn’t be stabbed in the back.
“The ancient herb garden is on another level indeed. Although this is only the outskirts, the level and quantity of spirit herbs present isn’t even comparable to the outside world.” Jiang Chen was as if a fish in water along the way as he judged the amount of spirit power present, making off with rich gains every minute. However, although there were more saint rank and true saint rank herbs in the outskirts, there weren’t that many earth rank spirit herbs. He only ran into one after walking for half a day, and its quality veered on the lower side.
Jiang Chen’s eyes suddenly shifted as he saw a patch of spirit herbs in front of him.
“Mm? This is …the Sage Fledgling Grass?” Jiang Chen saw that the patch held blades of spirit grass that looked like infants, interwoven and entwining around each other. They grew together, in large swathes. A rough estimate put several thousand plants in this one patch. Even though Jiang Chen had made great gains before, he was still quite shocked at the sight of this.
“The Sage Fledgling Grass is the key ingredient from the Heroic Sage Pill! The thousands of Sage Fledgling Grass here is enough to refine thousands of Heroic Sage Pills!”
What was the Heroic Sage Pill? It was a type of pill that sage realm cultivators would use in the course of their cultivation. It was similar to the Spirit Consolidation Pill of the spirit realm and Origin Fostering Pill of the origin realm. The higher one’s cultivation level was, the more high end one’s resource needs would become. The ingredients for such resources would also become more rare.
Take the Spirit Consolidation Pill for example. That was a low level pill in the Regal Pill Palace. As long as one was an inner disciple, one wouldn’t want for the pill at all. Some top geniuses like Shen Qinghong had abundant supplies of Origin Fostering Pills. He didn’t need to worry about those resources at all.
However, the Heroic Sage Pill was different. In a place like the Myriad Domain, the resources used by the sage realm cultivators were noticeably more precious. This was why there were very few sage realm cultivators in the Myriad Domain. Even a fourth rank sect like the Regal Pill Palace had less than thirty sage realm experts, and the strongest amongst them only ranked in earth sage realm.
A domineering fourth rank sect like the Great Cathedral had noticeably more sage realm cultivators, but their numbers didn’t number in the triple digits either. For fifth rank sects, they only had single digit numbers of sage realm cultivators. Some even only had one or two.
This result had mainly come about because of resource constraints. The lack of resources had caused sects to ration their resources for sage realm cultivators, slowing down their cultivation speed. The causal link there was easy to understand. Thus, it was natural that few at the peak of the origin realm were able to break through to the sage realm.
Jiang Chen looked at the large swathes of Fledgling Sage Grass, almost disbelieving his eyes. Although the Grass was a true saint realm spirit herb, its uses weren’t something that ordinary true saint realm spirit herbs could compare to. Its ability to be refined into the Heroic Sage Pill was enough to make it one of the most popular true saint spirit herbs.
Just one or two blades were enough to incite fights. If they numbered more than ten, then it was a big transaction. If reaching up to a hundred blades, then it was an absolutely enormous business deal. As for one thousand blades, there was no sect that could suddenly take out this sum of Grass. Even a sect founded for pill dao like the Regal Pill Palace was no exception. But now, there were several thousand blades in front of him! How could this not shock him?
Although Jiang Chen was sorely tempted, he was in no hurry to make a move. He would never believe that such a large, dense swathe of Sage Fledgling Grass was there for him to harvest as he would.
Just as he was making observations with Psychic’s Head, a figure suddenly darted forward and stopped at a distance a few hundred meters from Jiang Chen. The newcomer was Wang Han from the Sacred Sword Palace!
Wang Han also paused slightly when he saw Jiang Chen, killing intent flashing through his face. When his gaze stopped on the Sage Fledgling Grass however, delight also dawned on his face.
“Sage Fledgling Grass?” Wang Han was the disciple of a large sect after all, he was fully capable of identifying most herbs. The visual impact of several thousand blades of Sage Fledgling Grass momentarily stunned even someone who had such lofty standards as Wang Han. However, he only lost his composure for a moment. He immediately looked back with a severe gaze at Jiang Chen. Jiang Chen obviously came here before me, why hasn’t he made a move?
The two of them had long since formed a grudge. Just like Jiang Chen and Wei Qin had their differences, so did Jiang Chen and Wang Han. Wang Han smirked coldly, “Jiang Chen, you don’t seem all that lucky.”
Jiang Chen smiled faintly, “What? You want to claim this all for yourself?”
“You have a problem with that?” In Wang Han’s eyes, what was the difference between a mere fifth level origin realm and an ant? Even if it was Shen Qinghong present, Wang Han thought himself qualified to completely dismiss the other. Ever since breaking through to the sage realm, Wang Han’s standards had grown even higher. There were few in the younger generation who could catch his eye anymore in the Myriad Domain. None of the Regal Pill Palace were included in this list, because the strongest of them, Shen Qinghong, was but half step sage realm. He wasn’t worthy of Wang Han’s attention before taking that final half step.
“So what if I do?” Jiang Chen smiled lightly.
“Go die if you feel otherwise!” Wang Han was decisive and ruthless. He couldn’t be bothered wasting words with Jiang Chen at all as he shook his arms, a beam of sword light behind him soaring to the skies. As this beam rose, it flickered once and emitted hundreds of sword qi blades.
“Die!” Wang Han waved his hand and chopped down fiercely. The boundless sword qi suddenly sealed off the area and rained downwards!
This frightening strength seemed like it would cleave straight through the sky, and arrived in front of Jiang Chen in the span of a breath. It was a good thing that Jiang Chen had long since found a place to escape to. With a brief shudder, he dove beneath the ground.
Bam!
When the sword light landed, frighteningly deep moats ten meters deep instantly crisscrossed the ground where he’d been standing.
“Mm? This kid could evade my Frosty Desolation?” Wang Han was slightly surprised. However, in the next instant, two terrifying auras surged to life behind him. A domineering presence accompanied this strength, and when Wang Han felt it, he immediately realized that his life was now on the line. Without a doubt, he knew… that either one was more than enough to take his life!