Chapter 73: Natal Spiritual Plant

Qin Ming drove the Spirit-Light Shuttle with all his might, vanishing from the sky in an instant.

He had barely just left.

Two figures at the Foundation Establishment realm subsequently landed at the scene of the incident.

One of them was Elder Gu of the Spirit Feather Sect; at this moment, his rigid face was filled with rage.

He glanced around and spoke indifferently, "Who exactly did this? Could it be Foundation Establishment cultivators from other sects?"

"In this old man's view, it does not seem like the work of the Righteous Path; look at how they died—it appears they encountered demonic cultivators," shook his head and frowned the other Foundation Establishment elder beside him.

"Even demonic cultivators have appeared?"

"Could the news have leaked?"

"Alas! It is a matter of timing and fate; let us hope it was merely a chance encounter."

"Let us gather the bones and hurry back to discuss our countermeasures."

After speaking, the two cleared the traces from the scene and departed with haste.

On the other side.

Qin Ming flew at maximum speed, secretly returning to the Qingyang Market.

"I did not expect the Spirit Feather Sect's ambitions to be so great."

Judging by current circumstances.

Regardless of whether the Spirit Feather Sect's plan to deceive the heavens succeeds or fails, a bloody storm is inevitable.

By then, innocent bystanders will surely be implicated.

Qin Ming realized that his foresight and planning had been extremely correct.

Returning to his courtyard.

Qin Ming took out those dozen or so blood beads and threw them toward the Withered Blood Poison Vine in the corner of the yard.

In an instant.

Countless black vines, like sharks smelling blood, went mad, greedily absorbing the essence and spirit within the blood beads.

On the surface of the black vines, bizarre patterns bulged up, resembling blood vessels.

They began to emit a bewitching crimson glow.

Having absorbed so many blood beads at once, the Withered Blood Poison Vine began to mutate once again.

First, the black vines grew thicker and began to twist and dance; the original fine patterns on their surfaces suddenly opened up like hollow eyes.

As if intending to devour souls.

Exuding an inexplicable eeriness.

The Withered Blood Poison Vine grew until it was more than double its original size before finally stopping.

Scattered across the vines, over a dozen eyeball-shaped flower buds had formed.

At the same time.

Two golden entries appeared in Qin Ming's vision: 【Name】: Withered Blood Poison Vine 【Entry】 Ancient Wood Longevity Art (Maturity 1%)

【Name】: Withered Blood Poison Vine 【Entry】 Magic Power Crystal x5 (Maturity 1%)

【Ancient Wood Longevity Art】: Refine a natal spiritual plant, then through continuous cultivation of this natal spiritual plant, draw upon its essence of vegetation and the power of ancient wood cycling through the years to temper out a wood-attributed acquired spiritual body belonging to the cultivator themselves; this method is suitable for cultivators practicing wood-attributed techniques.

Cultivating an acquired spiritual body requires using a spiritual plant of at least third-grade spiritual wood or higher as the natal spiritual plant for refinement.

Of course, the higher-grade the spiritual plant, the better, and the greater its potential for future growth.

If it is a rare heaven-and-earth spiritual root, the resulting spiritual body will be even stronger.

Qin Ming stared at this entry, his breathing becoming rapid.

"Cultivating a natal spiritual plant to refine a spiritual body!"

"There is hope for the Immortal Path!"

With his trash aptitude of four pseudo-spiritual roots, if paired with a wood-attributed spiritual body, it would be comparable to a high-grade spiritual root; he finally saw hope!

It was simply tailor-made for him!

"I happen to possess a wood-attributed spiritual root."

"Furthermore, the 'Long Spring Art' I cultivate is also a wood-attributed technique."

Originally, Qin Ming had been worrying about breaking through to Foundation Establishment.

After all, with his pseudo-spiritual root aptitude, even if he consumed Foundation Establishment Pills and Foundation Establishment spiritual items.

The probability of failure in breaking through remained very high.

But once he successfully cultivated the acquired wood-attributed spiritual body, things would be different; it would mean that from then on, he could continuously improve his own cultivation aptitude.

