“Of course. We’ve come this far; how could we not explore?” Nana Toki smiled, a crescent moon cut into calm, where chance and risk walk like twin shadows. If this was once a main battlefield of the Chaos of the Three Realms, then the dead sea should still hide a few pearls.
As for those remnant souls left by ancient powerhouses the Heavenswallow Serpent mentioned? Hah, old fossils buried under a thousand winters, like brittle reeds under frost. Even if a few turtle-blooded geezers still cling to the world, she felt no chill. In a plane like this, if she can’t win, she’ll run like wind over grass.
“...”
The System linked to her mind stayed silent, exasperation pooling like rain in a cracked bowl. Her host always chases death in odd corners, like a moth diving for a candle.
Either way, she would explore this place; resolve set like a stone in a river. They’d reached the edge of the center of the Wildbeast Wasteland, so turning back with empty nets would taste like ash.
The four made ready, steel settling like dew. Nana Toki pressed Talismans against Blue Magpie’s skin and her own, paper leaves warding off demonic miasma like thin umbrellas in foul rain. Then she led them in, feeling their way deeper like lantern light sliding through fog.
This strip of waste soil breathed an ill omen, like cold breath under a grave door. The first step made her skin prickle, a shadowed gaze crawling over her back like ants.
Was this really a place that birthed the Chaos of the Three Realms? Doubt prickled like thorns, then faded like smoke.
She circled half the desolation and met only endless dead trees like black spears, and a horizon of ink-dark earth like burned parchment. If not for the System’s soft reminders of nearby soul ripples, she’d have felt no fangs worth fearing.
“Host, I can feel a very pure Spirit Energy fluctuation over there. Want to take a look?” The voice brushed her ear like a spring under stone. “That wave isn’t from a person or a beast. It’s most likely a heavenly treasure maturing, stirring a heaven-and-earth sign.”
“A single treasure can trigger a heaven-and-earth sign?” Nana Toki arched a brow, fingers warm around Blue Magpie’s small hand like tethered silk. The Immortal Phoenix Flame Grass and the Holy Fruit of Illusory Feathers weren’t ripe yet. Could this wasteland hide something that outshines both, like a hidden star at noon?
Maybe the plot’s delivering gear to the Protagonist Lord again, like a courier on heavenly payroll?
Playing it safe, she still asked, impatience fluttering like a finch. “How far is it?”
“A ways, but still near the central zone of the wasteland.” The System unfolded a map like a dry leaf. She tapped a spot not far from the dead heart. “It should be here. Do you want to go, Host?”
The mark lay near the exact center of the Wildbeast Wasteland, a bruise on the map that still belonged to the Three Realms’ main battlefield. If she left now, she’d get there within a few hours like an arrow in clean air.
And she could watch the ancient scars along the way, like reading knife-marks on bone.
“Mm. Let’s go see.” She weighed gain and loss like stones in a palm, then nodded. “If the Protagonist Lord is there, I’ll give him a little surprise, like thunder behind clear clouds.”
“...”
They set a new course and headed north, footprints stringing like black beads. Demonic miasma clung to the land like swamp fog, and even yellow Talismans were only umbrellas in a storm. Blue Magpie fared better; the Heavenswallow Serpent streamed protective Spirit Energy into her like a warm river, thinning the poison like sunlight on mist. Nana Toki had it rougher; her trashy System loafed like a lazy cat, and she was only at Foundation Establishment. Refining the invading miasma ate at her like moths on silk.
Still, her will was iron under frost. After a long march, she only looked pale as paper from spent Spirit Energy, but her steps stayed steady as drumbeats.
“How far to the end?” The question slipped out like a sigh of wind.
Boom! The word split as a mountain to their fore shattered like brittle glass. A tide of savage, primeval force speared the sky like a pillar of wild fire.
The Heavenswallow Serpent flared a Spirit Energy barrier like a jade dome. Without it, that one wave would’ve crushed Nana Toki flat as a print in damp clay.
“Big Sis, what’s that?” Blue Magpie tilted her head, eyes round as lake moons, peeking past Nana at the giant on the peak.
