The process of transmuting the [Star Mind Pill] was relatively short. Being careful and meticulous, Yasenia took around six weeks to transform the pill into a higher-quality one. Once she finished, the purity reached around 65% with four tribulation rings.
Presenting the pill, the second door unlocked, leaving Yasenia with three doors left to open.
"Thankfully, it works." Yasenia sighed softly. To be honest, she was a bit nervous. After all, what if the trial needed you to do the concoction each time you wanted to analyze a pill? If that were the case, then the Transmutation would not work, and she would be left with no other option but to practice and complete the pill recipes.
"I spent, taking into account the time for transmutation, almost ten months. With the four months I used previously, I have around five years left of Secret Realm for the last three pills."
Soluna hugged her arm and smiled widely. "You can do it, Yasenia! I believe in you!"
The dragoness laughed lightly. Then, she turned to look at the third house and approached it. On the empty door, a new pill recipe appeared. "First it was the limbs, then the mind, now the body…"
As Yasenia read the recipe of the [Star Body Pill], she knew that she needed to make haste. "Thankfully, the oldest herbs for this pill continue to be 500,000 years old."
Checking the map, Yasenia donned her mantle and quickly left the central area, making sure to keep her presence as hidden as possible. "I need to collect a few more [Star Arm Rose], [Star Leg Orchids], and [Star Brain Daisies]... With the transmutation process, the number I will need has more than doubled."
Thankfully, the plants in the 500,000-year-old area were remarkably powerful, forming a natural barrier that deterred most average cultivator groups from entering. Even after almost two years had passed since the garden opened, the number of people near the central area remained barely unchanged.
Yasenia quickly collected the Rose, Orchid, and Daisy. "Alright… Now I have to find the [Star Torso Tulip]... Really, a strange name again. Who named these plants? I mean, I agree that they all look twisted and quite creepy, but…"
While she pondered about them, she found a group of people near the [Star Torso Tulip] area. "Hm… They are fighting it. Should I go collect another one? No…" Yasenia feared that the limited number of flowers would become detrimental to her alchemy process. So, she couldn't let go of a single one of them she came across.
Looking at the group's attire, she failed to recognize them. 'This is good. I have memorized the sect groups with the most influence. If I can't identify their symbol and robes, they must not be a powerful sect.'
Compared to her current enemies, these people were not something she needed to worry about. So, with a deep breath, Yasenia erased her presence as much as she could and approached slowly, like a predator stalking her prey.
"Hold the front! The vines in this area are starting to become less numerous!"
The leader, a tall man with a frank expression and muscular body, guided her group slowly through the wild barrage of vines. Looking at the battlefield, he couldn't help but lament. 'Half a million-year-old plants sure are tough. We've been advancing through its domain for almost two months, yet the figure of the plant continues to elude us. Can the plant move? Which plant is it even?'
His group was one of the newest to arrive at this location. They had been roaming the 100,000-year-old zone. However, after being chased down by an enemy sect, they ended up here. Reluctant to leave the garden with nothing, he decided to hunt down the plants here. "Who would've known that they were this strong? Wild plants of the same age are not that strong… right?"
He didn't really know; after all, he had never owned such valuable spiritual herbs.
Looking deeper into the garden, he was somewhat skeptical. "Who can even get the plants deeper in this domain? We are all restricted to the same strengths…"
By his side, a slightly short but pretty woman spoke to him. "Brother, I felt an energy fluctuation. I am unsure of what it was, since the aura of the flora is too thick to pinpoint it."
A deep frown appeared on his face. "Is it an enemy?"
The woman shook her head. "I am unsure. I was lucky to feel it because the plant seemed to have attacked the figure while following us. The second it defended, I spotted it. However, right when I was going to investigate further, the presence blended with the surroundings and disappeared once again."
"Sigh…" The man looked around at the group of almost 20 cultivators. "It must be a local beast, right? After all, there is no way a single individual can traverse these dangerous forests alone. They would become plant food in a heartbeat."
The woman nodded. "I also think the same. Still, if there are predators from this region onwards, we might want to be more attentive. We can't lose our sisters and brothers just because we were dismissive."
"Agreed."
With those words, the man changed the strategy and moved even more cautiously.
It took a day to arrive near the vicinity of the plant, attacking them. "Leader! I can see it! From the looks of it, it is a [Star Torso Tulip]!"
The man blinked. "A what?"
