Ye Qin was utterly stunned. He never would have dreamed that amidst the ashen rock crevices of this drab, lifeless Purple Mansion floating island, he would discover several stalks of the Dewdrop Herb.

Drifting slowly toward them, he inhaled the rich fragrance, and a wave of delight washed over him. The scent was even more potent than the one he had smelled a year ago.

Just breathing it in greatly invigorated his spirit. He had been searching for this Dewdrop Herb for more than a day or two, never expecting to find several here.

He began to ponder deeply. He recalled once eating a gray egg that caused him such agony he nearly passed out, prompting him to search his large herb basket for an antidote.

At that time, he had grasped one particular herb, but he couldn't recall if he had actually consumed it. The next day, when he went to rummage through the basket again, the Dewdrop Herb was gone.

That vanished herb had become a persistent worry in his mind. Yet here he was now, seeing five stalks of it.

Ye Qin hovered above the five stalks for quite some time, even landing briefly on a leaf, just to confirm they were not phantoms, but truly present. He found himself staring blankly, lost in thought.

This Purple Mansion floating island was located within the Sea of Consciousness in his Nidan acupoint; it was impossible for several Dewdrop Herbs to appear here for no reason. These few stalks must be connected to the one he had picked from the cliff face previously.

Several questions formed in his mind. First, how did the Dewdrop Herb get onto this floating island?

Second, how did one stalk of the Dewdrop Herb become five? Third, what exactly is the Dewdrop Herb used for?

If he could resolve these three questions, all his other uncertainties should naturally clear up. －－－－－ On the peak of the mountain.

Two days later, Ye Qin’s divine sense stirred. The five Dewdrop Herbs materialized from thin air into his hand.

With another flicker of divine sense, they vanished once more. He couldn't help but laugh heartily.

He had spent a full two days ceaselessly turning the matter over and over in his mind before finally grasping the truth of the situation. It turned out that the Purple Mansion floating island in his Sea of Consciousness was connected to the world he currently inhabited.

As long as he used his divine sense to move them, the Dewdrop Herbs on the island could easily appear in his hand. And the method for returning them to the island was the same: movement directed entirely by divine sense.

The mystery of why the Dewdrop Herbs appeared on his island was solved. It must have happened subconsciously when he ate the hawk egg, and the subsequent abdominal cramps caused him to absorb that one stalk into the floating island, where it landed in the gray rock crevices.

Suddenly realizing something, Ye Qin quickly grabbed his large herb basket and pulled out the other common herbs stored inside, intending to test whether they too could be moved into the floating island. If successful, he wouldn't need to carry the heavy basket anymore; he could simply use the floating island for storage, which would greatly conserve his strength.

However, after testing every common herb in the basket, he found no effect whatsoever—none of these herbs could be shifted into the floating island. Ye Qin felt a slight wave of disappointment.

His plan to conserve energy was unworkable. It seemed only the Dewdrop Herb possessed this unique property that allowed it to be moved into the floating island.

As for the second question—why one stalk had become five—he still had no clues. Ye Qin turned his attention to the third question: What exactly is this Dewdrop Herb, and what is it for?

What gives it such a peculiar efficacy? In the Herb Gathering Hall, Ye Qin had learned the simplest, most common method for testing the properties of an unknown herb.

To find out what this Dewdrop Herb was and what it could accomplish, the easiest way was to consume a small amount and taste it. After all, the medicinal properties of all herbs in the world were discovered by someone eating them.

Many herbs could be eaten directly, though their effects might not be optimal. When refined into medicines or elixirs, the effect was usually far more pronounced.

Ye Qin selected one stalk of the Dewdrop Herb, inhaling its faint herbal fragrance, and decided to test its properties using the Herb Gathering Hall's "Drug Testing Method." Before proceeding, as a precaution, he prepared dozens of different types of detoxification and purifying herbs, as well as a foul-tasting herb that induced violent vomiting, just in case he was poisoned. With all preparations complete, Ye Qin first touched the tip of his tongue to the Dewdrop Herb.

Fifteen minutes later, there was no adverse reaction. He then placed a leaf in his mouth, holding it there without moving.

After another fifteen minutes, still no adverse reactions. Typically, with this gradual "testing method," if an herb were poisonous, it would cause numbness, bitterness, or pain on the tip of the tongue, though the absorbed toxin would be light enough to cause discomfort rather than immediate death.

(This method is dangerous; readers should not attempt it!) Seeing that both preliminary tests yielded no issues and that his tongue felt fine—indeed, a clean, refreshing fragrance lingered in his mouth—Ye Qin was largely certain this was a harmless little grass, likely a beneficial or ordinary herb. Ye Qin took another bite of the leaf, chewed it slowly, and swallowed a little bit at a time.

To his astonishment, after the leaf entered his stomach, it dissolved into fine streams of cool energy that flowed through his internal meridians, colliding and striking as they passed through his Nidan, before quickly dissipating. This situation was intimately familiar to him.

It was exactly what happened when he practiced his cultivation techniques daily. Eating this herb yielded an effect similar to cultivation.

In a short while, Ye Qin consumed the entire stalk. The energy streams grew fierce, causing his entire network of meridians to ache subtly from the impact as they circulated to their limit.

He immediately sat in meditation, his divine sense sinking into his Purple Mansion floating island. The situation inside the island startled Ye Qin.

Even though he had mentally prepared himself, he could not suppress the surge of sheer joy in his heart. In the air above the floating island, dozens of inch-long white rays were now swimming about.

He widened his eyes and quickly counted them: seventy-odd in total. This meant that the inconspicuous little Dewdrop Herb had transformed into seventy white rays.

Every single white ray was nourishment for him. The medicinal effect of eating one Dewdrop Herb raw was roughly equivalent to ten days of cultivating the Sitting in Oblivion Sutra, specifically the "Staring at Nothingness" stage.

Ye Qin could barely contain his immense delight; he had finally discovered a way to rapidly accelerate his cultivation speed. Under normal circumstances, it would take him at least ten agonizing years of practice to complete the first layer of Staring at Nothingness.

Twenty years for the second layer, forty for the third. Cultivating until death, he would only reach the late stage of the third layer.

But things were different now. If he could obtain many Dewdrop Herbs and consume one daily, his cultivation speed could increase by more than tenfold; he could complete the first layer of the technique in a single year—progressing nearly as fast as flying!

"No wonder those in the Jianghu favor consuming internal energy elixirs steeped with the medicinal power of decades, or even centuries, to enhance their internal qi—it really has such a powerful effect." Having understood the efficacy of the Dewdrop Herb, Ye Qin felt no urgency to eat the remaining four stalks, nor was he in a rush to absorb the white rays. Instead, he floated above the island, circling the four remaining Dewdrop Herbs.

These four stalks would last him, at most, four days. He needed to devise a strategy to acquire more Dewdrop Herbs.

Ye Qin drifted, thinking and thinking, nearly taxing his mind to breaking point. He didn't believe that such a rare grass grew in abundance on the cliff face of this mountain, just waiting for him to harvest it.

If he could discover another two or three stalks, it would be a tremendous stroke of luck. Such a small quantity would not solve the problem of insufficient Dewdrop Herbs.

If the supply ran out, his cultivation would slow down again within a few days, making its overall benefit less significant than he had initially imagined. .