Chapter 790: Picking the Sacred Herb

Sizzle! As they approached the blood-colored peak, scarlet electric arcs flashed across. They resembled streaks of blood, or perhaps the eyes of the grim reaper, instilling a profound sense of awe and a chill in their hearts.

Not just Toad, Ying Xiaoxiao, and Ying Zhexian, but even Chu Feng himself felt uncertain. He hesitated on the way, sensing the extreme danger of the area.

One wrong step here could lead to eternal damnation. Being struck by the blood-colored lightning would undoubtedly result in the complete annihilation of their bodies and souls. In this world, abundant in Yang energy, they were inherently suppressed in many ways.

The wilderness was largely serene, save for this particular area where electric flashes occasionally appeared. The falling red lightning was the only thing that disturbed the pervasive silence.

Chu Feng halted, deliberating for a considerable time before daring to advance further.

He had already discerned that this was a life-annihilating domain. Attempts to test it with rocks or weapons proved futile, as no domain runes were visible.

This implied that using inanimate objects to scout the path would be largely ineffective.

However, attempting to scout with soul light was perilous; any misstep would trigger the scarlet electric arcs, leading to complete annihilation.

"It's as if we're being forced to pave the path up this blood-colored mountain with our very lives," Chu Feng lamented.

Lacking the protection of physical bodies, they were inherently vulnerable. A single lightning strike in this region would guarantee instant death.

Chu Feng retrieved the three tattered corpses, laying them side by side on the ground. He had already confiscated their spatial bracelets and now prepared to infiltrate one of the bodies with his soul light.

"Are we trying to possess these corpses?" Ouyang Feng mumbled, as he too began to manipulate a body, preparing for infiltration.

This was a desperate, last-ditch effort.

Ying Zhexian, despite her ethereal and graceful demeanor, akin to a celestial being, did not show any aversion. She, along with the silver-haired little loli, was also examining a corpse.

Sizzle! However, in an instant, Toad let out a tragic cry. Being the most impulsive, he had rashly injected his soul light into one of the corpses. The result was that he was scorched, emitting smoke, and had to jump and scramble out, engulfed in fierce flames.

This incident greatly startled Ying Xiaoxiao, who promptly backed away, vowing never to touch the nearby corpses again.

"They're just corpses, yet they still suppress us! Damn it, how shameful!" Ouyang Feng fumed, his face grim after putting out the flames.

Even in death, the blood within the three knights remained terrifyingly potent. Their strong Yang blood energy acted like a deadly poison to their soul forms.

This also highlighted how dreadful this world, saturated with Yang energy, was for them.

"Actually, it's primarily because these knights practiced unique secret techniques, their blood energy like a furnace, naturally suppressing Yin spirits," Chu Feng deduced. "Other creatures shouldn't pose such a threat."

With the body possession plan a failure, Chu Feng calmed himself and meticulously began to deduce the domain's rules. The envoy had evidently employed numerous deceptions and special techniques to prevent outsiders from observing, which was why Chu Feng felt the current situation was precarious.

Ultimately, after careful study, Chu Feng identified five points on the ascent where he couldn't ascertain complete safety. These crucial nodes would require direct passage to determine their true nature.

"Chu Feng, you can't be so reckless!" Ouyang Feng was the first to protest. "We only have one life; we can't gamble like this. If we fail, it's complete annihilation."

Ying Zhexian suggested, "This wilderness has no shortage of fierce birds and beasts. We could capture some."

"That makes sense!" Ouyang Feng nodded in agreement.

A moment later, they worked together, capturing six cold lizards with the intention of subduing them and forcing these cold-blooded creatures to ascend the mountain.

However, once in this area, despite the cold lizards' fervent gaze at the herbs on the blood-colored sacred mountain, they fiercely resisted and eventually went mad when forced to approach and climb, refusing to cooperate.

"This is the Martial God's medicine mountain!" one of the cold lizards shrieked. "Anyone who dares to covet it will face divine punishment and have their soul scattered!"

Ultimately, the six cold lizards fought desperately against Chu Feng and his companions and were, predictably, killed.

"Perhaps we could possess the cold lizard bodies," Ouyang Feng suggested. He tested it and found that the damage to his soul light during the invasion was not very significant.

This was primarily because cold lizards inherently carried Yin energy, making them chilling to the bone.

Chu Feng also attempted it and estimated he could inhabit a cold lizard's body for half an hour. Any longer, however, would still cause damage to his soul.

"Even with suitable physical bodies, ascending the mountain ourselves is still too perilous," Ying Zhexian stated, proposing another idea for them to try.

"There's a distant wilderness inhabited by many purple-gold rats," she began. "We could try to lure them here. If we could trigger a massive rat tide to surge up the mountain path..."

