Ling Luo Yi thought for a moment, the voice seemed to belong to another of the five siblings she met last night. The girl looked delicate, but possessed a cultivation of Houtian Seven Stars. It wasn't considered high, but the girl was only seventeen years old, which was quite good.
Another was named Shangguan Qing, sixteen years old, but only had Houtian One Star cultivation. It was a true waste of talent. Moreover, her cultivation was unstable, likely built up with elixirs.
The strongest was that so-called young lord, a sixth-tier Spirit Apprentice, only twenty-one years old, which was also quite decent. Furthermore, he had little poison in his body, indicating he likely only took elixirs when absolutely necessary.
In fact, among the affiliated kingdoms, apart from Tian Wu Kingdom, most other countries had no Spirit Masters. This was also due to Ling Luo Yi's elixirs; otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to break through to the Spirit Master realm before the age of twenty-five.
As Ling Luo Yi mused, they drew closer.
"Big brother, should we go say hello?"
Shangguan Ye considered for a moment, then stepped forward a few paces and said, "Excuse me, are you Miss Ling? I am the Young Lord of the Duan Royal Estate in Long Qing Kingdom. We met yesterday."
"Scram." Ling Luo Yi wasn't curious how he knew her surname. She had already guessed yesterday, and both parties knew the truth. Pretending ignorance now would seem affected.
Hearing her voice, Shangguan Ye confirmed, "Miss Ling, I have no intention of disturbing you. It's just that my five siblings and I saw Miss Ling's tent and thought we'd come say hello."
"The greeting is over. You should scram now."
"Very well. I shall take my siblings and leave."
Even though Ling Luo Yi's tone was unpleasant, Shangguan Ye and the others did not get angry. They left as soon as they said it. Even Shangguan Qing, who had the worst temper, said nothing and followed behind.
Seeing them leave, Ling Luo Yi glanced at the sky. It was still early, so she could go for a stroll around.
Ling Luo Yi packed up her tent and walked in another direction.
She wasn't very interested in points, so she didn't hunt many demonic beasts, only dug for spirit herbs. If a demonic beast blocked her path, she would deal with it casually.
The point competition was designed to test disciples' cultivation progress. Therefore, points obtained from hunting demonic beasts were double those from gathering herbs, for the same tier.
When Ling Luo Yi entered, she had asked Elder Qu. Five-tenths of the spirit herbs found inside needed to be handed over, and the remaining five-tenths could be taken away. However, all of it counted towards points.
As Ling Luo Yi walked, she entered a small path. After walking a dozen steps along the path, she suddenly stopped. There was no path ahead.
Ling Luo Yi carefully sensed the air currents around her and detected a slight irregularity. She smiled slightly, realizing it was an array. The array was quite hidden, suggesting the array master was not of a low level.
Ling Luo Yi did not break the array but walked through it. She hadn't been studying arrays for long, but this one wasn't too difficult for her.
After passing through the array, Ling Luo Yi found herself in a valley. The valley was quite large, filled with dense spiritual energy and countless spirit herbs. She scanned the area; the spirit herbs were not particularly rare, but there were many of them. The types of spirit herbs were also diverse, with large patches of each variety.
Ling Luo Yi did not dig up all the spirit herbs, leaving behind two-tenths.
As Ling Luo Yi dug for spirit herbs, her ranking outside slowly climbed.
Everyone was surprised and looked at Ling Luo Yi in the water mirror. They saw her standing in a large valley, where various spirit herbs swayed in the gentle breeze.
They were not ordinary people, and some had already recognized some of the spirit herbs.
"That's Spirit Gathering Grass!"
"And Three Souls Grass!"
"That's Muscle Regeneration Flower!"
"Seven Star Immortal Orchid, Cold Phosphorus Flower, Purple Ganoderma. These are all treasures that are priceless! Miss Ling is truly lucky." Someone exclaimed enviously.
Luck?
