The Sacred Ruins
Page 167Chapter 167: Picking Peaches Midway
Translator: Alsey Editor: Chrissy
Hundreds of meters beneath the earth, the great black yak was grinding his teeth in pain as he extracted yet another crystalline object from his buttocks. He was so furious that he wanted to curse out loud.
He had extracted a total of four such crystals up till now.
"Damn, this is infuriating!" He was indeed incensed to the point of steaming from his nostrils. He had come quite close to being killed by the silver walnuts, leaving him riddled with painful wounds and was finally forced to hide underground.
Meanwhile, the brilliant red crystals were given to the Yellow Ox to study. Surrounded by faint red mists, the gems shone as if they were the highest grade of cut diamonds placed under the sun.
After seeing the state the black yak was in, Chu Feng could not hold back his laughter.
"This is mutant soil. However, after being nourished with the spiritual blood of so many experts, it contains an astonishing amount of vital energy," Yellow Ox muttered.
"Can we absorb it?" Chu Feng asked in a whisper.
"No." Yellow Ox shook his head.
The great black yak was immediately and visibly disappointed, his face the very picture of rage.
However, Yellow Ox’s eyes were still shining brightly—some excitement could be noticed in its depths—he said, "There is definitely a divine root in the ground. These crystals were laid out by humans; if we follow its trail, we might be able to reap the benefits."
He informed the other two that these items were specifically used to fertilize divine flora.
The three cautiously started digging the earth behind the black yak’s buttocks and found more of those beautiful crystals.
Chu Feng did not hold back and collected them all because he felt that it might be of some help to the seed in the stone box.
They dug their way through the ground swiftly searching for the potential divine root.
"We’re in the wrong direction. According to their ground level formation, we should be digging towards the north!" Yellow Ox whispered as he suddenly remembered the small brightly colored tree. Now that they were not in immediate danger, they no longer wanted to flee!
…
The Sacred Medicinal Garden was in ruins and riddled with holes. Scattered everywhere were beast king remains; horns, feathers, bones, all stained with blood. Over 80% of the beast kings that entered the area had been killed.
It was a catastrophe; something that was destined to alarm the experts everywhere.
"How vicious!" a surviving beast king exclaimed. With all his limbs destroyed, he was unable to move. The lower part of his body had almost disappeared, and evidently, he didn’t have long to live.
Pff!
The Chilin King rushed over, and with a slash of his shining long blade, cut off that beast king’s head.
"We are all humans, please save me." A human king level expert was lying in the distance, with grievous wounds all over his body that dyed the ground with his blood. He gazed over at Ovidius with a look of pleading desperation.
Ovidius was wearing a radiant armor and carrying a greatsword as he walked over. Without a single word, he activated his resplendent blade and beheaded the fellow.
"You demons, why would you do this?!" Some king level entities were shouting out loud, a sliver hope could still be heard from their voices.
The flow of fresh blood gave the ground a faint glow. The streams of blood all converged together, emitting brilliant light as it flowed towards the depths of the garden.
After the death of all the living beings in the area, all the blood with spiritual quality were coming together on their own as if they were being summoned by someone or something.
In the depths of the Sacred Medicinal Garden, a small world had reappeared, and within it was a small brightly colored tree glowing brilliantly as it emerged from beneath the earth. All the streams of blood collectively flowed toward its roots.
At this moment, an avian beast king recovered from his wounds. He was in pain all over, but after seeing the scene of Asura-like carnage before him, he ignited his own essence blood and charged towards the sky, hoping to escape.
Unfortunately, as trembling and unsteady as he was, he fell victim to the lightning blade thrown out by the Chilin King. He let out a miserable cry and fell down.
The medicinal garden was a sea of blood; even stragglers had no way to change their fate as the cleanup group went in for the kill.
Finally, the whole place had become silent.
The whole red garden was strewn with corpses—a scene that was comparable to hell.
"Where is that human?" Chilin King inquired. He possessed long flaming red hair and fair skin like suet jade, but his handsomeness was in complete contrast to his cold demeanor. He stood there on the pile of corpses, emanating murderous intent.
He was searching for Chu Feng and failed to find his corpse. Even if he had been blasted to pieces by the silver walnut, there should still be some fragmented remains.
"Some fishes have escaped the net!"
The other teams all frowned and immediately rose to action. They quickly dispersed outside of the Sacred Medicinal Garden and combed through the whole area.
"There’s someone here!" one of them loudly shouted.
Even under such dire circumstances, one of the experts had escaped from this perilous situation and hid himself within the city, waiting for his chance to run away. However, he was found out.
"Kill!"
Wielding a radiant sword, Ovidius chased him down with large strides.
The sound of combat resounded in the distance as sword lights shot towards the sky.
"There’s another here!"
Hearing this, Chilin King personally went in pursuit.
The garden grounds were filled with corpses, like twilight in hell. It was a sight that caused the beholder to tremble in fear.
Except for a few lucky survivors, over 90% of the experts had died here. Something that was sure to shock the world.
Hundreds of meters under the ground, Chu Feng and his party were digging as they worked their way towards the brightly colored little tree.
