Chapter 142: Soul-Nourishing Spring

The three of them walked for about half an hour before finally cresting the small hillside and arriving in front of a narrow valley.

This ravine was much like the ones Chu Tianfeng had seen before, roughly several dozen meters wide, with towering ancient trees filling the gorge.

Chu Tianfeng fully unleashed his spiritual sense, sweeping it horizontally inward.

Soon, he detected numerous eagles—about a hundred of them. Their cultivation levels were not particularly high; the majority were at the first rank, and only a little over a dozen were at the second rank.

"There is a Soul-Nurturing Spring here! There is actually a Soul-Nurturing Spring!" Suddenly, Xiyazi’s trembling voice echoed in his sea of consciousness.

"Are you certain?" Chu Tianfeng could not entirely suppress his joy.

The Soul-Nurturing Spring could not only be used by ghosts for cultivation but also to nourish a cultivator's spiritual sense.

Chu Tianfeng’s true essence was stronger than that of cultivators at the same level, but his spiritual sense was roughly on par with theirs, which had become a shortcoming of his.

With the nourishment of the Soul-Nurturing Spring, his spiritual sense would experience significant growth, perhaps even a qualitative leap.

"Yes, about two li deep inside, there is a cavern, and the Soul-Nurturing Spring is inside it," Xiyazi said with excitement.

"Very well, I will clear the area first." Chu Tianfeng turned his head to look at Long Fei. "Brother Long, you stay at the mouth of the valley."

After saying that, he retrieved a flying sword from his storage ring and walked straight into the valley.

Long Fei looked gloomily at Feng Mingxue. The latter made a comical face at him and quickly followed behind Chu Tianfeng.

Left with no choice, Long Fei thrust his middle finger at the backs of the departing pair and muttered, "Shameless couple!"

"Hey, you aren't just going to charge right in like this, are you?" After walking a little over a hundred meters, seeing that Chu Tianfeng still hadn't mentioned any specific action plan, Feng Mingxue could not help asking in a low voice.

"Then how do you suggest we go in?" Chu Tianfeng asked without looking back.

He understood what Feng Mingxue meant, of course, but he did not feel any plan was necessary.

To deal with a hundred or so first- and second-rank eagles—let alone with his cultivation already reaching the first layer of Foundation Establishment, even at the tenth layer of Qi Condensation, as long as he had a flying sword in hand, he could easily lay his opponents flat.

"This is an eagle nest; the number of eagles is definitely greater than before. You might want to die, but I certainly don't." Seeing Chu Tianfeng walking faster and faster, Feng Mingxue stamped her feet in anxiety.

"If you're afraid of dying, go back!" Not only did Chu Tianfeng walk faster, but his voice also grew louder.

Hearing the commotion, several eagles near the valley entrance immediately flapped their wings and charged toward Chu Tianfeng and Feng Mingxue.

It's over, it's completely over. A wave of despair swept through Feng Mingxue's heart, and she almost wanted to turn tail and run.

Swish!

A silver flash cut through the air, and those few eagles didn't even have time to shriek before they slammed heavily onto the ground with loud thuds.

What on earth was that?

Feng Mingxue hurried to Chu Tianfeng's side, wanting to check out his overpowered equipment.

However, she circled around him almost once and didn't see any firearm in his hand.

"What kind of hidden weapon did you use?" Feng Mingxue asked.

"Here!" Chu Tianfeng flicked the flying sword in his hand and walked straight over to the carcasses of the eagles to carve off their thighs.

During lunch, Du Jingjing and the others had asked this very question, and Chu Tianfeng had given vague answers, merely claiming it was an overbearing hidden weapon.

"Hmph, keep your secrets! If you won't say, fine!" Feng Mingxue certainly didn't believe the short sword in Chu Tianfeng's hand could be that powerful; she assumed he was just brushing her off.

Too lazy to explain to her, Chu Tianfeng finished harvesting the eagle thighs from the ground and headed forward to meet the next batch of eagles.

Perhaps catching the scent of blood, this time nearly all the eagles in the valley poured out.

"Fall back behind me," Chu Tianfeng growled in a low voice as his flying sword once again shot out from his hand.

Feng Mingxue finally saw it clearly this time: not only was that short sword lightning-fast, but it could also change directions entirely at will!

