Chapter 189 Good Things Come in Pairs

the next day.

When Ji An arrived at the underground cave, he found that the Soul-Nourishing Wood had not changed much and was still wilted.

He extended his divine sense deep into the soil, and when he discovered that the spirit tree had sprouted some new roots, he was relieved.

If the transplanted sacred tree can take root, the project is already more than half successful.

"Squeak squeak".

The golden retriever barked twice ingratiatingly, pointed to the Soul-Nourishing Wood, and then made a gesture as if it were sleeping peacefully.

It slept very comfortably last night.

Ji An smiled slightly, thought for a moment, and said:

"From now on, every ten days, you shall catch a live Firetooth Rabbit and a Red-tailed Squirrel, kill them here, and then bury them here."

Be careful to stay away from the roots of the small black tree.

"Squeak squeak".

The golden retriever nodded obediently. It often went out hunting, catching a monster as a side task.

Soul-Nourishing Wood can nourish the soul, and it is said that the branches of high-level spiritual trees can even house the soul.

The soul of a low-level cultivator's demon beast is entirely dependent on the physical body. After death, the soul leaves the body and can be dispersed by a gust of wind.

If exposed to the blazing sun, it's like snowflakes falling into hot water, melting instantly.

The souls of high-level cultivators are much stronger, able to withstand strong winds, and after achieving success in their cultivation, they can even manifest in broad daylight, unafraid of the scorching sunlight.

Therefore, Ji An believed that the soul of a demon beast might nourish the spirit tree.

However, he did not hold out hope, because there was no rumor that the Soul-Nourishing Wood was an evil tree that absorbed souls.

However, there is no doubt that the bodies of demonic beasts have a certain effect on the Soul-Nourishing Wood.

Ji An cast the Thick Earth Returning to Origin Mantra, and the warm spiritual light enveloped the Soul Nourishing Wood and the Earth Spirit Fruit Tree, spreading out a profound and nourishing spiritual power.

The bodies buried here can decompose at an extremely fast rate under the influence of the Thick Earth Returning to Origin Mantra.

In just a few days, flesh and blood will turn into fertile soil, and bones will dissolve within ten to fifteen days.

Firefang Rabbit and Red-tailed Squirrel are only early-stage Qi Refining demon beasts, so their corpses will decompose even faster.

Ji An walked out of the cave and returned to the cold pool.

The Tianyuan pear changes every day; in just a few days, it has grown to the size of a goose egg.

When a pear grows to the size of a fist, it will gradually stop growing, and nutrients will be channeled into the flesh to increase its vitality.

He looked at the blueberries, their color glossy, and smiled:

"Yuhan and Yulian, have you counted how many pears you harvested this year?"

"Of course we counted them, there are 312 in total."

"Sister is wrong, I counted 314."

"My sister must have miscounted."

"Why didn't my sister miscount?"

Both of them insisted they were right and started arguing.

Huang Xuan, who was standing next to him, didn't say anything. Counting fruits was something that was most likely to be done incorrectly.

Ji An watched the two mature and charming female cultivators arguing, then smiled and left.

With over 300 fruits, he could send a few to familiar cultivators, keep some for himself, and sell the rest to alchemists.

The Heavenly Origin Pear is suitable for refining Water-based Spirit Pills. If Senior Brother Du were to purchase it, the share of the spirit wine could be reduced for him.

Three months later.

The Heavenly Yuan Pears of Crimson Flame Peak have ripened. The combination of the second-tier spiritual vein and the Great Perfection level planting spell has greatly shortened the ripening period of the spiritual fruit.

"Gah!"

A grey-feathered sand goose flew over, calling ingratiatingly. It had been eyeing these spiritual fruits for a long time but dared not steal them.

But if it comes openly and honestly to ask for one, the owner will give it a taste.

Ji An activated his object manipulation technique, plucked a Heavenly Yuan Pear, and tossed it to his beast tamer.

The sand goose caught it in its beak and flew to the other side of the cold pool.

Huang Xuan put the last fruit into the basket and smiled:

"Uncle-Master, including the one we just gave to Sha Yan, there are a total of 318 spirit fruits. Yu Han and the other two have counted them many times, but they have never counted them correctly, haha."

