Guided by faint traces of spiritual energy, Jiang Heng wove through the forest. Soon, he stood beneath a century-old pine.
Pausing, he focused his senses and caught a subtle, fragrant scent.
Following the aroma, he rummaged through dense branches and found half a cicada shell, a prized medicinal husk shed by a molting cicada, valued for its healing properties.
Cicada shells—the husks left after a cicada molts—were valued as medicinal herbs, even the common ones. But this one was different. Its texture was soft, imbued with a wisp of spiritual energy, clearly no ordinary find.
“This must be from a spirit cicada,” Jiang Heng mused.
Spirit cicadas were far rarer than their mundane kin, akin to half-formed spirit beasts.
If his guess was right, this shell could fetch a hundred coppers.
Two hundred coppers in one go!
Sweet!
A thousand coppers made a tael of silver. He was one step closer to his goal of a hundred taels!
Meanwhile, the other mountain folk were still fumbling through bushes and thickets, risking their lives for nothing. A mountain dweller might spend two weeks in the mountains and earn a few hundred coppers—if they were lucky.
Of course, those weeks weren’t spent entirely in the miasma. No one could endure that.
The Mountain Patrol Division set up camps outside the forest, lighting soul-guiding nterns. By day, the mountain folk ventured in to hunt treasures. At night, they had to return to camp for rest and supplies.
The forest at night was ten, even a hundred times more dangerous. No ordinary soul could linger there.
Carefully tucking the spiritual cicada shell away, Jiang Heng roamed the forest again.
This time, his luck faltered.
After half an hour of wandering, he sensed no new spiritual energy.
Do I need to venture deeper?
He weighed his options.
The forest’s outskirts were heavily picked over by mountain folk, with fewer treasures and lower risks. Deeper in, both danger and opportunity surged.
After a moment’s hesitation, he pressed onward.
To escape the Mountain Patrol Division’s grip, he’d need a hideout deep in the forest.
Not long after entering the deeper woods, he stopped before a grove of wild bamboo. No spiritual energy caught his senses, but his heart raced.
Deep in his sea of consciousness, the golden cauldron trembled faintly, radiating a sense of longing.
*Last time, this cauldron gave me [Qi Devouring]. What’s it craving now?*
Could it mean another boon?
Pondering, he tuned into his surroundings.
A cool mountain breeze rustled the swaying bamboo.
With [Qi Devouring], he could sense spiritual objects, but there was no spiritual energy here… wait.
This pce was different. The miasma here was thicker than in other areas at this depth.
Could the cauldron be drawn to the miasma itself?
He followed the densest miasma, and sure enough, the cauldron’s tremors grew stronger.
Soon, he stumbled upon a strange sight deep in the miasmic haze.
At the base of slender green bamboo stood a single purple bamboo shoot, growing defiantly. Bck miasma swirled around it, gushing outward like a fountain.
A Hellseed!
Jiang Heng recalled tales from veteran mountain folk. The forest’s miasma erupted from the underworld’s depths, a force alien to the mortal realm. In pces where it surged, pnts sometimes took root, soaked in dense miasma over years. These pnts mutated, becoming unimaginably toxic.
The old-timers warned: if you spotted such a thing while hunting treasures, you ran for your life.
But with [Qi Devouring] shielding him from miasma, Jiang Heng held his breath and crept toward the purple shoot.
Before he got too close, he willed the golden cauldron to act.
A brilliant golden light shot from his brow, streaking toward the shoot.
Buzz!
The light was blinding, its power staggering. The moment it touched the purple shoot, the pnt dissolved instantly, colpsing into threads of bck miasma that surged toward Jiang Heng.
Instinctively, he inhaled deeply. A warm current flooded his body.
Part of the energy was absorbed by the cauldron, which quivered and fed a trickle of strange spiritual power back to him.
The warmth gathered in his eyes.
In an instant, the world transformed.
The forest, once veiled in thick fog, snapped into crystal crity. A beetle fluttering a hundred paces away was vivid in his sight, its shell’s fine hairs perfectly visible.
Gncing back, he saw the silhouettes of mountain folk scrambling through the trees, finding nothing.
He turned his focus inward to the golden cauldron in his sea of consciousness.
New text, sharp and elegant, had appeared.
[Fate Ability: Night Vision (Minor Mastery): Eyes imbued with divine power, piercing miasma and fog, seeing in darkness as if in daylight, observing details up to a hundred paces.]
A new ability!
And one that boosted his night vision to boot.
This was huge—perfect for hunting treasures, spotting dangers, or tracking foes!
If he was to survive long-term in the miasma zones, this ability would be a game-changer.
Live safe, rake in coin—it’s just a matter of time!
But this encounter sparked an even bigger revetion.
The golden cauldron can absorb Hellseeds…
In the Hundred Thousand Mountains, things like that purple bamboo shoot weren’t rare.
If he kept searching, he’d find a second, a third, a fourth!
That meant more, stronger abilities.
[Qi Devouring] and [Night Vision] had already given him an edge. His future was bzing bright.
What would other abilities bring? How far could his power climb?
The thought alone is thrilling!
With dusk approaching, Jiang Heng decided to head back to camp.
He pnned to escape, but not yet.
First, he needed a proper hideout.
The forest teemed with miasma and spirit creatures. By day, beasts and spirits were scarce, and he’d met none. But at night? Without a safe haven, staying in the forest was suicide.
He couldn’t turn in today’s haul. Digging a deep pit, he buried the spiritual lingzhi and cicada shell, then made for camp.