Chapter 37: Leaving the Grotto-Heaven

It is said that the grotto-heaven blurs one’s perception of time.

Even if one cultivates in it for months or years, the cultivators inside will not have a very obvious concept of time, only feeling that time passes in a flash.

In this state, everyone was immersed in their own cultivation and comprehension, unable to extricate themselves.

Everyone had quite a few gains. The sword-shaped true Qi around the young swordsman was all internalized, the sound of his heartbeat was like a sword hum, and every inch of his skin shimmered with sword light, crystal clear. It must be that the sword canon he practiced had a breakthrough, one step closer to the sword body he spoke of.

During the alchemy process, the female alchemist’s control over flames also went a step further. The purple flames inside the alchemy cauldron formed nine layers of whirlpools, continuously tempering the medicinal materials and refining out all the impurities in the pills.

Even the Beast Taming Sect disciples who hadn't occupied a Bodhi Tree felt that practicing Qi on the spot was more tranquil and highly efficient. Time passed quickly, without the boredom of the past.

At this very moment, Lin Jing had returned to his original appearance. With the help of the Golden Bodhi leaves, he had already memorized the structure of the purple true Qi and began to reorganize it himself. Thousands of attempts and tens of thousands of repetitions made his speed of constructing purple true Qi faster and faster.

Even, unknowingly, his cultivation had broken through from the early stage of Qi Refining to the middle stage, reaching the fourth level of Qi Refining!

In the end, he was not satisfied with just practicing inside his body. He began to release true Qi, controlling the purple true Qi to flow out, molding a similar dragon-shaped skeleton that wrapped around his entire body, watching the outside world from within the phantom.

For Lin Jing "transforming" into a giant dragon again, others were no longer surprised and continued their immersive cultivation. Only the Pine-Leaf Rat suddenly looked at Lin Jing.

"It seems feasible," Lin Jing muttered to himself. He felt that he had perfectly replicated the effect of the purple Dragon Bone Flower and could be considered "initiated into the phantom path."

Unlike ordinary phantom transformation spells, his current phantom-path spell had stronger deceptiveness and was sufficient for cross-level deception.

However, using such a top-tier phantom spell, Lin Jing felt the consumption was not small. Even after the breakthrough, his own true Qi was still not enough.

Most importantly, it was currently being cast under the bonus of the Golden Bodhi Tree, which was relatively easy. But after leaving, he estimated that he would need to practice hard to use it smoothly.

"This phantom-path spell can indeed be molded into other monsters. Since that’s the case, let’s name it 'Thousand Changes, Ten Thousand Phantoms'." Lin Jing tried to drive the giant dragon claw to grab the Pine-Leaf Rat, covering it within the phantom body as well.

Inside, the Pine-Leaf Rat saw Lin Jing transformed into a Black Bear Monster.

It was just that this Black Bear Monster wasn't wearing a Daoist robe like it, but a cassock.

Fierce and vicious, it also possessed the might of a monster king.

If the Pine-Leaf Rat hadn't known what was going on, it would have definitely protected its storage bag and turned to run.

Lin Jing dissipated the phantom-path true Qi covering the surface of his body and looked at the Pine-Leaf Rat.

"How is it?" he asked.

"Squeak!" The Pine-Leaf Rat sighed. Nothing, there was absolutely no gain. Whether it was "a flower is a world" or "a leaf is a universe," it was all a lie!

"I told you, you have to take it step by step. Is there really no gain at all?" Lin Jing was helpless.

The Pine-Leaf Rat’s talent was definitely not bad. With the bonus of the Silver Bodhi Tree, he believed there should still be gains.

Sure enough, the Pine-Leaf Rat took out a red leaf. If one had to say there were gains, there were indeed some.

"What is it?" Lin Jing asked.

"Squeak!" It threw its new storage bag to Lin Jing.

Lin Jing caught the Snow Plains cultivator’s storage bag.

