Path Of The Dragon (A Dark Fantasy Cultivation Wuxia Xianxia Progression Series)

Chapter 77 The Grove

With their position known, Jie and her friends picked up the pace despite the waist-high water. Jie felt more auras with her spirit sense. Countless numbers of them of a variety of strengths ranging from low Disciple to high Expert ranks.

Grove guardians rushed to meet them, but they couldn't take even a single hit from Jie.

A snake-like plant with huge jaws and a thick, thorny vine for a body exploded out of the swamp water at Ithilix. Ithilix wedged her spear between the plant snake's massive jaws as it hissed and snarled and drove her down into the stagnant water with a splash.

Jie rushed to aid her friend, feeling through her spirit sense as the dark water obscured the monster. Jie's eyes widened as the creature radiated the aura of an Expert ranked cultivator of the peak ninth star. It had to be close to breaking through into the Elementalist rank! Ithilix couldn't hope to last against it!

It burst out of the water again, shooting upward with Ithilix clinging to her spear for dear life and desperately trying to keep the massive jaws from closing around her. The plant snake roared as it bit down harder and harder, puncturing the top and bottom of its jaws with Ithilix's spear as it did so.

"Princess! Help!" Ithilix cried.

Jie used lightning step and the water around her blew away as she formed a dragonfist around her left hand and slammed it into the plant snake's body, between two thorns. The boom rang out like thunder and sent arcs of lightning over the monster's hide. The force of Jie's strike knocked Ithilix out of its jaws as Jie followed up with another four dragonfists, each at full power and blasting chunks of green mucus and fleshy vegetation away.

The plant snake slid sideways through the water and crashed through a tree in a spray of water and shattered bark before coming to a stop. It lay still. Its horrid eyes lifeless as sap leaked from its massive wounds. And the fetid swamp water half-swallowed it once more.

"Thank you, Princess. That was scary," Ithilix said as she wiped swamp water off her face.

"I told you, I'm not a princess. Where's this thing's heart? It sure was weak for a peak ninth star Expert," Jie said.

"I didn't see one. Not all of them have hearts. At least not easily harvest-able ones. Stick it in your storage ring and worry about it later," Pan Tian said.

Jie waved her hand over it, activating her storage ring, but it didn't go in.

"Weird. Leave it and let's keep going. The grove isn't far now and don't forget we still have trials to get to," Pan Tian said.

They rushed through the water, cutting down any grove guardians that got in their way. There were a lot of them, but they arrived in small groups and even several groups together were hardly a match for Jie alone. With Jie's friends assisting her, the plant creatures stood no chance. Though there were a lot more of them rushing for the grove. Jie expected they'd have to fight at least twenty of them at once, which could get a little tricky. So far, the plant monsters had all died before they'd had a chance to do anything troublesome.

As Jie and her friends wove through the trees, they caught sight of more glimmering lights ahead until they waded out into what had to be the heart of the grove. Lily pads with beautiful glowing flowers and shining lotuses floated on the still, glistening water. Each lotus radiated power and there were hundreds of them. Maybe even thousands.

And, in the center of the grove, was a massive, luminous bulb that pulsed with turquoise light, illuminating the grove and giving everything an otherworldly appearance. It radiated the aura of an Expert ranked spiritual medicine of the peak ninth star.

"It's beautiful," Jie said.

"Wow..." Pan Tian said, "grove lotuses and lilies... and so many of them. The weakest of them is at the sixth star of the Disciple rank and some of them reach the third star Expert rank... this is an incredible find and on day one before we've even opened the dungeon. This is the best Crimson Valley Treasure Hunt ever! My brother is going to be so jealous."