Chapter 102: Ma.s.sive Tree
Time flew by. Finally, after ten long days, Su Chen walked out of his room.
When they saw him emerge, everyone sighed with relief.
“Thanks for your hard work,” Su Chen said with a smile.
Wind-Gathering Ascension said, “We didn’t really work that hard. We were just worried about Fate’s Hands is all.”
“You don’t need to worry about Fate’s Hands. If they come, I will deal with them. Actually, I wasn’t spending all my time on cultivation - most importantly, I was performing some research. Look……”
Su Chen pulled out a few vials of medicine.
“This is…….”
“This is Blue Sea Heart, this is Jade Voice Orchid, this is Thousand Returns Powder, this is Golden Bell Medicine, this is Forged Medicine……” Su Chen listed off medicine after medicine. Everyone was both excited and happy.
Blue Sea Heart was a high-tier Arcana Technique improving medicine. Any Fifth-Ring Arcana Technique or below would be strengthened by one ring, while the effect would be halved at a higher level. Even so, its power was undeniable.
Jade Voice Orchid was a kind of medicine that decreased the cooldowns of most Arcana Techniques. Certain Arcana Techniques would be able to be used in much rapider succession.
Most Arcana Techniques all had a certain cast time. Throughout thousands of years, Arcana Masters had done their best to try and shorten this duration. Innate Arcana Techniques were one example of such improvements. The Jade Voice Orchid was intended for the same purpose.
Su Chen’s Jade Voice Orchid was similarly a high-tier one, making it effective on most Arcana Techniques below Six Rings. This made it quite a rare medicine.
Thousand Returns Powder was useful for dealing with summoning Arcana Techniques, especially for the beast projections that would typically be summoned to protect a void realm.
The Golden Bell Medicine, as its name indicated, was a kind of protective medicine. It was not ingested, but instead applied to the body via a secret technique. It would automatically burst forth in response to a fatal attack, forming a powerful barrier and defending against the attack. It was really a miraculous life-saving medicine.
Forged Medicine, on the other hand, was used to imbue Arcana Techniques with the flames of a forge. It was mostly useful for attacks that would make physical contact, meaning archers were usually the ones using this medicine.
Apart from Arcana Masters, a majority of Harpy warriors were archers. The Wind-Gathering Technique was no exception. The Forged Medicines were prepared for them in particular.
These medicines were rare even in Sky Country. Only Master Alchemists could concoct them. Normally, it would be hard to obtain even a single vial, but now Su Chen was doling them out by the handful.
“So you are actually an alchemist!” Wind-Gathering Ascension said in surprised happiness.
“Since you are all following me now, it would only be right for me to give you all some benefits as well,” Su Chen said casually as he pulled out a few more vials. “Each one of you gets one of these.”
“What kind of medicine is this?” Youthful Abundance asked in wonder.
“A kind of medicine that can supplement your cultivation base. Once you drink it, your ability to sense Origin Energy will increase, greatly increasing the efficiency of your meditation. It does have one flaw, which is that this medicine cannot be stored for very long. So you should drink it now.”
Upon hearing that this medicine could improve the efficiency of their cultivation, they were all extremely excited. Some of the more impulsive ones drank it down immediately.
Of course, there were some who were very careful as well.
Wind-Gathering Ascension glanced at the medicine in his hands. “Sir, can we wait to use this?”
“What? You don’t trust me?” Su Chen shot him a glance.
Wind-Gathering Ascension’s heart jumped as he said hurriedly, “I don’t dare.”
“Don’t worry. If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t need to use poison to do it,” Su Chen said calmly.
Wind-Gathering Ascension realized that Su Chen was right. He steeled himself and tilted his head back, throwing down the medicine.
Youthful Abundance and Flaming Femme glanced at each other. When they saw Su Chen glancing at them, they also could only steel themselves and take a drink.
“Alright, now that we’ve taken care of this matter, let’s head out.”
Jade Clearmist’s secret realm was just to the north of Fairy River, only half a day from Cloudy City. If it weren’t for Su Chen’s delays, they would have arrived a long time ago.
After half a day’s time, Su Chen and the others finally arrived.
“Based on what the map tells us, it should be just around here,” Youthful Abundance said.
“Since that’s the case, then let’s get started,” Su Chen commanded.
A few of the Wind-Gathering Clan’s members began to set up the Origin Formation.
Jade Clearmist’s treasures store wouldn’t just appear. The right Origin Formation needed to be used to activate it and open a door to the secret realm.
As a result, the real value of the map wasn’t that it pinpointed the location of the realm but that it contained information on how to activate the Origin Formation. Only a person who possessed the map would know what to do with it.
The Wind-Gathering Clan took out the materials that they had prepared long in advance and began to set up the formation.
Very quickly, a formation with glowing inscriptions was completed.
As the formation was activated, waves of strange fluctuations began to spread rapidly as the ground began to hum.
It was as if there was something off in the distance crying out in response.
This hum didn’t last very long. Very quickly, the ground began to rumble and fluctuate.
It was as if an earthquake was taking place, but there were also some differences. It appeared as if something was about to stick out from the ground.
“Over there!” Youthful Abundance pointed at the center of the earthquake.
