Chapter Thirty-One: Obtaining the Silver Ginseng

  His brow furrowed, the young man halted his movements, while the two six-eared bears, seeing this, charged towards him with a speed that didn't match their clumsy bodies. The massive weight of the bears made the earth emit a series of thunderous roars as if it couldn't bear the load.

  "Haha, my battle intent is coming, Drunken Clear Wind!" With a light shout, the young man's long sword quickly drew one circle after another. As the sword danced, a horizontal tornado rapidly formed in front of the sword tip. The wind sound rose from low to intense, and the tornado grew larger, several feet thick. On the surface of the tornado, there were also streams of sharp blue sword energy swirling around. Lu Qing, who was watching from the trees, couldn't help but exclaim in admiration. It turned out that having strong power could also have such unique beauty.

  "Go——” The young man's long sword sent out a Dragon Whirlwind, which instantly brought with it an air-tearing momentum as it charged towards the two Six-eared Violent Bears that were rushing over. Not fearing them in the slightest, the two Six-eared Violent Bears regarded the Sword Qi Dragon Whirlwind as if they didn't see it and pounced straight over.

  Wooooo... Wooooo...

  Two spiritual beasts seemed to have underestimated the young man's strength, or perhaps they were too confident in their own condensed crystal armor. As soon as they came into contact with the dragon vortex, they were swept away by a loud whooshing sound and engulfed within it. The sharp sword energy, driven by the dragon vortex, rapidly sliced through the crystal armor, and in just a few breaths, a fierce sword energy pierced through, brutally slashing at the skin of the two beasts, no matter how thick their fur was, it was cut open with fresh blood gushing out.

  Some fled in disarray from the tornado's range, a loud crash, the tornado slammed into the mountain wall behind, rocks fell from the sky, dust and smoke dispersed, revealing a cave several meters wide and deep.

  Lowering its head to lick the blood from its body, the ferocity of the two six-eared violent bears was also stirred up. Frenziedly, their paws brought with them sharp claw energy and brutally slapped apart several thick tree trunks as wide as a person's waist on one side. Letting out a shrill roar, they charged towards the young man in unison.

  It's now, seeing two six-eared violent bears being provoked by the young man's hatred and chasing after them crazily. Lu Qing suddenly jumped down from the tree with a loud shout, taking a step that almost spanned three zhang in distance, quickly dashing towards the cave entrance. Now entering the Sword Holder stage, whether it be speed, strength or reaction, all have increased by twofold, and the prolonged endurance of Jianyuan is not something that Jianyuan's Qi can compare to.

  As expected, Lu Qing successfully entered the cave when he was being chased by one person and two beasts for nearly a hundred meters. The spiritual beast is still an animal after all, and the smell in the cave isn't that great, but it's warm enough, and the ground is also warm. After walking for several dozen meters, a fork in the road appeared before his eyes.

  "Damn it——" Lu Qing muttered to himself, speeding up his footsteps again, and shot into the cave on the left. Fortunately, this cave was not too deep, only about 10-20 meters deep. Judging from its shape, it seemed to be a natural mountain cave, probably occupied by those two six-eared violent bears after they discovered the silver ginseng inside. After all, most spiritual beasts below the fifth stage had a lifespan of two or three hundred years, enough to wait for the silver ginseng to grow into golden ginseng. Otherwise, it wouldn't be cheap for Lu Qing and his companion now.

  About ten or so zhangs later, Lu Qing stepped into a warm and cozy cave. In one corner of the cave was laid out several layers of thick dry grass, but judging by its size, it seemed to only be enough for a single six-eared violent bear to sleep on top of it. Could it be that the two beasts still lived in separate caves? Lu Qing looked around at his surroundings and thought helplessly, indeed, not even a single root of ginseng was visible on the ground.

  Wait, what's that?

  Lu Qing's eyes turned, and beside the thatched cottage, a pale purple mushroom-like small grass grew alone. Could it be? Lu Qing recalled the past, his eyes suddenly lit up, this is Zi Zhu, a medicinal herb as precious as ginseng.

  A faint purple electric sword energy emanated from his fingertips, and with a few swift strokes of his hand, he cut off the entire root system, including a mysterious tendril that had grown outwards from the base, and tucked it into his bosom. Clearly visible, this purple ginseng had four leaves, according to the classification of purple ginseng, which grows one leaf every hundred years, divided into ten grades. The one before him was a rare fourth-grade purple ginseng, equivalent to a 400-year-old ginseng king, and like ginseng, it had an equally effective effect on swordsmen, with even milder medicinal properties.

  According to the Lu Qing's Pharmacopoeia, ginseng belongs to yang and purple fungus belongs to yin. If used alone, they are not effective, but if used together, their effects complement each other, reaching a peak and without any adverse effects.

  With a surge of joy, Lu Qing shot out of the cave again and soon returned to the fork in the road. Without hesitation, he turned around and entered the tunnel on his right hand. This passageway seemed to be quite long, with a distance of about 30 or 40 meters before Lu Qing finally entered a vast empty cave.

  Suddenly, a refreshing aroma of sandalwood wafted in, and after taking a deep breath, Lu Qing felt his spirit lift, the fatigue from running also seemed to lighten, even the circulation of the third layer of the Sun Heart Meridian accelerated slightly.

  As expected, in the center of the cave, a silver lotus root as thick as a child's arm was embedded in the ground, next to which was a circular spring about one square meter in diameter, with gurgling spring water flowing out and nourishing the roots of the silver lotus that protruded from the ground.

