Chapter 228
‘Could merit have had nothing to do with the ruins?’
It was true that the turtle demonic beast had come looking for her after she obtained merit.
The turtle had led her into the depths of Yeonha, and its belly shell had opened the door to the hidden ruins.
Judging only by the events that followed, it seemed as though merit had brought her a fortuitous opportunity.
But there was no evidence anywhere that merit had actually exerted its power.
She did not even know when the turtle had begun seeking her out.
The underwater ruins had also been lying at the bottom of Yeonha for a long time.
Even without obtaining merit, it was possible she would eventually have encountered the same connection.
‘Could all of it have been coincidence?’
Merit could not be felt in the dantian like spiritual energy.
Nor could she examine it inside and out with divine sense like a dharma treasure.
With only the single number that had appeared in the Nameless Room, it was difficult to determine when or where it had exerted an influence.
Even if she continued thinking about it, finding an answer right away was difficult.
‘Then where is the merit...’
Baek Cheong shook her head and pushed thoughts of merit aside.
The spirit herbs before her were far more important than a problem she could not solve.
When she raised her head, the ground deeper in the undergrowth heaved repeatedly.
The movement of the scaled earthworms burrowing through the soil continued without end.
The ones she had caught on the outskirts had been dealt with so easily that she had not even needed to use a sword technique.
That did not mean she could consider the entire spirit-herb field safe.
The farther inward she went, the more often she saw spirit herbs with their medicinal properties intact.
There had to be precious spirit herbs remaining in the deeper areas as well.
Good medicinal materials needed dense spiritual energy and fertile soil to grow.
Demonic beasts that fed on earth qi were likely to favor the same environment.
As the number of precious spirit herbs increased, she had to assume that the scaled earthworms were growing stronger as well.
‘I wonder how strong the next one will be.’
Rather than head straight inside, she took the Heavenly Armor Formation Disc from her spatial magical treasure.
The shape of an Earth Dragon faintly emerged beneath the round black jade.
When she infused it with divine sense, the dormant formations and spiritual-energy channels appeared as golden lines.
Most of them had lost their light, but a massive flow running beneath the spirit-herb field was still connected.
‘It would make things easier if I could use this.’
The Heavenly Armor Formation Disc was an object that could display connected formations and even alter their flows.
By changing the arrangement of the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams, she might also create new changes in the dormant facilities.
So she placed glyphs that held the earth’s qi in the central cell.
On either side, she placed glyphs that divided water qi, then slowly moved Kun and Kan of the Eight Trigrams.
The scattered golden lines connected and seeped beneath her feet.
Before long, clear water began to seep little by little from the collapsed waterway.
The dried soil softened as it absorbed water qi.
So far, everything had gone as expected.
‘Let’s see...’
Baek Cheong redirected the flow of earth qi toward the area where the scaled earthworms had gathered.
She planned to harden the earth to trap them and collapse the tunnels connected to it.
However, the golden lines could not exert any power near the earthworms.
The result was the same even after she rearranged the Nine Palaces.
When she increased the force pressing down on the soil, the old formation eyes began to flicker uneasily.
Waterways connected throughout the area twisted, and one previously intact field ridge collapsed downward.
Startled, she hurriedly reduced the spiritual energy she was putting into the Heavenly Armor Formation Disc.
The formation eyes that had lost their golden light finally quieted down after quite some time.
‘That won’t work.’
The formations remaining in the Earth Dragon’s dwelling were meant to maintain the water and earth qi of the spirit-herb field.
After being neglected for so many years, they seemed hard-pressed even to fulfill their original function.
If she forcibly drew out their power, the spirit-herb field would be ruined before the scaled earthworms.
No matter how exceptional the Heavenly Armor Formation Disc was, repairing even the unstable formations of the ruins would be difficult.
‘Was it greedy of me to try to use the ruins’ formations to catch the earthworms too?’
Regretful, she gave up on the effortless harvest she had been hoping for.
Even so, the formations were helpful while she gathered spirit herbs, as long as she only used them to maintain the waterways and earth qi.
She lowered the formations’ output to stabilize the trembling fields.
Then she left the Heavenly Armor Formation Disc floating beside her so she could check the flows at any time.
All that remained was to handle the rest with her own strength.
The scaled earthworms on the outskirts were weak demonic beasts.
Even if the ones farther inside were several times stronger, she had enough means to deal with them.
She only needed to avoid charging in blindly without gauging their strength.
‘All right.’
She took out the Five-Element Banner and the Baekju magical treasure from her spatial magical treasure.
Holding the Five-Element Banner, she infused each of its five colored silks with the qi of one of the Five Elements and the corresponding glyphs in turn.
She spread wide the formation that seized hold of movement beneath the earth.
She left space around the spirit-herb roots and included only the paths connected to the earthworm tunnels within the formation.
She also set the direction of repulsion upward, so it would drive back the force rising from below.
If a scaled earthworm entered the formation, the earth would push it upward.
‘Here...’
Baek Cheong surrounded herself with the Five Elements Shield and infused Baekju with spiritual energy.
The snow-white orb rose above her palm, glowing blue.
She then unfolded the Ice Dragon Shatter and sent it through Baekju.
The ice dragon that emerged from Baekju multiplied into eight, growing larger as well.
Small ice dragons trailing blue chill circled over the spirit-herb field in formation.
She floated the One-Star Sword to her right and spaced the five Five-Element puppets out before and behind her.
