What does my ancestor's pregnancy have to do with me, a mere servant?

The strong wind whipped up coarse yellow sand, which lashed against the dry, dark brown earth.

Jiang Huaiyue grabbed the white-clad female cultivator by the back of her neck with one hand, lifting her into the air like a salted fish.

The female cultivator's body hung limply, her moon-white dress swaying back and forth in the cold wind.

The light flew swiftly close to the ground.

Lin Yuan glanced at the female cultivator in Jiang Huaiyue's hands and thought to himself: If the people of the Tai Xuan Immortal Sect saw this scene, they would probably be so angry that they would vomit blood on the spot. A dignified prodigy of an immortal sect, she is being treated worse than an old hen being sold by the neck at the market.

Half an hour later, Lin Yuan stopped in front of a huge, broken mountain wall.

The ground ahead suddenly sank, forming a huge pit with a diameter of hundreds of feet.

The pit was shrouded in a thick, almost impenetrable, gray-black mist.

A chilling wind, carrying a strong, putrid odor, crept straight in through the collar.

That bone-chilling cold wasn't just a simple temperature sensation, but a sinister aura that seeped into the very marrow, making one's hair stand on end.

"This place is too yin and evil." A faint layer of blood-red aura shone around Jiang Huaiyue, keeping the yin wind out.

She frowned slightly, her expression grave: "According to the map, the core area should be at the very bottom of this pit. But there are definitely protective formations and restrictions around the perimeter, and it might even be accompanied by dangerous spiritual plants."

Lin Yuan did not rush down.

He narrowed his eyes and spread his divine sense forward without reservation.

The gray-black fog within the basin serves to block detection, acting like a thick curtain.

However, with Lin Yuan's extremely solidified divine sense after dual cultivation, this barrier was gradually torn open, and he managed to explore the entire bottom of the pit.

There was a sunken flower bed about ten feet in size, surrounded by several dilapidated stone railings.

The protective stone railings around the flowerbeds have long been weathered and crumbled, with most of them breaking into dust and mixing into the soil.

In the very center of the flowerbed, a piece of black ice, about ten feet tall, stood quietly.

Beneath the ice, three translucent, deep blue flowers bloomed peacefully despite the howling cold air.

The petals are completely free of any blemishes, as if they were carefully carved from the finest Lantian jade.

A wisp of white air circulates within the petals, like clouds trapped in glass, emitting a strange, cool fragrance that is both crisp and pure.

Soul-Sealing Flower.

Moreover, these are three top-quality Soul-Gathering Flowers that are over a hundred years old.

Lin Yuan's lips curled up almost imperceptibly.

According to market prices, one plant would be worth two thousand spirit stones. But for him, its value was far more than that.

This is the last and most difficult-to-find main ingredient in the Foundation Building Pill formula.

"Master, have you found it?" Jiang Huaiyue read the answer from his change in expression, and her tone couldn't hide her joy.

She released the white-robed female cultivator from her grasp, tossed her casually to the ground, and took half a step forward, preparing to go down and pick the fruit.

"Stop right there," Lin Yuan shouted coldly.

Jiang Huaiyue paused, immediately freezing in place.

Having followed Lin Yuan for these past few days, she had developed a habit—wherever he told her to stop, she absolutely could not take even half a step further.

Lin Yuan raised his hand and pointed to the purplish-black soil on the ground of the flower bed.

"Look carefully."

Jiang Huaiyue focused intently on the direction he was pointing.

On the surface of the soil, a layer of extremely fine, dark purple vines grows close to the ground.

These vines are only as thick as toothpicks, and their color blends almost completely with the purplish-black soil. Unless one is deliberately looking for them, even a sweep of divine sense would easily make them mistake them for ordinary roots in the soil and overlook them.

"Purple Corrosion Vine. A highly poisonous spiritual plant that grows in extremely yin places. Normally it is motionless and looks like an inanimate object. Once a living being gets within three feet, these vines will instantly burst open, spraying out corrosive poison that can even melt away a layer of a top-grade defensive magic weapon."

