"That's best. Pay attention when you collect them, the golden sunflowers with only leaves and no flowers are of no use; I need the ones in full bloom." Zhao Gui reminded them.

"Senior, we have never seen the golden sunflower spiritual grass you mentioned. Do you perhaps have a picture?" Yuan Ming inquired.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Gui raised his hand and waved in the air, and a beam of light condensed into a phantom of the golden sunflower spiritual grass, displaying it before the three of them.

"Make sure you remember it well, it is this kind." Zhao Gui said.

The three of them silently memorized the appearance of the golden sunflower spiritual grass and nodded.

"Besides, the three of you have slightly different tasks. Fellow Daoist Yuan, you need to collect three blossoming golden sunflowers. You need to collect six. And you... Killing my two men as compensation, you need to collect twelve." Zhao Gui pointed at each of them in turn.

Yan Xiang, upon hearing this, immediately felt great anger, but on thinking of the method for leaving, he could only bite down and endure it.

Seeing that there were no objections from the three, Zhao Gui stepped forward, his fingers coming together to form a magic seal, and he cast a spell on the three of them.

Yuan Ming only felt as if an obscure force had entered his body, not feeling any abnormalities, he asked with some uncertainty, "Is that it?"

"You'll know once you try it outside." Zhao Gui waved his hand indifferently.

The three of them didn't dare delay and immediately followed the direction Zhao Gui had indicated, walking toward the outskirts of the village.

"Remember, not even one less golden sunflower will do." Zhao Gui's voice came from behind, drifting along.

Yuan Ming didn't look back, waving his hand.

Lei He approached Yuan Ming and asked, "Fellow Daoist Yuan, how was your fire poison cured?"

Not far away, Yan Xiang, who was pressing a hand to his forearm to suppress a fire sore, also pricked up his ears to listen carefully.

"Oh, the leaves of the trees grown in that village can cure fire poison." Yuan Ming replied.

Upon hearing this, Lei He hesitated, then sighed, "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

Yan Xiang's eyes reddened, feeling that his fire temper was somewhat rising again.

"Why didn't you ask sooner? Moreover, even if I had told you, that senior might not have been willing to let you into the village to pick leaves, right?" Yuan Ming spread his hands and retorted.

With a sigh in his heart, Lei He felt some regret for not having stopped Yan Xiang from going mad earlier.

For now, they could only continue to endure, and the matter of detoxification would have to wait until after they had gathered flowers.

To save time, Yuan Ming and the others did not dare delay; after leaving the village, they followed the instructions and headed in the northeast direction.

After walking roughly twenty to thirty li, they saw that the peach trees around them were gradually thinning out, and their view became much clearer.

In the distance, tall stone pillars with rugged shapes rose straight from the ground like small mountains reaching into the skies.

And between the stone pillars, a faint red mist almost swallowed up a large portion of the pillars, leaving only the tips exposed outside, which were not simply bare. Dense golden grass grew in disorder upon them, resembling treetops from afar.

On these "treetops," one could occasionally spot a bright golden flower, its species completely different from any plant Yuan Ming and his companions had seen before, with buds as big as a carriage wheel.

The buds consisted of four layers from inside to outside, with the innermost resembling thin petals while the outer three layers were like small blades with fine hairs on their edges. The sunlight filtering through the hairs created a hazy halo, enveloping the buds.

These appeared to be the golden sunflower spiritual grass that Zhao Gui wanted them to collect. Though not abundant, they were not hard to find.

Seeing this, Yuan Ming and his companions were quite surprised, but soon, as they drew closer, they realized where the true difficulty of the task Zhao Gui had given them lay.

All the golden sunflowers they could find within their field of vision were only in bud, not even willing to extend a petal, tightly closed, unwilling to reveal the inside of the flower heart.

It seemed in order to collect the required golden sunflowers, they would need to venture deep into the stone forest.

The three approached the edge of the stone forest, looking at the mist before them, with Yan Xiang immediately complaining.

"This damned place, why are there so many strange and bizarre restrictions everywhere?"

Yuan Ming, on the other hand, was silent as he extended his divine sense, attempting to penetrate the fog to understand the situation within the stone forest.

However, as soon as his divine sense touched the red mist, a surge of hot poison instantly emerged, invading his sea of consciousness through his divine sense.

Yuan Ming's expression changed, and he immediately withdrew his divine sense, but by then, the fire poison had turned into fierce flames within his sea of consciousness, directly rushing towards his divine soul.

He decisively stimulated his soul power to block the fire poison, continuously purging it, and after much effort, managed to extinguish it, albeit at the expense of a substantial amount of his soul power, leaving him slightly pale.

After steadying himself, Yuan Ming turned to remind Lei He, but seeing that he and Yan Xiang looked even worse than him, it was clear they too had suffered from the fire poison, so he closed his mouth and said no more.

Moments later, Lei He and his companion temporarily suppressed the fire poison and reassessed the red mist before them. Just then, Yan Xiang turned to glance at Yuan Ming.

"Kid, it's time to let your spirit beast scout ahead."

Yuan Ming's expression remained unchanged, "Junior's spirit beasts have all been carefully raised, and there are only one or two of them—it's really not convenient to use them for scouting. Please forgive me, senior."

Hearing this, Yan Xiang glared at Yuan Ming and was about to speak, but Lei He persuaded him not.

"Alright, time is pressing, let's not quarrel over such trivial matters. I'll do it."

As he spoke, Lei He raised his hand and summoned a palm-sized sparrow from his Storage Bag. It immediately dove into the red fog upon command and reappeared after a few moments.

