12: Chapter 12 Unexpected Gains

After venturing deep for about an hour, the sun began to slant westward, and the light in the forest became dim.

A faint sound of flowing water came from ahead, but the sound was hollow and did not resemble flowing water.

Passing through a dense patch of shrubs, the view before him suddenly opened up, yet it gave one a sense of desolation.

This was a long-dried creek valley. The valley floor was exposed with large patches of gray-white and dark brown jumbled rocks, and on both banks were steep, wind-eroded cliff walls.

There were almost no tall trees in the valley, only some low-growing shrubs with scorched yellow marks on their leaves and lichens growing stubbornly.

The air was dry, carrying a strange scent, similar to a mixture of soil and ozone after a heavy rainstorm.

What made Lin Xuan perk up the most was that the Herb-Seeking Mouse was behaving exceptionally excitedly at this moment; it no longer needed Lin Xuan's guidance.

Instead, it darted towards several piles of rocks on the valley floor, pressing its nose against the gravel on the ground and sniffing rapidly, emitting urgent "squeak, squeak" sounds.

Lin Xuan quickly followed.

Arriving close by, without needing the Herb-Seeking Mouse's indication, he also saw it—scattered among those common gray-white and brown stones were some rock fragments that were darker in color and faintly carried dark purple or scorched black patterns!

The quantity was greater than what was found in the Listen-Wind Bamboo Grove, but they were similarly tiny, with weak Spiritual Qi.

He squatted down and carefully picked them up. The residual "Thunder Qi" on these fragments seemed "fresher" than those in the bamboo grove? Or perhaps, the environment here was drier, preserving them slightly better?

While collecting, his gaze was caught by a few inconspicuous, dark green, moss-like plants in the crevices of the rocks.

They grew tightly against the stone surface, withered in appearance, but their surfaces had extremely fine, silver-white, web-like patterns, occasionally reflecting a glint under the slanted sunlight.

"Is this... Thunder-Pattern Moss?" Lin Xuan recalled seeing a similar description in the appendix of the introduction to hundreds of herbs.

It is a First-Grade Low Grade spiritual plant, usually associated with lightning-struck stone or the surface of rocks long affected by lightning, capable of faintly absorbing and stabilizing the free-roaming Thunder Spiritual Qi in the air.

The Thunder Spiritual Qi it contains is extremely faint, but due to its stability, it is a good auxiliary material for certain special Medicinal Pills or low-level thunder-attribute Formations.

He carefully used a bamboo piece to shovel down a few clusters along with a thin layer of stone crust, wrapping them up in prepared oil paper.

The appearance of the Thunder-Pattern Moss further confirmed the close connection between this place and Thunder Spiritual Qi.

Just as he was preparing to expand his search range, the Herb-Seeking Mouse suddenly directed its attention towards a narrow stone crevice upstream in the creek valley, which was half-hidden by several huge collapsed rocks.

It emitted a completely different sound—no longer the excitement of discovering spiritual materials, but a whimper filled with confusion and an instinctive desire to approach, yet mixed with some fear.

Lin Xuan's heart stirred. He gripped the hard wooden stick he used to push aside thorns and cautiously approached the stone crevice.

The crevice was deep and dark inside, with a faint air circulation. He took out a fire starter, lit a makeshift pine torch, and carefully probed inside.

The firelight flickered, illuminating the interior of the narrow gap.

The stone walls were damp and covered with water-eroded marks. At the deepest part of the crevice, on a small patch of relatively dry sandy soil near the base of the rock wall, he saw the greatest harvest of this trip—

A vine-like seedling, about three inches tall, entirely presenting a sickly gray-purple color, with a stem so thin it seemed as if it would snap at any moment.

It only had a few sparse leaves, which were withered and curled, with scorched edges, but deep within the leaf veins, a trace of extremely faint, pure pale purple spiritual light was faintly flowing.

What was even more strange was that with this seedling as the center, within a range of about a foot, those violent and scattered Thunder Spiritual Qi factors in the air seemed to have become slightly more "docile," showing an extremely weak trend of converging towards the seedling.

"thunder-attracting vine!" Lin Xuan almost blurted out, but forcibly held back, fearing that his breath might disturb this dying seedling.

He had seen records of this item in the core chapters of the introduction to hundreds of herbs; it was listed as a "rare spiritual plant" and was one of the few spiritual plants capable of growing in grade. According to records, a Sect had once cultivated a Fourth-Grade thunder-attracting vine, and a Fourth-Grade thunder-attracting vine could be called a treasure of the Thunder Dao.

