Chapter 489 – Two Spiritual Roots
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If one was able to obtain medium-grade earth-step medicinal herbs by just walking down the path of the medicine garden, then the value of the herbs at the very core of the garden could be imagined.
Along the way, Lin Ming also picked two 2000 year old precious medicines. Although they weren’t top medicinal herbs, they were still more than enough to be traded in for 1000 to 2000 medium-grade true essence stones.
“Haha, this trip was finally not in vain!”
Within the group of people, a first stage Life Destruction old man sighed. He was the Highest Elder of the Five Element Region’s Golden Bell Mountain, but among all these forces, his medium fourth-grade sect was only considered a tiny sect.
“Mm, we finally have some harvest. I also thought that this trip might be fruitless.”
All of the current first stage Life Destruction masters present were aware the only reason they could obtain these herbs was because there was the much more important Nirvana Dragon Root in the center. But even so, they were still content.
“Foggy Ice Flower, high-grade earth-step medicinal herb!” As Lin Ming was picking a thousand year old medicine, he was sifting through the leaves when he found a high-grade earth-step medicinal herb. This sort of herb was quite rare even if placed within a fifth-grade sect.
The Foggy Ice Flower was an ice-attribute heavenly material that martial artists dreamt of. It wasn’t of much use to Lin Ming himself, but it could be used to exchange for a fire-attribute or thunder-attribute material of the same value. It had to be known that there were often many sorts of resources that could not be purchased solely with true essence stones. Powerhouses often had little need for true essences stones. At this time, they would only trade materials for materials. In these moments, a high-grade earth-step Foggy Ice Flower would be able to play a great role.
Because everyone was busy looking for medicinal herbs, they were scattered. Lin Ming looked to see that no one was paying attention to him, and began to quietly place the Foggy Ice Flower in his spatial ring. At this moment, a melodious Buddhist chant sounded out behind Lin Ming.
“Amitabha, little sir, can this old monk take a look at the material in your hands?”
After Lin Ming heard these Buddhist chants, his face suddenly became a bit ugly, ‘This old fart, his eyes are quite sharp!’
Even as Lin Ming cursed in his heart, he naturally knew that he couldn’t conceal anything. Lin Ming extended his hand, revealing a crystal clear Foggy Ice Flower in the center of his palm.
“3000 year old Foggy Ice Flower, high-grade earth-step treasure. If this old monk isn’t wrong, then little brother is a fire-attribute martial artist. This Foggy Ice Flower won’t be of much use to little brother. I fear that…” The elderly monk said with a sympathetic tone. This monk was a second stage Life Destruction master from the Great Zen Temple; Lin Ming was absolutely not his match.
Not of much use? Lin Ming wanted to curse out loud. Who wouldn’t this type of medicine be useful for? Not to mention that Divine Phoenix Island’s Blue Luan Faction also cultivated ice-attribute techniques. He would rather take this away and give it to Mu Bingyun.
Lin Ming was just about to say that it was useful to him, but the old monk didn’t even give him the chance to speak before saying, “This old monk just happens to practice the Cold Ice Palm technique. The Foggy Ice Flower can also be considered a serendipitous event for this old monk. Little friend, how about this, this old monk also has three medium-grade earth-step spiritual grasses here, two of which are fire-attribute. How about I exchange them to you for the Foggy Ice Flower, hmm?”
As the elderly monk spoke, he smiled and extended his hand. In his palm were three medium-grade earth-step spiritual grasses he had just picked.
“F*ck.” Lin Ming cursed in his heart as he looked at these spiritual grasses in this wrinkly old monk’s hand. This was simply a slap to the face. The total combined value of these three spiritual grasses was less than half of the Foggy Ice Flower in his hand. Medium-grade earth-step spiritual grasses could usually be purchased with true essence stones. But a high-grade earth-step spiritual grass often had to be exchanged with other treasures; it simply couldn’t be purchased.
“Little brother, how about it?” The old monk was still smiling, but it was a bit forced. Lin Ming resisted the impulse to punch the old monk in the face. He knew that that Mu Fengxian and the Great Zen Temple had already come to a previous arrangement that any treasures would be given to them in exchange for protection.
In a sense, the reason that Lin Ming could safely come here was because of the deterrence known as the Great Zen Temple. Without Abbot Whitebrow defending him, Nanyun Wang would not have helped him hold off Xuan Wuji. Mu Fengxian and Mu Yuhuang would also not have been able to come here.
“Lin Ming, give it to him. When we return, Master will compensate you.” At this time, Mu Yuhuang’s true essence sound transmission sounded in his ears. She was afraid that Lin Ming would be possessed by the impulsiveness of youth, and would not be able to swallow this loss.
Lin Ming replied, “Master has no need to worry, this disciple also understands that the Great Zen Temple will not protect us for nothing. This senior monk also put out three precious medicinal herbs, so it isn’t considered as going too far.”
Lin Ming suppressed the pain in his heart to smash this damned old monk, and then handed over the Foggy Ice Flower.
The old monk was immediately overjoyed, “Haha, thank you little friend. This old monk can only be considered as sowing karma with this little friend. If we meet some other day, then this old monk can also give little friend some good luck too! Amitabha, praise, praise.”
Hearing this wily old monk still chant Buddhist mantras, Lin Ming was speechless. This old monk’s skin was far too thick.
“I’ll just consider this as feeding a dog. For better or worse, I still obtained a great find of five medium-grade earth-step spiritual grasses. Even if I cannot obtain the Nirvana Dragon Root, I didn’t come here in vain. If it wasn’t for these monks helping us, then there was no way I would have been able to obtain these five medium-grade earth-step medicinal herbs.” Lin Ming thought out this reasoning, accepting his fate.
