Within the Fog; Heavenly Treasure Bowl (2)

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"You can set me down."

"What? No way. Look at this scenery."

"There are many more good things within."

"Not as good as what I have right now."

"We'll see if you still think that while harvesting a Beautiful Silk Tulip."

"Oh... well... truly?"

Ja Sun looked at Ah Yin. With the lack of one arm, Ja Sun's ability to princess carry someone was rightfully revoked. But with her smooth arms wrapped around his neck, Ah Yin still stuck close to his right side while Ja Sun held her by the waist, well, for honest reasons, a little below the waist.

In front of them was the view of the Sunset Forest. Surrounded by the green miasma of various shades was a lotus-like opening surrounded by 'petal' cliffs and the entire shape also looked similar to a bowl. Within, Ja Sun and Ah Yin could see red and blue crystals decorating the bowl and the greatest cluster of them was around a pond divided into red and blue liquid. Even with such a great distance, Ja Sun could see many herbs.

Immortal Herbs.

There was no sign of human life but if plants are herbs and not spirit beasts even after having such a high level of energy then clearly, these herbs are replanted in this location by someone.

"Did you sense anybody in this location?" Ja Sun inquired.

"No," Ah Yin shook her head, her hold strangely tightening while she struggled to keep a straight face. She didn't hate the feeling of Ja Sun's palm pressed against her butt, but what she didn't enjoy was the fact that they were out in the open.

"What do you think those red and blue crystals are?"

"I don't know," Ah Yin replied as she scowled and glared at Ja Sun. Why?

Because of the illicit pinch.

But keeping a straight expression, Ja Sun continued, "I think I recall a pond of such a description. But we will have to get closer to this location."

"Then let's go."

"Hmm, did you really sense a Beautiful Silk Tulip?"

Angered, Ah Yin exposed Ja Sun's intentions, "Now you're doing this just to keep molesting me!"

"Hey, you cannot molest the woman you're in a relationship with," Ja Sun snorted.

"You can. It's molesting if I don't want to be touched."

"Ah, you didn't?"

"That's what I'm saying for some time now!" Ah Yin took a deep breath to calm herself down.

"Fine," Ja Sun shrugged seeing Ah Yin this triggered already. However, tightening his hold around Ah Yin, as he dove down, he smiled, "Hey, you remember that Blue Silver Palace you kept talking about when we first met?"

"You remember that? It was a joke," Ah Yin mumbled with a smile.

"Of course, I did. I thought of it as a good prospect, you know. Your own sect... organization have its benefits."

"I see," Ah Yin pursed her lips while they landed. Finally free, Ah Yin looked thoughtful and spoke up, "Above... what I meant was that fully supporting my weight with one hand was hurting my hips instead. Might have felt different if you had carried me with two."

Ja Sun removed his Silver Light Wings and gazed at Ah Yin before nodding. This kind of information was nice to know. After all, this was his first time taking a lady on the flight.

Once settled, Ah Yin and Ja Sun looked around and refrained from touching anything, especially the pond from which they felt bone-chilling and fiery spirit energy that affected the surroundings. By now, Ja Sun was sure of the identity of this pond since it was mentioned in the passing in the tome of the Immortal Herbs.

What did interest the duo truly was something else entirely. After exploring everything with their senses/domain, they found themselves standing in front of a small cave next to a naturally formed hot spring. Around the pond filled with red and blue liquid dividing the surface into equal halves, there were many hot and cold springs.

This cave was formed near one of the said hot springs and it had signs of human inhabitation.

"What do you think?" Ah Yin inquired.

"It was my idea to venture into the fog and you discovered this place eventually. We divide the herbs in this location for now between ourselves and then think what to do next," Ja Sun replied naturally. Speechless, Ah Yin shook her head and then inquired.

"No, I meant, this place is discovered by someone else. Should we wait for him and take him out? That pond is the reason for such a heightened growth of plants, I can feel it. It's even making my own cultivation rise way more than your martial soul's ability... so, should we try and snatch this place?"

Turning to look at Ah Yin, Ja Sun felt proud. This emotion filled his veins as he held her by her waist once again, surprising her, but not enough to dodge the sudden kiss as she returned the gesture before inquiring with a pleased smile.

