Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1459 - Magnetic Field
Chapter 1459 – Magnetic Field
Each sect relied on its own core trade, and the Nine Dragon Palace built its current status on spiritual herbs alone. They had only climbed to this height by leaning on that business.
In truth, the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain had functioned like a colossal industrial chain for millions of years. If the Heavenly Dao Society wanted to carve out a place within that system, it would need close cooperation from the other sects.
“It’s not impossible to salvage those spiritual herbs, but it’ll take a bit of work,” Liu Wuxie replied with a slight smile, his tone carrying a hint of deliberate teasing.
The Nine Dragon Palace’s palace lord naturally understood that Liu Wuxie intended to gain leverage over the Nine Dragon Palace.
However, the problem with their spiritual herbs had been persisting for months, and the Nine Dragon Palace had tried countless methods to resolve it, all in vain.
The herbs continued to wither, and they had even sealed all news of the situation to prevent panic from spreading.
For the last few months, various sects had urged them repeatedly to deliver their spiritual herb orders, but the Nine Dragon Palace had its own difficulties. It wasn’t that they refused to ship the herbs; they simply didn’t have enough to send.
The medicinal potency of the withered herbs had weakened to the point of near death. If they shipped such herbs out, it would only trigger a greater disaster.
“If Young Master Liu can save those spiritual herbs, we can further discuss our cooperation,” the palace lord said with a sigh. In the worst case, he could compensate the other sects later. Right now, saving the spiritual herbs mattered more than anything else to the Nine Dragon Palace.
“I can now set my mind at ease with those words. Take me to the herbal garden,” Liu Wuxie replied. He did not state any conditions up front and instead chose to trust in the palace lord’s character. He believed that the master of such a great sect would not go back on his word.
“Young Master Liu, please,” the palace lord said, turning to lead Liu Wuxie out of the main hall. They tore through space together and left the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain behind.
Aside from their headquarters, most of the Nine Dragon Palace’s assets were scattered across other planets. They didn’t bother with teleportation arrays; a Quasi-Immortal could simply rip open space, and in only fifteen minutes, they arrived on another planet.
This planet possessed a heavy, stable presence, and spiritual herbs covered half its surface. By all rights, the world should have been brimming with vitality, yet the air was instead saturated with a faint aura of decay.
The palace lord led Liu Wuxie to a vast complex, where a massive spiritual array enveloped the herbal garden and barred ordinary people from entering.
Numerous herbal servants moved through the fields, busy watering and tending the spiritual herbs.
The herbs in the central region showed the most severe withering, and the blight had already started to spread outward like a plague to the surrounding plants.
Three elders crouched in the withered patch, sighing while they studied the dying spiritual herbs. They were so absorbed in their misery that they didn’t even notice the palace lord’s arrival at first.
“Palace Lord, what brings you here?” The three elders in charge of the herbal garden finally noticed him when he approached, and they scrambled to their feet, bowing respectfully.
They quickly spotted Liu Wuxie standing behind the palace lord and frowned in unison. None of them understood why the palace lord had brought an outsider into the herbal garden.
Every herbal garden of the Nine Dragon Palace was considered a forbidden ground and off-limits to outsiders. Even sect elders had to apply in advance to visit.
The herbal servants lived here year-round and weren’t allowed to leave, precisely to prevent any leakage of the garden’s secrets.
“This is Young Master Liu, and I believe everyone must’ve heard of his name,” the palace lord said, introducing Liu Wuxie to the three elders.
From the palace lord, Liu Wuxie learned that these three were no ordinary elders. They were long-standing veterans of the sect. The elder in the middle was Ding Yuan, the one on the left was Chang Wu, and the one on the right was Shi An.
Besides this herbal field, they also managed another one. All three specialized in cultivating spiritual herbs, and their cultivation levels were far from low. They enjoyed considerable authority in the Nine Dragon Palace, enough that even the palace lord had to show them courtesy.
“Liu Wuxie!” They didn’t even need to ask; they instantly recognized him.
“Greetings, Elders,” Liu Wuxie said politely, bowing with flawless etiquette.
“Palace Lord, why have you brought Young Master Liu here?” Chang Wu asked, his gaze fixed warily on Liu Wuxie.
Ding Yuan and Shi An remained silent, but the suspicion in their eyes was obvious. None of them could figure out the palace lord’s goal.
“Young Master Liu, take a look at these spiritual herbs,” the palace lord said. He offered no further explanation. As the palace lord, this much authority was his by right.
“Very well,” Liu Wuxie answered with a nod and lowered his gaze to examine the spiritual herbs at his feet.
This herbal field mainly cultivated two types of spiritual herbs—Ephedra Spiritgrass and the Verdant-Seeking Vine. They served as key ingredients for the Soul Pill, and beyond that, both herbs played important roles in many other pill formulas as well.
Liu Wuxie gently plucked a stalk of Ephedra Spiritgrass and examined it closely. Ephedra Spiritgrass was a peculiar spiritual herb with seven leaves, each naturally a rich yellow, and that was where it drew its name.
However, the leaves of the stalk in his hand had turned purple, which made no sense at all. The herb showed obvious signs of withering. While the root and stem still appeared intact on the surface, they crumbled the moment his fingers brushed them.
All medicinal properties within the herb had completely vanished. If the Nine Dragon Palace dared to sell spiritual herbs in this state, they would immediately incur public outrage.
Liu Wuxie put the Ephedra Spiritgrass back down and plucked a stalk of Verdant-Seeking Vine. Just like the Ephedra Spiritgrass, it had also lost all of its medicinal power.
