They arrived at the grassy field, and You Yu plucked a blade of grass. Seeing the milky-white fluid mixed with tiny blue specks oozing from it, she said with certainty, "Sixth Senior Brother, Brother Jin, that's right, this is Star Origin Grass."
Looking at this vast expanse of Star Origin Grass, everyone became excited.
"What are we waiting for? Hurry up and harvest it!" Jin Haochen waved his arm, produced a small knife, and was about to start cutting when You Yu quickly grabbed his arm to stop him.
"Brother Jin, we can't do it like this! If the Star Origin Grass is cut, its efficacy will be cut in half!"
"Ah? Then how should we do it?"
"We have to dig it up roots and all." As she spoke, You Yu squatted down, took out a small trowel to loosen the soil slowly, and then dug out the roots completely intact.
"So much trouble?"
"The roots of the Star Origin Grass are even more potent than the stems and leaves above."
Hearing this, Jin Haochen stopped complaining and squatted down to dig with extreme care, terrified of damaging even the tiniest rootlet.
You Yu, Rong Xuan, and Wang Wei also took out their small trowels and began digging, each finding a patch of ground so as not to interfere with one another.
You Yu didn't go about it as meticulously as Jin Haochen, because she was digging it up in large chunks, roots, soil and all, and storing the whole lot directly into her spatial ring.
That was because right as she was about to start digging, Gungun had told her that she could take the soil along with it and put it into the spatial ring. This way, the vitality of the Star Origin Grass could be preserved, and when they got outside, they could take it out and plant it directly.
Although a typical spatial ring could keep food fresh and preserve harvested medicinal herbs, it could not retain the vitality of the herbs, so once taken out, they could not be replanted.
This was also the drawback of ordinary spatial rings.
Of course, there were more advanced spatial rings that could preserve the vitality of medicinal herbs so they could continue growing after being taken out. But such items were even scarcer.
At least Jin Haochen hadn't brought that kind of spatial ring with him this time.
Which made sense when you thought about it—before entering, he never expected to encounter any high-grade medicinal herbs inside, so naturally, he hadn't thought to prepare a special spatial ring.
Fortunately, he hadn't planned on growing them himself anyway; he intended to sell them as soon as he took them back, so it made no difference.
There were at least a thousand stalks of Star Origin Grass in this patch. After digging up three or four hundred of them, You Yu stopped and stood up, intending to look around to see if there was anything else worth digging up.
Seeing this, Jin Haochen called out to her, "Little sister, aren't you digging anymore?"
You Yu gave an "en" sound. "I've dug just about enough. You guys can dig the rest."
"In just this short while, how many could you possibly have..."
The rest of Jin Haochen's words failed him because he saw the expanse of pits where You Yu had been digging.
"Y-You dug like this?" He was so startled his tongue was tied.
"Yeah, it saves time. We can slowly clean off the dirt after we go outside," You Yu replied. "It just takes up a little extra space, that's all."
Jin Haochen figured it made sense; his own spatial ring wasn't small either, so he didn't need to care about that little bit of space.
Why hadn't he thought of that before, though?
The other two men also looked thoughtful, and soon everyone joined forces to strip away the turf of the area, quickly clearing out all the Star Origin Grass.
Well, the turf of the entire hillside was gone, too.
"Which direction are we heading now?" Jin Haochen asked casually.
He really was being casual. Originally, he had only come along to accompany You Yu for some practical training, never expecting any gains. Just the Star Origin Grass they had collected alone made this trip worthwhile!
You Yu had just surveyed the surroundings and chosen the eastward direction.
Because the book said that You Xueer had walked all the way east, entered a pine forest, and found the Soul-Nourishing Grass by a pool in the middle.
However, You Xueer hadn't started out in the mountainous terrain. She had first walked through the grassland for half a month, then entered the mountains, practically traversing the entire mountain region, and only obtained the Soul-Nourishing Grass and the Roc in the very last days of the Secret Realm.
Calculating the time, it would take a little over a month!
Therefore, You Yu had plenty of time to spare right now.
Since You Yu was the protagonist of this training trip, the other three raised no objections regarding the direction she chose.
After walking for about an hour, You Yu stopped again, staring in fascination at a tree so thick it would take three people to hug it around. "Sixth Senior Brother, this—this—this is a Cang'er Xuan Tree."
"This tree cannot be used for alchemy," Jin Haochen remarked.
"I know. If it could be used for alchemy, it wouldn't have grown this large!" You Yu had full faith in the capabilities of those who came in for practical training.
"What is this good for?" This time, even Rong Xuan was stumped.
"The bark of this Cang'er Xuan Tree can be used to make talisman paper! The talisman paper made from it is at least Intermediate grade! If your technique is good, producing Advanced talisman paper is not a problem at all!"
