Chapter 5: The Black Lotus of the Spirit Plant

  Whoosh!

  In the forest, Ye Ming was shuttling between the branches, having defeated Cang Fei earlier. He felt relieved in his heart, but he knew that Cang Fei wasn't a truly formidable expert.

  At least compared to Chen Guo, Cang Flying is much weaker.

  After a moment, Ye Ming returned to the cave again, immediately holding the map record in one hand and the yuan stone in the other. His face also became serious, and he was about to test whether the map record had anything to do with the yuan stone.

  "The starry sky is getting dimmer and dimmer, I hope it's effective!" Ye Ming said with some tension.

  The mysterious map is his greatest reliance and also his hope for returning to his family. To say that he's not nervous, that would be a lie!

  In an instant, the two hands touched each other, and the picture scroll emitted a warm glow. Yuanshi felt as if he had fallen into a swamp, and was suddenly sucked into the picture scroll. At the same time, the originally dull starry sky pattern on the picture scroll immediately became clear!

  "It succeeded!"

  Ye Ming leaped up, his heart excited beyond compare, everything was just as he had guessed, with the yuan stone, he could exert the power of the diagram!

  However, Ye Ming quickly calmed down: "Tulu has the effect of finding Lingzhi, but I'm too weak. Even if I know the location of Lingzhi, many Lingzhi can't be picked."

  He clearly knew that with his current strength, he could only wander around the nearby area, and most of the spiritual plants in the vicinity were just Ling Grass. As for venturing deeper, he was afraid that before even encountering any spiritual plants, he would be swallowed by a demonic beast!

  "First and foremost, let's focus on upgrading our strength! With these three low-grade primal stones, we should be able to hold out for a pretty long time!"

  Ye Ming already had a plan in mind. Next, he would focus on cultivating with the Spirit Gathering Grass to quickly reach the fourth realm of Spiritual Energy and pass the examination at Gan Tang Academy!

  The days of cultivation passed slowly, but what made Ye Ming disappointed was that the Gathering Spirit Grass did not live up to its reputation. After reaching the third realm of spiritual energy, the effect became even weaker. It's going to take a long time to reach the fourth realm of spiritual energy!

  This made Ye Ming feel somewhat anxious.

  On this day, Ye Ming dug up all the Ling Grass in the vicinity and then headed towards the next region.

  "This area is mostly green and the starlight is dim, it's a gathering of spiritual plants. Hmm, these two starlights are clearly different, could this be a first-rate spiritual plant?"

  Just entering a new area, Ye Ming opened the map and took a closer look, with a joyful smile.

  This is the outermost part of the Misty Forest, and the spiritual plants have long been dug up by people. It's already quite good to be able to find the Spirit Gathering Grass, and unexpectedly, there's even a First-Rate Spiritual Plant! Although the First-Rate Spiritual Plant may not be suitable for my own cultivation, it can be exchanged for Yuan Stones!

  Ye Ming hastily proceeded forward along the forest.

  In an instant, a clearing appeared in front of me. The ground all around was yellow earth. Next to a large tree stood a three-leafed black lotus the size of a palm, swaying gently. The stamens on the lotus emitted a faint glow!

  "What kind of spiritual plant is it that emits a radiant glow from its flower stamens?"

  Ye Ming stood on a branch, his gaze swept across, except for the three-leafed black lotus, all around were thick vines as thick as an arm, many of which were entwined with the three-leafed black lotus, looking like symbiotic plants.

  Those vines were all crimson in color, covered with thorns, and emitted a mysterious aura!

  "The two black and red stamens displayed in the picture should be that black lotus and vine, but I don't know what kind of spiritual plant it is."

  Ye Ming cautiously observed his surroundings and saw nothing unusual before jumping down from the tree.

  After this period of exploration, he has come to realize that the Tu Lu currently has two major functions: one is to find spiritual plants and the other is to know the effects of spiritual plants, but it must be done by hand touching the spiritual plant!

  So, Ye Ming must take the risk of touching these two unknown spiritual plants!

  However, Ye Ming did not directly approach the three-leafed black lotus, but instead came to the outermost edge, quietly looking at those blood-red vines. He had a feeling that these two spiritual plants were neither guarded by demon beasts nor picked, and there must be something strange about them!

