Underground Forest

The entrance to the moon garden was located close to the centre of the sect grounds. Meaning both Sofie and Yang Meng had to walk quite far before getting there.

…

Looking at the surrounding buildings passing by, Sofie increased her speed a little and started walking side by side with Yang Meng.

"So… Do you have any idea about where the moon flower is?" Sofie asked curiously, she got to know that Yang Meng seemed to know quite a bit about the moon garden, and he might know where to find the moon flower… If that was really the case, she could try and eat the so-called spirit fruits earlier than expected!

Thinking about it, Sofie felt like it was a good idea to go on a mission with Yang Meng as he seemed to know everything… Maybe not everything, but at least a lot of things.

"Hm… The moon flower and a low mortal ranked one… If I'm not wrong, we should be able to find one in the outer sections of the moon garden." Yang Meng said after pondering over it for a few seconds.

"Great! That means it should be easy for us to get~" Sofie said in a slightly careless voice, almost seeing the spirit fruit from the reward in front of her.

"Not really. Herbs at the mortal rank and above are normally guarded by demon beasts… Even a low grade one!" Yang Meng said, shattering Sofie's fantasy at just going in and grabbing the moon flower before returning.

"A demon beast!? H-how are we going to deal with that?" Sofie said in a trembling voice. The only encounter she ever had with a demon beast was the fire bat inside of the fire cave, though it had quite a tragic ending at the hands of Ling Yue, Sofie still knew how strong it was.

"We are going to fight it and defeat it!" Yang Meng said as if stating the obvious.

Sofie could not help but tremble upon hearing what he said.

How am I going to "fight" it?! I have only trained in fighting for a single day together with Xiao Yao and it was not really like I know how to fight all of a sudden… M-maybe Yang Meng knows how to fight already? I-if that is so, then I, as the rival, should also know how to f-fight…!

Not knowing what to do, Sofie convinced herself that she should be able to fight as well.

Yang Meng, who was her rival could fight. Why should she, as his rival not be able to fight?

Thinking about it, Sofie was fully convinced that she could fight as well.

Not knowing he had caused a certain someone to believe they were some sort of master in the art of fighting, Yang Meng continued to lead the way towards the moon garden, until they finally arrived.

…

"T-this is the entrance to the moon garden!?" Sofie said as she starred at the entrance in front of her.

The entrance to the moon garden was more like a cave entrance with a few words engraved upon a giant rotten wooden sign hanging above the entrance saying [Moon Garden].

Not really what she expected after hearing what Yang Meng said about the place. The only thing special about the entrance was its size, being at least a hundred meters wide and a dozen or so meters high.

Disciples were constantly entering and exiting the giant rundown entrance, Sofie even saw a few of the disciples coming out with blood all over. Most likely some who had run into strong demon beasts.

Seeing this, Sofie felt her fighting spirit grow smaller and she started to doubt whether it was a good idea to enter the moon garden, but remembering what she convinced herself about earlier, Sofie regained some of her lost fighting spirit and followed Yang Meng inside the giant entrance.

…

The path leading down and into the underground forest was lighted up nicely and was relatively peaceful.

The only time something happened was when a young girl behind them suddenly screamed about a pervert.

Sofie never found out what happened, as it was quite far away from them and Yang Meng didn't even seem to register anything had happened, just continuing on his way deeper into the moon garden.

…

Arriving at the end of the entrance to the moon garden, Sofie saw a forest in front of her. The forest was made up of giant tree stretching far into the air with leaves that glowed in a gentle blue in the darkness, lighting up the inside of the moon garden. The grass and plants growing on the ground was also shinning in different colours, with the colour light blue and silver being the most common.

Looking up into the air, Sofie saw the ceiling of the underground forest covered in all sorts of crystal emitting light in several different colours.

"W-what are those trees!? And crystal!? Wha- "speechless in front of the magical forest in front of her, Sofie could not get anymore words out as she was just left starring at the beautiful forest in front of her.

"The trees are called moon trees. The name comes from them only being found in the moon garden and their leaves, which glow in a gentle light similar to the moon at night. The crystals are named light stones, they shine in the light of the qi they absorb. Red, is for fire qi. Blue for water qi and so on." Yang Meng explained slowly as he also had some admiration while looking at the beautiful forest in front of him.

Sofie listened to what Yang Meng said and curiously looked towards the glowing forest in front of her. "So, where are we supposed to find the moon flower?"

"Follow me, if we are lucky, it should be easy to find. The hard part is dealing with the demon beast guarding it." Yang Meng said as he stopped admiring the beautifully flowing forest and walked into it.

Sofie saw him entering the forest and quickly followed behind him, while curiously looking around. Observing everything in the forest.

The forest was quiet to the extreme. Only a few loud sounds could be heard in the distance from time to time. Most likely some of the other disciples fighting against demon beasts. No birds chirping or other animals darting around. Even insects were nowhere to be seen, though Sofie did not really miss them…

All in all, it was a weird forest. Not like a normal one with animals everywhere, but then again, this was a glowing forest underground. Expecting it to be like a normal forest might be a little too much.

"Shh! Stay quiet, there is a demon beast in front of us. Luckily, it looks like it's sleeping." As Sofie was pondering over why the forest was so quiet, Yang Meng grabbed hold of her hand and whispered to her.

Sofie stopped walking and looked at the direct Yang Meng looked in and there it was, a source of nightmares.

It was, a giant oversized glowing spider.

At this moment, Sofie really felt regret.

Why did she want to enter this stupid forest in the first place?

Thinking about it, Sofie grabbed tighter onto Yang Meng's hand as she continued to stare at the giant spider in front of her. The second demon beast she had seen so far in her life.