Chapter 131: Ten Years of Settling, Moving at the Peak of Stillness

Cangmang Mountain.

Inside Longying Cave, it is magnificent and resplendent.

Everywhere are pavilions and towers, long corridors and winding railings, with water-spouting beast heads, stretching on and on.

Clouds rise among the elegant bamboo, dotted with exotic flowers and rare herbs. Flying vines enter the cinnabar pavilions, and frost-covered leaves fall gracefully. All sorts of rockeries are rugged and spirited, clear and natural.

Mists and clouds are ethereal, and spiritual energy rises, interacting with the void to form various pearls, jades, precious lotuses, and cloud mushrooms, scattered everywhere.

A stone pavilion stands by the water.

Inside the pavilion are stone platforms and jade tables, upon which sits a bronze tripod furnace with three feet of curling smoke, and beside it, plates are adorned with various melons and fruits.

On one side of the table stands a human-height, thin-necked flower vase, with sparse flower branches inserted, blooming like brocade.

Outside the pavilion, willow branches cast reflections in the waves, their threads entering the water, clear and newly dyed, full of vibrant green.

Fang Longye half-leans in the embrace of two Longnu, accepting spiritual fruits fed by their fair hands while watching the music of song, dance, and strings amidst the rippling water.

A scene of unbridled luxury and indulgence.

A short while later.

A Longnu in pearl-adorned clothing comes trailing her skirt, approaches, and bows gracefully.

"Master~" She casts a look of envy and jealousy, first sweeping a glance at the two Longnu on the Cloud Couch with their disheveled hair and messy clothes, then turns to Fang Longye, saying in a soft voice, "Manager Luming requests an audience!"

"Understood, have him wait in the study of the palace chamber first," Fang Longye says lazily.

"Yes."

The young girl lowers her head to receive the order, then immediately withdraws.

Fang Longye beckons, and the two Longnu standing by his side hurriedly step forward to tidy his clothes.

Afterward, he says indifferently, "You may all disperse!"

He then steps out of the pavilion, leaving behind the luxurious scene, and heads toward the palace dedicated to official business.

Inside a study within a palace building.

Luming wears a silver crown, with a pair of three-to-four-foot deer antlers growing from his forehead, dazzling and eye-catching.

He stands before the window, head held high and chest out, his posture elegant, bright, and lofty.

Through the jade window, one can see crystalline skylight suffusing under the eaves, lingering before the jade door, gold and white intersecting, colorful and iridescent.

Furthermore, one can see beneath the window, pines and cypresses standing dense, pine moss and flowers blooming, lush and deep.

Suddenly, a voice comes: "What is it? Is there a problem with the market?"

He hurriedly turns around and bows respectfully: "Great King!"

Fang Longye sits behind the table in the study, pours himself a cup of tea, and says calmly and lightly: "No need for formalities, sit!"

Luming sits cautiously on a wooden stool, sitting upright, and reports: "Everything in the market is fine, I just wanted to ask the Great King, since the Yaofang has been open for ten years now, should we hold a celebration event?"

Fang Longye waves his hand and says: "No need for such a grand display. It has only been ten years; a promotional discount will suffice when the time comes~"

"Is there anything else?"

"Well, the Great King's exclusive divine pills have been sold out once again. This subordinate suggests limiting sales in the future."

Fang Longye nods and says: "The reputation has been established over these ten years, so it should be as you say."

"After all, this kind of divine pill, based on its efficacy, was never meant to be a common commodity."

"Apart from that, there is nothing else." Seeing his Great King nod in agreement, Luming says, "Does the Great King have any other orders for this subordinate?"

Fang Longye waves his hand and says: "Nothing, you may withdraw!"

Luming rises and bows, then quietly withdraws.

Fang Longye watches Luming's disappearing figure and sighs: "In the blink of an eye, ten years have passed."

Truly, time does not wait, and the seasons flow like a stream! In his memory, the opening of the market seems like it was only yesterday, vivid and clear.

Ten years ago, with the successful holding of the opening Dharma ceremony and the fermentation of his reputation, the business of Wanling Market immediately flourished. It was worth the support and help of all the guests and friends.

Subsequent development, with two excellent alchemists, Junyuan and Ao Jiao, and various grades of divine pills refined by the Refining Immortal Pot, has been steadily progressing.

