The surroundings are all dark and the claustrophobic feeling is making everyone uneasy. The only light which is a little bit dim is coming from the middle of this small dome-shaped area. Everyone knows that they are buried a couple of meters underground and the question which lingers to everyone is, how can they escape from this place? Now, everyone is looking at a young man who seems to hold great strength but treats mortals like his equal.

Since s.h.i.+n Jiao is from Earth he would always carry a kind att.i.tude when he is around the elderly, women and kids, being kind and amiable. And right now he is mixing some simple herbs to help the people around him recover their vitality so that when they start to move up the people around him would be able to carry on.

After some time, the people around him began to give signs of recovery; even those old people with pale faces now had a tinge of pink on them. The children and the women now have a vibrant aura which dispels the gloomy one which they were always carrying. Satisfied with this result s.h.i.+n Jiao is now carrying a smile on his face and decided that it is time for them to go out.

"Hmm… let's see… I guess everyone is ready. You all must follow me closely; I won't be responsible for those who will lag behind. As I already did my best to help you all, now is the time for you to help yourselves."

s.h.i.+n Jiao started to dig a slope as they move forward, by absorbing the soil and debris inside his ring. He planned to just take it out after they reached the surface and dump it all there. As they started to move forwards s.h.i.+n Jiao began to notice something. There is a strong spiritual Qi not too far from where they are right now.

"What is this? It seems to be from that direction." s.h.i.+n Jiao muttered then looked at his left side.

"I'll lead them out first and go back here." s.h.i.+n Jiao thought as he hastens his pace to make a path for the people who are following him behind.

"All right, I have already opened a tunnel, just follow it and you'll reach the top." s.h.i.+n Jiao said and didn't linger on with them as he quickly turns back inside the tunnel.

The people became dumbfounded as they never expected for him to do that. But before they could react and say something, s.h.i.+n Jiao is already out of their sight.

"Hmm… I think this is the right way." s.h.i.+n Jiao slowly feel his surroundings trying to find that faint aura which he felt before.

After just a few seconds his eyes lit up. What he is feeling right now is a faint trace of pure spiritual essence. He already learned that in this world there are many types of pure spiritual essence which could bolster one's cultivation; and the most common of these are fire, water, and ice.

He is already lucky enough to have accidentally formed a poison essence, which is due to his cultivation style absorbing a very strong poison which formed the green gem. Now when s.h.i.+n Jiao felt the faint trace he immediately feels that it is familiar, because he already has the poison essence. Now judging from the spiritual trace, this essence seems to be a pure plant essence.

"If this is really a plant essence, then I hit the jackpot. Pure plant essence is the rarest of all the essences. According to the book I read from the basic cultivation arts from Qin Lou, in a single planet, only one plant essence should exist. So if I could absorb this pure plant essence then I could have the ability to affect plant growth according to my will. Hehe… this is truly a jackpot." s.h.i.+n Jiao didn't notice that right now a big grin and a greedy look are in his face.

After digging for a while s.h.i.+n Jiao reached a location where a thick spiritual Qi can be felt. Excited of the prospect that behind the thick spiritual Qi is the plant essence, s.h.i.+n Jiao immediately tried to absorb the soil in front of him, but nothing happened. He tried it several more times still the soil didn't budge.

"What the heck! How did it not have any effect at all?" s.h.i.+n Jiao said in confusion as it seems that he can't absorb the dirt in front of him using his ring.

"Wait a minute… I think that natural energies and spiritual Qi can't work inside the radius of this aura. It seems that I have no choice but to use my hands to dig in." s.h.i.+n Jiao suddenly found the reason why.

s.h.i.+n Jiao immediately started to dig the dirt using his hands. But since his body he is already a nascent realm, he found it a little easy to dig inside the soil. Unknown to s.h.i.+n Jiao, if a normal cultivator no matter what their realm is they will be suppressed by the aura and would become like mortals. The only thing they can do to dig the ground is to use their weapons or artifacts.