Upon hearing this, Chu Feng immediately nodded. If a large number of creatures were to assault the path following his deductions, he could naturally and precisely refine the optimal route.

Furthermore, if a rat tide were to erupt, some fortunate rats might even manage to reach the peak directly. With such vast numbers, it was inevitable that a few would by chance follow the correct path.

Unfortunately, this hopeful idea did not translate well into reality.

Not only the cold lizards, but even the purple-gold rats became agitated upon arrival, refusing to advance. They exhibited an innate, bone-deep fear, preferring to go mad and fight desperately against Chu Feng and his companions rather than ascend the mountain.

Eventually, Chu Feng and his group managed to capture a small leader of the purple-gold rats. Using soul light, they forcefully controlled it, intending to issue commands through it and direct over a hundred purple-gold rats to storm the blood-colored peak.

However, ninety percent of the purple-gold rats rebelled, defying the command and fleeing.

A dozen or so purple-gold rats did obey and began to climb, but they soon went mad, crashing about aimlessly. They failed completely as scouts and were directly struck by a scarlet lightning bolt, annihilating all of them.

Ouyang Feng sighed, "I know why. This blood-colored mountain is steeped in divine beast blood, and it was just freshly doused today. The invisible aura of a divine beast terrifies all fierce birds and beasts, making them dare not approach. Facing their supreme ruler, they are all overcome by a deep-seated fear."

As a divine beast from the netherworld, he was quite knowledgeable about such matters.

Chu Feng, refusing to believe in supernatural deterrents, once again risked much to painstakingly control a purple-gold rat leader. The outcome, however, was equally futile.

Furthermore, when he stubbornly attempted to infiltrate a second purple-gold rat's body, he narrowly avoided a backlash from its potent Yang blood energy.

At this moment, Chu Feng, Ying Zhexian, and Ouyang Feng all fell silent. Their inherent talents seemed utterly useless here.

Even though this purple-gold rat was as massive as a rhinoceros and at the Grand Perfection stage of the Sun-Gazing realm, it shouldn't have been able to pose such a threat to them.

They, who were originally endowed with extraordinary talents, found themselves inferior to a mere exotic rat after arriving in this world!

"I want to return to the Yang world!" Ouyang Feng cried out, intensely provoked. "I want to purge all Yin energy and become a true, pure-blooded divine beast of the Yang realm!"

This was because he had just attempted to seize control of a purple-gold rat leader's body himself, only to be burned by its blood energy and scream in agony.

How humiliating for a divine beast!

After exhausting every conceivable method, they concluded that to ascend the mountain, they ultimately had to do it themselves.

"Fairy Ying," Chu Feng began, "I believe we need your assistance. Don't you still possess a substitute death talisman?"

Surprisingly, Ying Zhexian readily agreed without hesitation. However, she clarified her view that such an opportunity should be reserved for the very last moment, specifically when they were actually harvesting the sacred medicine.

She firmly believed that the area around the sacred medicine would undoubtedly hold the greatest and most unusual dangers.

"How much soul light is required to control a cold lizard each time?"

"At least one-twentieth of our soul light, I estimate. Any less, and its blood energy will corrode and incinerate it, making it impossible to control the body."

Ultimately, they decided to take a risk, dividing off portions of their soul light to control the cold lizard corpses, using them to scout for the safest path.

"Your domain deductions should be accurate, right? Only five spots to test?"

"More or less," Chu Feng replied. This response not only made Ouyang Feng stare in disbelief, but even Ying Zhexian, uncharacteristically, rolled her eyes at him.

They then used a cold lizard to ascend the mountain. This was a physical body personally controlled by Chu Feng, as he wished to observe the domain on the blood-colored peak up close.

Shortly after, a scarlet electric arc streaked by. Chu Feng grunted in pain as the cold lizard exploded into a pile of ash, and the portion of his spiritual energy controlling it was naturally lost.

Next, Ying Zhexian used a wisp of her soul light to control a cold lizard's body and began the ascent.

Half an hour later, that cold lizard also exploded, annihilated along with its spirit. Ying Zhexian, too, lost a portion of her spiritual energy.

Of the five nodes, three proved problematic. Ouyang Feng, Chu Feng, and Ying Zhexian each sacrificed a portion of their spiritual energy to ascertain the correct path.

They did not celebrate, however, as there was no guarantee that Chu Feng's subsequent deductions would all be accurate.

A cold lizard slowly ascended the blood-colored peak. Initially, everything proceeded smoothly; this was essentially a temporary projection of Chu Feng. From the summit, he saw five sacred herbs, brilliantly colored, with golden light, purple mist, and silver radiance harmonizing, their refreshing fragrance permeating the air.

