Volume 1, Chapter 3: Nine Heavens Hanging over Yinchuan, Fairy Lying Beside the Lotus
After collecting the three-grade red sandalwood flowers, Shi Yan climbed down the tree.
Letting the old ancestor enjoy the abundant spiritual energy, Shi Yan wandered around the small valley alone.
At the top of the valley, a silver waterfall poured down from the cliff, rushing like thunder, carrying a tremendous force, crashing into the deep pool, splashing countless crystal water droplets.
The water vapor and the fragrance of various spiritual flowers mixed together, and after taking a deep breath, Shi Yan felt indescribably comfortable. The spiritual energy here was much richer than that in the inner valley of Huajian Valley, which was invigorating.
He suddenly felt that if he still couldn't practice in the future, it would be nice to live in seclusion here.
"The peerless flower picker, intoxicated among the flowers, lets her be a fairy in the palace of heaven, and sings coquettishly under the flower picker's tent."
Shi Yan hummed a little tune, shook his head, and shuttled among the spiritual flowers.
The old ancestor who was working hard raised his head with a disdainful glance, then lowered his head to eat again.
Green Poria cocos, Purple Sky Star, Blood Duti and other spiritual flowers recorded in the notebook were stuffed into the bag all at once. The rough movement was quite "heroic" like a cow chewing a peony.
The spiritual energy contained in the spiritual flowers in Xiaogu is much richer than that in Huajian Valley. Although there is not much difference in grade, the quality is completely different.
These spiritual flowers can definitely be sold at a good price. After all, there are many cultivators in the Zimu Liuhua Domain who need spiritual flowers, and spiritual flowers are still a hot commodity. Thinking of this, Shi Yan worked harder to dig.
The storage of spiritual flowers is a very profound subject. To keep the spiritual energy of spiritual flowers from dissipating, they must be placed in a spiritual jade box, and the properties of the spiritual flowers cannot conflict with each other when mixed. Otherwise, not only will the spiritual energy not be well preserved, but there is a great possibility that the spiritual flowers will drop in rank. And the first-grade spiritual flowers will only end up with the fragrance and jade being damaged. Therefore, to store spiritual flowers, one must have a thorough understanding of the properties of the spiritual flowers, which is also one of the reasons why there are very few flower pickers.
Although the spiritual flowers needed for the notebook are relatively common, it still took Shi Yan three days to collect them all. Of course, each kind of spiritual flower exceeds the original quantity required. The patrons of the Huajian Sect only need to complete the commissions assigned by the sect, and there are not too many restrictions on the others. In other words, these extra spiritual flowers are Shi Yan's private property and the source of Shi Yan's small treasury. A total of 38 kinds of spiritual flowers were collected this time, 23 plants of each kind. Excluding the plants of each kind commissioned by the sect, the remaining spiritual flowers belong to Shi Yan himself.
This time the target was exceeded, and it was the first time for Shi Yan to collect such a large amount.
"Haha, I will definitely be able to buy the Overtone Snail this time!" Shi Yan said with a smile. The Overtone Snail is a kind of shell beast known as a spiritual beast. It can receive sound waves and can be used without a spirit contract, so it is very popular among cultivators below the foundation building stage. Shi Yan had wanted to get it a long time ago, but the high price of fifty first-grade spirit stones made him hesitate.
This time I can finally buy it. Shi Yan couldn't wait to go straight to Kong Hai. He had long wanted to try the magical feeling of receiving messages from thousands of miles away and knowing what was happening in the world without leaving home as described in the advertisement. Even the fastest communication in the world, even the telepathy of the heartworm, didn't have such an exaggerated effect!
So tired! Shi Yan carefully put the Yuling Flower into the jade box and closed the lid. He took a deep breath and sat down on the rock beside the deep pool to rest.
His frail body lay on the rock, and before he knew it, he had fallen asleep. He had not slept for three days due to his mental excitement.
I slept so soundly that the sun set and rose again, and I slept for a whole day.
When Yan opened his eyes, he found himself floating on the water, drifting with the waves.
"Huh? Where is this? How did I get wet?" Shi Yan murmured in a daze.
Suddenly there was a loud bang and Shi Yan struggled violently, almost sinking to the bottom of the water.
He emerged from the water, wiped the water from his eyes, and found himself floating on a lake covered with large patches of duckweed, with a few spots of different colors in between. They were large-leaf water lilies.
At this moment, another loud noise came from the sky, like thunder.
The thunder seemed to explode in Shi Yan's ears, causing pain in his eardrums.
"boom!"
Another loud noise came, far louder than the previous two, and it continued without interruption.
The wind blew over, turning the water into a light mist that sprinkled on Shi Yan's face, feeling cool.
But at this moment the sky was bright and sunny, with no clouds in sight. Thunder could be heard but no clouds were visible.
What's going on? Shi Yan climbed up the duckweed and looked up at the sky.
Suddenly, a waterfall poured down from the sky, with the force of thousands of horses galloping, the sound of thunder and lightning striking thousands of mountains, roaring and rushing down, endlessly. The waterfall was surrounded by a circle, leaving a vacuum zone in the middle.
Under the sunlight, the circular waterfall is like a silver chain hanging from the sky, crashing into the mirror-like lake surface, splashing water, as crystal clear as flying beads and broken jade. The lake surface suddenly ripples, raising wave after wave of huge waves.
