Limitless Ascension: Strength Amid Adversity

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In the grass, bunches of moving medicinal herbs popped out. Some had leaves and reflected the starlit sky, crawling with tangled roots, while others resembled sunflowers, radiating a brilliant glow, intimidating as hell. Then there were those like dog tail grass, swaying their heads…

They contained precious medicinal power, proving they were all top-notch herbs!

Just so you know.

Spiritual herbs have spirit, which makes them fairly common.

But treasured herbs have awakened intelligence and can think like humans, even moving about freely.

“Haha, heaven helps me! So many treasured herbs just come knocking!” Li Wujie laughed out loud.

Hong Qianye furrowed her brows, “Huh? These low-grade treasures, just like us, are all at the Qi Refining Ninth Layer.”

The Qi Refining Stage is split into twelve layers.

They weren’t surprised that the treasured herbs had cultivation levels; most awakened herbs naturally try to cultivate.

Still, their foundational combat power is inherently weaker than human cultivators because plants aren’t suited for battle. Their advantage lies in their long lifespans; they can just hide in some nook and outlast any cultivator eyeing them.

That’s also why they’re so hard to acquire!

At that moment, a clover emitted a mental wave, forming a general thought in Ye Junlin and the others’ minds, “Hey guys, the Medicine Sovereign grandpa has sent us toys again! We can catch these human folks like before and have some fun torturing them!”

Another sunflower wore a wicked grin, cackling in a particularly chilling way, “I’ll strip them down and make them run around the valley!”

“Haha, what’s so entertaining about that? I think making them do it upside down would be fun! Let them experience the shame of being humiliated in Medicine King Valley!” Another dog tail grass was thrilled, its whole body shaking with excitement.

Listening to their audacious chatter made Ye Junlin and the others’ eyelids twitch.

Li Wujie’s expression turned strange, “What the hell! Since when do treasured herbs get this cocky?”

Out there, they’d all be hiding and trembling in fear, scared to death of being caught and devoured by human cultivators.

When did it become okay for them to be this brazen?

Hong Qianye sneered, “Hmph, they really don’t know when to back off!”

With a casual wave of his hand, a purple fireball shot out, trailing a spectacular arc of light.

Whoosh!

The dog tail grass barely swayed its head, shooting out a sharp wind blade.

Boom!

The wind blade and fireball collided, producing quite an energy explosion.

“What?!”

Hong Qianye was a bit surprised.

Worrying about turning the treasured herbs into ashes, he held back to use only 40% of his power. Even so, it was a decent display of force, enough to take out most Qi Refining cultivators.

But it was actually blocked by a dog tail grass?

“This…” Li Wujie almost thought he was imagining things. Even he had to summon his focus to withstand that strike, only to see it casually dispelled?

These treasured herbs in Medicine King Valley seemed pretty unusual!

“Wow, you filthy woman, you dare to attack me! Watch me strip you down and hang your clothes from a tree to beat you senseless!” The dog tail grass radiated a strong mental wave, clearly furious.

Hearing that, Hong Qianye’s temples bulged, coldly saying, “You’re asking for death!!”

Just a measly treasured herb, talking back like that?

What a ridiculous joke!

This time, Hong Qianye unleashed his magical power, slapping out a torrent of red flames, striking fear into the hearts of anyone watching.

“Filthy woman, coming again? I won’t go easy on you!” The dog tail grass shook its head wildly, sending countless sharp wind blades tearing into the ground, creating a chaotic web of grooves.

Boom boom boom!

The scene was utterly astonishing.

It was hard to believe this was a battle between Qi Refining Ninth Layers!

Hong Qianye found it absurd that he was stuck in a stalemate with a treasured herb. He immediately ramped up his offensive!

The dog tail grass couldn’t take it anymore, retreating continuously, shrieking, “Why are you lot just standing around? Hurry up and help me! This filthy woman is going to roast me alive!”

Another dozen or so treasured herbs laughed, enjoying the show, but being part of the same faction, they couldn’t just sit back and watch. They rushed to attack Hong Qianye.

Swish swish swish~

Several powerful elemental energies shot out, and Hong Qianye’s previously chaotic flames began to falter.

“How could this be…”

Hong Qianye’s face darkened.

His cultivation level was low now, and many of his techniques were off the table, severely reducing his advantages.

“Huh?”

Ye Junlin frowned.

Though his disciple had a black heart and a rebellious mood, he was still using a heaven-defying technique. With an immortal-grade fire-root backing him up, even at the Qi Refining Ninth Layer, he could easily trounce Foundation Establishment cultivators outside.

Yet now, he was struggling against a dozen low-grade treasured herbs? This was certainly suspicious!

“Hong Senior Brother, I’ll help you!” Li Wujie shouted, wielding his knife and employing the basic forms of the Chaotic Heaven Knife Technique—albeit a weaker version, it was still impressive in the Qi Refining Stage.

In an instant, the tide of the battle shifted again.

With Li Wujie’s support, Hong Qianye unleashed his full power, rapidly casting initial level fire techniques to suppress those herbs.

“Go Red–”

“Brother Hong, you got this! Li Junior Brother, you too!” Bai Xiaoxi waved their little fists, cheering excitedly.

Ye Junlin exclaimed, “Interesting, really interesting! So, this is Medicine King Valley? Truly a place where medicine rules!”

He knew that with Hong Qianye and Li Wujie’s qualifications, even if their cultivation regressed to Qi Refining Ninth Layer, teaming up to sweep through Foundation Establishment would be a piece of cake.

But now, they couldn’t quickly take down these herbs. Was it due to their lack of power?

Wrong! It was the herbs themselves that were strange!

You wouldn’t believe it. Each of these treasured herbs was a top-tier genius in its own right, capable of dominating most human cultivators.

Every basic attack they casually threw out held an astonishing amount of power.

This was absurd!

After all, it was a well-known fact that herbs weren’t naturally good at combat; they typically hid to avoid clashes with human cultivators. But now, they were all showcasing extraordinary combat capabilities, which was just ridiculous!

“Could it be…” Ye Junlin’s mind raced, suddenly recalling something. He looked up at the faint golden ripple flickering in the sky above Medicine King Valley.

“If I’m not mistaken, the reason these herbs can unleash such power is due to the formation reinforcing them, and the master of the formation is none other than the Medicine Sovereign himself!”

The truth was surfacing.

Everything was the doing of that old Medicine Sovereign!

“He suppressed our cultivation, yet exaggerated the power of the herbs. What’s his intention with this?”

Ye Junlin stroked his chin.

If the goal was to suppress all participants’ cultivation for fair competition, it’s understandable. But to deliberately boost the power of the herbs and let them act all big over human cultivators? That was just excessive!

Clearly, this was a protective move!

Ye Junlin began to suspect that the Medicine Sovereign’s purpose in establishing Medicine King Valley was to attract a batch of unlucky souls every hundred thousand years and let the herbs here run wild on them.

The most ridiculous part was that no one had ever spoken the truth about this! It was as if everyone was in on the secret, intentionally trying to deceive newcomers!

“Haha, so that’s why, after getting rained on once, you want to tear others’ umbrellas apart!”