The man who spoke aloud chuckled. "It is part of a family of Star Plants. Their effects are varied and, by themselves, are quite powerful. Still, when you combine all of them, there is a chance of a breakthrough even for Transcendence Cultivators. They are as precious as they are dangerous and complicated to work with."
"Hoh~? That's quite great. How do we harvest it?"
While they spoke, a powerful and profound aura burst forth from the side. Everyone in the man's group opened their eyes as they saw a person wearing a dark mantle appear out of nowhere.
"What is she… Huh?" Noticing the direction of the female figure shrouded in the dark mantle, his eyes widened. "You dare!?"
A shout full of rage burst from his mouth. However, that person didn't even flinch and accelerated towards the plant.
The pretty woman snorted. "Suicidal flea. Your greed will be your tomb. Do you really think that a [Star Torso Tulip] is something you can easily deal with?"
The man, however, felt a sense of foreboding that he didn't want to ignore. "Charge forward! Don't let that woman get our spoils!"
Everyone was surprised at the tone of urgency. Sadly for them, the woman's body was like a slippery eel, advancing in between the barrage of vine attacks at ridiculous speeds as her blurred giant sword sliced everything in its path.
While the group of twenty advanced quickly, a lot of their pressure now lifted, Yasenia arrived right before the plant. She muttered to herself. 'Usually, I would be careful not to hurt your roots. Sadly, I can only be a bit brutish this time around.'
Her golden slit eyes glanced at the side once before Draheart flashed before her. Sharp cutting energy coated the giant sword as she carved deep lines on the ground below.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
Circling around the plant, Yasenia continued to carve the ground as the group of twenty approached rapidly. 'I have two more seconds.'
Yasenia concentrated, and she quickly barreled down onto the ground. Once her feet touched the dirt, she raised her foot and stomped down with ridiculous strength.
BOOM!
The entire [Star Torso Tulip] jumped from the ground, and Yasenia quickly waved her hand as Draheart swung horizontally.
In the distance, the group of twenty saw the plant soar up several tens of meters, followed by a blinding sword light. After the sword divided the tulip from the roots that latched onto the ground, a wave of energy enveloped it, sucking it into Yasenia's Spatial Ring.
The group of twenty looked with ridiculous expressions as the hidden dark figure sped into the forest, quickly disappearing from their sight.
"..."
Everyone was silent until someone couldn't help but speak up. "Who was that?"
The leader frowned for a second before sighing. "It's none of our business. Someone with that ridiculous strength is not a person we can deal with. Ignore them and focus on finding another plant. There must be plenty in this garden, and we still have a few years to collect treasures."
Yasenia had left a trace of spiritual sense behind to hear their words. Once she heard the man speak, she sighed softly. 'Sorry, but this is quite urgent.'
During the following three months, Yasenia gathered twelve of each plant. Together with the previous amount, she now had 19 [Star Arm Roses] and [Star Leg Orchids], 14 [Star Brain Daisies], and 13 [Star Torso Tulips].
She even tried finding the next tier of plants as she traveled. However, she encountered nothing with a similar name.
"Alright, back to the central area. Let's hope I don't need to stay outside for too long after this time."
First, Yasenia used her [Celestial Intent Domain], just in case she was being tracked. Now that she was familiar with the overall structure of the garden, getting lost was very difficult even when traversing through the Intent Domain.
Once outside, she looked around and nodded. "Alright, I can arrive at the central area in twenty hours if I am careful.
And careful she was.
Twenty hours later, Yasenia saw the fountain and five wooden houses. "Finally here!"
With a wave of her hand, the mantle disappeared, revealing her seductive body wrapped in her usual seductive blue dress.
"Alright, time to craft the [Star Body Pill]."
Using her focus and experiences, Yasenia took 7 months to craft this pill. Since the difficulty was even higher than the [Star Mind Pill], her increased proficiency could only ensure similar results.
If she were to concoct the [Star Limb Pill] again, Yasenia was quite confident in getting around 70% of purity. Sadly, that was not the case with this one.
"Ugh… 58% and three Tribulation Rings… Just a little bit more, and I wouldn't need to use Transmutation."
So, after a session of Transmutation and using three extra herbs of each, Yasenia managed to increase the purity to 66% and five Tribulation Rings.
"I still can't control the amount of herbs I need properly. Two would've sufficed to be a success, so I wasted one set of each. Sigh."
Her gaze turned toward the fourth door. "[Star Soul Pill]... Huh?" Looking at the recipe, her eyes widened. "One-million-year-old [Star Soul Chrysanthemum]..."
Yasenia wanted to cry a little bit.