Long Xuan trudged along, using the farsight ability of the Eye of Heavenly secret to scan his surroundings. He was both on the lookout for dangerous creatures living in the area and hoping to find some treasures. The farsight ability was indeed convenient for treasure hunting; within just a few days, he had already found seven peak-grade water bear.
Each region nurtures its own unique creatures, and the water bear living here were naturally extremely cold-resistant. Perhaps if Long Xuan could transfer their cold resistance to himself, he would no longer fear the cold here. Then, he might actually be able to walk to the peak of this mountain and leave a stone there inscribed with “Long Xuan was here.”
While he was indulging in this thought, his four external clones walked over from a distance, each holding a transparent empty bottle, and handed them to Long Xuan. If someone else were present, they might wonder why they were handing over empty bottles. However, Long Xuan simply used the farsight ability of the Eye of Heavenly secret to enlarge the bottles and was instantly overjoyed.
Each bottle contained more than ten little creatures that looked like tiny bears, far surpassing the harvest of his lazy main body. "Excellent! Excellent! Collecting this many peak-grade tardigrades is enough for now. Let's find a cave to rest for a while."
Long Xuan put away all the bottles. A portion of the cold-resistant water bear was sufficient; he still needed to go to other dangerous places to collect different varieties of tardigrades, so there was no need to deplete the peak-grade water bear here.
Long Xuan used the farsight ability of the Eye of Heavenly secret to look around. He didn't find a cave but something on the mountain wall caught his attention and made him ecstatic. He immediately called his clones and rushed over.
He had inadvertently spotted a Millennium Iceberg Snow Lotus.
It's important to know that plants have lifespans too. The vast majority of plants wither after reaching a certain age and never become thousand-year or ten-thousand-year spirit herbs as in novels. Therefore, spirit herbs older than a thousand years are extremely rare and priceless, easily fetching exorbitant prices.
What use is a thousand-year-old spirit herb? Besides its immense medicinal value, even keeping it in a medicinal garden is valuable. If a thousand-year-old spirit herb gets infested, it could produce high-grade spirit insects. Similarly, a ten-thousand-year-old spirit herb could produce peak-grade spirit insects, all of which are treasures.
A ten-thousand-year spirit herb producing peak-grade spirit insects made Long Xuan's breath quicken. He had to transplant this Millennium Iceberg Snow Lotus; leaving it here risked someone else taking it.
However, Long Xuan quickly faced a headache. Low-grade spirit herbs could be cultivated manually, but higher-grade ones had extremely specific growth environments, making manual cultivation or transplantation impossible. Although human wisdom could solve any problem, and many large clans had successfully developed methods to cultivate certain high-grade spirit herbs on a large scale to make fortunes, these methods were closely guarded secrets.
Moreover, no clan had successfully developed a cultivation method for the Iceberg Snow Lotus due to its unique environment requirement of extreme cold, making manual cultivation in medicinal gardens impossible. Long Xuan considered whether his golden finger could help him figure out how to cultivate the Iceberg Snow Lotus, but he was unsure. The extreme cold requirement alone stumped everyone, including himself.
After a while, Long Xuan's eyes lit up. His soon-to-be-born Divine ice Flame was cold, wasn't it? If he couldn't cultivate the Millennium Iceberg Snow Lotus, no one else could. Long Xuan slapped his forehead, realizing he must have been frozen to overlook such a simple solution.
Excitedly, he ran to the Millennium Iceberg Snow Lotus and looked up. It grew on a steep cliff, making it dangerous to pick, and there could be other unknown dangers like guardian spirit beasts. Long Xuan called to his avatar, “Fire clone, go pick that Millennium Iceberg Snow Lotus for me without damaging its roots.”
With his clones around, there was no need for him to take risks. If there were dangers, the clones would bear them. The Fire Clone climbed the steep cliff without hesitation and picked the Snow Lotus. After a while, he jumped down and was caught by the clones below.
The whole process was uneventful, making Long Xuan sigh with relief. Without taking the time to admire the Snow Lotus, he called his clones and quickly left, knowing it wasn’t safe to linger.
Shortly after they left, a gigantic Snow Eagle descended from the sky, screeching at the empty cliff, almost causing an avalanche. Meanwhile, Long Xuan found a cave using the farsight ability of the Eye of Heavenly secret, Confirming it was safe, he called his clones to block the entrance with stones, sealing out the cold wind and finally feeling a bit of warmth.
After lighting a fire for warmth and light, Long Xuan roasted food while admiring the Snow Lotus. Its petals, resembling blue ice, shimmered beautifully under the light, emitting a fragrance that immediately swept away his fatigue, leaving him feeling intoxicated.
“What a treasure! I wonder if spirit bees feeding on the nectar of this Millennium Iceberg Snow Lotus could evolve into a queen bee,” Long Xuan thought. He wasn't merely daydreaming; thousand-year-old natural treasures often had miraculous effects. Spirit beasts and insects consuming them invariably underwent changes, though the extent varied.
Spirit bees consuming honey made from the nectar of a Millennium Iceberg Snow Lotus could indeed evolve, possibly into a queen bee. If this Snow Lotus matured into a ten-thousand-year Snow Lotus, the resulting honey would cause even more extraordinary changes.
Long Xuan eagerly anticipated the changes in the spirit bees, hoping for a queen bee, which would yield abundant honey that he can then drink.