Chapter 618 Spirit Medicine Garden

“Finally, it’s dealt with!”

After devouring the Sword Monarch’s remnant soul, Zhaang Ye’s mind was flooded with the infinite mysteries of the Sword Dao, and his Soul Power grew more than ten times stronger. His entire being felt an indescribable sense of fulfillment and ease.

Ever since entering the Sword Monarch Hall, the remnant soul and projection left behind by the Sword Monarch had been like a great mountain weighing on Zhaang Ye’s heart. Now that this mountain had finally been removed, Zhaang Ye heaved a sigh of relief, the feeling of having survived a great calamity washing over him.

Just as he began to relax, a sense of danger suddenly surged through Zhaang Ye. He had just withdrawn from his sea of consciousness when he saw a gleaming Folding Fan slashing down at him!

The Flower King!

It turned out that while Zhaang Ye was busy devouring the Sword Monarch’s remnant soul, the Flower King, whose bones had been shattered by the aftershocks of the battle, had managed to recover a sliver of Primordial Qi. The Flower King hated Zhaang Ye to his very core. Seeing Zhaang Ye standing with eyes closed, he knew the man was resisting the Sword Monarch’s possession attempt. He ignored his own grievous injuries and launched a ruthless attack!

Although the Flower King was severely injured, Zhaang Ye’s wounds were even worse. The Flower King’s sudden attack was as swift as a thunderclap. Zhaang Ye couldn’t even dodge; he could only raise his hand to grab at the Folding Fan.

A savage grin spread across the Flower King’s face. His Folding Fan let out a strange shriek as it slashed down viciously, intending to first sever Zhaang Ye’s hand, and then his neck.

“CLANG!”

The Folding Fan, acting like a saber, chopped down hard onto Zhaang Ye’s palm.

The Flower King’s eyes suddenly widened. He found that when his incredibly sharp and powerful Folding Fan struck Zhaang Ye’s palm, it felt like hitting a soft yet impossibly tough piece of fabric.

Zhaang Ye’s hand hadn’t been severed!

“A glove! You’re wearing a glove! Is that how you ripped out the heart of that purple-bearded man? So you were wearing such a powerful glove all along!” The Flower King was, after all, a top expert of the younger generation with a keen eye. He instantly spotted the glove on Zhaang Ye’s hand and couldn’t help but cry out.

“PFFT!”

As his palm was struck, new injuries were piled atop old ones. Zhaang Ye violently spat out a mouthful of blood, his expression turning ghastly. Although the glove had blocked the Flower King’s Folding Fan, the force behind the blow surged into his body like a tidal wave. Even with his powerful physique, Zhaang Ye couldn’t bear it.

This was only because Zhaang Ye had comprehended the Five Elements Power; the vibrant life force in his body circulated endlessly, constantly nourishing and repairing his injuries. Otherwise, that single blow from the Flower King might have cost him his life.

“Boy, you’ll die even with that glove!” The Flower King laughed cruelly as his Folding Fan suddenly erupted in raging flames. A terrible inferno instantly enveloped Zhaang Ye!

The Fire Realm!

The Flower King’s Innate True Qi was unbelievably vast. His bones had been crushed by the battle’s aftershocks, yet his Innate True Qi still flowed endlessly. Driven by this power, his Fire Realm erupted like a volcano, the scorching heat turning the ground red.

The Flower King’s attack was formidable, but Zhaang Ye had already reacted. Completely ignoring the raging flames, he called out in his mind, ‘Water Spirit!’

At his mental command, the Water Spirit appeared silently. A hazy layer of Water Qi formed around Zhaang Ye’s body, defending against the Flower King’s raging fire.

Among the Five Elements, water conquers fire. The Water Qi conjured by the Water Spirit seemed fragile, but it held back the Flower King’s raging inferno. No matter how furiously the Flower King unleashed his power, he couldn’t harm Zhaang Ye.

Seeing the Water Spirit appear, the Flower King’s heart sank with a bad premonition. He was just about to execute his Body Technique to retreat deeper into the Sword Monarch Hall when a peculiar flame suddenly landed on him.

The Fire Spirit!

