After hearing this, Han Li understood that the other party’s advice came from good intentions. He could only helplessly mumble a few words of agreement before changing the subject and finally asking about the main ingredients for the Foundation Establishment Pill.
“Junior Brother Han wants to know the origins of spirit medicines like the Jade Marrow Mushroom?” Wu Feng asked in surprise.
“Yes, Senior Brother has been in the sect for so many years—you must know something, right?” Han Li asked hopefully.
Upon hearing this, Wu Feng pondered for a moment before saying, “Of course, I know a little, but I advise you to give up on this idea! Not only is that place extremely dangerous, but under normal circumstances, it’s impossible to get close. Only at specific times and specific locations, and with the help of senior sect members, can one enter.”
Initially, Han Li was delighted to hear that Wu Feng knew something, but the following words surprised him, and he quickly pressed for more details.
It turned out that such spirit medicines had become rare in the cultivation world long ago and had completely disappeared from ordinary places. The only locations where they could still be found were so-called forbidden lands.
Since even cultivators referred to them as forbidden lands, these places were, of course, extremely dangerous—often located in remote areas with harsh environments. Some were even dens of demons and monsters, requiring one to fight their way through. Others were protected by ancient restrictions that had to be broken with great effort to gain entry.
The main ingredients for the Foundation Establishment Pill used by the Yellow Maple Valley and other cultivation sects in the Yue Kingdom had, over the years, come from the latter type of forbidden land—a place sealed off by ancient wind-attribute restrictions.
The restrictions there were incredibly powerful, and initially, the cultivation sects had no hope of breaking them. However, it was later discovered that every five years, these restrictions would weaken for five days. During this period, if several Core Formation cultivators worked together to forcefully break the restrictions, they could temporarily open a passage, allowing a limited number of people to enter.
But when the passage appeared and all the cultivators tried to enter, another unexpected situation arose.
Cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage and above were blocked by another strange inner restriction, while those at the Qi Refining stage could enter without any hindrance. They gathered large quantities of rare spirit medicines and brought them out.
This discovery immediately caused a sensation in the Yue Kingdom’s cultivation world. As a result, the seven major cultivation sects began sending groups of disciples below the Foundation Establishment stage into the forbidden land every five years to collect spirit medicines, with the main ingredients for the Foundation Establishment Pill being the top priority.
At first, disciples from the various sects could operate without conflict, each minding their own business. For the selected disciples, it was a highly desirable assignment. However, as years of continuous harvesting and gathering passed, the spirit medicines in the forbidden land gradually became scarce. Disputes and violent clashes between sects over certain rare medicines began to occur frequently. Hundreds of years ago, during one such incident, a disciple even lost their life.
That first casualty completely tore off all pretenses among the major sects. They openly embraced the philosophy of “the strong prey on the weak” and “heaven and earth are not benevolent,” encouraging their disciples to plunder others, staining the forbidden land expedition with blood.
As a result, while spirit medicines gradually decreased, the competition within the forbidden land became increasingly fierce and bloody with each iteration.
In recent centuries, the slaughter had become so brutal that less than a third of the disciples who entered the forbidden land managed to come out alive, resulting in significant losses of elite low-level disciples for each sect! This led disciples to start referring to the forbidden land expedition as the “Bloody Trial,” and many began avoiding it. At one point, there was even an embarrassing situation where no one was willing to go.
Forcing assignments was, of course, not a solution.
If a disciple wasn’t genuinely willing to enter the forbidden land to search for medicines, they would likely slack off, finding a place to hide until it was time to come out safely.
Such incidents had happened before, infuriating the higher-ups who sent them but leaving them helpless. After all, these disciples never wanted to go in the first place; they were forced to take this tremendous risk—what could the superiors possibly criticize them for?
Thus, as the Yue Kingdom sects grew even more eager for spirit medicines but faced a severe shortage of volunteers, all sects began offering heavy rewards to recruit disciples for the forbidden land expedition, linking the rewards to the quantity and quality of spirit medicines brought out.
Not to mention other sects, but take the Yellow Maple Valley itself as an example.
Starting from the last few expeditions, the sect had explicitly stated that any disciple who signed up would receive a mid-grade spirit stone and a spirit tool from the sect in advance as an incentive.
If they managed to bring out spirit medicines from the forbidden land, the sect would grant even more lavish rewards based on the quantity and quality of what they brought! The rewards ranged from spirit stones to magic tools and spirit pills, with even higher prizes including the sect’s secretly stored Foundation Establishment Pills—something that could motivate low-level disciples to risk it all.
Such high rewards indeed led to a surge of applicants initially, but this enthusiasm lasted only two or three expeditions before completely dying down.
The bloody reality made the disciples clearly realize that these substantial rewards were not easy to obtain!
Before the rewards were introduced, about a third of those who entered the forbidden land survived the competition. However, after the rewards were offered, less than a quarter managed to walk out of the Bloody Trial alive. Among the survivors, those who could bring out spirit medicines were even fewer. Most returned with severe injuries and empty-handed, let alone having anything to exchange for a Foundation Establishment Pill.
It was under these circumstances that Han Li asked Wu Feng about the origins of several spirit medicines.
After hearing all of this, Han Li felt nothing but frustration!
He never expected that gathering a few herbs would require entering some forbidden land and fighting disciples from other sects, with only the victors making it out alive. The survival rate was shockingly low—less than a quarter of participants could leave this so-called “Bloody Trial.”
The risks were simply too high! He was no expert; among the low-level disciples of Yellow Maple Valley, he was only of average ability.
He lacked profound magical power, hadn’t mastered powerful spells, and could only rely on a few decent magic tools and his wits.
With just these, Han Li couldn’t possibly see himself as guaranteed to be among the final quarter of survivors.
Frustrated, he couldn’t help but ask Wu Feng: Why couldn’t the cultivation sects restrain their disciples and share the spirit medicines equally? Since these medicines were ultimately used to jointly refine Foundation Establishment Pills, why go to the extent of tearing up all pretenses and creating enmity?
Upon hearing this, Wu Feng smiled bitterly and replied, “Junior Brother, you might not know this, but even though the Foundation Establishment Pills are refined jointly, the distribution of the pills is based on the proportion of spirit medicines each sect provides. Under such circumstances, how could the sects not fight desperately for the medicines?”
Han Li was speechless for a long time after hearing this.
Finally, with a mind full of worries, after confirming that the next “Bloody Trial” was in six months, he left the Transmission Hall under Senior Brother Wu’s reminders and returned to the Hundred Herbs Garden.
Over the next few days, Han Li spent his time listlessly thinking about this matter, weighing the pros and cons and the risks involved, trying to force himself to make a wise decision.
Clearly, within the Yue Kingdom, these three spirit medicines couldn’t be found outside the forbidden lands. Otherwise, the seven major sects wouldn’t need to engage in a bloody battle every five years, weakening themselves internally.
If Han Li didn’t want to take this tremendous risk, his only hope was to find the spirit medicines outside the Yue Kingdom. Otherwise, Foundation Establishment would be completely hopeless, and he would turn to dust in a little over a hundred years. However, upon careful thought, searching for spirit medicines outside the kingdom seemed even more hopeless—practically impossible.
But if he really participated in the “Bloody Trial,” a mortality rate of over three-quarters was simply too high! The likelihood of him dying was incredibly high! This truly left Han Li in a dilemma.
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