From Star Luo City to Heaven Dou City, it was a full four thousand li.
Although the carriage Huo Yuhao hired looked quite ordinary on the outside, the horses pulling it were no ordinary pack horses, but rather a specially domesticated low-level Spirit Beast called the Windchaser Steed.
This kind of Spirit Beast horse was not very tall, but its limbs were thick and powerful, and its mane was iron-gray. When running, its hooves barely touched the ground, yet even at full speed, the carriage remained as stable as sitting in one's own living room.
The Windchaser Steed possessed little aggressiveness, but its endurance and speed were famous.
Even so, it took a full ten days before they finally caught sight of the towering silhouette of Heaven Dou City's walls.
After resting for a night in Heaven Dou City to wash away the dust of travel, Huo Yuhao and Jin Li set off again early the next morning, just as dawn was breaking.
This time, they did not hire a carriage but instead walked through the somewhat deserted eastern gate of Heaven Dou City.
There were few travelers on the official road outside the city gate, the morning mist had not yet fully dispersed, and the air was filled with a fresh scent of vegetation mixed with soil.
After walking some distance from the city gate, the two of them unfolded the soul-guided flying devices on their backs, soared into the sky, and flew toward the east.
Within just a hundred li, a vast and boundless emerald-green ocean appeared at the edge of their vision.
The forest rolled on continuously with no end in sight. The crowns of the towering ancient trees surged like green waves in the morning breeze, looking from afar like a heavily colored landscape painting.
"Is this the Sunset Forest?"
The two hovered at the edge of the forest. Below their feet was a clear dividing line between the forest and the wilderness outside.
One step forward was a vast, dense forest; one step back was overgrown wild grass.
Jin Li looked down at the dense emerald green below, her brow furrowing slightly without her realizing it.
As a Spirit Beast, she was all too familiar with the aura of the forest.
And as the Emperor Auspicious Beast, carrying the Luck of the Soul Beast Clan, she possessed an inexplicable, subtle sense of the rise and fall of the Spirit Beast populations within the forest.
At this moment, in her perception, although this Sunset Forest was by no means small in scale, the aura of Spirit Beasts within it was extremely weak.
How powerful was Huo Yuhao's mental force? At the exact moment Jin Li frowned, his Spirit Domain Realm mental force had already spread out toward the Sunset Forest below like an invisible giant net.
Wherever his mental force swept, every blade of grass, tree, insect, and beast in the forest was reflected in his mind. However, the information fed back made his brow furrow slightly as well.
Reasonably speaking, in a vast and densely vegetated primeval forest like the Sunset Forest, the number and rank of Spirit Beasts should be quite considerable.
But right now, in his perception, the entire forest was quiet to an almost eerie degree.
Let alone ten-thousand-year Spirit Beasts, there weren't even many thousand-year Spirit Beasts.
Only in the outermost fringes of the Sunset Forest could he still perceive some weak fluctuations of ten-year and hundred-year Spirit Beasts.
Huo Yuhao couldn't help but wonder: could it be that overhunting by humans had driven the Spirit Beasts here to the brink of extinction?
He glanced at Jin Li, whose expression was unusually serious, and said, "Let's fly further in and see what the situation is in the depths."
Jin Li nodded, pursing her lips without speaking. The two flew side-by-side straight toward the central area of the Sunset Forest.
The deeper they flew, the denser the forest became. The crowns of the towering ancient trees intertwined in layers, cutting the sunlight into countless tiny flecks of light scattered on the ground, making the woods dim and deep.
However, after they had flown for quite a while, Jin Li suddenly halted in mid-air.
She hovered in mid-air, her golden eyes staring straight into the increasingly dark depths of the dense forest ahead, her voice carrying an unusual seriousness and solemnity: "Something is wrong here!"
"Normally, the deeper one goes into a forest, the stronger the inhabiting Spirit Beasts should be."
"Yet we've been flying for so long, and even though the area below is already considered the depths, the most I can perceive is just a few thousand-year Spirit Beasts. There isn't even a trace of a ten-thousand-year Spirit Beast."
Whenever it came to matters regarding Spirit Beasts, Jin Li seemed to become a completely different person.
Finally, she slowly raised her hand and pointed in a certain direction toward the deepest part of the Sunset Forest: "I feel a threat coming from that direction."
"Perhaps it is precisely because of the anomaly there that the Spirit Beasts in this forest are so scarce."
Huo Yuhao did not speak, but in his heart, he already agreed with Jin Li's judgment.
