Ryu felt like slapping his forehead. Now that he thought about it, it made too much sense.
When he fought those Hidden Blade Sect Working Disciples, they had only seemed to be interested in his Meridians despite the fact it should have been obvious he had many other talents as well. Even if they couldn't' recognize his Bloodlines, they should have been able to tell that he had a powerful one or ones.
Yet, they seemed deadset on his Chaotic Silk Meridians. Why was that?
Maybe the answer was right in front of him all along. All of Ryu's other Talents, aside from his Soul, required copious amounts of resources to bring to their full potential. And, obviously, his Dao couldn't just be transferred from one person to another. However, his Chaotic Silk Meridians could not only be transferred through special processes, they were a resource in and of themselves!
After realizing all of this, Ryu settled down and exhaled a breath.
His difficulties were still the same. He didn't dare to casually use his Chaos Qi as he pleased, he would have to be very selective and careful. The more powerful he grew, the less he would have to worry about it, but for now he needed caution.
It was a good thing that he was in the wilderness currently, what better place was there for him to hide himself and strengthen his Meridians as he pleased?
Ryu really wondered, though, what other hidden abilities had. The Radiant Star Library had so much information and there was even an introductory explanation about the Chaotic Silk Meridians, but that was all.
For some reason, even they didn't have in depth information about his Meridians, something that left him quite intrigued.
Ryu shook his head and focused on the task at hand once more. His feet hit the bottom of the spring and he got a good look at the Spiritual Herb.
The Trembling Frost Fog Root looking quite inconspicuous, like a blue weed covered in scales of ice. It didn't have any fancy adornments or embellishments, but Ryu knew that its true strength lied in its roots.
The Spiritual Herb was barely a foot tall, however it was likely deeply entrenched, hiding its most valuable parts in the bed of this spring.
Ryu reached down and began to carefully dig around it. With his claws, it wasn't too difficult at all and the bed of earth, once as hard as ice, was sliced apart like tofu.
Soon, the waters below had become a bit murky and the Spiritual Herb protruded out from the ground like some sort of tentacled crown.
At this moment, the roots of the Trembling Frost Fog Root looked quite beautiful up close, but also quite grotesque from afar.
They were dotted with crystalline pearls that shimmered with their own light, but also made it look like the roots were covered in boils. However, it was precisely these boils that were the most valuable part of this Spiritual Herb.
There were 12 roots total, each with 12 "boils" of their own. These 144 pearls actually meant that this Spiritual Herb was at the limit of its maturity, an excellent thing for Ryu.
Truthfully, he only needed one of these roots to catalyze the growth of his Yin Water. As for the others, they were just luxuries. However, Ryu would take four of them. That much was about as much as he could take without alerting the blue-scaled serpent to the change too quickly, and it also gave him the freedom to sell three of them and make quite a sum.
This was the equivalent of an Earth Grade natural treasure, so it would definitely sell for an excellent sum.
Just when Ryu was about to choose the four best of the roots to take, he frowned.
'Thirteen?'
This didn't make sense. The limit of maturity was definitely 12 roots, the book Ryu read said nothing about a potential 13th. Was this mutated? Or was it something else?
After some observation, Ryu was certain that there was nothing different about this herb, so it wasn't likely to be a mutation.
'Hm…'
Ryu was a seasoned Herbologist. Oddities didn't always mean mutation. Often, Spiritual Herbs needed to adjust to their environment. Sometimes this could be as simple as a flower turning its face toward the sun, or more involved like roots digging deeper to reach more sources of water…
Ryu couldn't help but notice that the 13th root disappeared deeper into the ground. The reason he hadn't noticed it before was because he had dug all the way around the Spiritual Herb, while the 13th root was at the very center headed straight down.
Reaching his hand forward, Ryu began to dig again. But to his astonishment, he couldn't seem to find the bottom.
He kept going, digging deeper and deeper. After several minutes, the waters near the bottom of the spring were murky to the point even a cultivator couldn't see through them. Ryu had dug down an extra ten meters but he suddenly hit nothing but ice.
The frosty chill multiplied several fold, threatening to swallow up Ryu entirely and suffocate his fire qi. But Ryu only responded by circulating more and more of it.
The bottom of the spring was nothing but a bed of ice. However, the more Ryu revealed of it, the sharper his gaze became.
When Ryu wiped the earth away on a small foot by foot patch, he found himself staring down at yet another winter wonderland. The ice was so clear that he could see right through it, peering into what was on the other side.
To his astonishment, there was what looked like an entire world down there.
Ryu's heart skipped a beat, his senses tingling. He had been a Ruin Master for too long and had been too great at the profession to not know what this was when he saw it.
It was a Ruin. He had found a Ruin.
This Ruin though, seemed to already have people in it. No, more accurately, there were people helplessly stuck in it.