Chapter 3664 — A Very Hard Slog

Ordinary herbs were worth only a single point apiece, yet this unremarkable-looking single-petaled flower was worth a full seven points on its own—a rather decent start, all things considered.

Wei Zhao's heart gave a lift. His goal might be the Heart-Devouring Linglong Grass, but gathering as many other herbs as possible was no bad thing either. Even if he did not carry them out inside the jade pendant's space, they could later be traded for trial points, which was nothing to sneeze at.

After that, however, the process turned rather tedious. True to his expectations, Wei Zhao did gather no small number of herbs in this area, and in less than half an hour the points displayed on the basket had shot all the way up to fifty-seven—yet he still had not found a single trace of the Heart-Devouring Linglong Grass, the one thing he wanted most.

After all, to make sure he could search for the Heart-Devouring Linglong Grass during the trial, he had done a great deal of groundwork beforehand. He had even made a special trip to the rear cliff to consult Lu Bianren, that walking encyclopedia, and had come away knowing the grass's appearance and characteristics inside and out, down to the environments where it was most likely to grow, so that he would never overlook it should he encounter it.

But now he had already made a circuit of everything within a radius of several li, and had not caught even a glimpse of the Heart-Devouring Linglong Grass. Worse, judging by the dark, damp surroundings, this area did not look like a place where it could grow at all.

"According to Senior Brother Lu, the Heart-Devouring Linglong Grass favors sunlight and tends to appear in dry places with ample light—and such places are hard to come by in deep mountain forests." Wei Zhao shook his head helplessly.

These deep mountain forests were drenched in rain, a veritable tropical rainforest without end by the standards of the mortal world. The ground was all streams and damp shadows, with not a ray of sunlight able to pierce through. Finding the Heart-Devouring Linglong Grass in a place like this was easier said than done.

And even with Lu Bianren's pointers, finding a place that met the conditions was no easy matter given Wei Zhao's present circumstances. He had no idea where he was, and there was nothing distinctive within dozens of li to serve as a landmark, so even the map of the back mountain's outer fringes issued by the Back Mountain Hall was of no use to him.

Anyone with experience of jungle life knows that in a vast forest like this, the most terrifying thing is not the fierce beasts and venomous creatures lurking about, but losing one's bearings. In dense woods where even sunlight is scarce, once a person loses his way, the likely end is to be swallowed whole by the forest.

In truth, without any landmark coordinates nearby, even a skilled cultivator of Wei Zhao's caliber—early Foundation Establishment—would have trouble pinning down his exact position. The one small edge he had over ordinary people was that with a bit of effort, he could at least climb to the treetops and use the sun to get his bearings.

Beyond that, he had one other advantage: his survival skills were far more robust than those of ordinary people.

But that was all. Wei Zhao's task now was not survival, but finding the Heart-Devouring Linglong Grass within a mere three days—and that was a far taller order. At least for the moment, he had no idea which direction the grass's preferred habitat lay in, let alone how far away it might be.

A pity the Heavenly Thunder Pig was still unconscious. If only the creature were awake, this would be simple! Wei Zhao could not help but lament.

With the Heavenly Thunder Pig's abilities, even if it could not lead him straight to the Heart-Devouring Linglong Grass, having it help locate a dry, sunlit place should pose no problem at all. Treasure-seeking was, after all, that creature's innate gift, and the most basic prerequisite for treasure-seeking was sensing one's environment.

If Wei Zhao had only a twenty percent chance of finding the Heart-Devouring Linglong Grass within three days on his own, then with the Heavenly Thunder Pig's help he would have at least eighty percent.

Unfortunately, the Heavenly Thunder Pig had been unconscious ever since they teleported to Cloudstep Island. More than twenty days had passed, and Wei Zhao had no idea whatsoever how to wake it. Had its vital signs not remained relatively stable, he might even have concluded the creature had turned into a vegetable pig.

Now that the Heavenly Thunder Pig was beyond help, he could only rely on himself.

Wei Zhao drew a deep breath, picked a giant tree beside him, and sprang up its trunk.

Only from high up can one see far. Climbing to the tallest tree nearby and searching as best he could for places around that suited the Heart-Devouring Linglong Grass's growing conditions was the last hope he could pin his faith on. Crude as it was, it beat blundering about below like a headless fly.

Wei Zhao climbed with exceptional care, keeping constant watch on every sound and stirring around him. Chastened by his earlier lesson, he already knew that while the trees were not as thick with venomous snakes and savage beasts as the ground, they were in fact more dangerous.

In dense forests like this, the stronger a creature was, the more likely it was to claim the fine open space above—just like the giant python and the black ape he had encountered before. The venomous snakes and fierce beasts on the ground were troublesome, but posed little real threat to Wei Zhao. The dense canopy overhead was another matter entirely; some powerful, hideous Foundation Establishment spirit beast might well be coiled up there.

The giant tree Wei Zhao had chosen stood, strictly speaking, outside that python's territory, so he need not worry about the python. But in the time it took him to climb, some equally powerful spirit beast overlord might already have marked him as prey.

All the while he had felt a powerful creature watching him from some hard-to-detect shadow, a prickle of unease down his spine—yet in the end Wei Zhao reached the top of the canopy without mishap, and the view in all directions opened up magnificently.

But after a spell of observation, even a will as firm as Wei Zhao's could not help but sag.

There was no help for it: north, south, east, west, whichever way he looked, the scene was all but identical—unbroken stretches of treetops, uniform in every direction. The only difference was that to the north, beyond the canopy, he could make out a towering mountain rising into the clouds, its summit lost to sight. That was the main body of the back mountain.

The Back Mountain Hall lay to the south of the back mountain, so Wei Zhao could at least roughly confirm his bearings. But which direction to head next remained anyone's guess.

None of the four directions looked like it could hold a place suited to the Heart-Devouring Linglong Grass. Perhaps somewhere high up on the back mountain to the north might qualify, but that was not even worth considering—judging by the map, that area already fell within the back mountain's inner perimeter, and with the inner perimeter's seals unopened, there was no getting in at all.