Chapter 183: Blood Yang Flower
Yi Yun was like a diligent gardener, who gathered all sorts of herbs in the herb mountain, day after day. His dragon scale runes were constantly increasing.
Ten days later, Yi Yun had a total of 2000 dragon scale runes.
Not only that, Yi Yun’s physical strength had made good progress and his movement techniques were becoming well-honed because he had been wearing the Flowing Mercury Gown for such a long time.
Now, in the depths of the mountain, Yi Yun was moving through the woods at a rapid speed. Suddenly about a dozen miles away, Yi Yun saw a faint flow arise.
Oh?
Yi Yun paused and interfaced his spiritual energy with the Purple Crystal and looked over.
All he saw was the light from some energy fluctuating. It was like a phantom tiger’s low growl in the light and it had an extraordinary aura.
Due to the great distance, Yi Yun could not see it clearly. But without a doubt, he could tell it was a herbal treasure!
Only high-grade herbs could create such a strong energy fluctuation that could be seen from afar. Besides, the energy essence was so strong that it formed a phantom image. It was no simple matter.
Yi Yun raised his head and saw that it was bright. It was about three-quarters of an hour past noon, the point when the Sun was brightest, and the Yang Qi thickest.
Some herbs would appear at three quarters of an hour past noon or midnight, when the Yang and Yin Qi were at their thickest respectively, to absorb the Sun and Moon’s essence or Heaven Earth Yuan Qi.
These kinds of herbs were extraordinary!
“I wonder what rank the herb is. With that herb, I can consider entering the Wilderness Divine Hall another time!”
With this thought in mind, Yi Yun moved towards the herbal treasure with tremendous speed. While wearing the Flowing Mercury Gown, each step he made caused stones to fly.
While bearing a weight of 200 cauldrons and running through the mountains, Yi Yun was like a desolate beast!
Nowadays, Yi Yun felt that the Flowing Mercury Gown’s weight was turning light.
“Maybe, I should consider increasing the weight of the Flowing Mercury Gown tomorrow.” Yi Yun decided. After he reached the large success stage of Minute Subtlety, Yi Yun knew every change in his body’s energy.
He felt that 220 cauldrons was a more appropriate weight for him now.
As his body moved through the mountain, he heard the wind blowing past his ears. Under the Purple Crystal’s lead, he came to the bottom of a thirty-meter cliff. Looking up, Yi Yun could see the phantom tiger churning at the top of the cliff.
The herbal treasure was on top of the cliff!
But this cliff was vertical and extremely steep. The rocks that jutted out from the cliff were the about the size of a basin. The gaps between the rocks were haphazard, making it difficult for even a monkey to climb.
Yi Yun looked carefully at the cliff. Every protruding rock’s position was reflected within Yi Yun’s mind. He quickly calculated an optimal climbing path to scale the cliff.
He had only one chance because the protruding rocks could only withstand his weight once. Every time he rested his body weight on the rock, the rock would crumble.
And he had to borrow that moment of leverage to jump to the next rock.
Yi Yun took a deep breath of air and with his energy condensed at its limit, he leaped!
“Boom!”
When Yi Yun leaped, the ground beneath his feet cracked. Yi Yun grabbed the first protruding rock and leveraged on it.
The rock immediately crumbled under Yi Yun’s grab, but before he could fall, Yi Yun grabbed the second protruding rock!
With his Minute Subtlety, Yi Yun’s every control of power was perfect.
He was immersed in a magical state. In one breath, he had jumped a few dozen times, eventually reaching the peak of the thirty-meter cliff.
Upon reaching the peak, Yi Yun gasped loudly. All his muscles were trembling slightly.
When he continuously did the high intensity exercises, it made Yi Yun’s muscles protest. A sore feeling hit him like a flood.
But Yi Yun did not care about this. He looked at his surroundings. This cliff top was especially flat. There was gravel, leaves and a gigantic skeleton on it. Half of the skeleton was buried in the ground as if it had been weathered by the elements.
The beast seemed to have been dead for a long time. There was not much Heaven Earth Yuan Qi within its corpse and it was like a set of regular bones.
The strong herbal aroma and phantom tiger image Yi Yun previously observed had disappeared. It was as if there was only this buried animal on top of this normal cliff.
Yi Yun looked around for a while and a smile formed on his lips.
This herb knew how to hide itself.
Some of the herbs were like summer crickets. Without anyone around, they would chirp within the grass happily. But once people walked close to the grass, no matter how silent, they will be discovered by the crickets, thus the crickets silenced themselves. Every summer night, people would hear the sounds of crickets chirping as if there were hundreds. But without any tools, trying to look for one was almost impossible.
It was the same situation for warriors trying to pick herbs. It was too difficult to find a herb.
Facing the huge beast’s bones, Yi Yun pondered for a while. In the Purple Crystal’s vision, he could see that the beast bones had suffered from the elements and that there was very tiny amounts of energy left within the bones.
And these were not an ordinary animal’s bones, they were bones that belonged to a desolate beast. And it was even a high-grade desolate beast!
An idea flashed in Yi Yun’s mind. For such high-grade desolate beast bones to be weathered down so much, to have so little energy left, it gave Yi Yun a thought.
Could it be…
Yi Yun stroked his chin. Now, the herb had hidden its herbal essence and concealed itself, but… this had no effect on Yi Yun.
Yi Yun smiled, with his spiritual energy interfaced with the Purple Crystal, quickly, his vision turned white.
