Two hours and 27 minutes later, a special motorcycle carrying three daredevil people across the territory of Wu Mountain to Shennongjia.

Rolling mountains and vast primeval forests stretched as far as the eye could see. After parting with Yin Molan, Ning Tao and Qing Zhui went into a mountain forest and started a journey to pick herbs.

Yan Emperor was said to be Shennong who came here to pick herbs. Unable to climb the cliff, he put up 36 high ladders, and finally climbed the cliff to pick herbs. From then on, it was called Shennongjia. Shennongjia had countless steep peaks and deep valleys, known as the “roof of Hua Country”. Rich in plants and animals, it was a natural “medicine bank”.

Shennongjia had many mysteries, and the most famous were of course savages and water monsters. There had been thousands of reports of savages, also known as Snowmen or Bigfoot, but so far no single living one had been captured to prove the truth of those reports.

Similarly, there was no evidence of a water monster.

After entering Shennongjia, Ning Tao involuntarily remembered these legends about this place. He had never believed that there were savages or water monsters before, but now he was somewhat convinced that the legends were true. In a world where pract.i.tioners existed, it was not at all strange that savages and water monsters existed.

There were no roads in the mountains, and rotting branches and leaves were so thick that they could drown the instep. Ning Tao and Qing Zhui move forward slowly, but now that they had entered Shennongjia, Ning Tao didn't care about the speed. As they walked, he woke up the smelling skill of his nose so as to search for the herbs he needed by scent.

Thousands of odors poured into Ning Tao's nostrils, including more than 100 kinds of herbs! He was thrilled by the discovery. It was really a natural medicine bank! In less than an hour, he had found two herbs for refining the Primary Elixir—a natural wild ginseng and a sawtooth resurrection plant.

Ning Tao sniffed as he walked, and the two of them went deeper and deeper into the primeval forest. They had lost the way they came, but they didn't need to remember it. If they wanted to go back, a blood lock would do it.

Suddenly a cliff appeared in front of them, at least a kilometer high, shrouded in clouds and fog, so they could not see the whole picture. The cliff was bordered by a canyon, and there was a thick mist hanging over it, blocking the view.

There was no way.

“Brother Ning, why don't we rest here and go to pick herbs tomorrow morning?” Qing Zhui suggested and gave a yawn. Along the way, she had many cuts in her tight-fitting sports clothes, exposing several pieces of white skins. It was a silent temptation.

Luckily Ning Tao was used to her unscrupulous behavior and wasn't much affected. He nodded and took off his things.

“Brother Ning, I'm going to pee. You mustn't peek,” Qing Zhui stated while staring at Ning Tao fixedly.

Ning Tao sent her a glare.

Qing Zhui shrugged and said, “Just pretend I didn't say anything. I'll get some firewood and make a fire.”

“Go ahead,” said Ning Tao. After Qing Zhui left, he opened the small medicine chest, took out the Soil-seeking Inkstone from inside, and injected 30 ml of ink into it.

When he came to Shennongjia to collect herbs, of course he would carry his Soil-seeking Inkstone with him. He wanted not only the herbs for refining Primary Elixirs, but also the spiritual soil. He had always had a desire to become a landlord in cultivation. That way, he would not only be self-sufficient, but he would be able to sell it for money when he had plenty of spiritual soil.

Once the 30 ml of ink was poured into the Soil-seeking Inkstone, the ink rippled toward the canyon under the cliff.

There was spiritual soil here!

This was not surprising. Shennongjia was a genuine primeval forest, without human pollution. It still maintained the original ecological environment. Some special environment had spiritual energy, so it was very normal to have treasures here.

Ning Tao reached the edge of the cliff, extended his head and looked into the canyon below, thinking to himself, “The environment here is similar to that rift in the forbidden land of the Tang Sect. Now that there is also spiritual soil down here, is there spiritual grain? If there is, I'll take it back to the Sword Pavilion Cave and plant it there. Then I can harvest grain in the future.”

There was a sudden yell of shock from behind.

Alarmed, Ning Tao turned around and shouted, “Qing Zhui, what's wrong?”

Qing Zhui's voice came from the woods. “Brother Ning, a snake has bitten my leg. Come and help me!”

Instinctively, Ning Tao ran towards the woods where Qing Zhui's voice came, but suddenly he stopped. Nine was lying. What snake could be more poisonous than her? “Oh, come on,” he said impatiently. “I've found some spiritual soil. Let's go down and dig.”

Qing Zhui stepped out from behind a row of trees, looking dissatisfied. “Can't you cooperate with me? It's boring.”

Ignoring her complaints, Ning Tao plunged the hook of the rope that he prepared for collecting herbs into the rock, and then slid down into the canyon holding on to the rope.

