The Gate Of Good Fortune

Chapter 0968: The Strange Crystal Barrier

“If it doesn’t belong to you, trying to take it by force might end up in you breaking your teeth. If it’s my Immortal Corpse Sect’s alchemist who entered the thirteenth gate, my Immortal Corpse Gate isn’t going to act with such generosity and take out those rare spirit herbs. I’d like to see who dares to snatch them from my Immortal Corpse Sect?” A dark red-faced man spoke up with an equally cold laugh.

Fei Feng felt annoyed in his heart, but he didn’t say anything else. There was a 90% chance that the pill sage who entered the thirteenth gate was Jing Han from the Great Spirit Pill Sect. As such, he didn’t understand why the Immortal Corpse Sect had spoken so blindly as to help the Great Spirit Pill Sect.

However, the Immortal Corpse Sect was a bizarre sect that no one wanted to touch. While he was the only functioning Dao Fusion Holy Emperor in the Profound Moon Spirit Gate. It hadn’t been too long since he became the sect master of the Profound Moon Spirit Gate either, which meant he didn’t have the same kind of influence and deterrence as Qi Changgui enjoyed. Plus, he also didn’t have the same strength as Qi Changgui. He had come to the City Lord’s banquet in Heaven Essence Sacred City only for one purpose, which was to gather as many dao fruits as he could. That way, he could at least cultivate a force that purely belonged to his side of the family.

Therefore, when Immortal Corpse Sect’s Chun Fei spoke up, he didn’t pay much attention to him.

“Let’s not argue over such things for now. Once someone enters the third level of Illusionary Fruit Orchard, all the pills they refine will appear on the crystal screen. If there really are extinct spirit herbs there, the alchemist would definitely incorporate them in the pills to get to more precious areas. Look, someone has already appeared on the second level of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard. It looks like the alchemist who opened the thirteenth gate. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before he enters the third level of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard.” A woman finally spoke up to stop the escalating arguments.

Although this woman was only a Dao Transformation Holy Emperor, no one dared to raise or even express any objection. Everyone here knew this woman, the Pill Union’s Deputy Union Head, Holy Emperor Qing Yi. But more notably, she was a highly accomplished Dao Transformation Pill Sage and the public face of the Pill Union.

Holy Emperor Qing Yi’s words quickly quelled the arguments. And as if on cue, nine doors appeared in the second level of the crystal screen, and an alchemist landed before them. This alchemist quickly checked his surroundings before taking out his pill furnace to refine pills.

Just as this alchemist began to refine pills, blocks of text appeared right in the middle of the upper half of the crystal screen. It only contained the name of pills.

“How’s that possible?” A Dao Transformation Holy Emperor uttered in a shocked voice.

It indeed shouldn’t be possible because the Illusionary Fruit Garden’s crystal screen would only display the name of the pills when the door to the third level opened. It had never shown pill names before the third level, at least not in its recorded history.

Right now, the alchemist before the nine gates on the second level of the Illusionary Fruit Garden had only sat down. This alchemist hadn’t even begun heating up his pill furnace. So how could pill names appear on the crystal screen?

“Harmony Bodhisattva Pill? Did... Did I read it right? It’s really the Harmony Bodhisattva Pill.....” The guest hall could no longer remain calm. The text clearly showed a name, ‘Harmony Bodhisattva Pill’.

“There truly are extinct spirit herbs inside. Harmony Bodhisattva Pill requires the Bodhisattva Dust Lotus. But Bodhisattva Dust Lotus has long been extinct in the Grand Essence Realm. It actually reappeared inside.”

A burst of exclamations and whooshes of deep breaths rang throughout the hall. A vast majority even stood up in excitement.

Apart from the top Holy Emperors here, the hall was full of pill deities or pill sages. As such, everyone naturally knew about the primary spirit herbs required for the Harmony Bodhisattva Pill.

“The second one, Nine Orifices Heart Pill. Oh heavens, the Nine Orifices Divine Glaze is another extinct spirit herb.....”

“The third one, Primordial Cleansing Pill. Although this Dao Sculpting Spirit Pill’s ingredients aren’t extinct or even rare, the difficulty in refining it is comparable to that of an ordinary Dao Transformation Spirit Pill. This person actually used this pill to open the first level of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard. No wonder this person could open the thirteenth gate of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard......”