Shi Yan held onto the duckweed tightly, fearing that he would be washed away by the waves. When he got used to it, he looked carefully at the scene in front of him.
"A miracle, this is simply a miracle!" He stared blankly at the Tongtian Waterfall, and suddenly shouted excitedly to the sky: "If there really is a God, then I beg you, please make the coldness in my body disappear!"
There was no miracle as expected, but a huge wave several feet high hit the duckweed, and Shi Yan was hit directly into the water. Shi Yan cursed in his heart: "What a bastard! Don't think you can swat a fly just because you are a god!"
The Tongtian Waterfall lasted for a quarter of an hour, and then the water flow began to slow down gradually. It lost its previous majestic momentum and became as smooth as silk.
After a while, the silk-like waterfall began to disappear, turning into strands of silver threads, which were scattered into water droplets by the breeze.
Shi Yan emerged from the water, breathing heavily. Although he had spiritual energy to protect his body, he still took in a lot of lake water. At this moment, due to the waterfall that appeared for no reason, large pieces of duckweed and large-leafed water lilies were moved to the shore, intertwined together, and at a glance, it was a dark green.
Shi Yan climbed ashore and touched the bag on his waist. He breathed a sigh of relief. Although he suffered a "heavenly punishment" for no reason, fortunately the bag was not swept away by the big waves, otherwise the three days of hard work would be ruined. Moreover, it contained the only third-grade red sandalwood flower. If it was lost, it would be difficult to report to Senior Sister Mingxiang. Shi Yan secretly felt lucky.
Shi Yan lay down on the shore exhausted to rest. He wanted to fall asleep as soon as he tilted his head, but he saw that there seemed to be something lying on the large patch of large-leafed water lilies among the duckweed.
Looking closely, it seemed to be a girl. Yes, it was a girl! Shi Yan staggered to his feet and walked towards the girl, "How could there be a girl here? Could she be a fairy washed down from the sky by the waterfall?"
The girl was sleeping on the pod of a huge water lily. She was wearing a strange outfit, a round-neck short-sleeved shirt, a short skirt, and a pair of boots. Large patches of snow-white skin revealed a faint pink color, which was extremely dazzling under the sun.
Shi Yan felt his nose getting wet, and two blood swords suddenly gushed out, "God, I wronged you"
After finally stopping the bleeding, Shi Yan tiptoed towards the woman carefully, fearing that he would accidentally wake her up.
This woman was different from all the women Shi Yan had seen. She had a long shawl on her shoulders, not tied up in any bun, and was just casually draped over it. She was wearing a white short-sleeved dress, and there was a cute little bear on her chest. But was it a bear? Could a bear look this ugly?
She had a bracelet-like thing on her left hand, but Shi Yan observed it carefully and found that it was very different from ordinary bracelets. On the back of the bracelet, there was a small round panel covered with glass, and there were strange symbols engraved on it. There were three silver needles of different sizes moving constantly on the symbol, making a ticking sound.
What is this thing? It moves on its own without any spiritual power driving it, and it doesn’t look like a metallic spiritual beast.
Could it be some kind of mechanical puppet?
I heard that there is a famous puppet family in Mingjing Domain. The puppets they make are as big as a city and as small as a mosquito. There are many kinds of puppets, some are like carriages and can be used as mounts; some are like armor, both offensive and defensive; some are simply a bunker with countless built-in mechanisms.
However, even if it is a mechanical puppet, it cannot function without spiritual power. It seems that this is not a mechanical puppet.
Shi Yan walked forward cautiously and was fascinated by the strange object on her wrist. He did not notice that the woman had quietly opened her eyes.
Although she opened her eyes, she squinted again because of the glaring sunlight and did not notice Shi Yan beside her.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk! It's really amazing, such a delicate little device, I wonder which casting master made it." Since he still couldn't see what was on the woman's wrist, Shi Yan could only attribute it to a talisman device, a magic weapon activated by a talisman, and the ticking pointer was "accidentally" forgotten. Shi Yan sighed and reached out to touch it, but the woman heard Shi Yan's sigh, opened her eyes suddenly, and saw a palm attacking her chest.
“Ah! Pervert!” The woman screamed and kicked Shi Yan with all her strength, shouting, “Help!”
Shi Yan was startled by the woman's sudden waking up, and then heard her shouting for help. He subconsciously looked around. He didn't realize that he was the reason why the woman shouted for help, and his hands were still in the air in the shape of claws.
So, Shi Yan was kicked into the lake by the woman.
Shi Yan climbed up the shore, all wet, and looked at the woman with aggrieved eyes, only to see her curled up even more aggrieved, with fear in her eyes.
Shi Yan touched his face and suddenly sighed, "Being too handsome can also be scary, what a sin!"
The sound was neither high nor low, but the woman could hear it clearly. She chuckled and said, "Haha, you big pervert, you are quite funny!"
Shi Yan looked around and saw that there was no one there. So she was referring to... Shi Yan seemed to hear the sound of his inner world collapsing. He felt bitter: I just glanced at her a few more times, and I didn't do anything. How can you call me a pervert? How can I be a pervert? At least wait until I do something before calling me a pervert. Oh, what a loss!