Chapter 36: Encountering a Spiritual Herb by Chance

Jiuyou swept his gaze around, pondered for a moment, then lifted his foot and slowly walked forward.

“These golden walls can actually block Divine Sense—how peculiar. If I get the chance, this old man really wants to take some back for a thorough study.”

He reached up and stroked his beard, unable to keep from marveling inwardly. If Heavenly Abyss Mountain already boasted such scenery, what kind of earth-shaking figure must its master have been?

Without pausing his steps, Jiuyou continued forward, his eyes always warily scanning his surroundings, his Divine Sense fully extended, not daring to let his guard down in the slightest. However, his surroundings formed a vast maze; no matter how he twisted and turned, he could never find the exit, as if trapped within an invisible cage.

A few days later.

Jiuyou once again entered a dead end.

This wasn’t the first time he’d encountered such a thing. He furrowed his brow slightly and was about to turn and leave—

The golden wall of that dead end behind him seemed to sense someone’s arrival and actually began to slide open on its own to both sides.

A rich, medicinal aroma wafted out from within, refreshing the mind and invigorating the spirit with just a single whiff.

“This is…?”

Jiuyou’s mind stirred. A flicker of deep light passed through his eyes, and his Divine Sense slipped through the gap, instantly probing into the golden wall that was opening.

Behind the wall lay an entirely different world.

A majestic green mountain suddenly appeared before him—steep terrain, ancient trees touching the sky, cascading waterfalls and flowing springs, dense with spiritual energy. And that extremely rich medicinal fragrance was precisely emanating from the summit of this mountain.

“What kind of spiritual medicine is this? I’m afraid it’s not much inferior to those Thousand-Year Life-Extending Fruits!”

Jiuyou’s heart gave a start. A glimmer of joy passed beneath his eyes, but even more prominent was caution.

He did not recklessly step inside.

Raising his hand and waving, a Soul Wraith Puppet shot out from the cyan mist, howling as it flew into the mountain. The puppet wove and circled within the mountain without triggering any Prohibition Marks. Everything seemed normal.

Jiuyou did not relax his vigilance. He manipulated the puppet to try flying toward the summit. The puppet slowly rose into the air and moved in the direction of the peak.

Just then.

Above the mountain, a cylindrical beam of transparent light suddenly descended from the sky, swift as lightning, smashing viciously onto that Soul Wraith Puppet!

Boom—!

The puppet was crushed into the ground by that light, ground to dust, not even a trace remaining. Its power was immense—even if he himself had charged forward, caught off guard, he would have died or at least been severely wounded.

Jiuyou felt that skyward surge of power. Standing with his hands clasped behind his back, his eyes shifted slightly. Though he had anticipated something like this, seeing that such ancient Prohibition Marks possessed such might still startled him a bit.

“Sure enough, this old man was still clinging to wishful thinking.”

He muttered to himself and shook his head. If the outer areas already had so many ancient Prohibition Marks, how could this even more mysterious palace-maze mountain be left unguarded?

Good thing he had only used a puppet to scout and hadn’t recklessly set out.

Jiuyou did not pause in his steps and walked straight into the mountain.

Cyan mist surged and roiled around him. Several more Foundation-Establishing stage Soul Wraith Puppets charged out from within the mist. Those skeletal puppets burned with dark cyan flames, lined up in a row, and walked ahead of Jiuyou, slowly advancing toward the summit.

Jiuyou stayed close behind the puppets, his Divine Sense always covering the surroundings, ready at any moment to deal with sudden, peculiar Prohibition Marks.

Along the way, those puppets triggered quite a few Prohibition Marks—flames erupting from the ground, ice cones shooting down from the air, lightning bolts detonating in the passages... But the puppets in front took all the hits, and Jiuyou, following far behind, emerged completely unscathed.

Though these Prohibition Marks weren’t extremely powerful, they still demonstrated the danger of this place. Without the puppets to scout the path, even a Nascent Soul cultivator would have had their hands full.

About an hour later.

Jiuyou finally reached the mountain’s summit.

At the peak was a wide, open platform. In the center of the platform, a single spiritual herb with a silvery-white body grew quietly. Its leaves were like swords, with a faint, shimmering spiritual light flowing through their veins, emitting a medicinal fragrance so rich it was nearly overwhelming.

That scent was several times more intense than what he had smelled at the mountain’s foot. Inhaling just a bit made the mana throughout his body feel more active.

Jiuyou’s gaze sharpened. He examined it carefully for a moment, then suddenly his eyes lit up.

“Myriad Spirit Grass! This aura, this medicinal power—this herb is at least five thousand years old, far surpassing what Dan Xuanzi described.”

He recalled what Dan Xuanzi had said when they were traveling together earlier. Myriad Spirit Grass, used as the main ingredient, could refine the Myriad Spirit Pill, assisting Nascent Soul cultivators in breaking through cultivation bottlenecks!