It was no longer possible to calm the excitement and disbelief rampaging through the hall. Everyone felt like a cat’s claw kept scratching at their hearts. All of them were clear that a powerful fellow had appeared among the alchemists that entered the Illusionary Fruit Orchard this time. But more importantly, this fellow had opened the most valuable part of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard, the hidden medicinal gardens with extinct spirit herbs.

Why did these spirit herbs go extinct? It was simply because they were too valuable; everyone would immediately dig them up to refine them if they found them in the wild. Another reason was that these spirit herbs were challenging to grow and required careful monitoring. Both these factors ultimately resulted in those spirit herbs going extinct.

Whoever opened the Illusionary Fruit Orchard’s hidden medicinal gardens would get at least 20% of it. But more importantly, a significant portion of those spirit herbs would also go to the Le Clan. This, in turn, would propel the Le Clan into a leading clan within the Grand Essence Realm even faster.

“Union Head, our Pill Union’s medicinal gardens don’t have the Nine Orifices Divine Glaze or the Bodhisattva Dust Lotus. Yet, this person managed to refine those two pills. From this, it’s more likely that this alchemist obtained even more extinct spirit herbs.” The Pill Union’s Deputy Union Head, Holy Emperor Qing Yi, also couldn’t hold back her excitement. She even sent a voice transmission to Sheng Houtian.

Sheng Houtian secretly frowned as he guessed that it should be Ning Cheng who opened the thirteenth gate. But whether this was a good or a bad thing for Ning Cheng, he didn’t know. Therefore, when Holy Emperor Qing Yi sent the transmission, he could only sigh. “No matter who this person is, my Pill Union will stand on his side.”

“Yes.” Although Holy Emperor Qing Yi felt puzzled by the response, she still replied affirmatively.

If Holy Emperor Qing Yi could think of this matter, who else couldn’t think of it? Everyone started speculating about how many extinct spirit herbs this alchemist obtained after opening the thirteenth gate.

......

Ning Cheng didn’t know that the people outside knew that he obtained many extinct spirit herbs. But even if he did, he couldn’t care less about it. The spirit herbs obtained from the two previous medicine gardens had already given him a huge surprise.

He needed dozens more resources to cultivate than others. Plus, he also had many others around him who needed an equally large amount of resources. Therefore, even if this place contained a hundred times more spirit herbs, it wouldn’t be too much for his needs.

At this moment, Ning Cheng had already refined a batch of top-quality Harmony Bodhisattva Pills, opened the door to the Illusionary Fruit Orchard’s third level, and entered it. He once again spotted another suspended hourglass. Going by the previous experience, Ning Cheng estimated that this hourglass gave him about an hour’s worth of time, which gave him a bit of relief.

Fortunately, there weren’t any puppets here to keep him distracted. He should have enough time to search for what he wanted with an hour to squander. Even if he couldn’t find what he wanted on this level, he could quickly collect the spirit herbs here and enter the fourth level.

As he came close to the medicinal garden, Ning Cheng could finally see the spirit herbs’ silhouettes growing inside. However, a crystal-like barrier covered the entire area. Moreover, there weren’t many spirit herbs behind the crystal-like barrier. At most, he could only count about a hundred or so, far less than the number of spirit herbs in the two previous levels.

This caused Ning Cheng to feel a slight disappointment. However, when Ning Cheng moved closer, his heart started to pound with excitement once again.

The garden only contained a hundred or so spirit herbs. But every single spirit herb inside was either incredibly precious or a treasure extinct outside.

Buddha Light Shoots, Unfretted Dragon Leaf, Bright Cicada Rattan, Reincarnation Tears....

Especially the Reincarnation Tears, a spirit flower even more precious than many dao fruits. It had gone extinct in the Grand Essence Realm a long time ago.

Ning Cheng’s gaze quickly swept up from these extinct spirit herbs in the front to the back of the garden. The one sweep immediately made him even more ecstatic, as the back actually had a row of dao fruit trees. These dao fruit trees weren’t very tall and numbered around a dozen. However, the Falling Scar Dao Fruit Tree was the worst of those dao fruit trees.

