Nightlake was not far from Sunset City. The four of them traveled together, chatting along the way. After just two days, Vaughn Che stopped and said, "This is the outermost edge of Nightlake. We can see the lake now, but since Joe Di isn't familiar with this place, let me explain the situation first."
After two days together, the group had become quite familiar with one another. Vaughn Che now addressed Joe Di directly as 'brother'.
Joe Di paid little attention to Vaughn Che’s words, his gaze fixed in shock at the scene ahead. It was less a lake and more like a massive, tilted circular mirror rising upright before them.
Under the pull of gravity, a lake should never stand upright, yet here it was—vertical, mysterious, and shrouded in mist. The surface was hazy, impossible to see clearly.
Something was off. The distance from here to the lake was at most a few hundred zhang—close enough for him to see with his own eyes. Why, then, was everything so blurred?
Joe Di swept his divine sense outward. The moment it touched the lake’s surface, a sharp pain stabbed through his sea of consciousness, as if an invisible hand tried to tear it apart. Blood spurted from his mouth as he hastily withdrew his divine sense.
"Brother Joe, did your divine sense feel as if it was being violently torn apart, like your sea of consciousness was about to explode?" Vaughn Che asked after seeing Joe Di spit blood.
Joe Di immediately understood—divine sense could not penetrate this area, and Vaughn Che and the others knew it. Since they knew, why hadn’t they warned him? That was going too far.
Vaughn Che sensed Joe Di’s displeasure and smiled slightly. "Brother Joe, I know you’re upset that I didn’t warn you about the divine sense restriction here. But I wanted you to try it for yourself."
"The reason?" Joe Di asked coolly. If Vaughn Che couldn’t give him a real answer, he would turn and leave without hesitation.
Vaughn Che sighed. "Do you know why collecting ten Firegod Herbs can earn you a place in the Five Grand Sects as an inner disciple? It’s because the Firegod Herb is incredibly hard to harvest. The herb hides around Nightlake, and the area around Nightlake can burn away a cultivator’s divine sense. Anyone who approaches the lake will have their divine sense gradually erased. So, after staying at Nightlake for a few days, people have to leave and rest before returning to search again."
I had you test your divine sense to gauge its level. Since we’re working as a team, we need to determine how many days each of us can endure around Nightlake based on our divine sense strength before needing a break.
So that’s how it works? Joe Di extended his divine sense from their current position. Sure enough, not far away, he found several hidden dwellings. The concealment arrays outside were crude and couldn’t block his observation.
"Those people are resting here too. Once they’ve recovered, they’ll go back to Nightlake to search for Firegod Herb," Vaughn Che explained, seeing Joe Di’s gaze fall on the hidden dwellings at the lake’s edge.
"No wonder the Five Grand Sects’ young masters don’t gather the herb themselves. It really burns away your divine sense," Joe Di sighed.
Vaughn Che nodded. "Exactly. The higher your cultivation, the faster Nightlake consumes your divine sense. But if your cultivation is too low, you won’t even reach where the Firegod Herb grows. That’s why the Golden Core to Void Spirit Stage is the most suitable range here."
Joe Di felt a hint of doubt. Though he hadn’t deliberately asked around these days, he knew the status of the Five Grand Sects’ young masters. If even they urgently needed the Firegod Herb, could it really be such an extraordinary treasure?
What puzzled him was why only the Five Grand Sects’ young masters were desperate for the Firegod Herb. Did others not need it?
"How do you test the level of your divine sense here?" Joe Di now had a rough idea but wasn’t sure of his own grade.
Vaughn Che explained, "From here, sweep your divine sense outward. If you reach ten zhang, that’s grade one; twenty zhang is grade two; thirty zhang is grade three. Almost no one here exceeds grade four. As long as everyone’s divine sense reaches grade two, we can search the Nightlake shore for two days, but we can’t get too close to the lake itself."