"What a pity… all signs of life have completely vanished…"
Li Ye held a dry, brittle branch in his hand, carefully sensing its structure, and couldn't help but shake his head in regret.
The place he stood was thick with miasma and saturated with baleful energy. The soil had a dark yellow hue, and not a single blade of grass grew in the entire area.
Only a deep, freshly dug pit could be seen, and not far from it was a withered sapling.
Though faint dragon-scale patterns marked its bark, they were twisted and distorted. After its death, not a trace of power remained.
This was the first location where a Tier-3 spirit plant, the Dragon-Subduing Wood, had been discovered revealed by his subordinates' earlier scouting.
Yet he hadn't expected things to begin on such a sour note.
"That damn Jiudingzi may have gotten lucky, discovering this rare Dragon Fiend Land, but he didn't make any meaningful use of it…"
"He crudely uprooted the mature Dragon-Subduing Tree, completely ignoring this younger offshoot that had yet to grow. In doing so, he tore through its roots, severing its lifeforce entirely!"
As he calmly analyzed the situation, a glint of murderous intent flashed in Li Ye's eyes.
Had he known this earlier, he would've made sure Jiudingzi died a far more painful death!
A Dragon Fiend Land like this requires at least the death of a Tier-3 beast or several beasts bearing strong dragon bloodlines whose essence then merges with the land's miasmic energies. Only under such rare conditions could the land evolve.
If a spirit tree manages to survive the transformation of this land into a Dragon Fiend Land, it gradually becomes warped by the fiendish energy and transforms into Dragon-Subduing Wood.
The resulting tier depends on two things: the original spirit tree's level, and the concentration of dragon fiend energy in the area.
Although this place had only birthed a basic Tier-3 Dragon-Subduing Tree, it still held great value.
However, Dragon Fiend energy is extremely toxic to cultivators without specialized methods or containers, it can't even be transported away.
Only a small number of cultivators who practice powerful baleful-energy refinement techniques can safely harness it. For most, attempting to absorb it leads to disastrous backlash causing violent mutations of flesh and spiritual power.
Without the right tools or knowledge, Jiudingzi had simply plundered what he could, leaving no seeds behind and showing no interest in preserving the environment. He recorded what he found, and then moved on.
Now that it was ruined, the site had no further potential. Despite Li Ye's vast knowledge of spirit plant cultivation, there was nothing he could do here.
A rare and possibly tag-generating spirit plant had slipped through his fingers.
How could that not stir up his fury?
"Short-sighted fool. Just because you had no future in cultivation, you destroyed spirit plants that take time to grow and mature… You deserved to die!"
Li Ye cursed aloud.
Thankfully, he had taken Jiudingzi's corpse back to serve as fertilizer for the Void Realm Tree. It was still being slowly digested, and eventually not even a trace would remain.
A complete erasure of that thought gave him some comfort. Otherwise, the injustice would've been too hard to swallow.
Still, he wasn't ready to give up just yet.
"Dragon-Subduing Wood can only form when a spirit tree evolves alongside this unique environment. By right, planting new ones here now shouldn't allow for such transformation…"
"But with my tags like [Adaptation] and [Absorption], and others on top of that, the growth behavior of my spirit plants differs from the norm. It may still be worth a try!"
Without delay, Li Ye got to work. He brought out several Tier-2 spirit trees and planted them one by one, aided by his Verdant Spirit Light and Wood God True Flame.
All of the chosen trees were of the wood or earth element, with their strongest trait being extreme resilience and vitality.
In such a hostile environment, that toughness might allow them to survive longer giving his tags more time to work.
[You have planted a Bihua Tree with superb technique…]
[You have planted…]
[…]
One after another, system notifications popped up on the panel as the trees quickly took root under the glow of the Verdant Spirit Light.
The dragon fiend energy in the area was extremely invasive. Even as the saplings absorbed nutrients by instinct, they began to show strange abnormalities and signs of withering already appearing.
But thanks to Li Ye's careful selection and the power of his tags, they managed to cling to life.
Though struggling, they stabilized for now in a state between life and death.
One or two of them even showed faint signs of adapting to the environment, appearing slightly more stable than the rest.
The first step was a success. Next, he began setting up arrays with various formation tools around the Dragon Fiend Land.
The inner layer would assist the spirit plants' survival and growth; the outer layer would conceal and protect the area. After all, fiend energy is still a form of heaven-and-earth energy. With the proper formations, the entire array could be powered indefinitely by the local dragon fiend aura.
It would be enough to deter nearly any Foundation Establishment cultivator.
"This is just a spare move anyway. If it works, great it'll also help me better understand the potential of my tags…"
"I'll return periodically to check in. For now, it's time to move on to the next Tier-3 spirit plant location."
Li Ye murmured to himself.
Considering that even such a high-value spirit plant like Dragon-Subduing Wood had been destroyed by Jiudingzi's reckless harvesting, he dared not imagine how the others might have been treated.
He no longer held much hope in his heart. He only wanted to confirm the conditions of each site quickly before his anger tempted him to dig Jiudingzi's remains out of the Void Realm Tree just to whip the corpse again.
With that thought lingering in his mind, Li Ye summoned his flying vessel and soared into the skies.
........
"You may return on your own I'll go in and take a look."
Li Ye casually tossed a bottle of pills to the Qi Refining cultivator stationed at the site, giving a flat, indifferent command.
At this point, his expression betrayed little emotion. As he gazed toward the dim cave ahead, his eyes held no trace of expectation.
This was the last recorded location in Jiudingzi's intelligence notes where a Tier-3 spirit plant had supposedly been found.
He'd already visited all the others.
And just as he feared given how things began with the Dragon-Subduing Wood his bad premonitions had come true.
Out of the five total locations, only one had yielded any results: a single sapling of a spirit plant called the Cold Sun Pear Tree.
And its condition was terrible. Were it not for the unique environment where no other spirit plants competed for spiritual energy the sapling likely wouldn't have survived at all. It appeared to have sprouted after Jiudingzi's visit.
As for the other sites, they were either completely barren or littered with the dead remnants of once-living plants. None could be salvaged.
Had it not been for the Cold Sun Pear Tree's impressive fruit renowned for its potent restorative effects on vital energy Li Ye might have truly lost his temper and gone back early just to dig up Jiudingzi's corpse for another round of corpse-whipping.
"Thank you for your generous gift, Mountain Lord!"
As the steward offered endless thanks, Li Ye's body glowed with a faint blue-purple light as he stepped into the cave.
"…Hm?"
A flicker of sharp light passed through Li Ye's eyes. His divine sense swept deeper into the cave, instantly grasping the situation within.
"There's an additional formation set up here… The previous locations didn't have this kind of protection."
That surprised him. At the same time, a spark of curiosity rose in his heart.
"Could there be a Tier-3 spirit plant left behind in this place?"
Thoughts swirling, Li Ye didn't stop moving.
A formation like this was no obstacle to him especially when it only served a protective function. If there were any actual problems inside, it certainly couldn't hide them.
Now he was truly curious given Jiudingzi's usual temperament, what kind of spirit plant could have earned such careful protection?
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