"Really? Tang Yi, are you really willing to help us find the Jiuli Flower?" Liuu Tian asked with delight.
"Yes." Tang Yi nodded in confirmation.
"Thank you so much!" Liuu Tian said, full of gratitude.
She knew that with the Nine Cities Mercenary Corps’ strength, they would encounter countless dangers even if they only searched for a single day, let alone three. How could they possibly find the Jiuli Flower under those conditions? They would be lucky to make it out alive.
But now, with Tang Yi helping them search, the odds were much better. With his strength, the probability of finding the Jiuli Flower was far higher than it would be for the Nine Cities Mercenary Corps.
"We’re acquaintances, so I don’t mind helping with a small favor like this. I’ll just look for it on the side while I’m training. It’s no trouble at all. Alright, show me what the Jiuli Flower looks like." Tang Yi smiled nonchalantly, not thinking it was a big deal.
"Here, take this. Thank you, Tang Yi."
Luu Tian handed Tang Yi a piece of parchment and thanked him again.
Tang Yi didn’t take it right away. Instead, his expression turned serious as he feigned displeasure. "I say, Leader Liuu, since you consider me a friend, could you stop being so formal? All these ’thank yous’ are making me uncomfortable."
"Alright, I’ll stop saying thank you for now. Once you’ve helped us find the Jiuli Flower, I’ll thank you properly then. Also, since you say we’re friends, you shouldn’t call me Leader Liuu. I’m a bit older than you, so just call me Sister Liuu," Liuu Tian said.
"Er, alright, Sister... Liuu."
Tang Yi felt defeated by Liuu Tian. He let out a soft sigh and said no more, taking the parchment from her hand.
The moment Tang Yi took the parchment from Liuu Tian, a notification sound actually rang in his mind.
Hearing the notification at that moment, Tang Yi seemed to realize something. A suspicion formed in his mind, and his face lit up with excitement. He hurriedly checked the message in his head.
"Ding! Congratulations to Player Tang Yi for accepting the side quest: ’Find the Jiuli Flower and give it to Liuu Tian.’ Time limit: Seven days."
’Just as I thought!’
Seeing this notification, Tang Yi was so happy he almost jumped for joy!
He’d had a faint suspicion just a moment ago, but he hadn’t expected to actually receive a quest.
The rewards for quests were incredibly generous. Completing a single quest was comparable to killing countless Demon Beasts. Furthermore, quest rewards could grant him Advanced Cultivation Techniques and huge amounts of Battle God Value.
’This is so much more rewarding than just grinding monsters!’
He couldn’t believe that just by offering to help a friend out of kindness, he had received a quest. It was an absolute windfall.
"What is it, Tang Yi?" Liuu Tian looked at him curiously, not understanding why he had suddenly become so excited and happy after taking the parchment.
"It’s—it’s nothing."
Tang Yi composed himself and said, "Alright, I’ll go look for the Jiuli Flower for you now. It’s too dangerous here, so you should all leave at once. Wait for me at the entrance to the valley. It will be seven days at most. Whether I find the Jiuli Flower or not, I will come out within seven days to let you know."
"Alright. We’ll be counting on you, Tang Yi," Liuu Tian said.
After saying their goodbyes, Liuu Tian led the Nine Cities Mercenary Corps back the way they came. Meanwhile, Tang Yi unfolded the parchment to examine what the Jiuli Flower looked like.
Drawn on the parchment, with some unknown material, was a beautiful nine-petaled flower. The drawing was exquisite and lifelike, possessing a beauty imbued with an Immortal Spirit’s aura, as if it were a flower from the Immortal Realm itself.
Tang Yi only glanced at it before putting the parchment away. In truth, he didn’t need to see what the Jiuli Flower looked like. With his Celestial Eye Technique, was there anything in this world that he didn’t know? Was there anything he couldn’t identify?
He had only asked to see what the Jiuli Flower looked like to avoid arousing suspicion from Liuu Tian and the others.
Tang Yi continued deeper into the Valley of Desolation. Along the way, he carefully sensed everything in his surroundings. The moment he felt something unusual, he would immediately go investigate and use his Celestial Eye Technique to identify it.
Surprisingly, he actually found a good number of rare treasures along the way. However, it seemed these treasures couldn’t be sold to the System Store and could only be stored in his system backpack. For the time being, Tang Yi had no use for them.
Over time, he found more and more rare treasures, and he grew desensitized to it. He only bothered to pick the high-quality, rare ones. He wouldn’t even glance at the ordinary, low-grade ones.
If anyone else knew what Tang Yi was doing, they would probably be so outraged they’d want to tear him apart!
What a waste! This was blatant, outrageous waste!
At the same time, others would be incredibly envious of him. People went through hell and high water searching for rare treasures, yet Tang Yi just had to stroll by and identify them. The comparison was enough to make one die of anger.
Of course, adding treasure hunting to his agenda slowed down his monster-grinding progress. Constantly stopping to check his surroundings was highly inefficient.
’It would be great if the Celestial Eye Technique could be active all the time,’ he thought. ’That way, I wouldn’t have to delay at all. I could just do a quick scan wherever I go, take what I find, and move on if there’s nothing. The efficiency would be so much higher.’
However, Tang Yi’s Celestial Eye Technique was still at a Low Level. To identify something, he had to actively cast the technique on the object to view its information. The process was surprisingly slow. ’When I have time later, I definitely have to raise the Level of my Celestial Eye Technique,’ Tang Yi thought. ’It would save me so much trouble.’
And so, killing monsters and hunting for treasure, Tang Yi slowly advanced deeper into the Valley of Desolation. A day passed just like that.
Over the course of the day, Tang Yi gained several million Experience Value, but he came up empty-handed when it came to Equipment, items, and Battle God Value.
Tang Yi was already a Nine-star Battle King, just one Level away from becoming a Battle Emperor. However, the promotion to Battle Emperor required a staggering 20 million Experience Value. After a full day of effort, not only did he fail to acquire any items, but he also hadn’t earned enough Experience to reach the Battle Emperor Level.
’It seems that trying to both hunt monsters and search for treasure at the same time yields fewer rewards than focusing on just one...’
Moreover, because his progress had been hampered, after a full day of travel, Tang Yi was still in the outer region of the Valley of Desolation. Although Level 4 and Level 5 Demon Beasts appeared from time to time, most were still Level 1 and Level 2.
For example, when Tang Yi killed a Second-level Black Blood Wolf, he received almost no Experience. He used to get several hundred or even a thousand Experience for killing a Second-level Demon Beast. But because of the Level difference, his own Level was now too high. The Experience gained from a Second-level Demon Beast had been reduced to a mere dozen or so points. Even the Experience Value from a Third-level Demon Beast was only a few hundred, an amount so small it was laughable.
Killing any number of Low Level Demon Beasts couldn’t compare to the Experience from a single Level 4 or Level 5 Demon Beast.
Now that his Level was getting higher, Low Level Demon Beasts could no longer meet his needs. No matter their numbers, quantity simply couldn’t make up for the lack of quality. Therefore, Tang Yi decided that starting the next day, he would ignore the small fry in the outer regions and head directly into the depths to find High Level monsters!

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