After leaving the cliffside campsite, the six of them traveled without encountering any demonic beasts. Even the few reckless ones that crossed their path were swiftly dealt with by Li Zhuohua at the front, leaving no chance for the others to lift a finger.
It was rather dull.
To avoid Wen Shuangbai nagging him for being troublesome, Xie Ziyin busied himself studying the carnivorous flowers while keeping pace with a certain lady. So far, he hadn’t found any medical texts documenting the medicinal properties of these flowers. It seemed no one had ever attempted it before—or perhaps, this type of spiritual plant had already gone extinct in the wider Mystic Heaven Continent.
Just as he was about to dissect one, Wen Shuangbai suddenly pushed past Shen Hefeng and Lu Jiayao, darting forward with excitement. "Move, move! Let me see!"
Xie Ziyin: "..."
"Tsk, so inconsiderate," Wen Shuangbai muttered, poking at the dismembered corpses of a serpent swarm with her fishing rod. Her eyes sparkled, but her tone was full of reproach. "How can they just leave carcasses lying around like this? Look, even other beasts avoid this path now—it’s too filthy and stinky. Ah, protecting the environment is everyone’s responsibility. Let’s do a good deed for Qingling Mountain’s sake."
Li Zhuohua nodded solemnly. "Indeed, this is what disciples of Qingling Mountain ought to do!"
Lu Jiayao carefully stepped around the serpent blood, walking beside Wen Shuangbai as he asked, "Who did this?"
"Lu Jiayao, oh Lu Jiayao, can’t you use that brain of yours for once?" Shen Hefeng retorted. "Who else but the Violet Flame Sect?"
The Heavenly Net Sect was gone, the monks of Divine Evolution Temple couldn’t have outpaced them, and the jade rhino valley fairies were even less likely.
"..." Lu Jiayao had learned to tune out Shen Hefeng’s remarks—a philosophy imparted by his new friend, a young monk from Divine Evolution Temple: Don’t get angry, don’t get angry, just pretend it’s a dog barking.
Gazing at the gruesome remains of the serpents, Lu Jiayao sighed. "They were too brutal."
He recalled how, upon first entering Star Moon Valley, they had also "liberated" a serpent—but at least they’d left its body intact, not hacked into pieces like this.
"Exactly," Wen Shuangbai lamented. The serpent skins were ruined—what a waste.
[???]
A lurking Violet Flame Sect disciple watching through the Mystic Heaven Mirror fumed: How dare these Qingling Mountain disciples say such things? Us, the Violet Flame Sect, brutal?
[Isn’t it brutal? You chopped the serpents into so many pieces!]
[That’s right. When we at Qingling Mountain hunt—no, liberate—demonic beasts, we always leave the bodies whole.]
[Then what about Xie Ziyin cutting the serpent skin into tiny pieces to store corrosive poison? Isn’t that even crueler?]
[How can you compare before and after death? After death, there’s no pain—so of course, we handle them however’s most convenient or profitable.]
[...]
The Mystic Heaven Mirror buzzed with arguments.
Meanwhile, in the real world, the Qingling Mountain six had transformed into a scavenging squad, meticulously collecting every last scrap of serpent remains along the path, leaving nothing behind—like locusts sweeping through.
After clearing the serpent carcasses, they soon stumbled upon swarms of centipedes, venomous bees…
Even the straw-woven horse, Four Hundred, grew restless watching everyone else gather loot. But it had no hands! It couldn’t pick anything up!
Frustrated, the little horse circled Wen Shuangbai’s feet as she moved at lightning speed, desperate to join in.
Next time, it vowed, I’ll get a body with hands!
Wen Shuangbai nudged it aside with her foot. "Be good, go play somewhere else. Don’t get in the way."
Four Hundred: ...
Abandoned, the straw horse trotted over to Xie Ziyin instead.
Xie Ziyin’s response was succinct: "Piss off."
Four Hundred: .........
In desperation, the little horse began frantically carving words into the ground. Midway through, Yin Xuan, half-lidded and leisurely, wandered over. He tilted his head, studying the scrawled message, then smiled faintly before casually picking up Four Hundred and tossing it into a serpent-skin sack.
How odd, he mused. Why would it want hands? Hands mean work.
Four Hundred panicked: !!!
I’m not a corpse! Why pick me up?!
With great effort, the straw horse wriggled out of Yin Xuan’s half-open sack and bolted back to Wen Shuangbai, hastily latching onto her fire-feather whip before exhaling in relief.
Wen Shuangbai, meanwhile, had already filled her second large sack. With no more space, she dumped the contents into a corner of her storage ring and resumed her enthusiastic scavenging.
Watching the green-robed woman’s gleeful expression as she picked through the remains—"This one’s perfect! Can upgrade my fire-feather whip… This’ll make great hidden weapons… Ohhh, I’ve been needing this material!"—the Violet Flame Sect disciples seethed.
[You’re really picking up our Violet Flame Sect’s trash? Have you no shame?]
[Oh, so you’re saying next time we can take the things you actually want, right?]
[You’re shameless, twisting my words! What I mean is, as one of the Seven Great Sects, Qingling Mountain should forge your own path—kill your own beasts. Following our trail and scavenging our leftovers, are you even fit to be cultivators?]
