Chapter 154: The Situation at the Entrance
When Xuan Ke first entered the small cave, it was daytime.
At that time, he was intent on recovering and didn’t do a detailed investigation of his surroundings.
Maybe because of that, he failed to notice that the cave’s every centimetre was covered with mould.
"Glowing mould?" He muttered under his breath.
This was the first time he came across this kind of glowing organism, and he didn’t know what to make it.
"Is it poisonous?" He wondered, and a little panic sprouted in his heart.
However, he forced himself to calm down.
He had been in the cave for almost one week, and nothing had happened to him.
Although this was not a guarantee that the glowing mould wasn’t poisonous, he at least knew the poison wasn’t fast-acting.
If the mould was really poisonous, he still had time to detoxify.
With such thoughts in mind, Xuan Ke quickly stood up.
He scraped all the mould from the small cave and stored it in a wooden box before crawling out of the cave.
After exiting the cave, he climbed to the top of the small hill and sat cross-legged.
’I have to examine my body first.’ He thought and spread his consciousness to check his body.
An incense stick later, Xuan Ke sighed in relief.
Fortunately, he found no abnormalities in his body. Even the wounds from his previous adventure had already healed, and he was as good as new.
Now that he was assured of his health, he opened the wooden box and looked at the glowing mould.
"Is it still alive?" He wondered when he saw it was still glowing with a green light.
Logically, the mould should have stopped glowing after he scraped it off and stored it in the box.
However, logic didn’t seem to apply to this mould, and it was as alive as before.
"Should I taste it? Wait..."
At this time, Xuan Ke realised that he was in such a hurry to leave the cave that he directly scraped and collected the mould with his bare hands.
’Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to have any effect.’ He heaved in relief and then went back to his dilemma.
He knew he should take the box back to the temple and research the mould before doing anything with it.
However, he was very tempted.
His mouth was watering, and a deep hunger was quickly building in his stomach.
"I have several kinds of detoxifying pills. If something happens, I will quickly take a few. Even if the pills don’t work, they should buy me enough time to find my brothers for help."
After convincing himself with this flawed reasoning, Xuan Ke didn’t hesitate any longer.
He grabbed a handful of glowing mould and brought it to his mouth.
’It smells like mushrooms.’ He thought before stuffing the mould in his mouth.
When it entered his mouth, the mould immediately melted into a liquid. The liquid was neither hot nor warm, and it had an earthy taste that was very much like mushrooms.
Xuan Ke swallowed it greedily and scooped another handful.
In less time than it takes to make a cup of tea, he ate all the mould in the wooden box.
After the last mouthful, he felt himself warm up, and a tingling sensation spread throughout his body.
A moment later, he suddenly felt very sleepy.
Without a care, Xuan Ke stretched his body on the ground and fell asleep.
.....
Zhu Bing frowned for the thousandth time since he entered the inner region.
After entering the inner region, he didn’t lead his people to fight for the scarlet rock herb and other rare herbs.
Instead, he followed the secret map of the Great Zhu empire to the centre of the inner region.
From what he knew, the entrance to the core region should have appeared there.
However, they had been there for more than a month, but the entrance had not appeared.
"Could our information be wrong?" The eleventh young prince asked.
"Could it really be wrong?" The seventh wondered.
Zhu Ya heard the questions but did not know how to answer.
The main reason for coming to the thousand herbs garden was the core region.
If the core region did not open, it would mean that a lot of them had suppressed their cultivation for no reason.
When she thought of that, her brows furrowed in distress.
"Our information shouldn’t be wrong." Zhu Bing answered.
Unfortunately, his expression didn’t inspire much confidence.
"The people from the BlueStar Treasure pavilion and the border guards are also here. It’s too coincidental to think that everyone’s information is wrong." Zhu Ya said and tipped her head in a certain direction.
The seventh and eleventh princes turned to look.
Several hundred metres away, Meng Zihua and Wei Ge were standing with their people and looking at where the entrance was supposed to appear.
"There is another possibility." Zhu Bing suddenly said.
The other three looked at him, but he didn’t continue right away.
Instead, he sunk into his own mind and arranged his thoughts.
"How do you compare the thousand herbs garden when we first entered, to now?" He asked.
Zhu Ya frowned before answering, "it’s different."
The other two nodded.
Their senses weren’t as keen as Zhu Bing and Zhu Ya, but they could also tell that the secret realm was not the same.
"It’s likely that the core region won’t open." Zhu Bing said and sighed.
For some time, Zhu Bing felt that too much blood had been shed in the thousand herbs garden.
Although he didn’t have any evidence, he always felt that the secret realm would react in one way or another.
’This secret realm is old and should have a sentient will.’ He thought.
It could be that the secret realm was punishing them by denying them the chance to receive the greatest benefit.
Zhu Bing clenched his hands, and his eyes narrowed, ’I just hope that the punishment won’t be too harsh.’
"How can this be?" The seventh prince was startled.
He didn’t want to entertain the possibility of what the young emperor said, but he couldn’t deny it either.
"What should we do? Should we leave?" The eleventh inquired.
Because they had come to the entrance as soon as the inner region opened, they hadn’t collected any herbs.
If it was confirmed that the core region would not open, he felt it was better to leave to find other opportunities.
"Fifth princess, leave the top ten and let the others go to find other opportunities."
Zhu Ya sighed, bowed, and then went to arrange things according to the young emperor’s orders.
.....
"Brother Li." Jiang Yue called when he saw the person walking toward them.
"Brother Yue and brother Yu are fine?" Li Futian asked.
"We are fine. How about brother Li?"
"Everything went well." As he said this, Li Futian threw two boxes to the two.
Jiang Yue caught his box and opened it.
Inside was a white flower that emitted a refreshing fragrance and when he smelled it, his mind felt clearer.
’Its mind-cleansing effect is better than the blue dawn bamboo we collected before.’ He thought and closed the box.
However, Jiang Yue still preferred the blue dawn bamboo.
This was because the bamboo could be refined into a growth accessory. As long as it was on his body, he would be somewhat protected from mind-altering attacks.
"Thank you, brother." He said.
Yu Nianzhen nodded and also gave the box containing the soul-refining herb.
Li Futian put the box in his storage ring and then looked at the two "what about brother Ke?"
"We haven’t seen him yet." Jiang Yue said.
After harvesting the soul-refining herbs, they rested for two days before beginning their exploration of the inner region.
Since they had already achieved their main objective, they didn’t work too hard.
Their plan was to only collect the herbs they came across while walking to the centre of the inner region.
"I heard some gossip along the way." Li Futian had an amused smile when he said this, and Jiang Yue was very interested.
"Please say." He said.
"I heard that a monk grabbed four scarlet rock herbs." He told them everything he knew, including how the monk was attacked and had to escape.
When he heard that, Jiang Yue burst into laughter.
Initially, none of them thought about what would happen when they went to their designated medicine fields.
When it eventually occurred to them, Jiang Yue was very glad that he chose the soul-refining herb and not the scarlet rock herb.
"We should find a way to compensate him." He said after his laughter died down.
"En." Yu Nianzhen agreed.
"Let’s head to the centre of the inner region." Li Futian said.
"Have you heard anything?"
"I haven’t, but I imagine that the situation isn’t good."
Although Jiang Yue wanted to know what Li Futian meant, the other refused to say anything.
Jiang Yue rolled his eyes and didn’t continue asking.
’I will know soon enough.’ He thought.
