Chapter 192: Three Years
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
Three years later, at Green Peak spiritual land.
Half of the hill was covered in red; it was planted with the Flame Jade Rice, and the large rice stalks bent downwards, giving it the feeling of a bountiful harvest.
In the sky, many red-eyed white birds were circling, flying through the bewildering fog; they were hunting for prey in the mountains.
At the bottom of the cliff, the originally small pond was expanded, taking up the shape of a natural lake. The spiritual king fish was swimming about casually, and following it was a school of small spiritual fish. As they were enjoying their time swimming, they occasionally spit out water from the lake.
"As long as my heart is there, I can achieve the state of peace!"
In front of the straw cottage, Fang Yuan placed a teapot filled with tea. As he slowly sipped his tea, he appeared to be deep in thought.
Even though quite some time had passed, his appearance remained the same from the time he had broken through the Elemental Gathering Stage.
"What a pity... I still cannot achieve a breakthrough to reach the Illusionary Divine stage. The Questioning Heart Tea and other spiritual objects have no effect on me now!"
In the past three years, Secluded Country and Xia Country ruled the mainland, and Fang Yuan was able to obtain a continuous supply of spiritual plants.
Level 5 Botany was not to be belittled. This skill of his allowed him to experience many plants evolving special traits, but he was not lucky at all. It was either the special trait evolved was useless, or it was similar to the Flame Jade Rice. There was nothing special which would catch his attention.
"Up until now, even the Flame Jade Rice can no longer satisfy my needs. However, it's still a good source of food for the Red-eyed White Birds and the spiritual fish..."
Fang Yuan rubbed his chin.
The Yang Family's Qian Kun Giant Spiritual Technique required him to have a scarily huge intake of food.
His Giant Eagle Metal Body Technique was mainly composed of this Giant Spiritual Technique, and therefore they had similar requirements.
With the large amounts of spiritual objects and the Flame Jade Rice, his cultivation was exceedingly quick at the beginning. However, as time passed, the spiritual objects slowly lost their effectiveness and could only be used to replenish his energy.
Fang Yuan guessed that it was his way of consuming spiritual food as staples which resulted in them losing their medicinal properties.
There was an easy solution to this. It was to look for even rarer and higher-tiered spiritual objects. However, on the mainland, it was almost impossible to find a spiritual object that had an effect on Fang Yuan.
There was another solution; to do alchemy and make spiritual pills.
In fact, Fang Yuan was already using this method. After wasting much spiritual medicine, he felt a huge improvement in his alchemy technique. He was already extremely well-versed with the Fire Hand Palm, and there was no doubt that he could go out and convince others that he was an alchemy master.
However, even though he had a lot of spiritual objects in his hand and had an extensive collection of them, there were only a few spiritual pills that were beneficial to him. Even if Fang Yuan were to snatch over those useful spiritual pill formulas, he would slowly consume them till they had no effect on him.
Moreover, he generously fed the Flame Jade Rice and other spiritual objects to the birds and fish, and this must have given him something in return.
It might be due to the spiritual land or due to the spiritual objects that the original population of the Red-eyed White Birds slowly recovered. Even for the lake beneath the cliff, Fang Yuan had painstakingly caught a few silverfish and kept them in the lake before they became more active.
"With the help of the spiritual pills and spiritual objects, I have finally formed half a spiritual meridian. It will be up to today to see if I can form the remaining!
With anticipation in his eyes, he stood up and walked to the spiritual medicine garden.
This place was expanded and was very much different from the past. It housed many valuable and rare spiritual plants, as well as many plants which have evolved their special trait.
If any alchemy master from the mainland were to stumble upon this spiritual medicine farm, he would probably go crazy over it, but this place was nothing special in Fang Yuan's eyes.
As he came to the spiritual medicine garden, he noticed a small tree with a bark that was jet-black in colour. It was as though the small tree was smelted by metal.
On the branches of the tree, red and round fruits were hanging, and there was a clear fragrance coming from it.
The fruit had a unique shape. It had the appearance of a red date but it was much larger. There was a hint of green on the otherwise red fruit.
"Chirp chirp!"
"Keke!"
The Red-eyed White King Bird, Iron-tailed Black Eagle and the Flower Fox Ferret were squatting at one side, looking in anticipation.
"The Vermilion Fruit tree... It's finally maturing, what a long wait!"
Fang Yuan's eyes welled up.
The maturity period of this fruit tree was too long; even he himself almost lost confidence in it.
The good thing was that there was another of it by its side for him to compare and monitor the growth of the tree, and he had finally arrived at this moment.
"Whooo!"
At noontime, something miraculous happened.
The green colour of the Vermilion Fruit slowly disappeared and the fragrance of the fruit became stronger by about 10 times!
The flock of Red-eyed White Birds became frenzied, and even the Spiritual King Fish in the lake was whipping its tail on the surface of the lake, showing its dissatisfaction.
"The Vermilion Fruit, it's ripe!"
Fang Yuan was excited and reached his hand out to pluck one of the Vermilion Fruit, before stuffing it in his mouth.
"Kacha!"
It was as crunchy as a ripe apple, and the bitten Vermilion Fruit had a crescent moon mouth shape on it. The fruit was filled with juice.
"Gulu!"
As Fang Yuan swallowed, a gush of warm energy flowed down into his belly, transforming into a pure spiritual energy!
The Vermilion Fruit was classified as a Mystery Grade spiritual plant, and consuming it directly would be beneficial.
Without wasting the opportunity, Fang Yuan closed his eyes and harnessed the huge amount of energy in him.
"Rumble!"
