Chapter 1: The Seven-Colored Dragon Boat, Azure Pearl...

  "What a huge tree! It's probably grown for at least hundreds of years. Father said that there is a kind of red-striped pine, as long as it has been growing for thousands of years, the heart of the tree will produce divine iron wood that is dozens of times harder than fine steel, which can be used directly to make flying sword molds. I don't know what that red-striped pine looks like. Hmph, looking at this guy's ignorant appearance, he must have never even heard of it."

  In the dense forest where she stood, the most numerous were a kind of broad-leaved fir tree. Standing under the nearest one, the slender and delicate Cao Lu felt tiny like an ant. This ancient and gigantic fir tree had some gnarled roots exposed on the outside. Cao Lu jumped onto one of the roots and compared her own feet to it, only to find that even both her feet put together were not as thick as a single root hair of this giant fir tree.

  The massive cedars and other giant trees block out the sky, making some areas of the mountain ridge damp. The rocks underfoot are covered in patchy green moss, the soil is black with dry leaves mixed in, and it's damp and soft in some places. Although it's still noon, the dense forest appears dark, always making people feel like they've entered a completely different gloomy world. There are faint rustling sounds in the ears, as if someone is whispering in the distance. While walking, strange insects often suddenly fly out of the bushes without warning. Even when picking herbs, one can't help but imagine that something terrifying might jump out from behind the trees.

  This mountain is obviously a rare place for humans to visit, with almost no roads. If people in Shu Mountain didn't have anything important to do, they wouldn't waste their time in this forest. Although cultivators generally have longer lives than ordinary people, this long life is built on equally long years of cultivation. Ordinary people may be able to accomplish everything they want to do in a lifetime in fifty years: getting married, establishing a career, having children and grandchildren. But for cultivators, fifty years might not even be enough time to fully understand one manual, let alone successfully cultivate an inner elixir.

  Cultivation, apart from innate talent and hard work, the most important thing is opportunity.

  In the vast and mysterious world of human life, a chance encounter is already a destined connection.

  Cai Wu's appearance was elegant and refined, making it easy for people to have a good impression of her. Especially when looking at her innocent and romantic jumping on the tree roots, using her feet to compare sizes, Luo Bei's heart felt a few points of affection towards this girl who was about the same age as him.

  "You ignorant fool, you should be scared now."

  Ke Cu, this elegant young girl, however, did not have the slightest feeling of fate at first sight. On the contrary, she had a misunderstanding of Luo Bei from the beginning and was extremely displeased with him. At this moment, she hoped to see a look of horror and fear on Luo Bei's face, but what made her disappointed again was that she saw Luo Bei's expression as usual, breaking off a thin branch, removing the twigs and leaves, and proceeding to pat the surrounding shrubs and grasses, and even occasionally making marks on the trees they passed by, not looking frightened at all.

  The Tianzhu Peak in the Shu Mountains, although also a desolate landscape, is not as hot and humid as Luofu. Unlike Luofu, which often experiences sudden rainstorms without warning, with muddy roads everywhere, hiding colorful insects in the rainforest, compared to Luobei, it's much safer.

  At first, Luo Bei was not yet a disciple of Luo Fu. When climbing that unnamed mountain peak, every day he had to walk through miles of rainforest and spend a lot of time searching for edible food in the perilous rainforest. Luo Fu's rules were warm but cruel, like this Shu Mountain, where new disciples were directly released into the mountains was already considered a relatively harsh training among various sects, but compared to Luo Fu's constant challenges of life and death, it was fundamentally incomparable.

  "What a hateful guy! Don't even want to look at him!" Not seeing the expression she had hoped for on Luo Bei's face, Cai Shu couldn't help but feel some inexplicable irritation, and deliberately kept a distance from Luo Bei, not even looking at him.

  On the top of Tianzhufeng, there are many rare flowers and fruits. The variety is second only to Changyoucheng and Yaoguangfeng among the mountains in Shu. As Cai Shu walked along the path, she suddenly saw some crimson fruit on a vine to her left. These crimson fruit were about the size of bird eggs, with thin skin and thick flesh, very tempting. "I wonder if these fruits are edible and what they taste like?" Cai Shu was still a young girl of thirteen or fourteen years old, and she couldn't help but swallow her saliva when she saw the tempting fruit. "I'll pick two and bring them back to ask Minghao Shifu."

  "Adopted Sister Cai Shu" Suddenly, Luo Bei shouted out loud.

  "What's wrong?" Cao Yu turned his head back with an unpleasant tone.

  "Ah, Cai Shu sister, don't you think this is the Lian Dan Mu that Master Ming Hao was talking about?" Luo Bei held up a plant with only three leaves, but they were as thick as bean pods and had a slightly golden color all over. She waved it at her and said, "It seems to look even better than what Master Ming Hao condensed."

  “……!”

  "What's wrong, Cai Wu sister? Don't you think it's like that?"

  "It should... be Kaito Dan."

  This guy actually found a Lingzhi mushroom in one go!

  If he says it's not, this guy will definitely not lose and will bring it back to show Minghao Shu. If Minghao Shu says it is, wouldn't that make himself look like he has no taste?

