Chapter 395: Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s
“Red Coral Island! So this is the nearest coral island!”
Han Li stood on the Divine Wind Boat and muttered to himself for a moment. Afterwards, he flew in a large circle around the island and made sure that the coral island didn’t have any cultivators or demon beasts nearby before slowly descending with Crooked Soul.
The small ring-shaped island was composed of coral rings of differing sizes.
Han Li stood on a smooth surface and ground his shoes against the ground to make fine, dark-red grains of dust. He then lifted his head to examine the topography of the island. A short moment later, he narrowed his eyes in contemplation.
Ordering Crooked Soul to stand guard near him, he suddenly set off to walk around the island.
Under Crooked Soul’s protection, Han Li made a thorough inspection of the island’s west and east coral rings. After making a full examination of the island, he even dove into the sea in the center of the island and didn’t emerge until half a day later.
On the third day, Han Li completed his investigation and finally came to a decision.
He ordered Crooked Soul to place down his three great formations— the Five Elements Reversal Formation, the Fierce Heavenly Wind Formation, and the Illusory Heavensifting Formation— at his selected locations. The three formations all covered the center of Red Coral Island.
After placing down the three formations, Han Li additionally set up several small scale magic formations at the center of the Red Coral Island. With every direction sealed off from the center, it created an inescapable net.
Having done all of this, Han Li carefully examined his work and ensured that there was nothing he had overlooked. Then, he took out a jade box from his storage pouch and gently stroked it.
Han Li revealed a mysterious smile and slowly opened it, revealing a large medicinal herb that had thirteen leaves on its stalk. The leaves were completely curled up, making it appear quite peculiar.
Even more noteworthy was the white mist the plant carried that faintly released a rainbow light, making for a magnificent sight. It seemed to be of supernatural nature.
This was Han Li’s greatest trump card, the “Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s”.
Although the herb wasn’t common, it couldn’t be considered a rarity either. This item was able to be found on coral reefs in the Scattered Star Seas. However, if one attempted to plant this in ordinary soil, it would cause its surroundings to s.h.i.+ne with color for one or two days before dying off. It was quite interesting.
What was most fascinating was that the color which s.h.i.+ned would be the same as the environment it grew in, altering the color of its current location, whether it be blue, red, or any other color.
However, it didn’t possess any significant medicinal effects for cultivators. Apart from its attractiveness, common cultivators would only view it as an ingredient used in some low grade medicine pills. However, “Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s” had another name, “Demonlure Gra.s.s”, and had previously caused a large amount of uproar in the cultivation world of the Scattered Star Seas.
At the time, an unknown cultivator had unexpectedly discovered that every hundred years, one of the thirteen curled leaves of this extremely beautiful medicinal herb would gradually unfold. Upon fully unfolding, it would release a strange scent that lasted an entire week.
The scent didn’t have any effect on cultivators, but to the many demon beasts in the sea, it was an extremely enticing aroma. With the slightest smell, the demon beasts would instantly search for it, racing to be the first to find and devour its source.
In addition, the older the Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s, the farther its scent traveled, and the more powerful the demon beasts it would attract.
It was said that a Nascent Soul expert had previously found a stalk of thousand year old Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s in the depths of the Outer Star Seas that had just unfolded its eleventh leaf. As a result, this expert had personally seen several tens of grade six and grade seven demon beasts mount a simultaneous charge towards it, forcing the expert to flee.
When this was later made known in the cultivation world, many cultivators had thoughts of using this herb to lure demon beasts for easy hunting, as high grade cultivators would often go months in the Outer Star Seas without encountering a single demon beast.
Towards a majority of cultivators, grade five demon beasts were the best targets, as hunting grade six and seven demon beasts posed too great a risk of death. As for any demon beasts grade eight and higher, only old Nascent Soul eccentrics wouldn’t flee at the sight of them. Anybody else would merely become demon beast food.
The number of demon beasts in the Outer Star Seas were truly great. However, they were truly difficult to find as they rarely ever left their concealment from the deep seas. Unless high level cultivators flew thousands of kilometers day by day over the ocean or possessed remarkable ability for searching the sea with their spiritual sense, roaming the Scattered Star Seas for half a year without encountering a demon beast was a very common occurrence.
After all, the Outer Star Seas were truly vast and the various demon beasts each had their own methods of concealment. It was quite easy to overlook them even when searching with spiritual sense.
When it was discovered that Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s could attract demon beasts, it caused quite an uproar. For a time, well-aged Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s was quite precious.
However, it was soon discovered that this idea was but a mere fantasy. First of all, there was no method to predict the exact moment its leaves would uncurl. It is said to uncurl one of its leaves every hundred years, but there was often a variance of three or two years. As such, there was no way for cultivators to effectively make use of it while they were at sea.
Secondly, there was the depressing discovery that Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s lost its ability to uncurl its leaves and release its unique scent a hundred years after being picked.
As such, any thoughts of transporting it to the Outer Star Seas were extinguished. As for its name as “Demonlure Gra.s.s”, it was quickly discarded, and it returned to being called “Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s”.
When Han Li found this mocking, understated record in a jade slip, his eyes flashed with inspiration. The small bottle’s ability was just waiting to be combined with the spiritual herb!
He immediately purchased a stalk of Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s from the city market and experimented with it in his cave residence. As a result, the Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s gradually uncurled its leaf over the course of five days under the effects of the green liquid. Afterwards, it released a strange scent that couldn’t be described as either pleasant or foul, but it did leave quite the impression.
Doubtfully, Han Li placed his two Bloodjade spiders into the medicine garden. As a result, the two demon beasts immediately leapt towards the Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s and completely devoured it without the slightest hesitation.
Soon after, the scent faded away and the two white spiders returned to normal.
While this result came as a pleasant surprise, he also felt worried about his Bloodjade Spiders. After carefully examining them for the next few days and finding that nothing strange had occurred, he finally felt relieved.
With this trump card in hand, he was suddenly filled with confidence in hunting demon beasts for their cores. After making another round of preparations, not only did Han Li bring a large amount of Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s, but he also visited the many coral islands in Deep Jade Island’s territory after arriving. After all, Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s could only survive on coral islands.
As such, after laying down his inescapable net on Red Coral Island, he waited for the Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s to mature and have demon beasts come knocking on his door.
Han Li had found an isolated coral reef in the sea at the center of the ring-shaped red coral island and planted his Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s sprout on it.
Although he knew that the older the Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s, the greater area of effect it would have, he started off with hundred year old Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s to be safe.
Han Li took out a small bottle from his body and carefully dripped the green liquid onto the spirit herb. He then meditated on a nearby coral island with Crooked Soul by his side, both of them preserving their strength for what was to come.
Three days later, the Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s had unfolded a leaf before Han Li’s eyes and released a bizarre scent.
Han Li silently waved his hand. With a flash of radiance, glowing formation flags of various colors appeared embedded in the ground around him.
Han Li gazed at the formation flags for a moment before calmly closing his eyes once more. He had already decided that if no demon beasts appeared in the next few days, he would give the Rainbow Skirt Gra.s.s another drop of the green liquid and increase the range of its demon luring effect. With this, demon beasts were bound to visit.