The Laws of Cultivation: Qi = MC^2

Chapter 79: Spirit Herb Hunting - II

Chapter 79: Spirit Herb Hunting - II

I bent down, touching the earth. Closing my eyes, I suppressed my Qi sense as the world around me went dark. I hadn’t felt this blind in a really long time. Quickly switching over, I opened my senses for Gu and let them spread through the earth. The various pockets containing the minute energy of death began to reach my senses.

Little pockets reached out to me, alongside a vague blur of Gu that I could not locate somewhere deep in the earth. I shifted my attention, reaching out to different pockets. Little pockets of Qi touched my awareness, flaring like dim and blurry dots across a black canvas. It made it easy to filter out all the noise of Qi and find only significant sources of Qi, like cultivators, or powerful spirit herbs.

I glanced frowned when no matter how hard I pushed, I did not sense the end of the spirit hunt section. We were in a pretty big area then, which made things tough.

I shut off my Gu senses, having sensed the direction some of the spirit herbs were in. Opening my eyes, I began to take a look around. Sheldon was out of the game, but I still had Labby with me, I needed to think about how to go about this. The goal was to find as many spirit herbs and treasures as possible. Getting the Silver spirit lily was of course the best method, but going after it blindly may not be the best method.

I glanced sideways at Labby, who looked back at me, her little pink nose twitching. A smile curved my lips upward as the memories of Labby when I’d first met her came back to me. My own little herb sensor.

“It’s time to hunt for some herbs Labby, as we’d done so long ago.”

“Squeak!”

“Chii~” Twilight chimed happily, her laughter like the ringing of sweet bells. Another word whispered in my mind, jumbled and distorted, yet I could somewhat make the words out.

“Twilight! Help!”

I glanced up, feeling surprised at hearing Twilight’s first words. I smiled, feeling the strangest sense of joy, yet there was a task at hand and not much time to be overjoyed at the event.

“Let’s quickly win this thing,” I announced, as Labby jumped off my shoulder, and off we went.

***

Mists filled the arena, with little pictures that showed each participant in the spirit hunt and their actions, as the onlookers watched in anticipation, and excitement, cheering on the disciples.

Yan Yun stood outside amidst the rows and rows of people watching the fight, dressed as a commoner with her cultivation suppressed as best as she could. She’d managed to make her escape after greeting Lord Zhou with the excuse of needing time to prepare for the upcoming tournament. She took the opportunity to quickly change her clothes, before mingling with the common people that’d arrived to watch the tournament.

She watched Lu Jie running across the fields, his spirit rat sniffing at the air every so often as the two quickly made their way towards the treasures. As she’d feared, the Elders had taken away Lu Jie’s spirit turtle. A beast like that willingly following a disciple without a powerful cultivator being involved was a loophole in the rules that no one had anticipated.

Her eyes shifted sideways, to Li and Lei, separated for now, as the two twins decided to go after any cultivators and beat them up and steal their herbs instead, while they steadily headed towards one another. She clenched her robes in her fists, lightning stirring in her dantian.

“What are they saying?” I asked, looking towards Labby.

“Labby doesn’t know...” Labby said, as Twilight continued to chime in a conversation with the spider.

Suddenly, with a jump, the little flower girl jumped down on me and bit my hand.

“Ouch!” I exclaimed as she sucked my blood for a moment. A second later, I saw Qi gather at her petals as she jumped down.

“Wait Twilight, hold on!” I warned, but the little plant went towards the spider about thrice her size, smiling and waving happily.

Rather than nomming on Twilight as I’d feared the spider would do, I watched it carefully pick up the droplet of Qi and then put it in its mouth. Its jaws moved in a way that I had no other method of describing except adorable, which is really weird when the subject of matter is a giant spider.

Tensing once more, I flared my Qi as the spider reached out towards Twilight picking her up. The only thing that held me back was the excited laughing chime that came from Twilight. I watched as the spider put Twilight on its head, before turning towards us.

“Click-click,” it said, before turning around and walking away.

Twilight looked back, waving her hands as she chimed. “Chii!”

I turned to look at Labby who looked back at me with an equally surprised expression. I shrugged and began to follow the spider further into the cave. This whole encounter was strange, but I wasn’t going to say no to being shown around the area. As long as it wasn’t a trap.

I walked further inside the caverns, noting the occasional patch of grass. All of it was spirit grass, brimming with Qi and life within this cavern. I could see this spot being an enviable location to cultivate, with so much natural Qi filling the air.

“Chii Chii~ Chii Chii Chii~” Twilight sang up ahead, chiming, as she waved her hands around, the flower on her head bobbing up and down as she rode the spider. I could sense her happiness from our bond, making me smile as well.

“Click-Click Clickity-Click,” the spider said back, in a way that was vaguely reminiscent of the song, but if so, then the spider was a terrible singer.

In a few moments, the ground beneath my feet was now entirely covered in spirit grass, as the spider took us in front of a door of mud and rocks. A giant mushroom was carved on it, smiling with wicked sharp teeth, like some kind of odd abomination. The spider raised a leg, as Qi began to pulse through the door and the walls around me shook. Dust fell down from the ceiling, as the door moved with a loud groan. Twilight quickly climbed down from the spider’s back and ran up to me as I picked her up.

“Whoa...” I muttered out loud, staring at the inside of the room.

It was filled with... mushrooms. Spirit mushrooms.