The next moment, the Pine-Leaf Rat cast a Flying Leaf Technique at the storage bag Lin Jing was holding!

When the red flying leaf touched the storage bag, it actually disappeared.

When the flying leaf appeared again and flew away, even though Lin Jing hadn't done anything, a pile of spirit stones fell out of the storage bag with a clatter.

It was as if a pocket had been cut open by the flying leaf.

The Pine-Leaf Rat’s Flying Leaf Technique had actually mutated into a spell that could knock items out of a storage bag.

Lin Jing opened his mouth slightly, wanting to say something, but finally gave up.

"I was just saying it casually; how did you actually manage to do it?"

Spatial spell!

This was definitely harder to learn than a phantom-path spell.

It had actually comprehended it just by constantly taking red leaves out of the storage bag and putting them back in.

If he had known the Pine-Leaf Rat was so monstrous, Lin Jing would have given up the Golden Bodhi Tree for the Pine-Leaf Rat to use.

"Squeak!" However, the Pine-Leaf Rat felt this spell was useless.

It wanted the opponent’s storage bag itself. What if it accidentally damaged its own storage bag while using this spell in battle?

Lin Jing ignored it. Whether it was the Flying Leaf Technique or the Pine-Leaf Rat’s obsession with storage equipment, it had now become a storage bag killer.

"A spell that can pluck resources from a storage bag—let’s call this upgraded version of the Flying Leaf Technique 'Flying Leaf Plucking Flowers'," Lin Jing said.

The Pine-Leaf Rat had no objections.

This spell name sounded decent.

Lin Jing had given it quite a few names before, but the Pine-Leaf Rat thought they didn't sound good or were perfunctory. In the end, it let Lin Jing call it Pine-Leaf Rat. Compared to those ghostly howling names, the Pine-Leaf Rat felt this spell name at least sounded like something a human would name.

The Pine-Leaf Rat planned that once they had money, they would go to the Literary Domain for experience together, and at that time, they would find a knowledgeable Feng Shui master to ask for a good name that could lead to immortality.

"Speaking of which, although our gains are good, it seems neither the 'Thousand Changes, Ten Thousand Phantoms' I created nor the 'Flying Leaf Plucking Flowers' you improved managed to enter the stone tablet ranking," Lin Jing touched his chin.

He dissipated all the phantoms and looked at the stone tablet in the center of the three trees.

One hundredth place.

Feng Jiutian, Foundation Establishment stage, created the second cultivation constitution, the Wind Emperor Body, in the Bodhi Heaven.

He didn't know who Feng Jiutian was and didn't know about the Wind Emperor Body, but possessing two special constitutions at the Foundation Establishment stage was very powerful.

He wondered if he could cultivate a second constitution besides the Longevity Body at the Foundation Establishment stage...

Lin Jing shook his head. It was a pity he couldn't see the rankings after one hundredth place. He was still quite curious about how high the potential of the spells he and the Pine-Leaf Rat created would rank among all the cultivators who had entered the Bodhi Heaven.

No extra rewards for him.

Hopefully, there will be another chance to enter the Bodhi Heaven in the future.

Just as his thought fell, the grotto-heaven rumbled, as if it were about to close.

Sword Domain.

The number one sword cultivation sect of the Great Ming Ancient Kingdom, the Heavenly Sword Gate, outer sect.

As a massive beam of light dissipated, the outer sect elder of the Heavenly Sword Gate, who had been guarding there, looked at the young swordsman holding the Monster-Slaying Sword.

"Yuan Jing!" Seeing the young swordsman come out, the Heavenly Sword Gate elder breathed a sigh of relief, then revealed a look of joy.

"Not bad. In these ten years, you are the fourth disciple of the Sword Gate to be chosen by the grotto-heaven! Entering the grotto-heaven with a mortal body, you have the demeanor of your Eldest Senior Sister back in the day!"

"Greetings, Elder." Seeing the outer sect elder, the young swordsman Yuan Jing was slightly nervous.

