Chapter 319: Picking Flowers

After the magic power in the seven Qi seas recovered, Li Youyi looked inside his Divine Palace again.

The twelve-character Dao seed floated in mid-air, building a soul bridge, connecting with the magic power and soul within his body.

The magic power surging from this tenth spring was liquid, like a pool of water, illuminated by the twelve-character Dao seed above into five colors and seven hues, very much like glazed solution, full of divine essence.

Since cultivating the tenth spring, Li Youyi had been reluctant to use the liquid magic power, always accumulating it.

Now that he had reached the Dao Seed Realm, liquid magic power surged every moment. Compared to the Five Seas Realm, the spring eye was several times larger.

Li Youyi, in a state of experimentation, mobilized the liquid magic power, transporting it to the String Meridians and Trace Meridians. In his mind, one of the twelve divine shadows appeared, carefully experiencing the charm he had felt while fighting it earlier.

He pinched his fingers into a seal, with layers of finger shadows.

"Whoosh!"

Cihang Aperture Opening was performed.

The air around where his fingertip pointed vibrated violently, forming a sonic boom cloud the size of a washbasin.

The speed of his finger exceeded the speed of sound.

A beam of finger force flew out from the center of the sonic boom cloud, tearing the surface of the Tang Gu Sea, with a splashing sound, forming a long waterway.

Waves rolled on both sides of the waterway, with great momentum.

"Such strong power! The finger force is condensed, and the penetrating power is terrifying, not losing to the first layer of Great Arts."

Li Youyi did not know how to practice the twelve scattered hands like practicing Great Arts; there was no division of first, second, or third layers, nor was there a complete and specific cultivation system.

"Perhaps it has to do with the scriptures I understood."

"Currently, I have just planted the Dao, and using the twelve scattered hands as a bridge, I only obtained one scripture seed for each. The more scriptures I understand, the deeper I have practiced the Twelve Scattered Hands of the Chan Gate, and the power will definitely be greater."

In Li Youyi's view, the twelve shadows presented by activating the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish were not real people, but incarnations of twelve types of Dao.

He could not understand what "Dao" was, so he subconsciously anthropomorphized "Dao."

No one could explain it to him; everything could only be guessed.

Li Youyi then tried again, mobilizing the magic power in the seven Qi seas to perform the Cihang Aperture Opening move.

The power was indeed greatly reduced.

It was only equivalent to a small-success first-layer Great Art.

This was already quite remarkable!

Li Youyi had just planted the Dao and was already proficient in twelve types of Great Arts. In this way, when fighting, he did not have to rely entirely on magic artifacts and could have more changes to adapt to different combat environments.

One must know, Wang Shu spent three years practicing one Great Art and was directly conferred as a Son of God, leaping over the dragon gate.

If Wang Shu were still alive and learned that Li Youyi had mastered thirteen Great Arts, he would likely be angered to death on the spot.

"It is still better not to use liquid magic power, otherwise it will be too shocking to the world. Who knows, I might be captured by a Longevity Realm giant and forced to teach the cultivation method of the Twelve Scattered Hands."

"In the eyes of the outside world, I am a Wind Mansion Dao planter."

Li Youyi performed the Twelve Scattered Hands one by one on the sea surface and clearly perceived that compared to before, he had new understanding and insights.

While performing the moves, he could perceive the existence of Dao surrounding him.

Invisible and untouchable.

He could only understand it bit by bit.

"Whoosh!"

He performed the Clear Void Cicada-Chasing Step, and the wisp of green cloud mist beneath his feet never dissipated.

He shuttled between the Xihe flowers, holding a magic artifact jade bottle, collecting flower dew.

The main material for refining the Star Day Pill was Extreme Day Light Dew.

Hidden Two said that it was a treasure born in the land of extreme day, like liquid light.

Li Youyi felt that the Tang Gu Sea could also be considered a land of extreme day. The dew of the Xihe flowers was indeed not as good as the Extreme Day Light Dew, but he had studied it and found that it contained strong, scorching spiritual light substances, having one or two percent of the efficacy of Extreme Day Light Dew.

After some quenching, it was fully usable for refining pills.

The key was that Extreme Day Light Dew was extremely expensive, with one drop costing thirty or forty thousand Spring-Gushing Coins. And Xihe flower dew could be collected in large quantities every day.

Not long after, Li Youyi returned to the underground cave.

He sat at the bottom of the pitch-black cave, a strong sense of hunger coming from his belly, and took out the pre-prepared dried meat, putting it into his mouth to chew.

