Tuesday morning.
"Mother!" Long Feng wake up from his sleep and went over to his mother's room.
But no reply could be heard from the room.
Long Feng knocked the door twice and opened the door to get in.
Within the room, Long Feng could felt a scent belonged to his mother, but without the owner within. Long Feng take his time to clean up his mother's room before he went out to get some fresh air.
"Oh yeah, Hong Yue should be still sleeping." Long Feng walk back into his room to look for the Fat Lizard, but as he returned to his room, Long Feng found out that even Hong Yue is not within the room.
"Where is both of them? Did mother bring Hong Yue out when she goes to work?" Long Feng thinks in his mind.
He walked out to the outside and saw his mother is scratching a lizard-man's stomach.
"Mother, that lizard-man..." Long Feng wanted to speak, but the choice of words is missing from his mouth.
"Hahaha, can you believe it? I am shocked as well when I saw him this morning." Lan Hua speaks as she saw how her son looks.
"Hong Yue, what happened to you?" Long Feng can't help but ask.
"Master, Hong Yue got no idea as well... Yesterday night, all this transformation began, Hong Yue's body starts to change and become taller, Hong Yue could even talk now." Hong Yue reply Long Feng in mind, and half way during exchanging words, Hong Yue suddenly speaks with its mouth.
And what was even more shocking is that Hong Yue's sexual preferences are decided during his evolution, and instead of [It], calling Hong Yue an [HE] would be more suitable.
"So, do you know what bloodline you are following at the moment?" Long Feng asked.
"Master, Hong Yue have no idea..." Hong Yue face falls to the same as Long Feng's a moment ago.
"We will know it soon, there must be somebody with good knowledge about a Cultivation Beast's lineage." Long Feng calm Hong Yue as he walks to the side of Lan Hua.
"Silly boy. Soon you will know that Hong Yue had leaped from the basic Great Stone Dragon Lizard lineage into a Silver Scales Wyvern Emperor Lineage." Lan Hua thinks in her mind as smile when looking at the two.
"Mother, I want to go into the forest!" Long Feng inform his intention to his mother.
"Reasons?" Lan Hua questions the intention.
"Personal Growth. Your son cultivation has almost reached the stage of Early Heaven Refinement Tier." Long Feng explained.
"Mother heard from uncle Shu and Uncle Wu a few days ago that there is a different smell happened to be released deep into the forest, perhaps there are some good quality herbs recently matured and yet to be eaten or harvested." Lan Hua tells her son about what she heard a few days ago.
"If that's the case, I will hurry into the forest! Hong Yue, follow me!" Long Feng grip his sword tightly and starts running into the forest direction.
This forest that located near to the outskirt of Clear Jade City is known as the Cloudy Jade Forest.
The beast within this forest is known to be quite weak, with only the strongest Cultivation Beast within at around a Peak Refinement Tier. Although the forest is not worth exploring by the strong cultivators, it still holds some attraction due to the fertile land that could grow many kinds of herbs and ingredients and cultivation beast that is good for new cultivators to grow.
It is also the place for weak gatherer or workers to harvest the materials to be sold to make a simple living. But one more fact resides within this forest.
This is where Long Feng's father, Li Da Mu lost his life.
Long Feng entered the forest, and immediately found out a good stash of Cultivation Pellet ingredients. Although this location is slightly deep from the location where the normal herb picker is working, after he scans the surrounding, Long Feng could be sure that this location is safe to pick the ingredients.
"Uncle Shu! Everyone, there is a good bed of herbs here!" Long Feng shouted at the location where a few herb picker is working.
"Xiao Feng?" Uncle Shu, who knows Long Feng since he is a small toddler, immediately recognize this kid.
"Hahaha! I would never imagine that the young kid now is a Pill Master already." Uncle Shu leads the others and walked over to Long Feng's position.
"Uncle Shu, I scanned the surroundings, it should be safe for you all to harvest the herbs here before returning." Long Feng explains what he had done before he called them over.
