Five days passed in a flash under Xuanwei's nearly sleepless, all-out grind.
When the age mark on the tenth Clear Heart Bamboo finally trembled past the three-hundred-year threshold under Xuanwei's spiritual perception, his entire "body" felt hollowed out. His immortal qi body had dimmed to near transparency, and his energy level had fallen below a pitiful 3%. He could not even maintain that chubby little earthen-man form and reverted to a wisp of drifting primordial immortal qi that could be scattered by the wind at any moment.
"I can't do this anymore... Not a drop left..." He collapsed—mentally collapsed—onto the spiritual soil of the Medicine Garden, feeling utterly drained. "This high-intensity agricultural research is more exhausting than fighting people..."
Yet as he looked at the ten tall, verdant Clear Heart Bamboos, their leaves rustling as they radiated rich Clear Heart Dao Rhyme, his heart filled with the joy of an old farmer at harvest.
"Fifty Contribution Points! Money, here I come!"
Forcing himself to hold on with his last breath, he carefully sealed up the ten Clear Heart Bamboos—wrapping them in immortal qi—then swayed like a drunk as he floated toward the Hundred Treasures Pavilion.
The task handover went smoothly. The young attendant sent by Fire Spirit Mother inspected the goods, was highly satisfied with the quality of the Clear Heart Bamboo, and readily paid out fifty Contribution Points, recording them on Xuanwei's identity jade token—an imprint bestowed by Sect Master Tongtian.
Holding those seemingly weighty fifty Contribution Points, Xuanwei felt his back straighten considerably!
He immediately rushed to the official counter and said to the rabbit-eared female immortal in a grand, heroic voice—albeit a weak version of one, "Senior Sister! Kui Niu Tear Crystals! Three of them! I'll take them all!"
The rabbit-eared female immortal gave him a surprised look. She seemed unable to understand why this junior brother, who looked as though a gust of wind could blow him away, was so determined to obtain those three pieces of "junk," but she efficiently completed the exchange anyway.
Whoosh! His Contribution Points were wiped clean.
Three gray, pitted crystals landed in his hands, faintly flickering with chaotic streams of light within—Kui Niu Tear Crystals!
As though holding peerless treasures, Xuanwei tightly "hugged" them to his chest—wrapping them in immortal qi—as if afraid someone would snatch them away. Then, trailing sparks and lightning—weak version—he rushed back to his Medicine Garden and immediately activated every warning restriction he could.
"Hahaha! My treasures! Let's see just how useless you really are!"
He eagerly took out a Kui Niu Tear Crystal and tried sending immortal qi into it.
Sure enough, just as the records described, the energy inside was incomparably mixed and violent. It was filled with the resentment and unwillingness of the Kui Niu before its death, along with all manner of chaotic spatial currents. Ordinary Earth Immortals would not even be able to refine it; merely remaining in contact with it for too long could corrupt their minds and even damage their foundations.
"Tsk, tsk. This thing is practically a malignant tumor in the energy world!" Xuanwei smacked his lips. "But... it doesn't work on me!"
With a thought, he connected to the Chaos Bead deep within his sea of consciousness.
An invisible suction force emerged from the core of his immortal qi and acted upon the Kui Niu Tear Crystal.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle...
It was like cold water dripping into boiling oil. The violent, mixed energies within the Kui Niu Tear Crystal collapsed and dissolved like an avalanche the moment they came into contact with the Chaos Bead's chaotic power, which embraced and assimilated all things! The resentment within was ground away, the chaotic spatial power was sorted and purified, and it ultimately transformed into a strand of incomparably pure, gentle, obedient... spatial-origin power, merging into the gray expanse within the Chaos Bead!
The entire process took only a few breaths!
The formerly gray, pitted Kui Niu Tear Crystal had turned into a flawless transparent crystal. Within it, what appeared to be a silver galaxy flowed slowly, radiating stable and gentle spatial fluctuations!
[Successfully purified and absorbed "Inferior Kui Niu Tear Crystal" x1. Obtained: Origin Particle of Space x1. Chaos Bead spatial stability slightly increased.] [Notice: This Origin Particle of Space can serve as the core of the "Void Spirit Drawing Array." Estimated stable operating period: three months.]
"Awesome!—voice cracking!" Xuanwei was so excited he nearly spiraled into the sky on the spot! The Chaos Bead was the best! This purification efficiency, this refinement effect! It was practically a garbage-processing and resource-recycling center tailor-made for him!
He repeated the process and purified the other two Kui Niu Tear Crystals as well, obtaining two more Origin Particles of Space.
"Three pieces can last nine months! That's enough!" His confidence soared as he immediately began setting up the Void Spirit Drawing Array.
Based on the foundational text Yang Mei had taught him and supplementary knowledge he had found in the Scripture Pavilion, he carefully used immortal qi to draw complex formation runes atop the earth-vein node at the very center of the Medicine Garden. The process consumed an enormous amount of mental energy. For someone who had just suffered such a major drain, it was like adding frost to snow.
