You Cultivate, I Farm

"It is my honor to be able to relieve the sect of its troubles," Lu Xuan said with a smile.

Feng Yu, who stood nearby, suddenly nodded in understanding upon hearing their conversation, finally grasping why Huo Lin'er's attitude towards the two of them had been so markedly different upon their meeting.

"By the way, Junior Brother Lu, since we've brought you to the heart of this blessed land, could you please help us with a problem we're currently facing?"

"Please speak, Brother Huo. I will do my utmost to help," Lu Xuan responded sincerely.

"It's also related to aberrant spirit plants."

Knowing Lu Xuan's obsession with cultivating spirit plants and spirit beasts, Huo Lin'er naturally wouldn't seek his help in any other matter.

"In one of the cavern passages, we encountered a large cluster of strange spirit plants. Countless plants are entangled together, forming what seems to be a rudimentary formation. My fellow sect members and I have tried many methods but haven't been able to resolve it smoothly."

"These plants block a critical passage, and if we can't clear them, we won't be able to access that path," Huo Lin'er said with a grave expression.

"Plants gathered together to form a formation? Can spirit plants actually form formations?" Lu Xuan expressed his astonishment. Despite his expertise in spirit plants, this was the first time he had heard of such peculiar spirit plants.

"You will understand once you see them," Huo Lin'er said as he led Lu Xuan and the others to a spacious stone cave.

Inside the cave, more than thirty fellow disciples from the Sky Sword Sect were present. They were either deep in thought, meditating in a seated position, or engaged in heated debates.

"Come, Junior Brother Lu, let me introduce you," Huo Lin'er said, pulling Lu Xuan by the wrist, and brought him before a stern-looking young man.

The young man had his eyes closed, with a vertical pupil in the center of his forehead, looking towards Lu Xuan and the others without any trace of emotion.

"This is Brother Wu Xie, one of the three true disciples who came this time, including myself and Sister Jian Wuxia. The third person is Brother Wu Xie."

"Brother Wu, this is Junior Brother Lu Xuan. He was the one who came up with the method to deal with those parasitic spirit plants," Huo Lin'er enthusiastically introduced.

"Greetings, Brother Wu," Lu Xuan said respectfully. Having practiced the Illusion Breaking Eye Technique for some time and having consumed several peculiar eyeballs from the Hundred-Eyed Enigmatic Wood, as well as being very familiar with the Void Nightmare Eye, he immediately recognized the extraordinariness of the stern young man's vertical pupil.

"Junior Brother Lu, I've heard much about you. We'll have to trouble you to take a look later."

"Of course."

Lu Xuan quickly replied. He looked around the cave, nodding from afar to Jian Wuxia and also saw Zhang Ruiping and several other fellow disciples resting in the camp.

Thanks to the early warning, no disciples of the Sky Sword Sect stationed at the camp were killed during the beast attack, though two were accidentally injured, fortunately, none too severely.

"More than thirty Foundation Establishment cultivators, the weakest of them in the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment, and over ten in the late stage. Huo Lin'er, Jian Wuxia, and three others are even on the verge of reaching the Core Formation realm."

"This is the foundation of a great sect..."

Lu Xuan looked at the many fellow disciples inside the cave, feeling deeply moved.

Previously, in the Linyang Fang Market, cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage were few and far between, and all were in the early stages of Foundation Establishment, with no hope of breakthrough.

Yet, in this cave, any single individual could easily annihilate the entire Linyang Fang Market, illustrating the terrifying strength of major sects.

After a brief rest, Huo Lin'er and two others led Lu Xuan into a dark red passage.

Speeding through the passage, they quickly arrived in front of a cliff.

Opposite was an entrance to another passage, emanating dense spiritual energy.

In the middle was a depressed flat area, inhabited by hundreds to thousands of bizarre spirit plants.

The spirit plants were dark green and black in color, thinner at the top and thicker at the bottom, resembling many arms embedded together, with veins bulging and wildly dancing below.

The tips of the branches were slender, opening up like bizarre fingers, and when closed, they bunched up, resembling knotted and powerful dark green and black bone joints.

"This is the cluster of bizarre spirit plants. I'll try attacking them. Please, Junior Brother, pay close attention to any changes in the plants."

Lu Xuan nodded, watching intently at the bizarre forest of arm-like spirit plants below.

Huo Lin'er clenched his fist, and a fiery red spear shot out, stabbing fiercely at the bizarre spirit plants.

In Lu Xuan's view, the spirit plants near the point of impact instantly merged together, rapidly forming layers of an impenetrable dark green and black net.

The dark green and black net blocked the ferocious attack of the fiery red spear, its momentum unabated, burning the dark green and black arm-like spirit plants.

Suddenly, a giant arm emerged from the net, made up of dozens of dark green and black spirit plants intertwined. It wrapped around the middle of the fiery red spear and snapped it in two.

"Indeed, quite interesting," Lu Xuan murmured to himself.

After Huo Lin'er shot out a fiery red spear, he approached the many knotted dark green and black spirit plants riding on a red cloud.

The hundreds of dark green and black spirit plants near him seemed to sense his approach and attacked from all directions, whipping and smashing in a coordinated and natural manner as if acting as one.

Huo Lin'er merely demonstrated the peculiarities of the spirit plants to Lu Xuan and did not engage further, quickly returning to the dark red passage.

"Junior Brother Lu, as you have seen, the numerous arm-like spirit plants below seem to merge into one, automatically consolidating the power of nearby companions to jointly resist powerful enemies."

"To pass through this area smoothly, there are only two methods. One is to rely on absolute power to bulldoze through, crudely resolving them."

"The other is to find their weaknesses or peculiarities, devising targeted measures to easily flatten these aberrant spirit plants."

Wu Xie, who had been silent, spoke with a deep voice. Though his eyes remained closed, he was acutely aware of everything happening below.

Lu Xuan nodded. The bizarre spirit plants, as Huo Lin'er described, seemed to form a formation with their companions, versatile and unified, seemingly impregnable.

"Could we deploy several fellow disciples to attack these bizarre spirit plants simultaneously to see if frequent attacks reveal any flaws?"

He pondered for a moment before suggesting.

"We've tried this method, but it was ineffective."

"The plants coordinate with each other more smoothly and naturally than we imagined, reacting extremely quickly, switching positions and shapes with ease, still proving to be very difficult to deal with," Huo Lin'er explained.

"I'll try them out myself, experiencing it firsthand will give me a clearer understanding of these aberrant spirit plants."

"Be careful, Junior Brother."

With Wu Xie's word of caution, Lu Xuan approached the edge of the cliff, the nearest dark green and black branches only a dozen yards away.

The towering dark green and black branches wildly danced, as if provoking Lu Xuan.

"Well, such a warm welcome."

Lu Xuan turned his head, looking towards the other side.

"Right side of the audience, would you dance for me?"

Under his gaze, the dark green and black branches immediately reacted, each plant wildly dancing, bizarre yet somehow harmonious and natural.