Chapter 209 — The Ten-Thousand-Year Spiritual Herb

My Dao to Eternity

Chapter 209 — The Ten-Thousand-Year Spiritual Herb

The fifth disciple reached halfway up the main tunnel, his chest heaving as he clawed at his robes for a signaling talisman. His fingers had barely touched it when a force struck him from behind. Li Fan's Returning Marrow strength carried him across the distance without the aid of a movement technique. One hand seized the back of the disciple's skull and drove it into the stone wall.

The impact was short and final. The unactivated talisman slipped from the disciple's limp fingers and fell into the dirt. Water continued dripping from the cavern ceiling. The Spiritual Herb maintained its low, steady hum, its crystalline body still drawing earth-qi through the surrounding rock. The entire exchange had lasted less than twenty breaths.

Li Fan returned through the chamber, flicked the blood from his sword, and moved among the bodies. He removed their storage pouches and collected the leader's damaged saber. Six cultivators from a Great Sect carried more resources than most loose cultivators could gather in a year, and Li Fan transferred everything into his storage ring without examining each item. They had entered the cavern as an arrogant patrol and died because they had chosen the wrong person to threaten.

A faint resonance remained within the silk lining of each storage pouch. It was subtle enough to resemble ordinary spiritual residue, and Li Fan's sharpened senses gave it no particular significance. The resonance was connected to the Nine Rivers Sect. Somewhere beyond the Secret Realm, a life tablet belonging to one of these disciples would soon shatter, and the resonance would answer that change through a connection Li Fan had never seen and had no reason yet to investigate.

Li Fan turned toward the glowing crystal node and knelt again. He placed both hands against the surrounding stone and began the careful process of drawing the Spiritual Herb from the bedrock that had supported its growth for ten thousand years.

The formation current descended underground again on the twenty-second day, passing through a collapsed mining region that Li Fan nearly crossed without noticing. Only the faint pull beneath his feet revealed that the line continued below the rubble instead of ending at the surface. He spent most of the morning clearing loose stone from a partially collapsed entrance until there was enough space for him to enter.

The tunnels beyond had been abandoned for many years. Moss covered the old support beams, and sections of the ceiling had collapsed until the passages became narrow enough to force Li Fan to lower his head. Stone scraped against his shoulder as he advanced. His hardened skin absorbed the friction while his divine sense followed the formation current through passage after passage. The air was cold and close, carrying the smell of wet stone and old iron.

Two hundred paces beyond the third junction, he found the ore. A vein of dull gray metal ran through the tunnel wall. It reflected almost no light, yet his divine sense detected its spiritual resonance before his eyes fully registered it. Li Fan recognized the material from a manuscript he had purchased years earlier from a market stall for a few copper coins. It had become extremely rare in the outside world and was considered nearly extinct in the regions he had traveled. Its properties made it excellent for refining. If the tunnel remained stable, the vein was worth extracting.

Li Fan was still running his palm across the metal and judging the safest direction for extraction when footsteps sounded behind him. Four figures emerged from the passage. Torchlight moved across the walls, casting long shadows over the abandoned supports. Their robes carried different colors and patterns, with no common sect insignia or coordinated style. They were loose cultivators who had joined together for survival rather than loyalty. Their leader stepped forward with an iron warhammer resting across one shoulder. The skin around his forearms had already begun turning gray and hard beneath the early circulation of a crude body-strengthening technique.

"That vein is ours," the leader said. "We found it three days ago. Whoever you are, you are standing on another person's claim."

Li Fan straightened and faced the four men. He remained silent while his divine sense passed over them. The leader had reached the peak of Core Condensation and stood near the threshold of Core Shattering. The other three were in the middle stages of Core Condensation. One carried a coiled chain-whip at his waist. Another had several weighted darts strapped along his forearm. The last carried no weapon and possessed a broad chest and thick limbs that showed his reliance on physical strength. All four were an entire realm below Li Fan.

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Li Fan had no reason to explain himself, and the vein was not worth wasting time over. He released his cultivation without haste. Core Shattering pressure spread through the narrow tunnel. He made no gesture and altered neither his stance nor his expression. The pressure simply revealed the realm he had been concealing since entering this region.

