8: Chapter 8: Acquisition of Polygonum multiflorum

Wu Li's wings suddenly folded in.

"Why is there still Spiritual Qi overflowing?"

He had already pulled up the fleeceflower root; the Spiritual Qi inside the cave should have been dissipating.

The Spiritual Qi overflowing from this crack didn't feel like the lingering aura of the fleeceflower root; instead, it felt like... there was something inside.

Wu Li spread his wings and flew over, landing beside the crack.

The Spiritual Qi was even denser.

Wu Li stepped back two paces, spread his right wing, and struck the crack with a fierce flap!

"Whoosh!"

A sharp surge of energy shot out from his wingtip, viciously striking the edge of the crack.

"Crack!"

Gravel flew everywhere.

The crack was torn open into a larger gap.

Moonlight poured down from the crack in the cave ceiling, shining exactly onto the opened gap.

Wu Li's eyes lit up.

Below the gap was an artificially carved groove—square, with distinct edges, and polished extremely smooth.

Resting quietly in the groove was a circular object, palm-sized, pitch-black, and covered in dense, intricate patterns.

"This is... a Formation Plate!"

Wu Li's pupils constricted sharply.

In his past life, he had seen something similar in an Ancient Tomb in the Kunlun Mountains, but that Formation Plate had been dilapidated, having lost all its Spiritual Qi and remaining as nothing more than a pile of waste stone.

Yet this Formation Plate before him was still completely intact, and embedded in its center was a thumb-sized spirit bead.

The spirit bead was pale cyan and translucent, with what looked like clouds and mist swirling inside; it was from this spirit bead that the Spiritual Qi was emanating.

Putting these two things together created a complete core for a Formation.

Anyone capable of setting up such a Formation had to be at least a Cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Stage or higher. It appeared a Foundation Establishment Cultivator had stayed here and casually set up a Spirit Gathering Array. It was precisely because of this Spirit Gathering Array that a spiritual plant like the fleeceflower root had been able to grow here.

"Caw caw~"

"It's mine!"

Wu Li extended his right claw, grasped the edge of the Formation Plate, and pried hard.

The Formation Plate was embedded very tightly, as if fixed by something, and it didn't budge. Wu Li frowned, switched to using both claws, and while prying, used his beak to peck at the gap along the edge of the Formation Plate.

"Click!"

The Formation Plate finally loosened.

Wu Li pried the Formation Plate out of the groove, held it in his beak, and confirmed there was nothing left behind.

Formation Plate, spirit bead, fleeceflower root.

This trip was a massive profit.

Wu Li grasped the Formation Plate with one claw and the fleeceflower root with the other, spread his wings, and flew quickly toward the cave entrance.

The light at the cave entrance grew brighter and brighter, and the night wind, carrying the scent of vegetation, rushed toward him.

Just at the moment he rushed out of the cave entrance.

A huge shadow was walking in from outside the cave entrance.

The shadow was three zhang tall, with white fur like snow and knotted muscles; it was the very Ape Demon that had chased after them. In its right claw, it dangled a limp, grayish-white mass—it was the corpse of the Old Fox Demon.

The grayish-white fur was stained with blood and mud, the body twisted at an impossible angle, its neck snapped, head drooping, and its pair of triangular eyes wide open in a death stare.

The moment Wu Li flew out of the cave entrance, the two demons locked eyes.

The Ape Demon was stunned.

Its brain had not yet switched out of the rage from hunting down the Old Fox Demon, and suddenly a black blob flew out in front of it; it hadn't even clearly seen what it was.

Time seemed to freeze for an instant.

Then.

The Ape Demon's gaze landed on Wu Li's claws.

The fleeceflower root it had guarded for several years, its snow-white roots glowing faintly in the moonlight, was being grasped in the claws of a black crow, swaying as the wings flapped.

The Ape Demon's blood-red eyes widened sharply.

"ROAR!!!"

A deafening roar exploded from the Ape Demon's throat, the sound laden with rage, killing intent, and a madness born from being played for a fool.

It threw the Old Fox Demon's corpse onto the ground, its massive body turning sharply toward Wu Li, pounding its chest with both fists, emitting a "thud-thud" dull sound like a beating drum.

"Give it back to me!!!"

The Ape Demon's voice was hoarse and furious, shaking the gravel at the cave entrance until it fell down in a rustle.

It extended its huge palm, fingers like hooks, clawing toward Wu Li.

Wu Li's pupils constricted.

He flapped his wings violently, his body soaring high into the air. The Ape Demon's giant palm grazed the tip of his tail, and the resulting gust of wind nearly knocked him over.

A few black flight feathers were torn off by the air current, drifting down below.

"ROAR!!!"

The Ape Demon was furious.

In mid-air.

Wu Li cast a disdainful glance and then responded.

"Yell, yell, yell!"

"What the hell are you yelling for?!"

"If you've got the guts, come up here and fight me."

Wu Li shot a look of contempt downward, then, completely unbothered, flapped his wings with all his might.

The Ape Demon paused for a moment, then, in its fury, its rough, giant palm violently grabbed a rock nearby.

Then its Demonic Qi surged, the muscles on its right arm knotted like the roots of an ancient tree, and it threw the rock with all its might. The flying stone, carrying a whistling sound as it cut through the air, smashed toward Wu Li like a meteor.

Wu Li's pupils constricted.

"Oh, shit!"

Wu Li pulled his wings in sharply, his entire body rolling to the side in the air like a falling leaf. The flying stone grazed his left wing, the resulting gust of wind nearly knocking him over.

A few black flight feathers were torn off by the air current, drifting down below.

"Roar!"

Seeing that the strike missed, the Ape Demon was even more furious, but by this time, Wu Li had already flown far away, his black figure disappearing into the deep, layered mountain ranges of Wanhui Mountain, leaving the Ape Demon to rage impotently in place.

"You idiot monkey, you have absolutely no manners!"

In mid-air.

Wu Li made a few turns and finally returned to his Desolate Ridge.

Desolate Ridge.

Wu Li's nest.

Wu Li landed on a dead branch, his claws gripping the bark tightly, his chest heaving violently.

That series of flights and evasions had consumed quite a bit of energy, and a few feathers torn off by the flying stone were still sticking out on him, making him look like a pheasant that had just finished a fight.

"This lousy body... is still too weak."

Wu Li caught his breath and looked down at the fleeceflower root in his claws.

"Fortunately, the results are still quite good."

The Formation Plate was first placed by Wu Li inside the nest.

The fleeceflower root's snow-white roots glowed faintly in the night, as thick as a child's arm, the surface covered in fine, dense patterns that looked like the wrinkles on an old man's face, or perhaps some kind of ancient rune.

The Spiritual Qi was gentle and mellow, not intense and pungent like the Vermilion Fruit, but rather a slow, continuous, spring-water-like flow.

A hundred-year-old fleeceflower root.

Wu Li did not hesitate.

He pressed the fleeceflower root against the dead branch with his claw, lowered his head, and gave it a gentle peck with his beak.

The fleeceflower root's skin was very thin; as soon as his beak tip touched it, the snow-white root cracked open, and a stream of sweet juice seeped out, carrying the fragrance of earth and the coolness of Spiritual Qi.

Wu Li opened his beak and took a bite.

The texture of the fleeceflower root was peculiar.

Unlike the Vermilion Fruit, where the juices burst forth, this was dense and glutinous, like chewing on a piece of yam soaked in honey.

There wasn't much juice, but every bite contained rich Spiritual Qi, sliding down his throat, warm and moist, neither hot nor cold.

He swallowed the entire fleeceflower root in a few bites, not even leaving the root fibers behind.