Chapter 73: Incense Offerings

At the Five Finger Mountain, third peak, beside the Fire Spirit Spring Pool, Hua Changxi lay on a top-grade fire spirit stone bed, her brow relaxed, fully immersed in cultivation.

At this moment, as long as she absorbed spiritual energy, her cultivation would increase.

Cultivating for one day could raise her realm data by one hundred and twenty thousand.

Watching her cultivation slowly grow, she once again felt the thrill she had as a Qi Condensation or Qi Sea realm cultivator.

Originally she hadn’t planned to stay long at Five Finger Mountain, but she couldn’t bear to interrupt her cultivation. Thinking that over at the Medicine Valley, Old You and Guo Yu would cover for her, she stayed on at Five Finger Mountain with a clear conscience.

Time flew by, and more than two months passed.

On the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Hua Changxi ended her cultivation. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to continue, but she knew that as the New Year approached, her family would surely go to the Medicine Valley to see her, so she had to set off back to the Medicine Valley.

[Realm: Core Formation 10,010,000 / 10,000,000]

After more than two months of cultivation, her cultivation base had finally broken through ten million.

Looking at her inner core—dazzling, round, smooth, hanging above the Qi Sea like a blazing sun—Hua Changxi was very pleased.

“During this period of cultivation, there wasn’t a single pause or stagnation.”

Hua Changxi recalled the path she had taken since advancing to the Core Formation realm and discovered that whenever the inner core disappeared, no matter how much spiritual energy she absorbed, her cultivation could not increase.

Only when her consciousness entered the center of the Qi Sea and could see the inner core could it absorb spiritual energy and continuously grow.

Over these two months, her consciousness had stood directly on the inner core, making the cultivation speed even faster. During this time, her cultivation increased by exactly as much as she absorbed.

From this, she understood that the key to Core Formation cultivation lay in the inner core.

Only by ensuring that the inner core remained suspended at the center of the Qi Sea at all times could cultivation continuously increase.

But the same question remained: why did the inner core run away?

Why, after being angered by Old You and the other three last time, and after coming to Five Finger Mountain this time, did the inner core stand firmly at the center of the Qi Sea?

Hua Changxi felt there was definitely some trick here that she didn’t know about. Unfortunately, no one told her what that trick was.

Suddenly, Hua Changxi saw the mountain spirit bouncing over. Her eyes lit up: “Fatty, come here, I have a question to ask you.”

Seeing that Hua Changxi wasn’t cultivating, the mountain spirit’s face lit up with joy. He trotted over happily and asked, “Fairy, are you done cultivating? Can you play with me now?”

Hua Changxi’s expression stiffened: “Um, there are so many little spirits in the mountain to play with you—are you still bored?”

After contracting with Five Finger Mountain, she could sense a general idea of what was happening in the mountain.

For example, many plants in the mountain had become spirits, and there were even more animals that had become demonic beasts.

She could faintly feel that if her cultivation base increased, she could actually gain more thorough control over Five Finger Mountain. But for now, limited by her strength, many things were beyond her reach.

The mountain spirit pouted: “Don’t even mention those little spirits—they’re all very stupid, not fun at all.”

Hua Changxi smiled a little: “Then let me tell you something interesting.”

The mountain spirit immediately looked at her with anticipation.

Hua Changxi quickly explained to him about the inner core running away on its own: “Do you know what causes this?”

The mountain spirit’s eyes widened, shining with pure confusion: “Why does it run?”

Hua Changxi choked: “Don’t you ever face this problem when you cultivate?”

The mountain spirit shook his head: “No, I don’t.”

Hua Changxi: “Then how do you cultivate?”

The mountain spirit: “I just absorb spiritual energy, and then eat some spirit fruits and drink some spirit liquids. If someone makes it, I can also have some demon beast meat. Oh, and I can also cultivate using incense offerings.”

Hua Changxi became interested: “Incense offerings? Like the incense in temples?”

