Chapter 40: Getting Familiar with the Environment

Taking care of a ‘Seven-Star Grass’ medicinal field posed no difficulty to Su Che. Although he wasn’t particularly skilled at growing spiritual herbs, Han Youming, a prisoner held in the Immortal Prison, had considerable talent in this area. This talent was inherited through his bloodline—his father had once been a manager of a medicinal garden, responsible for cultivating top-quality and even supreme spiritual herbs. He left behind a thick notebook of insights, detailing the cultivation and maintenance methods for every type of spiritual herb in the Xuanji Peak Medicinal Garden.

Less than twenty years had passed since the Han brothers’ father died, and not much had changed in the Xuanji Peak Medicinal Garden. Thus, with the help of this notebook and Han Youming’s cultivation talent, Su Che effectively possessed these skills.

In Old Hei’s words: “What the prisoners have is ours! What they can do, we can do too!”

After spending an hour tending to the medicinal field, Su Che returned to the thatched cottage to continue his cultivation. Compared to other outer disciples, his method of cultivation was already quite luxurious. First, he had to embed eighteen lower-grade spiritual stones in a circular array disc over four feet in diameter, sit cross-legged on it, swallow a Bone-Cleansing Pill and a Qi-Condensing Pill, while simultaneously absorbing the pure spiritual energy from the stones. The power of these pills, combined with the free spiritual energy from the surroundings flowing into his key acupoints, allowed his cultivation speed to be six or seven times faster than ordinary meditation. The downside was the enormous cost, especially in terms of spiritual stones, which could only last for about two months.

Even so, it was still impossible to reach the third level of Qi Cultivation within half a year. Take Lei Xiao as an example—his family was wealthy, with no shortage of spiritual stones or low-grade pills. Yet, even after more than a year since joining, he was only at the second level of Qi Cultivation. His cousin, Lei Qingxue, who had better cultivation potential, also took a year and a half to reach the third level.

Therefore, Su Che’s goal of reaching the third level of Qi Cultivation in half a year was nothing short of forcing himself to the limit—extremely harshly! To others, it would surely seem like delusional daydreaming.

He continued cultivating until early the next morning, but his progress was minimal, almost imperceptible. Yet this was normal—such was the outcome of regular cultivation.

After leaving the thatched cottage and inspecting the Seven-Star Grass field, finding nothing unusual, Su Che decided to explore the surroundings to see if he could approach the core area of the medicinal garden.

Following the enormous mountains of Mysterious Peak, the entire spiritual herb garden was divided into three tiers. The lowest tier was for growing lower-grade and middle-grade spiritual herbs, the second tier for higher-grade and top-grade spiritual herbs, while the third tier was reserved for the most precious, ultimate-grade spiritual herbs.

Lao He muttered, “Fortunately, that hidden cave is located on the stone wall between the second and third tiers. We just need to reach the second tier.”

“Yes, the third tier is filled with the most valuable ultimate-grade spiritual herbs, and its protection is extremely strict. My status definitely isn’t good enough to go there,” Su Che thought to himself. “I guess even the second tier will be very difficult.”

As they spoke, Su Che chose the nearest set of mountain stairs and carefully climbed upward, not daring to go too fast for fear of triggering the protective arrays or restrictions there.

After climbing nearly a hundred steps, Lao He had already explored the situation above. “Master, this mountain path seems empty on the surface, but in fact, there’s an invisible illusion array. There are also dozens of restrictions of various sizes on both sides of the path. At the end of the path is a thatched cottage with a guard disciple inside, who is also at the later stages of Qi cultivation.”

“Continue,” Su Che said, stopping in his tracks.

Lao He analyzed carefully, “There are too many restrictions on both sides of the path, and they’re quite sophisticated. Even if we know they exist, we can’t break them. But as for the illusion array in the middle of the path, my detection abilities can see through it. If we’re careful, we can pass by silently.”

“If the illusion array can be dealt with, what about the guard disciple at the end of the path?” Su Che asked.

Lao He thought for a moment before replying, “I can’t think of a good way for now. How about we try another mountain path?”

“There’s no need,” Su Che rejected his suggestion. “I believe every mountain path will have the same layout—arrays, restrictions, guard disciples—nothing will be missing… Besides, even if we find a way to bypass the guard disciples, once we enter the upper-level herb gardens, we’ll still be detected by the disciples in charge of the herb fields. We’re not invisibles; we can’t hide from everyone’s eyes.”

