The entrance to the Heavenly Abode of the Dark Forest was not within the territory of the Spirit Creek Sect but at the junction of the Spirit Creek Sect and three other sects, belonging to a no-man's land. Each sect wanted to control it, but they were always suppressed by the other three sects joining forces.

After much friction and negotiation, the Dark Forest became a no-man's land where any cultivator could freely enter and exit.

Five days later, in the afternoon, Guo Feilong arrived at the edge of the entrance to the Heavenly Abode of the Dark Forest, observing from high above.

Outside the Dark Forest, a faint white mist barrier enveloped an area of a hundred miles, resembling an overturned giant bowl placed there.

The white mist barrier was a natural barrier formed by the power of rules, blocking any existence above the Qi Refining stage from entering the Dark Forest.

Similarly, the white mist barrier also prevented the fairies within the Dark Forest from entering this Cultivation World.

In the Arctic Continent's Cultivation World, there were several such Heavenly Abodes like the Dark Forest, which contained fairies and resembled true small worlds.

Throughout the Cultivation World, there were countless such places, merely with different names.

The Dark Forest was considered a treasure trove, containing not only spiritual items that could enhance the quality of the Foundation Platform when Qi Refining cultivators broke through to the Foundation Establishment stage.

It also had many spirit herbs and spirit medicines, along with various heavenly materials and earthly treasures. About eighty percent of the main ingredients for refining Foundation Pills were discovered in small worlds like the Dark Forest.

Even some elixirs consumed by Golden Elixir stage grand cultivators contained many auxiliary spirit herbs and spirit medicines produced in such small worlds.

In the Cultivation World, there was also a profession known as Spirit Plant Masters, who specialized in cultivating various spirit herbs and spirit medicines, holding a status only slightly below that of Alchemists.

Some spirit plants could only grow in specific special environments and would wither and die if moved to a different environment.

Spirit Plant Masters had the ability to transplant these spirit plants that required special environments to grow, ensuring they would thrive without withering in a new location.

Auspicious Clouds were almost omnipotent, capable of enhancing the survival ability of spirit plants when transplanted to a new environment.

With the use of Auspicious Clouds, Guo Feilong was confident that he could successfully transplant any spirit plant.

From the outside, the white mist barrier of the Dark Forest only covered an area of a hundred miles.

In reality, the area within the small world of the Heavenly Abode of the Dark Forest was incredibly vast.

The part connected to the Cultivation World was just the tip of the iceberg of the small world of the Dark Forest.

Swoosh!

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Guo Feilong, riding a ninth-rank flying spiritual beast, passed through the white mist barrier and entered the small world of the Heavenly Abode of the Dark Forest.

Suddenly, the entire world in his vision darkened.

Apart from the bright white mist barrier leading outside behind him, the light here felt as if it had suddenly turned overcast, like the sudden onset of dusk.

The ground was black, the trees were mostly gray-brown and dark red, but the grass was a normal green.

Looking into the distance from above, the undulating mountains resembled waves on the sea, stretching endlessly layer upon layer.

He was here to find spiritual items for his Foundation Establishment, not to seek treasures. He patted the back of the ninth-rank flying spiritual beast.

The ninth-rank flying spiritual beast immediately understood and descended towards the ground.

After landing, Guo Feilong stored the ninth-rank flying spiritual beast into his Spiritual Beast Bag and released the Treasure-Seeking Mink, Xiaobai, and Erha from the bag.

Erha was responsible for being his mount.

Xiaobai was responsible for finding treasures.

He only needed to relax and handle unexpected situations.

His current location was very close to the entrance, so there wouldn't be any valuable items here.

If there were valuable items, they would have been taken long ago.

The spiritual items he needed had to be obtained by killing fairies and acquiring them from their bodies.

Here, fairies referred to flowers, trees, and stones that had developed intelligence, possessed cultivation stages, could move, and had various divine powers and spells.

Not every fairy had spiritual items that could enhance the quality of a cultivator's Foundation Platform during the Foundation Establishment stage. It might take killing a hundred fairies to obtain two or three pieces of spiritual items.