Elder Sword-Whisk asked, "Yuan Jing, which grotto-heaven did you enter?"

"Reporting to Elder, it was the Bodhi Grotto-Heaven."

"Bodhi Grotto-Heaven? The one for enlightenment? To actually pull a Qi Refining cultivator into the Bodhi Grotto-Heaven..." Elder Sword-Whisk was speechless. The higher the cultivation of those who entered the Bodhi Grotto-Heaven, the better. Only in this way could they use their life’s accumulation to create what was most suitable for themselves.

Qi Refining stage—they hadn't even understood the basics taught by the sect. What a waste!

However, being able to enter the grotto-heaven was good. Free opportunities shouldn't be wasted.

He looked at the young swordsman. Although this disciple didn't have any heaven-defying constitution, his comprehension of sword cultivation methods was excellent, and he had soon crushed the special constitutions of his generation to become the number one in the outer sect.

It didn't matter if he didn't have a special cultivation constitution. Combined with the sword canon that could refine a postnatal sword body, he still had a bright future. The arrival of the grotto-heaven this time had well proven his potential!

"Besides you, who else entered the Bodhi Grotto-Heaven? Did you grab the Golden Bodhi Tree?" Elder Sword-Whisk asked again.

The question that made the young swordsman most nervous finally came.

"This disciple is incompetent. I only shared a Green Bodhi Tree with one person, losing face for the sect. This disciple will definitely cultivate diligently in the future. Please punish me, Elder."

Elder Sword-Whisk was stunned. Although Yuan Jing didn't possess a special constitution like the previous outer sect number ones, his sword cultivation attainments were quite outstanding. He had actually only grabbed a Green Bodhi?

"What punishment? There is always someone better than the best. I see you have already cultivated a Sword Heart; it seems you are not far from refining a Sword Body. As long as there are gains, victory or defeat is just a moment." Elder Sword-Whisk comforted him. "Which sect’s Qi Refining cultivator occupied the Gold and Silver Bodhi?"

"A total of 12 people entered the Bodhi Grotto-Heaven this time: a scholar from the Heavenly Fortune City of the Literary Domain, a female alchemist from the Alchemy Cauldron Sect of the Fire Domain, eight from the Beast Taming Sect of the Desolation Domain—seven of whom were accidentally swept in—and one... was a Snow Plains cultivator."

The young swordsman said, "The Golden Bodhi was occupied by a disciple of the Beast Taming Sect. As for the Silver Bodhi Tree..."

"It was occupied by his pet."

"What?" Elder Sword-Whisk was stunned. Beast Taming Sect? Is it the Beast Taming Sect he knows?

"You lost to a Beast Taming Sect disciple?"

"Elder... I can... his pet can do it too. What they can do... I can't do." The young swordsman didn't know how to explain.

Fire Domain, Alchemy Cauldron Sect, the same plot repeated.

The narcissistic female alchemist was a somewhat famous alchemy genius of that sect. After this trip to the grotto-heaven, she received even more attention.

The name of Tang Seng of the Beast Taming Sect also became known in a small circle by the cultivators of these major sects.

Literary Domain, there was also a scholar in green dragging a Snow Plains barbarian, looking at his colleagues surrounding the beam of light in the city. He wiped the bloodstains off his face and cupped his fists forcefully.

He almost had "I want to be promoted" written on his face.

Desolation Domain, Beast Taming Sect.

Many elders were guarding outside the grotto-heaven. As Lin Jing and the others all returned unscathed, this group of elders was overjoyed.

However, looking at the other seven people and seven beasts who vaguely seemed to take Lin Jing and the Pine-Leaf Rat as their leaders, following behind Lin Jing like guards and looking at them with awe, the elders really wanted to know... what exactly happened inside the grotto-heaven.

But what made Elder Yu, the mechanist, even more bewildered was why the few disciples were also looking at him so fervently. ===== CHAPTER 38 =====