It was not like the fourth zone where everything was large. She passed some rivers and ponds but it was nothing like the third zone. It could not be the second or first zone for the atmosphere here was tense, not eerie. In fact, she felt pressure. Everything here exuded power and it felt slightly suffocating. Being heavily injured made it even worse to bear.

With that building ahead of her, Ming Yue began to suspect that she was in the Fifth Zone and what was ahead of her must be the final pavilion.

It was that or the crow had taken her somewhere outside of the garden. Either way, she was stranded.

It wasn't until she reached the building before her that she could relax and recover. Afterwards she would attempt to deduce her exact location. It was different from the others, it was more of a mansion than a castle. Scanning the area, she noticed something of a garden behind it. Next to that garden was a simple cottage.

Not giving much thought, she entered the cottage. It was close to the garden and didn't seem as troublesome as the actual pavilion.

The cottage was small but well maintained. Everything was in one room. There was a full set of furniture, a fireplace, a desk with multiple books on top. On both sides of the desk were worktables, full of strange and peculiar equipment. She went towards the desk and pulled the chair out. Her wound was still bleeding profusely as she took her hand away to examine the wound.

With her cultivation, that wound would have begun to heal but instead it grew worse.

A hole that pieced through her stomach yet narrowly missed her innards. Rather it struck through her muscles from the front to the back, leaving a clear hole for one to see through.

Looking at it, she noticed splotches of black ink still present inside that hole.

"How terrifying!

" she thought.

To think that the ink of the Luminous Ink Crow would cling to her wound like this. It was like a barbed arrow that someone pulled out of her. The ink continued to cut through her wound, slowly expanding it.

"I have to get rid of it!

"

She went down on the floor and crossed her legs. Beginning to meditate, she cycled her energy and began to cleanse her body of this blight. As her energy tackled the black ink, the ink began to steam and dissipate. But the process of was long and difficult, the ink was full of energy despite being separated from the crow's body. She had to endure the sharp pain of the ink digging into her flesh.

It wasn't until the next sun rose up that she had expelled all of it and the wound had stopped bleeding.

Her body was covered in sweat and the wound slowly shrunk. In the end, the hole that once went through her body was no more. However, she could not prevent scarring and now the lower part of her stomach and back had scars an inch wide. They weren't difficult to hide under her clothes but they were visible on her bare body. She wasn't very bothered by it and continued on to her recovery.

Being heavily injured within the span of ten days is bound to have some hidden damage. If it wasn't properly dealt with, it could harm her in the coming years. She took advantage of the garden as well as the other resources here.

At the same time, she was amazed at the vastness of the garden. It was several acres in size and absolutely filled with medical plants, from the most common to things she thought were extinct. Taking what she needed, she spotted a large tub behind the cottage. Luckily, the tub was made of metal and made it easier for her to just dump everything in and boil the water, like a large pot of soup. Dumping in the medicinal ingredients and water she took from a nearby stream, she created a medicinal bath.

This was a relatively common recipe that she learned from Elder Hua though the things used were of a much higher age and quality.

She stirred it around with her scabbard and watched it go from clear to milky. It had become slightly thick and produced a smell similar to finely brewed tea, bittersweet and gentle. After an hour, it was completed and the bath had cooled down to a comfortable temperature. She undressed herself and dipped inside the tub.

A gentle warmth entered her and began to nurture her internal body, that energy showed her the extent of the damage caused from tangling with beasts way above her strength. The flesh was riddled with tiny rips, her meridians were slightly cracked with some looking as if they could rupture. Small injuries that were difficult to detect slowly mended and returned to a perfect condition.

Crossing her legs and meditating, Ming Yue basked in the milky bath for half a day before getting out. It wasn't until she got out of the bath that she felt the effects of that bath. She felt refreshed and energetic, any aches and pains that she had previously were dealt with.

She clenched her hands and began to toss out some casual swings before smiling.

"Good

", she smiled and sheathed her sword.

Staring at the mansion, she turned away and walked back inside the cottage. She examined the insides before going back to the desk ad picking up one of the books.

"Research Notes: 86th Edition...

"

She read out the title before skimming through the book. After that, she looked at the other books on the desk before moving on to the shelves. While each one was slightly different from the others, she found that they were all essentially the same. Journals filled with the accounts of medicinal research, particularly, they spoke about breeding and caring for plants.

From the 1st edition to the 96th, the latest one she could find, they all talked about different techniques and even something such as crossbreeding, to mix several plants to together in order to achieve a more potent species.

"...you must bind the roots together...

"

"...cutting into the main stem diagonally, not deeply but halfway in...

"

"...using the scraps of fruits and vegetables seems to more provide food and energy, boosting growth...

"

"....after a hundred tries, I've found that combining two different plants can create a single one that has both effects, that is if the process is done correctly...

"

"...mixing the same herb at different ages seems to have little effect on its growth...

"

"...the ratio doesn't seem correct, how can I create the same results again?..

"

To many these seemed quite boring but to her, it was an untapped wealth of knowledge. She took no time to place it all into her spatial ring. Even going to far as to organize everything even though she had plenty of space. After all, the things that were inside were supplies and rations, as well as a purse containing her money.

Other than her personal belongings, there were several piles of flowers, roots, and other medicines that she had collected along the way. Furthermore, there was that mortar and pestle she found at the first pavilion as well as that Thunder Dao Root. Now there were several stacks of books, neatly piled beside everything else.

While she was incredibly excited to read, this was not the time or the place. Still, grafting parts of plants with one another, mixing the pollen, there was even information detailing ways of producing high quality plants and curatives.

As much as she wanted to test things out, she left the cottage and walked towards the mansion.. Meanwhile, a ship appeared above the Third Pavilion, where Anqing and the others waited in.