“Now is not the time; I’ll strengthen it again tonight!”
He Pingsheng put away the gourd, then closed the Formation and neatly put away all the Formation Materials.
Afterward, he rode the paper crane, soaring into the sky from beside the valley pool and flying away!
He had no particular destination.
He Pingsheng flew aimlessly.
However, he firmly remembered the location where he had just discovered the Tiger-striped Golden Bee. After about half an hour, he finally saw a landmark.
“This should be Thousand Pillars Mountain!”
He Pingsheng, sitting on the paper crane, gazed at the massive mountain range below him and murmured to himself.
Thousand Pillars Mountain had thousands of peaks standing like pillars between heaven and earth, a spectacular sight at a glance.
This was a unique landscape within the Secret Realm.
It existed only as a geographical marker to help with direction, and there were no treasures near Thousand Pillars Mountain.
He Pingsheng took out a brush and quickly sketched on paper, marking the approximate location of the Tiger-striped Golden Bee in the direction of Thousand Pillars Mountain. Then, he turned the paper crane and flew north.
About five hundred li north of Thousand Pillars Mountain was the core area of this Secret Realm.
The core of the Secret Realm was a vast lake, with a small island in its center.
In the water around the island grew an extremely miraculous Heaven And Earth Treasure, named: Water Essence Spirit Apricot.
According to Xu Kunlun and Zhao Ling'er, this item was the best choice for Qi Refinement Stage Disciples to Breakthrough their Bottleneck.
He Pingsheng knew his own capabilities and understood his talent. It was certain he would encounter Bottlenecks in the future, so he was determined to obtain this item.
The paper crane flew for less than the time it takes for half an incense stick to burn before arriving directly above a valley.
Looking down from above, He Pingsheng noticed a patch of reddish-orange plants in the valley.
“This is…”
He Pingsheng’s body trembled with shock.
He would recognize this thing even if it turned to ash: lieyang flower.
He had spent quite a long time dealing with this stuff back then!
“Down!”
As he spoke, He Pingsheng unhesitatingly piloted the paper crane downward, landing in the valley.
lieyang flower is a second-grade Spiritual Plant, and its pollen, once ground, can fetch a considerable price.
Seeing it, he naturally couldn't miss out.
In the deep valley nestled between two mountains, there was an intense, scorching aura.
Next to where the lieyang flower grew, the earth seemed to have cracked open, with fire-attribute power continuously gushing out.
He Pingsheng walked over and leaned his head to look, only to see a fiery red glow in the earth's fissure, dazzling his eyes.
“No wonder lieyang flower can grow here!” He Pingsheng understood in his heart: It turned out to be due to the exposed ground fire; otherwise, lieyang flower would absolutely not be able to appear here!
He turned his head and saw that the area of lieyang flower was very large.
Distributed along the earth's fissure, there were more than ten times the number of lieyang flowers than what he had seen Kumu Zhenren cultivating in Lingyao Valley.
Many of the flowers had piles of pollen within them.
It was the perfect time for harvesting.
As an experienced flower collector, He Pingsheng immediately took out his tools and began collecting lieyang flower pollen.
The lieyang flowers here not only had high pollen yield but also high quality.
They had even reached Medium Grade.
However, He Pingsheng had no obsession with quality.
Low Grade would suffice!
After all, this item could be placed in the gathering treasure basin for strengthening.
After about two hours, He Pingsheng had collected fourteen bottles of pollen.
According to the price given by the Matou Mountain Market Chamber of Commerce previously, a bottle of Medium Grade lieyang flower was three hundred Spirit Stones.
These fourteen bottles would be over four thousand.
He struck it rich! He struck it rich!
He Pingsheng was grinning from ear to ear: If he strengthened them with the gathering treasure basin and then waited for the quality to drop back to Medium Grade before selling, that would be a full eight thousand Spirit Stones!
Just as He Pingsheng was overjoyed, a paper crane suddenly streaked across the sky.
He Pingsheng frowned slightly and instinctively waved his hand, collecting all the harvested pollen.
At that moment, the paper crane swooped down and landed on the ground.
Two Cultivators dismounted from it.
One male and one female, both wearing deep purple Daoist robes.
On the cuffs of their Daoist robes, a character for 'Zhuang' was embroidered.
Two Divine Thoughts rudely swept over He Pingsheng.
“Damn it…” The man’s face was gloomy, and he said, “I didn’t expect someone to have harvested it already…”
The woman's expression was extremely serious, her eyes fixed on He Pingsheng like cold ice.
Since the other party was being impolite, He Pingsheng naturally wouldn't be polite either; his Divine Thought also swept over them.
The cultivation of the two opponents still surprised him quite a bit.
The woman was at the Qi Refining Stage Tenth Layer, and the man was at the Qi Refinement Stage Eleventh Level.
They were far above him.
Seeing the opponents’ cultivation, He Pingsheng immediately communicated his Divine Thought with his Storage Pouch.
Within the Storage Pouch, the Stubborn Stone Talisman had already been silently transferred into his hand.
Once the opponent made a move, he could immediately unleash his defense.
First, establish an invincible position, then look for an opportunity to counterattack.
After killing the Black Wind brothers, facing such a situation now, although He Pingsheng's heart was still pounding and he was extremely nervous, he was no longer as flustered as before.
“Junior Brother, are you a Tai Xu Sect Disciple?” The man took a deep breath, suppressing the anger in his heart, and cupped his hands towards He Pingsheng, saying, “I am a Disciple of the Cultivation Family, Jiyu Mountain’s Zhuang Family!”
“That’s right!” He Pingsheng retreated three steps and said, “I am indeed a Tai Xu Sect Disciple!”
“Junior Brother!” the man said, “All the lieyang flower pollen here has been collected by Junior Brother!”
“But Junior Brother does not know that the lieyang flower here was planted by my Zhuang Family’s Senior ancestor thirty years ago!”
“That’s right!” The woman behind him stepped forward, slightly raising the treasured sword in her hand towards He Pingsheng, saying, “Junior Brother, you are unaware, sixty years ago, my Zhuang Family Disciples discovered that this exposed ground fire area was suitable for lieyang flower growth, but at that time, they did not bring lieyang flower seeds. So, during the Secret Realm opening thirty years ago, my Zhuang Family planted lieyang flower here!”
“We had planned to come and harvest them during this Secret Realm opening, but we didn’t expect Junior Brother to intercept them!”
“Junior Brother, what is here belongs to my Zhuang Family!”
“Please return the collected pollen to us, Junior Brother!”
“Considering Junior Brother’s hard work, you may keep one bottle!”
“However…” The woman added, “To prevent Junior Brother from hiding anything, you must also hand over your hundred treasure sack for us to inspect!”
“Don’t worry, we will only check for lieyang flower pollen; no matter how good other items are, we will not touch them in the slightest!”
As they spoke, the man and woman moved, suddenly acting to block He Pingsheng.
One was on the left, and the other on the right.
They were afraid that He Pingsheng would suddenly escape.
He Pingsheng indeed could not suddenly escape.
Because to escape, he would either need to use a paper crane or a Chuan Yun Boat.
But both of these items required a few breaths of time to activate.
He simply did not have that time.