He paused, glancing at Jiang Huaiyue: "If you had rushed down just now, even if you had activated your protective qi at full power, you might have been able to withstand the first wave of poisonous water. But these vines are chain reactions; if one explodes, everything within a three-foot radius will follow. Guess how many vines are underground in this flowerbed?"

Jiang Huaiyue felt a chill run down his spine, and a cold sweat broke out on his back.

She subconsciously looked down and re-examined the seemingly ordinary purplish-black soil. Only then did she realize that the thin, toothpick-like dark purple vines were densely intertwined, almost covering the entire flowerbed ground.

Conservative estimate: at least a thousand.

If Lin Yuan hadn't reminded her, she, with her late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation, would have suffered a great loss here.

"Thank you, Master." Jiang Huaiyue's voice tightened slightly, still shaken.

"Master, how do we harvest them?" she asked in a low voice.

Lin Yuan didn't rush to answer. Instead, he squatted down, picked up a fist-sized black pebble, and casually threw it towards the edge of the flower bed.

The gravel fell on the soil surface and hit a few dark purple vines.

"Puff puff puff—"

A series of muffled thuds erupted almost simultaneously. The dozen or so vines that were touched instantly swelled to three times their original thickness, and then burst open like punctured abscesses.

Streams of dark purple venom sprayed out, covering an area of ​​three feet around the rubble.

"Hiss—"

When the venom hit the ground, the dark brown soil reacted as if it had encountered strong acid, corroding at a visible speed into more than a dozen deep pits the size of a thumb.

Acrid white smoke rose up, stinging people's eyes.

The fist-sized rock that was splashed with venom shrank in just three breaths, its surface corroded and riddled with holes.

Jiang Huaiyue's face turned pale.

"If this poisonous liquid splashes onto the petals of the Soul-Gathering Flower, its medicinal properties will be completely destroyed. Therefore, the poisonous liquid must not touch the flower."

"You cast a shield to cover the central area where the three Soul-Gathering Flowers are located, isolating the flowers from the poisonous water. Then I'll use my flying sword to detonate the vines on the outside. The poisonous water will splash onto your shield; you'd better hold on."

Jiang Huaiyue nodded and asked no further questions.

She made a rough estimate in her mind. Judging from the corrosive power of these venoms, the mana consumption to survive the entire cleanup process would definitely be considerable.

But she did not hesitate.

He leaped out, his toes lightly touching the collapsed stone railing, his body flipping over, and he landed steadily on the edge of the flowerbed.

She rapidly formed hand seals, her late-stage Foundation Establishment level magical power surging within her body.

The surging true energy in the meridians transformed into streams of pure magical power, pouring out from the fingertips of the ten fingers.

"Rise!" she shouted, and a series of magic seals shot into the air.

The Dharma seals collided and merged with each other in the void.

A thick, blood-red light curtain quickly appeared, inverted, and completely enveloped the spirit field, which was ten feet in diameter.

The three dark blue Soul-Gathering Flowers and the mysterious ice beneath their feet were firmly protected in the very center of the light barrier.

Seeing this, Lin Yuan raised his hand and patted his waist.

"Clang!" A crisp sword sound pierced the cold, deathly silence.

The azure flying sword transformed into a streak of light, soaring into the sky and carrying sharp sword energy as it rose three zhang (approximately 10 meters) upwards. Then, the tip of the sword turned and suddenly swooped down.

The sword light skimmed across the purplish-black soil at an extremely tricky angle.

Wherever the sword energy passed, a shallow trench was cut into the soil.

"Bang bang bang—!"

The sharp sword energy brought by the flying sword detonated the outermost ring of purple-lined corpse vines.

Dozens of vines swelled and burst at the same time.

A series of muffled thuds exploded inside the light screen, like a string of firecrackers.

Dark purple liquid mixed with poison splashed everywhere, blotting out the sun and forming a chilling rain of poison.

"Hiss—"

The toxic water fell onto the dark brown soil around the flowerbed, corroding it and emitting pungent white smoke.

The ground looked as if it had been splashed with concentrated sulfuric acid, with charred, deep pits everywhere, emitting white steam.

Large amounts of toxic water were splashed onto the blood-red light screen.

The surface of the light curtain immediately emitted a corrosive sound that made your teeth ache.

