1394 Hundred Blossom Valley
The Hundred Blossom Valley was located to the east of Greenheart city, in between the Verdant mountain range and the Jadeborn mountain range. Snuggled in between them, the valley was over 20 kilometers wide, and 30 kilometers long.
Alex, Talia, Fang Yimu, and a few more from the Cloud Iron sect arrived on top of one of the mountains in the Verdant mountain range, looking directly below at the valley below.
The valley was divided into different square fields, each square completely covered on all sides by massive rivers that were carved to water the entire thing.
Each land piece was about 6 kilometers squared in the area and was large enough to build cities upon if one were to wish to do so.
Instead, it wall was used to grow different types of plants as would be required by the rest of the continent.
The mountain range that surrounded the valley was filled with hotels and lodges for guests that wished to come there. The Hundred Blossom Valley was as much as a tourist spot as it was a place to gather important ingredients for pills.
Couples came here to enjoy their time, families came to see the many plants, and alchemy enthusiasts came to find what ingredients they could for whatever pill it was that they needed to make.
Alex and the others had arrived a day ago and had gotten themselves a room at one of the hotels. There he had left his elders who would be of no use to him. General Fan had wanted to come as well, but Alex had let him stay behind as well.
King Jin was supposed to come with him, but for some reason he canceled the idea at the last moment. Given that it had happened after Alex had mentioned he was going to tour the place with the two girls, Alex had a suspicion that he had decided to drop the plan at the last second.
It was also why he believed his elders didn’t force him to come with him despite being his guardians.
“It looks beautiful, doesn’t it?” Talia asked with an excited look on her face.
“It does,” Alex nodded.
“Your Majesty has incredible pill-making knowledge from what I remember seeing a year ago. How are your ingredients gathering capability?” Fang Yimu asked. “Do you rely on your subjects to gather the ingredients for you?”
“No,” Alex said. “My ingredient-gathering ability is the best.”
Fang Yimu chuckled at the wide grin Alex put on as he answered the question. She did not believe him at all, but she wouldn’t say that to a king of another continent.
“Let us head over,” Talia said and started flying down the mountain.
Alex flew down as well and the Fang Yimu followed. The rest that was with them followed as well, but they stayed further behind and would soon separate themselves from the group.
Alex’s group of 3 landed in front of a bridge. On either side of the bridge stood two people with military robes that were there to take the fee of anyone that walked into the field.
Alex looked around and saw that each field had multiple bridges with people on it that were there to take tolls on everyone. Not only that, they could see people on giant boats in the sky that flew to keep watch of people in the field.
There were multiple of them, each quite strong from what Alex could sense. Most were at the late Saint Foundation realm or above, which made the fact that nearly a thousand such cultivators were here alone quite impressive.
The toll wasn’t very expensive everything considered, but given that one had to pay for each field they entered, it would end up costing them a lot of money if they visited all 100 different fields.
Talia and Fang Yimu flashed some sort of badge that marked them as Top 100 in the Endless Shadow Abyss. Alex was given the same badge as well, but he didn’t even have to bring it up.
The men immediately bowed at him as soon as they saw him.
“Oh,” Alex was a little taken aback. “I wasn’t expecting to be so easily recognized. Were you guys aware of my coming?”
“Yes, your Majesty,” one of the guards answered quickly. “We were warned that you would be coming, so everyone is ready for you.”
“I see,” Alex said. “Well, it would be bad if everyone recognized me as you guys did.”
A mask came from within his storage ring and landed on his face. The white mask changed as black patterns appeared on it. Alex placed it on his face and nodded toward the guards.
“Keep up the work,” he said before walking onto the bridge.
The bridge was made up of wood and was nearly 20 meters across as it stood over the gentle river that flowed underneath it.
Alex looked to the side, trying to sense the Qi from the water, but there was none. “Hmm, they should have used the same technique as those people at Sproutfield City,” he said out loud. “But of course, the ocean is too far for that I suppose.”
He walked away and quickly joined the two girls as he landed on the first field of plants. He looked around and quickly realized something about the field he hadn’t known before.
“Wait, these are all herbs?” he asked. “I don’t see a single shrub or tree at all.”
“These are all herbs, your majesty,” Talia explained. “In fact, the 10 fields in the first row all grow herbs. Different kinds of it though.”
“All herbs?” Alex couldn’t help but ask. He hadn’t read much about this place before. All he knew was that the Hundred Blossom name came from the Hundred fields that were used to grow plants in.
He wasn’t aware of anything else that went in it.
“All 10 of these are herbs, huh?” he couldn’t help but ask. “They must grow many types of it then.”
“Yes,” Talia said.
“Is there any system to it?” Alex asked. “As far as I can see, the herbs are random.”
“Oh, uhh… no there is no system,” Talia said.
“However, that led to people abusing the system. Without knowing what they were taking, they would take any and all leaves and flowers, leaving the land barren in just a month or two.”
“Due to that problem, it was changed so that along the entire 10 fields, any one of them could have herbs that give any sort of alchemy ingredient. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you don’t take it anymore,” Fang Yimu finished.
“Also, it improved the earnings of this place by a lot, as people would now have to go through 10 different fields to find what they wanted, instead of just one.”
“Since then, the Hundred Blossom Valley has truly blossomed to live up to its name.”