Xia Yuhan coughed lightly and said:

"It's normal to be inaccurate in counting because of the leaves blocking the view!"

Xia Yulian blinked:

“My numbers are closer to the truth, and better than my sister’s.”

"Yes, you're strong, you're amazing."

The two sisters began their daily bickering, neither willing to give in.

"Alright, stop arguing. You two go wash some fruit, one for each of us."

Ji An interrupted them.

“Yes,” the two sisters replied gently, their eyes flashing with joy.

Huang Xuan and Li Cheng also showed excitement in their eyes. For them, Qi Refining stage disciples, top-grade fruits were much more effective than pills.

Ji An took out a piece of paper covered with names and a flying shuttle, and continued to give instructions:

"Huang Xuan, Li Cheng, I've made a list. You two go out tomorrow and deliver four Tianyuan pears to each of you."

"I'll lend you the shuttle. You two plan the route and try to finish the deliveries that day."

Friends may be away on missions and not in the cave, but maids will definitely be left to guard the entrance.

Huang Xuan reached out and took the shuttle and paper: "Yes, sir."

The two sisters washed the fruit and brought it over. Ji An took one out, opened his mouth and took a bite. He immediately felt the rich fragrance between his lips and teeth, with a refreshing coolness.

Tianyuan pear is cold in nature and has the effect of clearing heat while nourishing the internal organs.

It is said that the group of cultivators on Yuanhe Mountain have a great fondness for consuming Tianyuan Pears.

Physical cultivation focuses on refining the body's strength and blood. During cultivation, the blood throughout the body is boiled, which puts a great burden on the internal organs over time.

After finishing your cultivation and letting your body calm down, eating a Heavenly Yuan Pear will help you recover faster.

"Good! After you finish eating, hurry up and refine it."

Ji An smiled and said that the fruit was juicy with little residue and contained more spiritual energy than he had expected.

After saying that, he turned and left, flying into the mulberry field to practice the Green Wood Everlasting Spring Technique.

The sun was shining brightly, but he sensed that Jin Huo's spiritual energy was much weaker than usual.

Huang Xuan picked up the fruit, took a small bite, and exhaled white mist.

"That's awesome!"

He felt a rich spiritual energy rising in his stomach and began to devour it quickly.

The moment you take a bite of the spiritual fruit, its spiritual energy begins to dissipate; you have to finish it quickly.

Some spiritual fruits dissipate their spiritual energy very quickly, so they need to be swallowed whole and the pit spat out at the end.

When he finished eating, the others noticed a layer of white frost on his eyebrows and temples, which was due to the extreme coldness of the spiritual fruit.

Huang Xuan trembled all over and immediately sat down cross-legged to circulate his cultivation technique and refine the essence.

For cultivators, it's not necessarily true that the higher the grade of a spiritual fruit, the better. If a low-level cultivator consumes a high-grade spiritual fruit, they might be overwhelmed by the spiritual energy contained within it, resulting in an explosion similar to that of a tomato.

A loud "bang" is the best outcome.

They, as late-stage Qi Refining disciples, could still benefit from top-grade spiritual fruits; otherwise, Ji An wouldn't have given them to them.

In just a quarter of an hour, Ji An had completely refined the spiritual fruit. The refining speed of the Green Wood Everlasting Spring Technique is now known to be very fast.

He returned to the cold pool and found several Qi Refining stage disciples sitting cross-legged around a stone table refining spiritual fruits, with water stains on their temples.

Based on his experience just now, he judged that these disciples would inevitably waste a lot of spiritual energy, and things would only get better when they reached the ninth level of Qi Refining.

Nothing is better the stronger it is; the right balance is the best.

Ji An flew to the vicinity of the cave entrance and began practicing the Gengjin Finger technique.

These rocks look like honeycomb briquettes, full of tricks.

Streaks of golden light crisscrossed, and an incomparably sharp aura permeated the air, making the temperature seem to drop slightly.

After an unknown amount of time, Ji An suddenly noticed that the magic had changed.

The attack range, which was originally only three zhang, has now reached five zhang, and its power has also increased, while the mana consumption has decreased.

"Hehe, only spells at the Great Perfection level can be considered true spells."

Without needing to guess, Ji An knew that Geng Jinzhi had already achieved his goal.