Its characteristic was the ability to spontaneously attract and gather free-roaming Thunder Spiritual Qi in the air, forming a miniature, relatively stable Thunder Spiritual environment around it, which was a supreme treasure for thunder-attribute Cultivators.

However, this item had extremely harsh growth conditions; it needed to sprout in a place naturally abundant in Thunder Spiritual Qi, and its growth was extremely slow, making it exceptionally sensitive to environmental changes and very prone to dying prematurely.

The one before him was clearly on the verge of death, not knowing if it was due to the exhaustion of Thunder Spiritual Qi in this place or other reasons.

Without any hesitation, Lin Xuan immediately took action.

He dared not touch it directly with his hands, so he took out the jade piece and soft brush he had prepared long ago, and cautiously dug out the seedling along with a lump of original soil about the size of a washbasin that wrapped its roots.

His movements were as gentle as treating fragile glass.

After digging it out, he immediately communicated with the spirit control tower, and with a thought, instantly transferred this dying thunder-attracting vine seedling, along with that lump of original soil, to the barren sandy ground in the Spirit-Taming Tower Space.

Subsequently, he dug up a large patch of moist soil and put it into the space.

After finishing all this, he let out a long sigh of relief, feeling that his back had been soaked with cold sweat.

Whether it could be saved depended on that mysterious space in the spirit control tower.

He dared not linger any longer, quickly cleaned up the traces he left behind, packed away the collected lightning-struck stone fragments and Thunder-Pattern Moss, called back the Herb-Seeking Mouse, and quickly returned along the original path.

The setting sun dyed the mountains golden-red, and the birds returning to the forest chirped.

Just as Lin Xuan was about to walk out of the back mountain area and return to the relatively safe area where Disciples often frequented, a burst of intense arguing came from the corner of the bamboo path ahead.

Lin Xuan's footsteps paused, and he turned to hide behind a dense patch of Phoenix-tail bamboo.

On the path, two Outer Sect Disciples dressed in light cyan attire, who both looked to be in their twenties, were glaring at each other.

One of them was thin and gaunt, with a sallow complexion, tightly clutching a plant with serrated leaves and small white flowers blooming at the top; the other was burly with a fierce-looking face, reaching out to snatch it.

"Fatty Zhang! This 'silver thread grass' was discovered by me first! According to the rules, whoever gets it first owns it!" The thin Disciple guarded the herb tightly, his voice sharp.

"Pah! Monkey Li, stop preaching rules to me! Is this back mountain yours? I saw it too! What is seen is shared! Give me half, otherwise don't think about leaving today!"

The burly Disciple was spitting as he spoke, his Qi Refining Level 2 aura pressing towards the other party without any concealment.

"Half? In your dreams! This silver thread grass is only a First-Grade Low Grade, how many contribution points is it worth? I haven't even settled the score with you for snatching my 'Iron-Bone Flower' last month!"

"That's because you were incapable of protecting it! Less nonsense, hand it over!"

The two began to push each other, their Spiritual power fluctuations chaotic; clearly, both had lost their tempers.

The thin Disciple's cultivation seemed slightly weaker, and he was pushed to stagger, but he gripped the herb in his hand even tighter, his eyes turning red.

Lin Xuan watched quietly from behind the bamboo, understanding clearly in his heart.

The silver thread grass was indeed just the most common First-Grade Low Grade healing herb, worth no more than four or five contribution points.

Just for this meager resource, two Disciples from the same peak could tear their faces off and argue to this extent; the scarcity of resources and the intensity of competition on Emerald Bamboo Peak were evident.

This was likely the reason why many Disciples were forced to take risks and accept dangerous missions.

He did not appear, nor did he have any intention of intervening.

Waiting until the two had dragged each other away while arguing, he stepped out from behind the bamboo, brushed off the grass leaves from his body, and walked calmly towards the courtyard in Zone C.

The afterglow of the setting sun stretched his shadow long. In his embrace were the lightning-struck stone fragments that had almost exhausted their Spiritual Qi and a few clusters of Thunder-Pattern Moss.

In his Sea of Consciousness, within the Spirit-Taming Tower Space, a dying thunder-attracting vine seedling was quietly placed on the barren sandy soil, weakly emitting an aura of survival.

Today's harvest far exceeded expectations. And the cruel scene of Sect bottom-tier Disciples fighting over meager resources taught him a more realistic lesson.

The road is still long; resources, strength, neither can be missing.