Chapter 1421: The Gravestone

Boom! Boom! Strike followed strike, each aimed at a different point.

The Spiritual Infant Talisman Puppet had raised no alarm, so the Chaotic Devil Elder had not yet come through. Qin Sang held nothing back and struck with everything he had.

The purple mist over the herb garden churned, phenomena flaring one after another. At last the mist before him parted slowly to either side, revealing a faint golden glow.

He withdrew his spiritual sword and looked closely. The glow came from a light screen shaped like a pagoda, and inside it stood a spiritual tree!

The screen served a protective function, and battered by the crimson flame qi it had grown very dim. Breaking it to take the fruit would not be difficult.

The tree was rooted in a jade altar from which the protective force originated. Its trunk stood a full three men tall, yet it looked like deadwood. The bark had dried out to the color of charcoal.

A few leaves hung scattered on its branches, all of them listless and ashen gray. Only at the very tips of the branches could one make out a precious hint of green, proof that the tree still clung stubbornly to life.

Qin Sang looked it over and delight rose in his eyes. A tree this close to withering had nonetheless produced many fruits!

He remembered Valley Master Mu saying that a Myriad Spirit Fruit Tree required a long time to nurture its fruit and yielded very few. For spiritual insects consuming the fruit directly, more was not better. An insect below the fourth metamorphosis could take only one, and after breaking through the fourth it could take one more once it had digested the medicinal energy.

There were nine on this tree, and all of them ripe!

Scorched by the crimson flames and near withering, the tree had left the fruit somewhat lackluster in appearance.

"My three spiritual insects only need four for now. More than enough, with most of them left over."

Qin Sang had not expected such a rich haul and could hardly contain his delight. He helped himself without ceremony, slashing open the dimmed barrier and producing nine jade boxes, carefully picking every last fruit before patting the Thousand-Jin Ring.

"I never expected it to go this smoothly. Surely Pure Sea Sect's herb garden holds more than just this tree. Since I'm here, I may as well look everything over. Something else might have survived..."

He was about to move on when he stopped short and looked the Myriad Spirit Fruit Tree up and down, weighing whether he could dig it up and take it with him.

The fruit could elevate spiritual insects and be refined into Spirit-Calming Incense, and there might be other uses besides. Transplanted back to the Qingyang Temple, even if he had no use for it himself, it could serve as a treasure to anchor the sect.

But the tree was near death and terribly fragile. Digging it up was nothing like picking its fruit; it would require destroying the entire jade altar, and if he forced his way through crudely, he feared the tree would simply die.

He had no time to sit here fathoming a method of breaking the barrier properly.

"So be it! Leaving it here only means it falls into someone else's hands. And what I noticed earlier has left me with a bad feeling. Pure Sea Sect likely won't remain in this world much longer."

Resolved, he gazed at the jade altar for a moment, then swept his hand and sent the devilish flames plunging down to surround the altar and burn fiercely.

Crack...

His hand seals shifted in rapid succession and the golden light wavered on the verge of collapse. Fissures spread across the altar under the burning.

Then a startling thing happened. Without the slightest warning, roaring flames shot up from the tree's roots and swallowed the entire trunk within a blink.

Qin Sang's expression shifted. He sent his sword slashing down hard, plunging it into the shattered altar and forcibly digging out a length of root.

Mercifully the root he had salvaged retained some vitality. With careful tending once he was out, he might yet nurture it back to life.

He cast a regretful glance at the tree, now burned to ash, and his gaze swept over the cracked altar as a thought took shape.

While destroying the altar, he had felt something more distinctly. The disturbance it caused seemed to reach well beyond the altar itself.

There was no time to dwell on it. He applied a barrier to preserve the root, placed it in a jade box designed to maintain vitality, and withdrew to search the area.

Before long he came upon another intact herb plot. The spiritual herbs here were ancient but less precious than he had hoped.

It dawned on him that whether a plot survived came down to luck. The purple mist barrier hereabouts remained relatively whole, so the impact had been lighter and the plot had endured.

He would not waste time on herbs like these. Moving swiftly, breaking through layer after layer of barriers, he passed among plot after plot until at last he made a new discovery!

"Spirit Cup Flower! Lightning Snake Vine..." Qin Sang halted abruptly, staring at the intact plot ahead and at the extraordinary radiance shining from the herbs within it, a strange light in his eyes.

These herbs had been protected and cultivated under an assortment of barriers. Withered like the Myriad Spirit Fruit Tree, some of them had nonetheless survived.

Even Spiritual Infant cultivators would be tempted, unwilling to let such a thing pass.

His attention was drawn to a spiritual flower shaped like a jade cup, roughly the size of an infant's fist. He recalled that the Spirit Cup Flower could be refined into Hidden Fragrance Pills, which strengthened the spiritual consciousness when taken and had a measurable effect even on Spiritual Infant cultivators. It was a rather rare spiritual herb.

He was not far from breaking through to the second stage of the Fire Seed Golden Lotus, and the pills would surely hasten it.

The other herbs each had their uses. To him they mattered less than the Spirit Cup Flower, but other Spiritual Infant cultivators would certainly want them.

Stripping this plot bare would make the trip worthwhile even if he left immediately afterward.

His gaze traveled over the herbs one by one. He was still marveling at Pure Sea Sect's wealth when his eyes suddenly froze, fixed on the depths of the plot.

There were several gaps there. Judging by the marks, the herbs had not withered away. It looked far more as though someone had dug them up.

"Wait, no!" His pupils constricted sharply.

The marks were not old. They appeared to be recent. Someone had reached this place ahead of him and taken some of the herbs!

His nerves snapped taut. Devilish flames flew from his sleeve as he scanned his surroundings, spiritual consciousness spreading out abruptly and the Sky Eyes driven to its limit.

Someone's already inside and took the most precious herbs. Valley Master Mu, or Chaotic Devil Elder? Why did I find no sign of it before? Where is he now? Has he spotted me? Countless thoughts raced through his mind.

Suddenly, he sensed a warning from the Spiritual Infant Talisman Puppet outside.

Through the puppet, Qin Sang "saw" violent fluctuations spread across the sky above Pure Sea Sect, followed by a tremendous explosion. As the flowing fire fell into disarray, a fissure split open in the array.

The Chaotic Devil Elder and Precept-Keeping Sage flew out first, looking somewhat the worse for wear. Behind them there seemed to be other figures as well. The purple fire overhead, battered and thrown into chaos, obscured the view for the moment.

"It's not the Chaotic Devil Elder!" Qin Sang's tension eased slightly, but his confusion deepened. Did Valley Master Mu beat me here? Then why did he not go after the Myriad Spirit Fruit?

He ordered the puppet to stay well hidden and keep watching.

He himself gave the plot one long look and made no attempt to take the herbs. Staying on guard and concealing his aura, he slipped deeper into the purple mist.

He had no idea how far he had gone when the mist abruptly thinned and the view opened up before him. A cliff face came into view, and between the stone wall and himself lay a stretch of rolling hills.

At a glance he saw it; standing alone on the empty hillside was a single gravestone.

The inscription read, "Grave of my younger brother, Tan Jie."