  Because it's not normal!

  As expected, when Ye Ming lightly touched a tendril on the edge, the graphic characters immediately appeared.

  Rahu Fire Vine, a rare and mysterious plant, with attributes of fire and wood, extremely toxic. The vine contains fire poison crystals, if one comes into contact with it, the fire poison will grow inside the human body, and when mature, it will burst out of the body, making it difficult to cure...

  As usual, it is often accompanied by a kind of Lingzhi black wood lotus, with the saying that "the wisteria dies and the lotus dies"...

  The rustling of leaves also made me jump, fortunately I was cautious earlier. This fire poison ivy is actually highly toxic, no wonder nobody dares to pick it!

  "This painting is so mysterious, there must be a way to decipher it!"

  Ye Ming continued to read on, the illustrations were very detailed, apart from how to detoxify, it even introduced the effects of Li Huo poison vine, which part was the most important, and how to match with Ling Zhi to produce other effects!

  "It turns out that the horror of the Fire Poison Ivy is actually the Fire Poison Crystal, hidden in the flower buds. However, by sprinkling the Ling Spirit Grass juice on it, the flower buds can be made to shrink and can even be picked! These flower buds are the most useful part of the Fire Poison Ivy, and by soaking them in Ling Spirit Grass, one can borrow its power to cultivate strong meridians..."

  Ye Ming smiled with joy, wasn't this suitable for a martial cultivator? Moreover, the Flame Poison Vine was a first-rate spiritual plant, its effect was absolutely stronger than the Spirit Gathering Grass!

  With this, Ye Ming's target fell on those flower buds!

  "Picking also requires care, it's better to record the flower buds of the whole vine first, and there is a record in the picture!"

  Ye Meng carefully looked at the picture, on which, in addition to the text records, there were also patterns, depicting the number of flower buds this Lihuo Duoteng had, the position of the flower buds, and any secrets were all clear at a glance!

  "This diagram is getting more and more mysterious. As soon as I touch the Lihuo Duoteng, everything about it appears."

  Ye Ming hehe smiled, this poisonous vine that the cultivator had avoided in vain was no longer terrifying to him now!

  After a moment, Ye Ming followed the map and began to pick the Lihuo Teng flower buds. Of course, he was very careful in the process. After picking four or five flower buds, two figures suddenly walked out from between the trees, one of whom exclaimed in surprise.

  "Empty-handed sister, found it! First-rate spiritual plant, Black Wood Lotus!"

  This sudden change made Ye Ming stop in his tracks, frowning tightly as he stared at the newcomer.

  The two newcomers were two girls wearing the uniform of Gan Tang Academy. On the left, a girl in white clothes had eyebrows and eyes like a painting, with a pair of delicate earrings that resembled a medicine cauldron pendant, which swayed slightly, giving the white-clothed girl an ethereal feeling.

  As for the girl on the right, she is older, wearing a purple dress, with a beautiful face and figure. However, her slightly raised delicate chin gives off an air of arrogance.

  After appearing, both of them looked at Ye Ming, and the white-clothed girl Ling Dong's eyes widened slightly in surprise, not expecting to run into that young man here.

  The purple-robed girl, Jing Yi, raised an eyebrow and revealed a hint of disdain, too lazy to care: "Kong Shi Mei, it seems that this black wood lotus is going to be abandoned again. Look at those fire poison vines around us, I really can't understand why they have to entwine the black wood lotus as it grows."

  Upon hearing this, Kong Dongling's slender eyebrows furrowed slightly. Her goal was indeed the Black Wood Lotus, a spiritual plant with numerous effects, but its flower petals were the best material for refining a certain type of spiritual symbol.

  Unfortunately, most black lotus are accompanied by the highly toxic fire vine. The extreme toxicity of the fire vine makes countless cultivators fearful at the mere sight of it. As for forcibly destroying the fire vine, due to their symbiotic relationship, the black lotus will also wither and die in response!

  When the wisteria is in bloom, the lotus is also in bloom; when the wisteria withers, the lotus also withers!

  This phrase, as a Danfeng Island cultivator, Kong Dongling had heard it countless times!

  In short, this black lotus is going to be abandoned again!