The canyon was at least 300 meters, and the rope kept extending for more than 300 meters until Ning Tao's feet touched the ground.

Ning Tao couldn't normally use a magic tool like that firewood knife, but he could use the magic tool from the Sky Clinic.

Thick fog at the bottom of the canyon reduced visibility to only about one meter. The ink ripples in the Soil-seeking Inkstone pointed to the front, where the fog was so thick that it was hard to see what was there.

Qing Zhui put out her long tongue, trembled a few times, and suddenly said, “There is spiritual energy here!”

“Let's go. The spiritual soil is in front. Let's go and see.” Ning Tao walked forward with the Soil-seeking Inkstone in his hands. He didn't walk very fast because of poor visibility. He had to be careful because the ground was so wet and muddy that he might get bogged down. As he walked, he awakened the smelling skill of his nose, to aid the limitation of vision.

After walking for a while, they still hadn't found the spiritual soil, but Ning Tao accidentally found several kinds of medicine for refining the Primary Elixir. In this process, he found a rule—where there was spiritual energy, there was easy to find spiritual material. Some common medicinal materials would become precious spiritual materials after being surrounded by spiritual energy for many years. As the saying goes, one takes the color of one's company. Thus it was normal for common herbs to become spiritual herbs as they grew in the environment with spiritual energy.

As it started to be light, visibility in the deep canyon improved to several meters. A quagmire appeared in front of Ning Tao and Qing Zhui, and ripples in the Soil-seeking Inkstone went downward, which looked like a bottomless black hole. It was an important hint that the spiritual soil was right in the quagmire.

There was no spiritual grain in the quagmire, but there was a white lotus, whose lotus leaves, stalks and flowers were all pure white, with a faint glimmer of holiness. In the dim light and the dirty, black quagmire, it was so divine and amazing.

Ning Tao immediately came up with an ill.u.s.tration and related description from Compendium of Spiritual Materials in his mind and he blurted out, “The sacred lotus, that is the legendary white-jade holy lotus!”

The white-jade holy lotus was a treasure in spiritual materials in the magic ancient age. It had the magical effect of purifying human body and soul. Sitting by the white-jade holy lotus could be very rewarding. It could reduce the impact of cultivation to the body and soul, so that one could always be on the correct way of practice and avoid going astray. In addition, it was also a superb spiritual material for refining elixirs. The quality of the elixir with the white-jade holy lotus would be much higher than that without it. More importantly, it could ensure that the elixir was correct.

In a word, it was a kind of spiritual material that could be sure of being correct.

“The elixir prescription of the Ancestor-seeking Elixir is incomplete. Can this white-jade holy lotus be one of the important materials in the complete elixir prescription of the Ancestor-seeking Elixir? Anyway, I'll dig it and take it back,” Ning Tao thought to himself, and then said, “Qing Zhui, let's get to work.”

Splas.h.!.+

As soon as these words were spoken, a white figure plunged into the quagmire. He glanced aside and saw Qing Zhui's tight-fitting sports clothes on the ground. Just as he identified the white-jade holy lotus in the quagmire and imagined what he could do with it, Qing Zhui was ready to dig.

After entering the quagmire, Qing Zhui went into the demon state. Her huge green snake tail flapped in the mud, and her body sank into it.

Just when Ning Tao was staring at the white-jade holy lotus in the mire, expecting the picture of it coming out of the mire. Suddenly he heard a gust of wind whistling.

Ning Tao jerked his head up, and saw that a dark shadow was charging at him head-on, as fast as a meteor! No sooner had his brain instructed him to duck than a large, hairy foot had kicked him in the chest.

Thump!

Ning Tao was blown off the ground, hitting a rock like a cannon ball, and then falling to the ground.

The shadow jumped to a height of more than 10 meters, then fell down like a boulder, with a pair of big feet stepping on Ning Tao's back.

Poof!

Ning Tao spat out a mouthful of blood, which released some of the impact from his internal organs. If he had not practiced the Powerful Tolerance to Beating of the pre-school punch skill and owned the airbag of spiritual power, these two violent attacks would probably have squished him to being like a dried persimmon.

Thinking Ning Tao was dead, the shadow got off Ning Tao's back and kicked him gently in the abdomen. He was probably trying to turn Ning Tao over, but his little kick had terrifying power. Ning Tao's body flew up again and hit the rock behind him.

But this time Ning Tao didn't fall to the ground. The moment his back hit the rock, he kicked off against it and plunged like an arrow into the shadow. In the process, he had taken the firewood knife from his belt with his right hand and struck at the head of the shadow.

It was in this moment of counterattack that he finally saw clearly what his attacker was, and his appearance made his hair stand on end!