After waiting in the empty plains for a few seconds, we realised that the ghostly old sage wasn't chasing us out. Apparently he'd truly decided to let us walk out with his treasures.

It was rather surprising to me that a cultivator would be so generous. Especially after all his talk of trespassing on sacred grounds. Were my techniques really that impressive?

Sure, they could be quite devastating with the proper application. Healing techniques were nigh unheard of, so they were certainly unique in that sense. To make a sage take such a liking to me that he would declare me his inheritor, however?

I was suspicious to say the least, but I couldn't deny reality. Whatever the case, we were now free and four natural treasures richer.

I had claimed the gemstone for myself, but the others had yet to be divided out. "How are you going to split the three herbs?" I asked Meng Huo.

"He take one, she take one, last one go to lucky beast," he said, pointing first at the tortoise, then at Shuanghu, then finishing with a mischievous grin.

"I want the mushroom. I can feel that it resonates almost perfectly with my core," the tortoise said, eyeing the hundred-year herb with greed.

Shuanghu didn't seem as excited as the tortoise to be receiving one of the herbs. "We didn't really do much down there. I think the human should take my share," she said, pushing the herbs towards me.

"What? If we do things this way then some of us are bound to end up with far more than others. Are you sure?" I asked, surprised at the tiger's generosity.

I expected beasts to be a little greedier. After all, resources were hard to come by in the wilds or unless one had a powerful master. Which I supposed Shuanghu did, judging from her ancestry.

Still, I wanted to make sure before taking another treasure. I wouldn't say no to valuable ingredients, but I wasn't a covetous fellow.

"That is the way of life. A weak person treasuring a jade is a crime. Only through strength can you overcome trials and become better for it. If it is my fortune then I will acquire something on this journey," Shuanghu replied while cleaning her paws.

The casual dispensation of wisdom while she was grooming herself left me a little shocked. However, the other beasts agreed with her, even if a few of them seemed disgruntled at the outcome.

That was simply the way of the world. The strong ruled over the weak, amassing ever greater power. Looking between the two natural treasures, I tried to figure out which one I would rather have.

Both had powerful spiritual energy, almost equal. However, the quality of its spiritual energy wasn't the only way to determine the value of a natural treasure.

Some had instinctive uses, which one could enhance through certain methods. Others needed to be processed and mixed with other reagents in order to produce the most benefits.

In the end I made my choice not through logic, but through a little bit of childhood nostalgia. How many of my favourite novels had started with a poor peasant discovering a potent ginseng in a cave or the woods and awakening their latent strength?

I reached out and took the hundred-year ginseng, storing it in my spatial bag. The eagle screeched softly. Clearly it had wanted it too.

That only left the pink and orange flower. Meng Huo said it would be down to fortune to decide who it went to and I was curious to see what that meant.

It turned out to be a game, relying on a mix of the heavens will and the subtle use of one's cultivation. The huge ape took a six sided die out of his spatial artifact, holding it in the air.

The sides were decorated with various depictions of beasts. The four divine beasts—dragon, phoenix, tiger, tortoise—along with a horned horse that looked remarkably similar to Longma and finally a gigantic golden ape.

"Shuanghu forfeited her opportunity. He already took treasure. I take wukong, choose your side," Meng Huo said, holding the die out.

I guessed that wukong was the golden ape. It was the same name as the monkey king from Earth. It wasn't the same name as the 'ape god' he'd spoken about earlier, which raised a few questions, but for now I was happy to watch the game.

The eagle chose the phoenix side, Longma chose the horned horse, the lizard took the dragon, the badgerhog chose the tiger, and finally the little ape took the tortoise, throwing a nasty glare at his bigger cousin.

Once each beast had chosen a side, Meng Huo stepped back so that the six formed a circle. I wondered if it would be a simple roll of the die, but the moment he tossed it into the air I knew it was anything but.

As soon as the die left his fingers, I saw strands of qi shoot out of each beast towards the object. They each did their utmost to influence the die as it fell towards the grass.