Over these years, through the Equivalent Balance and constant trading, he has accumulated quite a bit of Merit and Luck, those rewards from heaven and earth.

Ten years of time, much has been settled.

Although his cultivation realm has not progressed much, his strength has indeed improved.

To say nothing else, Fang Longye moves his mind, and a foot-long dragon shadow emerges from the halo behind him, circling and flying around the study.

Baring fangs and brandishing claws, dragon roars echo, with hints of sharp baleful aura.

The dragon shadow maneuvers for a while, then falls into Fang Longye's hand, revealing itself to be a small spear the length of a writing brush.

Fang Longye strokes the brush-sized 'Panlong Spear' in his hand and smiles slightly.

Now, this divine spear has made up for its lack of Yin and Yang over these ten years, and can be considered to fully match his own cultivation path.

It has achieved the status of a 'Ruyi Divine Weapon', and even without the blessing of Spirit Treasure Restrictions, it can still perform Size Manipulation and Light and Heavy Follows Heart.

As large as to fill the sky and cover the earth, as small as a speck of dust, it can be as light as a feather or as heavy as Mount Tai.

Judging solely by the killing power of this divine weapon, it is yet another Superior Spiritual Treasure.

And then there is that Acquired Seeking Wood sapling.

Thinking of this, Fang Longye leaps, exits Longying Cave, stands atop Motian Cliff, and looks toward the vast ocean below.

He sees that in the middle of the ocean, there is a massive green island, exceptionally eye-catching.

Not only because it stretches for a thousand miles, lush and verdant, but also because it rises eight thousand feet out of the water, which is spectacular.

Looking closer, he realizes it is a towering giant tree.

Its developed roots are plunged into the water, continuously absorbing water vapor, and thousands of aerial roots grow from it, a single tree becoming a forest.

Only then is there the scene that stretches for a thousand miles.

Its branches were lush and leaves dense, with a massive canopy spread out like a green island emerging from the vast ocean.

It was precisely that Xun Wood seedling from before, a piece of Post-Heaven Spiritual Root, a third-generation Xun Wood.

Do not be deceived by its already significant height; even after the various ways he had nurtured and refined it over these ten years, it still remained in its seedling stage.

This is because a fully grown Xun Wood is a full thousand miles in height.

As the saying goes, "Vast is the Xun Wood, growing by the river; its branches tower a thousand miles, reaching up to the clouds and sky; its shade hangs over the four poles, covering the Abyss of Yu below."

One could even say that a height of a thousand miles is merely its lower limit.

Fang Longye, who had already used a secret technique to treat it as his Companion Spiritual Root for cultivation, clearly knew the potential of this Xun Wood.

Judging from the inheritance obtained from this Xun Wood seedling, the Innate Seeking Wood might be weaker than the Innate Building Wood, but that was only because the Innate Building Wood had encountered a good master—the Azure Dragon—which was what widened the gap between the two.

If he could cause this Acquired Seeking Wood to Reverse Innate, he would certainly be able to obtain an Innate Divine Wood with the potential to prop up the heavens, just like the Building Wood.

Not to mention the boost to his own origin after the Spiritual Root undergoes Reverse Innate.

Even just for his own pursuit of opening up and evolving a Great Thousand World when he reaches the Taiyi Realm, it would be of great assistance.

"It's just that it's growing too slowly!" Fang Longye sighed; he had poured quite a lot of resources into this Spiritual Root over these ten years.

As for the results, there was naturally some effect; it had grown more than tenfold from a few miles high to its current height of about fifty miles, which could be considered vigorous growth.

But it was still too far from his goal.

The secret technique for Acquired nurturing and refining promotes more of a transformation in its essence, and it has no special effect on the maturation of the Spiritual Root.

Strictly speaking, what Fang Longye sought had a bit of the meaning of pulling on seedlings to help them grow, which naturally was not favored by such secret techniques.

"The method to allow this Xun Wood seedling to quickly enter its mature stage likely lies with that Second Generation Xun Wood!"

Fang Longye gazed at the Spiritual Root, his eyes flickering.

After ten years of quiet cultivation, it seems he will have to be active once again this time.

(End of this chapter)