Chapter 114 - Hard And Soft

By the time Da Xia reached the inner circle of Phoenix Mountains, it was already half past six in the evening. She hid behind a huge bush as she peeked at the people who had camped at the south end of the Xinling Peak, the tallest peak in not only the inner circle but in the entire mountains.

The bush was not the only thing saving her from the prying eyes of her opponents but the ring on her index finger was also doing its job very well. The ring was one of those expensive items that she had purchased from her system for her task of obtaining the divine spiritual flower. 

The ring had many spells attached to it and one of those spells was the invisibility spell that was currently keeping her hidden from the eyes of the people and beasts present in the inner circle of the forest. Another spell of the ring helped her in giving the wrong impression that her spiritual core had seven circles and that too at master level. The latter would work as her best weapon against the spiritual beasts as her invisibility spell won't work on them for too long.

"Master, there's still a couple of hours left before the moon will make its appearance. Besides, the flower will bloom at midnight. In short, we have nearly five hours left before you will need to take action." The kitty informed its master as it came to sit on one of the lower branches of the tree standing right next to the bush where Da Xia was hiding.

Five hours was a lot of time and she had nothing much to do. "You told me that these guys are going to compete among themselves to decide who will head up the peak to get the divine flower. When is the competition going to start?" Since she had nothing better to do, then she was going to enjoy the competition where she would probably get to see people using their cultivation powers.

"It should be starting soon. But we will need to go to the west end to see the competition. It's the Celestial Sword Clan that is holding the competition at their campsite." The kitty replied as it turned its little head in the west direction as if it could see the said clan's campsite from where it was sitting.

Da Xia let out a deep sigh as she heard the kitty mentioning the Celestial Sword Clan. This particular clan was not only the most powerful clan in the entire empire but the master of this clan was at Sage Cultivation Rank along with three elders under him who were at Divine Cultivation Ranks. The four most powerful people based on spiritual cultivation in the entire empire belonged to this clan alone. She had a strong feeling that someone from this very clan would win the competition and she would have a hard time dealing with that person.

Da Xia had no idea at this moment that she was completely wrong in her judgement. A few surprises were waiting for her.

*****

The kitty let out a big yawn as it snuggled closer into Da Xia's arms, seeking more warmth from her as it tried to get a little more sleep but it was proving to be a hard job considering the shouts of cheers and fights that were taking place at a little distance away from where it's Master was sitting on one of the top branches of a tree that provided a clear view of the arena where the competition was taking place.

For the past two hours, Da Xia had been enjoying the show where the fighters used their spiritual powers to fight their opponents to win the competition. But even after all this time, it seemed like they were nowhere near finding a winner anytime soon, not like they didn't have time in their hands. It would only take less than half an hour to climb the cliff and there were still three hours left before midnight.

Though the moon had already made its appearance, no one seemed to be in any haste to climb the cliff to get their hands on the divine flower as soon as it would bloom at midnight. It was almost like they no longer cared about the divine flower and were just enjoying their competition.

"What's wrong with these people?" Da Xia asked no one in particular as she also started getting bored from watching the fights going on down below. Though she enjoyed the free show of different spells and powers, she was getting anxious to see the winner who would head up the cliff to get the divine flower.

"Master, should we head up? Though there's still a lot of time left before midnight, there are also other treasures around this area that will prove fruitful to you. Let's go and collect some of those treasures to earn more prowess points." The kitty suggested and as soon as Da Xia heard it mentioning prowess points, she became as ready as possible to collect those so-called treasures.

She had spent a lot of money on the ring that she was wearing and also on upgrading it with more spells than it had initially. If she could find a way to earn more money then she won't be letting go of that chance.

"Let's go then. We are going to find as many treasures as possible." Da Xia chirped excitedly as she started climbing down the tree so that she could start with her search for treasures.

The kitty flapped its wings as if to wake itself fully so that it could help its master in her search of treasures. The system's digital screen popped up in front of its eyes, showing the exact locations where the treasures were hidden around or on the Xinling peak. 

"Master, let's head to the south. There's a rare spiritual fruit with four rings growing there somewhere. You will get over three hundred prowess points for getting that fruit." The kitty told its master after checking the map and the other additional data carefully.

Da Xia nodded her head in understanding before she started heading in the same direction where she had been keeping an eye on the campsite of the Zhu family before she came to watch the competition. The fact that the system could point out the exact location of rare spiritual flowers, fruits, herbs or other treasures, was one of the best features of the system. 

She was lately realizing that as time was passing by, she was finding her system to be more and more helpful. If she ignored the fact that the system's market wasn't available to her for free or at very cheap prices, she would have proudly said that she had got the best system possible.

It took Da Xia nearly fifteen minutes before she found the spiritual fruit that looked like a big cherry but she could tell that it was anything but just a cherry. Just one glance at the fruit and she could tell that it was enriched with spiritual energy. The fruit in itself wasn't a treasure but this particular one was considered a treasure because of the four spiritual circles that it had accumulated over the years.

Very few people dared to enter the second circle of the Phoenix mountains, let alone coming as deep as the inner circle. It was kind of clear why no one ever noticed the fruit growing on a creeper that was located in the crack between two huge rocks that did their best to hide the creeper and the fruit from anyone passing by. Unless someone is particularly looking for that fruit, it was almost next to impossible to ever find it by chance.

Within the next two hours, Da Xia ended up collecting almost nearly eleven or so treasures, mostly - flowers, fruits, herbs, gems, stems, and roots, that earned her a total of Twenty Thousand Prowess Points. 

By the time they finished just about half an hour before midnight, Da Xia had a beautiful smile on her lips as she was feeling both happy and content from inside out just thinking about all the prowess points that she had earned from the treasures that she had collected. 

"It's almost time. Let's head up." She told the kitty who nodded its little head before leading the way to the middle of the Xinling peak because unlike what others believed, the divine spiritual flower wasn't located at the top of the cuff but in the middle of the cliff where a lot of poisonous plants were growing all around it to prevent anyone from getting their hands on the divine spiritual flower.

As soon as they started heading up the peak, Da Xia noticed an entire herd of spiritual wolves that were guarding the perimeters of the cliff.

"Goddess! I'm feeling very terrified at the moment. I just hope this ring will work properly and will get me through all this.." Da Xia muttered as she stared at the wolves who were staring right back at her as if the invisibility spell had stopped working completely.