Jin Haochen and the other two widened their eyes, staring in unison at the towering ancient tree, as well as the dozens of slightly smaller Cang'er Xuan Trees nearby!
They had struck it rich again!
"It seems that after returning to the sect, I can't just read books on formations; I need to read more books in other areas as well," Rong Xuan sighed with emotion.
For a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator nearing thirty to be less knowledgeable than a Junior Sister who had only joined the sect for a little over half a year was quite embarrassing to admit.
You Yu took out a knife, wanting to strip some bark, only to find that the ordinary knife in her hand couldn't make a dent in it.
Jin Haochen gave it a try as well. "This bark is so tough! Let's try a spirit artifact."
He produced a tier-two spirit artifact dagger, but it didn't work. Then he pulled out a tier-seven spirit artifact, and only then managed to scratch the bark.
"Hiss, this bark is way too tough. Can it really be used to make talisman paper?"
"Of course it can, the book says so," You Yu stated with certainty. "If we can't make it, it must be because our technique is lacking, not because of the bark."
Jin Haochen: "..." He didn't want to chat with an overachiever.
The bark was difficult to strip, and they hadn't finished peeling it by nightfall. Seeing that the terrain here was decent, they decided to make camp right here.
The space here wasn't wide, so Jin Haochen's small courtyard couldn't be set up. Just as he was worrying about having to sleep out in the open tonight, You Yu produced three tents.
"Junior Sister, how do you even have these?" Rong Xuan asked in surprise.
Each of them had two courtyards courtesy of the sect, and they had never thought about needing tents before.
"Eldest Senior Sister prepared them for me and put them in the Storage Bag she gave me before I left."
You Yu didn't need to pitch a tent. She walked over to sit under a tree, looked up, and sighed—when it came to thoroughness, men truly couldn't compare to women in the slightest.
"Hey, what is that?"
Her voice drew the three people who were busy setting up camp over.
"Little sister, what did you see this time?"
You Yu pointed at the tree trunk above and said, "Look up there, what is that?"
You Yu felt it looked somewhat like a *lingzhi* mushroom, but a *lingzhi* wasn't that massive in size.
The three men looked up. "There's nothing there!"
"It's right up there, about fifty meters up," You Yu said.
The three of them strained their eyes again. "Really, there's nothing."
You Yu walked over to where they were standing and looked—sure enough, she couldn't see it either. But she figured it out quickly.
"The spot you're standing in is blocked by all these branches."
Rong Xuan and the others walked over to the spot You Yu had just occupied, looked up, and indeed saw something on the tree trunk.
"I'll go up and take a look." Rong Xuan leaped lightly, reached a tree branch a dozen meters high, and began climbing upward.
The branches were quite dense, but he climbed fast and reached the object in no time at all.
"Sixth Senior Brother, how is it?" You Yu asked.
"It's a Blood Lingzhi!" Rong Xuan's excited voice drifted down. "Wait, let me harvest this first."
Rong Xuan moved with utmost care, taking out a dagger to meticulously cut down the washbasin-sized Blood Lingzhi. Then he stored it away and leaped back down.
"Quick, let's see how old it is!" Upon seeing the Blood Lingzhi Rong Xuan produced, Jin Haochen couldn't help letting out a curse.
"A Blood Lingzhi develops a ring of patterns on its surface every ten years. Let's count how many rings there are!" he urged.
Everyone had sharp eyes and didn't really need to count carefully; a single glance gave a rough estimate, but the excited group still began counting ring by ring.
"Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty! Good grief, this Blood Lingzhi is three hundred years old!" Jin Haochen's voice was trembling. "This is practically a holy medicine!"
He was utterly beside himself; this was a holy medicine for healing!
If combined with other herbs and refined by a high-grade alchemist, it could yield a tier-eight or tier-nine healing holy medicine!
Most importantly, if someone was gravely wounded and had only one breath left, eating the Blood Lingzhi raw could extend their life by five to ten days!
For a cultivator, as long as their life was extended and their spiritual energy recovered, couldn't they slowly heal themselves?
This was equivalent to a second life!
Moreover, this item was extremely scarce!
Three hundred years old, and having appeared twenty times in this Secret Realm, it had somehow never been discovered!
"How come so many people came in before and never found it?" You Yu hadn't seen any introduction to the Blood Lingzhi in the book beforehand, so she knew nothing about it.
"The Blood Lingzhi forms a thin film on its surface that suppresses the volatilization of its scent. Unless you lay eyes on it, it's very hard to spot," Rong Xuan explained.
"Then Blood Lingzhis must be very easy to grow?" You Yu asked.
