The horse continued chewing.
It realized that this plant was really hard. It couldn’t chew it at all.
This made it frustrated.
It had good teeth so it had never met a plant that it couldn’t chew before.
Zhou Ye tossed and turned in the horse’s mouth.
Honestly speaking, he was extremely calm. He felt no sense of danger.
However, he shouldn’t just wait around and continue getting chewed by the horse. Thus, Zhou Ye decided to act.
The thorns at the edge of his leaves slowly expanded and they lightly stabbed themselves into the horse’s tongue.
The horse suddenly stopped chewing.
Something was poking its tongue.
Zhou Ye stabbed it again.
Damn it, this plant was poisonous.
“Cry!”
The horse felt the pain again. It lowered its head and spat Zhou Ye out.
It looked at the thorns on the edges of the leaves and its pupils constricted, feeling that this plant was a little scary.
It was fine if it couldn’t chew the plant but why did it still have hidden thorns?
It was so scary.
The horse took two steps back and distanced itself from Zhou Ye.
The other two horses that were watching at the side shrunk their necks and glanced at Zhou Ye with fear. They started retreating too.
Zhou Ye ignored them.
There was no need to care about them. Three horses weren’t able to hurt him as he was in the Xuan Sea realm.
Even if there were three hundred horses, based on his mid-stage Xuan Sea realm, he would be able to tackle them.
Don’t ask him how. This was how confident he was.
Zhou Ye swayed his body and realized that there was sticky saliva stuck to his leaves. His face turned black instantly.
“It’s so uncomfortable.”
The upper half of his body was sticky, making him feel uncomfortable.
He needed to clean himself.
Zhou Ye walked to the road with a black face and glanced around as he tried looking for a water source.
Gold Xiao’er, who was cultivating on the side, opened his eyes and glanced at Zhou Ye.
He just glanced at him one time and ignored him entirely.
He knew what happened just now. However, he didn’t help Zhou Ye because he knew that the horses wouldn’t be able to hurt Zhou Ye.
He could guess what Zhou Ye wanted to do based on his actions. He wanted to wash himself.
“The intellect of this little plant spirit is quite high,” Gold Xiao’er muttered to himself.
After that, to ensure Zhou Ye’s safety, he placed a strand of thought on Zhou Ye’s body.
…
Around 200 meters away from the road.
Zhou Ye finally found a small puddle of water.
To him, it was a small lake but to humans, it was only the size of a puddle.
Zhou Ye jumped up and dove into the water.
He moved his leaves and swam back and forth.
He moved really slowly so he wasn’t able to clean himself properly.
He thought for a moment and felt that he needed to use his Xuan Qi.
Once he thought about this, a green light appeared on his body.
“Slap!”
The green light slapped against the surface of the water. Zhou Ye made use of the force to jump into the air. A stronger green light was released from his body.
When the green light dimmed, his body became as clean as before.
“Comfortable.” Zhou Ye stood on the ground and stretched his back.
He started walking back. After taking two steps, he stopped.
“That’s not right. This is the best chance for me to escape!” Zhou Ye suddenly remembered that he had always been craving freedom.
Now, the air he was breathing was the air of freedom.
“I need to run away quickly.”
He moved his roots and ran swiftly.
But, after taking a few steps, he stopped again.
“That’s not right. If I run away like this, I might be eaten by human cultivators if I meet them.” Zhou Ye’s expression was good.
He was a spirit herb now, a superior-grade spirit herb with the cultivation state of the Xuan Sea realm!
If a not-so-powerful cultivator ate him, he would be able to increase his cultivation and heal his wounds.
“Oh my god, the human world is so dangerous.”
Thinking about this, Zhou Ye’s expression turned gloomy.
“I shall follow Lu Xiaoyuan first. I will run away after I’m able to change my form.”
After thinking for some time, this was the only solution he could think of.
Based on his current cultivation state, if he ran away, it was highly likely that he would end up benefiting others instead
Also, after recalling Lu Xiaoyuan and Gold Xiao’er’s abilities, Zhou Ye felt that he wouldn’t be able to run away.
Was he planning to run away from a boss like Lu Xiaoyuan who was able to tear apart space so easily?
Wake up, little fellow. Are you still dreaming?
Zhou Ye recognized the reality of the situation and walked back obediently.
Gold Xiao’er had always been observing Zhou Ye so he couldn’t understand why the little plant spirit took two steps and ran back again before starting to walk back again.
What was it planning to do?
He pondered for a moment.
After thinking for some time, he still didn’t know what the plant spirit was thinking about.
At this moment, Zhou Ye had already returned to the empty land.
Zhou Ye didn’t think too much. He walked to Lu Xiaoyuan’s side and raised his leaves. He tied himself to Lu Xiaoyuan’s waist.
After everything was done, he started cultivating.
…
The next day, everyone woke up.
Lu Xiaoyuan looked at Zhou Ye who was at her waist. She picked him up and looked at Yaoyao. Then, she smiled and said, “Look, the little plant spirit prefers me. It even tied itself around me.”
Zhou Ye was woken up by the noise. He glanced at her and thought to himself secretly, ‘You are the boss. I need to keep close to you.’
