I rely on learning to achieve immortality.

Before Fang Sheng could finish speaking, a series of sharp, whistling sounds suddenly echoed through the forest.

Whoosh!Whoosh!Whoosh!

Several streaks of green light shot in from all directions, skimming the ground at such speed that they almost left afterimages.

In the blink of an eye, the area around them was sealed off.

"Watch out, it's Copper Bone Vine!"

Fang Sheng immediately identified the source of the danger and said with a focused expression, "Be careful. If attacked, use metal element techniques or talismans to deal with it."

The next moment, a vine shadow darted out from the shadows of the forest.

The thick vines, bluish in color and as thick as a person's arm, lashed out at the nearest disciple like serpents.

But thanks to Fang Sheng's reminder, the disciple had already gathered his magical power. The moment the vines appeared, a golden light emerged, transforming into a circular barrier that blocked the vines from the outside, producing a metallic clanging sound.

The vines, having failed in their attack, quickly retreated. Fang Sheng, quick as lightning, drew a small golden sword from his hand and slashed at the vines with lightning speed.

Pfft!

The very tip of the vine, about three feet long, was struck firmly, snapped off, and fell to the ground, instantly losing its vitality.

This copper bone vine was not the only one; almost simultaneously, several other copper bone vines appeared from other directions, each stabbing towards the disciple.

However, the others reacted just as quickly, unleashing spells or talismans to block the copper bone vine's attack.

As soon as Fang Sheng reacted, the small golden sword would fly out, precisely severing a vine and forcing him to retreat. Even if he attacked again afterward, his attacks would be weaker than before.

Xu Zhou stood in the center of the crowd, not making a move rashly.

He was not good at fighting and did not have much magic power. If he made a move now, it would be easy to disrupt Fang Sheng and the others' coordination.

He simply stood quietly in the center, carefully observing the way the others coordinated and responded.

He saw the copper bone vines attacking everyone and counted them carefully; there were only four in total.

He knew a little about the Copper Bone Vine, knowing it was a plant that liked to coexist with spirit trees. Generally, the stronger the spirit tree, the more Copper Bone Vines would grow alongside it.

The four copper bone vines signify that the spiritual wood they coexist with is equivalent to a cultivator at the fourth stage of Qi Refining.

In a short while, the copper bone vines that were attacking the group left behind several broken branches, and their offensive slowed down considerably.

Upon seeing this, Fang Sheng immediately gave the order:

"Walk slowly north, find the roots of the Copper Bone Vine, burn them and everything will be fine."

The group continued onward, passing through the dense undergrowth, and soon found a giant spirit tree with a trunk as thick as an elephant's leg.

The vines attacking the group, their roots coiled around the trees like pythons, were now launching a frenzied offensive, resisting their approach.

But by this time, the vines' offensive had become increasingly ineffective. Fang Sheng casually swung his small sword, cutting them shorter and shorter.

Upon seeing the spirit tree appear, Fang Sheng gathered his magical power and planned to use the fireball technique to kill the vines.

Just then, Xu Zhou's gaze suddenly sharpened.

He slightly opened his mouth as if to give a reminder, but then something unexpected happened!

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a vine shot out from the shadows and struck Kong Jinche, who was at the front of the group.

This copper-boned vine had never appeared before, nor had it been weakened by Fang Sheng; its attacks were extremely fierce. Kong Jinche, however, assumed the battle was nearing its end and was therefore unprepared.

In the blink of an eye, the vines had already grabbed Kong Jinche's right arm and pulled him toward the spirit tree.

"Oops!"

Fang Sheng realized something was wrong and immediately dispersed the half of his magic power, trying to control the golden sword to shoot towards Kong Jinche.

However, his reaction was a little slow. Kong Jinche let out a scream as the vines pulled him a distance away.

If they were dragged near the spirit tree, their fate would likely be tragic.

Just then, Fang Sheng suddenly heard a soft sound of porcelain shattering beside him.

Snapped!

Xu Zhou crushed the porcelain bottle in his hand.

The next moment, a dense burst of Yin energy erupted instantly, then immediately contracted, condensing into a blue ice cone that shot out like an arrow.

Swish!

In the blink of an eye, the ice spike caught up with the golden sword.

However, the ice spikes did not shoot towards Kong Jinche's location, but instead aimed at the spirit tree, landing on its dense vine roots.

With a "poof" sound, the copper bone vine that had been pierced by the ice spike trembled slightly, lost its strength, and slowly fell down, which happened to be the one that was wrapped around Kong Jinche.

Having narrowly escaped, Kong Jinche hurriedly jumped up and fled before the other copper-bone vines could pounce on him.

Fang Sheng felt relieved and stopped using the fireball technique. He focused on using his golden sword to remove the copper bone vines from the spirit wood one by one before finally letting out a sigh of relief.

He sheathed his small sword, turned around and bowed to Xu Zhou: "Thank you for your help. If it weren't for Master Xu's righteous intervention, Kong Jinche would have broken at least a few bones if he had been surrounded by the Copper Bone Vine."

Kong Jinche snapped out of his daze and rushed over. His face was pale, and he unconsciously lowered his stance by half a step, no longer showing any of his previous disdain.

"Thank you so much, Master Xu."

Xu Zhou nodded and said, "It was nothing, but luckily I saved Junior Brother Kong. I guess I was just lucky."

He was previously positioned in the center, protected by the others, allowing him to calmly observe the situation.

Upon seeing the spirit tree, he subconsciously counted the number of copper bone vines and discovered a fifth root system. He immediately realized something was wrong.

The Copper Bone Vine is a plant without intelligence, but if the spiritual tree that coexists with it becomes intelligent, it can control its behavior and set traps to confuse cultivators.

