Chapter 280: 6th-Rank Spiritual Planting Art
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Translated by Frog in the Well
Read it only at Nineheavens.org
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Simultaneously with waking up from the sensation of his mind becoming blurry.
Reflexively, he scanned the surroundings, but no one was there.
Presumably, they had all scattered in the process of entering the secret realm.
‘It is tremendously wide.’
The boundless land whose end could by no means be gauged and the sun pouring down scorching heat entered his eyes like a needle.
Currently, the place he was located was a high-altitude area, but whichever direction he turned his gaze, only lush forests and mountains were visible.
Especially, it was hard to take his eyes off the mountain range that was giant enough to be distant. It stretched in all directions like the spine of a giant beast.
The moment he was momentarily dazed by the majestic scenery.
Pajijik…!
Along with a burning heat seeping deep into his bones, dark-red lightning poured out, scorching the skin of his forearm black.
“Ugh.”
Exerting strength on his jaw to endure the pain, he concentrated.
Grabbing the dark-red lightning that was running wild out of control one by one, he locked it back inside the Chaos Origin Wheel.
‘…It is done.’
Jin So-myeong, who barely subdued the rampaging dark-red lightning, wore a weary smile.
‘It truly runs wild whenever it has a chance.’
Black Lightning .
Should he call it a power worthy of a Unity stage-level Lightning Tribulation?
Although a year and a half had already passed since he underwent the Lightning Tribulation, he still had not digested it.
Even though he had reached the Great Success of the Heavenly Thunder Dao Body Art, digesting the Black Lightning was not easy.
‘Even the Black Lightning is like this. Just how strong is a proper Unity stage cultivator?’
Actually, this Black Lightning was far lacking to be called a true Unity stage-level Lightning Tribulation.
Was it not merely a tiny part of the Red Lightning dyed in black? Nevertheless, it was troublesome to digest.
Of course, this was not entirely a bad thing.
Speaking of it being troublesome to handle in another way, it meant it was that powerful of an energy.
If only he could completely digest the Black Lightning and make it his own strength.
He would be able to become much stronger than now.
At any rate,
He examined why the black Lightning Tribulation he had managed to stabilize had suddenly run wild.
He checked his mind and body to see if there was some problem, and the reason why the Lightning Tribulation escaped control was immediately known.
‘It was because my soul became weak.’
Pulling up his senses, he felt an invisible pressure suppressing his spirit and physical body.
The restriction of the Limitless Pure Land.
Upon entering the secret realm, the range his Divine Sense could scan was drastically reduced.
From a radius of 4,000km to 4km.
His Divine Sense, which could scan ten thousand li from his seat, was weakened to the point of being worse than looking with his eyes.
Although he felt suffocated as if locked in a narrow room because his transcendent senses were suppressed, there was no reason to be flustered since it was exactly as he had investigated before entering the secret realm.
Just as he was adapting to the new environment while slowly repeating breathing.
‘The spiritual Qi… is crazy.’
All directions of heaven and earth are filled with worldly source Qi. He merely breathed, yet law power accumulated.
The most outstanding spiritual vein he had experienced until now was the 6th-rank high-grade, but the spiritual Qi of the Limitless Pure Land was dozens of times denser than that.
‘Even though the worldly source Qi is this rich, is it not a 7th-rank spiritual vein?’
Was it because its spirituality was lacking?
At any rate, even if he sat still and cultivated right now, he could cultivate dozens of times faster than outside.
Of course, that was just a manner of speaking.
Since spiritual Qi was not the only thing that could be obtained in the secret realm, he could not be satisfied at this level.
‘Ah, and it was said that one cannot fly in the sky in the Limitless Pure Land.’
Jin So-myeong, who was looking around the green mountain range covered with vegetation, pulled up his law power.
The moment he kicked the ground and soared vertically.
Creak.
The joints of his entire body screamed.
A pressure that could only be felt in the deep sea sought to crumple his entire body.
As he moved further away from the ground and flew higher, the invisible pressure suppressing his entire body became exponentially stronger.
‘As expected…’
Trying to fly forcibly, the resistance was much more severe than expected.
His finely trembling fingertips and twitching muscles told him just how strong the current pressure was.
Although it seemed he had to go down to the ground immediately, he rather pulled up his law power further to fly forcibly.
‘…Currently, about 100m is the limit for me.’
It was because he needed to grasp the limit he could bear clearly.
While grasping the situation step-by-step like that.
This time, he unfolded the Lightning Insight Spell-Breaking Eye to check how far he could see.
‘200km? What a relief.’
Originally, the Lightning Insight Spell-Breaking Eye could see up to five times his Divine Sense, but here it was different.
Whether it was because it was less affected by the restriction, he could see up to 200km, which was fifty times his Divine Sense.
To be able to scan such a long distance in a dangerous place like a secret realm.
Nodding his head, he felt it would be used highly usefully.
‘Hmm?’
Indeed, that expectation was immediately realized.
