Chapter 1732: Helpless

Qu'er moved again, instantly vanishing from her spot and reappearing above another medicinal field. She continued to cast spells, pulling up the spiritual medicines one by one.

Meanwhile, Han Li approached two other medicinal fields. The spiritual medicines cultivated in these fields ranged in quantity from five or six plants to over ten.

Only a small portion of them could be vaguely identified. Most of the remaining spiritual medicines were not recorded in any texts from either the Human Realm or the Spirit Realm. However, even the few that were recognized were all items of great origin.

Some were like the Corrosive Poison Fruits, long extinct in the Spirit Realm, while others were spiritual medicines that were exceptionally rare even in the Spirit Realm.

This meant that if he could find a few more spiritual medicines, which were relatively easier to obtain, he might actually be able to gather all the spiritual medicines required by Qing Yuanzi.

Suppressing his excitement, Han Li immediately bent down and began to personally collect these fewer herbs, carefully categorizing them and storing them in separate jade boxes.

By the time he had finished collecting all the spiritual medicines from these two fields, Qu'er was already standing gracefully by his side.

All three types of spiritual medicines had been collected by her and neatly arranged in the jade boxes.

A faint smile appeared at the corners of Han Li's lips, and he praised her kindly.

Qu'er's eyes immediately curved into crescent moons, and a beaming smile lit up her face.

Although she had only recently transformed into human form, she had followed Han Li as a white rabbit for many years. Thus, there was no sense of unfamiliarity when she was with him; instead, there was a hidden intimacy.

After finishing with all the spiritual medicines in the fields, Han Li finally turned his gaze towards the other side of the medicinal garden.

There, he saw over a dozen medicinal plots of varying sizes, each enclosed by several-foot-high wooden fences, forming more than a dozen distinct areas.

The spiritual medicines within these enclosed gardens included spiritual trees several zhang tall, spiritual flowers several feet tall, and even a plot enclosing a seven or eight zhang large spiritual spring, in which a small, shimmering silver lotus pod was miraculously floating.

Han Li took a deep breath, walked over, and began to examine each of these individual spiritual medicines.

However, in just a moment, his face was filled with helplessness.

He knew well that these spiritual medicines, individually cultivated by the garden's owner, must be far more valuable than the previously encountered Crimson Luo Fruits and Corrosive Poison Grass.

Yet, he recognized none of them, neither the spiritual trees with their fist-sized, emerald-green fruits nor the strange spiritual flowers that simultaneously displayed thirteen different colors.

It seemed these spiritual medicines would not originally appear in the Spirit Realm. They ought to be unique to the Immortal Realm.

In that case, their specific effects could only be gradually tested later.

If he could truly figure out the uses of even two or three of them, it would be an immense gain.

With these thoughts in mind, Han Li no longer hesitated. He reached out with one hand towards the distant ground, and instantly, a white jade box flew up, transforming into a ball of white light that landed in his hand.

His gaze shifted to the spiritual tree before him, laden with emerald-green fruits. With a flick of his other hand, a small, jade-green shovel appeared.

As he raised his hand, the small shovel transformed into a green streak of light, flashing down towards the ground in the medicinal plot.

With a flash of green light, a crisp "clang" rang out. The small shovel bounced back as if it had struck a metal pot, unable to dislodge even a speck of earth.

Han Li was momentarily stunned, but then, seemingly disbelieving, he activated his magic art again, channeling his spiritual power.

Instantly, the jade shovel spun once, then whistled down again, striking the medicinal plot. The same result occurred; the jade shovel was once again unceremoniously repelled.

Han Li's eye twitched involuntarily.

He had been so focused on examining the spiritual medicine itself that he hadn't paid attention to whether there was anything unusual in the soil below.

Immediately, a blue light flashed in his pupils, and he swept his gaze across the soil below. A hint of surprise flashed across his face.

These golden threads were astonishingly condensed from extremely pure golden spiritual energy.

He didn't know if these golden spiritual energies were essential for cultivating this spiritual tree, or if the garden owner valued this plant so much that they had set up another layer of restriction underground.

Han Li's eyebrow twitched slightly. After a brief consideration, he let out a cold snort.

His jet-black palm emerged from his sleeve and lightly patted downwards.

A stream of flowing grey light sprayed from his palm. After sweeping over the ground, it silently seeped into the soil around the spiritual tree's roots.

The Primordial Magnetic Divine Light specialized in countering the power of the Five Elements, so dealing with such pure golden spiritual energy should be an an easy feat.

Han Li naturally thought so.

However, the scene that followed greatly exceeded his expectations.

After the grey light swept down, the golden spiritual energy threads were not easily cleared away as imagined. Instead, they suddenly intertwined, forming a golden net that glowed with golden light, desperately resisting the attack of the grey light.

Although the Primordial Magnetic Divine Light raged wildly, it truly couldn't disperse them in one blow for a while.

