Shuanghu the white furred tiger received silence in response to her question. She sighed, scratching her chin with a razor sharp claw. "Seriously? What did your masters teach you all this time?"

"Shen Yuan teach how to grow big and strong. How to fight food. All ape need is strength," Meng Huo replied proudly, puffing out his chest and flexing his biceps.

I had to suppress my laughter, not wanting to insult the monkey's genuine enthusiasm. He was prodigiously strong, only it wasn't those talents we needed right now.

"Even you, Longma? I thought your ancestor is one of the most talented array masters amongst our kin?" Shuanghu continued, staring pointedly at the antlered horse beast.

"My ancestor is my ancestor. He shared his wisdom, but I am not that talented in this regard," Longma replied with a miserable sigh.

"Well, force clearly doesn't work. What a shame. Defensive arrays mean that whatever lies within is certainly valuable. No one guards a treasure not worth protecting," the tiger said, looking past the barrier with a longing gaze.

"You just don't hit hard enough," Meng Huo chuckled, walking up to the barrier and beating his chest twice with his fists.

"What? No, don't-" Shuanghu started to protest, but it was too late.

Meng Huo planted his front foot against the earth with a thud, before rearing back his fist and then smashing it into the invisible barrier. The entire tunnel shook, clumps of soil falling from the ceiling as the ground trembled around us.

For a moment, I feared the entire hill might collapse, burying us underground. Luckily, it was sturdier than I'd given it credit for. The same went for the barrier.

Other than a gentle ripple in the air, it seemed unaffected by the ape's pounding. Meng Huo stared at his fist with a confused expression, then back at the barrier.

"Idiot!" Shuanghu snapped, smacking the ape's belly with a flat paw. "You could've killed us all with your stupidity. Next time you have a genius idea, share it before you put it into action."

"You not leader," Meng Huo retorted, but his face looking like he'd sucked a lemon showed the remorse he felt.

"I have no idea why you are," the tiger said in response, pacing in front of the barrier and tapping her claws at random intervals.

Even though I had the most rudimentary knowledge of arrays possible, I wanted to try and figure out the issue. With my powerful energy vision, I might be able to see something the others couldn't.

I briefly questioned the wisdom of the beast elders, sending in a group without even a single array master. Perhaps none of the array masters had a suitable cultivation to enter, or they'd been part of a different group.

I doubted our small party was all the beasts who'd been sent inside the Blossoming Heavens, after all. I walked over to the barrier, crouching down besides the tiger. "Let me try," I offered.

"I thought you didn't know about formations?" she asked, tilting her head to one side.

"I don't, but perhaps I can figure out a way to open it anyway. It's worth a try," I replied, focusing my senses on the barrier and the tunnel around it.

I was startled for a moment. The barrier appeared as a blindingly bright wall of energy to my vision, with thin streams of energy leading into the floor, ceiling, and two walls of the tunnel around it.

I saw various nodes of spiritual energy which seemed to fuel themselves from the ambient energy, before feeding it into the barrier. I had no idea how it was constructed, but now that I knew how it worked I might be able to break it.

"The barrier is fed by various nodes. I think they're the array inscriptions, but I'm not sure if it's safe to simply destroy them. There might be a failsafe included that triggers a backlash," I explained to the group.

The beasts nodded in understanding. Often, the biggest danger in searching for treasure in places such as this was from being too hasty and triggering hidden traps.

In this case, the trap wasn't hidden so much as it was too complex to understand. Or maybe we were simply too lacking in our understanding. I'd read enough cultivation manuals to make me hear poetry in my dreams, but clearly it wasn't enough.

The life of research was endless, even more so when it concerned the Dao. I imagined if it had been a scholar reincarnated in my place, they might have genuinely fallen in love with this world.

If you ignored the violence and cruelty of cultivators, their endless thirst for knowledge and discovery was appealing. In a way, the beauty and elegance of their culture matched their thirst for blood.

"I'll keep studying it and try to figure out if there is a safe way to break it. However, we can't waste too much time. If there's really no alternative, either we take the risk or we leave and find another place we can enter," I told the beasts.

Leaving behind a chance at treasure was a difficult decision to make, but it might be necessary. If there really were endless riches hidden in this place, giving up on one or two which were too tough to obtain wasn't such a big deal.