The mountain spirit had never actually practiced it, but his inheritance had mentioned incense offerings, and he understood it vaguely: “I think so.”

Hua Changxi: “Then would you like to build a few mountain spirit temples outside Five Finger Mountain?”

The mountain spirit: “Can I build them?”

Hua Changxi: “Of course. You can build as many as you want, as long as you can manage them all.”

The mountain spirit was eager to try: “Then I’ll build one first and see. Fairy, don’t worry, I won’t leave you out—I’ll build one for you too.”

[]

A line of black lines appeared on Hua Changxi's forehead: "I don't need people worshipping me."

What qualifications did she have to be worshipped?

Just because she got the Five Finger Mountain by luck?

It wasn't like she had made some great contribution—if she let people worship her, she'd be afraid of being struck by lightning.

The Mountain Spirit tilted its head: "But outsiders can only enter the Five Finger Mountain with your permission. In the past two months, I've seen many people wandering around outside."

"Fairy, all things follow a cycle of balance. You can't use up all the resources in the Five Finger Mountain alone. What do you plan to do with the rest?"

To be honest, Hua Changxi hadn't thought about what came next after suddenly acquiring the Five Finger Mountain: "I don't mind outsiders coming into the mountain to find some cultivation resources."

The Five Finger Mountain was huge. Aside from the five most prominent peaks, there were actually many smaller peaks crisscrossed with ravines, and thousands of valleys big and small.

The abundance of cultivation resources inside was several levels higher than that of the Forked Herb Valley.

The Mountain Spirit's face lit up with joy: "Then it's settled. I'll build a temple for you, and let outsiders come to the temple to request your permission. Once they get it, they can enter the mountain for training."

Hua Changxi said, "But I can't stay in the Five Finger Mountain forever." As she spoke, she smiled at the Mountain Spirit, "Can you help me keep an eye on it?"

The Mountain Spirit thought to itself that it barely had enough time to play, let alone help the fairy watch over a temple. But not wanting to refuse outright, it lowered its head, played with its little hands, and mumbled softly, "I still have to take care of my own Spirit Temple."

"You little sly one."

Hua Changxi snorted, then suddenly had an inspiration: "There's a Welcome Pine at the top of the third peak. Judging by its spiritual energy fluctuations, it has reached the Qi Sea realm. I'll hire it to keep watch for me. What do you think?"

The Mountain Spirit thought about what the Welcome Pine looked like: "Little Pine... it's okay, I guess. Aside from liking to prick people with its pine needles, it doesn't have any other problems."

Hua Changxi fell into thought—she had to carefully consider the follow-up matters for the Five Finger Mountain.

Things like the Shura Sect digging up and seizing the Ore Spirit must definitely not happen again.

Right then and there, Hua Changxi immediately took the Mountain Spirit on a cloud to the third peak and found the Welcome Pine: "Little Pine, I'm a friend of the Mountain Spirit. I'd like to ask you for a favor..."

"Little spirit is willing."

Before Hua Changxi could finish, the Welcome Pine answered eagerly in a baby voice.

Hua Changxi hadn't expected the Welcome Pine to be female. She was stunned for a moment, then quickly told it that she couldn't stay in the Five Finger Mountain for long and needed it to help her deal with those who wanted to enter.

"Fairy, little spirit is willing."

As it spoke, the Welcome Pine blazed with green light. Then a miniature pine tree flew out from its trunk and hovered in front of Hua Changxi.

This action confused Hua Changxi, and she looked at the Mountain Spirit for an explanation.

The Mountain Spirit looked back at her. After staring at each other for a while, it suddenly slapped its forehead—it had almost forgotten. The fairy was rather slow and didn't understand anything, so it needed to remind her: "Fairy, hurry up and form a contract with Little Pine."

Hua Changxi pretended to be calm and said, "Oh." She understood forming a contract—it meant bleeding.

She broke the tip of her finger, and a drop of essence blood flew out, sinking into the miniature pine tree. Immediately, a red glow enveloped the little tree. When the red light faded, Hua Changxi felt a certain connection with the miniature pine.