While looking around the surroundings to test the Lightning Insight Spell-Breaking Eye, he discovered an extremely useful treasure.
At a mountainside 15km away, a colony of bluish spiritual herbs is visible.
‘Is that… Profound Wind Grass ?’
Going closer to verify, indeed.
There were twenty stalks of the 6th-rank spiritual herb, the Profound Wind Grass.
Just as he was nodding while looking at the bluish spiritual herbs blooming richly like a bouquet.
Boom!
Simultaneously with a feeling of the ground shaking, a column of soil shot up right next to him.
A scorpion reaching 2 meters in height popped out of the dust and stabbed its sharp tail like a spear.
Although it was a fairly fast surprise attack…
To Jin So-myeong, it was as slow as looking at a stopped object.
‘Great Circle of the Soul Formation stage? It is right before treading the Void Refinement stage.’
To the extent that he had the leisure to observe the opponent calmly.
Instead of the smooth shell unique to scorpions, mossy rock covered its entire body, and no intellect was felt at all from its red-glowing pupils.
Quietly staring at the scorpion trying to penetrate his heart with its tail, he quietly drew his sword and struck down.
And,
Thud…!
The scorpion, which was sliced precisely in half, collapsed along with a loud noise.
Scanning the left and right cut surfaces, it was composed only of sand and rock.
There were no internal organs, let alone blood.
Should he call it a feeling of mineral and living organism being mixed?
At the part that would be appropriate if there was a heart, there was a crystal bead, and a dense worldly source Qi was felt from the bead divided by the slash.
Presumably, the scorpion had moved through this crystal bead.
‘Could it be that this scorpion is of the Stone Heart race?’
To describe the Limitless Pure Land in one word, it was the ruin of a race that was destroyed a very long time ago.
The name of that destroyed race was precisely the Stone Heart race .
It was known that the Stone Heart Realm, which was currently the territory of the human race, originated from this race.
According to records, it was a race that was more prosperous than the combination of the human and Asura races, but it was not certain.
Five million years had already passed since the Stone Heart race was destroyed.
Not a single proper record remained. Even how they were destroyed, no one knew.
‘It is strange. To think a race that dominated a region was destroyed, yet no records remain…’
And also.
The scorpion that had surprise-attacked just now had no intellect, almost like an Ancient Ominous Beast.
Furthermore, unlike an Ancient Ominous Beast that possessed emotions, not even a fragment of emotion was felt. It was like a slaughter machine that blindly attacked everything that approached nearby.
Naturally, a doubt crossed his mind.
Could a race possessing no intellect, unable to even speak, be more prosperous than the combination of the human and Asura races?
Of course, there was a way.
It just had to be incredibly strong. To the extent that an intellectual existence would not even dare to hunt.
Around the time he looked down at the scorpion that was completely collapsed and transformed into a pile of soil.
A piece of information good enough to make his eyes open wide was realized.
‘This… can be used for cultivation.’
The crystal bead that could be called the heart and power source of the scorpion.
Examining closely the one cut in half, he tried to absorb the energy contained inside.
‘Oh.’
Law power accumulated.
As expected, his prediction was correct.
The worldly source Qi contained in the crystal bead was incredibly pure, to the extent that it was fine to call it a highest-grade cultivation resource.
A smile automatically came out as his law power increased the moment he absorbed it.
‘Worthy of a secret realm.’
He had merely dealt with a Great Circle Soul Formation stage scorpion, yet two months’ worth of law power accumulated.
He was curious how much law power would accumulate if he dealt with a Void Refinement stage Stone Heart race.
‘By the way, where should I use this?’
The parts other than the crystal bead that looked like the heart. Looking at the remains that looked like a pile of soil, he packed them up for now.
Although he did not know where the remains of the Stone Heart race would be used, he could learn the usage later.
There was no loss in packing it up.
After packing up all the remains mixed with soil and rock,
Following that, he scanned the colony of the Profound Wind Grass, which was his original purpose.
The sight of the rich bluish-green petals waving in the wind was quite beautiful.
‘Twenty stalks in total. It is a lot.’
For a harvest easily obtained, it was extremely excellent.
Jin So-myeong, who scanned the Profound Wind Grass with the Lightning Insight Spell-Breaking Eye, stroked his chin.
Some spiritual herbs would wither in an instant if plucked carelessly, and the Profound Wind Grass was exactly that kind.
After pondering for a moment.
He just reached out his hand and plucked one stalk. It was because there was something he wanted to test.
Snap.
The moment he plucked it entirely up to the root.
The Profound Wind Grass, which boasted rich petals, began to wither rapidly.
The petals and root tips rapidly transformed into dust and scattered, and if left alone, it seemed it would completely vanish in the blink of an eye.
Since he could not let that happen, he concentrated his mind.
Simultaneously with unfolding the Law Domain to dominate the surroundings.
He slowed down the speed of the Profound Wind Grass, which was right before transforming into dust.
Ssshh…
The Profound Wind Grass, which was scattering as if evaporating, stopped abruptly.