When Baek-roe and Heuk-roe opened the way, Cheong-roe and Geum-roe cleared away the vines and fine roots.
Jeok-roe would scoop up the spirit herbs she selected along with the soil and place them in jade boxes.
She had finished preparing to keep gathering medicinal herbs without pause even while fighting.
‘This should do.’
She thrust her divine sense into the earth and advanced through the spirit-herb field.
When she had gone about thirty zhang, five earthworms came rushing at her through the soil.
The black silk of the Five-Element Banner snapped violently as they touched the formation.
The earth beneath her feet bulged, and yellowish bodies burst up onto the ground.
Thump!
Thump!
The scaled earthworms twisted in midair, opening their round mouths.
The waiting ice dragons rushed in from both sides and coiled around them.
As the cold spread between their yellowish scales, their movements rapidly slowed.
The One-Star Sword cut only at gaps where there were no spirit herbs.
The five earthworms were cut into pieces before they could touch the ground.
‘It works.’
Baek Cheong did not stop and sent the puppets forward.
Beneath the overturned soil where the earthworms burst out, a spirit herb with white leaves was revealed.
Its leaves were small, but the medicinal properties gathered in its roots were several times denser than those of the herbs she had harvested on the outskirts.
She had Jeok-roe dig generously around its roots before placing it in a new jade box.
As they advanced little by little, clusters of translucent purple fruits appeared.
While Geum-roe cleared away the weeds around them, three jade boxes quickly filled up.
Even as they did so, the scaled earthworms kept swarming in without end.
Three appeared, and then seven attacked all at once.
The Five-Element Banner first notified her of the direction they had entered by catching the tremors in the earth.
When repelling earth qi pushed them outside, the ice dragons froze their bodies.
The One-Star Sword and the puppets cut or smashed the heads that emerged.
Once she learned how to fight them without harming the spirit herbs, her speed grew faster and faster.
By the time the jade boxes numbered more than ten, one with a body as thick as a person appeared.
Its dark yellow scales were caked with earth and stones like armor.
The formation pushed it up from below, but the enormous scaled earthworm held fast with only half its body exposed.
When the One-Star Sword grazed its nape, sparks flew with a sound like metal scraping metal.
Only fine scratches remained on the overlapping scales.
‘This one’s a little tougher.’
The enormous scaled earthworm twisted its head and lunged at the nearest Baek-roe.
Its round mouth opened, and the layered teeth inside spun rapidly.
As it bit down on Baek-roe, she flicked the golden silk of the Five-Element Banner with one finger.
The repulsive flow that had spread wide converged beneath the earthworm.
The force concentrated in one place pushed its thick body upward.
The eight ice dragons divided their bites between its head and tail and flew in opposite directions.
The scaled earthworm stretched out lengthwise in midair, exposing its weak point.
The One-Star Sword slipped between the tangled scales and sliced its body lengthwise.
The enormous body twisted several times before going limp.
‘My spirit herbs!’
Baek Cheong hurriedly inspected the spirit-herb field.
Fortunately, only the weeds had been damaged; the spirit herbs were merely spattered with bodily fluid.
Fighting while protecting the spirit herbs was troublesome, but considering their value, it was well worth the effort.
‘This is definitely manageable.’
The enormous scaled earthworm she had just fought was at the tail end of the second tier.
So she continued harvesting without letting down her guard.
The farther inside she went, the fewer spirit herbs there were, but the number of precious ones increased instead.
A silver leaf no larger than her palm contained an astonishing amount of medicinal power within its stem.
Hot fire qi flowed from the spirit herb with tangled dark-red roots.
Some were varieties she knew by name, while others she had never seen before.
‘If I turned all of these into pills...’
Baek Cheong divided every spirit herb that had retained its medicinal properties among jade boxes.
The scaled earthworms’ presence also helped with the harvest.
The more of them gathered in one place, the denser the earth qi underground became.
And in the fertile soil, good spirit herbs were more likely to be hidden than elsewhere.
The tremors in the earth that had warned her of danger had gradually become markers for finding spirit herbs.
‘Not bad.’
Using the Five-Element Banner, she expanded the formation’s range and led the puppets toward the place with the most tremors.
As the harvest grew, jade boxes quickly piled up to more than twenty.
The earthworm carcasses might also prove useful materials, so she stored only the clean pieces separately in her spatial magical treasure.
She dealt with moderately strong ones using the ice dragons and the One-Star Sword.
When there were too many, she narrowed the formation’s range and drew them outside.
She continued digging up spirit herbs and killing scaled earthworms without pause.
‘What’s that...’
It was when she had made her way deep into the spirit-herb field.
All five colored silks of the Five-Element Banner pulled taut at once.
The Earth Dragon’s form reflected in the Heavenly Armor Formation Disc also shook violently for the first time.
A vibration unlike any she had felt before was approaching from far underground.
Thick roots and stones were pushed helplessly aside before it.
At the epicenter, a single spirit herb with nine jade leaves was growing.
Blue jade-colored light flowed through every leaf vein, and tremendous medicinal properties had gathered beneath its roots like a spring.
It was unquestionably the most precious thing among all the spirit herbs she had found so far.
Instead of retreating, Baek Cheong infused Baekju with spiritual energy.
“It really is worthy of being called an Earth Dragon’s dwelling.”
And as she watched the earth surge up like a mountain, she raised the One-Star Sword before her.