To cultivate the Dragon Blood Secret Manual, one must first awaken the Dragon Blood Warrior bloodline within one's body. There were only two ways to do this: either the bloodline reached its most basic threshold naturally, or one drank the fresh blood of a living dragon to forcibly awaken it.
And drinking fresh dragon blood was extremely dangerous.
Dragon blood alone, when poured over the body, caused excruciating pain — so drinking it into one's stomach was even worse. However, in this world every creature had its natural counter, and the Blueheart Herb was the perfect companion for fresh dragon blood. That said, the Blueheart Herb was extraordinarily precious, and Lin Lei had already inquired about its price.
A single stalk was worth tens of thousands of gold coins, and even then there was demand but no supply. Moreover, Derinkoort had once said: "Living dragon blood is incredibly potent. Generally one stalk of Blueheart Herb isn't enough. The more dragon blood you drink, the more Blueheart Herbs you'll need."
A single stalk was already that expensive — could Lin Lei afford it? Presumably the seventy thousand gold coins he'd earned over the past month or so could only buy one stalk.
"Blueheart Herb, Blueheart Herb… Heaven truly smiles upon me," Lin Lei thought, filled with delight.
He planted his feet and leaped, soaring over a dozen meters to land on the opposite cliff face. Then he immediately began silently chanting a magic spell, and in moments his body was enveloped by wind system elements as currents of air swirled around him.
Wind system fifth-tier spell — Levitation.
Lin Lei could only make his body float; he couldn't actually fly. Levitation simply allowed straight up-and-down movement. He took a step forward, hovering in midair above the canyon, and then slowly began to descend, gradually making his way down into the Misty Canyon. Bei Bei sat enviously on Lin Lei's shoulder, accompanying him deeper into the abyss. Though Bei Bei was quite powerful, he couldn't fly — he wasn't a flight-type magical beast, so the only way for him to take to the skies would be to break through to the Saint Realm.
The Misty Canyon was filled with billowing, rolling white fog. As Lin Lei descended, he noticed the cliff walls on either side growing farther apart. By now he had floated down to a position right beside the Blueheart Herb.
"Blueheart Herb — leaves of deep green with a faint blue luminescence flowing through them. The herb feels ice-cold to the touch, and when a leaf is torn open, an emerald liquid seeps out, refreshing on the tongue." Lin Lei still remembered the most basic lines of description from the Ernst Academy library's entry on the Blueheart Herb.
Looking at the herb growing from the cliff face, its leaves swaying gently in the breeze, Lin Lei took a deep breath and carefully uprooted it.
"Truly ice-cold." The moment he grasped the Blueheart Herb, it felt just like a chunk of ice. He quickly placed it into the pack on his back, then carefully scanned in every direction. "I wonder if there are more Blueheart Herbs!"
If one stalk could grow here, a second could too.
Under the effects of Levitation, Lin Lei continued to descend slowly and carefully, peering downward as best he could. The white fog churned and swirled, everything appearing hazy and indistinct. Through the mist, Lin Lei could faintly make out vines clinging to the cliff walls.
"It's enormous!"
The farther down he flew, the more he realized just how vast the lower reaches of the canyon truly were. Up above, the two cliff walls had been only a few hundred meters apart, but now Lin Lei was certain they had to be at least several thousand meters distant from each other. He had been flying close to one wall the entire time, and from the angle of the cliff face and the distance he had traveled, he could make a rough estimate.
"Roar~~~"
"Screech~~~"
Various deep, rumbling calls echoed from below at irregular intervals, coming from different directions. Judging by the sounds alone, there had to be well over a hundred magical beasts down there. Lin Lei's heart skipped a beat. "Magical beasts — there are a lot of them down below!" He could tell easily enough just from the sounds.
He pressed himself close against the stone wall, grabbing onto vines with his hands as he descended slowly and cautiously.
"Boss, I sense danger below," Bei Bei suddenly communicated through their soul link.
Lin Lei felt his heart climb into his throat. The deeper he went, the clearer the sounds of the beasts became. Those roars were deep and powerful — they definitely belonged to large magical beasts. And large magical beasts were never weak. A powerful beast wasn't necessarily large in size, but anything that enormous was certainly strong.