Even though dozens of seconds passed, it was fine. Although it should have normally turned to powder, more than half of the petals and roots still remained.
‘As expected.’
It was a feeling of discovering a new usage of the Law Domain.
Nodding his head, Jin So-myeong scanned the Profound Wind Grass whose life breath was already cut.
Although it looked fine on the outside thanks to slowing down the speed, its life breath was already cut.
Since there was no need to revive it forcibly, he simply gathered it with law power and swallowed it in one mouthful.
He had consumed it to test the medicinal effect as well.
Actually, if a person who was not born with the Wind Spiritual Root consumed the Profound Wind Grass, their meridians would be damaged, but to him, who had reached the Great Success of the Five Viscera Hundred Tempering Art and mastered the Primordial One Qi Art, it was merely a cultivation resource.
‘It is not bad.’
The amount of law power accumulated was quite substantial.
Swallowing the spiritual herb, he tried cultivating while absorbing the dense spiritual Qi of the Limitless Pure Land.
‘Indeed… the Limitless Pure Land. It is a very good place.’
To reach the 2nd layer of the Void Refinement stage outside the secret realm would have taken at least several hundred years. Here, it seemed ten years would be enough.
‘It was said that the spiritual Qi becomes denser as one goes to the center of the Limitless Pure Land.’
If he went there, his cultivation speed would become even faster.
The spiritual Qi was dense and resources helpful to cultivation were overflowing. He liked it very much.
It was to the extent that it was regrettable that he could only stay for twenty years.
For reference, the method to exit the Limitless Pure Land was not that difficult. He just had to find a place where the spatial rift was thin and tear it with strength, or use a Boundary-Breaking Talisman.
Of course, this was only if twenty years had not passed.
Once twenty years passed after the Limitless Pure Land opened, the spatial rift would completely vanish, and one could not go out.
At that time, using a 6th-rank Boundary-Breaking Talisman was also useless.
It meant that if one missed the timing, one had to be locked in this place for at least ten thousand years.
At any rate,
Although twenty years was a long time enough to change a life for a normal person, it was not so for a Void Refinement stage cultivator.
Since time was not that abundant, he had to move diligently.
‘By the way, how should I handle this Profound Wind Grass?’
Should he just eat all of it?
Since he possessed the Chaos Origin Wheel divine ability that could store Qi and digest it slowly, there was nothing he could not do…
Spiritual herbs had a better efficiency if made into elixirs and consumed, rather than consumed raw.
‘I want to eat half of it raw, and transplant the other half to the Secret Realm of the Mind.’
Pondering a good method, he opened the proficiency system.
【Arts】
6th-Rank Spiritual Planting Art (Entry 23.0 billion / 100.0 billion)
6th-Rank Elixir Refining Art (Entry 1.1 trillion / 2.0 trillion)
6th-Rank Formation Art (Entry 0.3 trillion / 3.0 trillion)
The status of the arts he had mastered in between while cultivating until now was like this.
For reference, the reason why his Elixir Refining Art proficiency was uniquely high was because he had invested the Supreme Great Ability since the time it became hard to obtain elixirs upon treading the Void Refinement stage.
While researching various elixir refining Jade Slips while coming to the Blue Cloud Sea Region, he had filled the proficiency up to 1.1 trillion by investing the Supreme Great Ability.
At any rate,
What was needed right now was not the Elixir Refining Art, but another side.
The moment he poured 77.0 billion points of Supreme Great Ability into the 6th-Rank Spiritual Planting Art.
【Arts】
6th-Rank Spiritual Planting Art (Mastery 1 / 1.0 trillion)
The art handling vegetation. The level of the Spiritual Planting Art rose by a dimension.
And simultaneously,
He was able to realize how he should transplant the Profound Wind Grass.
Taking out one of the 6th-rank Dharma Treasures in his sub-space, a flowerpot possessing the name Jade-Flower Heavenly-Wood Pot.
It was one of the harvests obtained after dealing with the Void Refinement stage cultivators, and it was perfect to use now.
Concentrating his mind to pull up his senses, it is felt.
The flow of worldly source Qi connecting from the root of the Profound Wind Grass to the earth. The moment he extended it using law power to connect it to the flowerpot.
Pluck!
He plucked the Profound Wind Grass and planted it in the pot.
‘It is done.’
Transplanting all the remaining spiritual herbs in the same manner, he swept up even the soil that was in the spiritual herb colony without leaving any.
This soil was also an extremely outstanding treasure.
If he set up a field and planted spiritual herbs, the medicinal effect would become much stronger.
‘Good.’
Jin So-myeong, who reaped a substantial harvest as soon as he entered the secret realm, scanned the surroundings.
East, west, south, and north were all filled only with forests and mountains, so which direction should he go?
‘Naturally… I must go to the center of the secret realm.’
The place where the spiritual Qi was dense, and higher mountains existed.
Since the reward was bound to become larger the more dangerous it was, there was no hesitation.
Jin So-myeong, who kicked the ground, headed toward the center of the secret realm without hesitation.
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