Although this spiritual land wasn’t small, the medicinal herbs were mostly distributed along the edges of the river. When one looked farther away from the river, there weren’t any medicinal herbs. As they continued, there weren’t too many things to pick. At most, everyone was able to find seven or eight herbs. Basically, those that found them first kept them. Those that were stronger had a stronger perception, and were naturally able to find more herbs.
As the group marched several miles ahead, all of the martial artists that had been looking for herbs gradually stopped. At this time, in front of them was a light blue barrier. This blue barrier seemed to twist and writhe, and the light inside seemed to be distorted; it was unclear just what was happening inside.
Although one couldn’t clearly see inside, nearly everyone was able to guess just what was behind the blue barrier.
This was the core of the Demon Emperor’s medicine garden – the location of the Nirvana Dragon Root!
All of the martial artists – especially those second stage and third stage Life Destruction masters that had a higher chance of obtaining it – felt their breath quicken. But at this time, no one moved. As they saw the blue barrier in front of them, they realized that this Nirvana Dragon Root would not be easy to obtain.
There was even the possibility that they would return with nothing.
Everyone carefully took several steps forwards. Although the light was distorted behind this blue barrier, one could still faintly see what was inside.
The core area of the Demon Emperor’s medicine garden was very small, and wasn’t filled to the brim with medicinal herbs as everyone had imagined. It was just the opposite. Inside the barrier, the land was completely barren except for two spiritual plants.
These plants were twisted like ginseng, their roots meandering all over the place. These two Nirvana Dragon Roots were not far from each other, and their roots were even tangled together in some areas.
Although there was a defensive barrier between them, everyone could clearly feel the icy ancient energy emanating from these two Nirvana Dragon Roots. It was as if one could see the passage of tens of thousands of years of time; their minds instantly stopped!
“It really is the Nirvana Dragon Root!”
Lin Ming’s mind stirred. These two Nirvana Dragon Roots looked exactly the same as in the pictures from the little text that Lin Ming had obtained from killing a Revolving Core powerhouse. There was no way that he was wrong.
‘This Nirvana Dragon Root is truly one of the world’s most extraordinary medicines. According to common sense, this central core of the Demon Emperor’s medicine garden is where the eye of the spiritual pulse should be, so the heaven and earth origin energy here should be the richest. There should be many other types of plants growing here, but there aren’t. Instead, they are all on the edges outside. This is most likely because the Nirvana Dragon Root is simply too overbearing and tyrannical; it completely occupied all of the heaven and earth origin energy in this area, causing all the other spiritual plants here to have died early. They just couldn’t grow here.’
Lin Ming quickly understood just why the core of the medicine garden was deserted. In the Realm of the Gods, Tempering Marrow pills made from the Nirvana Dragon Root were very overwhelming.
As Nanyun Wang and Abbot Whitebrow saw the Nirvana Dragon Root, they gathered to Xuan Wuji.
Xuan Wuji took a deep breath, finding it hard to keep his heart still. He was already at the third stage of Life Destruction. If he crossed Life Destruction a few more times, there was the chance that he could enter into the Divine Sea realm and become a legendary Emperor level powerhouse!
He could live for 10,000 years, and rule the entire South Horizon Region. He would be able to establish his own Holy Land and leave a name that would be passed down for hundreds upon hundreds of generations. In the future, he could even fly up into the Realm of the Gods and reach for higher realms of martial arts.
How could he not be excited to imagine this? Which Life Destruction powerhouse did not yearn to cross through the gate of death earlier, and achieve the nearly omnipotent Divine Sea realm that was admired by all?
For this Nirvana Dragon Root, he had prepared far too much, in case he would fail at this last step, and everything would come falling apart.
“Old thief Xuan, hurry up and move!” Nanyun Wang said as he stood there, his arms crossed behind his back. “We will distribute according to our previous arrangement. If you do not open the barrier, then you can also give up any ideas of leaving here.”
Xuan Wuji’s complexion sank. He coldly said, “Give me everything that we had agreed to earlier!”
“Humph, even you don’t know whether or not you can open this barrier. So what if you can’t? Can I also get back the things that I’ve given?” Nanyun Wang’s two hands were still behind his back, he had no intent of taking them out.
“In order to open this ancient battlefield, you have seen yourself just what sort of price I had paid. Whether or not I can open this array formation will all depend on the will of the heavens, and I will have to resign myself to whatever happens. This old man will do everything possible in order to open it, but once I have, how can I still trust that you will keep the promise you made beforehand? Should I rely on something as ridiculous as an oath on your so-called heart of martial arts?”
After being publicly ridiculed by Xuan Wuji, killing intent flashed over Nanyun Wang’s face. However, he suppressed it and exchanged a true essence sound transmission with Abbot Whitebrow. He hesitated for a moment, and then took out a spatial ring.
Abbot Whitebrow also took out a spatial ring. The two of them tossed the spatial rings at Xuan Wuji.
Xuan Wuji didn’t directly use his hands to receive the spatial rings. He wrapped true essence around the two spatial rings and gingerly received them.
Seeing Xuan Wuji be so cautious, Nanyun Wang laughed and said, “Old thief Xuan, you really are cowardly. Do you think this old man messed with the spatial ring?”
“Better to be safe than sorry. This old man doesn’t want to be tricked at the last step.” After being ridiculed by Nanyun Wang, there was no change in Xuan Wuji’s complexion. After he confirmed that there weren’t any problems with the spiritual rings, he sunk his divine sense into the rings and swept through them, receiving them with satisfaction.