Still, he grit his teeth and persevered, carefully placing the Origin Particle of Space, which radiated a silver halo, at the core formation eye.
"Formation complete! Activate!"
As the final rune fell into place and he drew upon a faint thread of immortal qi to activate the formation—
Bzzzz!
A low hum rang out! Centered on the Origin Particle of Space, an almost imperceptible transparent vortex roughly one zhang in diameter silently formed! In an instant, the spiritual qi around the Medicine Garden—and even from farther away—seemed drawn by some invisible force and began slowly yet unwaveringly gathering toward the vortex!
Success! The Void Spirit Drawing Array was complete!
Xuanwei could clearly sense spiritual qi several times denser than usual being continuously drawn into the formation. After being transformed by the Origin Particle of Space, it flowed through his connection with the Chaos Bead and entered, strand by strand, the desolate space within the Chaos Bead!
Though the spiritual qi underwent layer upon layer of conversion, leaving only a pitifully small amount of Chaos Qi in the end, it was constant and unceasing—a steady trickle! It was like attaching a stable, though admittedly low-flow, milk bottle to the Chaos Bead, a baby crying out to be fed!
"Wonderful! Patriarch Yang Mei's retirement fund is secured!" Xuanwei let out a long breath, feeling that all his hard work had been worth it.
He happily savored the sensation of spiritual qi continuously flowing in, as though he could hear Contribution Points—future version—jingling into his pockets.
However, he did not know that this "treasure bowl," upon which he had placed such high hopes, was as conspicuous as a beacon in the night to certain beings...
Deep within Biyou Palace, inside a simple hall.
Daoist Duobao was sitting with his eyes closed, his consciousness roaming as he sorted through the internal and external affairs of the Interception Sect. Suddenly, his brows moved slightly. He opened his eyes, and his gaze seemed to pierce through layers of space before settling upon the Medicine Garden in the rear mountain.
"Hmm? Such an exquisite method of gathering spiritual qi through space?" For the first time, clear surprise appeared on his usually placid face. "It draws spiritual qi from a hundred li around, yet condenses it without dispersing it, gathering it within such a small space. There is even a faint profundity of spatial conversion... This is certainly not something an ordinary Earth Immortal could arrange!"
He had already noticed that Xuanwei's methods for cultivating Spiritual Plants were extraordinary. Now that he had witnessed this incomparably exquisite spatial formation, his estimation of this junior brother rose once more.
"This child... truly bears a great secret, a great opportunity." Daoist Duobao murmured. "Blessing? Or calamity?"
After pondering for a moment, he did not act immediately. Instead, he silently attached a thread of divine awareness around the Medicine Garden and began observing it even more closely.
At the same time, on the other side of Kunlun Mountain, within Yuxu Palace.
Primordial Lord of Heaven, who was quietly reciting the Yellow Court Scripture, showed an almost imperceptible furrow between his brows on his eternally icy face.
He sensed an extremely faint yet exceptionally lofty spatial fluctuation in the direction of Golden Ao Island. It carried a kind of "anomaly" aura that he deeply despised, as though it stood beyond the rules of the Heavenly Dao.
"So it is that wisp of turbid qi again?" A cold glint flashed through Primordial Lord of Heaven's eyes. "It seems Tongtian has indulged it greatly, allowing it to act recklessly within a Saint's Dojo and establish a formation that disrupts the order of spiritual qi..."
He snorted coldly but did not personally intervene. After all, that was Tongtian's territory. Still, he recorded this debt once again.
Xuanwei was utterly unaware of the "attention" from the two Saints. Immersed in the joy of successful infrastructure construction, he began planning his next step.
"The spirit-drawing array is done, but its efficiency is still too low. I need to find some higher-grade building materials and upgrade the formation. Also, I need to hurry and treat my own injuries..."
His gaze fell upon the remaining two Origin Particles of Space, as well as the truly valuable healing elixirs and advanced formation materials in the Scripture Pavilion that required massive amounts of Contribution Points to exchange for.
"It looks like I need to establish the name of the Interception Sect's number-one Spiritual Plant farmer as soon as possible!"
He seemed to see countless Contribution Points lining up and flying toward him from senior brothers and sisters urgently in need of spiritual medicine...
However, just as he was dreaming of Contribution Point freedom, the remnant thought of Yang Mei, which had remained silent within the Chaos Bead, seemed to regain a tiny trace of vitality after absorbing an infinitesimal strand of Chaos Qi transformed by the spirit-drawing array. It conveyed a clearer message—one that also made his heart pound with alarm:
"...Little friend... the formation... is acceptable... but... this bead fragment... is too severely damaged... you must... quickly... recover... the remaining pieces... otherwise... there may be... a danger... of collapse..."
Xuanwei: "!!!"
What?! The Chaos Bead fragment could collapse?! Was this "luxury car" he had just acquired and had not even had time to enjoy actually a wreck ready to fall apart at any moment?!
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