As both parties had started talking, the other Green Hill disciples introduced themselves.
The fatty was called Chen Yao, the somewhat smaller one in a blue robe was called Zhang Chengyun, and the lively red-robed girl was called Luo Yin. There was also a quiet girl who didn’t like talking much called Ling Jing (Quiet Ling), whose name rather suited her.
(TN: Zhang Chengyun shares an identical name with that poor soul who died in Chapter 195.)
To meet was to share some fated connection, so Tang Jie decided to invite them to a meal of roast deer.
Chen Yao was a foodie, and he grabbed a piece of deer meat and began to chow down, nodding and complimenting, “Brother Tang is an excellent cook. This tastes wonderful!”
Zhang Chengyun was bored and went over to the little tiger, who ignored him, so he took a piece of meat from the fiend boar to try and coax him. The tiger didn’t have much of a resolve, so for the sake of this boar meat, he let Zhang Chengyun pet him a few times.
Luo Yin found Yiyi to be adorable, and given how Yiyi looked like she was six or seven years old, Luo Yin hugged her and played with her like a kid. Only that Ling Jing quietly sat on the side, saying nothing.
Tang Jie and Qin Zhou sat next to each other and talked.
These people had come to the Transverse Range to seek out resources.
The Green Hill Sect primarily refined medicines, and it needed to search the whole world over for the ingredients. They weren’t like Horizon Ocean Pavilion or the other major sects, which had their own blessed lands. At present, the Green Hill Sect had only one minor blessed land which was home to a three-hundred-year spirit field, but this wasn’t even enough to supply the sect. Even Yan Changfeng’s own minor blessed land was superior.
It wasn’t that they couldn’t do it, but the six major sects had placed an upper limit on the size of blessed lands, and each sect had a certain size that they couldn’t go over.
Those a thousand years and up were called paradises, while those a hundred years and up were called blessed lands.
Only six paradises were permitted, and the rest were divided into major and minor blessed lands, whose age limit would vary depending on the sect.
The Green Hill Sect was a small sect, so it could only have a three-hundred-year spirit field. Any older would break the rules.
For a pill-refining sect, this was a tragedy.
From this perspective, one could understand the value of the Martial Lord’s Returned Remnants.
This was a ten-thousand-year land, which was called an Immortal Realm in the cultivation world.
An intact Immortal Realm was enough to turn a small sect into a super sect like one of the six major sects.
The lack of blessed lands forced the disciples of the Green Hill Sect to go out searching for resources every year, and the Transverse Range was one of the areas they frequented.
They were official disciples of the Green Hill Sect. As a minor sect, the Green Hill Sect didn’t have as high of a threshold as the Basking Moon Sect, and one only needed to reach Spirit Lake in five years to become a disciple.
Observing with the Celestial Eye, Tang Jie found that Qin Zhou had the highest cultivation level in the group, at the first tier of Mortal Shedding. The remaining four were all at the Spirit Sea Tier.
The Green Hill Sect’s main power rested mostly in Mortal Shedding cultivators, and its sole True Person was at the first tier of Celestial Heart. In the Basking Moon Sect, let alone the 19 Celestial Chiefs, even one of Yan Changfeng’s disciples could beat their sect master black and blue. While this group of five consisted of one Mortal Shedding and four Spirit Sea disciples, Tang Jie estimated that he could probably floor them all with one hand.
But a group like this was considered an elite force in the Green Hill Sect.
Perhaps because they were used to lording over their little pond, though they lacked the urge to show off that those disciples of major sects did, they were nevertheless full of energy and brimming with confidence. Thus, they had somehow managed to venture all the way into the heart of the Transverse Range.
While one didn’t encounter fiend beasts the majority of the time one spent in the Transverse Range, this was simply because a danger that was everpresent couldn’t be called danger. There was no telling when one or even more than one Mind Opening fiend beast would emerge and swallow you whole.
