Chapter 66: Cultivation
Chapter 66: Cultivation
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
"Chirp!"
A black dot appeared in the blue sky and accompanying it, a bird's caw.
"Hu!"
A large eagle with metallic wings flew down and landed in front of Fang Yuan.
"I'm back!"
Fang Yuan walked forward and patted the Iron-tailed Black Eagle.
"Keke!"
Black Eagle did not appear to reject him, which pleased Fang Yuan, because he knew that they had gotten even closer than before.
"Is everything alright in the secluded valley?"
He took a few steps forward and reached the entrance. A white flash appeared and stopped at his legs. It was the Flower Fox Ferret.
All this while, they had no spiritual tea, and the two beasts also didn't know how to start a fire. They had no choice but to return to their old ways of hunting and eating meat raw and therefore, both of them longed for his return.
For instance, the Flower Fox Ferret had already caught two plump chickens and was waiting for Fang Yuan to cook them.
"Greedy fellow!"
Fang Yuan scolded him jokingly and entered his home.
Even though there were two spiritual beasts looking after the secluded valley, Fang Yuan was still worried and went around to check on things.
He arrived at the farm and firstly went to look for the Questioning Heart Tea. He couldn't contain his excitement as he noticed small leaflets sprouting from the branches of the tree.
This trip made him realise the importance of having higher than average magic points.
He owed it all to his magic points that he could survive the ordeal this time.
"This tea should be spring tea, as the season is coming soon..."
Fang Yuan as extremely pleased, as he arrived at the farm and realised almost all the Vermilion Jade Rice had been harvested. However, the surroundings were not barren.
Shrubs of Emerald Grass were sprouting around the farm in an orderly manner, full of life.
"The Emerald Grass is growing rather well!"
As it was the lowest form among spiritual plants, it only two purposes was to cultivate a plot of land and also be harvested as food for spiritual beasts. Fang Yuan scanned the area and could not find any plant with evolved special traits, and was a little disappointed.
"Let's take a look at the spiritual bamboo!"
With shocking healing abilities, the bamboo fruit could even heal wounds caused by elemental forces, and this made Fang Yuan realise the importance of it.
As he approached the bridge, he was overwhelmed with joy.
Beside the rock, a green bamboo stood tall and strong. Its branches were emerald-green and had no signs of rotting.
"When a spiritual bamboo blooms, fruits will form. It would then rot and die after its fruits ripen, and re-sprout into a new spiritual bamboo... This is because it cannot receive enough nutrients to sustain itself... But now, what is happening?"
Fang Yuan looked at his [Botany] and knew that this was one of the special traits that the spiritual bamboo evolved to have.
Even though the spiritual bamboo was not completely evolved, it already had certain traits of it being improved, and for instance this time, it did not rot.
"Keke!"
The Flower Fox Ferret pointed to a little bulge on the ground, as it tried to hint to Fang Yuan that it was something new.
"Eh? Could it be..."
Fang Yuan gently dug out the layer of soil above, and a purple shoot appeared.
"Indeed... When spring comes the bamboo will flourish, what an unexpected gain!"
It was different from the spiritual bamboo. Its bamboo trunk had a layer of purple and hidden within it, there was spiritual energy which emitted a pleasant fragrance.
"I could locate other bamboos by following its roots, and for this root..."
Fang Yuan followed then bamboo root and discovered a few more bamboo shoots. He gingerly covered the shoots with soil and was smiling from ear to ear.
"Keke…...Chirp Chirp..."
The Flower Fox Ferret was pulling at his clothes, its paws pointing about. Fang Yuan was amused, "You want to try the bamboo shoot?"
"Chirp Chirp!"
After hearing this, the black eagle at the side seemed to understand what was happening and appeared as excited as the Flower Fox Ferret.
"You guys... This spiritual bamboo is a treasure, how can we kill the source of our food?"
Fang Yuan continued, "There's quite a lot of spiritual bamboo within the red-eyed white king bird's nest, as well as other spiritual things... When we have a chance, I shall bring you guys along to loot the entire place!"
With his improvements in martial arts and his two spiritual beasts, Fang Yuan started to have ideas on the Green Peak once again.
"Chirp Chirp!"
The Iron-tailed Black Eagle had bad blood with the red-eyed white birds all along and was excited at the thought of Fang Yuan's suggestion.
Even though they have decided on the plan, it still wasn't easy to deal with the red-eyed white king bird.
After all, the king bird was equivalent to a martial artist of the 4 Heavenly Gates and would be even more unpredictable when angered.
The Iron-tailed Black Eagle was extremely lucky to have escaped the previous ordeal, and there was no way it could have escaped again given the same situation.
Furthermore, Fang Yuan had just returned and he should be resting and recuperating.
...
"Phew... I am finally able to rest after this hectic period!"
The next day, Fang Yuan held a teacup, took a sip and was in deep relaxation.
"Spiritual bamboo shoots for breakfast, coupled with Meditative Questioning Heart Tea. Even the gods couldn't ask for this!"
After mulling over it for the whole night, he gave in to pressure from both the Flower Fox Ferret and the Iron-tailed Black Eagle, and the three of them enjoyed the bamboo shoots for breakfast.