I did notice that none of them used more or less qi than the original amount they'd sent into the strand. Seeing the strain on the little ape's face, I realised they were limiting themselves to his level.

It made the game fair, yet even when the quantity of qi was the same, the quality and experience of the user was not. It was a vicious tug of war that resembled the wider world of cultivation.

For resources to advance one's realm and talents, nothing less than your best effort was acceptable. At first, Meng Huo dominated the others, with the die plummeting downwards, golden ape facing towards the sky.

However, his haste became his downfall. He'd lost control by brute forcing it and the die started to spin wildly as the other beasts fought for dominance. Meng Huo eventually asserted himself again, but he no longer had an overwhelming advantage.

Things weren't entirely even. After another breath's time, the little ape suddenly collapsed, panting for breath. His strand of qi had snapped, relinquishing his control over the die and chance to claim the treasure.

He punched the ground and screeched, but I felt that he was angrier at himself than the others. After all, even though he was less experienced than them, they were using the same strength. He'd had a chance to win, but squandered it through a lack of focus.

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The others slowly bowed out as they lost control. Next was the lizard, who hissed and slapped his tail as his strand of qi broke. He was followed by Meng Huo—his earlier eagerness had become his downfall.

That left just three. Longma the antlered horse, the fiery eagle, and the angry badgerhog. The battle was fierce, with none of them willing to lose as the die drew nearer to the grass.

Even in their desperation, they never allowed more of their qi to reach out to the die. They clearly held the rules of the game in high standing.

In a puff of smoke, the eagle's qi strand snapped and it was forced to step back. It ruffled its feathers, but then shrugged its wings and sat down to watch the final clash.

I supposed it had wanted the ginseng more than the flower and wasn't too bothered that he'd lost. The badgerhog was a fierce competitor, but Longma refused to give in.

The die was a breath's time from touching the ground and the tiger symbol was pointing upwards. The badgerhog was about to win the treasure.

At the last moment, Longma winnied and his strand of qi twisted into a helix. He never applied more power, but rather stretched his control to the limit as the die suddenly flipped, then touched the grass.

All the beasts sucked in a breath, unsure of what had happened in the final second. The badgerhog suddenly roared, three spines flying from its body into the sky. It clawed the soil and then reached out a paw to Longma, who tapped it with a hoof and then reached out to take the flower.

"What an interesting game. I bet it's incredibly beneficial for the practice of qi control," I remarked as Meng Huo reclaimed the dice.

It was Shuanghu who answered instead. "Indeed. We teach it to the young beasts the moment they are able to project their qi outside of their cores. For those without the raw power, control and finesse are their best weapons," she explained.

"We should try something similar for the disciples of the sect," I said, turning to Wang Ren.

"I agree. It would be extremely useful. I have never heard of this game before. It would make a potent training tool," he said.

Now that we'd split the treasures and taken a short rest, we were ready to advance. We decided to continue moving in the same direction we'd been travelling to leave the forest, claiming all the treasures we found on the way.

Most of them were more clumps of the spirit grass, but occasionally we found flowers, mushrooms, and roots. Having met the Great Garden Sage, I wondered if these seemingly endless grassy plains were what he referred to as a 'little garden'.

That gave me a new perspective on the power of nascent soul sages, one that made me appreciate the vast gulf that existed between them and other cultivators. I had a long way to go until I reached that level. It was better to take things one step at a time.

The further we travelled, the denser the spiritual energy in the air became. I had a theory about that, but it was groundless until we found a more interesting environment.

To my surprise, the green gemstone which I'd kept in my spatial bag suddenly let out a pulse of its unique energy. Rather than a spherical wave, it seemed to be an arrow, shooting in a particular direction.

It was at a forty-five degree angle away from the way we were moving. Not wanting to give away anything to my group—I still didn't fully trust them—I advanced to the front and subtly shifted our direction over time until we were moving towards the direction the gemstone had pointed in.

