After hearing this, Han Li knew the other party's words were spoken with good intentions. He could only nod vaguely in helpless agreement before steering the conversation away, finally asking about the main ingredients for the Foundation Establishment Pill.
"You want to know the origins of the Jade Marrow Fungus and other spirit herbs, Junior Brother Han?" Wu Feng asked in surprise.
"Yes, Senior Brother Wu. You've been in the sect for so many years, you should know something about it, right?" Han Li asked with hopeful anticipation.
Hearing this, Wu Feng fell silent for a moment before speaking.
"I do know a little, but I advise you to give up on this idea. That place is not only extremely dangerous, but under normal circumstances, it's impossible to get close at all. You can only enter it at specific times and specific locations, with the help of our sect's elders."
When Han Li first heard that the other party knew, he felt a surge of joy in his heart. But the subsequent words startled him, and he immediately pressed for more details.
As it turned out, this type of spirit herb had long since become scarce in the cultivation world, having vanished entirely from ordinary places. The only place where they could still be found now was in those so-called forbidden grounds.
Since even cultivators called them forbidden grounds, these places were, of course, extremely dangerous. Most were harsh and remote environments. Some were lairs of demons and monsters that had to be fought through step by step, while others contained ancient restrictions that required great effort to break through before there was any hope of entering.
The cultivation sects of the Kingdom of Yue, including Yellow Maple Valley, had obtained their Foundation Establishment Pill ingredients from the latter type of forbidden ground—a location that had been sealed off for ages by a wind-attribute ancient restriction.
The restriction there was incredibly powerful. Originally, there had been no hope of opening it with the strength of their sects. However, someone later discovered that the restriction weakened for five days every five years. During that period, if several Core Formation stage cultivators worked together to forcibly break through, they could temporarily open a passage that would allow a certain number of people to enter.
But when the passage appeared and all the cultivators tried to go in, another surprise occurred.
Cultivators who had already reached Foundation Establishment and above were all blocked by another strange restriction on the inner layer, while those at the Qi Refinement stage could enter without any hindrance. They managed to collect large quantities of rare spirit herbs and bring them out.
This discovery immediately caused a sensation in the cultivation world of the Kingdom of Yue. And so, every five years, the Seven Great Sects sent batches of disciples below the Foundation Establishment stage into the forbidden grounds to collect large quantities of spirit herbs, with Foundation Establishment Pill ingredients being the top priority.
In the beginning, the disciples from each sect could coexist peacefully and act independently. For the selected disciples, this was a highly lucrative assignment. But as they continued to scour and harvest the forbidden grounds year after year, the spirit herbs inside gradually became scarce. Disputes between sects over rare herbs began to occur frequently, often escalating into violent confrontations. During one expedition several hundred years ago, disciples even lost their lives in the fighting.
That incident of death彻底撕破了脸皮 among the major sects. They openly adopted the banner of "the law of the jungle" and "heaven and earth are heartless," encouraging their disciples to rob others. This turned the forbidden ground expeditions completely blood-red.
As a result, while the spirit herbs were gradually decreasing, the fighting inside the forbidden grounds grew more intense and bloody with each passing expedition.
In the last hundred years, because the slaughter had been so devastating, less than one-third of the disciples who entered the forbidden grounds came out alive. This resulted in significant losses among the elite low-level disciples of every sect. The disciples began referring to the forbidden ground expeditions as the "Blood Forbidden Trial" and started avoiding it, to the point where there were embarrassing situations where not a single person was willing to go.
As for forcing people to go, that was certainly not an option either.
Because if a disciple didn't genuinely want to enter the forbidden grounds to search for herbs, they would inevitably go through the motions. Nine times out of ten, they would just find a place to hide and wait until the time was up before walking out safely.
This kind of thing had happened before, leaving the higher-ups who sent them fuming with rage but unable to do anything about it. After all, the disciples had never wanted to go in the first place—you forced them into such extreme danger, so what could you really blame them for?