  Luobei didn't know that Caiyu was so angry at this moment, but when he heard her say yes, Luobei smiled happily and put the one-foot-long Jiantan wood into his waist bag. He said to Caiyu, "Sister Caiyu, Minghao Shu said everyone has to collect one thing, we still need to find another one."

  "What 'we'? Who's 'we' with you?" Cao Zhi thought to himself, casually plucking a leaf and pinching it hard...

  "Miss Cai, this piece of Danmu wood was found on a rotten tree root. It's possible that the Danmu wood grew from the rotten tree root. You can pay attention to the base of the dead trees." Luobei kindly reminded her.

  "Pfft! You actually dare to come and teach me?!" Cai Wei's small hands grasped the leaves even more tightly.

  "Lotus Sister..."

  "Stop calling me 'sister' all the time!" Cao Lu couldn't help but turn around and shout at Luo Bei, "Do I look older than you?"

  "....then should I call you Cai Shu's sister?" Luo Bei looked at Cai Shu innocently, not knowing why this lovely girl was so furious.

  "......" Cai Su was speechless, staring at Luo Bei for a long time before turning her small head with great helplessness, "You can shout if you want to, but from now on, don't talk to me!"

  ……。

  "Lotus-picking young nun..."

  "Didn't you tell me not to talk to you?! Why are you looking for me again, don't you think it's impolite for a man and woman to be so entangled in conversation?! Adopting a stern expression, Cai Zhu saw Luo Bei nodding in shock, but just as he took a few steps forward, he turned his head to look at the trees on one side, only to hear Luo Bei shouting at him again. This time, Cai Zhu finally couldn't help but shout out in anger... "Plop", just then, his foot slipped... Cai Zhu's nose still smelled a sour and stinky smell... a pile of unknown animal dung, and at this moment, Cai Zhu's shoe was stepping right on it.

  "Lo Beih! You're right behind me, why didn't you remind me!" A loud angry shout startled some birds in the mountain forest to fly out of the woods.

  "Adopted sister Cai Shu, I was originally going to remind you. But you didn't let me talk to you..." Luo Bei said very innocently.

  ……。

  "Gulu, gulu" In the quiet mountains and forests, such a sound suddenly came out again.

  The sound was coming from under Luobei's blue shirt, from his abdomen.

  "This guy looked around and wouldn't step on a pile!"

  Cai Wei, who was thinking this in her heart, heard Luo Bei's stomach growling loudly and thought resentfully, "He's really like a pig, eating so much food before we set off, now his stomach is growling so loudly."

  At this time, the sun had already slightly inclined to the west, and unknowingly, half a day had passed. In another hour or two, the sky would gradually darken. When entering the mountain and crossing the rope bridge, Ming Hao had already agreed with everyone that at that time he would also release a flying flame token. Upon seeing this flying flame token, regardless of whether they found all five types of herbs, everyone would set off to hurry back to the iron rope bridge's edge to assemble.

  At this time, both Luobei and Caiwu's waist bags already had a sprig of Cyathium with green flowers, shaped like scallions, a three-leafed Danmu tree with soft outer shell and fine downy hairs, and a greenish-yellow荸荔 fruit.

  Five herbs, Luobei and Caiyu were found among three of them.

  "It seems that I need to hurry up and can't delve deeper, I can only speed up the search nearby, otherwise it will be too late to rush back and miss the timing." These days, Luo Bei, who had not stopped practicing the Wan Nian Qing Long Sheng Jing, was now ignoring his own hunger, and this thought just floated in his mind.

  At this moment, a loud "bang" sounded, and a red light suddenly shot up into the sky, bursting into dozens of red glows.

  Flying Flame Seal!

  This flying flame talisman also burst out from a mountain belly in front of Luo Bei and Cai Bao, obviously not Ming Hao sending them a message to return.

  Seeing this sudden burst of flame talisman, both Luo Bei and Cai Bu were startled in their hearts.

  "I don't know which senior brother or junior brother is in danger."

  "I hope it's not Master Lin."

  Luobei and Cai Shu exchanged a glance, both of them unconsciously heading in the direction where the flying flame symbol was emitted, but before they could take dozens of steps, they saw a sword light flashing across the sky like a startled swan.

  "It should be Minghao and the others who went." The two people's hearts suddenly relaxed, and as they lowered their heads and looked up again, both of them involuntarily let out a cry of surprise.

  A deep and profound mountain valley.

  The two of them only now noticed that within twenty zhangs of their location, there was a deep and profound canyon, approximately ten zhangs in width, not too long, just several li. It could be circumvented, as if it were a fissure carved out by the divine axe on the mountain body. However, on the edge of the opposite cliff, a small patch of flowers with purple-red petals was growing, its stem and leaves resembling those of the convolvulus, with a light yellow color - the fine xiangruo grass, the last type of medicinal herb other than the stinging tongcao that the two were unaware of.

  (Haha, today everyone's votes are not ruthless enough, so I'll just take it easy... Not too intense... For now, I'll maintain the quality and quantity of 6,000 per day, everyone keep working hard to accumulate energy, as long as the votes **come up**, the accumulated power will make me unstoppable)