Tang Jie sullenly realized that before he could even finish thinking, Qin Zhou had already decided to accompany him. The man said, “Little Brother, since you’re on foot, it doesn’t seem like you came riding on a sword, and you don’t seem like you’ve entered Mortal Shedding. Going in so deep is rather dangerous. While the Transverse Range doesn’t seem that dangerous, no one can say when a Mind Opening fiend beast might appear. Fiends like that won’t be like this fiend boar. Not only are they strong, they’re also frighteningly intelligent. Putting aside the fact that they can run in the face of adversity, they can call for help or even set up traps. It’s rather dangerous for you to adventure this far.”
Flight spells consumed spiritual energy, which was precisely why Spirit Platform Realm students normally wouldn’t use them, even if they could, primarily relying on walking. Only at the Mortal Shedding Realm could one harness the spiritual energy of the world to fly for long periods of time. This was why Qin Zhou thought that he was not at the Mortal Shedding Realm yet.
Tang Jie was rendered speechless by Qin Zhou’s words.
The fatty Chen Yao suddenly spoke, oil dribbling from his mouth. “Right, Brother Tang, where are you headed?”
“Old Crow Ridge,” Tang Jie replied.
“‘Old Crow Ridge’?” the red-robed Luo Yin gasped. “You’re going there!? That’s the territory of an Illusion Fox, an upper-grade Mind Opening fiend that’s established its own cave, commanding hundreds of little fiends. Even peak Mortal Shedding experts don’t dare to mess with it, but you’re going there!?”
“Establishing a cave” referred to a fiend that had achieved Transformation and was now no different from a human. At this time, it recruited many fiends to serve it, reigning over an area that was known as a fiend stronghold.
Fiend beasts could also do this at Mind Opening, but as their abilities were limited, they normally made fiend packs that were far from occupying an entire area and establishing a cave.
This Illusion Fox was an exception.
That was because this fiend fox’s natural ability was illusion, and it could transform into many things, including human form.
This was different from Transformation, which was a level at which any fiend beast that had achieved it could transform into a human. The Illusion Fox achieved this effect through spell arts, and since Mind Opening fiends were capable of human speech, they appeared to be at Transformation on the surface.
This was why Illusion Foxes were one of the few existences that could establish caves at the Mind Opening level, and Old Crow Ridge was the territory of this particular fiend fox.
As it was born cunning, it had gathered many subordinate fiends under it, and it was also naturally fast, allowing it to bully the weak and flee from the strong. Those with ability disdained to deal with it and those without ability had no hope of dealing with it, allowing the fiend fox to live a rather free life on Old Crow Ridge.
The Green Hill disciples were all flabbergasted that Tang Jie was going to Old Crow Ridge.
Tang Jie replied, “I’m trying to see if I can find some Blazeraven Essence.”
Blazeraven Essence was left behind when a Blazeraven died, and it was a spiritual material used in the Dao of Formations that could greatly boost the power of fire formations. Old Crow Ridge was called Old Crow Ridge because it had once been occupied by a flock of Blazeravens. They were later exterminated by cultivators, after which the Illusion Fox occupied the area. Even so, there were still some Blazeraven Essences scattered around Old Crow Ridge, there for anyone that could get them.
The Green Hill disciples laughed when they heard that Tang Jie was searching for Blazeraven Essences. “That’s such a coincidence. We’re also going to Old Crow Ridge, but we’re looking for Whiteroot.”
Whiteroot was one of the main materials for the Green Hill Sect’s Harmonic Threshold Breaking Pills, which was a spirit pill the Green Hill Sect had for breaking into the Mortal Shedding Realm. It was for this material that the Green Hill Sect disciples had come.
They had all come to gather materials, but even so, stealing right under the eyes of the Illusion Fox would be extremely dangerous.
This was exactly why Qin Zhou said, “Since we’re all going to the same place, let’s go together!”
In his view, Tang Jie was just being modest, so he decided to help him out, but Tang Jie inwardly frowned.
He had big things to do at Old Crow Ridge and didn’t really want outsiders to interfere.
