Chapter 525: Spiritual Fire
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Actually, the reason was to do with Chen Wuhui and Zhu Lanhuo. Two months ago, Chen Wuhui had gone to explore the Tan Zi Beast Lair and had accidentally discovered a mysterious treasure. Originally, Chen Wuhui had planned to furtively remove the treasure but had discovered it was no easy task. After a great deal of trouble, not only had he failed but both he and a few Intentionless Sect elders had been injured.
Of course, that was just the beginning of the story. Later, for some unknown reason, Sacred Flame Sect must have found out about the discovery too. The two sect leaders led a team, ambushing the people from Intentionless Sect while they were returning to Intentionless City. They were already injured and so were no match for their well-prepared opponents from Sacred Flame Sect. Two Intentionless Sect elders died on the spot and Chen Wuhui was also heavily injured. He gave up on obtaining the treasure and returned to Intentionless Sect.
Soon after this, Sacred Flame Sect had attacked Intentionless Sect with all their might. They had surrounded the Intentionless City from all angles, filling the city with their sect members.
“After Sacred Flame Sect chased us away, they wanted to acquire the mysterious treasure too,” Chen Wuhui said, “but they failed as well. Zhu Lanhuo wanted to seize the opportunity to conquer Intentionless Sect, so he temporarily gave up on the mysterious treasure in the Tan Zi Beast Lair and made conquering the Intentionless Sect the priority. They were planning to search for the treasure in the Tan Zi Beast Lair in the future.”
Chen Wuhui continued. “They didn’t expect that while they were fighting Intentionless Sect, the treasure would be discovered by others. Moreover, this time the news spread fast. Almost everyone in the Green Ancient Mystery Dimension knew about it. Suddenly, everyone was heading for the treasure in full force. There are more than a thousand ancient martial art fractions in the mystery dimension. One by one, all of them had gathered at the Tan Zi Beast Lair. Zhu Lanhuo was worried that the others would act before him and snatch the treasure. So, he lost his patience. He hoped to defeat Intentionless Sect as soon as possible, then rush to the Tan Zi Beast Lair to snatch the mystery treasure.”
Chen Wuhui had been the one to first discover the mystery treasure, so he was certain that it would not be an easy task to acquire it.
“Exactly what kind of treasure is it?” Mo Wen asked, surprised. A spiritual weapon wouldn’t be enough to get the entire Green Ancient Mystery Dimension so stirred up.. Exactly what kind of mystery treasure was it to be able to produce such a huge reaction?
Chen Wuhui pondered matters for a moment. “Do you know about spiritual fire?” he asked. The term “spiritual fire” was not from the ancient martial art world. It originated from the Immortal Cultivation world.
“Spiritual fire!” Mo Wen’s pupils contracted, his facial expression turning serious. There were spirits in everything in the universe. Spiritual fire was a flame with spirit, a heavenly treasure, cultivated by heaven and earth. The formation of spiritual fire was very complex. It was believed that it was formed from the combustion of pure and dense spiritual energy. Its formation was similar to that of the spiritual spring; however, one was water, while the other was fire.
When compared to the spiritual spring though, spiritual fire was much easier to be formed. The requirement for its formation was not as strict as that of the spiritual spring. Despite this, spiritual fire was still a product of heaven and earth. It was such a rare heavenly treasure that during his previous life Mo Wen had only heard of it; he had never seen one before. From what he knew, even the lowest rank spiritual fire was precious beyond imagination.
“It is really spiritual fire?” Mo Wen’s eyes were fixed on Chen Wuhui.
The Green Ancient Mystery Dimension could actually form spiritual fire! It was beyond his expectation. He recalled that he had encountered Golden Thread Cloud Ginseng, a stalk of profound level spiritual herb, here before. Judging from this, it could be said that this inner world would most likely not be uncomplicated.