Kneeling down once more, I focused on the array nodes. On a further inspection I realised that each of them was slightly different. The actual inscriptions were hidden beneath the soil, preventing me from studying their form.

However, even the way they processed the spiritual energy and fed it to the array varied in small ways. Some condensed the energy into thick strands, others split it into thin ones, and one node didn't emit or take in energy at all.

I had a flash of inspiration. Testing my idea was easy. I stood up and reared back my fist. Shuanghu stared at me as if I was crazy, but either she trusted me more than Meng Huo or she simply felt I was too weak to cause as much damage.

I didn't know whether to be insulted or feel valued. Nonetheless, it didn't stop me from punching at the barrier.

As I struck out, I watched the inert node closely. Exactly as I'd suspected, the moment I punched the barrier, the node shot out a pulse of spiritual energy which resonated through the barrier and back into the node, which fell silent once more.

I stood up and turned to the group of beasts. "I have a theory about how to disable the barrier, but it's risky. Whoever carries out the strategy might be injured, but if I'm right the barrier will fall apart as long as you follow my instructions," I told them.

"How confident are you?" the tortoise asked, his gaze staring beyond the barrier with undisguised greed. Of all the beasts he was most suited to the kind of herbal treasures we were finding. No doubt he expected to find an incredible reward waiting beyond the barrier.

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"In my theory being correct? One hundred percent," I responded with a confident smile. "As for our chances of success? Perhaps sixty."

The beasts communicated amongst themselves briefly. Wang Ren stood silently, confident in me as always.

After their brief discussion, the tortoise stepped forwards. "I will open the barrier. In exchange, I want first pick of whatever treasures we find inside," it demanded.

"That's not fair," Wang Ren suddenly said. "If not for my Sect Leader, you wouldn't even have a chance to open the barrier. He should get first pick, while you choose the second treasure," he suggested instead.

The tortoise grumbled, but nodded his head while sighing. "I accept. You speak the truth. Both brains and brawn are required to overcome such challenges. One without the other is the path to a quick demise."

"Since when were you as wise as your old man?" the horned lizard snorted.

"Quiet," Meng Huo barked, smacking the lizard on the head and making it yelp in surprise.

"Alright then, come here," I said to the tortoise. "Are you able to use a technique that focuses your power into a single point, or at least a small area?"

"Yes, I have a few that meet your needs."

"Alright, I'm going to strike the barrier and activate this node here," I explained, pointing to the inert node's location. "The moment my punch connects, I need you to unleash the technique you have in mind at full power."

The tortoise nodded in understanding after listening to my plan. "I can manage that. About the backlash you mentioned?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure. It could be as powerful as a Foundation Building Master's strike or perhaps weaker. If this works how I expect, there might be no backlash at all," I replied honestly.

"Alright. I'm confident in my defense," the tortoise preened, pushing his shiny black shell into the sky and flashing his large molars.

I chuckled and patted his shell, which seemed to please him. After that I stood in front of the barrier and planted my foot, preparing to strike.

I didn't need to use my full power, only enough to activate the node. I suspected that while the other nodes maintained the power of the barrier, this one was a security key of sorts.

For someone with the means to activate the node properly, they should be able to pass through the barrier unimpeded. However, I was attempting to brute force it.

At the moment I punched the barrier, it produced the same response as before. The node flared to life, emitting a pulse of spiritual energy into the barrier.

Immediately afterwards, I saw a powerful beam of spiritual energy shooting out of the tortoise's mouth. It shot directly towards the security node as I'd directed.

The reflected pulse of energy returned to the node right as the beam struck true. The overwhelming surge of energy seemed to overload the inscription and I saw cracks appearing in the node.

The next instant it burst apart. I was sent flying backwards into the wall of the tunnel. I coughed blood as the wind was knocked from my lungs.

Staggering to my feet with the help of Wang Ren, I noticed the tortoise had retreated into its shell, which had also been blown backwards and sent spinning on the spot. His confidence in his defence wasn't unfounded.

"Did it work?" I asked, cycling my medicinal qi to heal the minor internal injuries I'd suffered. The backlash was more intense than I was expecting, but such a powerful blast hopefully meant my idea had worked.

Shuanghu walked slowly towards where the barrier had been. She raised a single paw, then stretched out one claw tentatively towards it.