Han Li's expression genuinely changed slightly.

After a moment of grave consideration, his jet-black palm's five fingers subtly moved, and the illusory image of a small mountain appeared, enveloping his entire hand.

Instantly, the grey light in his palm solidified, and the sprayed grey light became viscous, like a liquid.

He had actually used the power of the Primordial Magnetic Extreme Mountain to push the might of the Primordial Magnetic Divine Light to its limit.

The golden spiritual energy in the soil finally could not withstand such fierce counteracting power. After the grey light aggressively swept over them again, they rapidly dispersed and vanished.

Seeing this, Han Li finally relaxed. After his jet-black palm blurred, the illusory mountain instantly disappeared, and his palm's skin color simultaneously returned to normal.

With a point of his hand in the air, the jade-green shovel shot down with a clear ringing sound. After drawing a circle around the soil beneath the entire spiritual tree, it flashed and flew back, disappearing into Han Li's sleeve.

Immediately, where the jade shovel had cut, a stream of flowing green light emerged, enveloping the spiritual tree.

Seeing this, Han Li formed a hand seal with one hand and directly sent a magic incantation towards the spiritual tree.

As the incantation flashed and vanished on the spiritual tree, the spiritual plant trembled slightly and then slowly pulled itself out of the ground, remarkably smoothly.

Han Li's eyes gleamed, and a look of delight appeared on his face.

However, just as the spiritual plant's roots barely left the soil, there was a sudden "poof," and an eerie layer of green flame mysteriously appeared on the surface of the spiritual plant.

The green flames merely flickered a few times, and then the entire spiritual plant, along with the fruits hanging from its branches, vanished without a trace, turning into a wisp of green smoke.

Han Li's mouth hung agape, somewhat dumbfounded.

After a long moment, he let out a sigh, looking at the empty medicinal plot before him with a frustrated expression.

Since this spiritual plant was fundamentally impossible to transplant, his great regret and lamentation were useless.

He immediately turned around decisively and walked towards a strange, jade-white flower, about three feet tall, in another nearby medicinal plot.

The soil beneath this flower had no restrictions; the jade shovel easily cut open the ground. However, when this unknown strange flower was also dug out of the soil, its surface suddenly trembled, and it melted like snow in spring, transforming into a puddle of green liquid that dripped into the soil and vanished without a trace.

To encounter two such "delicate" spiritual medicines in a row meant his luck was truly poor.

Han Li grumbled a few sounds of reluctance, casting an unwilling glance at the spot where the liquid had vanished, but he could only helplessly continue towards the next medicinal plot.

The next three spiritual medicines each met a similar fate the moment their roots left the ground: one suddenly withered and turned to ash, another instantly exploded into powder, and the last one's surface shimmered with electrical threads, instantly turning itself into nothing.

With five spiritual medicines in a row exhibiting this self-destruction, even if Han Li were slower-witted, he would know something was amiss.

This was definitely not due to the spiritual medicines themselves being untransplantable; rather, it was likely that the garden owner had secretly tampered with them, otherwise such bizarre occurrences would never happen.

Therefore, Han Li now stood before the dazzling, fist-sized spiritual flower divided into thirteen colors, beginning to re-examine the entire spiritual plant from top to bottom.

Since his divine sense had failed to detect anything earlier, he could only rely on his Spirit-Clear Eyes to search for the hidden abnormality.

With blinding blue light flashing in his eyes, Han Li's gaze meticulously swept over the spiritual flower, inch by inch, from its top to its roots.

However, after examining it thoroughly seven or eight times, he still found no abnormality whatsoever. This greatly perplexed him. If he couldn't even see through the restrictions placed by the garden owner, then naturally, there was no talk of removing them.

But he would certainly not be content to simply ignore so many spiritual medicines that didn't even exist in the Spirit Realm.

Han Li stood there with his arms crossed, a look of deep contemplation on his face, pondering intensely.

After a full quarter of an hour, he let out a soft sigh and muttered to himself:

"They self-destruct the moment their roots leave the soil. Most likely, the restriction is placed on their roots. It seems this is the only way: since there's no way to move the entire plant, it might not be impossible to forcibly preserve the seeds and fruits..."

As soon as he uttered these words, he immediately looked at the exceptionally vibrant flower before him.

With a focused gaze, he tossed a jade box, and it instantly floated steadily directly beneath the flower.

Then, he quickly flicked one sleeve, and a jade-white palm extended from the other sleeve.

A green light flashed, and a sharp sword thread instantly slashed out, brushing directly past the stem beneath the flower. Simultaneously, a wave of five-colored light flames surged forth.

The strange flower, severed and falling, was immediately enveloped by the light flames, instantly transforming into a crystal-clear, five-colored ice block, frozen in an instant.

With a soft thud, the ice block accurately dropped into the jade box below.