Besides that, his companion had also described the general appearance of the Myriad Spirit Grass along the way. The impression was deep, which was why he could recognize it so quickly.

“To think this old man found it here.”

Jiuyou’s lips curled upward. He hurried forward, carefully dug up the Myriad Spirit Grass, roots and soil intact, placed it into a specially made jade box, sealed it with a Spirit-Suppressing Talisman, and stored it in his Storage Pouch.

He had originally thought this trip was only about competing for the Life-Extending Fruit—he hadn’t expected such an unexpected gain.

Just as Jiuyou tucked the Myriad Spirit Grass away—

A sudden change occurred!

The entire green mountain suddenly trembled violently, as if something had been triggered. On the summit platform, golden runes materialized out of thin air, dense and covering the sky, enveloping the entire mountain peak.

Jiuyou’s expression changed. Without a moment’s hesitation, his figure blurred as he retreated, charging down the mountain like lightning.

But those golden runes were even faster.

Attacks shot out from them one after another.

Golden sword qi crisscrossed in all directions; blazing fireballs filled the sky; freezing beams of ice locked the void; thunderbolts and arcs of electricity exploded with a roar; and intangible, invisible mental attacks slammed straight into his mind...

All kinds of attacks rained down upon Jiuyou like a torrential storm!

Jiuyou let out a cold snort. The Heavenly Light Mirror suddenly appeared in his left hand. A flash of light rippled across its surface, and a deep blue barrier enveloped his entire body.

At the same time, cyan mist surged around him, and Nether Capital Ghostfire blazed fiercely, forming a wall of flames that blocked all the approaching Prohibition Mark attacks.

Clang-clang-clang—!

Golden sword qi struck the barrier, sparks flying everywhere, but failed to break through the defense.

Blazing fireballs were devoured by the Nether Capital Ghostfire, turning into nothing.

Freezing beams of ice collided with the barrier and shattered inch by inch.

Thunderbolts and lightning arcs exploded, but the barrier remained unmoved.

The mental attacks were a bit trickier. However, Jiuyou’s cultivation art specialized in soul refinement, and his spiritual strength was no less than that of a Mid-Nascent Soul cultivator. These mental attacks posed no real threat to him in the short term. His mind merely wavered slightly before quickly stabilizing.

His figure moved like lightning, weaving and dodging through the hail of Prohibition Mark attacks with incredible speed. Though the attacks were dense, most of them fell behind him; very few actually hit him.

Even so, a few that slipped through broke through the outer defenses. Several sharp golden sword qi slashed through the void, stabbing straight at him. Jiuyou’s powerful Divine Sense swept out, locking onto them instantly. He shifted his body and barely dodged, but those sword qi still left a few shallow wounds on him.

Still, for a Nascent Soul cultivator, this kind of superficial scratch was utterly negligible.

“That was close…”

Jiuyou thought to himself, but his feet dared not stop for a single moment.

He sprinted all the way, charging toward the outside of the mountain. The Prohibition Mark attacks behind him gave relentless chase but could never catch up to his speed.

He didn’t know how long he had run.

Nor how many Prohibition Marks he had broken through.

When Jiuyou finally passed through another golden light barrier, the attacks behind him suddenly stopped.

His figure halted. He turned to look back and saw that those golden runes were slowly dissipating, as if they had never existed at all.

Jiuyou let out a long breath, put away the Heavenly Light Mirror, looked down at the few wounds on his body, casually wiped them, and the bleeding stopped.

“Good thing I had the Heavenly Light Mirror to boost my mana, or this would have been quite a hassle.”

He muttered to himself, then raised his eyes to scan his surroundings.

This was no longer the green mountain, but a grand hall.

The hall was extremely wide, resplendent and magnificent, with carved beams and painted rafters, every detail exuding an ancient and weighty aura. The hall was empty, with no furnishings, only a few massive golden pillars supporting the dome.

And deep within the hall, a faint light flickered.

That light wasn’t dazzling, but it carried a vast, abyss-like aura that instinctively inspired awe.

Jiuyou’s gaze sharpened as he slowly walked toward that light.

That aura… he felt it was vaguely familiar.

As if he had sensed it somewhere before, yet he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

Jiuyou furrowed his brow slightly and grew even more cautious with his steps.

He advanced step by step toward the depths of the hall. The light drew closer and closer, and the aura grew stronger and stronger.

Finally, he reached the center of the hall.

Within the light, something was faintly visible, suspended in mid-air, radiating a soft and ancient radiance.

Jiuyou squinted, trying to make out what it was.

The moment he focused his gaze—

That aura suddenly surged skyward, like a mountain collapsing or an ocean inverting, crashing down upon him!

Jiuyou’s figure swayed, but he steadied his stance, his eyes locked onto that cluster of light. His pupils abruptly contracted, and his entire body froze for an instant.

That is…!