Just moments ago, he was still guessing that the sharp decline of Spirit Beasts in the Sunset Forest was due to overhunting by human Spirit Masters, but now it seemed that guess could be dismissed.
Because the instant Jin Li finished speaking, an excited voice suddenly rang out inside Huo Yuhao's Spiritual Sea without any warning.
"This is it! This is it!"
"I smell it! It's the scent of the Bilin Seven Absolutes Flower! There's absolutely no mistake!"
This was the voice of the Qiluo Tulip.
The reason Huo Yuhao had traveled thousands of li to make a detour to Heaven Dou City was naturally not to sightsee; his target from the very beginning had been the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Knowing from Ten Thousand Years in the future that the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was in the vicinity of Heaven Dou City, he had narrowed down the search area to the Sunset Forest after making inquiries and repeatedly cross-referencing ancient records.
Now, the Qiluo Tulip's reaction was the strongest proof. As the King of Immortal Herbs who had emerged from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, he would never mistake the way home.
"Although we are still some distance away from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, I can already sense the thin poison gas drifting in the air."
"That is the aura emitted by the Bilin Seven Absolutes Flower. This poison barrier was personally laid down around the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well by the Sea God, Tang San."
Back then, Tang San planted the Bilin Seven Absolutes Flower around the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, forming a poison barrier that enveloped the entire valley. He claimed it was to protect these Immortal Herbs from being stolen and dug up by greedy outsiders.
At that time, the Immortal Herbs in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well were naive and simple-minded, like blank sheets of paper. How could they understand the devious schemes of humans?
So they believed whatever Tang San said. Not only were they deeply grateful, but they also obediently held onto the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record left behind by Tang San, waiting for the 'destined one' to come and undergo the trials.
They didn't even stop to think about what that Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record actually was—it was clearly just a guide on how to consume Immortal Herbs!
However, Ten Thousand Years later, once the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well fell under the control of the Tang Sect, these Immortal Herbs finally woke up from their ten-thousand-year dream after witnessing generation after generation of Tang Sect Disciples skillfully applying the knowledge in the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record to harvest them.
They finally understood that the Bilin Seven Absolutes Poison Barrier was meant to keep out anyone other than the Tang Sect, and was also a cage meant for them.
Therefore, when the Qiluo Tulip spoke Tang San's name now, there was no longer even a shred of respect in his tone.
Huo Yuhao withdrew his gaze from the depths of the dense forest in the distance and turned to look at Jin Li, who had a serious expression. "Come with me."
Then, guided by the Qiluo Tulip inside his Spiritual Sea, Huo Yuhao followed the toxic gas in the air and flew straight toward the location of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
After they had traveled nearly ten thousand meters, Jin Li suddenly reached out and grabbed Huo Yuhao's arm with considerable force, abruptly pulling them both to a stop in mid-air.
Huo Yuhao turned his head to look at her, only to see that Jin Li was not looking at him at all. Instead, she stared straight ahead, her heroically beautiful face filled with unprecedented seriousness and solemnity.
She narrowed her golden eyes slightly, her nostrils twitching gently a few times.
After a moment, she said in a low voice, "I see. It's poison."
"There should be an extremely overbearing toxic gas ahead. The deeper we go, the higher the concentration of the gas."
"It is precisely this toxic gas that causes the Spirit Beasts to become scarcer the closer we get to the center of the forest."
To Jin Li's surprise, after hearing her judgment, Huo Yuhao did not show the slightest hint of astonishment on his face.
Instead, he revealed a faint smile and said two words, "I know."
Then, Huo Yuhao's clear eyes gazed straight at her as he asked softly, "Do you trust me?"
Jin Li nodded without the slightest hesitation.
She was a Spirit Beast, and Huo Yuhao was a human. Logically, humans and beasts walked different paths, and trust was not something that should be easily given.
But from her interactions with Huo Yuhao over this period, he was indeed someone worthy of trust.
This was not just her own feeling, but also the guidance of destiny.
Looking at the undisguised trust in her golden eyes, Huo Yuhao said nothing more.
He smiled, then naturally took Jin Li's small hand and flew forward.
Feeling the warm touch in her palm, Jin Li was slightly dazed for a moment, but she did not struggle, allowing him to lead her forward.
Even when, moments later, the sun-blocking toxic miasma ahead completely turned into a sea of fog as thick as substance, she still did not take a single step back.
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A/N:
I hope all of you are enjoying this story so far. I would appreciate some Power Stones if you can spare any. Leave a review if you like the story. Thank you.