Of course, it was the three of them sharing one shoot.
Fang Yuan was shocked to his wits.
Regardless the crunchy texture, or the milky fragrance, or the sweet sap, they were all on a different level.
Of course, he became extremely regretful after eating it.
His was afraid that he would not be able to resist eating the remaining shoots, and he felt that it was such a waste to eat the shoots and therefore lose the fruit that it would bear in the future.
"Both of you have gained quite a bit..."
Seeing the both of them drinking the spiritual tea, eating the spiritual bamboo and strengthening themselves, Fang Yuan admired them.
After all, the spiritual beasts were different from humans; there are no gates for them. As long as they eat and drink to their fill, and grow to a certain age, they would automatically attain a higher level.
Comparatively, he needed to train hard, and would, therefore, feel that he had no choice but to accept the fact.
As a cup of Questioning Heart Tea entered his stomach, he began to forget his worries.
After a long while, he slowly placed his teacup down, and heaved a long sigh.
"The higher my magic, the harder it would be to increase it... Furthermore, the effect of the Questioning Heart Tea slowly seems to be unable to satisfy me anymore..."
This was normal. As time passed, the spiritual plants which were able to increase one's magic would be treasured by many, and would be called 'Deity Plants'.
Of course, being such a unique plant, the Questioning Heart Tea would definitely be beneficial to spiritual knights as well.
Fang Yuan realised that even though his body was less receptive to the Questioning Heart Tea, he could drink more of it instead of focusing in finding a better quality deity plant to replace it, and that would solve the problem.
"The most important thing now is to quickly break through the 4 Heavenly Gates! Fusing the Yin and Yang, to break the Earth Gate and Heaven Gate, all these should be extremely beneficial to my magic!"
After sorting out his thoughts, he crossed his legs and sat on the ground, and took out his Yin Yang Jade.
After playing around with the Jade, Fang Yuan knew how to use the Jade in general. Only the inner force of [Martial Artists (8th Gate)] would be able to enter the Jade, to be split it into Yin and Yang, and this would expedite the progress of cultivation by a thousand times.
"After the process, I would have lost around half of my Yang..."
The black and red stripes within the Jade became milder, and Fang Yuan felt that it was a pity.
Yin and Yang are the forces of the heavens, and they coexist, never alone but always together.
Whenever some Yin was taken, the same amount of Yang would be lost, in order for the forces within the Yin Yang Jade to remain balanced at all times.
As he had not broken the Yin Gate, he could only see the true Yang from the afternoon sun being lost, as he had no way to harness it.
"Keke!"
As he was sighing, a white flash appeared, and a paw came in contact with the Yin Yang Jade. It was the Flower Fox Ferret.
"Eh? What are you doing?"
Fang Yuan was confused, as he observed. The Flower Fox Ferret was actually harnessing the extra Yang for his own cultivation.
"Can spiritual beast cultivate their skills on their own?"
He felt that his view of the world was once again obsolete. The memories he had from another world made him aware that many demons would train under the moon, but this was the Yang from the sun, and it was completely different.
"Hiss!"
After taking in a shred of Yang, the Flower Fox Ferret held its breath, shook, and laid flat on the ground, as though it was drunk.
Fang Yuan had seen the Flower Fox Ferret in this state a few times before, while he was drinking the Questioning Heart Tea.
"It seems that it had entered a deep level of cultivation..."
Fang Yuan nodded his head, kept the Yin Yang Jade, and had a headache.
Afterall, there was another being at home who would be after his own treasures. To be on guard against it would not be easy.
Of course, he wasn't stingy about the Yang lost. To Fang Yuan, he would rather strengthen his spiritual pet than let it go to waste!
The only thing he was afraid about was that the beast might not be aware of how to harness it properly, and might take in too much Yang. This would not only spoil the Yin Yang Jade, but also harm the beast, and that wouldn't be worth it...
"Phew... If I continue to fuse my Yin every day, I should be able to achieve a breakthrough to 9th Gate in a few days time..."
Seeing the experience bar slowly being filled, Fang Yuan nodded his head and started to train.
To a [Martial Artist (8th Gate)], taking in Yin was the hardest of all. The fusion was much easier, and after 2 hours, Fang Yuan completed his training for the day. He felt as though a clear river was flowing through him, and was immensely satisfied.
Since he was in such a good condition, he decided to take the opportunity and took out a piece of jade.
This jade was different from the Yin Yang Jade. It was squarish, and it was as though a golden coin was swirling within it. It was indeed the jade Fang Yuan obtained from the Blood Killer.
He was completely relaxed and wanted to unveil the mystery of this jade.
"There seems to be no carving on it, and it does not seem like a key..."
Fang Yuan sighed and suddenly stuck it on his own forehead. He focused his magic on his forehead, as though he was gathering and pushing the magic upwards physically.
"Rumble!"
...
...
...
After a long while, nothing happened.
Fang Yuan rolled his eyes, took the jade down, and felt a little disappointed. "Indeed, the memories from the other world shouldn't be taken too seriously. Using magic to understand jades, this was most likely bullshit from the author..."
Even though it was as such, he felt that he understood something else.
Within this jade, there must be a secret, and the only thing lacking is the key to it.