Lu Qingshan wanted to ask Qin Ye for the details about where he found the source. The Seven Mysteries Gate was already building their camp slightly immersed in that pleasant feeling, but Qin Ye had gone in deeper before managing to detect it. Other than the boy's age, there wasn't anything different about him that seemingly caused such a difference.

  When Lu Qingshan asked him to guide him through the forest, he happily obliged.

  “It’s coming from this direction,” he said with a big smile on his face. A shudder seemed to run through his body while Lu Qingshan looked ahead, curious. Could it be a spirit root?

  Lu Qingshan brought out the spirit root sensing stone and a spirit stone. He asked the boy to hold out his hand. Pressing the spirit stone to the sensing stone caused a flicker of energy to transfer, brightening the sensing stone in return. He dropped the pair of stones into Qin Ye’s hand.

  The light shifted. Five colors swirled at first, then quickly dropped to four, three, and two. The two remaining colors, green and brown, whirled around like blurry stars.

  Lu Qingshan consulted the beginner’s cultivation manual for advice. It said such a phenomenon meant the person had a spirit root well suited for cultivation. The only thing better would be to have one color show up, indicating a Heavenly Spirit Root.

  Two colors represented the second fastest spirit root in cultivation speed. Green was a wood element, and brown was an earth element. They apparently supported each other well. The problem was that he didn’t have any suitable cultivation techniques for the boy.

  Yuan Feng's jade might’ve contained a technique but he couldn’t read it to see what was inside just yet. And even if there was something suitable for Qin Ye, Lu Qingshan did not feel good guiding the boy down the path of demonic cultivation.

  The only thing he could do was pat the boy’s back and give him the beginner cultivation manual to broaden his horizons. "We'll find something for you," he promised. "Even if I have to take it by force."

  Qin Ye’s eyes sparkled when he touched the booklet. At least the boy could try to sense his spirit root early, to have a head start while Lu Qingshan tried his best to uncover a manual.

  Lu Qingshan then took the chance to use the spirit root sensing stone on every member of the Seven Mysteries Gate, starting with himself. He was greatly disappointed to see zero indications he had a spirit root while he held the stone. After five minutes, he sighed and gave up, preserving the rest of the spirit stone.

  Most of the other disciples were also disappointed, especially after Qin Ye started bragging. Each person had a short incense stick worth of time to hold the sensing stone. Sometimes, the light would flicker, drawing in everyone’s anticipation but leaving them frustrated in the end.

  Then they all got a shock when another person finally received a response. It took just two minutes for Li Fanghua to have five different colors appear. Though they were still there after five minutes had passed, everyone congratulated her.

  Even Qin Ye became subdued, but only for a moment. He had become more prideful once it became clear he was the one with the most potential.

  Lu Qingshan reminded everyone to not lose focus. Having or not having the potential to cultivate didn’t make a difference. After all, he had personally killed three powerful demonic cultivators. One of their corpses was even in plain sight, still carried by the loyal disciple Chen Niu.

  He gave the man his sincere thanks and took the body back onto his shoulders. Lu Qingshan believed he might find a use for it inside the spiritual land ahead.

  After calming the sect down from their recent excitement, Lu Qingshan went to go pack another scroll of paper to serve as a second map for the area. Then he continued deeper inside the forest. While he did still feel the pleasant sensation, it never changed like Qin Ye said it did. Perhaps he had already absorbed the maximum amount of spiritual energy he could.

  He didn't manage to uncover much in the outskirts. There were a lot of herbs packed closely together that were useful for making secret medicines. This spot would save them some time for harvesting.

  Lu Qingshan did a lot of wandering around, checking various spots for trouble, and making sure the place was safe. It didn't seem especially dangerous. There were just a lot of plants in the area. But not encountering anything didn't mean there was no danger at all. Perhaps the monster beasts were especially good at hiding.

  He wondered if he should take the time to advance the Roaming Tiger Breathing Method before he explored further. As an extension to his previously practiced to its limit Tiger Fist, it naturally inherited some traits. Perhaps hiding his presence would improve his experience. Or maybe he should return and grab Qin Ye for his help as a guide.

  Lu Qingshan thought it was too risky for the boy to receive such a life-threatening mission. He decided to keep going for now. The woods were still full of bird noises and loud insects.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  He finally encountered a monster beast a good way into the depths of the spiritual land. It was a giant bear. Colored fur decorated the monster’s back like stripes and he was sure the monster had larger ears than the bears he had seen before. It was lounging around a cave.

  Lu Qingshan was surprised to see it not emitting any blood energy aura. That meant it had a level of control over its own powers and would be more dangerous as a result. He wasn’t sure what cultivation stage the bear was at.

  He debated on starting a conflict. Currently, it was neutral, but he wondered what it would do once it found his disciples encroaching on its territory. Violence, he imagined.