While s.h.i.+n Jiao is digging under the ground, a huge flying sword suddenly flew into the area. Then suddenly it slowed down.

"Wait a minute… I can feel that there is a very unique aura in here." The man on the helm of the sword suddenly waves his hand and the sword stopped.

"This is a natural essence. This aura… my luck today is not that bad. Hahaha!" the blue-robed man laughed in his mind.

"Dao ancestor Lao is there something wrong?" the old woman asked in confusion she didn't know why they suddenly stopped in this place.

Looking around, it is clear that they are near the middle part of the swamp. The speed of the huge flying sword is really fast as it has already covered a few couples of kilometers. Everyone in that huge flying sword is a little confused, everyone except for the big black-feathered bird who suddenly look down. No one noticed an intelligent glint in its eyes as it looks at the blue-robed man with a mixture of pity and a little tinge of jealousy.

"No, everything is alright. All of you can go back to town; I will stay here and look for something. I feel my luck is really good today." The blue robe man they called Dao ancestor Lao replied as he waved his hand.

Dao ancestor Lao or Shanguan Lao is a Dao ancestor of the Lotus Sect. With the cultivation of a primary stage world nascent realm, he can be considered as one of the true powerhouses of the Lotus sect. The reason why he and his group went towards this area is because of the information that there are many rare plants and fruits in this swamp. He even brought with him Susu Ling grandfather who is known for being one f the greatest alchemist in the sect.

"But…" the beautiful young woman wanted to say something but didn't continue as she saw the determined look in the man's eyes.

"Yes, as you wish… uncle…" the beautiful young woman said as she looks at the old woman in front of her.

When their eyes met, they just nod their head and didn't say anything. Then the old woman spreads her spiritual sense and takes control of the huge flying sword. When the group has already flown afar, the blue-robed world nascent realm cultivator had a grin on his face and begins moving through the ground.

As a world nascent cultivator, Shanguan Lao was able to move with ease underground as he is able to manipulate the land itself. Not long after he started to sink underground. After a couple of minutes, he noticed that something is wrong as all of a sudden no matter how hard he tries he seems to be unable to move through the ground under him.

"This aura… it seems to be affecting my spiritual control on the elements." Shanguan Lao thought.

He quickly tried to scan the ground and then a splitting headache suddenly attacked his consciousness. The pain was too severe that it made him groan and held his head as he rolled on the ground.

"Arrggghh!"

"d.a.m.n this! I never thought that this aura is too tyrannical. I need to be careful." He said as he is unwilling to give up in obtaining this very rare treasure.

Unknown to him a young man is already closing in on his target. The young man is s.h.i.+n Jiao who is effortlessly digging through the ground. He is like an earthworm who borrows through the ground with ease.

"I think I'm getting closer, the aura is getting thicker in this direction." s.h.i.+n Jiao muttered to himself as he continues digging with a smile on his face.

His direction is actually towards the center of the ruins. s.h.i.+n Jiao is unaware that he is actually digging back to where he and Ebeth fought. And now that whole area is covered with broken ice and crystallized vines. Then in the middle of that large room is a platform where the mutated plant emerges, a glowing green bead is floating on top of a crystallized shattered body of a plant beast as it releases a strong and oppressive aura.

This is the rarest treasure of this planet as this essence is like nature itself having manifested into the light. None knows why the bead appears in this place; even Ebeth didn't expect that her creation would be the crucible to make the pure plant essence appear.

According to the records, it has been thousands of years since the last pure plant essence appears and it was the cause of a great war and destruction which almost destroyed the cultivation land. It is rumored that the last emperor which is the great grandfather of the current emperor of the Xi empire is the one who is fortunate enough to get the pure plant essence. But the truth is far from the rumors and that even up to now, no one knew what happened to that pure plant essence as it suddenly disappears.

