Sacred Spirit Table

Time flew by like sand slipping through one's fingers. Riding Mo Ran, Li Cha led Shi Qing and the surrendered Dragon Eel across the vast, boundless East Sea, searching for over three hundred years.

They traversed countless seas rumored to bear immortal traces, explored many islands with unusual spiritual energy, and even dove into ten-thousand-zhang trenches. They visited the peaceable Whale Clan and encountered more than one band of Shark Clan or other sea-clan raiders who coveted them as "fat sheep." Li Cha dealt with them all through thunderous methods or ingenious formations. Yet the legendary three immortal islands of Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou remained nowhere to be found. They had not uncovered even the slightest clue.

One day, Li Cha and the others rested briefly on a small island, watching the Dragon Eel use an ancient secret art inherited through their bloodline, combined with celestial signs and ocean currents, to perform one final divination. The Dragon Eel wore a focused expression as faint, rippling Dao patterns surfaced around them. After a long while, they dejectedly dispersed their magic power, then knelt before Li Cha with guilt on their face and reported:

"Master... according to this servant's calculations, the Three Immortals Island... may have already passed the time of its emergence and vanished once more into the endless void."

They carefully watched Li Cha's expression and continued, "By the usual pattern, its next emergence may require waiting... until the next Kalpa."

The next Kalpa? One hundred twenty-nine thousand six hundred years!

Although Li Cha had long been prepared, hearing the definite news still made the corner of his mouth twitch slightly. Even with his steadfast Dao Heart, he was struck speechless. More than three hundred years had been spent searching, only for it all to come to nothing. No one could remain entirely calm after that.

"Such a hard life," Li Cha finally muttered, his words carrying both self-mockery and helplessness. He shook his head, as though trying to cast off the lingering frustration.

"Forget it. If it cannot be found, then the opportunity has not yet arrived. Forcing it would be useless." He smiled freely, and the gloom in his heart vanished. "Let's have some tea!"

This time, what he took out was not the Innate Enlightenment Tea he drank most often, but tea leaves produced by the Pure Spirit Tea Tree. After being transplanted into the Chaos Pearl and nourished by Chaos energy, the tree had grown ever more vibrant.

He still used the Five Elements Furnace to kindle the fire and the Shouyang Pot to brew the tea. The Pure Spirit Tea was clearer than Enlightenment Tea, nearly colorless like a mountain spring. Its fragrance lacked the vast Dao resonance of Enlightenment Tea, instead carrying a quieter, more elegant scent. It seemed faint and elusive, yet lingered especially long, winding around the nose and heart, impossible to dispel.

Li Cha raised his cup and took a light sip. The flavor was indeed somewhat mild, almost tasteless upon first entering his mouth. Yet when savored carefully, an indescribably pure and spiritual aura spread down his throat and tongue, cleansing his organs and soothing his mind. It quietly dissolved the restlessness and fatigue accumulated over three hundred years of traveling and searching. Though it had no effect of sudden enlightenment, it possessed a tranquil flavor that washed away all worldly dust and returned one to one's true self.

"Not bad. It has a flavor of its own." Li Cha nodded in praise, his mood becoming ever more peaceful.

Seeing the Dragon Eel standing beside him and staring eagerly, their eyes filled with longing, he granted them a cup as well. The Dragon Eel was overwhelmed by the favor and hurriedly accepted it, draining it in one gulp. The tea entered their stomach, and its gentle yet pure vitality and Dao resonance instantly flowed through their demonic body, which seemed healed but was actually riddled with hidden injuries. Soft green light surfaced around them, and their face showed utter enjoyment. That single cup of tea eradicated all their hidden injuries and even advanced their cultivation slightly.

"This... thank you, Master, for this generous gift! This servant... this servant..." The Dragon Eel was so excited that they could barely speak. They knelt on the ground again, pressing their enormous eel head deeply down as their reverence and gratitude toward Li Cha reached their peak. A mere cup of tea possessed such miraculous effects. This master's methods were truly unfathomable!

Li Cha calmly accepted their obeisance, but his gaze had already turned toward the distance. His mind immersed itself in the realm of "stillness" and "truth" brought by the Pure Spirit Tea. Though his three hundred years of searching had failed to achieve its goal, his travels through the East Sea had broadened his knowledge and improved his state of mind considerably. Now, stirred by the Pure Spirit Tea, all sorts of insights quietly surged like streams flowing into the sea.

Suddenly, he felt a stir in his heart, and inspiration came naturally.

A faint flash of green light flickered around him. The phantom of his true body, the Innate Enlightenment Tea Tree, flashed behind him before vanishing. Immediately afterward, a branch about one zhang long and as thick as a thigh flew out of his body on its own and hovered before him.

This branch was anything but ordinary! Its entirety was a warm blue-gold, its woody grain subtly corresponding to the circulation of the Five Elements. Ring after ring, layer upon layer, it seemed to record the mutual generation and restraint of heaven and earth's Five Elements. Even more wondrously, countless fine and profound divine patterns had naturally formed between its growth rings. Their aura was seventy to eighty percent similar to the innate Dao patterns that had once covered the trunk of his Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea Tree form deep in his memories! They were merely simplified countless times over.

"The time has come!" A sharp light flashed in Li Cha's eyes as understanding dawned upon him. The opportunity to refine that tea utensil—the Tea Table—had arrived!

