Yasenia moved forward, and she quickly arrived at the 500,000-year-old zone. The second she did so, she was forced to stop in her tracks. Soluna, not knowing why Yasenia stopped, asked aloud.
"Yasenia, what's wrong?"
The dragoness didn't answer straight away. Instead, she was carefully examining her surroundings, her Spiritual Sense expanding and reaching its limits. As her eyes and presence enveloped the surroundings, a very faint trace of energy entered her detection range.
When she looked over, there was an immediate reaction. Thousands of purple-colored thorny vines burst from the ground, trees, and canopies around her. Their speed was lightning fast, leaving Yasenia with almost no chance to dodge.
Thankfully, she had been on guard. The second the vines appeared, Yasenia stomped the ground and jumped backward. With her speed, which was quicker than the vines, she was able to escape the attack range.
"Tsk."
Yasenia clicked her tongue in annoyance, not because of the attacks at the front, but those at her back. "I'm already in the attack range of some herb."
Sui Xing spoke with a serious tone. "Be careful. The poison in its thorns is not something you can lightly ignore."
The dragoness chuckled, Draheart flying and severing hundreds of vines each second. "It has been a while since I've encountered a poison strong enough to threaten me."
"Is that a laughing matter!?"
Soluna exclaimed with a harrumph. The dragoness smirked. "It is. If I capture it, then I will profit. I wonder if it is possible; it looks quite powerful."
She had not been in the same place as she defended against the barrage of attacks. Moving around, Yasenia covered a distance of over 100 kilometers. Even then, the plant continued to attack her with the same intensity.
The dragoness couldn't help but grumble. "These things take too much space. What were the people who planted it thinking?"
Sui Xing chuckled. "If you want a plant to reach 500,000 years, you need nutritious soil and very specific conditions… At least in this Heaven, that is the truth. On the Divine Heaven, you can encounter plants like these aplenty."
"The trash of one man is the treasure of a dragon!"
Soluna blinked. "Was the saying like that? Why do I feel that something's wrong with it?"
While she bantered lightly, Yasenia was not idle. Her nose and sight were working constantly, tracing the origin of the countless vines attacking her. 'Hm… East? But there is also a scent toward the northern area… Should I go northeast and see if I get closer to either of them?'
As her thoughts spun, a very faint fragrance caressed her sharp olfactory sense. Her eyes and head turned, and then, a massive root with the same color scheme rose to the sky. "Wow!"
Yasenia lightly stepped onto the air, activating Pegasus Gallop, and her body approached the giant root quickly. With a swing of her sword, the massive root was bisected. Then, Yasenia stomped on the ground and shot in one specific direction.
"Oh?" Sui Xing asked, curious. "Did you find it?"
"Yes." Yasenia smiled. "That giant root is not a secondary body part but part of its main body. The plant should be in the direction of that root."
Dramel muttered with a laugh. "Its tail has been exposed in its eagerness to catch the dragon."
Soluna blinked twice. "I think that saying was also different…"
Shooting across the dense jungle, Yasenia noticed the intensity of the attacks from the plant creature increasing exponentially. It felt as if the plant was desperately trying to stop her. "It's strong, but it clearly lacks intelligence. Its urgency is a clear tell that I am going in the correct direction."
The others agreed, so they continued to observe how Yasenia jumped, slashed, and accelerated through the jungle. Her agile and gorgeous figure, not losing its grace even with her frantic movements, was beautiful enough to daze others.
It didn't take longer than a minute to follow and find the origin of these plants. The place she arrived at was a clearing, with countless vine-like roots squirming in the ground. At the center of the sea of thorny vines, a bloody red and purple flower bloomed beautifully. This flower was currently looking at her with extreme hostility.
Yasenia's eyebrow rose lightly. "If the 500,000-year-old ones are this strong already, won't the groups who dare approach the center be annihilated?"
The dragoness swung Draheart a few times when the flower attacked her, and she waited patiently. Sui Xing answered lightly, his pleasant and clear voice without any ripples. "You are right. That's why I told you to follow this path. I do not remember much. However, I do know that there is a path towards the center where no plants can attack you. The path is very easy to miss, though. So, we need to be careful after you get this thing."
Yasenia nodded and didn't attack actively. Instead, she calmly parried all of the vine attacks directed at her while looking at the flower. Since she was focusing on defense, it was rather easy to survive within the barrage of attacks from the flower.
Dramel, utterly lost about how to harvest plants, asked aloud. "Why are you not charging forward?"
The dragoness answered easily. "Naturally, it is because I can't pluck it otherwise. If I want to get this plant to live within my Spatial Ring's garden without bothering others, I must show that I can kill it easily."
"Does it matter?" Dramel asked, curious. "Isn't the flower going to enter your ring either way if you chop it? After all, the vines are not worth anything, right?"
