Chapter 3664 — A Very Hard Slog
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
With the Heavenly Thunder Pig's abilities, even if it could not lead him straight to the Heart-Devouring Linglong Grass, having it help locate a dry, sunlit place should pose no problem at all. Treasure-seeking was, after all, that creature's innate gift, and the most basic prerequisite for treasure-seeking was sensing one's environment.
If Wei Zhao had only a twenty percent chance of finding the Heart-Devouring Linglong Grass within three days on his own, then with the Heavenly Thunder Pig's help he would have at least eighty percent.
Unfortunately, the Heavenly Thunder Pig had been unconscious ever since they teleported to Cloudstep Island. More than twenty days had passed, and Wei Zhao had no idea whatsoever how to wake it. Had its vital signs not remained relatively stable, he might even have concluded the creature had turned into a vegetable pig.
Now that the Heavenly Thunder Pig was beyond help, he could only rely on himself.
Wei Zhao drew a deep breath, picked a giant tree beside him, and sprang up its trunk.
Only from high up can one see far. Climbing to the tallest tree nearby and searching as best he could for places around that suited the Heart-Devouring Linglong Grass's growing conditions was the last hope he could pin his faith on. Crude as it was, it beat blundering about below like a headless fly.
Wei Zhao climbed with exceptional care, keeping constant watch on every sound and stirring around him. Chastened by his earlier lesson, he already knew that while the trees were not as thick with venomous snakes and savage beasts as the ground, they were in fact more dangerous.
In dense forests like this, the stronger a creature was, the more likely it was to claim the fine open space above—just like the giant python and the black ape he had encountered before. The venomous snakes and fierce beasts on the ground were troublesome, but posed little real threat to Wei Zhao. The dense canopy overhead was another matter entirely; some powerful, hideous Foundation Establishment spirit beast might well be coiled up there.
The giant tree Wei Zhao had chosen stood, strictly speaking, outside that python's territory, so he need not worry about the python. But in the time it took him to climb, some equally powerful spirit beast overlord might already have marked him as prey.
All the while he had felt a powerful creature watching him from some hard-to-detect shadow, a prickle of unease down his spine—yet in the end Wei Zhao reached the top of the canopy without mishap, and the view in all directions opened up magnificently.
But after a spell of observation, even a will as firm as Wei Zhao's could not help but sag.
There was no help for it: north, south, east, west, whichever way he looked, the scene was all but identical—unbroken stretches of treetops, uniform in every direction. The only difference was that to the north, beyond the canopy, he could make out a towering mountain rising into the clouds, its summit lost to sight. That was the main body of the back mountain.
The Back Mountain Hall lay to the south of the back mountain, so Wei Zhao could at least roughly confirm his bearings. But which direction to head next remained anyone's guess.
None of the four directions looked like it could hold a place suited to the Heart-Devouring Linglong Grass. Perhaps somewhere high up on the back mountain to the north might qualify, but that was not even worth considering—judging by the map, that area already fell within the back mountain's inner perimeter, and with the inner perimeter's seals unopened, there was no getting in at all.