"They are easy to grow, but this thing is just so hard to get started! No matter what, nobody knows what its growing environment requires, so very few people can ever find one," Jin Haochen chimed in. "Our family previously acquired one that was over a hundred years old, and it cost us several million spiritual stones!"
"So expensive!"
"Of course. This is a life-saving holy medicine!" Jin Haochen said. "And that was only because of favorable connections that we were able to buy it, and it was only a hundred-plus years old."
"Hiss—" You Yu looked at the Blood Lingzhi in her hand and drew a sharp breath.
"Even a hundred-plus-year-old one can sell for millions?"
"Yeah! So, little sister, you'd better put this away securely; it's a priceless treasure!" Jin Haochen urged her to store the Blood Lingzhi away quickly, fearing that if he kept looking at it, he wouldn't be able to bear it and might try to snatch it.
It truly was a good item!
You Yu glanced at him, somewhat surprised that he hadn't demanded a cut.
She probed, "Then I'll put it away?"
"Put it away, put it away." Jin Haochen waved his hand and turned back to continue pitching the tent.
While reading novels before, You Yu had seen plenty of descriptions where people turned on their friends over the slightest heavenly treasures. Seeing such a massive treasure placed right in front of him and yet having him restrain himself proved that his character was solid.
He wasn't part of the female protagonist's pond, his character passed muster, and he was worth befriending deeply.
Taking advantage of the fact that it wasn't completely dark yet, and since pitching the tents didn't require her help, she planned to check the other trees to see if there were any more.
Every Cang'er Xuan Tree was massive; she estimated these must be at least a thousand years old. With their intricate, tangled branches, it was easy to miss what was happening higher up.
Thinking how the three of them hadn't spotted the Blood Lingzhi earlier, You Yu decided to climb the trees to check.
No sooner said than done, she walked over to a neighboring tree, wanting to put her pitiful two childhood tree-climbing experiences to use, only to find she couldn't climb even a single meter.
A bit tragic.
She took out the paper crane given to her by Eldest Senior Sister and channeled spiritual energy into it. After the paper crane grew larger, she had it carry her up.
First tree: none.
Second tree: none either.
Third tree: found one!
This one wasn't very old—less than a hundred years—but it still counted!
She directly stored that Blood Lingzhi away and moved on to the next tree.
Fourth tree: none.
Fifth tree: a two-hundred-plus-year-old one!
By the time she finished searching all the trees, she had actually found six of them!
This quantity was quite astonishing.
Out of the forty or fifty trees here, she had found seven Blood Lingzhis; the probability was terrifyingly high.
She had originally just wanted to strip the bark, but now she thought—why not just uproot the entire forest and take it back?
Maybe Blood Lingzhis simply loved growing on these kinds of trees!
Besides, stripping bark was rather slow; they had only managed to peel four trees the entire afternoon.
With that thought, uprooting them directly would save even more time!
Except... it would expose the fact that she had a spatial ring with a massive capacity.
She calculated in her mind: at worst, she could pin this on her Master; anyway, the spatial ring Jin Haochen wore wasn't small either.
Having made up her mind, she climbed down the tree, returned to the camp, and first handed the two two-hundred-plus-year-old Blood Lingzhis to Jin Haochen and Rong Xuan, while giving a hundred-plus-year-old one to Wang Wei.
"Share and share alike."
Jin Haochen immediately cried out, "W-W-Where did you get so many Blood Lingzhis?"
"Shh—keep your voice down." You Yu reached out to cover his mouth. "If someone overhears us, we'll be in trouble."
"I used my spiritual sense to scan the area; there's no one within a thousand meters of us," Wang Wei said.
The gaze he directed at You Yu was even more fervent.
He hadn't expected You Yu to give him a Blood Lingzhi. Although its age couldn't compare to the ones the Young Lord and the others got, this gesture of hers showed that she regarded him as an independent individual.
She hadn't looked down on him or ignored him just because he was a servant!
Hearing his words, You Yu lowered her hand and explained, "I just climbed all the trees around here and found them up in the trees."
"You found this many?"
"Right! And I kept three younger ones for myself, not giving those to you guys," You Yu confessed.
"Meaning, besides the one we found earlier, you found another six?"
Jin Haochen, Rong Xuan, and the others looked at each other, rendered speechless by the shock.
"I reckon these Cang'er Xuan Trees are very prone to growing Blood Lingzhis, so I want to just uproot the trees directly and see if I can plant them after we go outside. I can peel the bark later on, stripping off only as much as I need."
"Take them out and plant them?" Jin Haochen blinked. "A tree like this is a hundred meters at the lowest and two to three hundred meters at the highest. That requires a spatial container of immense size."
"I know. Master gave me a very large spatial ring before," You Yu replied.