"You like the idea this much?"

"I just... feel happy. I don't think I have anything left to teach you in the ways of robbing. Now, we both learn from each other's experiences," Ja Sun snickered in response.

"There are... two, wait, no, three of them. Look at this, a specially carved room, and the *sniff*, hmm, the scent is different from the outer part of the cave.

Probably two men and a woman?"

Ja Sun looked at Ah Yin for confirmation as she still stood near the entrance of the cave and pointed at the small hole near the entrance, "There's the guard of this location sleeping. Don't step near the hole... it's a 10000-year-old Nine Point Jade Serpent."

Ja Sun frowned for a moment and inquired, "A poison-type Spirit Master..."

"The place is surrounded by poison so it is more likely. Not to mention that this spirit master must be at least Rank 70 Spirit Sage to have tamed a 10000-year-old Spirit Beast," Ah Yin nodded.

The duo came out of the cave eventually and soon set up their chairs to discuss about this location. For whatever reasons, the group living here left this place unattended. It was fortunate for Ja Sun and Ah Yin instead.

"Can you feel two forms of poison entering your body? Hot and Cold?" Ja Sun inquired as Ah Yin nodded.

"That pond... it's called Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. Something about this location being one of the three blessed lands is known but one thing I do know about this location is that while useful to plants with greater lifeforce, to humans and spirit beasts, this location is a one of slow torture. Because of the two extreme properties of the pond, that is hotness and coldness, a special type of mixed poison is released into the air.

Now, we either find the natural resistance to this poison in the location or have Bibi Dong get the poison injected into her system so that she can temper our bodies with it slowly.

But given that I have used poison as a form of training is already showing effective resistance against the hot and cold poison..."

"Me, too. My body naturally counteracts most forms of poison... but we already know this. We also know that harvesting the herbs is only a one-time benefit while owning this location is a greater benefit."

Ja Sun nodded. They could create a business out of Immortal herbs in this location for crying out loud. He didn't care much about the blessed lands before but seeing one and its natural effects made him... well, greedy. To him, Immortal Herbs have a value similar to a Spirit Bone, or greater, if you know your Immortal Herbs and the best way to utilize them.

"Sigh, there's one problem, however. Immortal herbs permanently change one's body. So, we cannot consume all of it but only a select portion of it. Still... there are just too many of them. Thousands!"

Ja Sun chuckled and looked around.

Ah Yin nodded with a ponderous expression.

"I sensed an Immortal herb with fiery properties next to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well alongside an Immortal herb with cold properties. The fire one should be useful to Liu Erlong... and these two Immortal Herbs may also be the natural poison resistance to this location."

"Too bad. It's not compatible with me," Ja Sun clicked his tongue.

"Me either," Ah Yin mumbled.

"How about this?" She continued, "We harvest all the plants for the moment. Before that, is it agreed that we keep this location our secret until absolutely necessary to tell others about it?"

"Agreed," Ja Sun said without hesitation.

"Then why don't we take it all. These Immortal Herbs are artificially planted and grown here. But, if we take all of these out, maybe we can naturally leave the other party disinterested in this location. Even if that's a longshot, at least, what grows next in this location will be something created from the efforts of this Blessed Land alone. Maybe we will get more pleasant surprises."

"So, you don't want to wait for the other party to show up yet?" Ja Sun inquired.

"Yes," Ah Yin nodded. Hesitating for a moment, she leaned forward to hold Ja Sun's hand, surprising him internally, as she continued, "You could have dealt with a Titled Douluo back then but your situation now isn't better than the past and you still lost your arm then. This location... would have brought unknown benefits to the current owner so I speculate that he or she must be close to being a Titled Douluo if not already.

And, if we stay, we give others a reason to doubt and possibly expose this location. What I think the best option is that we harvest it all, as quickly as possible, and return to the group."

"We are here to stay for another three weeks. If the owner returns while we're also here, then what?" Ja Sun inquired curiously. He wasn't the kind to piss on a plan that benefitted him equally.

"That's..." Ah Yin frowned and nodded, accepting the reality of it. They either have it all and risk themselves being targetted by an unknown opponent and also potentially risk their relationship with the teammates by not telling about this location only to be exposed later... or...