[What, is Star Moon Valley your backyard? You think you own the paths you walk? Who made that rule?]
[Come, brothers and sisters, let’s thank the Violet Flame Sect for clearing the way and leaving us these beast remains. Such generous souls!]
[Hahaha, thank you, Violet Flame Sect!]
[...]
Outmatched by Qingling Mountain’s thick-skinned retorts, the Violet Flame Sect disciples stormed off in frustration, grumbling in their own mirror channel:
[We really messed up this time. Should’ve taken the beast remains with us—just handed Qingling Mountain free loot!]
[Agreed. Even if we didn’t need them, we should’ve destroyed them rather than let another sect benefit.]
[Exactly.]
[You’re overreacting. Senior Brother Di left the corpses to prioritize reaching the Star-Moon Divine Tree.]
[But they didn’t even get the tree, did they?]
[Stop undermining our own morale!]
[Enough, we’re on the same side. No fighting. Don’t worry—the Violet Flame Sect will claim the Star-Moon Divine Tree.]
---
For two straight days, Wen Shuangbai’s group scavenged tirelessly without rest, until the designated corpse-storage area in their rings resembled a small mountain.
Many parts of demonic beasts were premium materials for artifact forging.
Wen Shuangbai eyed the hoard with delight. From now on, whatever she wanted to craft, she’d likely find the materials here.
Bliss.
"We’re close. The Star-Moon Divine Tree is just ahead," Shen Hefeng announced, fiddling with his turtle shell divination tool.
At his words, Wen Shuangbai steadied her breathing and instinctively exchanged a glance with Xie Ziyin beside her.
After a brief rest, replenishing their energy with spirit-recovery pills to ensure peak condition, the six resumed their formation and advanced cautiously toward their destination.
This was the deepest part of the Star-Moon Forest, where the trees grew far denser and taller than elsewhere, their branches tangled together like an emerald-green wall, obscuring the view ahead.
However, along this narrow path, the thicket had been forcibly split open—freshly broken branches and leaves scattered on the ground suggested the damage had been done just a few days prior.
Unsurprisingly, it was the work of the Violet Flame Sect.
The group proceeded with heightened caution, stepping through the gap.
The scenery instantly transformed. Beyond the emerald wall lay a humid, lush rainforest, while ahead stretched an endless grassland.
A gentle breeze rustled through the swaying grass, glimmering under the afternoon sun like a dreamy scene straight out of a Hayao Miyazaki film.
"Wow, what a beautiful prairie!" Lu Jiayao exclaimed, instinctively dashing forward—only to nearly step into thin air. Li Zhuohua swiftly grabbed the back of his robe and yanked him back.
"Careful, Junior Brother Sanyu!" Li Zhuohua warned, eyeing the ground below. "This isn't a prairie. It's a giant grass pit."
Hearing this, Wen Shuangbai cautiously approached from the tree wall, stopping beside her senior sister to peer downward.
From afar, it appeared as an unbroken expanse of grassland, but up close, it became clear—the grass was sprouting from an enormous earthen pit.
At one corner of the field, a small patch had been stripped bare, the marks unmistakably left by the Violet Flame Sect.
The cleared area revealed the truth: this was no prairie, but a colossal pit—so deep that, at a rough estimate, it was twenty times Xie Ziyin's height.
Which meant... these wild grasses had grown a staggering thirty-eight meters tall?!
"That scared me to death!" Lu Jiayao gasped, clutching his chest as he craned his neck for a better look. "How is this pit so deep?!" Suddenly, a terrifying thought struck him. "This couldn’t be... the pit left by the Star-Moon Divine Tree, could it?!"
Wen Shuangbai frowned. "Most likely."
"Then where’s the Star-Moon Divine Tree?" Lu Jiayao’s voice shot up an octave, his tenor echoing across the land as an even worse realization hit. "Are these grasses the Star-Moon Divine Tree?! Do we have to dig up all these weeds?!"
Yin Xuan took a slow breath, covering one ear before calmly refuting Lu Jiayao’s assumption. "...Unlikely."
Xie Ziyin offered his own theory. "The Star-Moon Divine Tree was probably dug up long ago. Over time, weeds grew in its pit."
"Who could’ve dug it up?" Lu Jiayao marveled. "To uproot such a massive divine tree—that’s incredible!"
"Definitely not the Violet Flame Sect," someone muttered. Given how overgrown the pit was, the tree must have been taken ages ago.
Shen Hefeng spoke in his usual cryptic manner. "This old man warned you all—trying to obtain the Star-Moon Divine Tree was always a fool’s errand."
"So what now?" Li Zhuohua sheathed her Flowing Rainbow Sword, sensing no immediate danger. "Do we jump down or leave?"
Wen Shuangbai figured they might as well investigate. "Let’s take a look. We’ve come this far—no harm in checking."
And so, with a series of splashes, the entire Qingling Mountain team leaped into the giant tree pit.
Wen Shuangbai crouched in the pit, meticulously searching, but found nothing—just dirt, grass, and not even a single insect.
In the end, determined not to leave empty-handed after the jump, each of them scooped up a few pots of soil and bundled some weeds before grumbling their way out.
