After listening, Han Li realized the other party's words were well-intentioned advice, so he had no choice but to agree halfheartedly before changing the subject. Finally, he asked about the main ingredients for Foundation Establishment Pills.
"Junior Brother Han wants to know where spiritual herbs like Jade Marrow Mushroom can be found?" Wu Feng asked in surprise.
"Yes! Brother has been in the sect for so many years, you should know something, right?" Han Li asked hopefully.
Wu Feng heard this and deliberated for a moment before speaking: "I do know a little, but I advise Junior Brother to give up on this idea. That place is not only incredibly dangerous, but under normal circumstances it's impossible to even get close. You can only enter it at a specific time and specific location, with the help of our sect elders."
When he first heard that the other party knew something, Han Li felt a surge of joy, but the subsequent words startled him, and he quickly pressed for details.
It turned out that this type of spiritual herb had become rare in the cultivation world long ago, having virtually disappeared from ordinary places. The only place where they could still be found now was in those so-called forbidden zones.
Since even cultivators called them forbidden zones, these places were obviously extremely dangerous, typically located in harsh environments far from civilization. Some were lairs of monsters and demons that had to be fought through step by step. Others contained ancient restriction arrays that required great effort to break through before there was any hope of entering.
The Yellow Maple Valley and the other cultivation sects of the Yue Kingdom had obtained their Foundation Establishment Pill ingredients over the years from the latter type of forbidden zone — a location sealed off by wind-attribute ancient restrictions.
The restrictions there were extremely powerful, and originally the cultivation sects had no hope of breaking them open. However, someone eventually discovered that every five years, the restrictions would weaken for a five-day period. During this window, if several Core Formation stage cultivators worked together to forcibly break the restrictions, they could temporarily open a passage allowing a certain number of people to enter.
But once the passage appeared and all cultivators attempted to enter, another unexpected twist emerged.
Cultivators who had already reached Foundation Establishment or above were blocked by a completely different, strange restriction on the inner layer, while those at the Qi Condensation stage could enter without any hindrance. They gathered large quantities of rare spiritual herbs and brought them out.
This discovery immediately sent shockwaves through the Yue Kingdom's cultivation world. From then on, the seven major sects would send batches of disciples below the Foundation Establishment stage into the forbidden zone every five years to collect large amounts of spiritual herbs — with the main ingredients for Foundation Establishment Pills being the top priority of course.
In the beginning, the disciples from the various sects could still act independently without interfering with one another. Being selected for this mission was considered a tremendous privilege. But as the herbs were gradually stripped away year after year, the spiritual plants in the forbidden zone became scarcer and scarcer. Disputes between sects over rare herbs began to escalate, and full-blown fights broke out with increasing frequency. During one particular expedition several hundred years ago, disciples actually lost their lives in the clashes.
That first taste of blood completely shattered any pretense of civility among the major sects. They openly threw off all pretenses, embracing the creed of "the weak are prey for the strong" and "heaven and earth are without mercy," encouraging their disciples to rob others. The forbidden zone expedition was now steeped in blood.
As a result, while the spiritual herbs continued to dwindle, the fighting in the forbidden zone grew more intense and more brutal with each passing expedition.
By the last hundred years, the slaughter had become so horrific that fewer than a third of the disciples who entered the forbidden zone made it out alive, causing devastating losses among the elite of each sect's lower ranks. The disciples themselves began calling the forbidden zone expedition the "Blood Forbidden Trial," and started avoiding it at all costs. There were even moments when not a single person was willing to go.
As for forcing people to go — that was obviously even less viable.
If a disciple didn't genuinely want to enter the forbidden zone to search for herbs, they would inevitably go through the motions. Nine times out of ten, they'd just find a hiding spot and wait until the time was up before walking out safely.
This kind of thing had happened before, driving their superiors absolutely livid — but there was nothing they could do about it. After all, the person never wanted to go in the first place. You were the one who forced them to take such an enormous risk, so what right did you have to complain?
Thus, with all the Yue Kingdom sects coveting spiritual herbs ever more desperately, yet fewer and fewer disciples willing to volunteer for the venture, every sect began offering lavish rewards to recruit participants for the forbidden zone expedition. The bounty was directly tied to the quantity and quality of spiritual herbs a disciple could bring back out.