It was an ape-faced fiend, tens of meters tall, arms like iron trunks, body plated in black-gold ore like a living fortress. A row of dorsal spines jutted like broken lances. Nana hadn’t seen its like, but the System, ever the book, whispered first. “That’s a Longarm Demon Ape, a rare kind of fiend. Judging by the aura and size, it’s almost a thousand years old, a Nascent Soul third stage beast. If you’ve got nothing to prove, don’t pick a fight, Host. I’m worried you’ll get slapped into paste.”
“...”
Who said I’m picking a fight!
Still…
“That’s a big one. One slap to flatten a ridge; that’s brutal even for Nascent Soul stage.” Awe clicked on her tongue like a bead. “What treasure’s hiding there to draw something like that?”
“Hm? Who are those?” Her gaze cut down to the shattered foot of the peak. Human figures stood like scattered chess pieces. Squinting, she caught a few familiar faces like ink strokes.
“Du Fei Yu? What’s he doing here?” Her brow lifted, a ripple across still water. She hadn’t expected to meet a fellow disciple from her sect so deep in the center. She thought only the Protagonist Lord would be that bold. Turns out there was another hotheaded colt.
“Haha! Looks like this Sanqing Mindgather Nightshade is mine!” A black-robed disciple laughed, spring wind in his voice, a herb pulsing with thick Spirit Energy cradled in his palms like a newborn star. He rose to flee, but four or five yellow-robed disciples burst from the far slope like arrows from a bow. Nana’s eyes were sharp; in a blink she picked out Zhao Zhan and Li Qian in the lead.
“So, Boundless Peak is here too.” Her lips curled into a crescent, a knife’s smile. A good show was about to bloom like firework peonies.
“Fellow Daoists, what are you doing? We agreed to rely on our own skill for fortune!” The black-robed man’s face darkened like stormclouds. “Now that our Guzhen Sect has secured the Sanqing Mindgather Nightshade, how can you go back on your word?”
“Our Guzhen Sect and your Heavenly Ascent Sect have been allied for years, tied like old pines on the same cliff. Yet today you show such hateful faces; it’s shameful as mud on jade!”
“If we leave the Wildbeast Wasteland alive, we’ll report this to our elders as clear as a full moon! You won’t get away with it!”
“Heh. There’s a saying—treasure belongs to the worthy, like a fine steed to a hero.” Li Qian’s footwork flashed like flowing light, and his dagger fell like a hawk stooping. “Ants of the Guzhen Sect dare touch the Sanqing Mindgather Nightshade? Hand it over to our Peak Lord, or don’t blame us for forgetting old ties!”
“I’ll fight you!”
“Kill!”
Shouts crashed like thunderheads, and on the peak the Longarm Demon Ape’s fiend aura shot skyward like a black pillar.
Nana Toki watched from a hidden cave, shadow wrapped around her like a cloak. After a long breath, curiosity rose like steam. She tilted her head toward her two walking encyclopedias.
“What exactly is that Sanqing Mindgather Nightshade? Why make them fight like starving wolves?”
She’d stared for a while and seen nothing special beyond that first surge of Spirit Energy. After that, it looked like common nightshade, just another blade of grass in dark soil.
“Host, you might not know this,” the System murmured, pages turning in her tone like wind in a library. “It’s an auxiliary herb for alchemy. It greatly boosts pill success rates, and it can bless pills with body-strengthening effects like steel in bone. If the alchemist’s technique pierces the heavens, it can be refined into a spirit salve, giving the user a high degree of physical strengthening.”
“Taken directly, it’s also a great boon for body cultivators,” she continued, a steady river of facts. “It pushes physical growth and explosive power like bellows on flame. It also lays a solid foundation for forming a Golden Core and later a Nascent Soul. It’s a rare spirit herb.”
“So for a body-focused cultivator like me, it’s a fat tonic?” Nana asked, desire flashing like foxfire. Click—she needed a way to get it into her hands.
“From a certain angle, yes,” the Heavenswallow Serpent said, nodding like a swaying reed. “If you pair it with the Tempering Pool you’re seeking, you should reach Golden Core from Foundation Establishment within half a year, barring accidents.”
“In that case, I’m grabbing it too.” Nana’s gaze returned to the foot of the peak, eyes bright as drawn blades. Stealing a treasure under everyone’s noses? That’s exactly the kind of fun she likes.