The little pine tree flew back into the Welcome Pine, and the Welcome Pine immediately spoke cheerfully: "Little Pine greets its master."

Then the entire pine tree pulled itself up from the ground, hovered in front of Hua Changxi, and spun around: "Master, master, what do I look like?"

This was exactly the same as when the Mountain Spirit had asked for a title.

Hua Changxi turned to the Mountain Spirit with a wooden expression, and the Mountain Spirit looked back innocently.

She knew there was no such thing as a free lunch.

She'd just thought the Welcome Pine was naive—it had voluntarily formed a contract with her. Turns out, the naive one was her, and it had been waiting for this all along.

She still had a lot to learn on the path of cultivation.

"Master, master, what do I look like?"

"You look like a person!"

As soon as Hua Changxi said this, the Welcome Pine blazed with green light. Its branches and trunk began to shrink, slowly condensing into a green ball half a meter high. The green ball twisted and finally transformed into a three- or four-year-old little girl.

The little girl wore a green dress, green skirt, and green shoes. On her head were two little buns. She was exquisitely carved, cute and chubby.

"Little Pine greets its master."

Hua Changxi looked at the Mountain Spirit, then at Little Pine—a real-life boy and girl dolls. She immediately smiled, "You two can play together. From now on, you won't have to worry about being bored."

Mountain Spirit circled around Little Pine once, nodded in satisfaction, and said, "I can take you to play."

Over the next few days, Hua Changxi wandered around the Five Finger Mountain, burying all the exposed mineral veins and collecting some needed spirit plants into the Shennong Cauldron. After making sure nothing was wrong, she prepared to go and give some instructions to Mountain Spirit and Little Pine before returning to Three Fork Valley.

However, after searching all around, she couldn't find Mountain Spirit and Little Pine.

Meanwhile, Mountain Spirit was full of energy, leading Little Pine out of the Five Finger Mountain.

"Mountain Spirit, where are we going?"

"Aren't we going to build a temple? We're going to find someone to build it, of course."

"Where do we find someone?"

"There are many households around the Five Finger Mountain. There must be craftsmen who can build houses and carve statues. I must make my statue the most beautiful, and yes, the fairy's too."

"But the master said she doesn't want to be worshipped."

"What to do then? Oh, I can have them carve a Fire Lotus for the fairy. Worshipping the Fire Lotus will be just like worshipping the fairy."

"Can we do that?"

"Yes, yes, just listen to me, you won't go wrong."

In Thumb Village, brother and sister An Ze and An Ran were just about to go to the fields for farm work when they saw two chubby, adorable toddlers suddenly appear at the village entrance.

The two toddlers came hopping and skipping toward them. The siblings immediately remembered how everyone had been talking about monsters in the Five Finger Mountain for the past two months. Seeing the two chubby toddlers approaching, they were so frightened that they fell to the ground.

"Mountain Spirit, look, those two are so clumsy—they actually fell over. After I learned to walk, I never fell once."

"They really are clumsy."

As they spoke, Mountain Spirit and Little Pine had already reached An Ze and An Ran. The two toddlers curiously examined the pair, whose faces were pale and bodies trembling all over.

Little Pine blinked her big, watery eyes and poked the trembling An Ran: "What's wrong with them?"

Mountain Spirit: "...Must be hungry. I heard that when people are hungry, their whole bodies shake."

Little Pine quickly pulled a handful of pine nuts from her pocket: "I have pine nuts. I'll give them pine nuts to eat."

Mountain Spirit stopped her: "Your pine nuts are too hard. Better give them cherries."

An Ze and An Ran watched as a handful of luscious, mouthwatering cherries appeared out of nowhere in Mountain Spirit's hand, and they trembled even more violently.

"Eat, eat them, and you won't be hungry anymore."

Seeing that they wouldn't eat, Mountain Spirit considerately fed them the cherries.

