Chapter 972 The Soul-Nourishing Wood Blossoms

Ji An flew back to the Soul-Nourishing Tree in the central area with A Yun, and found that faint cracks had appeared on the dark, smooth bark.

He extended his divine sense into the inside of the tree trunk and immediately felt a surge of life force.

He reached out and touched the cracks, a smile appearing on his lips:

"This will be the beginning of a new era!"

The reason why the spiritual roots of heaven and earth were successively upgraded to the fifth-grade low-level is because of the allocation of resources; the Soul Nourishing Wood did not receive much special care.

Now that the Soul-Nourishing Wood has shown signs of breaking through its grade, it means that all those precious plants have the potential to break through.

However, he did not intend to allocate resources to other spiritual plants. Before the grade of the spiritual vein was improved, the more low-grade fifth-order spiritual plants that were not heaven and earth spiritual roots there were, the higher their demand on the spiritual fields would be, which would be detrimental to the improvement of the spiritual vein.

"Congratulations, Your Majesty. May the little world become better and better."

Ah Yun said with deep emotion that her intelligence level is getting higher and higher, and she now has more emotions.

Ji An laughed heartily, "Haha, it will definitely get better and better."

He arrived at the area where monster corpses were often burned and retrieved the remains of the Abyss Sea Serpent from the Void Stone.

The two early-stage Three-Flower Realm sea snakes had drastically 'slimmed down'. Originally, they were over three zhang in diameter, but now only bones and a little flesh remained, barely as thick as a water bucket.

The most rigid skull has many missing parts and is charred black.

Ji An sat down cross-legged and activated the Yin-Yang Spiritual Fire. Under his control, the flame behaved exceptionally docilely, showing no signs of the explosive power of a fifth-order flame.

Only when the black-on-the-inside, white-on-the-outside flames enveloped the snake's head did the ferocity of the spiritual fire become apparent, and the skull, which could be used as the main material for a defensive spiritual treasure, quickly showed signs of melting.

For ordinary weapon refiners to achieve the same effect, it would take at least half an hour, a huge difference in efficiency.

The skull slowly melted and turned to ashes. Ji An then activated the flames to burn the next section of the corpse.

Ayun tiptoed over and lit a sandalwood incense stick, placing it in the incense burner.

Activating the spiritual fire consumes not only mana but also spiritual consciousness. Mana can be quickly replenished by refining various top-grade fourth-tier spiritual fruits, but spiritual consciousness can only be replenished slowly by inhaling spiritual fragrance.

She placed the three-legged incense burner, the size of a clay pot, beside the emperor, and then quietly left.

At this moment, she began to ponder how to create new soul incense if the grade of the Soul Nourishing Wood were improved.

Without using fifth-grade golden sandalwood as an auxiliary material, it's impossible to make many pots of spirit incense using only the branches and leaves of the Soul-Nourishing Wood.

After a moment, she gently shook her head, putting the question out of her mind. 'Let His Majesty worry about it.'

Over the years, through continuous upgrades and iterations, the components that make up her body are all made of top-grade fourth-tier Azure Dragon Wood, and the magic array installed on her body can cast planting spells at the Nascent Soul level.

Although her strength has been comprehensively enhanced, she and the other puppets have been unable to provide magical assistance in planting.

After more than four hours, Ji An finally burned all the remains of the three abyssal sea serpents to ashes.

He took out a small amount of the ashes of a sea serpent from the early stage of the Three Flowers Realm and buried it near the Soul Nourishing Wood.

His original intention was not to provide preferential treatment to fourth-grade top-quality spirit wood, but the Soul Nourishing Wood, which is already in the transformation stage, deserves special treatment.

At this moment, Ayun stepped forward and expressed her concerns:

"Your Majesty, even after the Soul-Nourishing Wood was upgraded, we still lack the materials to make enough fifth-grade spiritual incense."

"No need to worry. From now on, I will preserve the leaves of the Gathering Yuan Tree and use them to make new spiritual incense."

Ji An said confidently, "The Gathering Yuan Tree is an earth-elemental spiritual plant, which inherently possesses the attribute of nourishing the soul, although it wasn't very obvious before."

Now that the Gathering Yuan Tree has reached the fifth rank, the Soul-Soothing attribute of its leaves has been greatly enhanced, and its effect is stronger than that of the fourth-rank top-grade Golden Leaf Sandalwood.

The process of making the spirit incense is not difficult. He only needs to experiment to find a standard raw material formula and prepare some special materials before he can hand over the task of refining the new spirit incense to Ayun and the others.

Ah Yun complimented, "So Your Majesty had already considered this. That's wonderful."

Ji An strolled to the Gathering Yuan Tree, half-reclined on the rattan chair, closed his eyes to rest, and pondered how to efficiently construct an inner world centered on the gourd world.

He planned to use the Five Elements Divine Palace as the external energy source for the small world. Once the connection was established, each cultivation session would provide energy to the small world.

