The lone herb in front of Fang Xing right now was none other than a key ingredient necessary for crafting a Foundation Pellet—and it was also of the supreme quality, at that. Fang Xing did not dare to even guess how much such an herb was worth.

If there was anything to regret, it would be that this particular Purple Mist Orchid had yet to fully grow; of the three flowers, only two had reached full maturity while the third was only half open. The plant’s medicinal properties would reach its maximum potential only after the three flowers had fully blossomed, though the spirit herb would require a lot of time to grow—as long as over several hundred years. Although the herb hadn’t fully matured, Fang Xing could not wait any longer and so decided to pick it.

The other reason for Fang Xing’s haste was that he felt the Purple Mist Orchid was growing in a rather odd location. This particular cave had the densest concentration of Demonic Qi in the valley with the densest concentration of Demonic Qi found in the entire Mount Desolation. Furthermore, a formation had been created to draw in even more Demonic Qi from beneath the cave itself. Simply put, at least a third of the Demonic Qi leaked from the original seal had been drawn into this valley, and a tenth of this portion was now inside this cave specifically.

Using the Demonic Qi of a Golden Core Stage beast in order to nurture a single spirit herb, just how lavish was this?

"Hahaha, my efforts to take this risk were not in vain…" Fang Xing loudly laughed, raising his saber in excitement. He picked up the spirit herb along with the flower pot and jade platform to place them into his storage sack.

The golden crow was still struggling on the ground with nonstop curses. "Yu Sanliang, you lying son of a bi*ch…."

Fang Xing smirked. "What does Yu Sanliang lying to you have to do with me?"

Dumbstruck, the golden crow continued to curse. "I knew it, I knew you lied to me! You shameless, low-life, despicable…." However, even after so much profanity, Fang Xing did not respond. Instead, the boy simply looked at the crow’s neck, causing the startled crow to ask, "What—what are you planning?"

"Why, to kill you, of course."

The golden crow was once again left dumbstruck before he suddenly changed his demeanor, beginning to flatter instead, "Heh heh, you know, I was just kidding. It’s only just a spirit herb, take it all you want! As the genius of the proud Three-Legged Golden Crow Clan, as the demonic realm’s most adventurous talent of the next generation, what’s a little spirit herb to me?"

‘Tch, this bird changes its face faster than any human!’ Fang Xing spat on the ground. "It’s not like I can’t share some of this herb with you."

The golden crow’s eyes immediately lit up. "Oh yes yes, I’m happy with getting the worse end of the deal. All three flowers are yours; I’ll just take the leaves—"

Fang Xing’s blade was swiftly embedded next to the crow’s neck as the boy began to curse, "You think I— your grandpa—am stupid? Why do you think the other flowers were called ‘soul-GRa.s.s’[1]? Even though the flowers show how mature it is, its medicinal properties are all concentrated in the leaves; a single leaf is worth more than ten blossoms. You b.a.s.t.a.r.d, you want to take all seven leaves and, what, give me the three flowers so I can place them in my hair and pretend to be a pretty little flower girl?"

"How… how did you know?" The golden crow was truly startled this time. He had always taken pride in his breadth of knowledge, yet this human boy in front of him seemed to know more details about this than even he did. With this, it became even harder for the crow to see through Fang Xing’s thoughts.

Not only was the boy powerful enough as to easily defeat him—a sixth-tier beast—despite being only in the fourth tier, not only did the boy possess the ability to see through the formation’s pa.s.sageways… but he even recognized such a rare spirit herb as well?

At this moment, a clear voice was suddenly heard coming from outside the cave, "Who might the master here be? I, a core disciple of the Qing-Yun Sect, am here to pay my respect to you."

"Xiao Jianming?" Fang Xing’s face contorted. He would never forget this enemy of his; this man had been the very reason for him joining the Qing-Yun Sect in the first place. Fang Xing hadn’t antic.i.p.ated that he would meet him so soon, at a place like this.

However, who was this "master" he spoke of?

As Fang Xing was wondering, Xiao Jianming’s voice rose up once more and put him on alert, "Senior master of the beast tribe, I—Xiao Jianming—am here to pay my respects. Would you be so kind as to come out to greet a visitor?" Fang Xing sent the golden crow a meaningful look.

So Xiao Jianming was here for the crow….

Outside the cave, Xiao Jianming sat atop his airborne steel eagle while looking on with caution. This was the exact location his uncle had told him about, the place where the treasure from his grandfather lay. According to his uncle, when the great grand-elder of the Qing-Yun Sect and Elder Bai Qianzhang sealed the beast king inside Mount Desolation some three hundred years ago, his grandfather had secretly planted a Purple Mist Orchid here. Now that three hundred years had pa.s.sed, the Purple Mist Orchid would have taken in enough Demonic Qi to be close to its full maturity. This was also one of the main reasons why his uncle had asked him to join this specific mission together with the rest of the Qing-Yun disciples, as he could harvest the Purple Mist Orchid on the mission.

