But Han Yu was no fool.
He did not delude himself into thinking that he could simply walk into the mountains, pluck the herb and walk out as if he were picking cabbages.
A Cold Silk Orchid was lethal.
Not taphorically lethal. It killed people instantly if touched improperly.
Even peak Core Condensation cultivators would lose their lives if they grabbed it. Even Nascent Soul cultivators could have half their body frozen if they let their guard down for a second.
Han Yu had read detailed reports in the Blood Sect's archives.Three disciples had died attempting to collect one a few thousand years ago. A Nascent Soul elder had lost his right hand and two of his disciples when they touched the ice aura radiating from the herb.
The Cold Silk Orchid was no simple treasure. It was a death sentence for anyone unprepared.
Han Yu finished the tea and quietly placed the cup down.
He had one advantage that most others did not. He had the Dancing Fla Art.
A technique focused entirely on control.Precision control.Fine control.Control to the point of manipulating external flas and even suppressing cold energies at close range.
It was not raw firepower but it was finesse and in the case of the Cold Silk Orchid, finesse was far better than power.
Even so, Han Yu was not arrogant enough to believe he could simply walk toward a treasure that even Nascent Soul cultivators feared.
He needed information. He needed location. He needed maps. He needed confirmation that the rumor was not a false lead. He needed to know what beast was guarding it.
Because a herb like that never grew without protection. He rembered an old passage written in the book.
Where the Cold Silk Orchid blooms, a beast shall sleep whose heart carries the breath of winter.
Which ant there was most likely a guardian.A strong guardian.Possibly a Nascent Soul beast.A beast that could kill him with a single blow.
Han Yu glanced toward the scarred Core Condensation cultivator who was still talking with his n.
They were discussing the location.
Or rather, the lack of it.
"It was a rumor," the captain explained. "A herb gatherer said he saw it while lost. He was half frozen and delirious. Barely managed to escape."
"Captain," one of the n said, "did he say anything useful?"
"He said the mountain walls were steep. There was a valley. There was snow even though it was sumr. And he felt like sothing was watching him from the mist."
Another man shuddered. "Sounds like a death trap."
Han Yu silently agreed.
The Harrow Mountains were labyrinth-like and even seasoned cultivators got lost there. Plus Han Yu did not have a map that showed the deeper regions only the usual path that people took through them.
Entering the mountains blindly would be foolish.
Even with the Dancing Fla Art, he could still end up frozen or eaten.
He looked down at his empty bowl and considered his next steps.
He needed information from reliable sources.The governnt guards.The rcenary guild.The herb gatherers.The hunters.The tavern owner.And more importantly, he needed a map of that region.
He needed to decide if the Cold Silk Orchid was worth the risk.
It was tempting to simply ignore it as his mission lay elsewhere.
The Fatui Clan, Zhao Liun's sches and everything happening in the Blood Sect.
The Cold Silk Orchid was not part of his mission.
But Han Yu was not the sa cautious alchemist he had once been.
He had ambitions now.
Resources. Power. Influence.
He had turned a town upside down for the sake of a thirteen year old girl and gained wealth beyond his expectations.
He could not help but wonder what would happen if he managed to obtain a treasure that even elders fought over.
A treasure that could change the path of a Kidney Peak Head.
He wanted it.
But he also wanted to live.
Han Yu let out a slow breath and rubbed the back of his neck. His fingers brushed against the jade slip in his sleeve that Qing Luan had been using to send him updates.
He smiled faintly.
Qing Luan would call him insane for even considering going after such a treasure and she would be right.
But if the opportunity was real, Han Yu knew he could not ignore it.
Not when it might be connected to the changes happening in the mountains, when the sect had a long-standing mission for it, when it could bring him unimaginable profit.
Not when he was one of the few cultivators who actually had the ability to safely extract it.
Han Yu got up from his chair and left a few silvers for the al.
As he stepped out into the cool air of the late afternoon, he thought to himself:
'The Harrow Mountains might be dangerous. But sotis danger is exactly where fortune hides.'
He stepped onto the street and tightened his cloak.
Ti to gather information.
Ti to prepare.
And perhaps, ti to decide whether the Cold Silk Orchid was a treasure he would chase.
Han Yu got up from the table and decided to talk to the Tavern Owner first. A few silvers was all it took for the man to open his mouth and talk more about the various regions of the Harrow Mountains.
Just like many other mountain ranges, it too was divided into different rings, Outer, Middle Inner and then the Center.
The path that Han Yu had been given before he left the sect went through the outer and middle rings, before curving at the edge of the Inner Ring, totally ignoring the center before arriving at the other side.
But there was no way the Cold Silk Orchid would have been in any of these regions or the people passing through would have noticed it. And the lost herb gatherer would not have gone far enough to enter the Center area either.
Which ant that it was sowhere in the Inner Ring.
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