Long Qing Huang had been watching Ling Luo Yi closely and saw how she entered the array. She entered without being harmed or triggering it. How could such a person rely on luck?
Lord Duan watched Ling Luo Yi put the spirit herbs into her storage ring and said with some relief, "Fortunately, she has to hand over half the spirit herbs. Otherwise, she would have taken all of them."
A hint of mockery flashed in Long Qing Huang's eyes. Even if those spirit herbs were handed over to them, they wouldn't be able to utilize their true value. It would be better to let her exchange them for elixirs before handing them over.
With that thought, Long Qing Huang commanded, "Great Elder, let Miss Ling exchange the spirit herbs she hands over tomorrow for elixirs."
The Great Elder of the royal family was the judge of this point competition, and the spirit herbs to be handed over were given to him.
Upon hearing this, the Great Elder understood Long Qing Huang's intentions. High-grade elixirs were indeed more valuable than those spirit herbs.
Within the secret realm, the valley was abundant with spirit herbs. Ling Luo Yi was not in a hurry, so her pace was not fast. She spent an entire day digging up the spirit herbs in the valley.
As the sky gradually darkened, Ling Luo Yi was too lazy to walk, so she decided to rest there. She took out her large tent and set it up on the spot.
The valley was cool, and the air carried the fragrance of spirit herbs and fresh earth, as well as...
Ling Luo Yi opened her eyes, unable to resist any longer.
Under the bright moonlight, a figure was cautiously approaching Ling Luo Yi's tent.
The people still present outside were off-duty guards and referees. The figure moved so quickly that they thought they were seeing things and did not notice it.
Sensing it getting closer, Ling Luo Yi still did not move. The creature outside the tent thought it had gone unnoticed.
It slowly approached the tent and tried to pierce a small hole with its claw, but the first attempt failed.
It was stunned. Its claws were extremely sharp; how could it not even pierce a human tent?
Unwilling to give up, it raised its claw and pierced again. This time, it finally made a small hole.
Looking at the hole, it was satisfied. It was indeed as powerful as ever.
It approached the hole and exhaled a puff of poisonous gas, then left contentedly, waiting to collect its spoils in the morning.
Inside the tent, Ling Luo Yi felt the poisonous gas slowly approaching her, but it disappeared when it was still an inch away from her.
Ling Luo Yi recognized the poison as belonging to the Ghost Poison Spider King. Judging by the potency of the poison, this Ghost Poison Spider King should be a fifth-tier Great Illusionary Beast, equivalent to a fifth-tier Spirit Scholar in human cultivation.
"Truly weak," Ling Luo Yi couldn't help but scoff.
Even though this Ghost Poison Spider King would be unrivaled in Tian Wu Kingdom, Ling Luo Yi still found it weak.
Ling Luo Yi waved her hand casually, and the small hole on the tent disappeared. Only then did she fall asleep.
The next day, Ling Luo Yi woke up to the sound of crawling. She yawned and went out after washing up.
Ling Luo Yi emerged from the tent and saw a giant spider, as tall as herself, staring at her in disbelief.
Ling Luo Yi smiled and greeted it before carefully observing it.
This Ghost Poison Spider King looked very similar to ordinary Ghost Poison Spiders. It had a small, sharp horn on its head, shaped like a crown, proving it was a Ghost Poison Spider King. However, this Ghost Poison Spider King only had six legs; there were traces of broken legs at the seventh and eighth leg positions. The broken ends were uneven, appearing as if they had been struck by lightning.
Ling Luo Yi's gaze swept over the entire body of the Ghost Poison Spider King, stopping beneath the horn on its forehead. There was a contract mark there, but it was gray. A lightning strike mark was on top of the contract mark. Due to the different colors, it was not difficult to distinguish.
Ling Luo Yi knew what these two marks represented, so she looked at the Ghost Poison Spider King with curiosity. She was very curious why the Ghost Poison Spider King had done such a thing, an act that could be considered defying the heavens.