Yaoyao replied naturally, “Of course, Sister Deer is closer to our plant spirit friend.”
“Haha.” Lu Xiaoyuan laughed.
Gold Xiao’er didn’t say anything. He prepared breakfast silently.
The three of them finished their breakfast and continued their journey on the horses.
Today, their target was 200 miles.
Based on the normal speed of the horses, traveling 200 miles a day wasn’t a problem. However, they played as they traveled so it might be hard to travel this distance in a day.
However, having a target was a good thing.
Along the way, they didn’t meet anyone else on the road.
“Sister Deer, look,” Yaoyao shouted at Lu Xiaoyuan as pointed to the ground.
“What is it?” Lu Xiaoyuan looked at the ground curiously.
In the middle of the road, there were tracks of a horse carriage. It was around an inch wide and it looked very fresh. It seemed to be made not long ago.
“From the looks of it, the carriage is quite heavy. There must be many things on the carriage.” Gold Xiao’er touched his chin and turned into a detective.
“Sister Deer, let’s catch up with them. It’s too boring to travel alone. If we can catch up with them, we might be able to have some companionship on our journey!” Yaoyao smiled as she said.
“They brought a heavy load with them so they must be quite near us. We just need to travel at normal speed and we will catch up with them,” Lu Xiaoyuan said.
“Alright.” Yaoyao nodded.
In the team, Lu Xiaoyuan was definitely their boss. They would listen to whatever she said.
The three of them continued having fun. When they saw nice scenery, they would stop for a rest.
They traveled as if they were on a holiday.
Zhou Ye was too lazy to complain. He just continued cultivating.
Time passed slowly and a day had passed.
This day, they only traveled 160 miles. They didn’t hit their target and they didn’t catch up with the horse carriages as planned.
At night.
Everyone finished their dinner. Gold Xiao’er found some excellent hay somewhere and he was feeding them to the horses now.
After all, if they wanted the horses to run, they needed to feed them.
“When will we be able to reach the Imperial City?” Yaoyao laid on the ground and asked.
“Little rabbit, can you stop for a moment? You have said ask that 19 times today. This is the 20th time. Can you have some patience?” Lu Xiaoyuan educated Yaoyao.
“Okay. I’m just a little bored and I wanted to complain.” Yaoyao sat up and smiled embarrassingly.
“Let me talk to you about cultivation!” Lu Xiaoyuan suddenly said.
“Okay, okay!” Yaoyao immediately got energetic when she heard this.
She sat up straight.
Zhou Ye, who was cultivating, lifted his ears. Even Gold Xiao’er, who was feeding the horses, was listening.
Lu Xiaoyuan thought for a moment and said, “Little rabbit, your foundation isn’t strong so let me tell you about foundation.”
“I will not talk about the Xuan Sea realm and the states below it. I will start with the Xuan Core realm.”
“At the Xuan Core realm, the Xuan Qi within the dantian of the cultivator would congregate into a core. It’s the same for demons like us. However, our core is known as demon pearls. Strictly speaking, the Xuan Qi we used is called demon power. But, no one cares about the accurate terms so we all just called it Xuan Qi.”
“After you break through the Xuan Core realm, you will have to experience the Heavenly Tribulation. After you went through the four stages of Heavenly Tribulation, your demon pearl will have four lightning patterns on it. This means that you have passed the four-stage Heavenly Tribulation.”
“To raise your cultivation stage in the Xuan Core realm, you need to store energy in your Xuan core continuously. At the same time, you have to understand and be enlightened of the secret of your thoughts.”
“Hence, the next stage after the Xuan Core realm is Transcendence!”
“Ever since the olden age, the cultivation stages were strict. Based on the differentiation in the past, anyone below the Transcendence realm is considered as nobodies.”
Yaoyao was in disbelief when she heard this. Even Gold Xiao’er was shocked too.
Actually, Gold Xiao’er hadn’t learned much so he didn’t know about this.
Lu Xiaoyuan continued speaking. “You might be able to fly at the Xuan Core realm but actually, in ancient times, you’re just a nobody. You can only be considered a powerful cultivator or a big demon if you reach Transcendence.”
“However, because of a huge war, the world split and the overall strength of the world dropped. This event caused the Xuan Core realm to appear strong!”
“In ancient times, no one will suffer the Heavenly Tribulation at the Xuan Core realm! They will only experience it when they step into Transcendence!”
“Hence, little rabbit, you must be prepared. The 5th Heavenly Tribulation won’t be as easy as the 4th Heavenly Tribulation. It will be like walking through the gates of hell!”
Zhou Ye seemed to have found his direction in life when he heard this.
He suddenly felt that his goal of changing form was a little insignificant. Thus, he changed his goal to the Transcendence realm.
But, as he was listening carefully, Lu Xiaoyuan waved her hand and he felt sleepy suddenly.
Before he fell asleep, Zhou Ye really wanted to curse Lu Xiaoyuan.
Does she think that I don’t have to learn? Why isn’t she allowing him to learn new knowledge? This is frustrating.
“We can’t let the little plant spirit be overly ambitious,” Lu Xiaoyuan said naturally. After noticing Zhou Ye was asleep, she started telling Yaoyao seriously about the Transcendence realm.