Chapter 399: Celestial Material

Hmm?

Yan Buji fell into the underground and, looking at the large pit he had created, a spring suddenly surged from its bottom.

"Spiritual spring? No, this isn't a spiritual spring."

Although this spring contains relatively abundant spiritual energy, it doesn't resemble a spiritual spring, meaning something below must have an excess of spiritual energy, causing the water to become heavily infused.

Thinking that way, Yan Buji watched the Little Chicken on the side nearly finish half a Frost Centipede, marveling at how big an appetite birds have.

He summoned his mana and used the Disintegration Technique to break apart the soil and stone before him, then proceeded downstream following the spring's flow.

Soon, Yan Buji discovered an underground gush, with a blooming orchid growing beside the spring.

Yan Buji was startled.

"Nine-leaf Ghost Orchid? Or a blooming... Six-Transform Immortal Material?!"

Sss!

Hoo!!!

Yan Buji calmed himself; this was his first time seeing a Celestial Material. Though it is widely regarded as the easiest Celestial Material to cultivate, Yan Buji already has a symbiotic Seven-leaf Ghost Orchid and is unsure whether he can use the power of this Nine-leaf Ghost Orchid to accelerate his own Seven-leaf Ghost Orchid's rapid growth.

Although it borders on wasteful, the spiritual energy contained in this Nine-leaf Ghost Orchid is enough for him to complete a full power dissipation and re‑cultivation.

In truth, even though the Nine-leaf Ghost Orchid is a Celestial Material, it is not a rare treasure of heaven and earth; its spiritual energy is vast, enough for Foundation Establishment Cultivators to break through to the Nascent Soul stage or even the Golden Core stage, but for Yan Buji, who practices the Nine-Transform Technique, his mana strength is such that a single Celestial Material cannot sustain him up to the Nascent Soul stage.

He estimates it will run out by the later part of the Foundation Establishment Stage, because any method that relies on absorbing spiritual energy from Spiritual Materials or Detox Pills to accelerate cultivation can never achieve perfect absorption, except for a few exceptionally talented cultivators.

But Yan Buji is clearly not such a talent; rapid cultivation via Detox Pills and Spiritual Materials always incurs loss.

Nevertheless, after taking it, he must reconsider, as wasting spiritual energy by simply absorbing and refining it is rather regrettable.

Yan Buji pondered and chose the safest method.

First, he used mana to stabilize the roots of the Nine-leaf Ghost Orchid, then slowly extracted it together with some surrounding soil.

The process was somewhat slow, but Yan Buji enjoyed it.

Finding a Six-Transform Immortal Material at once shows that this forest sea secret realm has indeed seen little development; there might be even more Celestial Materials!

Yan Buji does not seek to find more Celestial Materials, but as long as he can obtain enough Spiritual Material for his own pill‑refining breakthroughs, he is satisfied.

As for Celestial Materials, they are encountered by chance, not sought; had he not created this pit, he might never have discovered this Celestial Material.

After all, above lies a swamp, its stagnant dead air masking spiritual energy fluctuations; coupled with the battles of Poison Insects, the spread of blood and toxic fumes makes detection even harder.

Soon after.

Yan Buji looked at the contentedly lying Little Chicken on the ground, grabbed it, and placed it on his shoulder.

"I'll hurry tomorrow to find someone to forge a spiritual beast bag."

Yan Buji thought, why not try it himself?

A spiritual beast bag is similar to a Storage Accumulation Device, but it is typically one of the special gear for beast‑taming cultivators; for most cultivators, caring for themselves is already hard enough—who has the leisure to seek a spiritual beast companion?

Aside from that, you must feed them and tend to their moods. If merely enslaved, the strength a spiritual beast can display depends entirely on how well the cultivator understands it.

Moreover, if you're just a servant, why not directly forge a puppet? That's more convenient and doesn't require competing with demon beasts in spiritual perception strength.

Thus, the cultivation world generally regards the optimal use of spiritual beasts as treating them as companions, growing and advancing together.

Yan Buji didn't mind; he didn't understand beast‑taming techniques, and since the Little Chicken was willing to be close to him, he'd let it grow and see.

If it's truly useless, just find a spot and discard it.

But having a chicken crawling on his shoulder looks unsightly and doesn't suit his status as a Dragon People king, and forging a spiritual beast bag requires a cultivator skilled in making Accumulation Devices to understand the Way of Space; Yan Buji happens to know it, so he can give it a try.

But exploring the secret realm is the priority now.

"That little thing is sleeping soundly," Yan Buji said, watching the Little Chicken on his shoulder drift off, noting that its white feathers were increasing, indicating it might be developing toward a spiritual beast.

It's also a good thing; if someone notices the Little Chicken's abnormality, they might try to snatch it—keeping it hidden forever isn't feasible, so perhaps just discarding it is better.

All in all, the Little Chicken's appearance gave Yan Buji many pleasant surprises; if similar surprises arise in the future, he wouldn't mind keeping a spiritual pet nearby.

Soon.

Yan Buji gathered many Spiritual Materials within the forest sea; as dusk fell, he found a spot, activated the Disintegration Technique, and erected a temporary shelter.

"This forest sea is enormous."

Yan Buji recalled the events: demon beasts littered the forest, not to mention the terrifying abundance of Poison Insects.

Because of that, the Little Chicken's presence helps him clear many troubles; after all, Yan Buji can't constantly watch what he steps on while exploring.

The dangers among the trees are even more worth noting; for example, before arriving, Yan Buji encountered a carnivorous tree that extended vines to snatch prey, which was quite shocking.

He had never seen such a strange creature; clearly a plant, yet it devours meat for nourishment and possesses considerable strength, ranking as a demon king realm among demon creatures, making it hard to deal with.

And that entire forest was filled with carnivorous trees!

... but getting out would be difficult.

Fortunately, those carnivorous trees seem only to use the skeletal remains of weak beasts to lure other demon beasts as prey; Yan Buji could instantly see that the bones were controlled by the trees' vines, perhaps a natural talent of the trees.

In short, this forest sea is extremely dangerous, not to mention those mimicking, invisible, tiny yet lethally poisonous things that even Golden Core cultivators avoid; although Spiritual Materials are everywhere, caution is still required.

"In that case, I'll need to stock more Detox Pills."

Yan Buji thought for a moment, ignited earth elemental fire in his palm, and began to smelt Spiritual Materials for pill‑refining.

Using his method of external refining that merges Accumulation Devices, he could forgo the Alchemical Furnace, which actually suited Yan Buji better.

Thus, not only could he deeply comprehend the precise heat control required for each Spiritual Material's refinement, but also enhance the fine manipulation of his mana—one reason Yan Buji has always excelled at technique usage.

It's not just combat awareness; it also manifests in daily cultivation—deliberately tackling high‑difficulty tasks is how one continuously grows stronger.