"We take what's useful for the group and remain low-key..."

Ah Yin leaned back on her chair as Ja Sun stood up.

"Or we take this entire location with us," he smiled.

"What?" Ah Yin looked at Ja Sun as she would look at a fool.

"Blessed Lands have history lost in time. But one thing is for certainty... this location is blessed by arrays. It's the location of natural array, just like Disorienting Ghost Canyon. We do what you said. Take away the benefits needed to us severely. We can think of the method of distributing it to the group later on... I've already given up taking benefits from them since they're too poor. Ehm," Ja Sun coughed and licked his lips, "But if a blessed land is created by an array, even if that's the case partially, I can try and understand it. We have three weeks, and I have nothing better to do, and my sneaking skills aren't worse than yours."

"You were just grabbing my butt while flying high," Ah Yin scoffed.

"And I'll do it again when we fly out of this location. Now, let's inspect each and every herb carefully before deciding if it's useful in the short period to us or not," Ja Sun winked at Ah Yin as she looked away. But the corner of her lips turned into a short smile.

Storing their chairs, the duo began to work. The first thing that the two harvested was none other than the Beautiful Silk Tulip Immortal Herb. The dazzling golden tulip bulb attracted Ja Sun's desire more than what Tang Yuehua could have provided him with. After all, this would be personal growth for him.

The Beautiful Silk Tulip belonged to the 7th Grade due to seven layers of concentric petals almost pressed together completely. This meant that if a Spirit Beast, this Immortal Herb would have been a 70000-year-old spirit beast.

"Ah, what a beauty," Ja Sun cautiously took a whiff and his spirit energy bubbled almost instantly, frantic.

"You should find other compliments for me," Ah Yin sighed as she bent to check the quality of a ginseng. This location held too many treasured Ginsengs even if their grades weren't higher than 4. Each ginseng would fetch an overbearing price in the two main auction halls of the continent— Heaven Dou and Star Luo Auction Houses.

"You... are... not as beautiful as the Beautiful Silk Tulip, little Grass."

Ah Yin stood calmly and gazed at Ja Sun. With a flick of her wrist, she produced her gem-like Blue Silver Goddess and snorted, "If returned to my previous state, I would be a Blue Silver Goddess now. Are you saying that this grass falls short to Beautiful Silk Tulip?"

Ja Sun fell stunned.

"You're actually jealous... if I compliment another plant... hmm, maybe there is hope for me to ignite the ancient rituals of relationship..."

"What do you mean?" Ah Yin inquired with a strange expression.

"Nothing," Shaking his head innocently, he observed her martial soul carefully and then nodded, "Given the floral levels, your Blue Silver Goddess does overtake the Tulip in appearances."

"See? What did I tell you?" Ah Yin smiled and crouched once again.

"Oh! An Aromatic Silk Beauty! This can solve most of the poisonous elements, especially the miasma kinds," Ja Sun gleefully stored the purple flower. They would need a Storage Essence Tool that can store living objects to not damage the immortal herbs but for the time being, their storage rings would do just fine.

Instead of waiting and dividing the loot, the duo quickly dismantled their surroundings carefully. Ja Sun had a great knowledge of Immortal Herbs but Ah Yin herself was one so with her aptitude, finding various details about the plants allowed Ja Sun to harvest them easily. In fact, many of these plants needed special cases, such as one made from gold, which Ja Sun made using the War God's Cauldron Array.

They left many of these Immortal Ginsengs. These could improve the foundations of many and if found alone, were absolutely a treasure worth drooling over, but what Ja Sun and Ah Yin had collected was the absolute cream of the crop. Among the immortal herbs were also dangerous poison. Too dangerous, in fact.

Ah Yin also found a herb much more useful to her but this also made Ja Sun internally ponder a question.

Was Ah Yin committing cannibalism? If yes, why was he still thinking of touching her butt?

These were real questions.

"How can we take that Infernal Delicate Apricot away?"

Ah Yin looked much more aggressive now. Amongst all the plants, upon closer inspection, only two of them were actually Spirit Beasts.

An 8th Grade Infernal Delicate Apricot and its opposite force, an 8th Grade Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass.