Seeing that Zhaang Ye was safe, the Fire Spirit had flown out and landed squarely on the Flower King. The Flower King may have comprehended the Fire Realm, but his mastery was nothing compared to the Fire Spirit—the difference was night and day. The moment the Fire Spirit touched him, the Flower King felt a tremor wrack his body as he was instantly set ablaze!

“ARGH!”

The Flower King let out a bloodcurdling scream, frantically slapping at his body with both hands to extinguish the flames. But the more he slapped, the more fiercely the fire burned. In the blink of an eye, the Flower King was reduced to a pile of ash, and a Storage Bag dropped to the ground before Zhaang Ye.

The Fire Spirit flew out with a WHOOSH and said disdainfully, “How dare you play with fire in front of me? You must have had a death wish. Those who play with fire get burned. You should count yourself lucky to die by my flames.”

Zhaang Ye coughed up two more mouthfuls of blood, having finally recovered somewhat from the blow. He collected the Flower King’s Storage Bag and was about to speak when, suddenly, the entire Sword Monarch Hall began to shake violently.

“This is bad!”

Tai Sui cried out in alarm, “The Sword Monarch’s remnant soul was inextricably linked to the Sword Monarch Hall! Now that the remnant soul is gone, the hall is about to collapse!”

Zhaang Ye’s face paled. The Sword Monarch Hall was thousands of feet tall and absolutely massive. If it collapsed, it would be like the sky itself was falling. There would be nowhere to hide. Given his grievous injuries, being crushed by the collapsing hall meant certain death!

“WHOOSH! WHOOSH!”

Without a word, Zhaang Ye picked up the Purple-Blue Spirit Tree and pushed himself to his limit, flying deeper into the Sword Monarch Hall.

Having devoured the Sword Monarch’s remnant soul, Zhaang Ye now knew some of the hall’s secrets, even though he hadn’t fully refined the soul’s memories. With the Sword Monarch Hall on the verge of collapse, he ignored his injuries and headed for a side chamber deep inside.

The Spirit Medicine Garden!

Deep within the Sword Monarch Hall lay a massive Spirit Medicine Garden. The Sword Monarch’s remnant soul had painstakingly established it, intending to use the Spirit Elixirs to recover his strength after finding a new body.

“RUMBLE—”

Zhaang Ye had only flown a few miles when the tremors intensified. Boulders the size of small hills rained down from the ceiling, making the ground boom and tremble violently upon impact.

Zhaang Ye weaved through the falling rocks as he flew, covering another two miles. By now, the boulders falling from above were becoming larger and more frequent. In his grievously wounded state, Zhaang Ye could no longer dodge them all. He had no choice but to summon Tai Sui to blast the hill-sized rocks out of the air.

After another few moments of flight, a palace made of White Jade suddenly appeared before him. Eight Arrays were operating outside this White Jade Palace, frantically gathering the impossibly dense Essence Qi from the surroundings and funneling it into the palace.

Zhaang Ye recognized them as the renowned Spirit Gathering Arrays. A Spirit Gathering Array could gather the essence of the world, even its Spiritual Qi, allowing Spirit Elixirs to be nourished by ample energy and grow much faster.

Zhaang Ye quickly moved past the Spirit Gathering Arrays and entered the Spirit Medicine Garden.

The Spirit Medicine Garden was a full hundred mu in size. Two to three hundred Spirit Elixirs grew from the pale purple soil, and the entire garden was bathed in a strange light.

“Purple Spirit Orchid, Blood-Dropping Spiritual Lotus, Fire Cloud Spirit Pear, White Jade Seven-Grain Rice…” Zhaang Ye’s eyes lit up as he stared at the Spirit Elixirs, his heart filled with glee.

Everything growing in the garden was a rare Eighth-Grade or Seventh-Grade Spirit Elixir, and there were even two Sixth-Grade Spirit Elixirs. Refined into Elixirs, they would be enough for Zhaang Ye to cultivate to the True Dao Eighth Layer. With a bit of luck, he might even be able to use them to reach the True Dao Ninth Layer and become a First Generation Grandmaster!

Just then, the Wood Spirit flashed into view. It stared at the Spirit Elixirs, a look of regret in its eyes as it sighed, “What a pity. What a shame!”

Zhaang Ye asked, “What’s a shame?”

