While Zi Long and Zi Donglai were talking, Yang Kai had already gauged the location of the spirit herb based on the richness of the medicinal fragrance from every direction.
After all, he had spent considerable time in this medicine valley and collected a fair number of herbs. Being an alchemist himself, he had plenty of experience in this regard.
His luck was good — the unknown spirit herb was closest to his position. Moreover, the area ahead was inexplicably riddled with spatial rifts. That meant Zi Long and Xu Wei would inevitably be slowed trying to navigate toward the herb, whereas he himself would hardly be affected.
Thinking this, Yang Kai picked up his pace once more.
Suddenly, his nose twitched, and a look of surprise crossed his face. "More than one?"
At that moment, he caught a different medicinal fragrance mingling with the one he had detected earlier, the scents intertwining into something chaotic and hard to distinguish.
Yang Kai snapped his gaze upward and spotted, roughly a hundred zhang away on a small hillside, five pale purple blossoms swaying in the wind. The flowers were about the size of a palm and bore nine petals each, an inefflicable aura flowing ceaselessly through them.
Behind the flowers, a colossal spatial rift stretched across the sky like the gaping maw of some beast, threatening to devour all five of them.
"This is..." Yang Kai's eyes narrowed. An instant later he recognized exactly what he was looking at. "Dao Comprehension Flowers!"
These were unmistakably the Dao Comprehension Flowers the Ghost Ancestor had mentioned before!
The Ghost Ancestor had once passed through the outskirts of the medicine valley and gathered a few Dao Comprehension Flowers there. Realizing the valley's immense value, he had wanted to venture deeper but held back due to various concerns. Even so, he had been thoroughly satisfied with his harvest — Dao Comprehension Flowers could help a warrior comprehend the Heavenly Dao and the Martial Dao, advancing one's cultivation realm. This benefit was especially significant for Void King Realm experts.
During cultivation, holding a single petal of the Dao Comprehension Flower in one's mouth would produce astonishing results.
The flower's potency varied greatly depending on its age. A newly sprouted Dao Comprehension Flower took three hundred years to bloom, and when it first flowered, it bore only three petals. After that, one additional petal grew every hundred years until it reached the maximum of nine.
Nine was the extreme of numbers! A nine-petaled Dao Comprehension Flower was at minimum nine hundred years old.
Beyond that, the petal count would not increase further with age. However, the flower's color would gradually shift — from pure white to crimson, then blood red, and finally to purple.
Each transformation consumed far more time than the growth of a single petal, requiring patience that dwarfed the wait for new petals.
The five Dao Comprehension Flowers before him had already reached the pale purple stage, which meant they were at least three thousand years old!
Such items offered a terrifying boost to Void King Realm experts. If any Void King Realm powerhouse gathered all five, he would no longer need any other spirit pills or medicines during cultivation — simply placing a petal in his mouth at critical junctures would guarantee steady advancement.
The moment Yang Kai laid eyes on the five flowers, he understood their staggering value.
Among all the rare treasures he had collected so far, only the two Brahma Heaven Sacred Fruits came close. Everything else paled in comparison.
Yang Kai's heart blazed with excitement. He shifted his footing, ready to dash over and snatch the Dao Comprehension Flowers.
But before he could even move, a sudden chill engulfed his entire body for no apparent reason. At the same time, from the corner of his eye, he caught a streak of purple light hurtling toward him from the left like a heaven-splitting sword.
That purple light contained an indescribable intent, its power absolutely terrifying.
This was no strike a Return of the Void Realm cultivator could produce. Whoever unleashed it had to be a Void King Realm expert — and not a weak one either.
Zi Long!
Yang Kai immediately knew who had ambushed him.
He had heard from Xue Yue that the cultivation technique Zi Long and Zi Donglai practiced was called the Purple Qi Long River Art. This technique was renowned throughout the entire star field and was the Zi family's hereditary art. Zi Long's breakthrough to the second stage of the Void King Realm within his lifetime was entirely thanks to this technique.
Practicing it required rising early each day to absorb and circulate the strand of purple qi generated between heaven and earth at dawn. When cultivated to its peak, that purple qi could transform into rivers and oceans capable of obliterating millions of li with ease.
Under normal circumstances, a powerhouse of Zi Long's standing would have maintained his dignity. Even bearing a blood feud with Yang Kai, he would never have stooped to ambushing a junior. If Zi Long wanted Yang Kai dead, he would do it openly, crushing him with overwhelming force.
He was entirely capable of doing so.
But the situation now was different. Zi Long had undoubtedly spotted the five Dao Comprehension Flowers as well and recognized their rarity and value. This concerned his breakthrough to the third stage of the Void King Realm — how could Zi Long afford to cling to idle principles?
Yang Kai was clearly the closest to the flowers, followed by himself and Zi Donglai. Xu Wei was still over five hundred zhang away.
If he didn't slow Yang Kai down and let him reach the flowers first, he would be in an impossible position.
So the instant he spotted both the flowers and Yang Kai, Zi Long struck without a moment's hesitation. Though this was merely a casual blow from a second-stage Void King Realm expert, it was terrifying enough that no ordinary Return of the Void Realm cultivator could hope to deflect it.
After launching the attack, Zi Long's speed surged. He didn't even glance at Yang Kai. His eyes held nothing but those five pale purple blossoms, burning with fervent light.
Whether Yang Kai lived or died was no longer his concern.
He was nothing more than an ant. Why should he care?