Right now, s.h.i.+n Jiao felt like he's been digging underground for hours but still could not see the end. The only thing that's keeping him going is, knowing that he is in the right direction as he can feel the aura becoming stronger. Not long later, he suddenly feels that something dangerous is coming closer. So with that bad hunch, he started to dig faster.

Then all of a sudden the soil ends and so he fell and then found himself in a room, with a very low temperature and covered in ice.

"This place looks familiar… Wait a minute! Don't tell me that I dig myself back to this place?" s.h.i.+n Jiao was dumbfounded as he didn't expect where the trace of the aura had led him.

All of a sudden he felt and discovered a glowing green bead in the middle of the room. Upon seeing this bead s.h.i.+n Jiao suddenly had an idea of what is going on. But this idea of his is just a hunch and so he just put it at the back of his mind.

"Is that… Is that the pure plant essence?" s.h.i.+n Jiao asked himself as his gaze went towards the floating green bead in the middle of the frozen room.

s.h.i.+n Jiao wanted to bid his time and scrutinize the bead but then the dangerous feeling came back and made him worry. So without thinking too much he immediately arrives near the bead and stretched forth his hand thinking of grabbing the bead and quickly run outside.

But to his surprise, before his hand would reach the bead it suddenly shut out towards his chest. Because of the speed and the impact, s.h.i.+n Jiao's body was flung like a cannonball and hit the wall of dirt. This created a hole in the dirt wall and immediately caved in and covered him.

While this is happening, Shanguan Lao is crazily digging downwards using his precious sword artifact. Because of the suppression, his digging speed is really laughable as his digging tool is inappropriate. And since the suppression made him, a world nascent realm cultivator unable to use his spiritual and natural energy, he became powerless like a mortal.

Suddenly he felt something was odd. The aura he is feeling a while ago which is getting stronger becomes weaker.

"What's going on? Is something wrong with the pure essence underground? This won't do… I need to dig faster! I need to secure that thing or else this opportunity will be wasted." Shanguan Lao thought as anxiety can be seen on his face.

Then all of a sudden his complexion paled, as he now can't feel the aura.

"Who dares! I will kill the person who took this father's things!" Shanguan Lao shouted as he immediately circulates his spiritual Qi and forcefully digs downwards.

But before he could succeed, his whole body began to feel some throbbing pain as his Qi began to suddenly dissipate. Even though he can't feel the aura it seems that the effect of the oppression still lingers in the area. So without a choice, he gritted his teeth and continues digging.

"Ugh… What… what happened? It seems that I can't move my body." s.h.i.+n Jiao suddenly woke up and darkness greeted him.

"I was. .h.i.t by the bead right? I clearly feel my chest caving in and as if it was torn to shreds." s.h.i.+n Jiao tried to recall what had happened.

Then he tried to touch his chest but is unable to lift his hand quickly,

"Am I buried underground?" s.h.i.+n Jiao thought.

Then he tried to spread his spiritual sense and was really dumbfounded. All he can see are dirt covering him and it seems that there is blood on his chest as his clothes are also ripped.

"I need to get out of here." s.h.i.+n Jiao said to himself.

He once again tried to use his ring, but still, it was ineffective. Suddenly he felt something in his dantian when he closed his eyes to check it, he was shocked. The green bead is actually inside his dantian alongside the green crystal.

"This… haha! I'm actually successful in absorbing the pure plant essence. This is really great!" s.h.i.+n Jiao felt elated at his luck.

Suddenly he feels that his body became coated with the aura of the green bead. With this feeling, s.h.i.+n Jiao immediately tried to use his ring, and he became successful in removing the dirt. With that discovery, s.h.i.+n Jiao felt elated.

Now that a large portion of land was removed, s.h.i.+n Jiao was able to free himself from the dirt and found himself once again inside the room. With a smile on his face, s.h.i.+n Jiao felt happy as he can now find his way back up.

But before he could move the ground began to shake slightly and the soil from the top began to fall and with it came falling a man in a blue robe.