A long walk later, the two finally arrived at a pond.
"Wow... it’s true, there’s a whole waterfall here!" Langtian gasped in amazement, eyes wide as he took in the scene.
"See? Told you," Yue Ling replied with a proud smirk. "Though the waterfall isn’t really that big, haha."
"Well, at least it’s clean water!" Langtian said with a bright smile.
The pond wasn’t massive, but it was still impressively spacious, wide enough for ten people to swim around without crowding. Ripples danced across the surface as the waterfall spilled down from a jagged cliff, its narrow stream creating a soft, steady splashing sound. At the center, clusters of crimson red lotuses floated gently, their glowing petals swaying with the movement of the water.
Surrounding the pond were patches of glowing flora clinging to the rocks. These flowers and herbs had clearly mutated under the valley’s unique yin-rich atmosphere and the constant influence of dense demonic energy.
Langtian’s eyes widened as his gaze swept across the cliff face.
"Wait... is that Bloodroot Vine?" he asked, pointing at the thick crimson tendrils crawling across the stone. "No way! How can a Bloodroot Vine be that big?!"
Back at the sect, he’d taken on plenty of herb-gathering missions. He’d also spent a lot of time helping Yue Ling prepare ingredients for pill refinement, so he had a good eye for medicinal herbs.
It’s a tenacious plant known for its resilience. Its leaves are typically green, but its roots always take on a dark crimson hue, like threads soaked in blood. It thrives in damp, shadowy ravines where yin energy gathered, exactly cursed valley.
The Crimson Vitality Pill he’d taken earlier used Bloodroot Vine as a key ingredient.
But never in his life had he seen a specimen .
The vines here were massive, easily as thick as a grown man’s thigh. They coiled across the cliff like slumbering serpents, their roots protruding from cracks in the rock. And not just the roots. Some of the leaves were crimson too, glowing faintly. As the wind passed through them, they swayed gently, flickering like flames in the dark.
"No, you’re right. That’s Bloodroot Vine," Yue Ling said, following his gaze. "But it’s a demonic variant, mutated after years of soaking in the dense demonic energy around here."
"Oh, I see!" Langtian nodded. "So that’s why the pill was so strong... and why the side effects were so crazy?"
"Yup!" Yue Ling grinned. "And not just that. I also boosted it with a drop of essence blood from a Rank 3 Demonic Wolf."
"Oh wow... no wonder it hit me so hard," Langtian muttered, shivering as the memory of that intense rush came flooding back.
It wasn’t just ordinary blood. It was one of the precious ingredients in high-grade pill refinement, and in weapon and artifact crafting too. More than just physical fluid, essence blood was the distilled essence of a creature’s life force and spiritual energy, condensed into a single, potent drop.
To produce even that one drop, you had to extract it from a large amount of blood while preserving the creature’s core vitality. A beast the size of a Mountain Wolf might only yield one drop, if you were lucky.
And naturally, the stronger the creature, the stronger its essence blood.
So of course, a single drop from a Rank 3 demonic beast was more than enough to supercharge a pill, turning a common one like the Crimson Vitality Pill into something wildly more powerful... and far more dangerous.
"You’re amazing, Senior Sister..." Langtian muttered, still staring off in disbelief. "You didn’t just invent your own martial arts techniques, but your alchemy’s gotten ridiculously good too..."
"Hehe, you flatter me, Junior Brother," Yue Ling chuckled, though the proud smile on her face betrayed her delight.
"Anyway," she said, pointing toward a cluster of glowing herbs along the water’s edge, "do you recognize those?"
"Oh yeah!" Langtian stepped forward eagerly.
One by one, he began naming the herbs.
Near the edge of the pond, close to the water, were the Ghostshade Ferns. They were pale, translucent ferns whose delicate leaves gave off a faint, glittery glow. Normally, they were bluish in color, but here, they had turned a deep crimson. Ghostshade Ferns only grew in places where yin energy was dense and stagnant. They were commonly used in sedatives and calming elixirs, especially for easing nightmares or helping with sleep.
Next were the Netherdew Mushrooms. Like everything else in this valley, they too had taken on a red hue. But typically, Netherdew Mushrooms were a dark purple and could be found growing on damp rocks near still water or on soaked logs. They absorbed ambient yin qi and had a faintly meaty flavor, making them a popular ingredient in chicken-and-mushroom soup. However, due to being rich in yin, when eaten in large quantities, they could produce a mild laxative effect and might even cause stomachache.
And finally... the red flowers that was floating, drifting gracefully on the water surface...