Chapter 33: Are you certain these multicolored mushrooms are spiritual herbs?

[Notification: The host is currently located within the dense forest on the outskirts of the Immortal Sect. This secret realm has been fully explored by the sect’s disciples, with only a few spiritual herbs remaining available for collection...]

“Spiritual herbs?”

Ye Hui’s heartbeat suddenly quickened.

After waiting for so long, he finally saw spiritual herbs!

So the spiritual energy materials were to be gathered from a special map!

No matter what, this was good news!

“Too bad I haven’t unlocked alchemy skills yet. Even if I have the herbs, I can only crudely make spiritual meals…”

Ye Hui crouched and began scanning the surroundings.

Thanks to his innate sensing ability, he indeed spotted faint glimmers of a pale blue light flickering intermittently among the grass.

He hurried forward.

Within the glowing blue cluster, there was a herb shimmering with a subtle radiance.

Is this the special effect of a spiritual herb?

But this plant… why does it look somewhat familiar?

[Collecting... Collection complete. Obtained one “Pure Spirit Herb”...]

Ye Hui examined the herb from every angle.

“System, what kind of herb is this?”

[Identification complete: Pure Spirit Herb. Clears heat and detoxifies, sharpens vision and benefits the gallbladder. Can be refined into Pure Spirit Pill to replenish spiritual power...]

Ye Hui twitched the corner of his mouth.

He felt like the system had just attacked him, inflicting internal injury!

Even if the system had bugs in other secret realms and logs, though the descriptions were often nonsensical, at least they didn’t affect his ability to complete tasks.

And the rewards were genuinely valuable.

But now?

This multicolored mushroom-looking thing… could it really be eaten?

And this counts as a medicinal herb?

Even without spiritual energy, mixing and eating this at random would probably be deadly!

Yet the system insisted it was a spiritual herb, but would he dare eat it?

Ye Hui’s heart sank instantly.

All for nothing!

“Forget it, I’ll gather them first. Whether poisonous or not, coming here wasn’t easy…”

Ye Hui began collecting the “spiritual herbs.”

Though to his eyes, these were clearly ordinary wild vegetables, traditional herbs, and mushrooms that looked outright poisonous.

But in the system’s view, these were precious spiritual medicines.

---

After Ye Hui finished collecting, Zhi Shi also finished recording.

Tilting her head, she looked at Ye Hui: “By the way, how has your cultivation been this past week, Ye Hui?”

“Of course, I’ve learned many skills, like—Rain Summoning!”

Ye Hui waved his hand, and mist filled the forest park, droplets of rain falling briefly before stopping.

Xiao Ke ate contentedly, flying in the air.

Seeing this, she curled her lips and said, “That’s obviously just fog. You call that rain?”

[Cerberus Emotion Value +3]

A tic appeared on Ye Hui’s forehead.

“This is only a basic divine ability. Basic, got it? The path of cultivation is limitless. When mastered to the extreme, one can summon wind and rain, reshape the heavens and earth…”

Ye Hui was somewhat surprised at the manifestations of divine abilities during his recent studies.

In the game, spiritual awareness didn’t seem grandiose.

According to the lore, it was more like the spirit, will, or soul—intangible yet truly existing character attributes.

Ye Hui suspected that divine abilities might be closely related to spiritual awareness.

The stronger his spiritual awareness, the more powerful the divine abilities he could wield.

If his spiritual consciousness reached the heavens, even a simple act like summoning rain could summon a torrential downpour that inundated the world!

Xiao Ke pouted.

“But that’s just fog!”

Ye Hui twitched and replied slowly, “Dense fog is essentially rain. I’m still not proficient in controlling divine abilities, but I believe I’ll make progress soon.”

“By the way, Xiao Ke has been with Clawlord for so long; surely it’s learned many spells?”

Xiao Ying was surprised as she looked at Xiao Ke: “Eh? Xiao Ke can do magic too? So you can summon rain and the like?”

She had spent some time with Xiao Ke but had never seen it use magic.

Still, Xiao Ke always claimed to have once followed the great mage Clawlord.

It must have known many spells.

Xiao Ke hesitated, spread its hands, and shook its head: “Summoning rain and such are just minor tricks—not the magic I’m skilled at!”

Still bluffing!

Ye Hui ruthlessly exposed Xiao Ke’s lie: “Actually, you can’t cast any magic right now. Besides shouting and making noise, you’re just a mascot.”

(ー`´ー)☞

Xiao Ke pointed at Ye Hui while waving its fists: “So what? Once Xiao Ying finds the Fire Card, I’ll be able to wield fire elemental magic!”

[Cerberus Emotion Value +8]

“Oh...~”

Ye Hui dragged the word out: “So basically, you don’t know magic at all, and you’re fooling Xiao Ying! Why don’t you just go find the Clawlord Cards yourself?”

Zhi Shi covered her mouth and chuckled softly.

---

Xiao Ying crossed her arms and picked up Xiao Ke: “So this is why you tricked me into becoming a magic user, Xiao Ke!”

Xiao Ke immediately hung its head.

“S-sorry, Xiao Ying~~ But even if I knew magic, since you opened the Claw Magic Book, I would only choose you to be the Claw Magic User…”

“Tch, since you apologized so sincerely, I forgive you!”

Xiao Ying wasn’t angry at all.

Setting aside how fascinating the magical world was.

After several disasters caused by the Claw Cards, Xiao Ying gradually realized the importance of capturing them.

With a growing sense of responsibility and Ye Hui and Zhi Shi by her side to adventure with her, Xiao Ying no longer felt the initial fear and anxiety of bearing such a heavy burden.

Zhi Shi squinted her eyes: “Looks like Xiao Ke is pretty impressive. I wonder what it looks like when it casts magic… Would it be cool?”

“Of course! I’m the coolest seal beast under Clawlord!”

Xiao Ke teared up—Zhi Shi was the kindest to it, sniff sniff~

Then it glanced at Ye Hui.

Ye Hui just happened to turn his head: “I heard the seal beasts of the Claw Cards represent the power of light and are associated with the ‘Earth’ and ‘Fire’ elements…”

Xiao Ke narrowed its beady eyes, glanced sideways at Ye Hui, and then placed its hands on its hips.

“That guy’s right. I’m the master of two of the four elements—Earth and Fire Claw Cards!”

[Cerberus Emotion Value +9]

Ye Hui struck again: “So even if you regain all your powers someday, you’re still not good at water magic… You can only spit fire.”

Xiao Ke: (・́へ・́╬)!!!

[Cerberus Emotion Value +18]

It even put down its food, flew into the air, and flapped its wings.

“But I can assist Xiao Ying and sense the location of the Claw Cards, can you?”

Hearing this, Ye Hui raised an eyebrow and gently patted his chest: “Obviously, I can!”

“I can also help Xiao Ying with laundry!”

“I come from a wealthy family; washing machines aren’t expensive! I’ll buy ten right away!”

“I can also fly…”

“Cultivators can fly too!”

Xiao Ke was speechless, biting its teeth. After thinking for a while, its eyes suddenly lit up, and it glared at Ye Hui.

“I can also call Xiao Ying ‘Xiao Ying’!”

Ye Hui: “...”