Once the cherries entered their mouths, the skin dissolved instantly. An Ze and An Ran swore these were the best cherries they had ever eaten.

But the next moment, both of them twisted in pain, veins bulging, bodies curling up, and they let out agonized roars from their mouths.

Mountain Spirit and Little Pine were startled.

"What's wrong with them?"

"I don't know."

"What do we do now?"

"I don't know."

Just then, someone from the village heard An Ze and An Ran's pained screams and came running over.

Seeing someone coming, Mountain Spirit grabbed Little Pine, summoned a cloud, and flew back into the Five Finger Mountain.

"An Ze, An Ran, what's wrong with you?"

"Quick, take them to see a doctor."

"Oh no, they seem to be dying."

Mountain Spirit and Little Pine hid behind the bushes, listening to the noisy shouts from the villagers, and looked at each other guiltily.

"It looks like we did something wrong."

"What do we do now?"

"Come on, let's go find the fairy."

As soon as Shan Ling and Xiao Song returned to the Third Peak and saw that Hua Changxi was really by the Fire Spirit Spring Pool, they immediately rushed over: "Fairy, Fairy, we met two fragile people. They ate two cherries, and now they're about to die."

Hua Changxi looked at Shan Ling with an incredulous expression, then glanced at the spiritual fruit in his hand, and felt a headache coming on: "Mortals cannot eat spiritual fruit. The spiritual energy inside the fruit is too rich; it will burst their bodies."

"Come on, take me to see them quickly—let's see if we can still save them."

Hua Changxi grabbed one child in each hand, mounted a cloud, and swiftly flew toward Thumb Village.

When they reached Thumb Village, Hua Changxi couldn't appear with the two children, so she had them hide behind the grass and trees and wait, while she walked into the village.

"An Ze, An Ran—such good children. What evil has struck them? Dying so young—what a pity, what a pity."

Because of An Ze and An Ran's accident, the people of Thumb Village were all buzzing with discussion.

Without even needing to ask where the victims' home was, Hua Changxi followed the crowd's chatter and headed toward the place with the most people.

"I'm an itinerant doctor. I can cure those two."

Hua Changxi walked into An Ze and An Ran's home and went straight to the eldest elder.

The village head of Thumb Village looked at Hua Changxi. Seeing that her features were upright and honest, and that the village doctor couldn't treat An Ze and An Ran, he nodded and let her into An Ze and An Ran's room.

As soon as Hua Changxi entered the room, she saw the two victims lying on the bed with pained expressions.

Seeing that they were only in pain but showed no signs of their bodies bursting, she couldn't help raising an eyebrow.

Hua Changxi told everyone else in the room to leave. After closing the door, she channeled her spiritual power, quickly forced the spiritual energy out of the two victims' bodies, and gave them healing pills to repair their bodies.

"All right, they should be fine now."

Having said that, Hua Changxi ignored the village head and the villagers' questions, quickly left Thumb Village, grabbed the two children at the village entrance, and returned to Five Finger Mountain.

"From now on, you are not allowed to casually feed people anything."

Shan Ling was still a bit shaken: "Fairy, are those two people okay?"

"They're fine."

Hua Changxi compared the situation of those two with Yang Chuan's. Yang Chuan had relied on the inner strength of three Grandmasters to keep his body from bursting, but those two showed no signs of bursting.

Could it be that both of them possess spiritual roots?

Having spiritual roots allows them to accommodate some spiritual energy, so there were no signs of bursting.

On the way back, Hua Changxi instructed Shan Ling and Xiao Song: "Tomorrow is the fifteenth of the twelfth lunar month. I have to go back. When I'm free, I'll come see you."

"Xiao Song, remember the rules for entering the mountain."

"Fatty, don't build any temples for me. Build a house. As long as an outsider follows the rules and enters the house to request entry into the mountain, Xiao Song can just give him a pine needle. No need to make any other fuss."

Shan Ling agreed readily: "Fairy, I understand."