And the hidden herb was obvious like a bright star in the night. Yi Yun spotted its position at one glance.
Yi Yun came to a clearing and drew out the Thousand Army Saber.
“Cha! Cha! Cha!”
In a split second, he sent three slashes. With the Thousand Army Saber inserted in the ground, Yi Yun smacked the saber’s hilt.
“Peng!”
With an explosion, the ground blasted open!
After the dust settled, Yi Yun brushed aside a thin layer of soil. Under the soil hid a red fruit the size of a fist.
This fruit was like a red crystal and gave off a sweet aroma. On the fruit’s surface, there were small shining particles, like a ripe pomegranate without its exterior.
It was incredible that such a beautiful fruit was growing underground.
There were seven leaves around the fruit and the leaves were dropping and their color dark, as if they were about to wither at any time.
But every leaf was aromatic. In the middle of the leaf, there was a shining, blood-red wavy line.
Yi Yun took a sniff and felt a great aroma rush into his body, which nourished his body. It made his body’s blood warm up and surge.
“This is a Blood Yang Flower! It’s a middle-grade Heaven-ranked herb!” Yi Yun remembered a record of it in the ‘Divine wilderness’ book.
The Blood Yang Flower grew underground and it liked the dense and rich sunlight.
Typically, a Blood Yang Flower’s seeds would take root near a desolate beast’s corpse. When it germinates, it will absorb the desolate beast corpse’s energy to help it grow.
Within a short span of one to two days, it sucks the desolate beast’s corpse’s energy dry, leaving only its skeleton.
This energy would then be stored away for later, the fruit slowly absorbs it, and the energy aids the fruit in its growth.
When the desolate beast’s energy was completely digested, it would sprout out some leaves from underground when the sun was at its fullest and then soak in the extremely thick Yang sunlight!
Once people approached it, it would shrink its leaves back, looking like nothing was there to begin with.
The only thing that could expose the Blood Yang Flower was the pile of desolate bones nearby.
As the energy was fully absorbed by the Blood Yang Flower, the desolate bones would look like ordinary bones, making it difficult for people to recognize them.
There were too many types of desolate beasts species. Even if one saw living desolate beasts, one would have a tough time recognizing all the different types. To recognize badly weathered bones and guess which desolate beast they came from by the shape of the bones, you would require an experienced Desolate Heaven Master.
“Blood Yang Flower. It’s a great thing. This Blood Yang Flower is probably 700 to 900 years old.” Yi Yun carefully picked the Blood Yang Flower.
The Blood Yang Flower takes 300 years to take root, 300 years to flower, and 300 years to bear fruit. Seeing that the Blood Yang Flower was bearing fruit, it meant it was at least 700-800 years old!
A 700-800 year old Blood Yang Flower was definitely worth above 3000 dragon scale runes!
Yi Yun greatly coveted those 3000 dragon scale runes.
But…Yi Yun also coveted the Blood Yang Flower!
Yi Yun was unsure what to do with the Blood Yang Flower.
A typical herb-picking cultivator had no choice but to hand over all the herbs they picked, as they did not have the ability to refine such high quality herbs. Even if they had the ability, they could not bring the refinement equipment needed to the herb mountain as they were searched prior to entering the teleportation array. This prevented people from bringing their own herbs to exchange for dragon scale runes, as well as bringing their own refinement equipment, which prevented them from brewing the herbs on the herb mountain.
But with Yi Yun’s Purple Crystal, he did not need to brew the herbs. He could directly absorb the energy, so it was easy for him to steal the herb’s power.
“If I were to absorb the Blood Yang Flower’s energy, it will be a great supplement for me!”
Yi Yun was tempted. Previously, the Yellow and Mystic-ranked herbs he found were all turned in honestly.
The main point was that by stealing their power, it would do more harm than good. The low-grade herbs had impure energies, so they were not very helpful for Yi Yun. It had also a high possibility of revealing his secret.
The herbs picked in the Tai Ah Divine City herb mountain were given to the alchemists of the Divine City. Those old monsters were extremely terrifying. They knew all the properties of the herbs. If he had tampered with it, they were likely to discover it.
With the Blood Yang Flower, Yi Yun had three choices.
Sucking it dry, stealing the herbal essence or exchanging it for dragon scale runes.
If he didn’t suck it dry, then he would not get the Blood Yang Flower’s herbal essence but he would get 3000 dragon scale runes.
If he were to absorb a portion of it and then hand it over, it would be the best of two worlds, but it would increase the risk of his secret being discovered…
But upon careful thought, some loss in a herb’s essence would not be a great cause for doubt.
Yi Yun was wavering between the three and finally resisted the temptation by removing the third choice.
Although the possibility of him being discovered was tiny, there was no such thing as not getting your feet wet by standing beside the river. He might not be discovered the first time, but he might try again a second time.
If this happened again and again, he might be emboldened in his attempts.
Those magistrates and officials probably had such a mentality when they received bribes.
Yi Yun did not want to be penny-wise, pound-foolish. The road ahead of him was still long. It was not worth the risk for this petty gain.
Who would know what those old monsters would do?
So, he could only choose between the first two!
As Yi Yun was thinking, his expression suddenly changed!
Oh!?
Yi Yun was startled and went on high alert!
He quickly drew out his Thousand Army Saber!
What is this…?
Yi Yun looked around his surroundings. With his pupils constricted, he turned extremely focused.
How could this be, wasn’t he on a cliff? But now…
What… is this place!?
…