NOVEL NEXT Chapter 444: The Plumevine and Its Guardian
Ethan raised the staff, ready to strike.
"Wait! Don't hit me!" the man yelped, ducking with his hands over his head. "I don't have any valuables, but I've got news of something valuable!"
He squatted on the ground, bracing for the blow.
Thump, thump!
Two objects dropped onto his back. The man flinched, confused, before glancing down. His eyes lit up. He snatched them up, one in each hand, and plopped down cross-legged on the dirt.
Ethan had tossed him a waterskin and a strip of jerky. Without a second thought—poison or not—the man ripped open the waterskin and gulped it down. He followed it with ravenous bites of the jerky, chewing noisily.
"Thank you, Brother…" he said between mouthfuls. "Honestly, I just wanted to rob some food and water. Haven't eaten in three days. When I saw you new trial participants, I figured you'd have supplies."
"New participants?" Ethan's frown deepened. "You're here for the trial too?"
The man nodded, still chewing. "Yeah. Came in three days ago, and I lost my spatial pouch the moment I arrived!"
Ethan's thoughts stirred. This trial was different from anything he'd heard of before. In the past, only those from the Sea of Death ever entered this so-called Spirit Realm.
"How did you get in?" he asked.
"You mean… you're here for the Spirit Realm Trial, right? The one that only opens once every hundred thousand years?" The man's tone carried both awe and bitterness. "They say that if you find any treasure here, you can defy the heavens when you leave. But me? I'm stuck on the first layer, starving to death. The treasures on the higher levels might as well be fairy tales to me. If I can survive until the trial ends and get teleported out, I'll call it a win. Brother… you're a good man, really."
His eyes flicked to the staff in Ethan's hands, and he instinctively recoiled.
Ethan ignored the flattery, he felt utterly confused but noted the details. So, the Spirit Realm had multiple layers… and it opened only once every hundred thousand years. Meanwhile, the Four Domains Sacred Assembly of the Sea of Death occurred once every millennium.
That meant the participants of the Sacred Assembly had only ever reached this first layer. Either no one had made it to the deeper layers, or those who did had never returned to share their knowledge.
By then, the man had finished everything. He got to his feet, wiped his mouth, and said, "Brother, name's Micah. I know where there's a ten-thousand-year-old Plumevine, not far from here."
Ethan raised a brow, "Ten-thousand-year-old Plumevine?"
"Yeah… The first layer of the Spirit Realm is pretty barren. Finding a ten-thousand-year-old herb is rare. How about we team up to get it?" Micah rubbed his hands, looking hopeful.
Ethan eyed him, this guy knew the location of something supposedly valuable and he was willing to share it? Either he was just desperate… or he need someone to do the heavy lifting.
Micah shrank a little under his gaze. He scratched his head. "Brother, don't look at me like that. The guardian beast is too strong—I can't handle it alone. If I hadn't lost my spatial pouch, I wouldn't be afraid of a mere Tier Four magical beast! But now… I've got nothing but this broken blade I found on the road!"
Ethan's mind went to Uncle Jed. Before he left for the Sacred Assembly, Uncle Jed had drilled into him the importance of certain herbs. The Plumevine was among the most coveted, a key ingredient in crafting the Soulflare Elixir—an elixir that could restore injuries, stamina, and vitality in an instant, practically granting an extra life.
Uncle Jed was preparing for his tribulation. A single Soulflare Elixir would give him the confidence to survive it. And if Uncle Jed reached the Saint-rank before Ethan left, it would ensure safety for everyone he cared about.
"Let's go," Ethan said finally.
Micah's eyes lit up, and he eagerly led the way.
They wove through the mountain forest until Ethan suddenly stopped, his gaze locking on a rocky cliff ahead. His eyes gleamed.
"It really is a ten-thousand-year-old Plumevine…"
A single vine clung to the rock face, slender and about a meter tall. Feather-like barbs sprouted along its length, radiating a faint, misty purple glow.
Ethan glanced at his system map. This spot matched the red circle labeled "9." Likely, a participant in the last Sacred Assembly had discovered the vine when it was only nine thousand years old and left it to mature, marking the location for a future attempt.
'Hah… they're better at protecting resources than anyone back on Earth.'
Even a mere thousand-year difference could drastically change the vine's potency.
"Misty purple light, downy feather barbs… It grows one millimeter every ten years, ten centimeters per millennium, exactly one meter at ten thousand years," Ethan muttered. "It really is the real thing."
He sprang forward, reaching the vine's base.
"Brother, watch out!" Micah suddenly shouted.
A chill ran down Ethan's spine. He twisted away just as a small purple snake, barely a foot long, shot past him like an arrow.
"As expected… a guardian beast."
His Soul Sense hadn't detected it before—it had been perfectly coiled around the vine, blending so seamlessly that he'd mistaken it for part of the plant. If Micah hadn't warned him, he might have been bitten before realizing the danger.
The snake landed and immediately began to grow. In the span of a breath, it swelled to the thickness of a water barrel, its entire body a gleaming violet, scales like metallic gold. It coiled and flicked its tongue, eyes locked on Ethan.
"Brother, that's an Amethyst Plume Serpent!" Micah called. "It's a symbiotic beast—bound to the Plumevine itself. It's not like a normal guardian. It'll fight to the death, and if it's about to lose, it'll destroy the vine before letting anyone take it. This one's a dominant Tier Four magical beast—extremely rare. Be careful!"
Ethan's expression tightened. A symbiotic beast… He'd underestimated the vine. Uncle Jed had never mentioned this kind of complication—clearly, the knowledge passed down in the Sea of Death was incomplete.