Just as I was about to offer a word of warning, the fifth vine sprouted out.

Seeing that Fang Sheng was a little slow to react, Xu Zhou crushed the porcelain bottle in his hand and used the Ice Crystal Technique that he had been practicing for more than two years.

The moment the Yin-type spiritual water he concocted exploded, it condensed a large amount of Yin-type spiritual power, which he used to cast spells with incredible speed.

Considering that Fang Sheng had already used his small sword to go and provide support, he did not follow and get in the way. Instead, he directly targeted the vines and roots on the spirit tree to solve the problem at its root.

The copper bone vine's roots were struck, and the entire vine immediately lost its vitality, which saved Kong Jinche.

After exchanging pleasantries, Fang Sheng approached the spirit tree: "Alchemist Xu, this spirit tree appears to be over a hundred years old. Is it the hundred-year-old tree spirit you require?"

Spirit trees are different from cultivators. Without symbiotic spiritual plants like the Copper Bone Vine, even if their vitality remains undiminished, they cannot resist in the slightest.

Xu Zhou stepped forward, observed carefully, and nodded after a moment.

"The age is just right. Judging from the thickness of the trunk, it should be a type of Tongtianmu (a type of oak tree). That's perfect."

He said to the rest of the team, "Please wait here for a moment, I need to collect medicinal herbs from the spirit tree."

"Master Xu, please feel free to collect the materials. We will keep watch for you."

Fang Sheng pulled Kong Jinche away into the distance, seemingly intending to reprimand him for his earlier negligence.

Xu Zhou didn't care about that; his attention was focused on the spirit wood in front of him.

The key ingredient for the Detoxifying Decoction comes from this plant.

He did not damage the spirit tree itself, nor did he remove its bark or roots. Instead, he carefully climbed up the branches and searched the tops of the branches.

The medicinal material he needed was called "Wood and Dew," which wasn't anything rare; it was simply dew that had accumulated on pure Wood Elemental Wood.

However, the wood and dew that Xu Zhou needed were somewhat special. The source of the spirit wood had to be within a certain grade, neither too low nor too high.

When harvesting, it needs to be carefully guided into the jade bottle using special techniques, and can only be done by a knowledgeable alchemist or spirit plant master.

Soon after, Xu Zhou found wood and dew that met his requirements.

He carefully picked the wood, afraid of making a mistake, so he turned over all the spirit wood and filled four or five jade bottles before stopping.

He jumped off the spirit tree and found that Fang Sheng had returned sometime earlier.

"Has Alchemist Xu found what he needs?"

"Found it."

Xu Zhou nodded in response, then took out something that looked like a fruit and asked, "What is this?"

He wasn't a professional plant expert, and the Tongtian Wood in front of him wasn't the kind specifically for medicinal use, so he couldn't recognize it for a moment and could only show it to Fang Sheng.

Fang Sheng glanced at it and then guessed, "This looks like a species of spirit tree?"

"Will it work?" Xu Zhou asked.

"We need to see."

After pondering for a moment, Fang Sheng replied, "After a spirit tree becomes sentient, the fruits it bears are all different. Some species have more unique characteristics compared to the original, and the spirit trees grown from them are still very valuable within the sect."

Xu Zhou hummed in agreement, indicating that he understood what the other party meant.

If the tree species has no special characteristics, then this spirit wood has little value.

Regardless, since he found it himself, Xu Zhou didn't throw away the tree seed and put it into his storage bag first.

Afterwards, they did not return immediately, but continued to wander around the area.

After finding two more spirit trees and a spirit herb, and filling more than a dozen bottles with the wood and dew, Xu Zhou finally felt at ease and began the return journey with the others.

Fang Sheng and his group weren't completely idle either. When they encountered other medicinal herbs of insufficient quality along the way, they readily accepted them.

On the way back, Fang Sheng continued his conversation with Xu Zhou. Seemingly because he had witnessed Xu Zhou use the Ice Crystal Technique, he became curious, and their conversation now included the topic of spellcasting.

Even during this process, the rest of the team occasionally chimed in.

After all, cultivators might not have much in common when discussing their skills and future prospects. But when it comes to magic, everyone has their own insights.

They initially assumed Xu Zhou, seeing him as an alchemist devoted to the Dao of Alchemy, wouldn't have much to offer in terms of magic. But after witnessing his mastery of the Ice Crystal Technique, they couldn't help but secretly admire him.

Xu Zhou was well aware that his only skill was ice crystal magic, so he simply shared some insights. After that, he humbly asked for advice and learned a lot of experience and techniques related to magic.

Finally, everyone returned to their camp.

Xu Zhou noted down the location of Fang Sheng's cave and agreed to cooperate with him again when he entered the Thousand Wood Forest next time. Then he parted ways with the team.

Back in his cave, he first lay down and took a nap.

After all, it was his first time entering the Thousand Wood Forest. He was in a tense state the whole way and had almost no chance to concentrate, which left him exhausted.

Once he had recovered his strength, he got out of bed and began to prepare the detoxifying soup.

The recipe for the medicinal soup was his own idea; without guidance from any sages, he had to figure it out himself. However, as the inventor of the new recipe, he had a general idea of ​​the difficulties involved.

After two failed attempts, they finally produced a detoxifying decoction that matched the descriptions in classical texts.

Xu Zhou confirmed that it was correct. He had taken Huangya Dan a few days ago and was currently suffering from erysipelas, so he decided to try drinking a portion of it.

Through endoscopic visualization, he felt the effects of the herbal medicine entering his stomach.

After a long while, he slowly opened his eyes.

A glint of light flashed in his eyes.

"It's done."