Chapter Ninety-Six: Rebirth Herb

The moment he noticed even a single irregularity, Liu Zong’s mind leapt open, and in an instant he found many more problems elsewhere.

So it was not only the nearby graveyard that was like this. All five of the small burial grounds in this region showed abnormalities of one kind or another. Ordinary people would never pay them any mind, and even if they did notice, they would only assume the differences were stylistic and think no further.

But in Liu Zong’s eyes, there were far too many inconsistencies here. If he had not been on a mission, he might already have wanted to go and investigate them.

Suppressing that impulse, Liu Zong opened the map he carried. First he marked the spot where they were, then he located the small graveyard where the problem had been found.

After that, he was decisive to the extreme and drew a straight line between the two points. Only then did he look up and ask, “Lena, where did you find the amber?”

Lena glanced over Liu Zong’s map and tapped a spot directly. Liu Zong’s gaze grew even more somber, because that place lay right near the line he had drawn.

Looking at the point, Liu Zong asked, “Is it possible that they were carrying it away, died in battle for some reason, and the amber was left behind by accident? Then, because no one was left to look after it, its power was released, and I happened to find it?”

Xu Ying, who had watched all this from the side, nodded. “That’s very possible. So what do we do now?”

“Let’s go there first and take a look. From here, searching our way over will take about a day. After that, whether we find new clues or not, we’ll come back here and wait for Lu Shang,” Liu Zong said, making the final decision.

With the guidance of Lena’s bees, Liu Zong and the others spent a full day before finally reaching the place where she had found the amber.

Even before they got close to the spot Lena had mentioned, their pace began to slow. They could already see that the woods ahead had changed. The flowers carpeting the ground were all shaped like women’s hands, with the thumb and middle finger pinched together to hold all kinds of jewelry and gemstones.

Among those ornaments and jewels were also pieces of amber. When the wind blew, the gems sparkled in the sunlight, drawing everyone’s gaze.

The more they saw, the less daring they were to approach. Without Lena needing to explain, they all understood what those “flowers” really were.

Requiem Grass

Species: Yin-element carnivorous plant

Level: Lv1 (6 stars)

Description: A carnivorous plant that grows under sunlight. It likes to collect all kinds of shiny objects and hold them “in its hands” for display in the sun. When living creatures are lured by those glimmers, the “hands” drag them underground, where the roots kill and absorb them, while the shiny objects they carried reappear on the hand-shaped flowers for another display.

Analysis: This carnivorous plant belongs to the yin element. Its roots can be used to make yin-element wines and foods. The small leaves beneath the hands have medicinal effects. The hand-shaped flowers are a primary material for enhancing Mage’s Hand. The gemstones clutched in the hands are all genuine, and at the very least they glow.

Liu Zong and the others exchanged glances beside the Requiem Grass. At last, Liu Zong said to Xu Ying, “The Requiem Grass itself is dangerous, so there shouldn’t be any beasts or spirits guarding it. Will you take it, or should I?”

The reason Liu Zong asked was that in the game, a temporary team like theirs followed a common unwritten rule. When they encountered ore veins, herb patches, fishing spots, or other noncombat resource sites, the spoils did not simply go to whoever could gather them.

Instead, allocation was based on the attribute of the resource itself. In front of them, the Requiem Grass was chiefly of the yin element, so whether Liu Zong and Xu Ying knew herbalism or not, they both had priority in harvesting it.

Only if neither of them needed it could the others collect it according to their own needs.

That was why Liu Zong asked Xu Ying.

Xu Ying did not stand on ceremony. “This Requiem Grass is perfectly suited to my path. I need it. As for the gemstones, I’ll take them all afterward; you can divide them as you like. Please leave the rest to me. Thank you.”

Liu Zong said no more, nodded, and stepped aside. Xu Ying himself did not go forward. Instead, the lion beside him moved to his side.

Along the way, Liu Zong and the others had never seen Xu Ying make a move. Every battle had been fought by that lion. At times, Liu Zong even wondered whether Xu Ying had chosen the wrong class and was really a hunter.

But now, that doubt vanished.

The lion advanced slowly. With every step, the equipment on its body seemed to sink deeper into it. By the time it reached Xu Ying’s side, it had become a bone-white lion as tall as Xu Ying himself.

Xu Ying extended both hands and closed his eyes, as though waiting for something. The bone lion stopped beside him, and the bones split apart on their own. A pair of fangs assembled into a magical implement and fell into Xu Ying’s hands, while the rest of the bones transformed into a suit of armor that enveloped him from head to toe.

The armor was splendid. The bone-white suit stood over two meters tall and wrapped Xu Ying completely, leaving nothing exposed except his eyes.

Only after all this was complete did Xu Ying begin to walk toward the Requiem Grass. Liu Zong was somewhat astonished to find that bone fragments appeared on the ground wherever Xu Ying stepped.

He understood this sort of thing well enough. For players with ideals and style, when they were at Lv1, they paid close attention to preventing the outside world from affecting their attributes, and so they often found ways to avoid direct contact with it.

Walking with lotuses blooming beneath every step, treading on clouds, or causing bone to appear underfoot—these were all methods of preventing outside contact from influencing one’s attributes.

Of course, ordinary players did not need to do this every day; it was enough to do so in battle. Xu Ying had chosen exactly that path.

The bones beneath his feet were precisely such a phenomenon. Stepping on them, Xu Ying moved toward the Requiem Grass. As he drew near, the plants also began to stir. Their hand-like blossoms waved endlessly in his direction, while phantom silhouettes of beautiful women appeared above them, constantly beckoning him closer.

Xu Ying had long known how formidable the Requiem Grass was. He did not rush in. Instead, he carefully moved along the edge, his eyes fixed on the ground as if searching for something.

At last, he seemed to find it. He stomped hard with his right foot, and the ground immediately caved in. Liu Zong and the others saw that beneath the soil there were countless vine-like roots, and tangled among those roots were bones of every size.