These items appeared in a crystalline state and could be absorbed by ninth-level Qi Refining cultivators, merging into their Spiritual Roots like Spirit Stones.

Fairies could be an unremarkable tree, an ordinary blade of grass underfoot, or a stone on the ground.

Humans killing fairies to extract the spiritual items from their bodies was also called obtaining spirit crystals.

Fairies would also attack humans and spiritual beasts, treating their corpses as the best fertilizer for absorption.

Both sides coveted each other's possessions.

Even if a spiritual item went unnoticed, it would seize the opportunity to attack a cultivator.

Although fairies were not as intelligent as humans, they were as cunning as foxes, knowing how to hide, ambush, and flee when outmatched.

"Squeak, squeak..." At this moment, the Treasure-Seeking Mink, Xiaobai, suddenly became excited, and a divine thought wave appeared in Guo Feilong's mind: "Master, there are spirit herbs and spirit medicines over there."

Xiaobai stopped in front of an unremarkable blade of grass. The Treasure-Seeking Mink not only found treasures but also dug them up. Its paws glowed with an earthy yellow light, quickly excavating the spirit herb without breaking a single root.

Guo Feilong picked up the spirit medicine Xiaobai had dug up and glanced at it. It was a relatively common Third Grade spirit herb, often used in the refining of many low-level elixirs.

Its market price was about 25 to 30 Spirit Stones.

Although not very valuable, Guo Feilong was quite pleased and directly rewarded Xiaobai with the Third Grade spirit herb as a snack.

Spiritual beasts didn't refine elixirs. When they found spirit herbs and spirit medicines, they usually consumed them directly, and the effects were no worse than consuming elixirs refined by cultivators, sometimes even better.

Cultivators, on the other hand, couldn't do the same. If they consumed spirit herbs and spirit medicines directly, the effects would be very poor, far inferior to the effects of refined elixirs.

Some spirit herbs and spirit medicines were even poisonous to humans and had to be refined and combined with other elixirs to transform into beneficial elixirs for cultivators.

Alchemy was essentially the process of combining and fusing spirit herbs and spirit medicines with different functions and effects.

It's like using a bowl of flour, a piece of pickled vegetable, and a piece of pork belly to cook.

Eating raw flour, raw pork belly, and raw pickled vegetables at the same time would not only likely cause stomach issues but also taste terrible.

However, if you make dumplings, buns, pies, or pickled vegetable and pork noodles with them, the taste would be entirely different.

Similarly, a single spirit herb or spirit medicine, when combined with different amounts of other spirit herbs and spirit medicines, could produce dozens of different elixirs with varying effects.

This was the art of alchemy.

All spiritual beasts had the ability to discover spirit herbs and spirit medicines, but Treasure-Seeking Beasts were particularly adept at it. Even the Ice Flame Hound could find spirit herbs and spirit medicines,

but it was only sensitive to ice and fire attribute spirit herbs and spirit medicines. If other spirit herbs and spirit medicines were placed in front of it, it would consider them useless trash, not recognizing them as spirit herbs and spirit medicines.

The Treasure-Seeking Mink's ability to find treasures was truly remarkable. In less than a day, it had already found thirteen spirit herbs and spirit medicines.

Although they were all low-grade First, Second, and Third Grade spirit herbs and spirit medicines, the sheer quantity made up for it. The total value of the thirteen pieces was roughly equivalent to one hundred to three hundred Spirit Stones.

The small world Heavenly Abode of the Dark Forest was a place of both opportunity and danger for low-level cultivators.

Some cultivators were lucky enough to find rare high-grade spirit herbs and spirit medicines, which could be sold for thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of Spirit Stones, making them wealthier than other low-level cultivators.

Others were unlucky, encountering powerful fairies or ruthless cultivators and meeting their end here.

During his days in the Dark Forest, Guo Feilong came across three sets of human cultivator skeletons, one of which had died no more than two months ago.

Another seven or eight days passed, and Guo Feilong finally encountered his first fairy—a seemingly unremarkable stone, about the size of a dining table, suddenly transformed into a stone man, swinging a stone axe in a sneak attack at him.