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Chapter 80: Demon Hunting Tree
🕑 Added 2023-12-19 11:03:41 +0000 UTCImmortal Path Space : Table of Content/Chapter List
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Wang Hong released five hundred Spirit Bees, three of which died in the recent battle. He didn't retract the remaining bees but let them hover around him, guarding against potential unnoticed dangers.
Wang Hong expanded his spiritual awareness, moving slowly over the thick carpet of fallen leaves. Occasionally, small insects and snakes would be startled by his presence.
Most of the trees in this area were unfamiliar to Wang Hong, their canopies towering high, obscuring the sky. Walking beneath them, he couldn't see any trace of the sky.
During his journey, he encountered some trees bearing fruits. However, most were ordinary fruits, enriched with a hint of Spirit Qi due to the dense concentration in this area. If placed in the mortal world, these fruits would undoubtedly be top-grade, promoting health and longevity.
However, in the eyes of cultivators, they were somewhat lackluster, offering minimal assistance to cultivation levels.
Yet, for Wang Hong, the taste was an essential criterion for judgment. Along the way, when he found enticing wild fruits, he would first check for toxicity, then taste them. If the flavor was exceptionally good, he would unhesitatingly pluck them, along with a twig to plant in his Space.
In his Space, there were already numerous spirit fruits, but he had only collected one type of red wild fruit so far. Some fruits looked too tempting, deceiving one into thinking they were delicious, prompting Wang Hong to try them despite past experiences.
Currently, Wang Hong walked while sipping Spirit Wine to cleanse his palate, as one wild fruit he tasted earlier was quite bitter.
Suddenly, Wang Hong's gaze stopped; in front of him grew a patch of green-patterned Lingzhi mushrooms, a second-tier Spiritual Medicine.
There were over fifty of these Lingzhi mushrooms, but only three met the second-tier medicinal standard. Green-patterned Lingzhi mushrooms needed at least two hundred years to reach the second tier.
Carefully, Wang Hong dug up these three mushrooms with their roots, transplanting them into his Space.
He could have secretly moved these immature Spiritual Medicines into his Space without anyone noticing. However, he deemed it unnecessary, as many Spiritual Medicines, once planted in his Space, would quickly reproduce numerous saplings.
After completing these tasks, Wang Hong casually grabbed a handful of Spiritual Medicine seeds, scattering them in the forest. His Space was abundant with Spiritual Medicine seeds, which were not valuable and challenging to handle.
Whether they would survive or not was left to fate.
This habit resembled the practices of herbalists in the mundane world, gathering precious Medicinal Herbs and scattering their seeds in the mountains.
Nearly a day into the expedition in this mysterious forest, he finally found the first Spiritual Medicine.
The resources of Spiritual Medicine in this dense forest should be plentiful. However, given his limited range of perception during the journey, it only covered an area within a few dozen yards in radius.
Wang Hong suddenly had an idea, though he wasn't sure if it would work.
Waving his hand, he released two thousand poison bees, ordering them through the Bee Queen to spread out and search for anything with Spirit Qi.
Although the strength of these poison bees had increased, their intelligence hadn't. It remained uncertain whether they could understand his intention.
After releasing the bees, Wang Hong continued forward.
After a short while, one poison bee flew back to him. It then circled in front of him, flying in loops.
This seemed to be their way of expressing themselves. The problem was, Wang Hong didn't understand it; he had never learned the language of bees. Normally, he communicated directly with the Bee Queen through his spiritual awareness.
He had only briefly read about this in a book, where drawing circles like this could convey information about direction, distance, and the source of nectar.
Unable to do much else, he could only instruct the bee to lead the way, following closely behind.
After walking for a while, he saw the bee circling in a particular area. Upon closer inspection, he found a piece of Profound Iron Ore.
Although it was a low-tier ore, this discovery excited him. It proved that the poison bees could indeed help him find Spiritual Objects, significantly increasing his chances of discovering them.
Especially in this dense forest where sight was obstructed, and the spiritual awareness of Qi Cultivation practitioners had limitations, manual searching would undoubtedly miss many things.
Afterward, every few intervals, poison bees flew to him, drawing circles and significantly increasing his harvest.
