Chapter 982 Yuan Jing
Ji An landed slightly, reached out and touched the spike-like flowers, and said:
"When the hibiscus tree is of the fourth-grade best quality, it will produce mulberries three years after it blooms; when it reaches the fifth-grade low quality, its flowering period will last for five years."
Now its grade has reached the mid-fifth rank, but my magical power and the spiritual veins of the gourd world have both been enhanced. I wonder how long its flowering period will last.
He felt a pang of regret, for while these advancements could shorten the maturation time of spiritual plants, they also shortened their flowering period.
The shorter flowering period means less nectar to be obtained, making mid-grade fifth-level nectar an absolute rarity.
Currently, he only has a mid-grade fifth-tier five-colored honey in his possession, which he has saved up in a fist-sized jar.
Nectar can quickly increase magical power and contains a small amount of nourishing effect on the five elements, but it is far less effective than honey of the same grade.
The queen bee in the Amethyst Peak colony has reached the fourth-tier low-grade level, and now a few fourth-tier level bee individuals are also emerging. Although this is a historic breakthrough, it is still a pipe dream to refine honey of a higher grade.
The Baiyufeng bee colony is in a similar situation; without higher-ranking bees, they have no way to utilize the abundant nectar sources in the gourd world.
Ji An had also commissioned Wuyue Sanren to issue a mission, hoping to obtain other spirit bees of higher rank.
However, there are not many forces that raise spirit bees, and the lifespan of spirit bees is much shorter than that of demonic beasts of the same rank, so it is very difficult to raise them to the fourth rank.
Ah Yun understood why her master was so regretful; he had lamented the problem with the spirit bees several times. So she comforted him, saying:
"Your Majesty's journey to the Vast Ocean Realm is comparable to entering a prosperous planet. Perhaps you will be able to achieve your wish and capture a fifth-tier bee swarm."
Ji An smiled and said, "You certainly know how to talk. I hope so."
He didn't have much hope of obtaining a queen bee of the fifth rank. Wild queen bees are fierce in nature, and if their territory is invaded by a powerful force, they will inevitably send all the individuals in the colony to fight until there are no more soldiers available.
Before being captured, these queen bees will eat or destroy the bee eggs.
Even if the queen bee is captured alive, she will refuse to mate with other male bees and eventually starve to death.
Only by obtaining eggs laid by a high-ranking queen bee can one have the opportunity to cultivate a higher-ranking bee colony, or it may take tens of thousands of years to cultivate a bee colony and through generations of selection to complete the feat of cultivating a fifth-rank bee colony.
Spirit bees are flying insects, typically mindless and stubborn. Even if Ji An could overpower them with his strength, it would be to no avail; the only option was to use the most cumbersome method.
They flew slowly in a circle, stopping near the Phoenix Tree, Dragon Blood Tree, and Immortal Apricot Tree respectively.
Everywhere they stopped, there were fifth-grade low-level plants. On the red soil, there was a phoenix tree, three lightning-struck dragon blood trees, and two fire-breathing apricot trees that had reached this level.
Among the fire-elemental spirit trees, those reaching the fifth tier are the fewest. Ji An has already increased the planting of phoenix trees, hoping to cultivate more spirit trees of the fifth tier in the future.
In fact, he originally hoped to cultivate fifth-order Phoenix Perching Tree. The ripening cycle of spiritual fruit is too long. In comparison, spiritual tea is more popular and can fill the gap in the supply of elixirs.
The wind in the white spirit field carried the chill of winter, icy and biting, not in a real sense, but in a desolate atmosphere.
The variety of spiritual plants here is relatively small compared to other spiritual fields, with only Seven Luminaries Golden Branch, Purple Gold Wutong Wood, Vajra Bodhi Wood, and a few Copper Pattern Mulberry.
Apart from the Seven Luminaries Golden Branch, there are only nine Vajra Bodhi Trees of the fifth grade, lower quality.
Neither the Bodhi tree nor the Vajra Bodhi tree produced talismans that reached the fifth level.
Fortunately, Ji An had already used the hide of a fifth-tier sea beast as talisman paper to draw a fifth-tier high-grade Yin-Yang Divine Thunder.
Twenty-one Yin-Yang Divine Thunder Talismans lay quietly inside his Void Stone. He had spent a great deal of time and resources to create these talismans, and had almost exhausted all the animal hides and demonic blood he had on hand.
In the beginning, when he was drawing talismans, explosions often occurred, so he had to find an open space and be fully armed before drawing talismans.
Fortunately, the first explosion was not very powerful, otherwise the Gathering Yuan Tree would have been affected.
Ji An landed on the ground and reached out to stroke the bark of the Bodhi tree:
"I am eager to study how to refine fifth-tier combat puppets, but I don't have enough time. I can only start my research after I return from the Vast Ocean Realm."
For him, time is never enough. Now that he has fifth-tier materials, he still hasn't figured out how to set up the embedded magic array.