Ning Cheng immediately thought back to when Kong Ning had asked him to borrow points for a Falling Scar Dao Fruit.

Even Kong Ning, a disciple from a major sect, had to go through so much for a single Falling Scar Dao Fruit. Yet, just how many Falling Scar Dao Fruits were in front of him? Just the one’s visible amounted to twenty or thirty.

Unfortunately, Ning Cheng’s surprise quickly subsided as he swept his gaze through the spirit grasses and dao fruit trees a few more times. He didn’t see the Exquisite Star Golden Concealed Leaf. The only reason why Ning Cheng hastened through the previous levels was for the Exquisite Star Golden Concealed Leaf, a spirit herb he needed the most. Alas, he didn’t find it here.

Ning Cheng quickly settled his mind. What he wanted might not be at this level, but that didn’t mean that the next level also didn’t have it. So, just like before, he decided to take away all the dao fruit trees and spirit grasses on this level and then head to the next level. In any case, these spirit herbs were still quite useful for him.

Whether restrictions common to medicinal gardens or various types of defensive formations, Ning Cheng had broken too many of them. Even in the second level, he had easily blasted open the three formations covering the three sections. As such, Ning Cheng didn’t put this crystal-like barrier to heart.

However, when Ning Cheng was about to strike the restrictions, his spiritual consciousness quickly zoomed in on the crystal-like barrier. What he saw immediately stopped him from taking action. It was a kind of forbidden restriction that he had never seen before, one filled with incredibly violent power.

Even without taking any action, Ning Cheng knew what would happen if he did. If he forcibly tried to break these crystal-like barriers, the violent power would immediately destroy everything within the medicinal garden.

After looking at it for a few minutes, Ning Cheng carefully placed his hand on top of the crystal-like barrier. That same faint flow of spirit aura?

Ning Cheng immediately took his hand back and took out a ruined golem he collected from the previous level from his ring. He immediately understood a few things. This crystal-like barrier that protected the spirit herbs had the same source powering them. That is, this crystal-like barrier wasn’t a restriction at all, but rather it was another type of puppet. It had nothing to do with protective formations. In fact, it used the same refining techniques as the ones used to refine those golems from the previous level.

If he attacked forcibly, this crystal barrier would repair itself automatically as long as the attack didn’t go over its repairing threshold. If the attack exceeded its repairing capacity, the violent aura contained within it would immediately detonate and turn everything to dust.

Thinking of this, Ning Cheng immediately took out his spear and stabbed it at this crystal barrier without using too much strength. Sure enough, although it created a visible dent in the crystal barrier, the barrier almost instantly repaired itself to its original state.

Ning Cheng finally understood why the six humanoid golems, which didn’t pose much of a threat to him, appeared in the previous level. Most likely, the great power that had set up this medicinal orchard had done it with purpose.

That is, he wanted those who managed to enter this place after him to learn the puppet art from these six golems and then use it to open this crystal barrier.

However, if one thought about it realistically, the great power that set up this place had no intention of letting anyone open this crystal barrier. At the very least, that great power had no intention to let others take away these spirit herbs.

That’s because no one could learn that puppet art in just one hour unless they were also accomplished puppet masters who walked the path of puppetry. In fact, even for those masters, the possibility to learn the intricacies of a different puppet art was an impossible matter, given the time constraint. Plus, one can’t forget that one needed to be a powerful pill sage to enter this area. Would such a pill sage use their already limited time to learn puppetry? Even as an auxiliary support skill? And even if they could, could their mastery over puppetry reach such high levels?

Ning Cheng’s heart went cold but soon fired up once again. Since he came here, he had to find the Exquisite Star Golden Concealed Leaf. It was a spirit grass that carried the laws of heaven and earth, which meant it was most likely to appear on the fourth level.

He again started to ponder what the expert who set up this place meant by placing the crystal barrier here. If this fellow didn’t want people to enter the next level, why would he put golems in the previous level for people to learn from?

Maybe that’s how those great powers thought. If they didn’t give people a slight possibility of a way out, it might affect the dao hearts of the coming future generations. Wasn’t it similar to the saying: “The heavenly dao never ends; there’s always a path forward”?

Whatever the intention, he had to reach the next level.

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