Along the way, to his great delight, Chu Feng was able to harvest tens of red crystals, all of them emanating dense vital energy.
"Eh, I can’t dig on!"
A powerful and mysterious energy suffused the area before them, forming a barrier.
At that moment, they were in the center of the dangerous area. However, none of them were flustered.
"Damn, I wanted to cause a huge ruckus here!" The great black yak was dissatisfied.
"Keep digging!"
They skirted around the boundary and swiftly dug. They revealed a large light screen, which they thoroughly examined for gaps or weaknesses through which they could break in.
Ding!
While digging, Chu Feng’s flying knife was obstructed by an extremely solid object.
It was a broken spear that had penetrated the barrier and was embedded within it. There were also some arrows that were similarly stuck.
In the past, a battle had taken place here. These weapons had pierced this barrier then and were left embedded ever since.
"The Vatican is indeed mysterious," Chu Feng mumbled.
"Part of the Sacred Medicinal Garden’s barrier is protecting this single tree. In truth, when it fully revives, there should be more than one such tree in the depths of the garden," Yellow Ox informed.
"Eh? Maybe we can go in!"
The boundary was fairly unstable at the point where it was penetrated. For hundreds and thousands of years, no one thought to examine the barrier from underground where these weapons had pierced through since ancient times.
Swoosh!
Finally, they were able to enter the small realm within the boundary. They had successfully planted their feet on this mysterious and chaste ground.
"Be careful, don’t go to the wrong place. If we meet those ancient trees that bear angel fruits, then we're in big trouble!"
Prior to this, they had observed two small barriers and one of them was extremely dangerous.
"Look, a withered root!" the black yak exclaimed.
There was a gigantic root entirely shriveled and dry with no signs of vitality whatsoever. No one knew just how many years it had laid buried beneath the earth.
The Yellow Ox’s expression was solemn. "This is indeed the true root of the Sacred Tree."
The three surrounded the root and dug meticulously. Finally, they revealed a snow-white root that was in continuity with the dried and withered root from before. It extended towards the surface of the earth.
During this process, Chu Feng had collected hundreds of red crystals. Even his bag was about to burst open.
They made their way upwards following the snow white root and finally broke through the surface. They breathed in the fresh and pristine air permeated by astonishing fragrances.
Scattered on the bloodstained ground were the remains of various beast kings.
"It is indeed that little bright colored tree!"
On the surface of the ground, there was a little tree, brilliant and eye-catching. The whole plant was sparkling and almost translucent. At this moment, one could see flowers budding upon its branches.
There were five flowers on the tree, each about the size of a longan. They looked liked they had grown out not long ago and would require a fair amount of time before they matured.
"Eh? They’re growing?"
The three were shocked. The flowers upon this brightly colored little tree were swaying as they grew larger at a visible rate. Although the rate was not particularly fast, it was definitely growing.
"Blood!"
They felt it. The blood within the soil was being absorbed by the little tree.
At the same time, they cautiously observed their surroundings. Vaguely, they were able to make out the appalling landscape of corpses before them. It was shocking!
All those beast kings were dead?
This is extremely shocking; this was sure to cause a huge quake worldwide!
"This place is too dangerous; we might be noticed any time. We have to leave!" Chu Feng warned.
"But the flowers are growing." The black yak’s eyes were almost turning green. This trip to the Vatican had caused him no end of fury and frustration.
At first, they had wanted to gain some fortunes, however, they later realized that they had all fallen into a huge trap. Not only did they not gain any true divine fruits, but they also came very close to throwing away their lives.
"The flower buds are also effective. This is the product of a divine tree that has been nourished by spiritual blood. The effects are terrifying!" Yellow Ox explained.
He felt that it would be too dangerous to continue waiting. He would rather pick all the flowers and run, ignoring the potential consequences.
The black yak was not willing. Swallowing his saliva, he said, "Please, just wait a bit longer. With each passing moment, the flowers grow larger along with the the medicinal potency. We might even be able to severe two shackles in succession!"
In truth, even though Chu Feng and Yellow Ox knew that it was logical to leave right away, they also had trouble moving their feet. They truly wanted to see the buds bloom.
If only they could, they wanted to stay to absorb all the pollen then keep on waiting for the fruits to form before leaving with a full harvest.
Unfortunately, they did not have such luxury.
"This so-called divine tree is a sprout from the dried root that we found underground, right?" Chu Feng asked.
"It is the same with all other ancient trees on those famed mountains; this so-called divine tree is only a sprout in its initial stage of revival. It cannot be compared to the mature tree in terms of medicinal potency. Even this is sufficient for current life forms to evolve," Yellow Ox replied.
"Ah…"
A miserable cry came through from afar as the sounds of battle died down.
"This isn’t good. Let’s pick it. Any later and we’ll be in trouble!" Chu Feng exclaimed.
Those people were sure to return soon!
At this moment, the flower bud had somewhat grown. It was now the size of a pear, vibrant and brilliant—the spiritual blood in the earth clearly had great nourishing effect on it. Within the bud was vast amounts of vigorous life essence that was catalyzing its growth.