The dragoness nodded. "The poison inside the vines is only effective when that flower controls it. Even their sturdiness is nothing exceptional. Only the number it can control makes it difficult. This flower, named [Endless Thorn Death Flower], is something I was not expecting to find here."
Soluna asked, curious. "What can it be used for?"
"In my case, not for much. However, Mom will be delighted if I get this. From what I know, it is able to nurture undead beings just from existing. Her low-level undead could benefit quite a lot if she gets it."
Dramel commented. "Won't she have it already?"
"... Probably not?" Yasenia showed a perplexed expression. "This is a 500,000-year-old flower. Even Mom doesn't have many of these. After all, she has lived in the Sky Continent, not roaming around the world and gathering countless treasures."
Draheart spoke lightly. "Yasenia, it has given up."
"Oh? Already?" Looking at the thorn vines that stopped attacking her body, Yasenia smiled happily and approached. "Little flower, come with mama dragon~."
The flower looked at the approaching dragon with uncomfortable feelings. Instinctively, it wanted to resist. Nevertheless, the sense of defeat was too big to continue resisting. Her opponent was barely paying attention to her as they fought, and still, the flower could barely move Yasenia from her standing position.
So, Yasenia happily communicated with the flower and transplanted a large part of it into her spatial ring. The number of venomous herbs in her ring was plenty, but she had a big area free of precious flora where she could plant the Death Flower and allow it to rule like a little overlord.
Once the Death Flower appeared in the spatial right, it paused and looked around with its vines. Feeling the high-quality Death Energy Soil below, it dug its roots happily and expanded out. The flower began bouncing in happiness, very satisfied with its new home.
After all, the soil in Yasenia's ring was enhanced by a Natural Treasure, so it was of a higher quality than the soil it had lived in for half a million years.
Yasenia observed the happy plant and laughed. "Alright, the little one is settling properly."
With that sorted out, she took a deep breath and relaxed. Since this was the Death Flower's turf, and now, it was in her hands, it meant that her current location was entirely free of threats. "Relaxing~."
Sui Xing advised. "You should search for the path in the Death Flower's territory. If you don't find it, we can go to another location and continue our search."
So, with an objective in mind, Yasenia flew low and continued her search. Most of the plants she encountered in the Death Flower's territory were 10 to 50 thousand years old. Still, each time she encountered one that she didn't have, she transplanted it. 'Since these species can survive inside the Death Flower's domain, I can get them without consuming extra space.'
"Treasures here~, treasures there~, hehe. I am getting richer by the second! Such a great feeling."
The treasures chuckled. Yasenia's wagging tail was just too cute.
After a day of searching, Sui Xing spoke to Yasenia. "Over there. Check on that rocky path."
"Hm?" She looked over where Sui Xing pointed with his consciousness. Tilting her head, Yasenia asked. "Isn't that a common stone path?"
Curious, she descended and placed her foot on top of the path.
Dramel chuckled. "... Nothing happened."
She didn't expect a big discovery, but at least she wanted a profound energy fluctuation or something that could help her traverse the center of the garden.
The dragoness smiled and asked Dramel. "Dramel, what do you think of this path?"
"It's very ordinary," Dramel answered honestly, confused as to why Yasenia would question that. The stone path was made of uneven, one-meter-square stone slabs. As it extended forward, you could even see curves and wavy paths. Even by mortal standards, it was an ordinary rock path in the middle of the forest.
The dragoness looked around her and asked Dramel again. "Do you think an ordinary path can survive for who-knows-how-long in this place?"
Dramel paused. "Oh."
"Exactly." Yasenia chuckled. "Unless the garden automatically takes care of the paths, the chances that this path is the secure path Sui Xing spoke about are very high."
Soluna praised. "Brother Xing has helped again! Hurray!"
If she were in her human form, her arms would've probably pointed to the sky during her exclamation.
Yasenia, trusting her new family member, began treading the stone path at a leisurely pace. While she wanted to arrive in the middle, being on guard was not excessive.
The journey took just a few hours before Yasenia arrived in front of the central area's limits. The reason she could tell was the concentration of energy in the ambience. Each layer had a much denser energy atmosphere. And the one in front of her felt like a viscous liquid instead of the airy feeling in the other sections.
Noticing her surprise, Sui Xing gave a short explanation. "For a Spiritual Herb to reach the 1 million year mark, it needs ridiculous amounts of both energy and time. If we talk about percentages, over 85% of all energy is concentrated in the central area to grow these plants."
Yasenia hummed. "Let's step forward then."
Dramel muttered. "I hope the 1-million-year-old plants did not destroy the path."
Yasenia blinked. "... Let's hope you didn't jinx it, love. Otherwise, I will spank you later."