The Wood Spirit pointed to the garden. “The best Spirit Elixirs in this garden are only Sixth Grade. Due to insufficient Spiritual Qi and poor management, any Spirit Elixirs above Sixth Grade have all withered and died. A pity, a pity! What a terrible shame!”

Tai Sui chuckled. “That old fogey, the Sword Monarch, only knew how to swing a blade. What would he know about cultivating Spirit Elixirs? It’s already impressive that this Spirit Medicine Garden reached this scale. If the Sword Monarch hadn’t been siphoning my power to keep this hall running, the garden would have ceased to exist long ago.”

Zhaang Ye felt a pang of regret, but quickly said to the Wood Spirit, “I need to harvest all of these Spirit Elixirs. You are the Wood Origin and are familiar with their properties. You do the honors!”

The sound of the world tearing itself apart echoed from the distance. Seeing that the Sword Monarch Hall was about to be completely destroyed, Zhaang Ye didn’t dare waste another second.

The Wood Spirit looked at the rows of Spirit Elixirs. “Harvesting them is easy, but many of these aren’t mature enough. If we pick them now, their medicinal efficacy will be greatly diminished, making them almost useless.”

Tai Sui said in a heavy tone, “There’s no time. Let me handle them! I can use the power of the Earth Vein to move the Spirit Elixirs, soil and all, into the Fire Spirit Realm. That way, Master, you can use Spirit Stones to nourish them slowly and only harvest them when needed.”

Zhaang Ye was delighted. “Do it now!”

Tai Sui acknowledged the command, and an incredibly profound power emanated from its round body. The power drilled into the earth and coiled around the entire Spirit Medicine Garden like a great dragon.

“RUMBLE—”

With a series of loud rumbles, chunks of earth flew into the air. Each chunk contained a single Spirit Elixir, and they all flew automatically into the Fire Spirit Realm.

“CRACK! CRACK!”

Just as Tai Sui was moving the Spirit Elixirs, the Sword Monarch Hall finally began to give way. Heaven-shaking rumbles echoed from the distance as unfathomably deep fissures split the ground.

Zhaang Ye grew anxious and yelled, “Tai Sui, faster! The whole place is collapsing!”

Spurred on by Zhaang Ye, Tai Sui ignored its own grievous injuries. With a mighty roar, it lifted the remaining hundred-odd Spirit Elixirs and moved them all into the Fire Spirit Realm.

Nearly three hundred Spirit Elixirs were gathered together, forming a garden plot over five hundred zhang wide. The entire Fire Spirit Realm was only a thousand zhang across, so the new garden took up a significant amount of space.

Zhaang Ye shot into the air, about to crush the Jade Talisman from Master Qianjian to leave the Sword Monarch Ruins. But just then, a figure flashed in the distance. Shui Daimai’s beautiful form appeared in the void dozens of miles away.

Like the Flower King, all the bones in Shui Daimai’s body had been crushed by the aftershocks of the battle. But she was, after all, one of the most powerful figures of the younger generation. She had recovered in a short amount of time and had somehow found her way into the depths of the Sword Monarch Hall.

Shui Daimai watched Zhaang Ye from a distance and suddenly spoke. “Zhaang Ye, I’ve already received word. The Grandmasters from both the Black Cloud Domain and the Purple Spirit Domain all know that you’ve obtained several types of Origin Power.”

“Let me tell you, Origin Power is immensely helpful even to Grandmasters. If you leave now, you’ll definitely be hunted by them. You won’t be able to hold on to the Origin Power you worked so hard to get.”

Zhaang Ye’s brow furrowed slightly. “What are you getting at?”

Shui Daimai said, “I want to make a deal. If you give me the Water Origin, I can ensure that my Sect will no longer trouble you or try to take your other Origin Powers.”

Zhaang Ye raised an eyebrow and said decisively, “Impossible!”

Shui Daimai sneered, crushed a Jade Talisman, and vanished. Her voice, however, drifted back from the void. “Very well, I won’t say any more. Zhaang Ye, just you wait for the Grandmasters to hunt you down! Master Qianjian may be powerful, but not even he can protect you!”

-(To be continued. If you enjoy this story, please consider showing your support! It’s the greatest motivation for the author.)