With the added blessing of the Yin-Yang Dao Seed, the quality of each energy supply is very high. This helps to accelerate the improvement of the spiritual vein grade of the small world, and then the improvement of the spiritual vein grade feeds back into itself to promote the improvement of cultivation.

However, there is a drawback to doing this: the speed of improving one's cultivation level through cultivation will be much slower, which is also an important reason why he has not yet started to build the inner landscape.

Ji An pondered this question for a long time and made a decision at this moment: to first raise his cultivation to the mid-stage of the Three Flowers Realm before formally starting to construct his inner landscape.

Improving one's cultivation level means that the quality of one's internal mana will also improve, which can directly enhance the effects of spells, thereby increasing combat power and the power of planted spells.

Having made up his mind, Ji An began to ponder what methods he could use to improve his cultivation efficiency.

Half a year passed in the blink of an eye. On this day, Ji An floated above the Panyun Tree. This spiritual plant had been elevated to the fourth-grade top quality under the cultivation of various ashes.

The speed of improvement surpassed the records of other spiritual roots of heaven and earth. He felt that this was not only due to abundant resources, but also because the five spiritual roots of heaven and earth should have formed a mutual generating relationship of the five elements.

Currently, the connection is not obvious due to the different grades of the spirit trees. However, once the Panyun Tree is upgraded to the fifth grade, the true impact will be felt.

The blue deer flew over and stood respectfully beside its master, saying in a deep voice:

"Your Majesty, the Hermit of the Crescent Moon has sent a disciple to extend an invitation. He requests that you visit his cave at Chenshi (7-9 AM) tomorrow."

While their master stayed in the small world, he and Da Huang diligently guarded the cave and were responsible for external communication.

Ji An nodded, "Understood."

He flew back to the center of the small world and landed next to the Soul-Nourishing Wood, a spiritual tree that had been with him for thousands of years and had reached the fifth level.

To his even greater surprise, the spirit tree actually bloomed with small white flowers.

The small flower is only the size of a bottle cap, with a cluster of bright black stamens in the center of its five white petals.

The delicate fragrance did not spread, but rather condensed near the Soul-Nourishing Wood, as if it were bound.

The faint fragrance permeated the air, and the speed of mental recovery was significantly accelerated, making it more effective than inhaling a fourth-grade top-quality sandalwood soul-nourishing incense.

None of the information Ji An received mentioned that the Soul-Nourishing Tree could bloom, and the current situation made him feel that he had touched upon a hidden piece of knowledge.

These flowers are better materials than branches and leaves, and he is confident that he can refine a soul incense that is even more outstanding than he had previously imagined.

Ji An called A Yun over and pointed to the tree full of small flowers, saying:

"After the flowers are fully in bloom, pick them and dry them; I will have a great use for them."

Ayun loudly agreed, "Yes, ma'am. I'll give the order in a moment. They'll check every two hours, and once the flowers are fully bloomed, they'll be picked and dried."

She enjoys directing other puppets, and it would be even more perfect if what she's doing is meaningful.

Ji An strolled back to the Gathering Yuan Tree and began cultivating the Yin Yang Cave True Technique.

The spiritual energy of the entire small world was mobilized and converged towards the center of the world, along with various spiritual energies of the five elements.

Inside the cave, everyone sat around the round table. Crescent Moon Hermit looked around and laughed:

"These days I've been busy refining the Yuan Magnetic Ore, working day and night. I wonder what you all are busy with?"

Hundreds of thousands of kilograms of ore powder need to go through several processes to refine it. His task is quite arduous, but he is happy to do it because he can get high-quality slag.

Any weapon refiner would be overjoyed to receive the materials they desired.

Yunmiao Sanren brushed a stray hair from her forehead behind her ear and said:

"Every day I wander in the shallow sea, hoping to find some rare monsters."

She rarely ventures into shallow waters, not because shallow-water monsters are generally less valuable than deep-sea monsters, but because there are many cultivators searching in shallow waters.

She wasn't the kind of cultivator who would readily banish others; in the shallow sea, achieving great success depended on luck.

Because relying solely on her own talent for cultivation was too slow, she didn't want to waste time cultivating alone without the supply of elixirs.

Ji An laughed and said, "This humble Taoist is arranging the spirit field and improving the spell."

He spoke very modestly, but in reality, he wasn't improving magic; he was creating it.

The Golden Light of the Earth could no longer satisfy his needs, so he wanted to create a flying escape spell at the Three Flowers Realm level, based on the Golden Light of the Earth.

The power of the Five Elements was insufficient to meet his needs, so he wanted to use the Yin and Yang energies to drive a flying escape technique.

Xuan Shuang Sanren smiled, revealing shallow dimples. "My life is relatively quiet. I refine pills, cultivate, and occasionally attend trade fairs. It's no different from my previous life."

"By the way, I have collected all the materials needed to refine a fifth-grade high-level defensive spiritual treasure. When will you begin refining it, fellow Daoist?"