The reaction came immediately. The leader's warhammer sank until its head scraped across the stone as strength left his arm. The gray surface covering his forearms cracked and receded, his stone-hardening technique unable to withstand the pressure of a realm it had never been designed to oppose. The chain-whip cultivator staggered backward, and the weapon slipped from his fingers before striking the ground with a metallic rattle. The dart-thrower's breathing stopped for an instant. The broad unarmed cultivator dropped to one knee beneath the pressure.

Li Fan allowed the pressure to remain for another moment before reducing it to a level they could withstand.

The leader recovered his voice first. It came out thin and unsteady. "Senior, forgive us. We possessed eyes yet failed to recognize Mount Tai before us."

He lowered himself onto both knees against the rough stone. The other three followed immediately, bowing until their foreheads nearly touched the ground.

"We meant no offense to a senior of your standing," the leader continued. His words came slowly and carefully. "The vein is yours, senior. We withdraw our claim completely. Please allow us to leave with our lives. We will trouble you no further."

Li Fan examined the four kneeling cultivators. Their earlier confidence had vanished. Their shoulders remained lowered, and none dared raise his gaze beyond Li Fan's boots. Fear had replaced every trace of aggression.

"You may leave," Li Fan said. "Your lives are your own. Your storage pouches are not."

The four men accepted the condition immediately. The leader reached for his belt, removed his pouch with unsteady fingers, and placed it on the tunnel floor. The other three followed. Four storage pouches rested in a neat row on the stone.

"Thank you, senior," the leader said as he rose carefully. His movements remained controlled, and uncertainty still showed in his voice. "We will trouble this place no further."

They retreated while keeping their bodies turned toward Li Fan. Only after the bend in the tunnel concealed him from their sight did they turn and run toward the surface. Li Fan listened until their footsteps weakened with distance and finally disappeared from his hearing.

He crouched and collected the four pouches. Their contents could wait. They would likely contain spirit stones, mining tools, and whatever supplies the group had gathered during its time underground. Li Fan placed them into his storage ring with the other spoils. Anything useful was worth preserving.

He returned to the ore vein and ran his palm across the dull gray metal once more. After selecting the safest line of extraction, he began freeing the ore from the surrounding stone.

The formation current beneath his feet continued onward, steady and ancient, leading deeper into the Secret Realm.

On the twenty-fourth day, the formation current carried Li Fan out of the abandoned mining tunnels and back into open air. It surfaced beside a broad terraced garden that had been abandoned for an unknown number of years. Stone borders divided the hillside into orderly beds, though many had collapsed beneath weeds and creeping roots. Beneath the gray vegetation, faint silver light still emerged from old seed pods.

Li Fan knelt beside the nearest bed and worked his fingers through the loose soil. He carefully separated the roots before lifting a cluster of iron-grain lotus seeds from the earth. Their silver husks were cool and dry against his palm. He recognized them from a manuscript he had studied beneath Old Sun's roof years earlier. The strain was considered extinct throughout every province he had crossed. Li Fan placed the seeds into a small jade vial and sealed it before reaching toward the next stalk.

Sweet rot filled the air, mixed with the heavy smell of undisturbed earth. The scent remained at the back of his throat. Li Fan continued harvesting the seeds when a dry branch cracked behind him.

His divine sense had detected the approach three breaths earlier. He finished sealing the vial, placed it inside his robe, and rose to face the newcomer.

A gaunt man emerged from the brambles. His robe was stained with soil and marked by years of travel. A gnarled wooden staff rested in one hand. The wood retained its bark, which was still green and carried a faint pulse of vitality. The staff itself contained a living spiritual force far beyond ordinary wood. The man's aura spread across the garden. Li Fan's divine sense examined it and confirmed what his eyes had already suggested.

Mid-Stage Core Shattering.

For the first time since entering the wilder regions of the Secret Realm, Li Fan faced an opponent whose cultivation exceeded his own Early-Stage Core Shattering realm.

The stranger's gaze moved from the emptied seed pods to the jade vial visible near Li Fan's collar. Desperation appeared in his eyes.

"Put them down," he said. His voice was rough and lacked the polished cadence common among sect cultivators. "Those seeds belong to the Lin family lineage. I have followed records of this garden across three provinces to restore our apothecary. I cannot let you take them."

Li Fan studied the man's face. Years of travel had worn his features beyond what his cultivation alone should have produced. His eyes carried the exhaustion of someone who had pursued a single objective for years. There was no sect arrogance in his expression. Only desperation and an obsession that had consumed nearly everything else in his life.