At a place roughly ten thousand feet away from them, it was possible to see a large chunk of the ground rupturing.
“It must be the secret realm! The secret realm is emerging!” Wind-Gathering Ascension said excitedly.
The Wind-Gathering Clan had lost their home for the sake of Jade Clearmist’s secret realm. It could be said that all of their hopes were on this secret realm. He had already forgotten what Su Chen had said about only giving them three treasures.
But when they saw what was coming out of the ground, everyone was stunned.
It was actually a tree!
At first, it was only a small sapling.
However, because of how small it was, no one noticed it at first.
As it sprouted from the ground, it began to grow at an incredibly fast rate. The rumblings from the ground were coming from the tree extending its roots underground. The small tree grew into a large tree, then into a gigantic tree, then into a legendary tree.
By the time everyone discovered its existence, the tree was almost as large as a mountain.
It extended its branches in all directions, forming a majestic canopy. The tree constantly expanded and grew, filling everyone’s vision.
Even Su Chen was totally stunned. “I…… Holy h.e.l.l!”
It was rare for Su Chen to curse like this.
He had originally thought that the entrance to the secret realm would have been a spatial opening, like had been the case for the Goldwater Ruins. He hadn’t expected to cause such a great commotion.
Anyone nearby would probably know that the realm had been opened, right?
Well, that was fine.
After all, he had made preparations for this from the very beginning.
Outwardly, he maintained a steely expression.
“Sir Azure Mark, what should we do now?” Wind-Gathering Mountain also realized the issue.
“What else can we do? Since we’ve already reached this point, all we can do is keep going,” Flaming Femme said.
As she spoke, she charged forwards to the ma.s.sive tree.
It seemed that she was quite excited.
The ma.s.sive tree was still growing, as if turning into a mountain wasn’t enough to satisfy its appet.i.te.
The tree continued to grow taller and taller.
Very quickly, everyone discovered that there was no need for them to fly towards the tree.
Because the tree was heading in their direction.
As the tree grew, it stretched out in their direction.
Everyone landed on the branches of the tree, turning into little ants that clung to the bark of the tree as it continued to grow wildly.
They also began to search the tree to try and find out where the doors would be - after all, since the secret realm had appeared, there needed to be a door, didn’t there?
Unfortunately, none of them were able to find a way in.
The ma.s.sive tree continued to expand, not stopping until its canopy stretched high in the sky.
The tree had formed a natural tower above the ground.
Su Chen stood on the tree staring downwards. “Wind-Gathering Ascension, the servant who handed you the map didn’t mention this, did he?”
Wind-Gathering Ascension shook his head. “He never did. I never expected this to make such a big commotion.”
“So do you think it’s strange? After all, they had opened the secret realm once before. People should have known about the existence of this realm a long time ago if such a commotion was made every time it was opened,” Su Chen said.
Wind-Gathering Ascension was also a bit surprised. “Could it be that the servant had treacherous intent and gave us a fake map?”
Su Chen shook his head. “If he wanted to harm you, he wouldn’t have needed to do that. It seems that there are some profound Arcana Techniques hidden here based on how much of a commotion opening this secret realm made. I believe that the servant hadn’t seen such a big commotion, so he didn’t know about it either.”
“Why would there be such a big change this time, then?” Youthful Abundance asked, still stunned.
Su Chen shook his head. “I don’t know. Perhaps the only way to find out is to go inside first.”
Go inside?
Everyone simultaneously looked down at the tree branches they were standing on.
“Mm.” Su Chen said calmly. “If my guess is correct, the secret realm should be within this tree. It’s just that the tree was kept underground the last time the realm was opened. I’m not too sure why the entire realm emerged from the ground this time.”
Secretly hiding a spatial realm wasn’t that strange. After all, that was what had happened at the Goldwater Ruins.
This time, however, the Origin Formation had brought the entire hidden realm out of the ground.
Given that the realm had appeared in its entirety, this was probably part of Jade Clearmist’s plan in the first place, not a result of the spatial realm breaking down. Otherwise, this tree probably would have been split into countless fragments.
“No matter whether that is the case or not, we’ll know once we go inside,” Flaming Femme said.
“But there is no door on the tree. How will we be able to get inside?” Youthful Abundance didn’t understand.
“The door has been right in front of our very eyes this entire time. It’s just that none of you have paid it any attention,” Su Chen said with deep meaning.
Everyone was taken aback.
They turned to follow what Su Chen was looking at and found a ma.s.sive silver disk rising up from the base of the tree before rapidly turning into a net of branches. It looked just like a large mouth wagging its tongue back and forth slowly.
“Could it be……” Youthful Abundance was stunned.
“Yes, this is the mouth into the cave.”
“It really is a mouth……” Everyone stared at the giant maw below them, stunned.
Su Chen completely ignored them and jumped in.
The ma.s.sive maw opened up, swallowing Su Chen and obscuring him from view.
For just a moment, Flaming Femme even wondered if Su Chen had been eaten just like that.
The other Harpies glanced at each other, unsure of what to do.
In the end, it was still Flaming Femme who gritted her teeth and said, “What is there to fear? Whether I die or stay alive, my situation will still be terrible!”
As she spoke, she jumped in through the mouth of the realm as well.
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