Other cultivators who want to break through will always experience a relatively long bottleneck period, which can be used to study cultivation techniques.
Ji An's bottleneck period was relatively short, so he didn't have much time to study the craft.
Having broken through to the Three Flowers Realm for several hundred years, he has had very few opportunities to refine pills.
Ayun asked with great curiosity, "Your Majesty, how long will it take you to enter the Vast Sea Realm?"
"The Vast Ocean Realm opens once every 3,600 years, and each appearance lasts for three years and six months."
The time is short, and the Buddhist and demonic cultivators who enter together are potential enemies. In addition, there are many powerful cultivators among the natives of the Vast Sea Realm. They will organize to hunt down the cultivators who enter during the time the realm gate is open.
This was not a pleasant journey; it was filled with bloodshed and carnage.
Ji An sighed, as this was the case according to the information he had received. Fortunately, all the cultivators in their team had reached the mid-stage of the Three Flowers Realm.
Yunmiao Sanren even broke through to the late stage of the Three Flowers Realm fifty years ago, and they became a powerful force in the Vast Sea Realm.
The lakes in the black soil are a deep color. The shallow waters along the riverbanks are crystal clear, but the deep waters are a deep black, giving people a sense of quiet unease.
Once the spiritual vein reaches the middle grade of the fifth rank, the area of the small world reaches 20,000 mu, the area of the Blackwater Lake reaches 1,000 mu, and the deepest point reaches 780 zhang.
Sunlight cannot reach the dark bottom of the lake, which is why the water in the deep areas appears black.
Ji An flew around once. In this black soil, there were Panyun Tree, Thunderstruck Wood, Tianyuan Pear, Canglan Mist Tree, and Merit Golden Lotus. At the bottom of the water, there were Pure Water Lotus and Heaven-Mending Lotus.
Only when the Panyun Tree and the Merit Golden Lotus reach the fifth tier will the Heaven-Mending Lotus also be cultivated to the fifth tier in the future.
The lotus pods of the Heaven-Mending Lotus can be refined into external avatars, but he neither has the method to refine them nor has he purchased them from others. He has the materials but cannot use them.
The ability to create an avatar is an extremely sophisticated technique, even surpassing the scope of magic. Cultivators who obtain the method to create it treasure it.
Ji An plans to cultivate more fifth-order Heaven-Mending Lotuses and then use the mature lotus pods to find someone to exchange for the refining method.
A cultivator can split off a small portion of their divine soul power to obtain a clone at the Three Flowers Realm level, which is especially suitable for representing oneself when traveling or fighting.
Ayun pointed to the golden lotus and smiled:
"Your Majesty, I believe this lotus can be cultivated to a higher grade in the future."
Ji An asked with great interest, "How do you know?"
“After a lotus-type spiritual plant blooms, the size of its leaves and the height of its stem are fixed, but the leaves of this spiritual plant are still growing, as are its stems.”
Ayun studied all the jade slips about the growth of spiritual plants. Unlike Ji An, who selectively absorbed knowledge, she spent most of her time researching how to cultivate them.
Under her guidance, Kunyu Spirit Rice and Qingyu Wheat have been cultivated to the fourth-tier top-grade level, with the potential for further improvement in the future.
Pearl Blood Rice has been cultivated to the middle grade of the fourth rank, which should be the limit that this kind of spiritual rice can reach, with little hope of further improvement in rank.
Ji An nodded slightly. "You have a very deep understanding of the habits of spiritual plants. I also had this guess. I wonder if the Golden Lotus of Merit has the possibility of breaking through to the fifth-grade superior level in the future."
As his cultivation level increases, the possibility of him using a fifth-grade low-level Golden Lotus of Merit to refine a substitute for death decreases.
The higher a cultivator's cultivation level, the higher the grade of spiritual plants they need to refine a substitute for death; otherwise, the success rate of refining it will be reduced.
Even if it is successfully crafted by chance, its effectiveness as a substitute for death will be greatly reduced.
For example, when a substitute treasure takes effect, it should be able to fully withstand the damage suffered by the cultivator. However, if the difference in cultivation level between the substitute treasure and the cultivator is too great, it can only reduce the damage by a few percent.
The substitute treasure he crafted during his Nascent Soul stage is no longer sufficient to meet his needs.
He doesn't have much to rely on this time when entering the Vast Ocean Realm, so he must be careful and cautious and absolutely cannot let his guard down.
After touring the gourd world, Ji An organized and carefully inspected the various supplies he needed.
As night fell, he slept peacefully in the wooden house next to the Gathering Yuan Tree.
He lit a soul-soothing incense in the room, and drifted off to sleep amidst its delicate fragrance.
The next day, Ji An arrived at Yunmiao Sanren's cave, which was the place they had agreed upon.
He was the first cultivator to arrive, and after exchanging pleasantries, they sat down and chatted.