However, despite watching it closely it didn't release another pulse even after I waited for two more hours. I was a little disappointed with the Blossoming Heavens so far. Everything had said it was a miraculous place filled with death and opportunity alike, but until now it had basically been a stroll in the grass collecting herbs.

The next moment I cursed my wandering mind as the entire world started to shake, the ground beneath us rumbling with violent tremors. Above our heads, the artificial sun started to flare. Jets of flame burst outwards from the surface, dissipating into the air.

Suddenly the gentle orange sun exploded in red, the colour of the entire celestial object shifting in an instant. The heat of the air shot up along with it, stifling me momentarily as I adapted to the change.

The beasts hadn't seemed as surprised as me by the change, yet they also suffered from the heat as much as me. More, for those of them who had warm coats of fur. The eagle had an affinity for fire and actually seemed more comfortable at this temperature, while the scaled beasts seemed mostly unbothered.

I cycled my qi a few times, allowing my body to slowly adapt. As a peak Qi Gathering cultivator, the weather didn't bother me as long as I prepared adequately and used my qi. The drain was minimal and given the quantity of ambient spiritual energy I would be fine.

The change to the sun and the temperature was only the beginning, however. The ground erupted around us as stone walls broke through the earth and rose towards the sky.

They formed endless ancient ruins littering the once empty landscape. Once they were finished forming, we found ourselves in a completely different environment to the one we'd been in moments earlier.

I marvelled at our surroundings, partly because of the beauty that met my eye, but mostly due to the ridiculous shift in the spiritual energy. All those clumps of grass had vanished, replaced by energy signatures that felt more hostile and less in tune with the world.

At that moment, the green gemstone decided to release another pulse of energy. It still pointed in the same direction, which was now directly forwards, but it was much stronger than the previous pulse. I hoped that meant I was closer to whatever it was pointing me to.

I suspected it was a part of that old sage's scheme, but if it helped advance my knowledge of healing, then I was willing to play his game. For now I had a vast complex of ruins to explore.

Seeing that the beasts hadn't been surprised by the change, I wondered if they had known about it in advance. "What was that phenomenon?" I asked Shuanghu.

It wasn't that I didn't respect Meng Huo as a leader, but talking to him was difficult at times. The white furred tiger was easier to get along with, for me at least. Wang Ren had become like a brother to the ape, with the two sparring or working out each time we stopped to rest.

"You mean the shifting seasons? It happens every time this secret realm opens. Why do you think it's called the Blossoming Heavens? During the week that it is open, it gradually shifts from an empty landscape to a vibrant world of treasures and dangers. At least that was how the elders described it," she explained.

"Thank you for sharing. Does that mean these ruins will have more valuable treasures than these clumps of grass?" I asked in response.

"Of course, but it also means," she said, suddenly hunching down on all fours as her claws extended, "Greater dangers."

As she finished, a shadow suddenly flashed out from behind a nearby wall, slashing at the tiger with a chipped sword. Her front paw shot out, her razor-sharp claws tearing the figure in half.

Staring at the corpse, my face twisted into a grimace. I had a flashback to Dancing Lights City. The identity of the attacker was that of a skeleton wearing rusty armour and wielding a broken sword, reminding me of those living corpses that wandered the city's streets.

In the far distance, I heard the sounds of clashing steel. Other cultivators? It had to be. Honestly I was surprised we hadn't encountered anyone else so far, but perhaps the secret realm was so large that it wasn't possible until people began moving around.

That first skeleton was the starting pistol for a horde of undead to charge out from the ruins that now surrounded us. They had plenty of cover from which to attack, taking us by surprise with their powerful ambush.

However, all of us were strong in our own right. The beasts were still frustrated at how powerless they'd been against that ghostly apparition. They took out their anger on the skeletons, smashing and slashing them to pieces.

They were tenacious enemies, refusing to stop moving and attacking until their skulls were shattered. Even if decapitated, the body would continue moving on its own until the skull broke.

I formed a scalpel's edge on my two palms as a skeleton rushed at me with its sword raised high overhead. My last fight had earned me two valuable rewards. What would I get for myself this time?

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