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The flying sword wove and looped around the two of them.

The eagles kept screaming and plummeting from the sky!

Although she had mentally prepared herself, seeing the flying sword continuously revolving and slaughtering the eagles still left Feng Mingxue feeling deeply shocked and utterly convinced of his prowess.

Before long, the valley returned to calm once again. Over a hundred eagles had almost all been overturned, with only a few sensing that the situation was bad and escaping for their lives.

Chu Tianfeng walked up to the carcasses one by one, busily digging out monster cores and carving off thighs.

"Hey! We agreed I'd get my revenge! I..." Before Feng Mingxue could finish speaking, a headless, legless eagle carcass dropped right at her feet, accompanied by a cold voice: "You can take your revenge now."

Chu Tianfeng had merely intended to tease the young woman, but to his surprise, the moment he turned around, a series of shrill cries rang out behind him, accompanied by flashing sword lights: "Let you grab me! Let you bite me!"

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Clack! Clack! Clack!

Feng Mingxue's sword moves were extremely fast, and in no time at all, the ground was littered with a mashed heap of meat.

Chu Tianfeng suddenly felt that using that tiny bit of Mist Lotus Ointment to extract twenty-seven hundred spiritual stones from her might have been a mistake; this girl, like those disciples of the Mount Hua Sect, was not someone to be easily provoked.

Ten-odd minutes later, Chu Tianfeng had harvested another hundred and ten pairs of eagle legs and twelve monster cores.

Afterward, seeing two eagle eggs resting in a tree, Chu Tianfeng decided to go all the way, flying up the tree to confiscate both of them.

"How many?" Feng Mingxue poked her little head forward.

She had also spotted that bird's nest, but she hadn't known how many eggs were inside.

"Two," Chu Tianfeng replied casually.

"Split one with me." Feng Mingxue extended her small hand toward him.

"What are you doing? Dishing out a robbery?" Chu Tianfeng stepped aside and continued walking deeper into the valley.

These two eggs were genuinely quite large; he was still planning to make a fine batch of eagle egg drop soup.

"Not giving me one, are you?" Feng Mingxue withdrew her small hand. "That fifteen hundred vital energy stones you owe me will be reduced by one hundred!"

Damn you! Chu Tianfeng swiftly retrieved a bird's egg and shoved it into her hand. "You owe me another hundred vital energy stones."

Feng Mingxue giggled merrily. "You gave this to me of your own accord; I didn't want it, you insisted on gifting it to me."

Chu Tianfeng felt this girl and Wang Lianchang were truly a match made in heaven—both were adept at highway robbery.

The two of them continued deeper inside. Feng Mingxue proceeded with utmost caution the entire way, keeping a vigilant eye on her surroundings. Chu Tianfeng, however, swaggered along, occasionally stopping to dig up a stalk of spiritual herb.

Another ten-odd minutes later, the two arrived before a pitch-black cavern.

The cave entrance was about two meters wide and three meters high, choked with weeds inside and plunging into a bottomless abyss of darkness.

Near the cave entrance grew more than a dozen plants, about half a meter tall, each boasting nine petals and nine blossoms!

This herb was known as the Soul-Nurturing Grass. When mature, it possessed nine petals and nine flowers, hence its alternate name: Nine-Petal Nine-Flower Grass.

Legend had it that this spiritual herb had no other application whatsoever, save for the refining of Soul-Nurturing Pills.

As the name suggested, Soul-Nurturing Pills were medicinal elixirs used to nourish the spiritual sense and heal the sea of consciousness. However, the formula for these pills had long been lost to history; no one knew how to refine Soul-Nurturing Pills anymore, knowing only that the principal ingredient was Soul-Nurturing Grass, while the auxiliary ingredients and exact recipe remained entirely a mystery.

Regardless of whether it was useful or not, Chu Tianfeng dug them up one by one and stowed them into his storage ring.

"You stand guard outside," Chu Tianfeng said, lifting a foot to walk straight into the cavern.

"Are you out of your mind!" Feng Mingxue grabbed hold of him. "Who knows what kind of danger might be lurking inside."

"You'd better wait outside the cave," Chu Tianfeng deliberately put on a tense expression. "If you hear me scream, run toward the valley exit and don't ever look back."

