Chapter 41: The Mysterious Fruit
Just as Xiao Ming had predicted, the battle attracted a lot of people.
Soon after he left, more and more people arrived at the pavilion on that side.
However, standing in the white jade area, some chose to join in after seeing the violent energy fluctuations coming from the pavilion.
Some, on the other hand, hesitated for a moment before choosing to re-enter the dense forest, just like Xiao Ming.
It was obvious that they had the same intention as Xiao Ming, which was to go in search of another pavilion.
There were not a few who chose to leave, and the bad news was that there were quite a few people who chose the same direction as Xiao Ming when they left.
...
It is unknown how long he hopped through the branches of the dense forest, but Xiao Ming eventually found another special place where a treasure was hidden.
It was an agricultural type field, the walls of the field were made of wooden fences, which did not seem to have the slightest protective effect, and Xiao Ming could clearly see the surroundings inside the field when he stood next to the fence.
The inside of the field was not very spacious, and its original owner seemed to be an ordinary farmer, who placed some hoes and shovels and some common farming tools in the field.
It did not look special.
However, Xiao Ming did not really think that, by placing these things, the original owner was really a farmer.
What farmer can live in a secret realm?
Moreover, apart from these farming tools, he also saw other things that could prove that their original owners were not so ordinary.
In one corner of the field, a small flower bed had been piled up, in which all kinds of flowers and plants were planted, and a strange fragrance lingered around it.
These ordinary-looking flowers and plants were the proof.
Looking at those flowers and plants, Xiao Ming's breathing sharpened for a few moments. While others might not recognize those things, he knew in his heart that those seemingly ordinary flowers and plants were far more valuable than the Xuan Class Dou Techniques he had originally obtained.
They were all precious medicinal herbs that were difficult to find in the outside world.
For an alchemist, obtaining a rare herb was much more exciting and encouraging than obtaining hundreds of thousands of gold coins.
Therefore, after finding the flower bed, Xiao Ming could not wait and jumped the fence as high as a person, and was not attacked in the process.
After landing on the ground, Xiao Ming did not forget to pay attention to the surroundings in case the original owner of the field had any traps prepared, and then quickly walked towards the flower bed.
"Ice Spirit Leaf, Black Lotus Flower, Nine-Leaf Flower Ginseng, Snake Spirit Sacred Fruit, Purple Cloud Dandelion, Fire Dragon Fruit..."
Surprised, he looked at the not-so-large flower bed as the one-by-one names, representing rare and hard-to-find high-grade medicinal herbs, came out of Xiao Ming's mouth.
"There's also... Ice Spirit Blazing Grass!"
As his eyes moved across the other medicinal herbs in the small flower bed, Xiao Ming's pupils suddenly shrunk, finally staring at a blade of white and red grass placed on the left side of the flower bed.
The leaves of this grass were separated into two colors. Its stem, which was white, was also covered with droplets of what appeared to be icy crystals while its reddish tips were like a ball of burning flame. The two opposing colors and elements had miraculously grown on the plant.
A faint mist surrounded this plant, giving it an appearance of floating amongst the clouds.
This strange herb, called Ice Spirit Blazing Grass, is extremely difficult to find in the outside world, and this herb is also one of the elements needed to refine the Blood Lotus Pill, a pill needed to devour Heavenly Flames.
In addition to making Blood Lotus Pill, this herb is also the main ingredient for other fifth and sixth grade pills.
Naturally, it went without saying that it was a bit more valuable than the medicinal herbs Xiao Ming had just recited.
However, Xiao Ming already had the Blood Lotus Pill in his storage ring.
Therefore, although he was overjoyed to see this herb, it was nothing more than the normal reaction of an ordinary alchemist when he saw a precious herb.
After inwardly rejoicing a bit for a while, Xiao Ming turned his attention back to the center of the flower bed.
Grasses like Ice Spirit Blazing Grass couldn't even stay in the center, so he wanted to see how valuable the grasses in the center were.
The center of the flower bed was separated from the other grasses by three feet of open space.
It seemed that the owner of the small field attached great importance to this herb.
He did not even want other herbs to come within one meter.
Surprisingly, when Xiao Ming took a look, he discovered that the grass in the center had no special view like the Ice Spirit Blazing Grass.
In the center of the flower bed was a simple green plant with a green fruit hanging from its branches.
'Eh, I can't recognize this plant?'
Xiao Ming looked at the plant with puzzled eyes and said in astonishment.
The current him was not an apprentice alchemist, he was a third-tier alchemist.
Although his tier was not that high, he considered himself qualified in such basic tasks as recognizing medicinal herbs, something a first-tier alchemist should be able to do.
He did not need to think much about common medicinal herbs that were not precious, he could simply say them from memory and could even recite them backwards.
Moreover, thanks to the rich book collection of the Jia Nan Academy, he could recognize many rare medicinal herbs, as he had read many books in the collection.
For example, the Snake Spirit Sacred Fruit he had just read was a very rare medicinal herb that could break through the barrier of its own race after being swallowed by snake-like magical beasts, and he had recognized it at a glance.
Not only that, he also knew how to use it.
But this medicinal herb with the green-colored fruit hanging down, not to mention its function, he could not name it.
It was the first time he had encountered such a situation.
After looking for a moment, Xiao Ming's soul power seemed to sense a very faint soul power fluctuation. This soul power fluctuation seemed very strange and disappeared very quickly.
Xiao Ming did not even have time to investigate.
This caused Xiao Ming to be on guard.
Even birds don't shit in this place, where were the soul fluctuations coming from? It wasn't a thousand year old undead demon or something, was it?
Without thinking about the name of the green plant, Xiao Ming closed his eyes and the soul power that came from his forehead poured out unreservedly, spreading out in all directions.
After searching the entire field and even the corners outside the fence, he did not get any results.
Xiao Ming furrowed his eyebrows and did not give up, but searched several more times.
Finally, during the last search, that soul fluctuation reappeared.
'You came back, now I'll see where you're hiding.' The corner of Xiao Ming's mouth twisted as he prepared himself, and his soul power probed towards the center of the soul fluctuation.
Finally, because he was prepared, Xiao Ming, who had easily probed the source of that fluctuation, opened his slightly closed eyes and looked there.
'Does that soul fluctuation originate from this plant?' Xiao Ming looked at the plant in the center of the flower bed and inwardly was very surprised.
'This can't be a medicinal herb related to soul power, right?' Xiao Ming inwardly guessed.
This guess was not unfounded, because other than medicinal herbs that were associated with soul power, it was simply impossible for other types of medicinal herbs to emit fluctuations that resembled soul power.
This type of medicinal herb was very rare, even more precious than Ice Spirit Blazing Grass, and there were very few records of it in the Jia Nan Academy.
It was a soul-related herb, which might also explain why he could not recognize this herb.
Upon reaching this conclusion, Xiao Ming was pleasantly surprised.
Regardless of what use this herb had, it was undoubtedly a good thing, so this good thing should be put away immediately.