When the claw passed right through the air, she almost fell forwards in surprise. Slowly she walked beyond the space it had occupied with her entire body, before leaping back and forth over it.

"The barrier seems to have disappeared. It should be safe to continue," the tiger said. "However, what happens if it appears again, trapping us inside?"

"We can simply use the same strategy to open it again," I replied.

"That makes sense," she replied, nodding her head. "Let's go."

The tortoise poked its head out of the shell, followed by its four stumpy legs. "Phew, I thought I was a goner for a moment. Good thing I've perfected the Sturdy Shell Retreat Technique."

"Cowardly hiding technique, more like," the eagle jeered.

"I didn't see you volunteering to open the barrier, so don't complain now, bastard," the tortoise sneered in reply, before displaying prodigious speed and rushing further along the tunnel.

It ran so fast I began to doubt the fable of the tortoise and the hare. I wouldn't be shocked at this point if I met a hare beast which was lethargic and lazy.

We all followed his lead, making our way further into the tunnel. There were even more herbs and natural treasures along the walls, even more potent than those which had been outside.

I suspected that quite a few of them were ten-year herbs, having gathered a sufficient quantity of spiritual energy to evolve. Perhaps the true reward deep inside would be a hundred-year herb?

Excited to find out, we all quickened our pace as we drew nearer to the source of the powerful waves of spiritual energy which gushed out of the tunnel. Whatever it was, we would soon find out.

The tunnel abruptly ended, opening into a wide cavern that stretched almost twenty metres high and was twice as wide in each direction and ahead of us. The ground and walls were coated in moss and grass, every single clump and blade a natural treasure brimming with spiritual energy.

My eyes went wide at the sight. Even that alone would've been worth the effort of getting here, but they were simply the natural vegetation that grew here. Dotted around were a couple of absurdly potent sources of spiritual energy.

They belonged to a glowing yellow mushroom, a flower with pink leaves and a bright orange stem, and a ginseng with two hairy prongs. Each of those was a priceless natural treasure. I was almost certain they were hundred-year herbs.

Yet even they paled in comparison to the true prize that awaited us. In the centre of the cavern, an enormous green crystal that had been cut with seven perfectly smooth facets was placed against the ground.

With my senses I could see it periodically released pulses of energy brimming with life into the surroundings. Those three herbs absorbed the majority of the pulses, while the grasses and moss greedily devoured the scraps.

A tiny trickle was blasted outwards, leaving the cavern via the tunnel we'd come through. I started to laugh wildly.

That potent spiritual energy we'd felt outside was barely one percent of the energy this crystal released! I couldn't believe my eyes. Thinking about how we'd almost abandoned this place simply because of one measly security array made me sick to my stomach.

Each of those herbs would allow me to produce a wondrous outcome when refined through alchemy, but I suspected the energies contained within might allow me to do something even better—finish refining the first layer of my Fivefold Medicine Forge Physique.

My allies shared my excitement. The tortoise had bounded over first to the mushroom, sniffing it deeply, then the flower and finally the ginseng.

He rolled over onto his shell and back, basking in the spiritual energies of the cavern. "This is wonderful!" he exclaimed in delight.

"Agreed. It was worth the trouble of opening the array," Shuanghu said, followed by a round of nods from the other beasts.

"As we discussed, the first pick of the treasure goes to you," the tortoise said, restraining his greed and excitement long enough to remember his promise.

I looked at each of the three treasures in turn, wondering which might be of most use to me. However, in the end I decided that none of them were as interesting as the green crystal in the centre of the cavern.

The reason it was so fascinating to me was that the energy it released was startlingly similar to my own medicinal qi. I felt that studying might allow me to discover more about my physique or healing arts in general.

"I will take this crystal," I announced, walking over to the gemstone and picking it up.

There was no resistance as it slipped from the earth. I brushed a few clumps of soil from its shining surface before attempting to put it in my spatial bag.

However, the moment I tried to do so the entire cavern shook. The spiritual energy began racing towards a single point where the gem had rested a moment before.

The grasses and moss dimmed momentarily as the energy gathered into a raging maelstrom. The energy gathered into the form of a person, pointing at me with a scowling expression.

"You dare to desecrate the resting place of the Great Garden Sage!?" It roared, its voice sending shockwaves through the air.

"I knew this was too easy," I cursed, jumping back to join my comrades as we prepared for battle.

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