Chen Wuhui nodded. “It is definitely true. I am confident that I am not mistaken.” One could identify spiritual fire easily. Any Embryonic Breathing realm ancient martial art practitioner in the Green Ancient Mystery Dimension would most likely know about spiritual fire, let alone a dignified Intentionless Sect sect leader.
Mo Wen took a deep breath. His mixed feelings were evident in his expression.
“Little friend Mo Wen, even though I can recognize spiritual fire, it is my first time encountering it. Legend has it that if an ancient martial art practitioner can acquire spiritual fire, the practitioner will have the chance to develop acquired spiritual roots, and his spiritual root will be far more outstanding than the common ones. You should know what it means to have spiritual roots, right?” Chen Wuhui gave Mo Wen a long glance. The passion in his eyes was unconcealable.
“With spiritual roots, one can cultivate immortality, embarking on the Way of Immortals,” Mo Wen straight-forwardly said.
Being able to cultivate immortality came down to a person’s natural talents. The talents needed to become an immortal cultivator were different from the talents needed to become an ancient martial art practitioner. The talents of being an immortal cultivator depended on a person’s spiritual roots. Those with exceptional spiritual roots could embark on the Way of Immortals.
In Mo Wen’s previous life, no matter how hard he tried it was difficult for him to embark on the Way of Immortals because he didn’t have any spiritual roots.
There were good and bad spiritual roots. People with better spiritual roots would have higher talents and, hence, higher achievements in the future. Acquiring spiritual roots, meant going against the will of heaven but usually the spiritual roots of the person who did so would not be bad. He would most likely be an unparalleled genius.
Mo Wen shook his head. “Spiritual fire cannot make ancient martial art practitioners grow spiritual roots.” Even though spiritual fire was precious, it couldn’t make a commoner grow spiritual roots. Only the legendary Heavenly Fire had such an ability. As far as he knew, treasures that could make commoners grow spiritual roots were few. Furthermore, each of them was a deeply mysterious treasure and would be too far out of their reach.
If it was so easy to grow spiritual roots, then there was no chance that Mo Wen would have remained an ancient martial art practitioner all this while. In his previous life, his alchemist master appreciated his talents and surely would have put in maximum effort to help him grow spiritual roots if it was at all possible.
“It really can’t help?” Chen Wuhui stared at Mo Wen, shocked. Could it be that all the legends were fake? The ancient martial practitioners in the Green Ancient Mystery Dimension had made a huge fuss and had gathered their teams to move towards the dangerous Tan Zi Beast Lair because all of them wanted to seize the good fortune of growing spiritual roots.
Once someone grew spiritual roots, he would be admitted to Huatian Palace immediately. There, the person would be taught mysterious immortal cultivation techniques. It would be like the person had reached the sky with just a step, transforming from an ugly duckling into a phoenix.
For some unknown reason, regardless of whether it was in the main space or the inner worlds, almost no one could grow spiritual roots under normal circumstances. Sometimes, not a single person among ten billion had spiritual roots. The probability that a person had spiritual roots was infinitesimal.
It could be said that people from the main space were inherently not suitable to cultivate immortality. Of course, this didn’t seal off the path to immortality completely. There was still a way for common ancient martial art practitioners to embark on the Way of Immortals. It would be the legendary ‘becoming immortal’. However, ‘becoming immortal’ was too difficult a task for the majority. There were so many ancient martial art practitioners in the world. Every year only two to three of them would become immortal.
Therefore, once they found out that there was a chance for them to grow spiritual roots through spiritual fire, all of the ancient martial art practitioners in the Green Ancient Mystery Dimension went wild. Even some ancient martial art practitioners with low cultivation or sects with low ability rushed towards the Tan Zi Beast Lair. They were biting off more than they could chew.
The Tan Zi Beast Lair was one of the Five Great Beast Lairs in the Green Ancient Mystery Dimension. The danger lurking inside the lair no less than that in barren savage lands. Even intermediate stage Golden Elixir realm ancient martial art practitioners like Chen Wuhui needed to be very cautious when they entered the lair. They would be walking on thin ice, their very lives in danger.