"Hahaha, good kid, good kid. If you say so, uncle will quickly finish this bed and return home. What are you doing here?" Uncle Shu is grateful for Long Feng's help and tried to know what Long Feng is doing here.
"Uncle Shu, I heard mother said about a smell you mentioned. Do you think it is a good quality herb?" Long Feng asked since Uncle Shu is one of the people who noticed the difference.
"Oh, you mean that thing. If you walk deeper into this location. You would smell it as well." Uncle Shu pointed at a direction.
"Uncle, any additional information that you noticed?" Long Feng tried to get deeper into the information Uncle Shu might know.
"Hmm, this might help." Uncle Shu scratch his chin and think back the moment he was there.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"Alright, Listen."
"The time I and Brother Wu noticed that smell, it is at night time. The smell is distinct, strong and numbing when you smell it for too long. During the moment the smell came out, we could hear a few roars from nearby cultivation beast, so before we get into danger, all of us escape and return to the outskirt." Uncle Shu explained.
"Uncle Shu, thank you for the information, Xiao Feng will be very careful while looking for the treasure." Long Feng politely thanked Uncle Shu for the information and went in deeper into the forest.
The deeper he enters the forest, the more the attraction appears along the way.
Along with his path, ingredients for pills such as Cultivation Pellets, Calming Spirit Dew Pellet, Wood Fragrant Pill and Mind Returning Elixir is abundant and free for Long Feng to gather and use to refine his own batch of medicinal pills.
But for the current Long Feng, such attraction pose no value to him. In his mind, only one type of treasure shall enter his eyes. Within his mind, a visual of the plant appears, after he hears the explanation from Uncle Shu.
"The treasure Uncle Shu describes, must be this plant!" Long Feng happily enter deeper into the forest, hunting for the smell. Even Hong Yue is assisting Long Feng in his search.
"Master, what is the treasure we are looking for anyway?" Hong Yue felt weird with his master's action of ignoring all the herbs along with their way and keep exploring deeper into the forest.
"Hahaha, Hong Yue, you might have no idea about this treasure, but it's something rare and cannot be eaten twice in your life!" Long Feng face turned into grinning and smiling happily.
"Alright, let me tell you what it is."
"This treasure most probably is the rare Edible Plant [Treasured Crystal Jade Cabbage/ Ming Bao Yu Jing Bai Cai]!" Long Feng expose the true identity of the treasure.
"It's a cabbage?" Hong Yue sweats...
"Hong Yue, you are too ignorant... In this continent, rare oddities such as this Treasured Crystal Jade Cabbage is hardly seen. It is treated as a luck that falls to your doorstep to the person who managed to even bite a small piece of its leaves." Long Feng tells Hong Yue about the preciousness of the treasure they are looking.
"The Treasured Crystal Jade Cabbage can be only eaten once in a lifetime, and no matter what tier of cultivation you are, it is an immediate increase of a full stage without any obstacle." Long Feng explained the wonder of the cabbage.
"But master, until now we can't even spot a single smell related to the plant, how do we actually find it?" Hong Yue couldn't hold the question in mind and ask.
"Since Uncle Shu mentioned that he caught its scent at night, we will explore this forest, and pinpoint a few location that looks suspicious." Long Feng tells Hong Yue his trick to capture the plant.
Not harvesting even a single ingredient, Long Feng and Hong Yue keep their exploration and make sure to notice any differences between each single piece of weed and grass patch. Their inspection finally ends, with only three spots is suspiciously strong in Wood Elemental Essence.
Long Feng's decision is considered wise with the availability of herbs within their surrounding. When it comes to a fight between Beast and Human, the human might only focus on the rare herbs they are looking, but for the Cultivation Beast, they are easily distracted by the appearance of other edible sources.
By preparing himself, Long Feng waits until the sky turns dark, and with the moon appears on the blackened sky, a shining plant slowly un-burrow itself, and appears out openly to absorb some moonlight as its daily nutrients.
"That's it! The Treasured Crystal Jade Cabbage!" Long Feng charged directly towards the treasured green and prepare to pluck it.
But before his wish is granted, a ranged attack came out from nowhere, and force Long Feng to defend against it.
