While Shen Qiang made his way out of the demon realm, Leng Jin Yu had already arrived in the territory of the spirit beast clan. This place was different from both the immortal realms and the human realm. For example, the difference in time between the two of them wasn't as big and how the spiritual energy was higher than in the mortal realm even at the places where it was the faintest while the places with the most energy were still lacking compared to the immortal realms.
In a sense, it was just like how the beast people themselves were also somewhere between the mortal and immortal races: While they weren't born immortal, their aptitude was much higher than that of the humans and closer to that of the immortal races. If they just cultivated hard enough, it was a foregone conclusion that they would reach immortality. Also, contrary to the humans where only one in a thousand might have even the lowest grade of spirit veins, all the beast people were able to cultivate.
Yes, whether it was the people or the land, it was somewhere between the mortals and immortals. It was a bit odd and it was also a reason to be cautious. After all, what he had learned in either of the realms might not be applicable here and the time he had spent in this realm before had been too short to make any assumptions.
Thus, Leng Jin Yu was careful when he entered the place. Legend had it that it bordered on both the mortal and immortal realms even though he had never found this remote entrance to the immortal realms when he came here the past. But who knew? Maybe it was just that back then, he hadn't known enough. By now, things might be different. After all, not only had he ascended to the status of a deity, he had also learned a lot from the time he spent with Jinde in the Yun Zou Sect.
Looking around, Leng Jin Yu finally turned toward the western regions and rushed over as fast as he could. While the difference in time wasn't that big, it couldn't hurt to be more careful and save time when he was able to. Finding the actual herb might take more than he imagined after all. And he didn't want to put Jinde in a position where he might be able to save the person but couldn't because he lacked the materials to do so.
After getting to know him well, he was pretty sure that it would hurt Jinde deeply if that happened. He was the type of person that would at least want to give it a try. To not have that opportunity just because he couldn't go and get everything himself despite knowing where to look would make him feel even weaker than he probably felt already.
Leng Jin Yu sighed when he thought of that possibility and sped up further. Soon enough, he entered a valley that he remembered from the time when he had been wandering all the realms he could back in the day. Behind the valley lay a mountain range that towered far above every other place in this realm. The mountain peak cloud herb that Jinde wanted could only be found there.
Leng Jin Yu stopped for a moment, his gaze brushing over the mountain tops, trying to discern where he would have the best chance to find. Finally, he rushed forward, soon reaching the foot of the mountains. Not bothering with anything else, he continued to fly upward, following the path that had been created over the years, getting closer and closer to the highest peaks.
Time passed and he couldn't help but feel a sense of urgency. He didn't speed up though. Even though he had been here before and even though the spirit beast people wouldn't necessarily attack him if they found him, there were still the beasts living in this place and the mountains themselves were difficult to navigate if one didn't pay enough attention.
It would be in his best interest to make sure he didn't make a dumb mistake that would lose him the opportunity to find the herb or even get injured himself. If he came back in a bad condition, there was no saying if Jinde would be able to focus on refining whatever potion he had come up with.
With that in mind, Leng Jin Yu continued onward. His entering this place hadn't stayed completely unnoticed but so far, nobody had come to stop him so he didn't change his path either and just continued on.
His gaze brushed over the ground, checking every bit of the way for the mountain peak cloud herb. From what he had understood, this one would most likely only grow on the highest peaks but he wouldn't ignore the chance that he might get lucky and find it on one of the slightly lower ones. After all, there were always some surprises that nature might hold.
Unfortunately for him, things didn't seem to be in his favor. While he had looked pretty closely, he couldn't find a single stalk of the herb Jinde wanted. He sighed to himself and then continued to fly upward, soon reaching the peaks behind the ones he had already searched.
Flying close to the ground, Leng Jin Yu's eyes finally lit up. He rushed over to the edge of the peak and landed next to a patch of spiritual herbs. Crouching down next to them, he took a close look at the one in the middle and then nodded to himself. Yes, this should be the mountain peak cloud Jinde had been looking for.
He reached out, wanting to dig it out of the ground when a tail swished past him, hitting his hand so that he missed.