Ah Yin speculated that these two plants were born because of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well itself and Ja Sun agreed. Not only that, these two plants were similar to the Blue Silver Emperor. Infernal Delicate Apricot represented supreme fire-type spirit essence and the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass represented supreme ice/cold-type cultivation essence. Yin and Yang.

The Infernal Delicate Apricot would have been useful to Ja Sun through his Fiery Golden Pupils but he would rather choose the Beautiful Silk Tulip to permanently change his body. After all, unlike spirit metals that allowed Ja Sun to just suck the essence away, the Immortal Herb targetted the entirety of one's being at once. Infernal Delicate Apricot, to Ja Sun, represented short-term benefits while the Beautiful Silk Tulip represents long-term benefits.

But what truly made Ah Yin and Ja Sun pause wasn't how to take the immortal herbs away. This wasn't good enough of a question. Ja Sun just had to suffer through some burns as Ah Yin healed him simultaneously and then done.

These Herbs are grown naturally. This meant that these herbs had an innate will and were Spirit Beasts, too.

Carelessly harming them meant carelessly destroying a Spirit Ring...

And the real moral dilemma was that this Infernal Delicate Apricot was the perfect spirit ring for Liu Erlong if she could have actually absorbed it.

"Erlong cannot absorb an 80000-year-old spirit beast even if she wanted to... But if we harvest it now and let her absorb it, this will allow her to absorb a spirit ring possibly greater than 30000 years of cultivation," Ja Sun mumbled.

"And the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass is compatible with Brother Xie... but he isn't near his breakthrough yet."

Ah Yin added.

"Barely. The Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass is more of an 'ice' element than Yin, but then again, there's nothing else for Xie Xan here aside from this one... but, how about we wait for these two plants? What's the rate of enhancement for plants in this location?" Ja Sun inquired as Ah Yin coughed.

"Almost a thousand times..."

"A thousand times?" Ja Sun inquired again but he wasn't too shocked. Not after seeing the cluster of Immortal Herbs around them.

"Yes."

"So... they will need twenty years to become a 100000-year-old beast."

"If they survive the tribulation, yes," Ah Yin nodded while making Ja Sun curious regarding tribulation but according to Ah Yin, every spirit beast has a different tribulation.

"It's a shame, really..." Ja Sun sighed. Twenty years is a long period for a human being. But if this location can grow these two herbs once, it can do it once again.

Ah Yin, too, released her Blue Silver Domain to suppress the two plants as Ja Sun began walking forward. The moment he entered the fiery range of the Infernal Delicate Apricot, his clothes were set aflame instantly but without a care, Ja Sun activated his own domain-like ability, the True Fantasy, and also mobilized his Martial Soul, greatly restraining the aggression of the Infernal Delicate Apricot. Using his superior mental energy further enhanced by Fiery Golden Pupils, he completely demolished any resistance whatsoever and plucked the Immortal Herb using two sharpened Jades and stored it into a Jade Case.

He used a similar approach alongside holding the fiery jade case that held the Infernal Delicate Apricot to resist the freezing temperature of the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and plucked that bad boy, too.

What came next was Ah Yin quickly healing him while using her domain to conceal them because Ja Sun's condition grew terrible. Charred and frozen. Essentially, he was this world's worst frozen chicken fried over.

Before leaving, however, Ah Yin let a few Blue Silver Kings and Emperors grow out. Their cultivation was minimal, and not many would survive due to the ice-fire poison spread in the surroundings, but those that do survive would grow to be stunning specimens of her species, and maybe beings equal to her if not stronger.

Then the duo covered their tracks carefully. They even flattened the areas affected due to their harvesting. There were still many immortal herbs, especially Ginsengs, left but the only thing that might attract any attention would be none other than the disappearance of the two Spirit Beasts now turned into Immortal Herbs.

Even if it was found out, Ja Sun wouldn't mind it. Only the owner would be blamed if he or she left their treasures unprotected, not the robbers.

While returning, the duo began discussing how to make use of the immortal herbs without raising too many questions and they came up with two ideas, one, which would bring this location to Qian Daoliu's attention. And two, which would require them to lie expertly.

They chose option two.