The attack is not strong enough to injured Long Feng from such distance, but still, it gave Long Feng's arm a slight numbing feeling.
"Hong Yue, there are others preying on our treasure." Long Feng calmly send the words to Hong Yue. And in the same time when Long Feng is attacked, Hong Yue already prepared himself in a battle stance.
"Master! Your North-West direction!" Hong Yue immediately warn Long Feng as he rushed towards the direction.
Long Feng put up his sword in a circle formation and defended against the same ranged attack once again. Yet in the same time, two different howls from behind could be heard.
"Hong Yue, get the ranged attacker for me, I will handle the other two remaining Cultivation Beast." Long Feng turn around and prepares. While on the same time, Hong Yue already managed to spot the attacker.
"Master, Understood! This beast in front of Hong Yue is actually a Pinecone Wood Ape!" Hong Yue reported.
"Handle it! And be careful, the Pinecone Wood Ape could have a strength of a Heaven Refinement Tier if they are an adult one, and they don't come out to hunt alone!" Long Feng reminded Hong Yue and make sure he wasn't looking down on his opponent.
"How about you two come out as well?" Long Feng points his sword and its scabbard on two different directions and speaks.
On the direction where Long Feng's scabbard is pointing, a four legged beast appears from the bush, and it is an Elder Horn Deer. With a cultivation of Heaven Refinement Tier, it is one of the most dangerous Cultivation Beasts within the forest.
And next, on the direction where Long Feng's sword is pointing, a walking Brown Earth Elemental Bear appears. This Cultivation Beast is already well known for its strength of a Peak Refinement Tier, and also its capability in fighting like a human does. Even some of the Herb Picker Long Feng knows since he was younger, is known to be dead under this beast's claws.
"Hahaha, I would never imagine that I will have the chances of facing the Cloudy Jade Forest's top contenders in strength." Long Feng happily swing his sword as he prepared for the two beast's attack.
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"I didn't think that this Pinecone Wood Ape is this skillful." Hong Yue thinks. Due to his higher evolution, he currently has the capability to consider, examine and even have a slight feeling similar to human.
The Pinecone Wood Ape throw another projectile towards where Hong Yue stands.
Hong Yue evade the attack, and approach the ape slowly but with caution, as he worries there might be some companion hiding somewhere.
Truly up to his cautiousness, two more Pinecone Wood Ape appears from above, and leap down to launch two simultaneously attack from left and right.
"Puny attempts!" Hong Yue smirk as he charges toward the one attacking with projectiles, and with the target is missing from the spot, the two apes attack missed its target.
Hong Yue gave no chances, and launch a claw strike towards the first ape, and heavily injured it before he stopped and change to a different direction.
The first ape gave out a loud howl.
Hong Yue being still a Cultivation Beast understands the meaning of the howl. It is loud, but the direction of the howl is towards the younger generation of Pinecone Wood Apes, indicating a simple and clear meaning of [We are dying! Young ones, Run!].
But the law of nature is naturally fierce and lack of compassion.
The remaining two Pinecone Wood Apes take their stance and attack without worrying about their own safety, and for Hong Yue, this type of opponent is easier to be taken cared off.
[Silver Poison Claw!]
[Colloidal Silver!]
Hong Yue make a Claw attack towards the second ape and directly destroy its head with the sharp and deadly claws, and without a pause, the Colloidal Silver skill allows Hong Yue to spread large amount of Silver mist, and upon a slight contact, a form of Metal Elemental Poisoning will react within the infected bodies.
The last Pinecone Wood Ape is struggling as the Metal Elemental Poison is attacking its internal organ, rolling on the ground, the ape firstly vomits a few mouthful of blood, before soon, the blood turned into silver colored liquid. Its body soon turned bluish due to the metal poisoning is in effect.
Within ten minutes of being in contact with the poison, the Pinecone Wood Ape soon turned into a pool of silver colored blood on the ground, with all the bones and organs including skin is melted.
"I would never imagine that my poison is this potent." even Hong Yue is shocked with the potency of his poison.