Chapter Eighty-two: Twin Lotus

  In life, Zuo Xiao Yao never wanted to be at a disadvantage, this attitude didn't change even after she became a cultivator. At the same time, however, her demands for material things weren't too high and her adaptability was very strong. Whether it was good or bad, there were some contradictions, yet they coexisted.

  Therefore, according to the surrounding environment, she can either settle in a giant tree at night or sleep in the open grassland. When encountering relatively clean and refreshing mountain caves, she will try her best to make herself comfortable, with abundant food prepared. Living alone in the mountains is not a new experience for her, having previously cultivated in seclusion on Mount Shennong. Although similarly isolated from the world in this Kaluo Forest, Zuo Xiao Yao has adapted quite well, especially with the goal of recovering her spiritual power motivating her, she never feels that such a life is inappropriate.

  In the cave, sitting cross-legged on a smooth stone slab, she took out a stalk of Bi Luo Ling Cao that was as crystal clear as jade, with thirty-two finger-length leaves that had already grown to show its age of one thousand six hundred years. Even if it were used to refine elixirs for the Condensed Elixir Stage True Person, it would be more than enough, but when Zuo Xiao Yao's eyes flashed with determination, she still resolutely swallowed the instantly dissolving medicinal herb directly into her mouth.

  Half a time later, when Zuo Xiao Yao opened her eyes again, a hint of despair flashed in her eyes. She had failed!

  Although she had made psychological preparations in advance, when she felt that her body still didn't have any reaction after taking the rare and precious medicine obtained with great difficulty time and again, Zuo XiaoYao couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. However, there was nothing she could do about it, so she could only place her hopes on the next time, anyway, she had already made up her mind to fight for the long haul.

  Since then, she has not been able to refine the elixir due to her inability to release the spiritual fire. She also did not have the opportunity to take other approaches to improve her physical condition except for directly consuming spiritual medicine. Of course, Zuo Xiao Yao would also decide whether or not to consume it based on its medicinal properties, mainly choosing those that are beneficial in increasing spiritual power or improving physical constitution. As a result, although the efficacy is far from being refined later and assisted by other medicinal materials to enhance the efficacy of elixir, more than half of the medicine's effect would be wasted, but still, there is also a considerable part that can take direct effect.

  If her current cultivation was normal and she hadn't appeared unable to mobilize even a bit of spiritual power, then Zuo Xiao Yao, who was only in the middle stage of foundation building, would never have dared to take a spirit medicine that was over 1,600 years old. No matter what kind of medicinal properties it had, it would be enough to make her 'digest' poorly. However, after going through many trials before, she discovered that her body was very 'strong'. From several hundred years to over a thousand years worth of spirit medicines were taken by her one after another, yet she didn't feel any discomfort in her body at all. She had always wanted to determine the limits of her body's ability to withstand spiritual power, and at the same time, she also realized that this was likely related to the abnormality of her physical strength and spiritual power.

  "It's become a common occurrence for 'experiments' to fail. The momentary sense of loss and despair instantly vanished, not suppressed in her heart, but thrown behind her by Xue Xiao Yao as she got up and walked to the temporary bed. Overthinking this failure and the reason for it was equivalent to overthinking what was wrong with her own body. For her now, this problem was currently unsolvable, so she might as well put it aside for the time being."

  The next day, when a group of people came to the foot of the cliff where Zuo Xiao Yao had been before, looking at the black bear's corpse and the purple liquid spirit fruit tree on the cliff that had become bare. The young man in black who was leading the way and the elegant young man standing beside him both looked very unsightly, unconsciously exuding a chilling sense of disappointment and anger from their bodies, causing the scattered followers around them to involuntarily lower their heads, not even daring to breathe.

  After a moment, the young man in black finally said, "I've actually been beaten to it! Could it be that the news of the Purple Sacred Fruit ripening here in the next few days has leaked out?"

  The elegant young man shook his head and said, "It's uncertain. Judging from the black bear's corpse, the Purple Sacred Fruit was picked either last night or this morning. It's also possible that it was picked by someone who happened to pass by. The person who told us about this, Great Master Cheng Yue, had already passed away half a year ago. Before that, none of us had ever mentioned this matter to anyone else. And this place isn't somewhere ordinary people can easily come to."

  "Go and carefully search around to see if there are any other people leaving behind traces!"

  As the guards around him respectfully led the way, the serious-looking young man began to search for clues. The elegant youth let out a light sigh and said, "Now that things have come to this, it seems we have no choice but to head to Wind and Thunder Cliff. Hopefully, there won't be any more unexpected events... Young Master's injury..."

  Mentioning the Wind Thunder Cliff a hundred miles away, the young man in black was silent, and his already cold expression became even more solemn. Anyone who knew a bit about the Kalo Forest would know that the Wind Thunder Cliff could almost be said to be a boundary between life and death. It was extremely difficult for ordinary people to reach there safely, and wanting to cross it and enter deeper into the Kalo Forest was absolutely a matter of nine deaths and one life.

  After a moment of contemplation, the young man in black nodded "It seems that's all we can do now!"

  Five days later, when this group of people slowly approached Fenglei Cliff under the attack of powerful beasts that occasionally encountered wild beasts, relying on their spiritual consciousness to observe the surrounding environment in a timely manner, and relying on the agility and speed of Qingyun Steps to successfully avoid some dangers, Xiaoxiao Yao's eyes were extremely sharp and she harvested many precious spiritual medicines that were not low in grade during these few days.

