Like that, months passed by. As Liang Chen went deeper and deeper into the forest she killed more and more be it either humans or beasts. And with that she got more resources for her cultivation, increasing it at a fast pace.
At the same time she began to be more and more famous, at tge beginning it was in the town nearby, but as time passed it expanded everywhere. No one knew her name nor what her voice sounded like. They only knew she was incredibly young with an astonishing strength and was cold blooded, and was always covered in dirt as if she couldn't be bothered to clean her face.
"Hey did you hear that the young noble of the Xi familly has been missing for months now?"
"Yes I did hear of that but he was an expert of the Foundation Building Stage so how he disappear so suddenly without leaving any kind of message?"
" I heard the Xi Clan has been spending numerous resources just to find even the slightest of clues. And is even giving numerous treasures for them."
"Hehehe, whatever happened it won't be easy to deal with this. The whole city and even the forest as been under great tensions lately."
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In the forest a figure was seen searching for something near a seemingly bottomless cliff.
'From what I have heard it should be around here' thought Liang Meng.
From a talk she had overheard when she was meditating to recover from her injuries a few days ago a medicine that was very beneficial to those below the Foundation Building Stage was around this cliff but there was a huge silver ape guarding it. Although Liang Meng had lots of medicines and beast cores in her bag for cultivation one could never have enough cultivation materials even if she didn't use it she could need it to trade for something.
After a few hours of search she soon found an hidden cave along the walls of the cliff.
The cave was full of skulls of many kinds be it human or beasts there was no lack of them, there were even some that had meat yet to decompose and there were many corpses on the floor. Liang Meng recognized them to be the ones she had overheard a few days ago.
When she continued on she soon heard battle noises so she immediately hid herself and controlled her breath and Ki.
"Third Elder protect Second Elder as he finishes preparing his move! Everyone else stall for time!" said a burly man.
"Charge! Prepare to use your shields! And be careful when the Silver Ape uses its Ki it will turn you into meat paste!"
Several of his people had suffered on the hands of this Silver Ape so they could not risk it anymore and had to go all out and defend with everything they had as well.
At a corner Liang Meng was watching in silence. She wanted that herb even more now. Seeing that it wasn't the herb that was described previously but something else entirely. This herb could be used to not only refine one's body further but could even allow one to have a small insight towards the Dao. Especially this one since she could discern that it was a mutated one that was made through time. It was called Heavenly Jade Stalk. It was green like jade and its form was like that of an ordinary herb therefore it was mistaken as the Green Worm Stalk.
Seeing this Liang Chen went towards the entrance and prepared a formation. It was called Translucent and Ethereal. Even though it had such a name it was useless if not used in a dark place.
So Liang Chen decided to use it here. She had a strong memory and judgement, how could she not? As a previously strong expert she could easily memorize something by merely gazing at it.
Suddenly she transformed into a shadow and made her way through the cave.
Attacks and talismans were used continuously in the fight so she had to be careful or she would definitely be caught.
She waited for a chance while still not making a single sound or almost not even breathing. This was an habit of hers. This wasn't her first time stealing anything anyways.
Even though these people's cultivation was low and couldn't hear like those of high cultivation it was always best to mantain caution lest she landed in another humiliating situation like before because she was not cautious.
Soon enough she found an opening and went through. As soon as she got closer to the herb she cut a huge chunk at the ground and put it inside her bag while taking out some ordinary plant and dirt from inside her bag and replacing them.
She then made her way out once again and began running at a fast pace. With how the battle was developing it would not be long before the Silver Ape was dead and if the herb was found to be wrong then they would search high and low for the responsible.
It was also an habit of hers to have dirt at hand in case she needed to put out the fire on her camp with it. Since that way she would not need to waste Ki doing so. The ordinary plant was just a bonus with the dirt.
Soon a deafening unwilling roar was heard. The Silver Ape was dead. And another roar was heard, but this one was full of rage and heartache.