Grey looked the tall figure of the young woman and nodded his head in silence. He figured as much.
The place they were heading into was were the medicinal herb, Blue silver grass could be found. Grey was not an alchemists so he did not know the uses of it in medicine, but he did know that it was a crucial ingredient needed for the refining of the medicinal pill that could suppress the corrosive substance within the body.
He had seen a blue silver grass before, but the grass he had seen was withered and worthless. He was excited to know how the real blue silver grass would look like.
The blue silver grass he had seen before was like the stem of a normal grass. Only that a hint of blue streaked up the whole stalk and connected to its leaves.
Because of the strong spirit energy fluctuations coming from each and every single one of them, they were not approaced by any Mutated creature.
After an unknown time had passed and they were close to the depths of the corroded zone, Grey felt the corrosive substance within his body spike up and he hurriedly swallowed a medicinal pill.
He saw the rest of the party do the same thing as their expressions turned pale. Even though the creatures that lived in the corroded zones could be classified as dangerous and lethal. The one who takes it away was the corrosive substance.
The corrosive substance was so invasive and destructive that it permeated every thing. Both living and inanimated and corroded their spiritual integrity.
If a normal cultivator came here without the medicinal pills, the corrosive substance in their body would skyrocket and they would reach their decay point way sooner.
As Grey threw some more medicinal pills into his mouth, he was carefully counting them. He ate three medicinal pills yesterday when he was breaking through and ate two more just a fee seconds ago, that made five. Which meant out of ten he had only five remaining.
It ached his heart at the loss of his spirit coins. He felt his pocket and a reluctant expression subty appeared on his face.
After a while of going through several twists and turns, they finally entered a small plain of grass. These grass were not too tall and only reached his ankle.
He saw the expressions of the party relax as they approached the field of grass. This was the blue silver grass.
The blue silver grass seemed to sway lightly in the wind as their silver color was reflected in their eyes.
Some streaks of blue climbed from the roots up to the stalk. The blue streak looked like veins and with the silver color, it made for a delicate sight.
"You can relax for a few minutes before we start to collect the blue silver grass. Bring out your storage bags." The captain said suddenly and the rest of the party heaved a sigh of relief.
Grey watched as they brought out sickles and began to harvest the lush blue silver grass. With the sickles in their hand, they looked like farmers. Grey felt something was off.
Surely the captain could not have called four strong cultivators in the Qi accumulation realm to harvest blue silver grass. It was too mundane and nothing of it spoke of him to be wary.
In curiosity, he tried to pull on a stalk of bluesilver grass but found that it was very taut. He applied more force but the result was that same. It was like he wasn't even trying at all.
When the Captain saw him trying to pull on a blue silver grass stalk, he came closer until he was standing over him.
"You cannot pull out blue silver grass with your strength and bare hands." He then tugged on the blue silver grass and Grey watched as it was plucked out of the ground with little to no effort. He felt it was unbelievable.
When he saw how easy it was for the other members of the team to pull it out he finally understood.
"Qi accumulation cultivators below the fifth stage cannot hope to dig out the blue silver grass. That's why everyone here is at least in the sixth stage of Qi accumulation and have one soul weapon." As he said that, he brought out his own sickle.
Seeing Grey's confused expression, he decided to explain. "Soul weapons are weapons that have been crafted out of metals containing sense spirit energy. People who forge such weapons are called soulsmiths and have very strong spiritual perception and are very sensitive to spirit energy.
Soul weapons are divided into seven ranks; Profound, Earthly, Heavenly, Mystic, Legendary, Sacred and Divine. All these are made from metals in such ranks as well and from the Mystic rank are very hard to find.
To be a soul Smith, you would have to be very strong and possess talent in forging. If not you'll just be wasting time. Soul smiths also have seven ranks; Soul origin, Soul condensation, Soul venerable, Soul master, Soul Saint, Soul Grandmaster, and Soul God.
Soul smiths from the third rank up are very rare to find and are probably already recruited into several big factions." The Captain took a short pause before continuing.
"This sickle is very basic Soul weapon and in the Profound rank. Soul smiths not only forge weapons, they can forge almost anything but the most known ones are weapons and armors. If you enter a academy, you'll be forced to choose between the Dao of medicine or Soul forging. Each is a well known profession and both are very hard and time consuming. There are others aspects one can focus on but Soul forging and Dao of medicine are the most known."
The Captain finished his explanation and looked at Grey who was staring at him with wide eyes. He had never heard of such a thing and it was very intriguing.
When he looked at the sickle again, he felt that it contained some kind of energy and a strange will. Only now did he know it was a soul weapon.
'There are many things that I still do not know about this world.' He muttered inwardly in his heart and the world suddenly seemed more vast and big than he had thought.
Seeing Grey in deep thought, the Captain left subtly and Grey did not even know when they had met the quota for today.
He looked at the rest of the party and saw them putting bundles of bluesilver grass into their storage bags along with their soul weapons that disappeared into their body. The stacks of blue silver grass seemed to disappear into an endless pit and showed no bulge on the storage bags. After gathering and making sure they were ready to go, they left in a different direction than they came in.