Chapter 5 The Fifth Level
The fifth level, spanning an area of three billion square kilometers, was nothing but endless medicinal herbs. It wasn't just mountains and rivers; it also contained complex and extreme terrains like snow mountains and volcanic lands, all teeming with various special medicinal ingredients.
"This... a medicinal garden comparable to a planet..." Yue Xia was too weak to even groan. The Nine Dragon Yangxu Palace itself already transcended the boundaries of the Ten Directions Universe. Let alone Yue Xia, even Yaodie might not have heard of it.
"It's just that the age of these herbs seems to be only a little over a hundred years," Feng Xi said with some regret, looking at the herbs covering the mountains.
For cultivators at the Monarch Realm, herbs less than a hundred thousand years old had long lost their efficacy. These hundred-year-old herbs were probably only useful for those below the Venerable Realm.
Ye Yun offered no explanation. As the master of this secret treasure, Ye Yun knew too well the terrifying nature of this medicinal garden! Moreover, a garden that ranked fifth among the Nine Heavens had its reasons.
Ye Yun led the others to a patch of the medicinal garden. Here, mountains of herbs used for refining辟谷丹 (Bi Gu Dan, a type of sustenance pill) stretched as far as the eye could see, densely covering over a dozen mountain peaks.
"Lingxin Grass, Wanfu Rong... these are all ingredients for refining Bi Gu Dan. There must be at least a million portions here? It's a shame, the age of these herbs is ultimately too low. The Bi Gu Dan refined from such herbs would be of low quality and waste a lot of ingredients," Yue Xia and Feng Xi said, looking at the sprawling herbs with shock and disappointment.
The real world was not like a game. In refining pills, not only was the alchemist's own strength important, but the quality of the medicinal ingredients was also crucial. Due to limitations in the quality of herbs, alchemists in the real world who could reach high levels were exceptionally rare.
Even Ye Yun could only spend endless time and wealth in the game world to purchase herbs and then use the Guiyuan Danlu (Returning Origin Pill Furnace) to refine them, and there was still the issue of success rate. If it was like this in the game world, how much more so in the real world.
"If only all these herbs were three hundred years old. Then, our alchemists could refine hundreds of thousands of ordinary Bi Gu Dan, which would greatly boost the strength of our soldiers," Feng Xi said with regret. Among the several group armies, except for the Seven Races led by Yue Xia, the soldiers from the other Ten Directions Universes generally had lower strength. Therefore, their progress in conquering cities and territories was not ideal when divided into multiple groups.
To execute Ye Yun's orders, several races had dispatched all their high-end combat power from their respective star domains.
Ye Yun smiled slightly. Dozens of Divine Stones appeared in his hand and were infused into the ground and the air. Instantly, the spiritual energy in the entire area became violent. Countless spiritual energies appeared out of nowhere, and the herbs seemed to have been injected with steroids, frantically devouring the various energies in the air.
"This is..."
The four looked at each other. Their strength made them exceptionally sensitive to the changes in spiritual energy in the air. Compared to the other three "country bumpkins," Yue Xia clearly had more experience.
"A formation that combines time and life laws! This, this is definitely the work of an Emperor!"
Emperors, eternal existences, had disappeared from the world for hundreds of millions of years. They were so ancient that many cultivators had begun to doubt the existence of such beings. Even Yue Xia's Dao heart wavered slightly. He never expected to see such a composite formation of two laws here, something only an Emperor could achieve!
Ye Yun merely smiled at this. Yue Xia only knew that this formation was beyond the capabilities of an Emperor, but he had overlooked that the Nine Dragon Yangxu Palace itself was something that even an Emperor could not create.
The fifth level, both above and below ground, contained a total of 180,000 small formations, which then formed a multi-layered composite formation. The primary function of these formations was to control the flow of time in the fifth level! This meant that the speed of time in this space could be adjusted!
Of course, the operation of the great formation composed of time laws and the acceleration of time for the herbs in this medicinal garden required sufficient energy to achieve the desired effect. The greater the ratio between time and reality, the more energy was consumed!
Furthermore, Ye Yun could, according to his needs, use a single small formation to accelerate the herbs in a specific area. However, this acceleration ratio could only reach a maximum of 1:10. This meant one day was equivalent to ten days, or rather, one day was equivalent to ten years! In other words, in just ten days, these herbs could reach a hundred years of age under the operation of the formation!
If the entire great formation was activated, the time acceleration would be terrifying, with a ratio that could reach up to 1:10,000, cultivating ten-thousand-year-old great herbs in one day! However, the energy consumption would also be terrifyingly immense!
Activating a micro-regional formation with one spirit stone could only sustain it for one day. If all 180,000 formations in the entire fifth level were activated, the daily consumption of spirit stones would directly reach 500,000, over 100 million per year! Ordinary people truly couldn't afford to cultivate like this.
Even Ye Yun found it quite strenuous. After all, manifesting spirit stones from the game world required manifestation cards. Ye Yun, having accumulated for such a long time, only had over a million. This meant that if he used spirit stones, Ye Yun wouldn't be able to keep the formations in the fifth level fully activated for more than a few days. Therefore, Ye Yun had to use manifestation cards to manifest more valuable Divine Stones, and only then could he afford it.
If Divine Stones were used, the daily consumption of the entire fifth level would be five stones. With Ye Yun's accumulated Divine Stones and physical manifestation cards, there was no need to worry, and they could be used long-term.
It was a pity that this formation only extended one meter below the ground, rendering it ineffective for human cultivation. Otherwise, the value of the fifth level would be even more astonishing.
"This... how is it so fast... it was only a hundred years old just now, how did it suddenly become over a thousand years?!" Feng Xi was so excited he became incoherent. He was completely shocked by this formation.
"It seems that all the herbs in the entire fifth level are growing rapidly! Is this combined formation of time and life laws really that terrifying?" Yue Xia extended his divine sense, his eyes wide open.
"Alright, hurry up and collect the herbs for refining Bi Gu Dan. I'll refine some to keep as reserves." Ye Yun now commanded hundreds of millions of soldiers, and their numbers were still increasing. If they wanted to expand their territory, Bi Gu Dan was undoubtedly one of the best logistical resources in warfare! Furthermore, once these individuals manifested their strength in the game, they would require various energy supplies, and clearly, the various races could not afford them. This heavy responsibility naturally fell upon Ye Yun's shoulders.
Now, with this medicinal herb present, as long as Ye Yun maintained the operation of the great formation in the entire fifth level, he could harvest ten-thousand-year-old herbs ten times. With ten-thousand-year-old medicinal ingredients, he could refine at least a million superior-grade and seven to eight million good-grade Bi Gu Dan! This would be enough to sustain seven to eight million soldiers for at least half a year.