Chapter 9

Hero yearned for the elixirs and herbs even more than this old turtle. Even wild century-old ginseng would be of great use to him. Century-old ginseng is the ingredient for the Small Primordial Pill, while millennium-old ginseng is the ingredient for the Great Primordial Pill. He had never considered whether there might be a ten-thousand-year-old or even older ginseng growing inside.

He had been refining waste pills for a year, picking only low-grade herbs and medicines. Ordinary goods were no different from cabbages in the field to him; not eating them meant he had nothing to eat, and eating them only provided a tiny bit to maintain his daily needs. To make any progress, he could only rely on practicing the cultivation techniques day and night.

He now needed more potent pills to enhance his cultivation. Thinking of the Dragon Emperor, he felt a strong sense of pressure.

The Dragon Emperor was far too powerful, not even in the same weight class as him.

He needed high-grade herbs to refine pills to increase his strength.

A place where millennium-old ginseng king could grow would also have other high-grade herbs.

Hero was torn for a while, and then Old Turtle burst out of the grass and back into his pocket, shouting: "Hurry up and go in, a great expert is coming. They have blood trackers, and the target is you."

Hero thought Old Turtle was just making excuses to urge him in, so he said boldly, "Great expert? How great? Do you think cultivators are as common as cabbages in the market?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a powerful aura of ability envelop him from behind.

Hero instantly recognized the level of the expert: a 7th-level ability awakened!

He could easily defeat a group of 6th-level ability awakened cultivators, but facing a 7th-level ability awakened cultivator would be a fierce battle.

Without hesitation, Hero shouted, "Great fortune comes with great risk," and darted into the fog zone.

The old bandit had a saying: if you can escape, don't be a hero!

A 7th-level ability awakened? If he pushed Hero to the brink, he could still fight to a stalemate.

Ability awakening is the first power realm of cultivators, divided into ten levels, a classification established since ancient times.

In the next moment, Hero found himself in a vast fog. He tried to take a step back to see if he could leave but was shocked to find that no matter how many steps he took, he was still in the fog. He couldn't see the direction or the path under his feet, and could barely see his own limbs.

Black Spider and his men had just arrived and saw Hero standing in front of the fog-covered valley, hesitating. Black Spider wanted to take advantage of the situation and send Hero to the underworld, but his murderous intent was detected by Hero, who stepped into the valley.

If Old Turtle hadn't warned him a few seconds earlier, there would have been a fierce battle. Don't underestimate Old Turtle; he's small but can take out ten Heroes with one move, and his speed is incredibly fast.

So, Old Turtle was tragically used by Hero as a versatile laborer, handling tasks like scouting, testing medicines, eavesdropping, and surveillance.

Under the cover of night, the fog-covered valley was like a devouring black hole, waiting for someone to fall into its trap.

"Boss, that coward went into the fog zone. What should we do?" one of Black Spider's subordinates asked.

Black Spider looked at the fog-covered valley, hesitating. The target was right in front of him, and he couldn't let him go. His intuition told him that something strange was happening in the fog, and he wondered:

"What did that kid find in the fog zone, or is he trying to lure us in?"

She had already reached the 7th level of ability awakening, just three steps away from breaking through to the second realm of super ability combat body. She didn't want to fall into unknown danger.

Black Spider sent two students wearing spider masks into the valley, saying, "You two go in and check. After this, I'll bring you into the organization."

Lured by the promise, the two cannon fodder excitedly went in. As soon as they entered, they lost contact with Black Spider.

"Something's wrong, that kid is trying to trick me!" Thinking this, Black Spider turned to leave, but as soon as she turned, a powerful suction force pulled her and the fog into a pit in the valley...

In the next moment, Black Spider and her men appeared in another world.

There was no fog around, just a sea of corpses and a mountain of blood.

Dozens of miles away, there was a nearly thousand-meter-high mountain of corpses, with a giant tomb made of human heads at the top, inscribed with "Burial Ground of Soldiers."

A blood-red old vine wrapped around the tombstone, and a jade gourd like an emerald hung from the vine.

As Black Spider recovered from the shock, she saw the sea of bones at the foot of the mountain of corpses come to life, with countless skeletons crawling out of the ground.

These skeletons, smelling the scent of blood, emitted a faint red light from their eyes, roaring "blood food" and mechanically advancing towards Black Spider and her men.

Seeing this, Black Spider and her men turned and fled. Those who reacted slower were devoured by the skeletons.

Meanwhile, Hero was trapped in the fog world, unable to enter or leave.

The current situation was somewhat familiar. After sitting cross-legged on the ground for a moment, he finally realized that this was not just fog but a great fog array.

In the jade slip he had obtained, there were simple array records, but the extraordinary person who left the jade slip had died at the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage and was unable to use the array.

To activate an array, one needs true qi, which can only be used at the second realm of cultivation, the Qi Integration and Body Refinement stage.

With simple array records, there was hope. Even if he couldn't use the array, he could at least find a way out.

To find a way out, he needed to learn the basics of the array first.

He had previously thought that using arrays was still far away, so he had put the basics aside. Now, he was forced to learn them.

When he brought out the basics of the array, Hero felt his head spin.

Hero suddenly remembered the omnipotent Old Turtle and immediately took him out. After much flattery, Old Turtle finally cleared his throat and said:

"Old Turtle is indeed omnipotent. I have studied the basics of the array to perfection, even the parts you haven't learned. However, I can only guide you from the side and won't lead you out. The way of the array cannot be taught, it must be understood."

As he said this, Old Turtle was inwardly laughing: daring to make the omnipotent Old Turtle do labor? I'll use your greatest fear to punish you.

So, Hero started to jump into the pit, slapping his chest and saying, "I have a high understanding and excellent physique. I can learn anything quickly. Teach me quickly."

Hearing Hero's plea, Old Turtle was very pleased and said meaningfully, "The way of the array is as profound as the way of the pill. To master the basics of the array, you must understand the six fundamental theories of the array. Missing any one of them, you cannot enter the array. These six fundamental theories are recorded in the jade slip: the Two Extremes Theory, the Two Instruments Theory, the Four Symbols Theory, the Five Elements Theory, and the Eight Trigrams Theory."

As Hero's divine sense entered the jade slip, he shivered. It was like a heavenly book; he couldn't understand a single word, and reading it made him dizzy and disoriented!

Old Turtle loved seeing Hero do what he feared most. Nothing could be more effective in punishing him. Old Turtle had decided to get his revenge and said, "If you can't do it, it's fine. Old Turtle can live for thousands of years without eating or drinking, but you will die in half a month without food. You decide!"

But under Old Turtle's threats and intimidation, Hero gave in and obediently began to learn the six fundamental theories of the array under Old Turtle's guidance.

Indeed, great fortune comes with great risk. He hadn't even made any money yet and was already being tricked.

Neither Hero nor Old Turtle knew that time in the great fog array was eternally still! It could be ten thousand years in an instant, or it could be just one second after he mastered the basics of the array and left.