Chapter 155: Choosing a Target, the Spirit Snake Cave

Once the teams were settled, each headed for the safest places its information pointed to.

The realm stayed open for a month. Everyone began in safe places, gathering Spirit Herbs. They spent the first twenty days securing a harvest, then the last ten exploring for opportunities.

Everyone else had left, but Qin Xiao’s party of seven remained on the grass at the entrance.

This secret realm was a vast valley, resembling a secluded paradise. Yet because it opened only once every ten years, human traces had essentially been wiped away by time, leaving not even a single path behind.

The lack of paths hardly mattered to cultivators who could fly. But collecting herbs meant searching on the ground. Who looked for herbs from the sky?

“Let’s move. Everyone else is gone. What are we waiting for here?”

The first to grow impatient was naturally Ling Ruoxue. She had followed him for safety, but there was no need to be this safe. Why were they lingering right at the entrance?

“It’s not that I don’t want to go. I know nothing about Spirit Medicine Valley. Where should I head? I don’t even know what the others have gone to do.”

Qin Xiao wasn’t trying to look enigmatic; he genuinely had no destination in mind and was waiting for someone else to provide a direction.

“You’ve been standing here this whole time, and you know nothing? I thought you had some brilliant destination in mind and were deliberately avoiding the others. If you didn’t know, why didn’t you ask?”

Ling Ruoxue was speechless. She had thought he had a secret destination and waited for everyone else to leave. He simply had no idea where to go?

“Young Miss Ling, why don’t you suggest somewhere? The association must have plenty of information. You must know where the treasures are. Let’s go straight for one.”

Qin Xiao thought of Ling Ruoxue first.

Every force had entered many times and must know secret places of its own. Talk one of them into sharing, and he would have a target.

“Why should I hand over the secrets of the Immortal Dao Merchant Association to you?”

Ling Ruoxue was no fool. So he was after the association’s secrets?

“Don’t refuse so quickly. Anything you could take has already been taken. What you couldn’t get won’t suddenly become easy to obtain. If we find treasure using your information, you take half. I’ll take nothing, and the others each get ten percent.”

Qin Xiao knew he could not simply demand her information, so he had worked out how to divide the spoils beforehand. Read this novel at novelping dot com for the best experience.

There were seven of them. Half would go to whoever provided the information, and ten percent to each helper. By the time it was his turn, nothing would remain. He would take nothing, then.

“You’re being that generous? You give me half, and you take nothing yourself?”

Ling Ruoxue was indeed somewhat tempted.

It was as Qin Xiao said. The treasures, herbs and fruit they could get had already been taken. Others were too risky to force their way in for, or had been found but were out of reach. Perhaps Qin Xiao could get them. Half for her seemed a good deal.

“Of course. I won’t take a share of your harvest, but if something suits me, I can buy it first with Spirit Stones. You’ll still get half the payment. If there’s only one item, whoever it suits gets first chance to buy it. Whoever keeps it must pay the others its equivalent value in Spirit Stones.”

After thinking it over, Qin Xiao refined the distribution rules. After all, certain locations only yielded a single treasure or spirit herb, which couldn’t exactly be chopped up and shared.

He did not need Spirit Herbs, and had more Spirit Stones than he could spend. If they found something useful to him, he could buy it. He would still be the one in control.

“Agreed. But I won’t be the only one giving information. Every force must provide a lead, and the Mysterious Yin Sect must give two, since it has two people. That’s fair.”

Ling Ruoxue liked the split, but did not want to lose out, so she required everyone to provide a lead. Yun Man was exempt: Qin Xiao had given up his share and was their main fighter, and Yun Man was her close friend and little sister.

The others raised no objections. After all, they would still receive a one-tenth share of whatever others discovered, while keeping half of the harvest from their own provided location.

“All right. I’m not stingy either. I’ll go first.”

With everyone in agreement, Ling Ruoxue provided their first lead.

In the Middle Zone stood the Spirit Snake Cave, with several stalks of Profound Moon Grass growing just above it.

The Spirit Snakes were only around early Golden Core, but their king was at peak Nascent Soul. When the association first found the cave, it tried several times to pick the Profound Moon Grass and failed, losing several disciples.

In subsequent openings of the secret realm, the association always sent teams to try again. With proper precautions, they avoided further casualties, but still failed to harvest the herbs. Follow the newest chapters on novelping dot com.

Profound Moon Grass could repair the Primordial Spirit and was a main ingredient in Solidifying Spirit Pills. Those pills worked even for Tribulation Transcendence cultivators and were worth no less than Saint Origin Spirit Fruit. The grass alone, of course, was not worth as much.

“That does sound valuable. Lead the way, Young Miss Ling. Let’s pay the Spirit Snake Cave a visit.”

Qin Xiao liked what he heard. Anything that could repair the Primordial Spirit must be valuable.

They flew off with Ling Ruoxue leading.

The entire Spirit Medicine Valley was divided into four distinct zones: the Outer Zone, the Middle Zone, the Inner Zone, and the Core Zone.

The Outer Zone was the safest, with some good Spirit Herbs and no Demon Beasts above Golden Core. The few Golden Core beasts guarding herbs had been whittled down over years of hunts. Unless one was very unlucky, it was hard to encounter one.

The Middle Zone was far more dangerous, its Demon Beasts much stronger. Those guarding herbs were at least at Golden Core, and most were at Nascent Soul. There were even some at its peak.

Cultivators were already somewhat weaker than Demon Beasts at the same realm. With their cultivation suppressed, defeating the beasts was harder still. The beasts cultivated too, but relied more on their bodies. They were body refiners of a sort, and suffered much less suppression.

Past expeditions mostly covered the Outer and Middle Zones. People had entered the Inner Zone, but had not explored it deeply. The Saint Origin Fruit Tree had been found there.

That was why Wu Li had asked Qin Xiao to agree to his terms after learning how strong his body refinement was. Qin Xiao might be able to enter the Inner Zone. With cultivation suppressed, a body refiner like him had a good chance of obtaining Saint Origin Spirit Fruit.

In the Inner Zone, Demon Beasts were at least at Nascent Soul, with quite a few at Soul Formation. The stronger they were, the more precious the herbs they guarded.

No one had entered the Core Zone; it remained unknown. Few even ventured into the Inner Zone, let alone the core. There might be more precious, extraordinary treasures there, but no one knew.

The Spirit Snake Cave was near the Inner Zone. Each zone was separated by a Spiritual Qi barrier; without those clear boundaries, the cave’s strength would justify placing it in the Inner Zone.

Qin Xiao was dumbfounded when they reached the supposed Spirit Snake Cave.

“You call things two or three chi thick and four or five zhang long snakes?”