The Hundred Blossom Valley was separated into 10 rows, each row housing a different type of plant.
The types they had separated it under needed to be both broad and specific at the same time. Judging from what Alex had been through in the last 15 days, they had generally managed to do exactly that.
The first row had been herbs. It contained anything from grasses, weeds, and tiny bamboo trees to small patches of flowers like the Spirit Cleansing Lily.
Once past that row, they arrived at the 2nd row which was full of shrubs.
These were plants that were much taller than herbs and were a little woody. Tall bushes of flowers, trees of berries, and almost anything that didn't grow to become a large tree grew here.
Leaves, fruits, flowers, roots, even the stalks; anything and everything here could end up being important alchemy ingredients and Alex took whatever he could get his hands on.
Once they were done with that, they moved to the 3rd row of the fields that were filled with ferns. They were tiny plants that didn't bear any fruits or flowers and their only use was their leaves, branches, or their roots.
Choosing what was useful though was generally difficult amongst these for anyone that didn't know about them, and the people in the sky that were there to guard the valley were generally more aggressive against those in this section of the valley.
With fewer choices to make, they couldn't let people take the entire plant and had to make sure no one was abusing the system to leave there with something they had no idea about.
There were many types of ferns, but in general, there were a lot fewer variants for them and as such, Alex didn't have to spend a lot of time in this row.
The fourth row had tall, massive trees. They were tall and full of leaves that gave shade to the entire fields. Coming into this row of the valley, Alex and the rest read a single rule that was written on them.
Aside from the fruit and flowers that grew on the trees, they were not allowed to take anything else. Anything else that grew on the trees was systematically harvested by the ones that ran the valley.
Instead, what they were allowed to take was what these giant trees were grown for.
Mosses.
The large threes were there to provide shade to the mosses that grew in there. On the edges of the field, the mosses that grew there were in general ones that require sunlight to grow.
However, as most mosses did not require sunlight, they grew in the deeper parts of the giant forest where the shade was plenty.
Alex and the girl had remained there for some time, but probably the least amount of time in all.
Alex especially was the one that wanted to get out of this place as he required next to none of the mosses that grew here thanks to the ones he found in the Mossbloom city.
Once they left there, they arrived at one of the more fascinating locations of the Hundred Blossom Valley.
The 6th field had in fact not been a field at all. Instead, it was a giant lake that was 2 kilometers wide and 30 kilometers long. Everyone that came here flew above the lake and looked through them using their spiritual sense.
He and the girls searched through the lake, finding many aquatic plants that only grew here. There very various types of lotus flowers, water lilies, plants that grew underneath the water, and mosses on the sides of the giant rocks that were ready for everyone to harvest.
Most of the plants here were heavy on Water energy, which was not something that Alex really wanted, but he got it anyway. He flew through the lake, spending more than 2 days going through it all while finding whatever important plants he could.
Once he was through everything, he stepped onto the 6th row of fields.
This was full of fungi, or more accurately, just mushrooms.
Flat blue mushroom with white dots, a plain red mushroom, a green mushroom with a pointed tip, a mushroom in the shape of a sword, pink mushroom with giant yellow circles.
Any and all types of mushrooms could be found in this open land and most of them were overwhelming the two girls as recognizing them was rather difficult for the both of them.
Alex, however, recognized every single one of the mushrooms, albeit he wasn't aware of what every single one of them did. It would take him a few seconds to retrieve the information from his memory if he was ever asked.
He gathered what mushroom he could, shaking it a little to release the spores as he did so. Many people were instructed to do so, and most followed.
Today was the 16th day of their journey and the girls were starting to get a little tired from the monotonous journey of having to gather ingredients. Alex, however, did not mind any of it and was ever so happy to do it as required.
He explained to the girls what the mushrooms were as he picked them up. The explanation wasn't just for the girls, but also for Whisker who was inside his robes.
Since he was in the Saint Realm now, Whisker needed to know a lot more about alchemy ingredients that Alex hadn't fully taught him. He had taught him what he could, but most of it had ended up being knowledge about True rank ingredients, rather than Saint rank ingredients.
Now, he was helping him catch up on the remaining knowledge and the Hundred Blossom Valley had been amazing for that.
As he was explaining the various mushrooms, Alex paused and looked in the distance. Fang Yimu looked as well, and Talia a second later.
Not far from them, merely a hundred meters away, a man was in tears and seemed to be begging a group of people who only shook their heads and sent him away. The man moved and went to another group of people.
Those group of people shook their heads as well and sent the man away.
Before they realized it, the man had ended up going through the many people in between them and had arrived in front of the group.
Alex had his mask on, so the man naturally looked away from him and into the eyes of the two girls. He was in tears when he spoke up.
"D-do any of you Daoists know what a Flameborn Nightbane is?" the man asked, while in tears.
The girls looked at each other and shook their heads as well.
"Never heard of it," Fang Yimu said.
"Yeah, I haven't heard of the name either," Talia said as well.
The man's face fell at the words. "Thank you for your time," he said and turned to leave.
"I've heard of it," Alex spoke, making the man stop in his tracks.
The man turned around with a shocked look on his face. "You have?" he asked.
"It's a poisonous plant, known for its deceptive look," Alex said. "What about it?"
The man's eyes widened. "Fellow Daoist! I beg of you. Please help me."
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