The place Li Yan was heading to was called "Red Maple Pool ." Blood Leaf Adept had discovered the Crimson Mother Essence there. After getting his bearings, Li Yan found that he had been teleported to a place called "Green Python Forest." It was about four thousand li from his destination, which wasn't too far.
Li Yan's body transformed into a wisp of light smoke as he traveled through the forest. He was no longer a mortal, so the trouble of hacking through thorns and brambles, as he had to do when hunting in the Great Green Mountains, was no longer necessary.
The Green Python Forest teemed with demonic beasts. Along the way, he encountered countless of them: Twin-Soul Wolves, Golden-Eyed Flower Spiders, Leaf-Corroding Leeches, Shadow-Snatching Birds, and so on. These were all demonic beasts he had read about in the jade slips that had since been destroyed. Most of the beasts here were derived from Vicious Souls and were unique to this place.
There were also those that had been brought in from the outside world and had lived here for generations. Li Yan guessed this was either the work of the pagoda's creator or that outside cultivators had fallen here during their training, and their spirit beasts had been left behind.
Li Yan had no intention of stopping to hunt demonic beasts for now. He might have such thoughts only after he had successfully obtained the Crimson Mother Essence. Thus, he silently avoided all the demonic beasts he encountered.
As he hurried along, he would only occasionally stop to pick some rare herbs. Although Li Yan's alchemy skills were ordinary, he had come into contact with many herbs. How could he pass up an opportunity?
However, some herbs grew in places with companion demonic beasts. If the beast was easy to deal with, Li Yan would naturally take care of it, killing the beast and taking the herb. If the beast was very troublesome, Li Yan would weigh the value of the herb before deciding whether to fight it.
But after traveling over four hundred li, he had only managed to pick two or three herbs that could be considered valuable. This was understandable. Li Yan was moving very quickly and only picked herbs he encountered in a straight line. This was completely different from specifically searching for herbs. Moreover, countless cultivators had been to this forest since ancient times. The chances of encountering particularly precious herbs without great fortune and searching deep in remote areas were minuscule.
The most troublesome and sole overlord of this forest was a peak second-tier Rhino-Horned Green Python, an existence equivalent to a Pseudo-Core cultivator. Furthermore, since flood dragon pythons were related to the dragon clan, their innate supernatural abilities were usually very powerful. Normally, cultivators would not fight beasts like flood dragon pythons, phoenixes, or qilins unless they specifically wanted their flesh, blood, tendons, and bones for artifact refining.
Li Yan, who was flying, suddenly had a change in expression. His already faint figure vanished into the air.
In his senses, two cultivators were quietly approaching from ahead. Li Yan had already traveled several hundred li on this second level, and this was the first time he had encountered other cultivators. This was already quite rare, but for the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda , it was quite normal.
Although the Jingtu Sect allowed outside cultivators to train here, how many could actually enter? And after entering, they were distributed among the several levels of the pagoda, each of which was vast. With cultivators scattered throughout, encounters were a matter of luck, unless it was a necessary passage like the "Melting Cave" on the first level. On this second level, Golden Core cultivators would probably only gather at the entrance to the third level.
The two people Li Yan discovered were two burly men who clearly belonged to the same sect. They were dressed in clothes made from the hide of some demonic beast, sleeveless and bare-chested on top, with tight-fitting trousers below, looking like two hunters. They were not moving very fast. Although they were heading in his direction, their attention was very scattered, their eyes constantly scanning the entire area.
The moment Li Yan silently vanished, the two men also stopped advancing.
After stopping, they crouched down and hid in a thicket of bushes. One held a large saber, the other a dagger. They truly looked like they were here to hunt. As they moved, they exchanged a glance and then turned their bodies, casting their gazes towards a certain spot, leaving their backs exposed to Liayan. They had clearly not discovered his presence. Both of them were at the late-stage of Foundation Establishment, but they were still unable to detect someone spying on them from several hundred zhang away.
Li Yan had no intention of attacking. After stopping, he focused his Divine Sense on the spot the two were watching. It was a small patch of grass in the forest. Amidst the knee-deep green grass, a black flower swayed in the wind. The flower had three petals and was about the size of two fists. Faint rays of silver light emanated from the center of the petals, looking somewhat demonic in the forest.
"Silver-Vein Flower!" The moment he saw it, the name of the flower came to Li Yan's mind. This was the main ingredient for refining a fourth-tier medicinal pill called the "Still-Flow Pill," a pill with good therapeutic effects on damaged meridians. In fact, besides the main ingredient, the "Silver-Vein Flower," which was very hard to find, the auxiliary materials for the "Still-Flow Pill" were all easy to obtain.
Its function was singular—to repair damage to the meridians. So, if classified by its refining difficulty, it could at most be considered a third-tier pill. But once a medicinal pill involved the Dantian, meridians, or even the soul, its rank would rise sharply. The "Still-Flow Pill" was only somewhat effective for ordinary meridian damage; otherwise, it would surely be a fifth, or even sixth or seventh-tier pill. But even so, this pill was priceless and had no market.
