Chapter 63: Entering the Thousand Herbs Garden
Two weeks passed in the blink of an eye.
In that time, Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen continued to prepare for entering the secret realm.
Not only did they prepare cultivation resources, but also communication methods.
If possible, they hoped to appear in the same place after entering the secret realm.
However, this was only a hope, and there was no way to guarantee it.
Because of this, they made several plans to ensure that they could meet up in the thousand herbs garden.
When the time came, the two were in the south courtyard at Yang mountain.
"It’s good that we don’t have to meet up with other disciples." Jiang Yue said.
If this was the kind of secret realm that required cultivators to travel to a certain place, they would have found it hard to sell their place tokens.
Luckily, the thousand herbs garden could be entered from any place in the Cangxing world as long as one had a token or appropriate star.
"Yes." Yu Nianzhen agreed and then turned to Jiang Yue.
His face was solemn, and there was a bit of reluctance in his eyes.
"You have to be careful." He said.
"I know. You have to be careful too."
Yang Xu rolled his eyes when he saw this display.
The thousand herbs garden was dangerous, but the two were strong.
He thought this, but Yang Xu didn’t say it.
The Cangxing world had not been peaceful in recent years.
Because of this, he was a little worried that something unexpected would happen in the secret realm.
Although he was confident in the two, this possibility did not allow him to completely relax.
"Take these." He said.
The two turned to look and saw that he was holding four talismans. Two were yellow, and the remaining were a brilliant red.
"These are?"
"They are attack seal talismans." He informed.
"If you encounter danger that you can’t resist, use the yellow ones first. Don’t use the red ones unless you really have to."
The yellow talismans sealed his full-strength attack at the origin tempering realm, while the red ones sealed his attack before his realm fell.
"Master..." Yu Nianzhen called, but Yang Xu raised his hand to interrupt him.
He knew that his disciple wanted to return the red talismans.
However, Yang Xu wasn’t reluctant to hand them over.
Although the red talismans were also his reliance during this time when his realm was low, he wanted to protect his disciple.
If he wanted to protect Yu Nianzhen, he also had to protect Jiang Yue.
This was the reason he had given up two red talismans, which left him with only three to protect himself in the future.
"This disciple understands." Yu Nianzhen clenched his hands and bowed to his master.
Jiang Yue also bowed and liked Yang Xu even more.
In the current situation, Yang Xu was in more danger than they were.
However, he didn’t hesitate to give the attack seal talismans, which showed that he valued Yu Nianzhen.
After thinking this, he looked at Yu Nianzhen, and they had a silent conversation.
The two had already planned to find a way to help Yang Xu heal his injuries and recover his realm.
Yang Xu’s actions at this moment made them even more determined.
"Good."
Yang Xu was in a good mood when he saw that his disciple understood his meaning.
"Raise your heads."
Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue followed his instructions and stopped bowing.
Yang Xu was about to say something when a purple light radiated from Yu Nianzhen’s right wrist.
The three looked at it and saw that his purple star was shining brightly.
"Be careful." Yang Xu only had time to say this before the purple light enveloped his disciple.
In the blink of an eye, Yu Nianzhen disappeared from Yang mountain and appeared at the top of a hill.
The hill was five metres tall, and the peak was only two metres wide.
Yu Nianzhen looked around, and his eyes widened in wonder.
As far as the eye could see, he could see rare herbs growing wildly.
"Is this the thousand herbs garden?" He wondered aloud.
He breathed in, and heaven and earth qi rushed into his body.
The heaven and earth qi was half as dense as during a blue star phenomenon.
However, it was slightly different.
Yu Nianzhen couldn’t be sure, but he felt that the heaven and earth qi was a little gentler than the outside world.
It had a kind of nurturing quality that made him feel very comfortable.
"Cultivating in this place would be two to three times more efficient than the outside world."
He breathed in once again, and cool qi entered his body.
The qi passed his meridians, and his meridians were revitalised. The hidden injuries within the meridians were slightly relieved, and he felt more comfortable.
After observing this phenomenon, his heart beat a little faster.
He was about to sit down to start cultivating when he saw a herb half a metre from his position.
His eyes dilated, and his hands shook a little in shock.
"Golden bones grass?"
Yu Nianzhen couldn’t believe it.
The golden bones grass was a low-grade spirit rank herb.
When refined, it could strengthen the bones making them as hard as a low-grade spirit rank weapon.
"Why is such a herb in this place?"
Yu Nianzhen couldn’t be blamed for losing his composure.
For one, the thousand herb garden opened every one hundred years.
It took at least a thousand years for the golden bones grass to produce one stalk of grass.
However, the grass in front of Yu Nianzhen had five stalks.
This meant that the grass had an age of at least five thousand years.
In his mind, someone should have already discovered the herb and harvested it before it came to such an age.
"Is it a coincidence that I arrived here when I entered the secret realm?"
Yu Nianzhen was doubtful.
However, he had no way to verify his doubts.
The only thing he could do was to collect the herb and be grateful for his great luck.
Without wasting another minute, he hurried to the herb.
"Thankfully, it hasn’t developed spirituality."
He picked the herb and looked at it closely.
Like the name suggested, the herb was bright gold, and it felt warm in his hand when he touched it.
"This is especially suitable for me since my origin has a metal element."
Although he was tempted to refine the herb immediately, Yu Nianzhen didn’t.
With his current realm, it was difficult to refine a high-grade or peak grade silver rank herb.
If he tried to refine a spirit rank herb, there was a possibility that he would injure his body.
To prevent that, he had to improve his cultivation base before refining the herb.
Also, pills were more effective than herbs.
If there was a chance, he wanted the herb to be refined into a golden bone refining pill.
In this way, the golden bones grass could be refined into several pills that could be shared with Jiang Yue.
Although the effect on Jiang Yue would be less than him because the other had a water element, the effect was still substantial.
After making this decision, Yu Nianzhen threw the herb into his jade box.
As soon as it flew in, a small patch of soil rose and captured it.
In the next moment, the golden bones grass was firmly planted in the jade box.
When he saw this, Yu Nianzhen smiled in glee.
"I can use spirit stones to continue ageing the grass, which will increase its effect."
After this, Yu Nianzhen no longer had thoughts about cultivation.
His first priority was to rendezvous with Jiang Yue and continue collecting herbs.
As soon as this thought occurred, Yu Nianzhen removed a communication token from his robe sleeve.
He injected a strand of qi and waited for a response.
However, the communication token showed no reaction even after waiting for three breaths.
"Are we too far apart or..."
Yu Nianzhen frowned.
When his purple star shone at Yang mountain, Jiang Yue’s blue star didn’t.
From that, Yu Nianzhen guessed that entering the secret realm not only depended on tokens but also stars.
’Does this mean to give an advantage to cultivators with higher stars?’
Yu Nianzhen couldn’t be sure about this, and he didn’t dwell on it.
However, if his guess was right, he didn’t want to waste his advantage.
Although he could guess, he didn’t know how long it would take before the blue stars entered the secret realm.
Because of that, he needed to be as quick as possible and collect as many herbs as he could before competition arrived.
After thinking this, Yu Nianzhen began to search the small hill.
At the origin forging realm, he could use his consciousness to examine his body or things refined by him.
However, he couldn’t spread it out of his body to search the environment.