“That’s true!” Lao He scratched his head. “What should we do?”

“In any case, sneaking in like thieves definitely won’t work. Our strength is too low, and we’ll be easily detected. We need to find a better strategy and enter openly,” Su Che adjusted his mindset, reminding himself. “Haste makes waste. We can’t rush. It’s only the first day. With time, we’ll surely find a way.”

And so, Su Che retreated along the mountain path steps and began wandering around the lower herb garden, of course to get familiar with the surroundings and look for weaknesses. The lower herb garden was also extremely large. After walking thousands of feet along the main path, he concluded that there was a mountain path leading upward every thousand feet. As expected, his earlier predictions were correct—each mountain path was protected by illusions, restrictions, plus a guarding disciple. The Spirit Herb Garden truly lived up to its reputation as a “forbidden area,” with even stricter defenses than the “Skill Transmission Pavilion” and the “Treasure Vault.” As he walked, he saw a graceful girl coming toward him. Lao He let out an exclamation and called out lustfully, “This girl is stunning! Look at those big eyes of hers—so bright and captivating…” “Stop talking nonsense!” Su Che scolded himself in his mind. “That’s exactly the behavior of the lowest-level bandits and robbers.” Lao He chuckled and added, “The key point is, she’s looking at you! Wow, she’s coming straight toward you! Master, your luck with women has arrived.” More nonsense. There was only one main path in the garden, so if she was coming toward him, it meant she was indeed heading this way. As they neared each other, Su Che stepped aside to avoid her and greeted her in advance, “Greetings, senior sister.” She was an inner disciple with two silver threads on her robe. Despite her young age, appearing to be only eighteen or nineteen, she already had the cultivation level of the Eighth Layer of Qi Cultivation. Undoubtedly, she was another highly talented genius. For cultivators who hadn’t yet reached the Foundation Establishment stage, their apparent age was relatively accurate. Anti-aging medicines were extremely rare and expensive, beyond the reach of ordinary people. Lao He was right—this girl’s beauty was truly outstanding. Her skin was as smooth as jade, and her demeanor was ethereal, like a celestial fairy who had descended to the mortal world. Especially those lively big eyes, shining like black gems, could draw in the souls of men. “Who are you?” The girl stopped in her tracks, her lively gaze turning sharp. Su Che found this gaze familiar. During his time as a patrol officer in the town, whenever he encountered suspicious strangers, he would examine them in the same way. “I’m Su Che, an outer disciple. I just arrived at the herb garden yesterday to serve as the managing disciple,” Su Che replied softly. “Someone at the First Layer of Qi Cultivation can come here? I’ve never seen such a thing before…” The girl stretched out her delicate white hand. “Show me your identity jade token.”

“Senior sister, Manager Chen has already reviewed my identity jade token.” Even though the other party was a highly skilled inner disciple, Su Che still wanted to understand—what right did she have to examine his identity jade token?
The girl understood the meaning behind Su Che’s words. Her expression turned cold, and she said crisply, “I am an inspector from the Spirit Herb Garden. I have the authority to examine anyone’s identity jade token, including the Manager Chen you mentioned!”
“Okay.” Su Che stopped resisting and immediately took out his own identity jade token.
The girl used her true energy to inspect the token, but her gaze became even sharper. “Your identity jade token doesn’t show any record of you being a disciple in charge of the herb garden. You’re lying!”
“Huh?” Su Che was momentarily stunned. He replied, “What record? I don’t know about that.”
Whoosh!
The girl waved her hand, throwing out a rope, which quickly wrapped around Su Che’s body several times, binding his arms tightly. This inspector was truly decisive—she acted without hesitation.
Su Che instinctively struggled a bit before realizing that the rope wasn’t ordinary. It must be a high-grade magic artifact. The more he struggled, the tighter it became.
Back in the Stone Mining Town, people were locked up with iron chains. Today, he was captured by a young girl… Su Che knew that any explanation was pointless in this situation. He simply said calmly, “Senior sister, I’m new here and don’t know many of the rules. You can take me to Manager Chen to verify my identity.”
“Need I tell you?” The girl pushed Su Che with her true energy. “Go to Manager Chen. Hurry up!”
With his arms tied, Su Che could still use his lightness magic, but his current situation was quite embarrassing. Several disciple supervisors nearby watched the scene with amused smiles.