Xie Yuan followed the woman’s limping silhouette until he could not see her any longer. It astounds him to know that someone like her, who has no cultivation nor spiritual fluctuation at all, could safely live and traverse through the treacherous mountain range.

With numbed fingers, he slowly undressed to check his injury and gravely sighed. He’d been too reckless. The information the sect gathered stated that the beast guarding the spiritual herb was, at most, a rare type spiritual beast. There was no indication or report that the beast was, in fact, a Legendary Spiritual Beast and there were two, a pair nesting, not just one guardian beast.

Spiritual beasts could be classified into tiers: low, mid, high and epic. Low tier beasts are Common Type beasts that could be found almost anywhere. Even a regular person, with enough strength, could tame or kill one. Elemental and Rare Type beasts are considered mid-tier beasts. Beasts from this class display elemental affinity and have more powerful attacks and defensive capabilities than common type beasts. Legendary Spiritual Beasts and Demonic Beasts are high tier beasts. Consuming the beast core from these types of beasts could help awaken a cultivator’s ‘spiritual roots’ or help with increasing a cultivator’s elemental affinity and resistance. Divine Beasts are epic tier beasts that cannot be wounded or killed without a high-grade spiritual weapon. These are beasts that have gone through heavenly tribulation and have lived for over thousands of years.

Currently, Xie Yuan was at the Martial Spirit Stage. He’s a Martial King practitioner, to be exact. In Lyra, he’s considered quite powerful. If Xie Yuan fought with a cultivator from the same rank he would not lose. He has a seventy percent chance of winning if he fights with Martial Emperor cultivator, a rank higher, provided his opponent does not have a spiritual beast companion. At present, he cannot beat a Transcendence Stage practitioner but retreating with his life intact was not a problem. But facing a Legendary Spiritual Beast with enough strength to contend with a Transcendence Stage expert, two at that, was asking too much. Spiritual beasts are innately stronger than human cultivators. Facing the pair of Legendary Spiritual Beasts, Xie Yuan was lucky to escape with his life albeit with severe injuries.

In the continent of Lyra, every powerful faction has more than a handful Martial Spirit Stage cultivators. Transcendence Stage cultivators were rare. These cultivators are eccentrics who isolate themselves from others and devote their lives to cultivation. Transcendence cultivators usually travel through the breach towards higher realms in order to have a chance to breakthrough and become Celestials.

A Divine or Celestial Stage cultivator has not appeared in Lyra for over a thousand years. The last one, as rumor had it, was summoned to another realm by a powerful faction that governs the three realms. No one really knows the reliability of the story but everyone knows that every realm has a power restriction. If a cultivator reaches the pinnacle of strength in one realm, the only way to breakthrough and advance in one’s path is to move to another, higher realm.

Xie Yuan hesitated before he reached out and grabbed the spiritual herb from the jade box to examine it. The herb was dark green and as thin as a man’s finger. There are two black, curled thorns at one end that look like horns and the whole stalk appears to be covered in scales. Xie Yuan’s eyebrows unconsciously furrowed.

Dragon grass, an all-around detoxifying herb. Unless the poison was from a Divine Beast or made from an extremely rare poisonous herb, dragon grass could easily detoxify it. Dragon grass is a rare and precious spiritual herb that matures every three hundred years.

Xie Yuan’s numbed hands started shaking and it wasn’t from loss of blood or the poison coursing through his system. Cultivators covet this miraculous herb and the woman who saved him took it out and left it with him without hesitation. Dragon grass was also the herb that he’s been hunting and got him severely injured.

Didn’t the woman know how precious the herb is? But from how she explained the effects of the herb that doesn’t seem to be the case. Then why did she offer it to him? Does she have a motive for helping him? But that conjecture doesn’t seem to be right either. This was the first and only time they have met and Xie Yuan believed he would not forget someone like her even if he met him only once and in passing.

Earlier, when he felt the woman turn him over, he thought she was another cultivator trying to loot and rob his possessions, assuming he was dead. He was resigned to pretend to be unconscious but when he felt her untying his belt and parting his robe he couldn’t stay still and reached out to grab the person. He did not expect to grab a slender wrist that felt like it would snap with little effort.

Xie Yuan was stunned when he tried to sense her spiritual aura and felt no fluctuation no matter how much he prodded. He guessed she might be a person from the temple at the base of the mountain but he’s uncertain if she’s a disciple or merely a servant. He stayed at Spirit Temple for a few days before venturing into the mountain range and he’d never seen the woman there. It’s well-known that all the disciples of the Spirit Temple are strong female cultivators. In the end, he deduced she is not a disciple, since the woman did not have spiritual energy, and perhaps she doesn’t belong to the temple at all and was a common citizen of Infernal Rise Valley.

Xie Yuan’s curiosity towards his savior steadily grew. This was the first time he encountered a person who does not care about who he is and what benefit he could provide for them. The woman did not ask for his name or which sect he belonged to. She didn’t ask what he was doing in the Black Highlands and why or how he got injured and poisoned. To some, this sort of behavior would invite suspicion but to Xie Yuan, her attitude put him at ease.

The woman didn’t ask him anything simply because she did not care for such details. He read it from her behavior when she did not press to examine the extent of his injuries, when she allowed him to decide whether to follow or not and what he wanted to do with the herb she gave him.

In truth, Xie Yuan felt ashamed for doubting the woman’s kind intentions. He surveyed his surroundings and the more he looked, the more he felt like the place was more like a dwelling than a regular, uninhabited cave. His amethyst eyes rested on the makeshift bed the woman laid out and the clean basin of water. She took those things from somewhere, deeper inside, perhaps from one of the caverns. From the practiced manner she arranged things to suit his convenience, he could safely assume that he’s not the first person she’d helped. His heart confusingly twitched at the sudden thought.

Xie Yuan did not delay further. Whatever question he has could and would be answered when he sees her again. He consumed the dragon grass herb and started circulating his qi. He felt uncomfortable consuming such a precious herb, especially after how he behaved towards the one who generously gave it to him. But he couldn’t afford to be gravely injured. At least not while he is in the Black Highlands, especially when he’s alone.

Xie Yuan cultivated for the whole night, purging the poison from his system and healing the wounds on his body. By daybreak, he opened his eyes and spat more a mouthful of black blood. His body was covered in sweat and expelled impurities.

Although the dragon grass herb cleansed his system, his injuries were not fully healed. Unfortunately, his internal injuries were too severe, coupled with blood loss and potent poison, his cultivation became unstable. But considering how dire the situation was, Xie Yuan knew that he got off lightly.

Xie Yuan washed himself and when he was able, he consumed the prepared food and drink. He thought of looking for the woman at the temple but for some reason, his instincts tell him to stay in the cave and wait for her to come to him instead. He waited the whole day but the woman did not come. And just when he thought of leaving, she finally showed up.