He rose to his feet without further delay. He ordered Mo Ran to find an uninhabited, barren island far from the territories of the sea clans, one with passable spiritual energy, and descend there. Then Li Cha personally used a great number of spirit stones and his attainments in formations to lay down layers upon layers of concealment and defensive formations around the island, isolating its interior from the outside world.

On the island, Li Cha prepared to begin refining the Tea Table.

Calling it refinement was not entirely accurate. It was more a matter of "guidance" and "inscription." This branch was already part of a spiritual root of heaven and earth, containing supreme Dao resonance. It required no excessive smelting or alteration. The crucial matter was how to awaken and stabilize the Dao nature and divine abilities within it.

Li Cha took out his companion spirit treasure, the Spirit Origin Ruler. This ruler was both a blade for dispelling evil and an instrument of enlightenment, making it perfectly suited to serve as a carving knife now. Holding his breath and focusing his mind, he used the ruler as a blade to carefully shave both ends of the branch flat so it could stand steadily. He then lightly shaped its sides, making it appear more ancient and elegant. The rudimentary form of a Tea Table emerged.

What followed was the most mentally taxing part: inscribing the runes. Li Cha forced out a drop of his life's blood, containing his own Dao resonance, from his fingertip. Blending it with his divine sense, he attached it to the tip of the Spirit Origin Ruler. He bent down like the most devout craftsman and began carving onto the smooth tabletop, stroke by stroke.

What he carved was not some random design. Using countless minute innate runes as his brushstrokes, he outlined the original form of the Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea Tree from deep within his memories—the towering tree that reached the heavens, its Dao resonance naturally complete! Every line contained his own understanding of the Tea Dao, his memories of the Chaos of old, and his hopes for his future path.

Afterward, he inscribed the totems of the four great sacred beasts—Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise—onto the four table legs. The Azure Dragon coiled, governing vitality; the White Tiger roared, governing slaughter and warding off evil; the Vermilion Bird spread its wings, governing civilization and tea fire; the Black Tortoise lay dormant, governing support and great virtue. The Four Symbols sacred beasts corresponded in secret to earth, fire, water, and wind, stabilizing the four directions while also echoing the Five Elements Furnace and Shouyang Pot.

It was an exceedingly slow and meticulous process, one that could not afford the slightest error. Li Cha immersed himself completely, forgetting the passage of time. His divine sense and magic power flowed continuously into the carving blade like a gentle stream, guiding the runes and totems to gradually merge with the divine patterns of the branch itself.

One year, two years... ten years, twenty years...

When the final stroke was completed, the image of the Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea Tree upon the tabletop and the sacred beast totems upon its legs seemed to come alive in an instant! Every rune, Dao pattern, and totem suddenly lit up, connecting and merging their auras until they formed a naturally complete, layered system of forty-four Postnatal Spirit Treasure restrictions!

Buzz!

A clear hum rang through the space enclosed by the formation! Dazzling five-colored light shot into the sky, only to slowly withdraw beneath the formation's barrier.

When the radiance faded, a Tea Table stood quietly before Li Cha.

It stood three chi and three cun tall, corresponding to the mystery of heaven, earth, humanity, and the Three giving rise to all things. Its entire body was a deep, warm dark gold, as though it had endured the vicissitudes of countless ages. The sacred beast totems on its four legs were lifelike, with faint phantoms of the sacred beasts circling them, suppressing fortune and stabilizing the four directions. Upon the tabletop, the carved image of the Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea Tree was deep and mysterious, its Dao resonance circulating without end. Staring at it for too long made one feel as though one could see the scene of Chaos first opening.

Postnatal Supreme Spirit Treasure—the Sacred Spirit Table—was complete!

The moment the table was completed, Li Cha immediately felt his own fortune tremble slightly and become more solid. More importantly, when he placed the Five Elements Furnace and Shouyang Pot atop the Sacred Spirit Table, the auras of the three tea Dao spirit treasures, born from the same origin, instantly connected and resonated with one another. They spontaneously formed a miniature Tea Dao domain that circulated without end!

Within this domain, Li Cha's understanding of the Tea Dao became clearer than ever before. His control over water and fire, as well as his grasp of tea leaves' properties, rose to an entirely new level. Only now did his Tea Dao truly possess a foundation upon which to stand, taking an immensely crucial step forward!

At that very moment, an unstoppable opportunity for breakthrough erupted in the depths of his Dao Heart like spring thunder that had brewed for ages!

The barrier to the late stage of Grand Unity Golden Immortal was clearly visible!

Li Cha abruptly lifted his head. His gaze seemed to pierce through endless space toward the center of the Primordial Wilderness continent, toward that majestic mountain connecting heaven and earth.

He clearly sensed that his opportunity for breakthrough did not lie in the East Sea, but beneath Buzhou Mountain, in the valley where the Heavenly Dao had sealed him for two hundred thousand years. It had been both his prison and, in a sense, his "birthplace"!

There remained the Dao resonance left from his contest with the Heavenly Dao, the laws he had stirred when taking form, and his deepest, most primordial karmic connection with this Primordial World.

"Mo Ran!" Li Cha put away the Sacred Spirit Table and the various other utensils, removed the grand formation around the island, and spoke with unquestionable resolve. "Return to Buzhou Mountain!"

"Yes, Master!" Mo Ran and Shi Qing answered in unison.

Mo Ran stepped upon the clouds with all four hooves, carrying Li Cha and Shi Qing. The Dragon Eel transformed into a streak of waterlight and followed closely behind. Without the slightest delay, the group became a streak of swift light, cleaving through the sea of clouds and crashing waves as they sped toward Buzhou Mountain.