  Lu Qingshan also took a quick look around the monster bear’s nest. Nearby were particularly dense growths of herbs. Some of them matched what was needed for Wu Ruoling’s secret medicine. Others were poisons they needed.

  This was a healthy area filled with spiritual energy, proven by the better medicinal materials. It would be a great place for him to stay.

  He crept closer and saw the bear sniffing around. Its senses were too keen for him to pull off a sneak attack without external aid. Confronting it directly would be an immense risk if its true realm was at Aperture Tempering.

  But there were other signs to recognize such an esteemed expert. Blood Seas Inner Force taught him some of those signs, and none of them showed up on the bear. He could safely say it hadn’t reached that level yet after a long period of observation.

  Then the bear turned its head upwards, spotting him. It roared, and three large cubs came stomping out its cave. Lu Qingshan roared back in return. He didn’t want to take the fight if he didn’t have to.

  They spent some time glaring at each other and making threatening noises. He was surprised it hadn’t attacked yet. In a brief moment of curiosity, Lu Qingshan took out a chopped up arm inside one of his leaf-covered boxes and tossed it to the bear. This was the flesh of a Jade Cleansing stage demonic cultivator.

  It sniffed the offering. Then the bear turned away while the three cubs went to eat.

  Lu Qingshan blinked his eyes. He pointed at the medicinal plants in its territory and made grabbing motions. The bear looked a bit confused from his perspective.

  But it didn’t make a move to attack when he went over to pluck the herbs out. He managed to pick up the majority of the medicinal materials he wanted and only missed out on the ones too close to the bear’s cubs. They had long finished the meal, and were happily running around.

  The cubs wanted to walk over in his direction, but the bear quickly brought them back. Lu Qingshan tossed a few more pieces over to give each bear a chance to eat. Then he repeated his gestures.

  The bear looked less threatening now. Lu Qingshan decided to go and collect the medicinal herbs. He closely watched the bears in case they made any sudden moves.

  He was able to successfully retrieve the herbs without provoking the bear family. As he was about to leave amicably after getting most of what he wanted, the bear made a noise.

  It walked away a good distance with its three cubs before turning back around to stare at Lu Qingshan. He guessed it wanted him to follow.

  The bear led him through a series of thickets and brought him to an open clearing. He saw a massive amount of medicinal plants growing. There were tons - enough to make portions for all the Seven Mysteries Gate disciples and guarantee their breakthrough to Bone Tempering. The plants exuded a medicinal aroma that wafted into his nose.

  But flying above the plant field was a mass of insects. Even the bear looked fearful at the sight. It backed away with its trembling cubs in tow, leaving him to stare at the sheer size of the swarm.

  They towered from tree to tree, individual insects occasionally leaving their pile to land on the medicinal plants. Lu Qingshan got the feeling it was not safe to step inside this clearing. Even if he reached Aperture Tempering.

  He needed another method to gather all those medicinal plants, either burning the insect swarm down with concentrated fire or driving them away with smoke. The problem was that he only had one chance to avoid certain death. If his method was wrong, he was doomed. And he was too far away to observe what their traits were.

  All he could do was toss a fragment of flesh into the field. It soared through the air, and a swarm of insects had already covered it completely before it could even land. As the swarm returned to paint their tree black, the piece of flesh had already disappeared.

  They seemed to greatly prefer meat. Their collective biting power surpassed even those bears, who took some time to rip up the pieces of flesh he gave them previously. And that meat was tough, almost like jade.

  Lu Qingshan had to give up. He returned to the cave where the bears lived and found them lounging around the entrance again. This time, they took one look at him and returned to their lazy state.

  He marked down these places on the map and placed a red 'X' onto the dangerous insect swarm field. It was about time to return to his disciples. This spiritual land had been confirmed as dangerous, and he needed the time to develop the area.

  Lu Qingshan handed his harvest to his sect Elders and the process of medicine production was reignited. He expected to see a good bounty for himself in a few weeks. Meanwhile, he took out the scrolls Yuan Feng was interested in and studied them again. He read through the passages again, comparing them with the information he memorized from the beginner's cultivation booklet, but still couldn't uncover any insights.

  Lu Qingshan didn't have many methods left. He placed the various spiritual objects he had onto the scroll, trying anything he could. The spirit root sensing stone combined with a spirit stone didn't work. The demonic cultivator's pieces of flesh didn't work. And the two pieces of jade from Yuan Feng and Yan Xi didn't work either.

  He was truly stumped. Maybe there was a combination here that he failed to see. What was Yuan Feng thinking when he picked out these scrolls specifically?

  The only thing he could do was leave it to Li Fanghua and Qin Ye, the sole potential cultivators in the sect. He notified the other Elders as well about there being possible secrets behind these Seven Mysteries Gate texts. After a final check around the construction site, he began a session of martial arts practice far away from the sect camp.