The further one cultivates, the more important cultivation aptitude becomes for breaking through major realms; the chasm between them cannot be bridged by pills alone.

Now that he held this entry in hand, successfully cultivating this special spiritual body was not impossible.

However, cultivating this 'Ancient Wood Longevity Art' also came with rather stringent conditions.

Because once one uses a spiritual wood of third-grade or higher to refine a natal spiritual plant, it similarly means that one needs at least a third-grade spiritual vein location to plant and cultivate this spiritual plant.

The higher the grade of the spiritual plant, the more suitable an environment it requires to grow.

Surely I cannot go and snatch that third-grade spiritual vein from the several major sects? That seems somewhat unrealistic.

Besides this, cultivating the spiritual body technique requires accumulating the power of years over a long period.

The longer the time, the stronger the spiritual body; refining it often takes a century before any effect is seen.

"Sigh! The final effect achievable is formidable, but the speed at which results appear is indeed a bit slow."

If I bitterly cultivate for a hundred years, I might be nearly in my grave before I even finish refining the spiritual body.

Qin Ming then shifted his gaze back to the Withered Blood Poison Vine.

"This black vine is so miraculous; could it count as a seedling of a heaven-and-earth spiritual root?"

"Furthermore, as long as there are enough blood beads for it to devour, the Black Vine seemingly has low requirements for the spiritual vein's growth environment."

"Moreover, it grows quite fast."

Qin Ming suddenly understood this point, and his heart stirred with excitement.

Although he was unclear about the grade of this Withered Blood Poison Vine, all signs indicated that the grade of its final mature form should not be low.

Thinking of this,

Qin Ming hesitated no longer.

With a movement of his will, he used the 【Accelerate Maturity】 entry and began to accelerate the maturity of this black vine.

Three days later.

The four 【Accelerate Maturity】 entries within Qin Ming's sea of consciousness were successively exhausted.

He used his fastest speed to accelerate the maturity of over a dozen eyeball-shaped flower buds.

In the end, he obtained over a dozen black fruits, inside of which were still the spiritual seeds used to cast the Thorn Art.

Besides this,

a purple 【Ancient Tree Yu Changqing Art】 entry and a green 【Magic Power Crystal】 x5 entry quietly appeared within Qin Ming's sea of consciousness.

Immediately, he sat down cross-legged.

His will touched upon the leaf of the 【Ancient Tree Yu Changqing Art】 entry.

In an instant,

from the depths of fate, an obscure and profound art of longevity appeared in his mind, with scrolls of scriptures standing out clearly before his eyes.

Another day and night passed.

Qin Ming opened his eyes.

He formed a complex hand seal with his fingers, and a speck of emerald light flew forth from between his eyebrows.

As Qin Ming pointed toward the Withered Blood Poison Vine, the tiny speck of light, no larger than a mung bean, smoothly merged into the black vine spiritual plant.

Glug! Glug! The heartbeat sound from when the black vine was first revived, like the beating of a drum, rang out once again! In a trance,

the surface of the black vine flickered with blood-colored runes, which finally interwove together.

"Innate Spiritual Plant! It's done!"

Qin Ming could clearly feel that this black vine spiritual plant had already become one with him, with wisps of the essence qi of vegetation continuously injecting themselves into his body.

In the depths of fate, a certain mysterious connection was strengthened.

For a moment, a massive amount of realization suddenly surged into Qin Ming's heart.

He seemed to transform into an ancient tree, experiencing the cycle of four seasons and the flow of time, crossing the river of time; Qin Ming hesitated for a while, then used five 【Space-Time Leaf】 entries, applying them to the black vine.

To be honest, Qin Ming himself had no certainty; if the black vine were directly accelerated to five hundred years of growth,

would it break free from his control?

The black vine grew wildly once again, as if experiencing countless cycles of the four seasons; an unprecedented power of space and time descended upon this spiritual plant.

However,

right before Qin Ming's astonished gaze,

the entire black vine seemed to turn into a pool of ink, seeping into the soil.

(End of Chapter)