  This time, he didn't dare to use the Purple Electric Sword Qi. Lu Qing was afraid that if he lost control, he would hurt its roots. He pulled out the Heart Refining Sword from his back and dug a few times on the ground. The silver ginseng completely exposed itself, with a length of about two and a half feet. Holding it in his hand, it felt warm like jade. Without washing it clean, Lu Qing simply shook off most of the mud covering it before rushing towards the entrance of the cave. After all, they were still inside the beast's den, and the two second-grade spiritual beasts were not to be trifled with.

  The glint in his eyes grew brighter and brighter, far away, there were still rumblings of thunder, it was clear that the battle between the two sides had not ended yet, finally, Lu Qing stepped out of the cave entrance.

  No good!

  It was really the silver ginseng's fragrance that was too strong, tens of meters away, the two-headed six-eared violent bear suddenly let out a loud roar and turned around to pounce on Lu Qing, while the young man had been teasing the two beasts with his sword energy from over ten meters away to provoke their anger. At this moment, the two beasts suddenly abandoned him and returned to the cave, apparently having discovered Lu Qing.

  In a daze, the two six-eared violent bears rushed out for nearly ten zhang, adding up to more than twenty zhang. Even at his speed, it was too late to save them. It seemed there had been an oversight after all.

  But at this time, Lu Qing was once again faced with a life-and-death challenge. The two six-eared violent bears' crazy impact brought up a fierce momentum that heavily pressed on his heart. A distance of dozens of meters couldn't be outrun by him at his current speed.

  With a determined heart, Lu Qing's mind calmed down. The life-and-death struggle more than ten days ago had undergone another transformation in his state of mind. Since he couldn't hide, then let's fight! A crazy battle intent rose from Lu Qing's body, the silver awl was inserted into his waist, the Lianxin sword pointed to the ground at an angle, and the whole person rushed towards the two beasts quickly.

  "You're crazy, run away!" The young man behind couldn't help but shout, while his speed increased by a fraction, desperately trying to intercept the two beasts. Wait, as he galloped, the young man's eyes widened in shock, because he saw a thick purple aura gradually appearing on Lu Qing's body. At the same time, an extremely sharp and fierce sword energy shot up into the sky. On the large sword that was slowly rising, a foot-long solar sword energy emerged from the tip of the sword, but in his feeling, there was also a sense of destruction.

  As if he had thought of something, the young man's face suddenly showed a hint of surprise, and his heart became even more urgent. In mid-air, his long sword shot out in rapid succession, with dozens of sword energies breaking through the air and attacking the two six-eared violent bears from behind.

  The Soul Refining Mantra was circulating, and after the initial foundation-building process, it had made progress. The refreshing air currents in the divine court's sea of consciousness were now layered with a few more strands. Now, when fully deployed, it could envelop an area of about 15 zhangs (45 feet) in diameter. At this moment, Lu Qing was intently staring at the two six-eared violent bears, and in an instant, he felt that the movements of both beasts seemed to have slowed down slightly.

  The newly transformed Violet Electric Sword Element rapidly flowed within his body, and with Lu Qing's manipulation, half of it was suddenly injected into the Heart Refining Sword. In an instant, the Heart Refining Sword suddenly flashed a violent purple light, and the sword energy extending from its tip actually grew by more than half an inch again, with tiny violet electric rings surrounding it.

  Suddenly, a hint of terror flashed in the eyes of the two six-eared violent bears facing him. Their bodies, which had been running, suddenly stopped, and they dragged out a meter-long mud mark on the ground. Lu Qing, who was charging over, also stumbled to a stop, because he found that the gaze of the two six-eared violent bears was fixed tightly on the purple electric sword energy extending from his Heart Refining Sword.

  Although there was a great deal of confusion in his mind, the young man who had taken advantage of the opportunity to come before him at this time grabbed his shoulder and the two of them took off like flying, rushing towards the direction of Chaoyang Palace. The angry roar echoed faintly behind them, but Lu Qing's peripheral vision found that the two six-eared violent bears did not chase after them.

  They fled all the way, still without encountering any spiritual beasts. Apparently, the young man was already very familiar with this place. After more than half a time, the two had already left the forest.

  "Heh heh, thanks to you today, I almost got into trouble." The young man put away his long sword behind his back and said with some apology.

  Lu Qing took down the silver needle from his waist and handed it over without hesitation.

  "Alright, I won't take too much either. I'll just take a foot and a half of this silver ginseng, and the rest will be my apology." The young man then took out two long white jade boxes and a small purple jade knife from his bosom, cleaned the dirt off the silver ginseng, cut it open, and packed it up. He handed one of the boxes containing a foot of silver ginseng to Lu Qing.

  "Let's go," said the young man after finishing distributing, but when he turned around, he found that Lu Qing hadn't moved. "What's wrong?"

  He paused for a moment, then took out the extra four-piece purple ginseng from his pocket. "There's another one here, you can have half of it too."

  The young man was taken aback at first, then looked up at the sky and burst out laughing. After a moment, he looked at Lu Qing with a serious expression: "Let me introduce myself, my name is..."

  Nie Qingtian, Sword Master Xiao Tianwei, I know. He raised his head, Lu Qing looked at the young man in the same way, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, "Neizong's new disciple Lu Qing, Sword Xiao Tianwei."

  Nie Qingtian was taken aback, but also smiled and said: "So you've already recognized me. Indeed, those who can enter the Purple Bamboo Residence are not ordinary people. Of course, that dead fatso Duan Qingyun doesn't count."

  As they said this, the two of them looked at each other and burst out laughing. (Ten Steps is rushing up the new people's chart, urgently seeking recommendation votes and collections, hoping everyone will generously help, letting Ten Steps truly take ten steps to kill one person, leaving no trail for a thousand miles, killing all the way to the top ten!)