The crimson light dimmed at a visible speed, and large patches of grayish-white corrosion spots appeared on the surface of the light screen.

Jiang Huaiyue's expression changed slightly, and she immediately gritted her teeth.

His magical power surged wildly from his dantian without reservation, flowing through his meridians into the light screen and forcibly repairing the gaps and weaknesses that had been continuously corroded.

Just as one spot was repaired, a new dent appeared next to it due to the toxic water.

Like a leaky sieve, plugging one end causes leaks in the other.

But Jiang Huaiyue gritted her teeth and held on.

The veins on her forehead bulged, and fine beads of sweat slid down her temples.

Lin Yuan's flying sword swept through the light barrier in concentric circles, from the outside in. Each sweep triggered a series of new poisonous water explosions.

This is a head-on war of attrition.

Lin Yuan's precision in controlling the flying sword and Jiang Huaiyue's mana to maintain the shield are both indispensable.

It lasted for more than ten breaths.

The last dark purple vine swelled, exploded, and scattered under the sword energy before falling silent.

The entire perimeter of the flowerbed looked as if it had been tilled.

The original purplish-black soil has turned into a mess of scorched black and grayish-white mud.

The purple-lined corpse vines were completely destroyed, and the air was filled with a pungent smell that was a mixture of putridity and burnt odor.

Apart from the three Soul-Gathering Flowers in the central area, which were completely protected by the light curtain and remained intact, the surrounding ground, several meters in size, was severely corroded by the poisonous water and left in a state of devastation.

Jiang Huaiyue put away her hand seal and exhaled a long breath of turbid air.

Cold sweat trickled down his fair cheeks from his forehead.

In just a dozen or so breaths, she had consumed a full thirty percent of her magical power.

"Thank you for your hard work," Lin Yuan said casually.

Jiang Huaiyue was slightly taken aback.

This was the first time in days that Lin Yuan had said something like words of comfort to her.

Although her tone remained calm and irritating, a slight smirk involuntarily crept onto her lips.

"It's not hard work."

Lin Yuan retrieved his flying sword, and with a flash, landed directly in the center of the flowerbed.

He crouched down and took out three white jade boxes that had been prepared in advance from his storage bag.

The true energy emanating from his fingertips transformed into an extremely small, invisible energy blade.

The air blade precisely cut into the soil beneath the Xuanbing ice, slowly advancing along the direction of the Ningpo flower's roots.

He carefully loosened the soil around the three Soul-Gathering Flowers to make sure the roots weren't tangled with the ice at the bottom of the Xuanbing (mysterious ice) before digging out the three deep blue Soul-Gathering Flowers, roots and soil intact.

The movements were swift and clean, without damaging the roots or petals in the slightest.

The Soul-Gathering Flowers were carefully placed into three jade boxes, and sealed with spirit-sealing talismans to prevent the spiritual energy from leaking out.

Lin Yuan stood up and put the jade box into his storage bag.

The final ingredient for the Foundation Building Pill has been obtained.

Then, Lin Yuan's gaze swept around the flowerbed.

In this ancient medicinal field that has been abandoned for countless millennia, besides the Soul-Gathering Flower, there are more than ten kinds of spiritual herbs that grow with the cold and yin energy.

Yin Soul Grass, Cold Bone Fern, Netherworld Moss... most of them are good materials for refining Yin attribute pills.

Some of them are over a century old and are full of spirituality.

There are also many newly sprouted, tender green seedlings.

Lin Yuan showed no politeness whatsoever.

His air blades flew in his hands, his movements as fluid as flowing water.

He collected all the mature spiritual herbs and packed them into boxes. He didn't even leave the seedlings behind, digging them up along with the spiritual soil beneath them and sorting them into various jade boxes.

These seedlings are worthless now, but once transplanted into a suitable environment and cultivated, they will become a continuous source of spiritual materials.

After all this was done, the flowerbed was as clean as if it had been licked.

Lin Yuan clapped his hands and stood up with satisfaction.

"Alright." Lin Yuan turned and walked out of the flower garden, his tone businesslike: "The spiritual materials are all ready. Now let's find a place; I need to prepare for alchemy."