He squinted, focused his mind on his dantian, and connected with the stone tortoise.

[Spell: Geng Metal Finger (Perfection 99%→100%)]

Five Directions Spirit Gathering Technique (Perfect 19%)

Exploding Fireball (Perfect 88%)

Rejuvenation Technique (Perfect 7%)

Water Control Technique (Perfect 49%)

Fire Control Technique (Perfect 38%)

Entangling Technique (Mastery 92%)

The characters "庚金指" faded slowly and eventually disappeared.

Within the Taiyuan acupoint, the Geng metal Dao seed brightened slightly.

'Which lucky person should we target next?' Ji An pondered.

Because the essence needs to be extracted every day, the Five Elements Essence Extraction Technique has been used continuously.

Every few days, you need to add earth fire to the Purple Fire Gourd. There's no rush to practice the Fire Control Technique to the Great Perfection level; you can improve it incidentally.

In the end, he stopped hesitating and chose the exploding fireball, preparing to quickly send away this spell that was closest to the Great Perfection level.

"Refine the spiritual energy to enhance the explosive fireball."

Ji An's consciousness entered the mysterious space of the stone tortoise, placing himself on the Li position. His feet turned crimson, as if it were a sea of ​​fire, and his aura was intense.

When practicing spells, the fireball can be transformed into an ellipsoid at his will, and its flight path will also have a slight arc.

When the remaining spiritual energy is insufficient to be refined, the divine consciousness returns to the body.

[Spell: Explosive Fireball (Perfection 88% → 89%)]

Ji An made a hand seal, which activated a flat, bright yellow fireball. A small wing appeared on each side of the fireball.

"boom!"

The rocks shattered, and countless flames rained down, like fireworks in full bloom.

Once a Foundation Establishment spell reaches its perfect level, the improvement brought by refining spiritual energy slows down.

The most important function of Lingji is that it allows him to quickly raise his spells to a higher level, greatly shortening the growth period.

Once he breaks through to the Foundation Establishment stage, he will be able to use the perfected Thick Earth Returning to Origin Mantra and Spring Breeze Transforming Rain Technique, making him adept at planting spiritual trees.

The initial accumulation of capital is the most difficult stage, and the most enviable thing is that someone with ingenuity can avoid the initial accumulation stage.

At dawn, before the most diligent birds had even left their nests, Ji An stepped out of his cave and flew from the mountainside to the cold pool.

From afar, he saw the Biluo tree, its branches and leaves shimmering with emerald green light, waving to him.

"all right!"

Ji An flew happily to the Biluo Forest and discovered a second spirit tree that was shimmering with spiritual light.

"Good things come in pairs, that's how it should be!"

Ji An laughed loudly, placed his hand on the second-tier Biluo tree, and channeled his magic power into the tree.

The rustling of the leaves of the sacred tree conveys a joyful mood.

The value of the second-tier Biluo Tree was greater than that of the Feiye Sang, so he did not hesitate to activate two communication talisman swords to inform Ye Changqing and Li Minghui of the good news.

After calming down, Ji An flew to Sangtian, where the cold pools were closer, making the cultivation techniques more effective.

He hovered above the mulberry field and began to count the "stars".

"One, two, three, eight, nine, one more plant!"

Ji An grinned, "Wow! What a special day it is today?!"

Overnight, not only did two more Tier 2 Biluo trees appear, but also one more Tier 2 Feiye Mulberry.

Six more Tier 2 Spirit Mulberry plants were produced in three months. If this pace is maintained, Crimson Flame Peak can provide enough mulberry leaves and Biluo fruits for Uncle He.

After a moment, Ji An shook his head vigorously, dispelling the daydream in his mind.

He found a suitable spot to sit cross-legged, took out Azure Dragon Wood, Dark Yellow Soil, and Jade Water, and closed his eyes to calm his mind.

Once he had entered a state of emptiness and tranquility where no thoughts remained in his mind, Ji An began to circulate the Green Wood Everlasting Spring Technique.

Three kinds of spiritual light—green, yellow, and transparent as water—rose joyfully from the mulberry tree, the earth, and the cold pool, respectively, surrounding him.

The light and shadow danced with his breath, creating a beautiful dreamlike scene.

(End of this chapter)