"This sense of hunger only comes every time I come out of the Time Cocoon. Could it be that planting the Dao in the Divine Palace took ten days?"

Li Youyi recalled that the battle with the twelve divine shadows on the ocean of scriptures had indeed taken a lot of time. The longest one took three hundred and twenty-seven fights to obtain the Dao seed scripture.

In the Spirit Realm, his thought power had recovered more than half.

He released his spiritual light again, activating the two fish eyes.

One was the Buddha Relic, and one was the Dao Ancestor's brow bone.

"Whoosh!"

Light ascended, the Taiji millstone appeared, and space distorted.

Li Youyi sensed carefully and, when space distorted, discovered time fluctuations.

The ocean of Daoist texts and Buddhist scriptures appeared beneath his feet again, undulating like seawater and dazzling like a sea of stars.

He did not release his combat intent, so the twelve divine shadows did not appear.

Li Youyi walked on the ocean of scriptures, his mind clear, observing and sensing carefully, and a smile suddenly appeared on his face: "I understand! The Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish is the supreme scripture of the Chan Gate, containing the ocean of scriptures within."

"The twelve divine shadows derived from the Twelve Scattered Hands are the twelve keys used to comprehend this scripture. Or rather, they are twelve teachers transmitting the Dharma."

"Cultivating the same scripture, yet those twelve people cultivated different results."

"I am now equivalent to gathering the strengths of twelve families to find the thirteenth result. Right, Mute?"

No one responded to him.

Li Youyi put away his smug smile and retreated from the ocean of scriptures.

A long time had passed, and he did not know what the situation was outside; he was somewhat worried and could only wait until he returned to the South Clear Palace to go into seclusion and practice.

"I must find someone I can absolutely trust to help me see what state I am in after activating both fish eyes simultaneously. Has space changed? Has time changed?"

Li Youyi walked out of the spider cave.

Outside it was pitch black and cold, with only faint light coming from the direction of the Nether Flower Black Swamp.

In the air, the stench of decay that had accumulated for ten thousand years drifted, containing miasma poison.

With his current cultivation base of the Dao Seed Realm, he had long since transcended the mortal flesh. This level of poison gas, when inhaled into the body, could be quickly refined by his magic power.

Only poison like the "Earth Spirit Gray Mist" of Coffin Mountain still posed a certain threat to him.

Putting on his mask, Li Youyi had magic power mist overflow from beneath his feet, and he walked into the boundless, dim swamp, his figure submerged in the miasma.

Two Phoenix flew out and stood on his shoulder, its six claws upright, wings folded to wrap its body. Without looking at its head, it did not look like a moth or butterfly, but rather like a colorful bird.

Over the past nine months, Two Phoenix had grown a bit, reaching the second heaven of the Dao Seed Realm.

More than half of Li Youyi's wealth and resources were eaten by the seven of them.

Their growth rate was getting slower and slower. An ordinary thousand-year essence medicine, thrown to them, would cause not even a ripple after they ate it.

Li Youyi said to Two Phoenix: "We came to the Nether Flower Black Swamp to do only two things. First, find the Spirit Platform Flame Star Stone. Second, the Meditation Flower."

"The more we find, the more merit points we can exchange, and then buy more thousand-year essence medicines. Also, look for the auras of Old Qi and Tuoba to see how their harvest is."

"Whoosh!"

Two Phoenix spread its wings and flew into the high sky, its eyes becoming bright, its sense of smell fully released.

Before long, it discovered something, dived down, and flew rapidly in a certain direction.

"Is its perception so keen?"

Li Youyi performed his movement technique and followed closely.

After running for a dozen miles, a fist-sized white strange flower appeared before his eyes. It grew in the rotten mud exposed above the water, with no leaves, only a foot-long stem.

"The white Meditation Flower is the lowest grade and can be exchanged for one thousand merit points. After taking it, it can allow a thought master to enter a deep state of meditation."

Li Youyi hurriedly took out a cold jade box and walked closer.

From the distance on the right, a dense, harsh sound came.

A group of Bone-Eroding Miasma Mosquitoes flew over, their numbers countless, like a black cloud.

The Meditation Flower is like an epiphyllum, growing extremely fast; after blooming, its fragrance will attract various fierce creatures nearby. Therefore, whether one can pick it depends entirely on luck, and the danger is extremely high.

A group of Bone-Eroding Miasma Mosquitoes of this scale would force an ordinary Dao Seed Realm martial cultivator to flee in panic upon encountering them.