But it wasn’t like he could stop other people from going. Fortunately, Old Crow Ridge was dangerous, and these people probably wouldn’t take too many risks. In this situation, he agreed, deciding that he would think on his feet.
Once they were done eating, they all headed off for Old Crow Ridge.
After around half a day, they arrived.
Qin Zhou said, “This is Old Crow Ridge. It’s a dangerous place, so everyone has to be on their highest guard. You’re only allowed to carefully search the nearby area, and if you run into danger, you can’t stay and fight, immediately running if the situation looks bad. We’ve all come here to search for herbs—understood?”
“Yes, Senior Brother!” everyone replied in unison.
The group dispersed to search for herbs in the surroundings, but they didn’t wander too far from each other so that they could respond to any mishaps.
Qin Zhou said to Tang Jie, “Brother, please do as you please. If you find any Whiteroot, please inform us, and we will richly reward you. Of course, we will also watch out for any Blazeraven Essence.”
“That would be best.” Whiteroot didn’t do Tang Jie any good anyway, so if he saw any, he didn’t mind gathering it for them.
He took his leave from Qin Zhou and headed in the other direction, arriving at a small slope.
Standing on this slope, he looked around. Once he confirmed that no one was around, he began to form hand signs and chant.
As his spell was cast, there was a flash, and an eye appeared in front of Tang Jie.
This eyeball flew into the air, stopping once it was around one hundred feet from the ground. It looked around in the air, and at the same time, images formed in front of Tang Jie: a map of the several dozen kilometers around Old Crow Ridge.
This spell art was the Illuminating Eye, a high-level scouting spell. Cultivators that were not at the peak of the Mortal Shedding Realm had yet to unlock their Spirit Will, so in order to observe their surroundings, they either had to fly into the air or use a spell.
Flying into the air in a dangerous zone made one too obvious of a target and also made one easy to discover. As for the Illuminating Eye, it made very small spiritual energy pulses and was the safer choice.
The Illuminating Eye was a rather profound spell recorded in the Divine Firmament Sword Classic, and it was not easy to learn. But because Tang Jie had comprehended the Dao of Insight, this spell art was extremely simple for him, and he had needed only a few days.
Under the Illuminating Eye, all of Old Crow Ridge opened up to him.
Old Crow Ridge was high in the east and low in the west, and there were numerous sharp crags covered in green, providing wonderful scenery. On the eastern side of the ridge, a stream flowed down the mountain in a waterfall. In the mist of the waterfall was a cave, and above the entrance, it was possible to make out a few words: “Fragrant Store Cave”.
Fragrant Store Cave was the residence of the Illusion Fox.
Tang Jie’s gaze paused on the cave entrance for a few moments, and then he took out a roll of cloth that was about ten feet long and spread it out on the ground.
He once more cast a spell, and the image of the ridge descended onto the cloth. Faint images began to appear, like an ink painting.
This image gradually grew more distinct, until finally, the complete map of Old Crow Ridge had appeared.
This was the Stone Rubbing spell.
Tang Jie was a poor artist, and sketching out the entire map would take too long, so he needed the Stone Rubbing spell to do the job.
Once the map was done, Tang Jie ended his spell. He carefully looked over the map, constantly muttering as he calculated something.
After a while, he took out the crane feather brush and pointed at a place on the map. A spiritual line appeared on the map, and then Tang Jie began to swiftly stroke the brush, creating numerous spiritual lines all over the map. These formed a giant net that divided Old Crow Ridge into countless fine chunks.
Once he was done, Tang Jie sighed and shook his head. “No good.”
With a wave of his hand, the spiritual lines dissipated, and Tang Jie once more began to make new spiritual lines with his brush.
A professional would definitely have been able to notice that Tang Jie was doing formation surveying.
Formation surveying was necessary prep work for large-scale formations.
The Eight Gates of the Dao of Formations were the core to a formation, and the layout of any formation first required determining the locations of the Eight Gates. Only once they were linked through formation lines could one think about the rest of the formation.