Xiao Jianming had felt everything was under control. His uncle had mentioned that his grandfather had also left behind a protective formation while planting the herb, and no one should be able to find out about its existence. However, something that should have been a simple matter had been unexpectedly ruined by a random Foundation Stage beast that had appeared from out of nowhere.

Right now, Xiao Jianming was wis.h.i.+ng very hard that the beast was not here for the same purpose he was. Despite its rarity, the Purple Mist Orchid wasn’t very useful to a Foundation Stage beast, but it was still a possibility, and he did not dare to dive straight inside without announcing his arrival.

After politely introducing himself twice, Xiao Jianming hoped that the beast would come and show itself before him. However, there was no reply, causing doubt and suspicion to rise from within. He lowered his head with tightened brows as he asked the steel eagle beneath him, "Hei Yun[2], can you sense anything about a Foundation Stage beast?"

The steel eagle let out a clear chirp and shook its head, showing that it did not.

Xiao Jianming narrowed his eyes, his voice lowering. "No matter what, let’s go down there and check it out first." He then took out a jade talisman that showed the precise location of the spirit herb, and—after confirming the direction—he signaled for his eagle to fly towards it.

One man and one eagle descended rapidly towards the cave.

"Hahaha, s.h.i.+xiong Xiao, how are you!" A gold-colored monster suddenly appeared from the formation. Xiao Jianming was caught completely off-guard at the sight, and he jumped while activating his protective armor. When he began to calm down, he saw that what had flown out from the formation was a strange-looking golden crow similar to his steel eagle in size, with a full covering of golden feathers except for a bald patch around the neck.

Sitting atop the golden crow’s back was a youth in his mid-teens. The boy wore a Qing-Yun robe and showed an innocent and joyful grin while giving off a sense of playfulness. In his left hand he held one end of an [Immortal’s Snare] with the other end snared around the golden crow’s balded neck, and in his right hand he held a blade twice his size in front of his chest with the sharp edge placed right next to the strange bird’s neck.

"Who are you? And why are you here?" Xiao Jianming asked in a deep tone before he couldn’t help but to glimpse down towards the spell formation below.

There was some resentment within the depths of Fang Xing’s eyes, yet he smiled and replied, "My name is Fang Xing. We’re brothers from the same sect!"

Slightly startled, Xiao Jianming refocused his gaze back upon Fang Xing. "So you’re Fang Xing. I only just recently arrived at Mount Desolation and heard that you’d died early at the hands of a Foundation Stage beast. Why are you here?"

"Haha!" Fang Xing let out a burst of laughter. "Don’t you listen to their nonsense! That Foundation Stage beast apparently took something from here and left. He didn’t even bother to worry about me. He must have let me off this time after seeing how handsome I am."

Xiao Jianming’s jaw instantly dropped. "What did he take?" he questioned loudly.

Fang Xing pointed below. "As for that, I don’t know what it was, but he took it from there!"

Immediately, it seemed as though all of the blood had drained from Xiao Jianming’s face, and he nearly flew down right to where Fang Xing had pointed. However, as if remembering something, he gave Fang Xing an expression full of doubt. "Come down with me!" He then pressed his palm on top of the steel eagle, causing the eagle to release a crisp cry before diving towards the formation below. At this moment, his emotions were incredibly complex, and he could only hope that this "something" the Foundation Stage beast took was not the same "something" his grandfather had left behind for him.

Unable to do or say anything else, Fang Xing slowly and reluctantly followed behind. He was feeling rather annoyed, as he was not expecting to have his path blocked just as he was about to get away with the spirit herb in his hands.

A person could only deal with what came when it came!

After Fang Xing returned to the formation closely behind Xiao Jianming, the latter asked his steel eagle to keep an eye on the boy while he himself took out the map of the formation. After some study, he walked into the formation with haste, but once he stepped inside, he saw that the thick smog had thinned and immediately knew that the formation had already been broken into.

—

[1] This entire sentence: The word for "herb" is the same as the word for "gra.s.s", and the full term for the Purple Mist Orchid is "Purple Mist Orchid Herb/Gra.s.s". Original was more along the lines of "Why do you think it’s called ‘gra.s.s’?", with Fang Xing being belligerent using a play on words.

[2] Hei Yun: Name of the steel eagle (铁云; hei1 yun2), literally meaning black and cloud.