It could be said that anyone with cultivation lower than the Golden Elixir realm would be seeking death if they had the nerve to enter the Tan Zi Beast Lair.
If what Mo Wen said was true, then wouldn’t the ancient martial art practitioners in the Green Ancient Mystery Dimension be throwing their lives away for nothing by going to the lair?
“Based on what I know, the probability of growing spiritual roots via spiritual fire is too small. So small that it is pretty much impossible. Of course, there might be exceptions,” Mo Wen said calmly.
He didn’t say that it was never possible. After all, he didn’t know everything about the Immortal Cultivation world. Moreover, he didn’t know the opinion of people from the Intentionless Sect. It was unwise for him to say anything absolute.
“So should Intentionless Sect be involved in this matter?” Chen Zikuang asked with a frown. He didn’t doubt Mo Wen’s words. After all, nobody had ever seen spiritual roots grow via spiritual fire before. It was but a legend. It couldn’t be trusted completely.
Based on his interaction with Mo Wen, he knew that Mo Wen had knowledge of stratagems and concocting pills. Obviously, Mo Wen knew many things of the immortal cultivators which gave his words a lot of credibility.
Now, all the ancient martial art sects in the Green Ancient Mystery Dimension had mobilized to try and take the spiritual fire. This mess would not be fun to be involved in.
“Of course you should be involved. Although spiritual fire cannot cause someone to grow spiritual roots, it is also a rare treasure in the world. Since we have encountered it, we must not let this opportunity slip by. How can we just let other people take it?”
Mo Wen’s eyes flashed with a bright light. For him, spiritual fire still remained a treasure of the utmost value. If he could absorb and refine the spiritual fire, not only could his martial arts cultivation be increased by a rank, he could also receive various other benefits. As a spiritual item born of the world, it was definitely not an ordinary item.
Chen Zikuang twitched his lips and stared at Mo Wen, speechless. What did he mean by “just let other people take it”? Mo Wen had said it as though the spiritual fire had already been placed in front of him and he could easily obtain it. For him to speak so overbearingly and with such confidence made Chen Zikuang, Intentionless Sect’s deputy sect leader, somewhat uncomfortable.
There were at least a few hundred ancient martial art practitioner sects after the spiritual fire. Among them, there were more than twenty ancient martial art practitioner sects which had true ability, including the super factions like the Five Beasts Sect and Purple Qi Pavilion. Even if Intentionless Sect joined the quest, it was hard to say whether they could acquire the spiritual fire. Besides, the probability of them succeeding was definitely not high.
The elders in Intentionless Sect were staring at Mo Wen with strange gazes too. They wore a thunderstruck expression but did not say anything. Everyone knew that Intentionless Sect had survived because of Mo Wen and all were grateful to him.
“So, little friend Mo Wen, you mean…” Chen Wuhui asked Mo Wen after pondering for a moment.
“I only speak for myself. I don’t represent Intentionless Sect. Sect Leader Chen will decide on the sect’s decision. Sect Leader Chen only needs to give me a map that guides me to the Tan Zi Beast Lair. I will set out alone.” Mo Wen spoke with a smile.
In order to protect Mo Wen, nobody in Intentionless Sect apart from Chen Zikuang, Chen Wuhui, and Chen Zi knew his identity. The elders knew nothing about him, other than he had saved Intentionless Sect and his relationship with the young mistress was good.
It was inappropriate for Mo Wen to make any decision for the Intentionless Sect. Furthermore, Mo Wen didn’t plan to stay with Intentionless Sect for this trip. After all, the Intentionless Sect was a sect, unlike him who was just an individual. He was not one of their sect members either. It was inevitable that they would argue during the process of acquiring the spiritual fire. He was determined to acquire it and if he did it would be impossible for him to present it to the Intentionless Sect. So, he decided to act alone and this time, not collaborate with Intentionless Sect.