Chapter 4903 — The Nourishing Mystery Herb

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Yet Wei Zhao's failure to recognize it did not mean the others shared his ignorance. After a few glances, Wang Xinyan blurted out, "It's actually Nourishing Mystery Herb!"

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"Yes, yes! My old man got his hands on one of these once too. Just like the Nourishing Prime Devilgold Herb, it works wonders for those at the Mystery Ascension stage!" Lu Xiaozhong leapt up as well.

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"Nourishing Mystery Herb?" Wei Zhao came to the realization at once. He had failed to identify it on sight, but he had seen the name in the literature. The Nourishing Prime Devilgold Herb could be refined into Nourishing Prime Pills, while this Nourishing Mystery Herb could be refined into Nourishing Mystery Pills.

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The effects of the two pills were all but identical, each capable of directly raising one's cultivation by a single grade—except the former worked only on experts at the Nascent Soul stage, while the latter worked on experts at the Mystery Ascension stage.

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At this moment, Wei Zhao and his companions had only just broken through to the early Mystery Ascension stage. To stumble upon Nourishing Mystery Herb now was a temptation beyond words. No wonder Chang Laiting had gone so far as to snatch even his own dao companion for the sake of this thing.

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Seeing the excitement written across Wei Zhao and the others' faces, Ni Caiyue grew frightened. She fumbled the Nourishing Mystery Herb into her storage and backed away again and again. "We agreed just now—you mustn't rob me of it..."

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She wore the look of a young girl cornered by a scoundrel, and she kept her eyes fixed on him besides. Wei Zhao was so speechless he wanted to scratch his head. Did he really look that much like a villain?

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"No one's trying to rob you. Set your mind a hundred and twenty percent at ease," Wei Zhao said with a shake of his head, torn between laughter and tears. Then he added, "But since you want me to lead you out, you'll have to pay some price in return. That's only fair, isn't it?"

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"Ah?" Ni Caiyue retreated another step and clutched the wooden box tightly to her chest. "You still say you don't want to rob me of my Nourishing Mystery Herb? I knew it—you really are a villain hiding deep!"

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"Hey, hey, when did I ever say I wanted to rob you of your Nourishing Mystery Herb?" Wei Zhao spread his hands helplessly.

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"You're not after my Nourishing Mystery Herb?" Ni Caiyue tilted her head, and then her eyes suddenly darted with inspiration. "Then you're after me? Well, that won't do! I won't be your concubine!"

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"Concubine?!" The whole group nearly collapsed. This girl truly had a mind full of wild holes—how on earth had she leapt to concubine?

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"Of course! You already have these two elder sisters for wives—if you're after me, isn't it obviously to make me a concubine?" Ni Caiyue wore the expression of one who had seen through everything.

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"Who said I wanted to take you as a concubine!" Wei Zhao was on the verge of a breakdown. If he kept talking with this girl, he suspected he really would cement his reputation as a villain hiding deep. He could only state plainly, "The price I mean is simple. Just tell me where you picked this Nourishing Mystery Herb."

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"So you're not after me after all. Good, good." Only then did Ni Caiyue pat her chest and breathe easy. Wei Zhao had no choice but to look away once more. After a moment, the girl said hesitantly, "But my master said this location is a top secret, absolutely not to be revealed to outsiders."

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"Then there's nothing to discuss. Go back on your own—we still need to keep exploring deeper," Wei Zhao said at once with an indifferent wave of his hand.

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"Wait!" Ni Caiyue looked at Wei Zhao pitifully, hesitating before she spoke. "If you don't take me with you, I'll never get out alone..."

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"That's unfortunate. We have at most a month on the Road of Giants, and after that we can never enter again. If we take you out now, we'll surely waste a great deal of time—the loss will be enormous. There has to be fitting compensation. What do you say?" Wei Zhao reasoned with her patiently.

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"This..." Ni Caiyue was still torn and troubled.

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"Take your time thinking it over. We can afford to wait that long. But the fellow with his head planted in the ground may not be able to. If he wakes up again, I may not help you deal with him a second time, you know. After all, three is the limit." Wei Zhao pointed at Chang Laiting on the ground.

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"No, no!" Ni Caiyue was startled and spun about in a fluster. At last she smacked her own head. "That's it! My master's exact words were that I couldn't give the map to anyone—but he never said I couldn't lead someone there personally! If I take you there myself, isn't that the best of both worlds? I really am clever and quick-witted!"

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Wei Zhao and the others were torn between laughter and tears. If that counted as clever and quick-witted, then what were they—geniuses whose intelligence pierced the heavens?

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Still, however one looked at it, since the girl was willing to lead the way in person, it was a stroke of luck they could only welcome. Everyone wanted Nourishing Mystery Herb, and Wei Zhao was no exception.

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Once the two sides reached an agreement, Wei Zhao and his companions at once set off for the main road with Ni Caiyue in tow. Only after the girl returned to the main road could she find that prized spot where the Nourishing Mystery Herb grew.

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Within the range of Wei Zhao's spiritual sense, finding the main road after a brief orientation was a simple matter. What followed was a journey under Ni Caiyue's guidance to an exceedingly remote and hidden place.

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The path twisted and turned the whole way. Without a map to guide them, not to mention Ni Caiyue herself, even Wei Zhao and the others would likely have been dizzy with circles.

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By now they had reached the depths of the Road of Giants. Along the way, traces of other academy disciples were few and far between. Those who successfully advanced to Mystery Ascension were rare enough to begin with, and those who dared venture in here to explore were rarer still—let alone in a place so remote and hidden as this.

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A day later, Ni Caiyue finally led them to their destination. Before them lay a deeply sunken basin, wreathed in swirling mist that blocked spiritual sense. Even Wei Zhao could not perceive the whole of it.

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"This is where you got the Nourishing Mystery Herb?" Wei Zhao frowned slightly. The basin gave him a faint sense of peril—but then again, the more a place produced treasures, the more perilous it tended to be. That was a common law of the cultivation world. If one could obtain such a heaven-sent treasure without the slightest risk, that would truly be the strange thing.

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"No, no—you can't go in there. This is a Land of Thunder Burial!" Ni Caiyue shook her head again and again.

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"A Land of Thunder Burial?" Wei Zhao and the others were struck dumb in unison.

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"That's right. They say anyone who sets foot inside is buried by thunder," Ni Caiyue nodded.

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"Such a thing exists?" Wei Zhao and the others exchanged looks. They had always assumed thunder burials occurred only at certain times—they had never imagined there could be a place of thunder burial.

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"Mm-hm. The Nourishing Mystery Herb actually grows inside this very basin. Only by enduring the baptism of thunder burial again and again can it slowly grow to maturity," Ni Caiyue explained. (To be continued.)