Cultivation begins with harvest.

Blue vines covered the ground like stone bricks, and strange insect chirps echoed beneath them. Looking up from here, one could see bright sunshine or a full moon, a scene rarely seen in Fanglin. Most of the time, one could only see the canopy of giant trees that blocked out the sky, with only sparse, dappled sunlight filtering through the leaves. Scenes where one could see the sky in its entirety were rare.

"If it weren't for the fact that this Sherrifu is only found in Blue Vine Bay, my brother and I might not have had to take such a big risk to come here. Passing through Blood Tiger Road and Black Dragon Marsh is a near-death experience every time, it's really not easy."

A short, stocky man in blue was bending down, searching through the blue vines. His hands were encased in a layer of icy, frosty liquid that emitted white steam. With each movement, the blue vines oozed a thick, difficult-to-wash sap. Otherwise, his hands would have been covered in a thick layer of sap long ago. The man in blue kept muttering, "These insect-attracting vines are really annoying. Every touch leaves my hands covered in sap, ugh—"

The man in blue cried out in pain, and cold energy surged from his hands, forming a spherical cage of cold energy that froze a rather cute, off-white insect that resembled a grasshopper to death in his hands.

Hearing the commotion from the man in blue, a taller man in gray, who looked similar, nervously looked up and then breathed a sigh of relief: "It's a cedar worm. It's not poisonous. If there are cedar worms, then there might really be some Sherif nearby."

Then he put on a stern face: "Youngest brother, I told you to do more and talk less. Don't be like your second brother, who suffered a loss and then regretted it too late."

"I'm not going to Poison Blood Ridge, so what could possibly happen to me?" The man in blue casually tossed aside the corpse of the ferocious insect and glanced at the dark forest to his right. It was an area known as a dangerous place, and if he could, he would never want to go near it. However, this one glance made the man in blue freeze. The four cultivators walked out of the forest where the famously dangerous Poison Blood Ridge was located with ease.

His clothes were intact, and his gait was composed.

It turned out to be Chen Guang and his three companions.

"Swish"

On the other side, the gray-clad man suddenly stood up, several throwing knives appearing out of thin air in his hand. At the same time, without saying a word, he used his magic to condense a hand and pulled the blue-clad man back. The two of them faced Chen Guang and his group of four and retreated quickly.

Chen Guang and the others simply watched the two men walk away.

Whenever they encounter each other in Fanglin, this is usually the situation: the side that feels weaker will always take the initiative to retreat and minimize the collision. Not to mention that the dangers in Fanglin are uncontrollable, even if they were, the Cang Clan would not send extra people to uphold justice. All they need are the rare spiritual plants in here, and they don't care much about who took the spiritual plants back.

They wouldn't worry about any spiritual plants being damaged due to the fighting.

The Cang Clan has always found it difficult to fully exploit the Fanglin Forest. Whether these spiritual plants are destroyed in battle or grow in some corner, it's all the same to the Cang Clan.

"We've arrived at Blue Vine Bay. If we're lucky enough to find a Snow Lotus here, it might be just as valuable as obtaining Black Tofu Bamboo," the Zhao clan cultivator said with a smile.

Chen Guang nodded as well.

Thanks to the Zhao clan cultivators accompanying them, they adopted a well-researched route developed within the Zhao clan. As a result, they directly traversed the seemingly dangerous Poison Blood Ridge. All they needed to do was pick a specific herb along the way and apply it to their bodies; the scent would naturally repel the poisonous creatures within the Poison Blood Ridge.

This was no longer a big secret, so the Zhao clan cultivators naturally shared it.

In addition, thanks to a route that the Zhao family had been operating, they were able to cross the Poison Blood Ridge without any incidents.

Poison Blood Ridge is famous for its abundance of poisonous creatures, to the point that the surrounding areas are also tainted by some toxicity. Poisonous creatures and ferocious insects are quite common. On the edge of this evil and filthy place, pure spiritual energy of the Snow Lotus can also appear. This spiritual plant, which can directly increase the cultivation level of Qi Refining cultivators, is always in short supply.