Rong Xuan looked at her without a trace of doubt.
The Junior Sister was the youngest, so it was only natural for Master to favor her.
"You can fit so many huge trees?"
"Shouldn't be a problem."
Jin Haochen was once again dumbfounded. He realized he still didn't understand the little sister well enough, nor did he understand the Taiyi Sect well enough!
Even if Junior Sister managed to bring these trees back, they couldn't be replanted," Rong Xuan said. "Spatial rings cannot preserve the vitality of plants."
"Trees this big should have plenty of inner vitality, right? Even if a bit drains away every day, by the time we go outside, there might still be some left. As long as there's a shred of vitality left, we can give it a try."
"Little sister is right, we can give it a try. If they successfully grow outside, what if they grow more Blood Lingzhis?" Jin Haochen agreed with her. "In that case, I'll haul a few trunks back tomorrow too!"
"Since you all think so, let's dig them up then. That way we won't have to waste time stripping tree bark here anymore," Rong Xuan also concurred.
"Then it's settled! We'll get up and dig trees tomorrow!" You Yu was overjoyed. Seeing that they had also finished setting up the camp, she brought out a table and dinner, devoured her meal, and went off to rest!
Her tent was in the middle, Rong Xuan had his own tent, and Jin Haochen and Wang Wei shared another.
Once inside their tent, Wang Wei took out the Blood Lingzhi and asked, "Young Lord, this..."
"Since little sister gave it to you, it's yours. You can keep it for yourself." Jin Haochen had a two-hundred-year-old one in his own possession, so he wasn't as frantic over this hundred-plus-year-old specimen.
"Many thanks, Young Lord." Wang Wei put the Blood Lingzhi away.
"After we go out, I won't mention the matter of the Blood Lingzhis to the clan," Jin Haochen said indifferently.
"This subordinate understands."
If the Young Lord didn't speak of it, the clan members would never know that he also possessed a Blood Lingzhi.
If the Young Lord had spoken out, his own Blood Lingzhi might still have remained his. But Wang Wei's definitely wouldn't have.
Any random person in the clan could force him to hand over the Blood Lingzhi.
This was a life-saving item; who wouldn't want it?
The matter of the Blood Lingzhi must not be breathed to a single soul!
Early the next morning, after breakfast, they prepared to swing into action and dig up the trees.
These trees had grown here for so many years; their roots ran deeper than deep. Just as You Yu was wondering how to dig them out, Rong Xuan had already begun manipulating earth-attribute spiritual energy to loosen the soil for the trees.
An hour later, all that remained here was a crater the size of a lake.
"Sixth Senior Brother, you're amazing!" You Yu looked at the Cang'er Xuan Trees inside her spatial ring and beamed with joy. "Shall we continue heading east?"
"Let's go!"
The four of them resumed their journey, every single one of them feeling relaxed—save for You Yu.
They had already made a massive fortune by entering this place; even if they didn't harvest so much as a blade of grass from this point on, they wouldn't be running at a loss.
As they walked along, You Yu suddenly stopped, a broad smile pulling at the corners of her mouth, her eyes filled with disbelief.
"Junior Sister, what's wrong?" Rong Xuan asked.
You Yu turned to look at Rong Xuan, leaped forward in excitement, and threw her arms around him. "Sixth Senior Brother, you're the best! Thank you for the dirt you dug up for me!"
Rong Xuan was somewhat dazed. Hadn't they been digging for quite a while now? Why say thank you only now?
Wait, he had only helped her dig up some dirt—what was there to thank him for?
On the outside, You Yu reined in her expression somewhat, but inwardly she was screaming at the top of her lungs.
Why thank him only now?
Naturally because Gungun had just told her that among the dirt they had just scooped up, there was Guixu soil!
Every world had the presence of Guixu soil, but minor worlds drifting in space like the Secret Realm didn't necessarily have it. Even if they did, finding it wasn't guaranteed.
However!
The dirt her Sixth Senior Brother had just dug up for her contained Guixu soil!
Guixu soil!
Ahhhhhh—
With Guixu soil, her spatial ring would transform into a place where things could actually be cultivated!
That's right!
Even though there were still no air bubbles and people couldn't go inside yet, plants could now be cultivated within it!
When noon came and they took a break, she probed her spiritual sense into the spatial ring and was utterly dumbfounded.
In the white-mist region of the spatial ring, a vast expanse had receded backward, forming a patch of land right there!
It was genuine soil!
The spatial ring previously resembled a transparent expanse with neither top nor bottom, and those trees inside the spatial ring had looked as if they were suspended in mid-air.
But now, the roots of those trees were no longer visible.
Their roots were completely buried underground!
Not only that, but the Star Origin Grass they had harvested earlier had all been properly planted as well.