A strong force exploded in Fang Yuan's body, and amidst the gushing wind, a spiritual meridian formed on his chest and it was extremely distinct.
"Chila!"
Following, another spiritual meridian appeared on his back and glowed brightly. Furthermore, another faint spiritual meridian started to appear on his right arm, albeit only about a tenth of an actual spiritual meridian.
In his stats window, the original [Giant Eagle Metal Body Technique (Grade 3 (51%))] jumped and became (Grade 3 (55%))!
"Such an improvement? Unbelievable!"
Fang Yuan laughed heartily and picked up the Vermilion Fruit, stuffing the rest of it in his mouth.
"Hmph..."
As he continued to improve in his cultivation, the spiritual meridian on his right arm became increasingly bright, as it started to form.
As the number jumped erratically, the proficiency points of Grade 3 suddenly exploded and became 70%!
"Ah! Not enough! Barely enough!"
As his eyes opening wide, the veins on his forehead popped out. He could feel that the spiritual energy in his body had stabilized. Forcefully, he grabbed another Vermilion Fruit and stuffed it into his mouth.
"Rumble!"
Spiritual energy resembling a tsunami was released and a huge pressure made Fang Yuan a little dizzy at the moment. With the assistance from such a spiritual force, the third spiritual meridian formed and disappeared within his body.
"The third meridian of Wu Zong, I've done it!"
He looked at his stats window:
"Name: Fang Yuan
Essence: 30
Spirit: 30
Magic: 9.9
Profession: Dream Master
Cultivation: [Dream-building Master (Peak of Elemental Gathering Realm)], Wu Zong (Third Meridian)
Technique: [Giant Eagle Metal Body Technique (Grade 4) (1%)], Ecstasy Spell, Shadowstep
Skill: [Medicine (Level 3)], [Botany (Level 5)]"
"The third spiritual meridian! Together with my initial Second Elemental Force, I am at the Fifth Elemental Force!"
The Illusionary Divine Stage of a dream master was a huge step. Even though he might be stuck in his cultivation as a dream master, he was far ahead of everyone else in terms of martial arts.
The world was an interesting place. With so many coincidences happening on him, even Fang Yuan would be lost for words.
As he looked at the sparse Vermilion Fruit tree and the few spiritual beasts beside him who were all in shock, he smiled helplessly.
"The remaining fruits would not be enough for me to form the fourth spiritual meridian... Furthermore, I have a feeling that the resources in the mainland are slowly becoming useless to me!"
To a highly skilled person in the Elemental Gathering Realm, the mainland was not a place which would aid in their cultivation. Spiritual plants were at most of Mystery or Yellow Grade and had limited properties. The spiritual pills produced were also not the ideal pills everyone would want their hands on.
He had the strong urge of disregarding everything and embark on his journey to Da Qian Empire.
"To think about it, the Questioning Heart Tea has lost its effect on me, and same goes to the Flame Jade Rice. If the Vermilion Fruit end up the same as well, I don't really have a choice..."
Fang Yuan did his research on this phenomenon.
After reading many ancient records and through his detailed predictions, his understanding of the mainland was slowly deepened.
"This mainland is desert to spiritual energy. It is scarce in natural elemental energy, and there are only a few who trained from a normal human to become something extraordinary!"
The scarcity of elemental energy would lead to a decrease in the existence of spiritual plants, which would cause spiritual knights of the Elemental Gathering Realm to be unable to achieve their breakthrough, and this was a vicious cycle.
To break out of this, he either had to change the entire landscape or escape this mudpit.
Of course, Fang Yuan did not have the ability to change the entire place, and therefore he could only choose to escape and find opportunities elsewhere.
But before leaving, he had a few things on hand to settle.
"Regarding spiritual objects, the spiritual objects here are almost useless to me. Furthermore, I have the Mountain River Pearl and have already stored loads of it..."
Things that were stored in the Mountain River Pearl would not rot, and therefore there was nothing to be worried about.
"As for the Secluded Country, Xia Country and the group of disciples and subordinates, it would be like firing a shopkeeper... The most important is still master's inheritance!"
Master Wenxin had left behind three portions of inheritance, and Fang Yuan had only inherited two of them.
Being stuck before the Illusionary Divine Stage led him to try out different ways to achieve the breakthrough but to no avail.
"But now, I have a new breakthrough in my martial arts. Based on what I've practised before, I can try my luck!"
After thinking, he immediately went to try it out. Fang Yuan came to the Red-eyed White King Bird's nest in the cave, which was where Master Wenxin had left his inheritance.
In front of the purple crystal door.
Fang Yuan stretched his hands out, and his dream elemental force surged.
However, the door stood still and nothing moved. It seemed that his efforts were put to waste.
"The Illusionary Divine Stage is too difficult... Not only does it require talent and hard work, more importantly, it requires an opportunity... the last gate that master had put in place must be related to my abilities!"
Fang Yuan took in a deep breath and utilized his Giant Eagle Metal Body Technique. Three spiritual meridians appeared on his body before disappearing again.
"Ha! Purify Essence into Spirit! Purify Spirit into Magic! Change in type of elemental force!"
As he exclaimed, his martial art elemental force flowed through his spiritual meridian and undergone a miraculous change as it flowed to his forehead between his eyebrows.
"Rumble!"
As his Zu Qiao shook, something changed.
His brute martial art elemental force, through his intentional regulation, had turned into the incomprehensible dream elemental force. Like a huge river, the dream elemental force flowed into the purple crystal door.
15 minutes! 30 minutes!
After 45 minutes, the door finally moved!