Alex listened to the man's short explanation of why he was there and couldn't help but wonder about something.
"You can recognize them, right? You knew that they were deceptive in nature, so you must know what they look like," the man asked Alex with an expectant look.
Alex looked at the man and saw a pleading look that only a father could have when they were worried about his daughter. Trap or not, there was little chance that this wasn't a father that wanted to do something for his daughter.
"I've never seen the plant myself," Alex said. The words immediately made the man's face fall. But before he could speak again, Alex continued.
"But I do know what they look like and can recognize them despite their deceptive nature. You don't have to worry about that," he said. "I only hope that they actually are in this place."
"We will be in a lot of trouble if there are none," Alex said and started walking, with the man following behind him.
"Wait a moment," the man said as he quickly showed an artifact that he wore around his neck. "Are you wearing one of these?"
Alex looked at the necklace, wondering for a moment as to what it was before realizing it. "Is that to protect yourself from the poison?" he asked.
"Yes," the man said. "You'll be in deep trouble if you're not wearing one."
"No problem," Alex said. "This mask of mine protects me from airborne poison. As long as I don't touch anything in here, I will be fine."
"Oh," the man said and nodded. "Let's continue then."
Alex nodded and continued walking. He started looking around with his spiritual sense, looking at the hundreds of poisonous plants that were around him. He had to fight himself to ignore every instinct that was carved into his body to stop and gather these plants.
It pained his heart to walk away, leaving them behind as he didn't have the time for that. He needed to get through the entire 10 valleys, find the alchemist that was going to make a pill for this man, and finally could he enjoy this place on his own.
His senses spread around him, the man doing the same as he looked for the Flameborn Nightsbane plant.
As per the name, the Flameborn Nighstbane was a plant that Alex knew just from knowledge to be a dark plant with red spots to it. The useful part of the plants was its leaves which led to those red spots.
However, before being picked from the plant, the leaves weren't dark green with red spots. They were instead bright green with large yellow spots which would only contract and darken when picked away.
That alone would've been fine, but the leaves had a tendency to crumble on themselves to the point where it looked more like a barely ripening fruit than a leaf. That made it extra difficult to recognize the plant.
Alex was on the 4th of the 10 fields and it took him nearly 3 hours to go through it all at a very rapid pace.
"It's not in this field," he said and looked at the man. "I'm going to go to the 1st one and look from there. Wait here for me to come back."
"I'll come with you," the man said.
"But you'll have to pay the fee many times to get through the toll bridge," Alex told the man.
"Doesn't matter," the man said. "The cost is of no concern to me. As long as my daughter's life can be saved, I'm ready to spend everything that I have."
Alex paused and didn't feel like refusing any more. "Very well, follow along then."
They moved to the 3rd field, where Alex started checking everything once again. There were more poisonous plants here, all asking him to take a piece of them, but Alex was too busy to care.
In his head, he was looking for only 2 things.
Either green leaves with yellow spots, or green fruits that looked somewhat ripened. The Flameborn Nightsbane could be as either, so he needed to look out for either.
He also needed to look out for dark green leaves with red spots, but only when they were separated from the plant. Otherwise, just the first two would do.
The man started getting nervous, and Alex sensed it.
"Where is the alchemist you came with?" he asked, trying to take away his focus from the situation to stop him from panicking.
"I left him in the 10th field, all the way over there. We realized we couldn't find the plant after searching this entire area," the man said.
"He didn't come with you?" Alex asked.
"It costs too much for him to come with me," the man said. "I alone was enough for that matter. Besides, he insisted to stay and search for the plants."
Alex nodded and searched for the plant. The two grew quiet and Alex got time to think through things that he had been already thinking for the past few hours.
"May I ask what exactly it was that your daughter used that caused her to fall into the coma? You mentioned that it was a normal Qi deviation, correct?" he asked.
"Yes," the man said.
"Qi deviation leads to a person falling into a coma?" Alex asked. He hadn't heard of that before.
Injury? Yes. Death, even more so. But coma? That didn't feel right. "Are you sure it was Qi Deviation?" he asked.
The man paused for a moment, remaining silent which cause Alex to feel awkward. He turned around to look at the man and saw a hesitating face.
"It… is possible that she absorbed something in order to advance in her cultivation base, which led to her falling into a coma," he said.
"Oh, you didn't mention that before," Alex said.
"I'm sorry, but I didn't see why I had to tell you that to you," the man said. "I don't even know who you are really, other than the fact that you're trying to help me."
"I completely understand," Alex said. "But while it is true that I don't need to know everything, I am also now capable of passing along knowledge because you told me that."
The man frowned. "What do you mean? What can you tell me?" he asked.
"Flameborn Nightsbane… it's not an ingredient that can deal with problems in Yin Qi deviation. Unless there is something that I still do not know about your daughter's situation, the alchemist that you are trusting is lying to you about needing this ingredient."
The man paused.
"What did you say?" he asked.
"Flameborn Nightbane is a plant that is primarily a Fire elemental ingredient. On top of that, it is a poison in itself, that if not neutralized can kill anyone that consumes it."
"While it is possible that a pill made using that can neutralize Yin Qi if there is a strong Yang energy ingredient in the recipe, if it is instead the main ingredient of the pill, it certainly won't be capable of removing any Yin-based problems from your daughter."
"After all, no matter how strong a Fire energy might be, if it encounters Yin energy of similar grade, it will always lose."