Sherrifu is a kind of spiritual plant that grows underground, and Blue Vine Bay is full of blue insect-attracting vines. At its peak, dozens of ferocious insects would rush towards your face as soon as you reached out and parted the vines.

Blue Vine Bay was originally a dangerous place, on par with Poison Blood Ridge, but because of the existence of Sheryl, the ferocious insects here were wiped out by the cultivators. Naturally, Sheryl went from being "easy to obtain" in the rumors to being a matter of luck.

Nowadays, there are very few cultivators around here. Chen Guang and his group encountered two as soon as they left Poison Blood Ridge. They didn't know if it was good luck or bad luck.

"Let's go to the Worry-Free Wall. I feel that the spiritual plants growing there are more suitable for me," Chen Guang said.

No one else objected. Chen Guang was the only one who truly desired spiritual plants. The others didn't mind collecting a few at will, since they would have to spend extra Suiyuan to actually get their hands on them.

Along the way, Chen Guang and the others saw many kinds of spiritual plants. They could sit on the side of the road and kill several spiritual herbs. Fang Lin had so many spiritual plants, but whether they were worth taking out was another question. Chen Guang only collected a few kinds of poisonous herbs on Poison Blood Ridge, intending to select suitable ones to cultivate some Gu worms for himself in the future.

The specific choice will be determined after the previous season's planting and the selection using reward orbs.

The Worry-Free Wall is a very suitable place. There are walls set up by Guanglin Hall there, which block some dangers. This side of the wall is safer. After all, the others are just accompanying him on this trip and should not go too deep. If he were alone, even if Chen Guang searched in areas without maps, there would be no problem.

After determining the direction, they headed towards the Worry-Free Wall.

……

Beside a dark stream, Chen Guang happily picked a lotus seedpod that looked as black as ink. This was the [Ink Lotus], which was of excellent quality for making spiritual ink for drawing talismans. Chen Guang planned to use the Void Spirit Seed to condense some more seeds to plant some Ink Lotuses.

However, the investment required for the Ink Lotus is enormous, even exceeding that of the Void Flower Tree. Most of the spiritual farmers in the Qingheng Sect dare not cultivate the Ink Lotus, because the smaller the scale of cultivation, the greater the investment. It is often only some independent cultivator families and earth hall stewards with extremely deep foundations who have the ability to cultivate it.

Chen Guang was a hundred times unwilling to go out of his way to buy seeds, but if he could pick them from the roadside, that would be a different story.

The market only sells seeds, and everyone is wary of him using his seed-condensing technique. Now that his small wish has been fulfilled, Chen Guang is naturally happy.

Just as Chen Guang finished cutting and storing the lotus pods, his expression changed. With a wave of his hand, a burst of flames shot out and rushed towards the water's surface, but missed, failing to intercept anything. At the same time, purple mist enveloped Chen Guang.

"laugh!"

A foul-smelling green venom spurted out from beneath the water's surface, landing in the purple mist and emitting a loud steaming and corrosive sound. However, it only thinned the purple mist by less than an inch before the green venom was completely consumed.

"There are enemies!"

The Zhao clan cultivators were both shocked and furious. Before picking the Ink Lotus, they had already checked the water surface and the surrounding area for dangers, especially the water surface. It was formed gradually in a humid environment by the sap seeping from some spiritual plants upstream. It was not a natural water source and was inherently well concealed. They had searched very carefully, but they still had some oversights. If it weren't for Chen Guang's quick reaction and the fact that the purple mist was also quite formidable, their escort mission would have been in serious trouble.

Chen Guang stepped back behind the Zhao family cultivator, still feeling uneasy, and pushed the Purple Jade Gourd to its limit before finally feeling a little more at ease and looking into the water with his clear spiritual eyes.