Chapter 4262 — The Golden Manikin
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao were both startled, and instinctively made to follow up with another Raging Fire Eight-Trigram Combined Palm. But then, once they saw clearly what was happening to the golden manikin's body, the two of them were struck dumb on the spot.
"Th-this... is this the legendary sprite?" Huang Xiaotao was dazed for a long while before she finally managed to squeeze out faintly. Apart from "sprite," she truly could think of no other word to describe the sight before her eyes.
Wei Zhao was likewise choked speechless for a good while. Right before their very eyes, within the brief space of a moment, the golden manikin's "corpse" had shriveled and changed shape.
It was not feigned death, nor a corpse springing back to life—it had simply suddenly changed form. What had been a tiny, miniature golden manikin a moment before abruptly ceased to be human in shape: its hands and feet had become root-like tendrils, and neither its head nor its body showed the slightest trace of anything human.
To reveal its original form after death—judged by this alone, it really was much like the sprites of common legend. It was said that spirit beasts, once they reached a certain level of power, could take on human form; was this not exactly such a case?
The two of them exchanged glances. Huang Xiaotao, at the thought of all these uncanny, monstrous things, hardly dared look again. But Wei Zhao, after staring at the thing for a moment, suddenly had a flash of inspiration and hastily picked it up.
"Ah!" Huang Xiaotao jumped in fright and hurriedly backed away two steps, but Wei Zhao caught her with one hand.
"Don't be afraid, Xiaotao—we've struck it rich this time. Come and look, quick!" Wei Zhao examined the thing in his hand closely, the excitement on his face written plain for all to see.
"Struck... struck it rich?" Huang Xiaotao was taken aback, and only then dared to cast her gaze upon the thing once more. After studying it closely for a few moments, something seemed to dawn on her, and she said in mingled shock and doubt, "You mean...?"
"That's right—this is the very goal of our journey, the infant ginseng!" Wei Zhao said excitedly.
In truth, he had been puzzled from the moment the golden manikin first appeared, because the medicinal fragrance unique to infant ginseng had plainly grown much stronger than before. Only at the time his attention had been fixed on the golden manikin's strength and the changes in the surrounding mist, leaving him no chance to ponder the matter carefully. Who would have thought this thing would turn out to be infant ginseng!
"This thing... is really infant ginseng?" Huang Xiaotao's first reaction was not delight but a look of utter bewilderment. In all her past knowledge and imagining, natural treasures such as spirit herbs existed in only one way: they grew up out of the ground.
But this thing before her, though it did indeed look like a spirit herb, had while alive been able not only to run and leap, but even to drive a late Golden Core expert like Chu Bubai to utter wretchedness and slaughter him with ease—and this was supposed to be a spirit herb?
At that, Huang Xiaotao's whole understanding was turned upside down. She stared blankly at the thing in Wei Zhao's hand and for a long time could not speak a word.
In truth, had he not with his own hands once refined infant ginseng into the Gathering-Infant Golden Core, Wei Zhao himself would never have believed that this thing was really infant ginseng.
"That's right—so this trip of ours was hardly made in vain." After confirming it again and again, Wei Zhao nodded emphatically in his excitement. Before, the Heaven-Walking Daoist had given him only a piece of infant ginseng the size of a thumb, and with that he had successfully refined a Gathering-Infant Golden Core; yet what he held in his hand now was an entire plant! (Readers on mobile, please cast a few monthly votes to support Old Yu! Readers on Qidian can also cast