Shen Zan's Garden

Li Zhu stood up, still slightly shaken from his near death experience in the library. As he lifted himself off the ground, he quickly decided his course of action.

"First things first I need to leave, before some other powerful elder gets involved in this mess". Unsure of what the future would mean for him, Li Zhu decided to settle all of his matters quickly, and passing the fourth floor of the library, grabbed Ts'ui Ru's memoir, which he had placed back in the shelf.

Although using his one free book to take a memoir was a bit wasteful, Li Zhu thought that it may be useful since it had to do with Ts'ui Ru, and any knowledge he could gather from the book about the master behind the Inheritance Trials would be of help.

If what the two elders had said was correct, then the inheritance trials would occur quite soon. Although he was still not entirely sure whether he would participate or not, Li Zhu knew that trouble was brewing in the sect, especially since forces such as the Myriad Soul Palace and Divine Water Clan were getting involved.

After that, he quickly walked out of the library, and went towards Phoenix Peak, to claim a spirit plant from peak lord Shen Zan's spirit garden.

He was looking for anything which could boost Buddy's bloodline, since he wanted the black dog to learn a new skill. Demonic Shadow Wolves were one of the easiest spirit beasts to strengthen, since any treasure with demonic energy in it would help. Li Zhu had no doubts that he would find a plant with demonic energy, but he hoped he would find a rare one, which would push Buddy's bloodline over the edge, so that he could learn a new skill.

Spirit beasts cultivated much like humans, absorbing heavenly energy from the atmosphere. At the same time, their bloodline determined the talent they had for cultivation, the highest realm they could reach, and the skills they could use. Bloodline could be increased through the use of treasures, which were rarer for certain spirit beasts than others.

Li Zhu traveled as fast as he could to Phoenix Peak, since he was eager to gain as much strength as he could before anything substantial happened. He could potentially need to escape from the chaos, so he wanted to prepare as much as he could for any possible scenario.

Of course, he was also worried that someone from the Myriad Soul Palace would recognize him, since the Heavenly Dragon Empire had held competitions between the young disciples of the major forces many times, and he had always come on top, making him quite memorable. He was not as worried about the Divine Water Clan, since they had always been very mysterious, and had not participated in any of the tournaments, and would probably not recognize his face. Furthermore, because he was now a summoner, he had a completely different aura around him, which was a major way that cultivators recognized each other.

Li Zhu finally reached Phoenix Peak, and immediately headed deeper, into the housing of the peak, where only a select few lived and practiced alchemy. Shen Zan was the lord of the peak, and the third most influential figure in the sect, only after the Grand Elder and the master of the Flaming Saber sect auction house.

Shen Zan lived in a very small wooden hut in a remote corner of Phoenix Peak, but his garden was definitely the grandest spectacle in the peak by far, since it contained hundreds of different species of spirit plants, each hunted down and gathered by him.

Li Zhu approached the hut, which the judge elder at the tournament had instructed him how to reach, and a gentle voice rang out, "Enter the garden and pick whatever plant you want. I will even instruct you on the general uses of the plant you pick, so that you can make the most out of your reward. You can only pick one of the plants, and if I find out that you went against this rule... it will not end well for you!"

Shen Zan's voice was quite calm throughout, except towards the end, where a trace of anger could be heard. Each of the spirit plants in his garden were extremely precious, and losing four each year was already very tough on him, let alone more than that.

As Li Zhu was about to enter the garden , Shen Zan spoke up again, saying "My garden is divided into various levels: the closer you are to the entrance the more common the spirit plants are, and the other way around. Although this is not mandatory, I hope you will stay away from the end of the garden."

Hearing the man's words, Li Zhu simply smiled, replying, "We shall see, senior."

There was no way that Li Zhu would believe Shen Zan's words, since he knew that the man must be heartbroken losing his spirit plants.

Instantly proving his theory, Li Zhu noticed a few rare spirit plants at the entrance of the garden, even though they did not look particularly special.

'Dying Star Lily, in the common area? Flaming Beast Rose in the rare area?' as he walked through the garden, Li Zhu recognized most plants, each of which were placed in seemingly nonsensical places, if Shen Zan's ranking was to be followed.