Certainly, the intelligence of the poison bees determined the quality of their findings.
Once, following a poison bee, Wang Hong arrived at a location and discovered a dark lump emitting a foul smell. It turned out to be a pile of feces, roughly two days old, releasing Spirit Qi.
This was likely the result of some Demonic Beast mistakenly ingesting Spiritual Medicine with poor digestion and absorption capabilities, eventually expelling it.
Ignoring it, he left with the poison bee.
After a while, another poison bee led him back to the same spot, where the pile of Demonic Beast feces was. At this point, Wang Hong felt close to breaking down.
To prevent other poison bees from guiding him here, he had to dig a hole and bury the mess.
Harvesting brought joy, and the consecutive gains helped him forget some unpleasant moments, healing his mental wounds.
Immersed in the joy of harvest, Wang Hong lost track of time, and before he knew it, night had fallen.
Before darkness enveloped the surroundings, he found a large tree hollow inhabited by a second-tier mid-grade demon bear. Wang Hong beat it soundly, drove it out of the hollow, and claimed it as his own.
After a brief cleanup of the hollow, he released poison bees to stand guard outside. Then, he took out some steamed Spirit Rice, eating it with meat broth, and went to sleep.
The demon bear, ousted from its den, lingered nearby, refusing to leave. Occasionally, it howled, serving as Wang Hong's makeshift patrol.
On the first day of entering the secret realm, Wang Hong spent it peacefully like this. Meanwhile, in other areas, some cultivators were still engaged in battles, and a few unlucky ones had already perished on the first day of entering the realm.
On the second day, Wang Hong continued his journey.
With the help of the poison bees, he harvested the second second-tier Spiritual Medicine, one of the main ingredients for crafting Foundation Building pills: Spirit Butterfly Flower.
The petals of the Spirit Butterfly Flower resembled the wings of a Spirit Butterfly. The plant took two hundred years to flower, bloomed for three hundred years, withering rapidly around the five-hundred-year mark.
To craft Foundation Building pills, at least four hundred years' worth of Spirit Butterfly Flower petals were needed.
After two days, he summarized that the poison bee's activity range was within a radius of about a mile from him during his travels.
While wild Spirit Bees could collect honey from areas dozens of miles away, perhaps Wang Hong's continuous activity restricted these poison bees from venturing too far.
Thinking about this, he decided not to rush out of this forest just yet. The vast and obstructed terrain here made it improbable that predecessors had thoroughly explored this dense forest.
With this advantage, and considering his primary goal was to find Spiritual Medicine, he might as well search extensively.
He found a temporary spot, released all the poison bees, and built a temporary nest on a large tree.
As for himself, he located a large tree and, with a Flying Sword, carved out a tree hollow in the middle of the trunk.
Once all the poison bees flew out to search for Spiritual Objects, Wang Hong got busy, tirelessly following the bees in different directions.
He had no idea how the bees distinguished directions, but if Wang Hong ventured too far, he would have to rely on the bees to lead him back home.
On the third day of the secret realm, several poison bees suddenly led him in the same direction. Puzzled, Wang Hong followed these bees for over ten miles.
What appeared before him was an unusually large tree, with lush green leaves and strings of fruit pods hanging from its branches—green and yellow. They exuded rich Spiritual Energy and a peculiar fragrance, incredibly enticing.
Additionally, numerous cocoons of various sizes hung from the tree, ranging from a yard in length to just a few inches.
Feeling that this tree was peculiar, Wang Hong hesitated to approach immediately. He noticed several Demonic Beasts surrounding the large tree, neither daring to get close nor willing to leave.
Observing a monkey not far away squatting on a branch, intensely staring ahead, Wang Hong discreetly approached it using a poison bee. He then stung the monkey on its backside. Yelping in pain, the monkey leaped forward.
When it realized, it had already entered the range of the tree's branches, and they all curled toward the monkey.
Fortunately, the monkey only entered the peripheral area, escaping the dangerous range of the branches after a few moments.
Glancing back and seemingly in a bad mood, the monkey left, probably going home to recuperate.
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Next Chapter >>Chapter 81: Hostage