She obtained a key material at the trade fair a few days ago, which she can use to refine a spiritual treasure and nurture it.

The longer the nurturing time, the stronger the power of the spiritual treasure will be. Of course, she hopes that the spiritual treasure's defensive effect will be as strong as possible.

"It will probably take four or five months. Fellow Daoist Xuanqing wanted to refine the Yuan Magnetic Divine Needle, which was arranged a long time ago."

Once it's refined for him, it can be refined for you, fellow Daoist.

The Crescent Moon Hermit took out some round, black objects. These objects repelled each other, but the distance between them was as long as if measured with a ruler.

He coughed twice and said smugly:

"Please look, everyone. This is the refined Yuan Magnetic Iron, totaling 1,680 catties, which has been cast into fifty spheres."

As he spoke, he weighed all the spheres.

"Everyone can take their share in turn, and the rest is mine."

When they received the refining task, everyone signed an agreement. The Wanderer of the Crescent Moon even made a vow, declaring that he would not embezzle even a single tael of Yuan Magnetic Refined Iron, otherwise his path would be interrupted.

The binding force of this oath is very strong, so no one is worried that he will abuse his power.

Yunmiao Sanren was the first to take away fifteen black spheres, a look of joy flashing in his eyes.

The others took their shares one after another, and Queyue Sanren took all the remaining Yuan Magnetic Refined Iron.

After chatting for a while, the two female cultivators left together.

After seeing the guests off, the Recluse of the Crescent Moon took out a jade slip, handed it over, and said:

"I have designed several styles of Yuan Magnetic Needles. Fellow Daoist, please take a look and let me know which design you prefer."

Ji An took the jade slip, extended his divine sense to read the information inside, and carefully compared its advantages and disadvantages.

A moment later he returned the jade slip, saying, "This humble Taoist chooses the second option."

The selected style enhances piercing power, making it suitable for forceful assaults and perfectly suited to his fighting style.

"Okay, this style can cause stronger penetrating damage."

"When the refining is successful, do you need to perform a blood sacrifice? Choosing a blood sacrifice allows for better control, but the downside is that it makes trading difficult."

To trade items sacrificed through blood sacrifice, a great deal of effort must be put into eliminating the negative effects, and there is a significant chance that the spiritual power of the item will be reduced.

Ji An waved his hand gently, "No need for blood sacrifice, how should we calculate the reward for the refining?"

The Yuan Magnetic Needle is a supplement to his combat system, and there is no need to perform a blood sacrifice, because some demonic cultivators can harm cultivators by corrupting spiritual treasures that have undergone blood sacrifice.

When activating the Yuan Magnetic Needle, direct contact with the enemy's flesh and blood is inevitable, and he might get hit. He doesn't want such a variable to occur in the battle.

"Don't rush to discuss the reward; we'll talk about it after the refining is successful."

"To be honest, fellow Daoist, there should be a small amount of material left after the refining is complete. I would like to use this as payment."

"Can."

Beneath the Gathering Yuan Tree in the Calabash World, Ji An was concentrating intently on refining Soul Incense, while A Yun and two puppets stood in a circle, watching his every move.

Through continuous experimentation, he has found the best refining method, using the leaves and flowers of the Soul Nourishing Wood and the leaves of the Gathering Yuan Tree as materials.

In terms of accelerating the recovery of spiritual consciousness, the fifth-tier Soul Nourishing Incense is seven to eight times more effective than the fourth-tier top-grade Soul Incense.

Moreover, it not only nourishes the spirit but also contains abundant spiritual energy, having the effects of a medicinal pill.

Although its effects as a pill are not strong, it can still have an effect on the Three Flowers Realm, so he won't ask for too much.

Having successfully refined three trays of soul incense in a row, Ji An stopped and asked:

"Did you understand the refining steps?"

The puppets all responded loudly, "We saw it clearly."

Ji An nodded slightly, "Very good, everyone will refine it once in front of me. Ayun, you go first."

He didn't know how often the Soul-Nourishing Wood would bloom again. These materials were extremely precious and couldn't be wasted, so he had to make sure that all the puppets could skillfully refine Soul-Nourishing Incense before he dared to let go.

He's watching now, so he can point out the puppet's shortcomings and offer reasonable suggestions at any time.

"Yes, ma'am," A-Yun replied confidently, and then began making the Soul-Nourishing Incense.

She is the most intelligent of all the puppets, and the task of refining her into finished products according to the formula is not difficult.

Fifteen minutes later, she presented the prepared Soul-Nourishing Incense:

"Your Majesty, please give me your guidance."

Ji An carefully smelled the aroma of the Soul-Nourishing Incense, then scraped off some powder, lit it, and tested it completely.

"Very good, you remember the steps very clearly, next one."

All the puppets passed the test; they were selected from the most intelligent group of puppets.

Ji An was not surprised by this result. He nodded with satisfaction and gave the following instructions:

"From now on, the task of making Soul-Nourishing Incense will be entrusted to you."

(End of this chapter)