To everyone's surprise, the iron door did not lead into a dark mountain cave but opened into a beautiful valley filled with various spiritual herbs and trees, radiating light!
Su Meiyao and Bai Youyou hurried out, both looking astonished upon seeing the scenery.
"These are all spiritual herbs over a thousand years old!" Su Meiyao exclaimed.
There were thousand-year ginseng, thousand-year spiritual mushrooms, thousand-year mysterious ginseng, and thousand-year earth spiritual grass… Although most of these herbs were auxiliary ones, their sheer quantity was astounding, with several hundred visible at a glance!
"Golden spiritual fruits and thousand-year spiritual fruits—there must be nearly twenty of each, and over a hundred purple spiritual fruits… Am I dreaming?" Shen Xiang gasped, his heart racing with excitement.
Although purple spiritual fruits were not as valuable as golden spiritual fruits, they were still sold at high prices in the market and were the primary materials for concocting certain spiritual pills.
"Hmph, you're this thrilled over just these herbs? What a bumpkin!" Bai Youyou said coldly.
Shen Xiang pouted, "I know both of you come from remarkable backgrounds, so these things might not impress you, but to me, they're treasures!"
"Hurry up and help me gather all these spiritual herbs; I can refine plenty of spiritual pills with them," Shen Xiang urged excitedly. He didn't yet know how to refine spiritual pills, but he was aware that he would fail many times, and having a stash of auxiliary herbs would save him a lot of trouble.
Only someone like Shen Xiang would dare to make two stunning beauties work, which made Su Meiyao and Bai Youyou secretly look down on him.
"What a pathetic man; beauties are meant to be pampered, not to do hard labor," Su Meiyao remarked, though she began picking the thousand-year-old spiritual herbs nonetheless.
Shen Xiang chuckled, "Since you two won't let me pamper you, what else can I do…"
"Hmph, stop babbling," Bai Youyou huffed, causing Shen Xiang to shut up immediately; he certainly didn't want to offend this icy beauty.
After spending half a day, they managed to gather most of the thousand-year-old spiritual herbs, storing them in the spatial ring that belonged to Su Meiyao and Bai Youyou.
"There are a hundred and twenty purple spiritual fruits, and over twenty golden spiritual fruits and thousand-year spiritual fruits. This should be enough for me to refine plenty of foundation-building pills!" Shen Xiang grinned broadly. Foundation-building pills were beneficial not only for those entering the True Martial Realm but also for those who had already stepped in, making them highly valuable!
Spiritual-level upper-grade true essence pills were already precious, let alone pills above that level!
Of course, whether he could successfully refine them was another matter. Shen Xiang wasn't in a hurry; after all, he had enough spiritual herbs to last him for quite a while.
The valley still had other spiritual herbs that were a few hundred years old and still growing, but Shen Xiang wasn't in a rush to pick those, given that he already had several hundred thousand-year-old herbs, and they were all quite large.
"This herb garden has many powerful formations that allow sunlight to penetrate the thick rocks and gather a massive amount of spiritual energy to nurture these herbs. This person must have left the Mortal Martial World," Su Meiyao observed as she looked at the beautiful mountain valley.
Leaving the Mortal Martial World meant possessing the strength to break through to the void! Shen Xiang secretly yearned for that; he didn't know how long it would take for him to reach that realm.
"Shen Xiang, stay here and focus on your cultivation. Once you reach the ninth level of the Mortal Martial Realm, you can go to Taiwu Gate," Bai Youyou advised. She was wearing a dazzling golden gown that highlighted her noble and icy demeanor under the soft sunlight, making her look like a regal empress.
This dress was bought by Shen Xiang for her, and she liked wearing it very much. Now both she and Su Meiyao could wear beautiful clothes and bathe in sunlight, which was a delightful experience for them. If it weren't for necessity, they wouldn't want to stay inside that spatial ring at all.
Shen Xiang needed a massive amount of true energy to solidify the other three attributes, and he had only managed to take shape after devouring a person at the peak of the Mortal Martial Realm. It was evident how much true energy would be needed to form the other three attributes.
The spiritual energy in this herb garden was incredibly rich. With his Yin-Yang Divine Veins, as soon as he closed his eyes, he felt like he was immersed in an ocean of spiritual energy. However, even with this abundant spiritual energy, it would still take a long time for him to reach the ninth level of the Mortal Martial Realm.
Now Shen Xiang understood why people from the secular world typically reached the ninth level of the Mortal Martial Realm only in old age—due to a lack of abundant spiritual energy!
"Let's start learning how to refine true essence pills! We'll refine them during the day and take them at night, allowing us to digest the medicinal effects while absorbing spiritual energy," Su Meiyao instructed, then began to impart her pill-refining knowledge to Shen Xiang.
The Great Origin Pill was an upper-grade mortal pill that could produce a large amount of true energy and increase the speed of cultivation! The True Essence Pill was several times better than that, classified as a lower-grade spiritual pill, and it was among the most popular in martial arts sects.
The True Essence Pill was a spiritual upper-grade pill, also capable of producing true energy, but it was much more expensive and generally unaffordable for ordinary people.
The main ingredient for the True Essence Pill was solely the purple spiritual fruit! Shen Xiang had over a hundred and twenty of them, and he only needed auxiliary herbs aged five hundred years. If he used those aged a thousand years, he would need just a tiny bit, making it very cost-effective.
Shen Xiang took a deep breath, digesting the pill-refining experience imparted by Su Meiyao, and began sorting the herbs into portions. He knew he would fail several times at the start.
Taking out the Flame Dragon Alchemy Furnace, Bai Youyou immediately retreated to a distance, chatting softly with Su Meiyao. The sisterly bond between them was strong. Despite her cold demeanor, Bai Youyou treated Shen Xiang and Su Meiyao well. If it were anyone else, she wouldn't even bother to acknowledge them, let alone engage in conversation.
Shen Xiang had barely begun when he failed, with the Flame Dragon Alchemy Furnace releasing a puff of purple smoke. The second time he also failed… It wasn't until the tenth attempt that he finally reached the intermediate stage of pill refining, turning the herbs into powder and beginning to blend the medicinal aura with the powdered herbs. However, at this stage, he failed again!
"Damn it, this purple spiritual fruit is like rat droppings ruining a pot of congee! I keep failing, and it's all this purple spiritual fruit's fault!" Shen Xiang complained angrily.
From afar, Su Meiyao giggled, "It's natural for the main and auxiliary materials of high-level pills to clash. The higher the grade of the pill, the more apparent the clash becomes, making it harder to resolve. You'll need to explore it yourself."
Su Meiyao had always prided herself on her exceptional talent for pill refining, but the appearance of this oddball Shen Xiang had dealt her a blow. Now, seeing his frustrated expression over repeated failures, she couldn't help but laugh heartily.
Shen Xiang pouted, glancing at Su Meiyao's joyful and delicate face, silently cursing inwardly.
"Meiyao, how many times did you fail back then?" Shen Xiang asked.
"Are you testing my memory? I remember it clearly—seventy-two times!" Su Meiyao replied. Despite the many failures, she felt proud of that number. After all, for other alchemists, if they hadn't failed over a hundred times, they wouldn't dare to say they had learned how to refine True Essence Pills.