Unfortunately, upon reaching this point, the cold lizard controlled by Chu Feng disintegrated once more, shattered by a dark red electric arc.

In such a short span, he had lost two portions of spiritual energy, amounting to a sharp one-tenth reduction in his total spiritual energy.

Subsequently, Ying Zhexian and Ouyang Feng also took their turns, each of their controlled lizards exploding in succession!

Only Ying Xiaoxiao was spared; they didn't put the silver-haired loli at risk.

Ouyang Feng was on the verge of tears. Harvesting the herbs proved incredibly arduous, costing him a tenth of his spiritual energy—a significant blow.

"Chu Feng, Chu God," Toad wailed, his face drawn. "Please reconsider this. You can't be so reckless anymore. Didn't you say only five nodes on the path were uncertain?"

Chu Feng's brow furrowed deeply. There were simply too many variables on this blood-colored mountain, indicative of a design far beyond the capabilities of a typical domain master. That previous envoy had been exceedingly cautious, employing various safeguards during the ascent, likely wielding so-called divine magnetic flags to stabilize the path.

Ultimately, the cold lizard under Chu Feng's control was once more shattered by a scarlet electric arc, its body and soul completely annihilated.

This was literally paving the way with their lives, an incredibly arduous task.

Finally, at the last possible moment, they succeeded. Chu Feng, Ouyang Feng, and Ying Zhexian each had lost nearly one-fifth of their spiritual life energy by the time they reached the ancient herbs.

Upon closer inspection, their initial assessment proved correct.

These were potent herbs, akin to Kun Blood Grass and Lin Blood Grass. Their astonishing age suggested they could even benefit Sub-Saints, truly earning them the title of 'sacred medicine'!

Having been freshly doused with divine beast blood, their medicinal properties would significantly increase given more time, but Chu Feng and the others could not afford to wait.

Initially, they were all a vibrant red, but now one glowed golden yellow, another shined sparkling purple, one remained vividly red like blood, one gleamed dazzling silver-white, and the last was a clear, translucent azure blue.

At that moment, the rich fragrance of the five-colored sacred herbs was so potent it felt as if one could float away, ascend like an immortal, permeating the very soul.

"They're finally within our grasp!" Chu Feng exclaimed, overjoyed.

He then looked at Ying Zhexian, signaling that it was time to use the substitute death talisman.

Their soul light had been severely depleted, and they could not afford further losses. Should a critical situation arise, they might not be able to cope.

"Use mine," Ying Xiaoxiao offered.

Her substitute death talisman was still unused, whereas Ying Zhexian's had shattered three times when she was previously trapped in the domain during the siege on Chu Feng.

Ying Zhexian had two more chances to preserve her life, while Ying Xiaoxiao had five.

"Let's use one of mine first," Ying Zhexian stated unequivocally, stopping her sister.

She then produced a divine talisman, snow-white and crystalline, inscribed with complex and profound patterns—a creation personally forged by a Being of the "Reflecting All Heavens" level.

This talisman would remain effective unless the attack came from a being of a higher cultivation level.

"Not only harvest the sacred herbs," Chu Feng instructed, "but also don't forget the divine beast blood at their roots. It was just poured there, so dig it all up, earth and all!"

For safety's sake, even with the substitute death talisman, Ying Zhexian chose to control a cold lizard to ascend the mountain and harvest the herbs.

Bang! As anticipated, an incident occurred while digging for the sacred herb: a burst of energy light shot out, shattering the substitute death talisman.

"It's a small life-draining domain!" Chu Feng instantly understood.

Following his instructions, he had Ying Zhexian break apart a few rocks and clods of earth, making the area safe.

In an instant, a brilliant red glow surged forth, accompanied by an astonishing, intoxicating herbal fragrance that wafted down from the mountaintop.

Ying Zhexian successfully harvested a golden herb, and gathered the divine beast blood from its roots, placing both into a jade container within her spatial bracelet.

The spatial bracelets and other items had all been retrieved from the three deceased knights.

Ying Zhexian and Ying Xiaoxiao's substitute death talismans each shattered three times, which wasn't too bad, as they hadn't exhausted all five uses.

Ultimately, all five sacred herbs and the divine beast blood poured upon them were successfully collected!

Ouyang Feng was ecstatic, shouting, "This is incredible! We're rich! We can finally shed the limitations of Yin spirits, cleanse ourselves of Yin energy, and from now on possess immense Yang energy, no longer fearing the blood energy of creatures in this world!"

Chu Feng and Ying Zhexian also showed their delight. Today's gains were immense; such an opportunity surpassed all else!