From this, one could imagine how rare the "Silver-Vein Flower" was. Under the observation of his Divine Sense, Li Yan felt it was a bit of a pity, because judging by its petals, this "Silver-Vein Flower" was only about sixty years old.
It took twenty years for one black petal to grow, and this plant only had three. If used in medicine before it was a hundred years old, its effects would be greatly diminished. But Li Yan still wanted it. He could transplant this flower into his Earth-Spot space and let it grow slowly.
Watching the two men, it seemed they were waiting for something. This began to confuse Li Yan. As far as he knew, the "Silver-Vein Flower" had no companion demonic beasts. This meant that although the flower was precious, it needed to be refined with other herbs to activate its medicinal effects. For demonic beasts, swallowing it directly had no significant effect, so no beast would guard it.
If that was the case, why didn't these two just pick it? Even if it was only sixty years old, after nurturing it for another forty years, it could be sold for a very high price.
Not knowing what the two were up to, Li Yan remained where he was, just watching quietly.
Soon, Li Yan had figured out their intentions. The two hidden men were at a certain distance from each other, forming a semi-encircling posture around the "Silver-Vein Flower" which was only about a hundred zhang away. Although the trees here were dense, for cultivators, this distance could be covered in an instant. This was clearly the setup for an ambush.
"Using the flower as bait!" That was what Li Yan immediately thought. These two were using the "Silver-Vein Flower" to set a trap, to kill whoever tried to pick the herb. They were clearly planning to commit murder and robbery. Judging by their practiced movements, this was certainly not their first time.
Having figured this out, Li Yan lost interest in watching. Although there were many cultivators in the pagoda, given the odds of encountering these two only after traveling four hundred li, he had no idea how long he would have to wait for someone else to come along. So, Li Yan didn't want to wait any longer. He planned to directly launch a sneak attack on the two and be the oriole waiting in the back.
But Li Yan was wrong. Just as he was about to make his move, his expression tightened, and he steadied his form, hiding himself again. In his Divine Sense, a figure was now streaking this way. Although its speed was not fast, it arrived in the vicinity in a short time.
In truth, this was because Li Yan was unfamiliar with the "Green Python Forest." The area he was in was on the western side of the forest. Although the trees here were dense, overall, compared to the entire "Green Python Forest," this area had the most herbaceous plants and shrubs and fewer trees. The water, soil, and Spirit Qi were all abundant. Therefore, this was one of the places on the second level of the pagoda where one could find many rare herbs, and thus, it was also a place frequented by cultivators.
Li Yan was currently in the central area of this region. The jade slips given by the Jingtu Sect did not provide such detailed descriptions. No matter how generous the Jingtu Sect was, they wouldn't clearly mark what could be found in every area.
That cultivator quickly arrived near the "Silver-Vein Flower." He saw the black petals emitting a silver glow at a glance, and a look of pleasant surprise appeared on his face. He couldn't help but take a few quick steps forward, but after just two steps, he quickly stopped. He then vigilantly scanned his surroundings and began to carefully search the vicinity.
This was a cultivator of about forty years of age, carrying a longsword. His body was lean and strong, with long arms and slender fingers with large knuckles—clearly someone skilled with a longsword. But Li Yan judged that this person was definitely not a sword cultivator from the Ten-Pace Courtyard.
This person carried his longsword on his back, suggesting he was an external sword cultivator. He didn't have the Ten-Pace Courtyard's sword box but had the longsword sheathed in a scabbard on his back. Although Li Yan had heard that external sword experts from the Ten-Pace Courtyard, upon reaching a certain realm, could refine their sword box to be like the sword pellet of the internal sword lineage, hidden within their spiritual aperture, that was something only possible at the late-stage of Golden Core. This person's cultivation was merely at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment.
The person before him was also extremely cautious. The two men in hunter's garb in front of Li Yan remained motionless, holding their breath, carefully hidden, waiting for the sword cultivator to step into their ambush circle. And that sword cultivator was likewise an old hand in the martial world. Although the "Silver-Vein Flower" was only a little over two hundred zhang from him, he showed no sign of rushing forward to pick it. Instead, the vigilance in his eyes grew stronger. After searching for a while, he actually began to slowly retreat.
At that moment, the two men in hunter's garb, like cheetahs waiting to strike, silently and in perfect sync, launched their attack. Although the sword cultivator's current position was not in their optimal attack range, they had no other choice.
This was because the sword cultivator, who appeared to be cautiously retreating, made an unexpected move. Just as it seemed he was about to leave, his retreating body bent down, and with a slight shake of his shoulder, the longsword on his back, without making the slightest sound of being unsheathed, shot out like a bolt of white silk, cutting through the sky.