After sensing the state of the demon sparrow, Lei He let out a sigh of relief: "It seems that merely coming into contact with the red fog doesn't attract Fire Poison. Zhao Gui didn't specifically warn us when he asked us to come here, so it should be safe."

"Since that's the case, let's follow our previously agreed plan and search separately to save time," Yan Xiang nodded and promptly said.

Among the three, he needed to find the largest quantity of Golden Sunflower Spiritual Grass. Hearing Lei He mention the urgency of time, a sense of impatience arose in his heart.

Seeing him like this, Lei He then suggested, "Good, but let's all try to find a bit more, just in case someone has bad luck and can't find enough."

Upon hearing this, Yan Xiang immediately gave Lei He a grateful look. These words were clearly meant to accommodate him who needed the most Golden Sunflower Spiritual Grass.

Yuan Ming silently nodded, not planning to clash with Yan Xiang over these matters.

Afterward, the three no longer delayed and each chose a direction before they entered the red fog.

After walking through the fog for a short while and seeing no one around, Yuan Ming multitasked, quietly controlling the first soul in the Stealing Heaven Tripod, instructing it to sit on the Lotus Platform.

In an instant, the Divine Sense of the first soul covered Yuan Ming's surroundings, easily piercing through the red fog without any hindrance.

However, at that moment, waves of Fire Poison climbed onto the Divine Sense cast by the first soul, attempting to locate the soul splitting and burn its soul body.

Yet, as the Fire Poison spread within the Divine Sense cast by the soul splitting, it failed to overcome the spatial barrier and enter the Stealing Heaven Tripod.

Seeing this, Yuan Ming thought to himself as expected, and then he stopped caring about the Fire Poison that could not cause damage. He started probing the Stone Forest through the Divine Sense of the first soul.

At the same time, both Lei He and Yan Xiang were groping their way through the mist. Yuan Ming briefly looked into their situation and was about to shift his attention when he suddenly noticed that two Fire Breath Beasts were lurking on the path ahead of Yan Xiang.

The Fire Breath Beasts resembled old rats in appearance, only they were the size of a full-grown man, their fur red as flames, eyes a tarnished yellow. They could spew fierce flames from their mouths to burn their enemies. Even a Core Formation Cultivator would find them a nuisance.

The red fog of the Stone Forest limited the explorations of a Cultivator's Divine Sense, but the Fire Breath Beasts didn't seem to be overly affected. The two that Yuan Ming had noticed had already detected Yan Xiang and were approaching stealthily, as if planning a surprise attack.

The time to find the Blossoming Golden Sunflower was already short. If they were to be entangled with demon beasts, even if they were not injured, it would greatly hinder the search.

It was unclear whether Yan Xiang was truly unlucky or had incurred some strange Curse from slaying a member of the Fire Horned Tribe; he hadn't found a single Golden Sunflower Spiritual Grass but had already encountered the Fire Breath Beasts. It seemed difficult for him to gather enough Golden Sunflower Spiritual Grass.

Yuan Ming chuckled and no longer paid attention to Yan Xiang who was now engaged with the Fire Breath Beasts. The Divine Sense of the first soul spread out to assist him in searching for traces of Blossoming Golden Sunflower.

...

Thirty minutes later.

In a small clearing in the Stone Forest, a Fire Breath Beast lay sound asleep. Suddenly, the sound of air being split echoed not far away. The beast immediately became alert, raising its head, ready to spew flames to fend off the attacker. But at that moment, it paused, confusion flashing in its eyes.

In the next instant, a small hammer wrapped in Lei Guang smashed over, crushing the beast's skull and killing it instantly.

Then, Yuan Ming slowly emerged from the red fog, looked up and summoned back the Thunder God Hammer.

He hurried over, ignoring the corpse of the Fire Breath Beast, and carefully squatted five steps away from it, digging up a Blossoming Golden Sunflower Spiritual Grass by the root.

This was already the third Blossoming Golden Sunflower he had found, thus completing the task given to him by Zhao Gui.

It turned out that Zhao Gui hadn't made things difficult for them. Even the blooming Golden Sunflowers were not rare in the Stone Forest. The only obstacle was the red fog covering the area. Why Zhao Gui couldn't come here himself was a mystery.

With the aid of the Divine Sense from the first soul, Yuan Ming considered the red fog as nothing, and it took even less effort than he expected.

Furthermore, during his search, he found several millennial Fire Attribute Spirit Grasses. Although they were all guarded by Fire Breath Beasts, having discovered these demon beasts in advance, he had the upper hand, making the beasts not too difficult to deal with.

Yuan Ming collected the Golden Sunflower Spiritual Grass and the carcasses of the Fire Breath Beasts, and, finding he still had some time, decided to continue searching in the Stone Forest since it was rich in Spirit Grass.

Suddenly, he let out a small sound of surprise, a flash of astonishment crossing his face.

Through the Divine Sense of the first soul, he suddenly discovered a basin much larger than the area he was in, surrounded by Stone Pillars connected to each other, with only one entrance.

The Spirit Grass in the basin thrived exceptionally well, including Golden Sunflowers, of which six or seven were blooming, not to mention the buds yet to open.

The first soul's Divine Sense scanned the area, finding no signs of Fire Breath Beasts or other demon beasts in the basin, which surprised Yuan Ming even more. After all, where Spirit Grass thrives, there must be a concentration of Spiritual Energy, and demon beasts typically love to make their nests in such areas unless they encounter an incompatible element.

And with the red fog in the Stone Forest containing Fire Poison and all the growing Spirit Grass being of the Fire Attribute, could there be a gathering place for Spiritual Energy that doesn't match the nature of the Fire Breath Beasts?

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