Actually, the Skull and Ghost herbs were not hard to grow, they were only rare and unrecognizable to most precisely because of how they were grown . They required a certain amount of fresh corpses, negative energy and spiritual power . That has largely been interpreted like the mound they happened upon, killing people, more specifically cultivators . The easiest and only known way to grow Skull and Ghost herbs was to kill people . Cultivators, being immortal and righteous abhorred hurting the innocents on the surface, and perhaps scared for their own lives, denounced anyone known to grow them . That, however, didn't mean no one was growing them, they just either haven't been found out or persecuted yet . The two types of herbs can be used to concoct all kinds of medicine, some life-saving . However, only certain parts of it can be used for medicine . For the Skull herb, only the leaves are medicinal, everything else was highly toxic, especially the skull fruits which stored most of the plant's toxins . The Ghost herb didn't bore fruit and only it's stalk could be used in medicine, the rest also contained the toxins of the plant, taken in from the negative energy .
These two types of plants were perfect for Shen Tianyu . She could give the medicinal parts to Luo Shue and keep the poisonous parts to concoct her poisons . Thinking about this, she started humming quietly to herself, despite the heavy rotting stench permeating the air . This created a beautiful yer disturbing scene and anyone that stumbled upon it would probably be scared out of their wits . 'You're humming so happily in this kind of a h.e.l.lish place, are you a lunatic?!'
They came across another mound of corpses further down the road and stopped . Rong Jian looked at her in question . She turned to him .
"By the way, there are supposed to be demonic foxes living here that attack intruders right? How come we still haven't encountered one?" She asked with a slight smile on her lips .
Before Rong Jian could respond, a growl sounded from their right a few steps ahead .
"Speak of the devil and the devil will come . " Shen Tianyu commented as she reached her hand into her magic pouch and took her sword out of her s.p.a.ce .
. . .
In a tree nearby, a hint of surprise and amus.e.m.e.nt flashed in the eyes of the resident . The man was dressed completely in black with a silver mask, painted with spider lilies, covering his face, revealing only his eyes and cherry red lips . He had been following Shen Tianyu and Rong Jian since they entered the forest, thinking it interesting a couple would come out all the way here to such a dangerous place . In addition, the disparity in strength between the man and woman . He thought it'd be a good show to see a pampered Miss throwing a tantrum here of all places . Who would have thought that she was ready for battle at the first sign of danger instead of hiding behind someone else?
'This kind of reaction reminds me of her . . . ' he thought to himself .
. . .
The sword in Shen Tianyu's hand looked quite different from the normal swords . There were various diagonal, distinct cuts within the blade of the sword that went down to the middle of it . The tip itself seemed separated from the rest of the blade in that there was only one cut going all around the tip . The tip that should have been s.h.i.+ning silver was, instead, showing off a dull purple . The handle was simply wrapped in red while the guard was a simple circular metal, with no emblem or decorations . (1)
Rong Jian looked at her sword and frowned . "Wifey, are you sure your sword is able to handle a fight?" The various cuts in the blade made it look like it was about to fall apart, even if the sword itself does not show any wear or tear .
Shen Tianyu grinned without looking at him . "You'll see . " This was one of her proud creations she'd worked tirelessly on with some of the elders and blacksmiths .
Rong Jian worriedly backed off a little, giving the floor to Shen Tianyu . She started a staring contest with the creature that had come out of the bushes . It was actually quite beautiful . The fox had snow white fur, pointed dark grey ears, and s.h.i.+ning golden eyes . The only obvious way it looked different from a normal fox was that normal foxes did not have three red-tipped tails . It looked silently at Shen Tianyu, neither backing off .
'Whoa . . . It's pretty . . . ' Shen Tianyu thought in her heart .
The demonic fox suddenly raised it's head and howled like a wolf . A bloodthirstiness shone in it's eyes as it opened it's mouth to reveal sharp, triangular teeth . It growled as it lunged towards Shen Tianyu . Before Rong Jian could go up to try to protect her, she swung her sword .
'What! It's still one Zhang(2) away! The sword won't reach it! Did she panic?!' Rong Jian thought she had panicked since her sword wouldn't be able to reach the demonic fox .
However, the sword stretched . The blades started detaching at the diagonal cuts and soon, it was mostly a whip, with small blades attached to it on the sides . The blades that reached the demonic fox slashed at it before returning back into sword form .
Rong Jian stood there, mouth agape in amazement . The man in the trees also widened his eyes in incredulity . Something like this, that combined a whip and sword, was never rarely heard of before! Almost no one ever combined weapons! The closest weapon to that was barbed whips and flexible swords that could bend . They reckon, even in the strongest continent, there was no one who even possessed this kind of blade, much less wield it . The biggest problem was that it was extremely difficult to make! The blacksmith had to attach the blades firmly to the whip , but they must be firm and strong enough that they won't break upon contact but not be too heavy as to weigh down the whip . Not to mention, Shen Tianyu's blade just now, stretched one zhang! That was way further than the whip should have been!
Actually, that wasn't too hard to explain . The hilt of Shen Tianyu's sword had a special function . She had an elder make a dimensional s.p.a.ce within the hilt, the same kind of thing used to make magical pouches . In that dimensional s.p.a.ce, was a ma.s.s of leather and blades, the rest of the "whip" of her sword . In actuality, her sword could extend much further than 1 Zhang .