'I guess he has to save the good plants!' thought Li Zhu, realizing that Shen Zan had done his best job to try to attract people towards more common spirit plants, which had the appearance of rare treasures.

Li Zhu did not blame the alchemist, though, since each spirit plant in Shen Zan's collection took a large amount of effort to take care of, and to see all of his hard work being taken away by kids could not be easy.

Still, Li Zhu would not fall for Shen Zan's tricks, as he looked in every nook and cranny of the garden, even looking under other spirit plants, just in case.

"Sun-Devouring Blood vine! Quite rare, but from the fact that it is so calm right now i'm guessing it is quite young, so I would need to grow it myself to unlock its full potential!" mumbled Li Zhu, as he decided against picking yet another plant.

He had now skipped more than half of the spirit plants in the garden, each having a small issue which made them not worth the rare opportunity he had gotten. Some were weak, and others premature, some he had no use for, and others were simply mediocre.

Li Zhu had formed a mental list of all the spirit plants he saw, in order to choose the best at the end, in case he did not find anything shockingly worthwhile.

There were quite a few rare spirit plants hidden in cracks or even behind other plants, all attempts by Shen Zan to keep the stars of his collection safe from the top four disciples of each year.

As he was simply walking through the dirt paths of the garden, Li Zhu's attention was instantly caught by the most extraordinarily looking plants, which shined brightly and had powerful auras around him.

Going against his instincts, Li Zhu ignored these plants, as he looked more attentively at the dirt, in an attempt to find any interesting spirit plants.

He did this for an entire half an hour, but after a while he started to doubt whether Shen Zan actually had any extremely precious spirit plants in this garden, or if it was just a collection of semi-rare plants which may be impressive only in Crouching Tiger Kingdom.

That moment, though, he froze, his eyes wide open. 'What if the plants aren't visible, but still there?'

Li Zhu smiled mischievously, before fusing with Buddy, who was next to him. As he entered Shadow Lurk, a few more spirit plants instantly appeared in his sight, proving his theory was accurate.

'That man is sneaky, to even hide plants in other realms!' realized Li Zhu, shocked at what lengths Shen Zan had gone to hide his most precious spirit plants. The sect forced him to give away four plants each year, but he had clearly found a way to follow the sect rules without losing the most precious items in his collection.

Li Zhu wanted to test his theory a bit further, so he actually sunk into the ground through the shadows, before looking for any small air pockets.

Without even having the need to look intently, Li Zhu instantly discovered a whole network of small underground tunnels, ending in many air pockets where rare spirit plants grew, invisible to anyone above ground.

After having discovered the whole new group of plants, much rarer than the previous ones, Li Zhu traveled around the dirt and above ground, going through which plants would be the most useful for him.

All the spirit plants which were not underground, but in the shadow realm, where the ones that Li Zhu focused on the most, since they all contained incredible amounts of demonic energy.

After another half an hour of searching, Li Zhu finally decided to pick a pitch black tree, with one large, shining red fruit.

"Hundred Deaths Tree, produces one Hundred Deaths fruit every year!" he mumbled, happy about his choice. Although there were a few plants with higher amounts of demonic energy, this plant could produce more than one fruit in its lifetime, and as long as he cared for it properly, every year Buddy could strengthen his bloodline.

Li Zhu finally exited Shadow Lurk, the newly picked tree appearing in the normal realm again. Li Zhu was exhausted, since Shadow Lurk only lasted about three minutes at a time, so Li Zhu had to periodically recover his and Buddy's energy.

"You have guts picking one of the best plants in my collection, kid!" at that moment, Shen Zan's angry voice came from inside the hut, startling Li Zhu.

"But I appreciate your knowledge of spirit plants… and your determination in finding it. At least you can use the tree for your summon!" continued Shen Zan, sighing.

Most of the spirit plants he gave away were wasted by the disciples, always causing him pain. Although Li Zhu had picked a very rare tree, which had taken him months to track down, at least he had a use for it, and if he had the knowledge to choose it, he would be able to make the best out of it.

"One more thing, kid. Wait there, I need to bring you something you may need!"