“Young Master Liu, have you discovered anything?” the palace lord asked. He had personally examined these herbs many times. Even as a Quasi-Immortal, he had found no solution. He had brought Liu Wuxie here only in the hope that this monstrous youth might create a miracle in their dire situation.
“Palace Lord, are you joking with us? We have studied these spiritual herbs for months, and we still can’t find a single clue. How can a brat like him possibly find the reason behind why the spiritual herbs are withering?” Chang Wu sneered, his tone dripping with disdain. He clearly held no goodwill toward Liu Wuxie.
He didn’t insult Liu Wuxie outright, but his attitude made his contempt obvious. To him, Liu Wuxie was just a youngster—how could his understanding of spiritual herbs surpass their accumulated expertise?
If experts like them couldn’t find a solution, there was no reason to believe a youth like Liu Wuxie could.
“What Elder Chang said makes sense. This is the Nine Dragon Palace’s restricted area, and it’s best if Young Master Liu leaves now,” Shi An added, determined to ensure that nothing that happened here leaked outside.
A hint of murderous intent flickered in Chang Wu’s eyes. Clearly, he considered silencing Liu Wuxie if necessary.
“Elder Chang, are you perhaps afraid that I might discover the secret here?” Liu Wuxie asked with a faint smile as he rose to his feet.
He had felt Chang Wu’s hostility from the moment he arrived, and it didn’t make sense at all. If Chang Wu were only worried about the Nine Dragon Palace’s secrets leaking, he wouldn’t need to go to such extremes.
Liu Wuxie only had to swear an oath to resolve that concern.
The secret Liu Wuxie referred to wasn’t the herbal field itself, but the true cause behind the spiritual herbs’ withering.
“I’ve long heard of your eloquence, and it seems that the rumors are true after seeing you today. This is the Nine Dragon Palace’s restricted area. Is it wrong for me to ask you to leave when you came here uninvited?” Chang Wu shot back with a cold sneer, his tone growing icier.
“Even the palace lord hasn’t driven me away, but you’ve stepped out to mock me repeatedly. Could it be that you don’t even place the palace lord in your eyes?” Liu Wuxie countered, and the tension in the air spiked instantly.
The palace lord remained on the sidelines, observing as he pieced the situation together in his mind. He already suspected that the Nine Dragon Palace had a traitor, and that this traitor likely held high status within the sect, but he had no concrete leads.
Liu Wuxie’s arrival had given him a sliver of hope.
“Liu Wuxie, you speak nonsense!” Chang Wu fumed, trembling with rage.
“Alright. Let’s cut it out. I invited young Master Liu, and the three of you only have to cooperate with him,” the palace lord said in a firm tone. Chang Wu could only swallow his anger; he didn’t dare defy the palace lord openly.
Shi An and Ding Yuan naturally had no choice but to hold their tongues as well.
“I’ll see how you embarrass yourself if you can’t find the problem,” Chang Wu snorted, flinging his sleeves as he stepped aside. He had no choice but to give way for now.
Liu Wuxie crouched down again and scooped up a handful of soil. After being watered daily with liquefied spiritual energy, the ground had transformed into rich spiritual soil. He lifted it to his nose and inhaled lightly.
“Young Master Liu, we have already examined the soil multiple times, and there are no issues with it,” Ding Yuan said.
They had investigated everything they could think of—from the liquefied spiritual energy to the spiritual soil and even the saplings. The spiritual herbs in this area had been planted a hundred years ago, and the problem had appeared just as they reached harvest this year.
The surrounding fields held ten to twenty-year-old herbs. Even those had been affected, but not as severely as the ones here. Just as Liu Wuxie had suspected, the first victims were the hundred-year-old herbs, and the blight then spread outward like a plague.
“There’s no issue with the spiritual soil and the liquefied spiritual energy, but there’s an important issue that everyone overlooked,” Liu Wuxie said as he stood up.
“What issue?” the three elders asked at once, exchanging glances as they wondered if they truly had missed something.
They had inspected everything available. At one point, they even suspected an infestation of Spirit-Devouring Worms, which favored spiritual herbs as food, but extensive inspection revealed no traces of such worms.
With the powerful divine senses of Quasi-Immortals, even a speck of dust could not escape their notice.
The palace lord watched Liu Wuxie with growing anticipation, and a peculiar light flashed in his eyes. If Liu Wuxie could truly save these spiritual herbs, he would become the Nine Dragon Palace’s great benefactor. After all, this wasn’t the only planet facing such a crisis.
“The magnetic field,” Liu Wuxie said.
His answer left the three elders completely baffled, and even the palace lord’s gaze was filled with confusion. This was the first time they had ever heard that magnetic fields could influence the growth of spiritual herbs.
“Young Master Liu, what do you mean by that?” Ding Yuan asked.
He bore no hostility toward Liu Wuxie and would even kneel if Liu Wuxie could resolve the Nine Dragon Palace’s crisis. If the herbal fields continued to wither, none of them would escape responsibility.
“Magnetic fields are a mysterious kind of existence,” Liu Wuxie explained. “You can’t see them, but they very much exist. For example, in places where yang energy is abundant, yin energy would naturally brew in dark corners, forming two extremes.
“This is a function of the magnetic field—extreme yang gives birth to yin, and vice-versa.”
“Like how you can always find the antidote within ten meters of a venomous snake?” Ding Yuen asked with a frown. Going by Liu Wuxie’s explanation, that should fall under the same principle.
“You can consider it that way,” Liu Wuxie replied with a nod. The concept of magnetic fields was vast and couldn’t be fully explained in just a few sentences. Right now, the priority was to find a way to stop the spiritual herbs from withering any further.