Thus, while the sects of the Kingdom of Yue coveted spirit herbs more than ever, but very few disciples were willing to take the risk voluntarily, every sect began offering generous rewards to recruit volunteers for the forbidden ground expeditions, linking the rewards directly to the quantity and quality of spirit herbs they could bring back.
Leaving aside other sects, just speaking of Yellow Maple Valley itself—
Starting from the previous few expeditions, the sect had already made it clear in writing that any disciple who signed up to participate would receive a mid-grade spirit stone and a spirit tool from the sect beforehand, as an incentive.
If they could actually bring back spirit herbs from the forbidden grounds, the sect would grant even more generous rewards based on the quantity and quality of what they brought—everything from spirit stones to magical tools and spirit pills. The rewards even included the sect's secret stash of Foundation Establishment Pills, something that was enough to make low-level disciples risk their lives.
Such generous rewards did indeed create a surge of enthusiastic sign-ups for a time. But this phenomenon only lasted for two or three cycles before it completely subsided.
The bloody reality had made the disciples realize that these rewards were not so easily earned.
Because before the generous rewards were introduced, one-third of the participants could survive the forbidden ground competition. But after the rewards were offered, less than one-fourth of those who entered the Blood Forbidden Trial made it out alive. And among those who survived, even fewer managed to bring back any spirit herbs. Most of them suffered severe injuries and came back empty-handed, let alone having earned a Foundation Establishment Pill.
It was under these circumstances that Han Li asked Wu Feng about the origins of several spirit herbs.
Now, after hearing everything the other party had said, Han Li felt nothing but frustration!
He hadn't expected that gathering some herbs would require entering some kind of forbidden ground, fighting to the death with disciples from other sects, and only being able to leave after emerging victorious. And the survival rate was staggeringly low—less than one-fourth of the participants made it out of this so-called "Blood Forbidden Trial."
The risk was simply too great! He wasn't some expert among Yellow Maple Valley's low-level disciples—he was merely at an average level.
He possessed neither profound magical power nor powerful spells. The only things he could rely on were those few decent magical tools and his not-so-stupid head.
But with only these, Han Li could never be confident that he would definitely be among the final one-fourth.
Frustrated, he couldn't help but ask Wu Feng: Why couldn't the cultivation sects simply restrain their disciples and divide the spirit herbs equally? After all, these herbs were ultimately used to collectively refine Foundation Establishment Pills, so why go to the point of tearing off their faces and holding grudges?
Wu Feng listened and immediately replied with a bitter smile.
"You don't understand, Junior Brother. Even if the Foundation Establishment Pills are refined collectively, the distribution of the pills depends entirely on the quantity of spirit herbs each sect contributed, allocated proportionally. Under such circumstances, how can you expect the sects not to fight desperately for the spirit herbs?"
Han Li fell silent for a long time after hearing this.
Finally, with a mind full of concerns, he confirmed that the next Blood Forbidden Trial would take place in six months. Then, after Senior Brother Wu's parting words of caution, he left the Teaching Hall and returned to the Hundred Herb Garden.
For the following days, Han Li spent his time in a daze, thinking about this matter repeatedly. He weighed the pros and cons and the risks involved over and over, trying to force himself into making a wise choice.
It was obvious that in the Kingdom of Yue, outside of the forbidden grounds, there was no way to find these three spirit herbs. Otherwise, the Seven Great Sects wouldn't need to fight bloody battles every five years, weakening themselves from within.
If Han Li didn't want to take this extreme risk, his only hope would be to find the spirit herbs somewhere outside the Kingdom of Yue. Otherwise, his foundation establishment would be completely hopeless, and in just over a hundred years, he would become a pile of bones. But thinking about it carefully, he knew that going beyond the borders to search for spirit herbs was even more hopeless—there was absolutely no chance.
But if he actually participated in the Blood Forbidden Trial, a mortality rate of more than three out of four was simply too high! The probability of him dying in the process was staggeringly great! This truly left Han Li in a terrible dilemma!