  As she ventured deeper into the Kalos Forest, the quantity and quality of the precious spiritual medicine she encountered increased significantly, making Zuo Xiao Yao very satisfied with her trip to the Kalos Forest this time. At the same time, it also gave her a lot of confidence in her desire to recover her spiritual power as soon as possible. The decision to take the spiritual medicine directly was risky, but under the current circumstances, some risks had to be taken if she wanted to achieve her goal.

  At this time, standing on a branch, Zuo Xiao Yao looked at the two spiritual herbs growing in a clump of trees seven feet away, and swallowed her saliva secretly. The golden leaves surrounded three small fruit the size of fingertips, which according to the information she obtained from the spiritual herb atlas circulating in the cultivation world, was called Double Born Golden Orchid Grass. It is said that whenever it appears in the world, it grows as a pair of plants with the same root, and it is suitable for refining into a treasure that can help high-level cultivators who have just entered the Yuanying stage to improve their cultivation. Once it bears fruit, its value increases exponentially, enough to move the hearts of high-level cultivators in the Chengtian stage. However, since ancient times, the probability of discovering Double Born Golden Orchid Grass that has borne fruit is extremely low.

  Being able to encounter such a treasure so quickly made Zuo Xiao Yao feel extremely delighted, her heart filled with wonderful expectations. As for the other tree growing on the edge of the left stone cliff that also had purple liquid spirit fruits, it was no longer on her mind.

  But good fortune and disaster are always intertwined. At the same time, a strange beast with an enormous body was guarding the periphery of the twin golden lotus grass. It's said to be strange mainly because of its appearance, with a sturdy body nearly three zhang long, a triangular head like a python, and a layer of crocodile-like armor on its body.

  Even though she was four or five zhang away from it, Zuo Xiaoyao could still smell the intense bloody aura emanating from the monster's body, which made her feel nauseous and also filled her with a sense of dread.

  But the reason that made her unable to move forward was clearly not due to this. An hour ago, when Zuo Xiao Yao's spiritual sense first swept over this monster, she had already sensitively discovered that this monster was different from all the other wild beasts she had encountered before, and its body actually emitted a breath of a refined demon that had become a spirit through cultivation.

  This discovery was not too surprising to Zuo Xiaoyao, who had transcended through cultivation and possessed abilities that allowed her to understand the differences between ordinary warriors and cultivators who could control elemental forces. The gap between these two groups was enormous, and even a slight carelessness could result in losing one's life.

  After careful analysis of the situation in front of her, she could roughly sense that the time it took for this monster to become a demon was not too long, and it did not bring her a sense of threat. Therefore, after a flash of sternness in her eyes, for that one thread of opportunity, Zuo Xiao Yao also decided to take this risk!

  It was clear that the monster's outer shell was quite hard, Zuo Xiao Yao stepped on the light cloud step and quickly arrived in front of the monster, wielding her sword to slash at its face.

  The monster, despite its massive body shape, successfully dodged the sudden attack launched by Zuo Xiaoyao with its agility, but it was also extremely dangerous. In an instant, it turned its body around, and after letting out a loud roar as if feeling offended, its mouth opened wide, and a tongue several meters long shot towards Zuo Xiaoyao.

  She had originally planned to take advantage of the monster's distraction to rush forward and pick herbs, but she hadn't expected it to react so quickly, leaving her no opportunity to do so. Ben Xiao Yao could only step on the light cloud steps and hastily retreat to its rear, that black sticky liquid on its long tongue was definitely not something good, being stained by it would be a terrible outcome, this point she was certain of.

  Knowing that facing this monster, casting palm techniques would only be scratching its itch, and wouldn't have any substantial effect, Zuo Xiao Yao could only hold her long sword to meet the enemy, pouring her inner energy into the sword as she stabbed at the monster's tail.

  Unfortunately, the quality of the long sword in its hand was somewhat too poor. In one strike, it could not withstand the huge impact generated by the defensive force that Zuo Xiaoyao infused into it and the monster's external cultivation. It broke into several pieces, leaving only a very shallow wound on the monster's tail at the moment of intimate contact with its body.

  But the wound, though small, was enough to cause the monster a twinge of pain, enraging it. Its long tongue, unable to reach its own back, was forced to retreat in defeat. Just as Zuo Xiaoyao was gazing at the ineffectual long sword with tears of frustration welling up in her eyes and hastily retreating to the side, the monster had already agilely spun its body around once more, raising a claw that was originally extremely short but now seemed to stretch out like a long tongue, swinging it towards her.

  Under the rogue's attack, she had no choice but to take a shortcut and jump onto a nearby large tree. However, she didn't expect the monster's claws to be so powerful that they could instantly turn several surrounding trees into dust without even touching them. She fell off the tree unprepared, and although she managed to avoid breaking her arms and legs with her internal strength, the experience was still very unpleasant. The monster behind her had already caught up and stretched out its long tongue again to grab her.

  Not wanting to be swallowed by the cake, and knowing that his own inner strength was not enough to withstand the opponent's claws at this time, Zuo Xiao Yao had no choice but to make a desperate and humiliating escape. During this process, he was also injured from time to time due to the power released by the monster when it swung its tail and claws.

  I really miss those days when I had spiritual power!

  PS: Thanks for the support from Dizzy Girl and Liu Yijun. Sorry, today's update is late, I'll try to update more tomorrow!