Ji An rubbed his hands together and asked:
"Fellow Daoist, you are the earliest cultivator among us to break through to the Three Flowers Realm. Do you have several Yuan Crystals?"
If you have any, please sell one to me, or you can rent one to me.
Yuan Crystals are a higher-grade spirit stone than top-grade spirit stones. They contain richer and higher-quality spiritual energy and can also be embedded in spirit vein nodes to restore consumed spiritual power.
He originally wanted to purchase spirit crystals through other channels, but there were very few cultivators who possessed such spirit stones, and it was too difficult to obtain even one. He spent more than two hundred years without managing to acquire even a single one.
With departure imminent, I had no choice but to bite the bullet and buy things from my teammates.
Yunmiao Sanren scratched his head, "Low-grade spirit crystals aren't much better than top-grade spirit stones. As for pure spirit crystals, I don't have many in my possession, just enough for my own use."
Please forgive me for not being able to trade with you, but I can promise you that if you encounter a critical moment and I happen to have unused [items/materials] on hand...
She only had three pure elemental crystals, but she didn't want to sell them because she was going to stay in the Vast Ocean Realm for several years, since no one knew what kind of difficulties she would encounter there.
Admittedly, their team is stronger this time than when they entered last time, but they may not have the same luck as last time. She needs to prioritize ensuring her own combat strength.
Because if faced with unforeseen circumstances, everyone will prioritize their own safety.
A moment later, the others arrived one after another.
Yunmiao Sanren recounted Ji An's predicament and then asked:
"Which fellow Daoist has a lot of Yuan Crystals? You can take out one and sell or lease it to Fellow Daoist Xuanqing."
She wasn't keen on helping, but that didn't stop her from asking others for their help, which was also a way of doing her part for them.
Queyue Sanren shook his head slightly, "I have few Yuan Crystals and can't help much, but if Fellow Daoist Xuanqing continues to replenish his magic power and I happen to have unused Yuan Crystals, I'm willing to share them."
The so-called leasing was a joke, and at this point he was certainly unwilling to sell something that might save his life.
If he were to return from the Vast Ocean Realm, he would be willing to sell a Yuan Crystal.
Xuan Shuang Sanren frowned slightly, pondered for a few seconds, and then said:
"I am willing to sell one of them to Fellow Daoist Xuanqing, hoping that he can unleash his greater potential in battle."
Every few decades, she would make a deal with Ji An, exchanging pill formulas or fifth-grade pills for spiritual fruits.
This made her realize how powerful the other party's planting ability was; she had never seen any other cultivator possess such a highly productive small world.
Therefore, she was willing to sell a precious Yuan Crystal in exchange for a closer relationship between the two.
As soon as she finished speaking, she took out a brick-sized stone and handed it over. It was an irregularly shaped cuboid, black and white in color.
The cultivator will preserve the original appearance of the Yuan Crystal and will not cut it into the standard size of a spirit stone.
As long as the relationship is deep enough, she can continuously purchase high-level spiritual plants from the other party.
She doesn't need the other party to give her a discount; as long as she can get spiritual fruits or medicines at the normal price, she will have an additional stable source of income.
When the time comes, we can use the materials we get from the other party to refine pills, which will be an excellent choice whether to sell them or use them ourselves.
Ji An took the stone and immediately felt the yin and yang energies slowly flowing within it. He exclaimed excitedly:
"I will remember your kindness, fellow Daoist. Thank you."
Although he had never seen a real Yuanjing before, he had learned about this more precious spirit stone from a lot of information.
Judging from its size and the activity level of Yin and Yang energies, this Yuan Crystal can be considered top-grade.
Many of the elemental crystals are only the size of a fist, and the flow of yin and yang energies inside them is extremely slow.
He coughed and transmitted his voice:
"Fellow Daoist, please state your price, and I will try my best to meet it."
Xuan Shuang Sanren also transmitted his voice, "I'm glad you like it, fellow Daoist. You can feel the quality of this Yuan Crystal, so I won't boast anymore."
To state the facts, this one piece alone is enough to fully replenish all of my magical power, and I will even have 30% left over.
If you wish to take them, you will need to provide one Soul Nourishing Fruit, one Azure Jade Fruit, and two Thunderstruck Wood Dragon Blood Fruits, all of which must be of the fifth rank and of low quality.
If you cannot produce these spiritual fruits right now, you can owe them to me.
She had no intention of taking advantage of the situation and quoted a price that was relatively reasonable and acceptable.
This transaction was originally intended to improve relations, but the high price backfired.
Although she felt that even if the price was higher, the other party would agree, she wouldn't risk losing more than she gained.
Ji An circulated his cultivation technique to refine a portion of the Yin-Yang energy, nodded in satisfaction, and transmitted his voice:
"I can produce these spiritual fruits now. We'll complete the transaction after we set off."
(End of this chapter)
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