Translator: Cinder Translations
Zi Yun extended her hand to the root of the Purple Spirit Ginseng and gently scraped it a few times. Then, her hand followed the stem and continued to dig into the rocky soil.
With a forceful tug, she pulled out a root block, about an inch long, shaped like ginseng, completely black in color. At the tail of the root block, there were dozens of thin, elongated root hairs, which were entangled around a piece of white bone.
The white bone was thick and sturdy, clearly the bone of some demon beast. When Zi Yun pulled up the Purple Spirit Ginseng, she also brought the bone along.
Song Wen sensed that the dense corpse energy emanated from this bone, which made him feel somewhat relieved.
"Is the Purple Spirit Ginseng parasitic on the corpse bone?" Song Wen asked, looking at the Purple Spirit Ginseng in Zi Yun's hand.
As Zi Yun took out a jade box to store the Purple Spirit Ginseng, she responded, "Yes. Wherever the Purple Spirit Ginseng grows, there will always be a human or demon beast's corpse bone."
Song Wen and Zhu Yin exchanged a glance, this was information Zi Yun had not previously disclosed.
Zi Yun stood up and moved ahead. "Let's go, we need to go deeper."
This cave was much deeper and more complex than the three of them had imagined. Suddenly, a fork appeared in front of them.
"Which path should we take?" Zi Yun asked.
Looking at the two seemingly identical caves, Zhu Yin suggested, "Have your Earth Dragon scout both paths. If there's no difference, we can pick one."
Zi Yun nodded, and at her signal, the Earth Dragon darted into one of the caves.
After a short while, the Earth Dragon returned. After a brief communication with the Earth Dragon, Zi Yun pointed to the cave on the right.
"This path gradually descends, while the other one extends horizontally."
"Let's go down the descending one," Song Wen said.
Zi Yun gave Song Wen a strange look. "Ji Yin, if we go too deep underground, aren't you worried about encountering a fourth-grade Golden Corpse?"
Song Wen replied, "The secret realm is only open for a month, we don't have much time. We can't afford to waste it exploring these caves."
Zi Yun looked at Zhu Yin. "Zhu Yin, what do you think?"
"I think Ji Yin has a point. Exploring a secret realm and searching for spiritual herbs, there's no such thing as not taking risks," Zhu Yin replied.
"Alright, we'll follow your advice," Zi Yun said.
With the Earth Dragon and Song Wen's mid-level third-stage Ghost King leading the way, the three of them walked together in the middle. Behind them was Zhu Yin's Ghost King.
They continued for more than ten miles when suddenly Zhu Yin spoke.
"The number of scattered corpse bones here seems to have noticeably increased."
Just as Zhu Yin said, before finding the first Purple Spirit Ginseng, the three had not encountered any corpse bones. But now, almost every one or two miles, they came across a corpse bone, some belonging to humans, others to demon beasts.
"Where are all these corpse bones coming from, especially the human ones? The Illusory Spirit Valley secret realm doesn't have native human corpses. Zi Yun, could it be that your sect's cultivators who explored this secret realm in the past unfortunately died here?" Zhu Yin asked.
Zi Yun shook her head. "These bones aren't from the Liangyi Sect. The Liangyi Sect has only discovered this secret realm for about a thousand years, and we've explored it only a dozen times. Less than ten cultivators have fallen."
"Then where do these corpse bones come from?" Zhu Yin asked.
"They should be left behind by the people who were originally cultivating in this secret realm. The corpse energy here is dense, and whether they are humans or demon beasts, their bodies will become stiff after death, greatly slowing the rate of decay," Zi Yun speculated.
"Based on your speculation, before this secret realm was abandoned, there must have been a massacre," Zhu Yin said.
Zi Yun was about to say something more when her expression suddenly changed slightly.
"Be careful, there are Corpses ahead."
She quickly relaxed her expression again.
"It's just a third-grade early-stage Silver Corpse, already dealt with by my Earth Dragon."
The three of them moved forward for another two miles and encountered a Bronze Corpse, already partially decomposed.
The appearance of the Bronze Corpse was quite bizarre—about ten feet tall, its upper body was human, while its lower body was a horse. Even more unusual, instead of a horse's tail, it had a long snake tail.
"What kind of creature is this?"
Zi Yun frowned, a trace of disgust in her eyes.
After observing for a moment, Song Wen shook his head.
"This is probably not a naturally born creature but something artificially cultivated."
Song Wen speculated this because he had seen artificially bred human-snake hybrids during his time at the Beast Master Sect.
Zi Yun looked puzzled. "How can you tell it's artificially bred? It might have been created after death by combining and refining different parts?"
Zhu Yin pointed to the spot where the horse's body was severed and said, "Look at where the human and horse bodies are joined—the bones have already grown together. This means it must have been in this form when it was alive. And no one would go through the effort of refining a corpse hybrid —it would be a waste of resources, and they wouldn't get a strong corpse puppet."
"But... who would try to merge humans and demon beasts into one? What benefit would that bring?" Zi Yun asked, clearly baffled.
"In the archives of Wu Ji Island, there are many ancient texts originating from the Nether Shrine. I once saw a record in one of these texts about such creatures. There is a place within the Nether Shrine called the 'Exotic Beast Pavilion,' which specializes in breeding human-beast hybrids," Zhu Yin explained.
"Why would they do that?" Zi Yun asked.
"I don't know. The ancient text didn't mention it," Zhu Yin replied.
"Could this place be where the Nether Shrine's Exotic Beast Pavilion is located?"
Song Wen, who had been listening to their conversation without interrupting, suddenly recalled that during his time in the Nether Shrine's secret realm on Fangzhudao, he had seen vengeful spirits that were hybrids of humans and several demon beasts.
At the time, he had thought it was due to contamination by ghost mist, causing the souls of humans and demon beasts to merge.
But now, it seemed that wasn't the case—those vengeful spirits had already been in their bizarre forms when they were alive.
Thus, artificially breeding new life forms wasn't a new concept introduced by the Beast Master Sect—it had been done many years ago by the Divine Blood Gate.
The Beast Master Sect bred human-snake hybrids for the purpose of creating 'Mystic Qi.'
What was the Divine Blood Gate's purpose for breeding new life forms?
"Forget about the Exotic Beast Pavilion. We should focus on finding the Purple Spirit Ginseng," Zhu Yin said.
Just as Zi Yun was about to say something, her expression suddenly changed. Her face showed both excitement and a hint of gloom.
Zhu Yin noticed Zi Yun's change in expression and asked.
Zi Yun said, "The Earth Dragon has found another Purple Spirit Ginseng."
Zhu Yin's face lit up with joy. "Where?"
"Follow me." Zi Yun's tone had an almost imperceptible oddness to it, seeming reluctant.
After another two miles, the three of them arrived at a hollow in the cave's stone wall, where they found another Purple Spirit Ginseng.
This one had seven leaves.
"Unexpectedly, it's a seven-hundred-year-old Purple Spirit Ginseng," Zhu Yin whispered in surprise.
She turned to Song Wen. "Ji Yin, who should take this Purple Spirit Ginseng, you or me?"
"Zhu Yin, you take it first," Song Wen said.
"Alright." Zhu Yin nodded without hesitation, stepping forward to pull up the Purple Spirit Ginseng.
Zi Yun watched Zhu Yin's actions, and a hint of unease flashed across her face.
Although Zi Yun had taken the first opportunity to collect the herbs, the age of the Purple Spirit Ginseng they obtained was entirely a matter of luck.
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