Feng Mingxue found herself infected by his tension. She looked at the ravine, then at the cavern, and after a moment's hesitation, still said, "I'm going in with you."

Chu Tianfeng could only roll his eyes and step into the cave.

The further they walked into the cavern, the dimmer the light became.

After proceeding for about twenty meters, it was pitch black inside, utterly devoid of light.

"Hey! Do you have a torch?" Feng Mingxue called out again.

"No. Stop chattering; if you're scared, turn back and leave," Chu Tianfeng replied with extreme impatience.

Feng Mingxue ground her little tiger teeth in frustration, but she still obediently followed right behind Chu Tianfeng, treading unsteadily step by step.

Fortunately, there were no weeds deep inside the cavern; the ground underfoot consisted essentially of hard rock, which allowed Feng Mingxue to feel a tiny bit more at ease.

After walking another hundred meters or so, Chu Tianfeng suddenly stopped.

"What is it?" Feng Mingxue couldn't see a thing and could only judge Chu Tianfeng's actions and general direction by sound.

Chu Tianfeng ignored her, simply "gazing" excitedly at everything before them.

The place where the two of them stood was a vaulted, cavernous grotto.

The grotto was roughly circular, spanning an area of three to four hundred square meters and standing over ten meters high.

There was nothing else inside the cave except for a massive pool right in the center!

The pool was also circular, and its radius was much larger than the one at the bottom of Thousand Birds Lake. It occupied nearly half of the grotto, covering at least a hundred square meters.

And the pool was brimful of the Soul-Nurturing Spring!

Though it was a low-grade Soul-Nurturing Spring, it still left Chu Tianfeng immensely thrilled.

He knew that the formation of this Soul-Nurturing Spring likely spanned several centuries, if not a millennium!

If nothing went wrong, there should be a Soul-Nurturing Pearl within the pool! A Soul-Nurturing Pearl capable of nourishing one's spiritual sense!

Sure enough, with a slight sweep of his spiritual sense, Chu Tianfeng discovered a round pearl in a corner at the bottom of the pool. It was about the size of an infant's fist and emitted a faint glow.

"Stay right there and don't move; I'm going over to take a look," Chu Tianfeng said, and with a splash, he jumped straight into the pool.

"Hey!" Hearing the sound of a pool right beside her, Feng Mingxue was frightened into hurriedly stepping backward.

Chu Tianfeng swam directly to the bottom of the pool and reached out to scoop the Soul-Nurturing Pearl into his hand.

"I want to stay here," Xiyazi's languid voice drifted from his sea of consciousness.

"What did you say?" Chu Tianfeng was quite taken aback.

He genuinely hadn't expected that after cultivating this little ghost for less than half a year, the spirit would actually want to say bye-bye to him.

"I'm sorry!" Xiyazi said apologetically. "There is so much Soul-Nurturing Spring here. If I stay, I might be able to cultivate to the Nascent Soul stage in a short amount of time."

"This..." Chu Tianfeng felt rather conflicted.

He and Xiyazi had only spent a few months together, so there wasn't much to speak of in terms of deep emotional attachment.

However, Chu Tianfeng truly harbored too many secrets. To say nothing else, his Five Elements Manual and invisibility techniques alone were enough to make anyone drool with greed; once leaked, it would likely spell mortal disaster.

And since Xiyazi lived alongside him day and night, it was impossible for the spirit not to know of those cultivation methods, let alone remain ignorant of how overpowering they were.

"Rest assured." Seeming to sense his misgivings, Xiyazi drifted out of the Soul-Nurturing Wood and raised her right palm. "I swear upon my Dao heart that I will never reveal your secrets. Should I violate this, my soul will scatter into ashes during my heavenly tribulation."

Words having reached this point, Chu Tianfeng knew there was no turning back.

Whether human or ghost, once someone swore upon their Dao heart, they generally dared not break it; otherwise, inner demons would plague them during their tribulation, making it extremely difficult to survive.

Chu Tianfeng sighed, burst out of the Soul-Nurturing Pool with a splash, and then used a water-control spell to funnel the Soul-Nurturing Spring water left on his body back into the pool.

"Hey!" Having waited by the poolside in nervous anxiety, Feng Mingxue hurried over the moment she saw Chu Tianfeng emerge holding a glowing pearl, her eyes shining with an unusual luster. "What kind of precious pearl is that?"