Li Youyi ignored them, used magic power to wrap the white Meditation Flower, picked it, and quickly put it into the cold jade box.

On the other side, Two Phoenix had already killed and repelled the group of Bone-Eroding Miasma Mosquitoes.

"Bone-Eroding Miasma Mosquitoes are general-level fierce insects, each comparable to a martial arts expert of the first or second level of the Five Seas Realm. Why didn't you subdue them?" Li Youyi communicated with Two Phoenix using thought power.

Two Phoenix's answer left Li Youyi dumbfounded.

It said that the seven of them were usually not full, so if they subdued the Bone-Eroding Miasma Mosquito group, how would they feed them?

Li Youyi rolled his eyes; as long as he provided food for the seven of them, they could keep eating, the kind of eating that could stuff themselves to death.

How could they ever be full?

Li Youyi released his thought power to probe the bottom of the rotten mud.

The Spirit Platform Flame Star Stone was found in the rotten mud deep beneath the Meditation Flower. But not every Meditation Flower had one beneath it; it all depended on luck.

Li Youyi was unlucky and found nothing.

……

One day later.

Li Youyi put the fifteenth Meditation Flower into the box.

Among them, twelve were white Meditation Flowers, and three were blue.

Blue Meditation Flowers can be exchanged for ten thousand merit points and are medicines that help great thought masters meditate deeply.

The most precious is the purple Meditation Flower, which can be exchanged for one hundred thousand merit points and can help spirit thought masters meditate deeply.

Every deep meditation can greatly increase thought power.

"Eh!"

Li Youyi's eyes lit up; his thought power nerve discovered strange fluctuations in the rotten mud beneath this Meditation Flower.

A chain of spiritual light flew out from the center of his brow and pierced deep into the bottom of the rotten mud.

"Whoosh!"

A fragment of the Spirit Platform Flame Star Stone the size of a grain of rice was rolled out and fell into Li Youyi's hand. Two Phoenix flew over, landed on his shoulder, and stared with wide eyes.

"Finally found one; it seems it's not that difficult." Li Youyi carefully put it away.

He had to collect more treasures like the Spirit Platform Flame Star Stone, otherwise, after leaving the underground immortal mansion, where would he go to find them?

Without this item, the improvement of his thought power realm would definitely be extremely slow.

Two Phoenix made "chirp chirp" sounds in its mouth.

"Good, good, you have great merit..."

Li Youyi narrowed his eyes and saw five figures, in a fan shape, surrounding him, holding magic artifacts and wearing the Rice Sect robes of core disciples.

Looking at their posture, it was clear they had discovered Li Youyi collecting the Spirit Platform Flame Star Stone just now and were hunting him as a fat sheep.

The atmosphere instantly became heavy.

Coming closer, one of the pure immortal body core disciples saw the Two Phoenix on Li Youyi's shoulder, his expression changed instantly, and he immediately transmitted his voice to the other four using magic power.

The five stopped in their tracks, looked at each other, and were at a loss for what to do.

"What are you doing?"

Li Youyi wore a mask, his hands behind his back, his tone faint, his bearing extraordinary.

Looking at his upright posture and feeling the invisible intent surging toward them, the five trembled all over, immediately put away their magic artifacts, bowed and saluted him, not even daring to have the thought of fleeing.

One of the seventh-sea core disciples said nervously with a trembling voice: "Greetings to the Fourth Son of God, Your Highness, we... we were just passing by..."

Li Youyi walked over leisurely, several yards with each step: "Oh, you recognize me!"

"We don't recognize Your Highness, but we recognize Your Highness's strange insect. When Your Highness killed Wang Shu, I was fortunate enough to watch the battle from afar. Your Highness's bearing is peerless; we mortals can only look up from afar," said the seventh-sea core disciple.

Li Youyi said: "Saying these things is useless! You were clearly trying to hunt me just now to seize treasures, each and every one of you, what great courage. If I were only at the Five Seas Realm cultivation base, wouldn't I be dead in your hands right now?"

One of the fifth-sea core disciples was so scared that his legs went soft, and he knelt in the swamp: "Your Highness, spare our lives, we were really just passing by, preparing to return. It was only because we discovered the light of the Spirit Platform Flame Star Stone that we came over to take a look; how would we dare to harm our fellow sect members?"

The one before them was the one who had killed the former Fourth Son of God with the same excuse.

How could they not be afraid?

In the face of life and death, there is great fear.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 320 =====