"Nine Heavens Breathing Soil!" Even the usually composed Zhenyuanzi could not help blurting it out, his voice brimming with irrepressible astonishment and delight!
As the incarnation of innate Wu Tu essence, he felt an instinctive affinity for this supreme earth-element substance, and an attraction to it far beyond anything others could experience.
Legend held that it had condensed from the purest, most refined innate Wu Tu origin in existence when Chaos was first opened and the clear and turbid energies separated. Containing boundless creation strength, it was an unsurpassed treasure capable of nurturing all things and shaping heaven and earth!
In later ages, it was said that Empress Nuwa had mixed this soil with three lights divine water to mold humanity, earning supreme merit!
Never had they imagined that beneath the Chaos Spiritual Pool nurturing the Gourd Vine lay a treasure that could drive even Da Luo Golden Immortals mad with desire!
Clearly, it was the presence of this nine heavens breathing soil that had provided the Gourd Vine with its most fundamental and powerful source of nourishment, allowing it to nurture seven such extraordinary innate spiritual objects at once!
To Zhenyuanzi, the significance of such a divine substance was anything but ordinary.
Whether he used it to temper his own innate earthen origin and improve his innate foundation and cultivation,
or someday forged it into an immensely powerful earth-element supreme treasure, or nourished the ancestral veins of Longevity Mountain to improve the spiritual energy and defenses of his entire cultivation abode, its value was immeasurable. It could serve as the very foundation that secured his fortune!
How could he let such an opportunity slip away? Zhenyuanzi immediately suppressed his excitement, steadied his mind once more, and unleashed his divine powers.
He pressed both hands down through the air, releasing an even finer application of earth element law. Like the most dexterous fingers, it carefully lifted the thick layer of nine heavens breathing soil from the pool's bottom, separating it intact and unharmed, down to every grain touching the pool walls.
There did not seem to be much of the soil, yet it was unimaginably heavy in his hands, as though he were supporting hundreds upon thousands of mountains. Had he not been an incarnation of earthen essence with a profound foundation and the vast magical power of the Great Luo peak, he might not even have been able to collect it.
After successfully gathering the nine heavens breathing soil and storing it safely, Zhenyuanzi and Hong Yun exchanged smiles. Both felt that the rewards of this journey had far exceeded their expectations.
They did not leave immediately, however. Remaining cautious and thorough, they swept their divine senses through the now-empty cavern several more times, examining it inside and out, from top to bottom.
They overlooked neither the tiniest crack nor the slightest trace of residual energy. Only after confirming that no hidden treasures, restrictions, or suspicious traces remained did they finally relax.
"Hahaha! Fellow Daoist Zhenyuanzi, we've truly been blessed on this visit to Buzhou Mountain. Our haul is so tremendous that no one would believe us if we told them!" Hong Yun clapped his hands and laughed, utterly delighted. Even his crimson Daoist robe rippled gently with his laughter.
Zhenyuanzi nodded with a smile of his own, deeply moved.
"An unexpected boon indeed. It seems there is a destined order to things after all. These two treasures were meant to find their way to us."
Holding the sphere of light containing the Gourd Vine, he felt the weight and gentle warmth of the nine heavens breathing soil tucked against him. New plans for his cultivation abode were already taking shape in his mind.
The two lingered no longer. They turned and left the cavern that had brought them such tremendous surprises.
The instant they passed through the entrance, the layer of xiantian restriction behind them seemed to lose its central support. It rippled a few times, then silently vanished like a bursting bubble.
The blue-black rock face returned to its original state, leaving no trace of an entrance, as though nothing had ever happened.
As Zhenyuanzi and Hong Yun resumed their descent, their outlook was entirely different from when they had arrived.
After the extraordinary good fortune of discovering the Gourd Vine and the nine heavens breathing soil, their original intention to return directly home had faded considerably. In its place came a determination to leave no stone unturned, lest they miss another hidden opportunity.
Their divine senses spread with unprecedented precision, like two enormous, finely woven nets. They overlooked no suspicious crevice, no point of unusual energy fluctuations, not even the ground beneath particularly lush plants and vines.
At times, they stopped to tap and knock on an unremarkable cliff face, probing its interior with magical power;
at times, they cut through tangled, thousand-year-old vines to investigate their roots;
at times, they plunged to the bottoms of deep, icy pools, searching for spiritual apertures that might lie below.
They took the spirit of "never leave empty-handed" and "let nothing escape" to remarkable extremes, all but turning the middle and lower slopes on that side of Buzhou Mountain upside down.
Yet the Heavenly Dao maintained its balance, and fortuitous encounters were the most mysterious and unpredictable things of all.
Perhaps there was an unseen limit to Buzhou Mountain's gifts, and discovering the Gourd Vine and the nine heavens breathing soil on this journey had already consumed an immense amount of their fortune.
Or perhaps it was simply as they had suspected: vast though Buzhou Mountain was, true treasures were not to be found everywhere.
Despite searching with meticulous care, even more diligently than they had when seeking the Gourd Vine, they eventually stepped beyond Buzhou Mountain's boundaries, and the all-pervasive Pangu pressure surrounding them vanished completely.
They once again felt the normal laws of the Primordial World, without having discovered a third treasure trove or natural hidden realm worthy of such attention.
Standing outside Buzhou Mountain, they looked back at the majestic sacred peak soaring into the heavens. Zhenyuanzi and Hong Yun exchanged a glance and smiled together, the faint disappointment of finding nothing more dissolving at once.
"We were being greedy." Zhenyuanzi shook his head with a chuckle. "Obtaining those two treasures was already an extraordinary blessing. How could we ask for more? Biting off more than we can chew would only do us harm."
Hong Yun was equally openhearted. "You're right, fellow Daoist. We've had more than enough good fortune. We should be content with what we have. What we've gained on this journey will keep us occupied for a long time."
Having descended the mountain and confirmed that they had overlooked nothing, the two no longer lingered.
Rather than immediately employing movement techniques to race back to Longevity Mountain, they continued on foot as originally planned, taking their time and deepening their understanding of heaven and earth.
They wandered across the boundless Primordial Land, immersing themselves in the raw, untamed, vibrant wonders of a world still newly born.
Once, they concealed themselves to watch two primordial fierce beasts, each comparable to a Primordial Unity Golden Immortal, locked in a savage struggle for territory. Mountains crumbled, the earth split, and blood stained a long river as they fought. From it, the two contemplated the ultimate truths of heaven and earth: the strong devoured the weak, and life and death were ever uncertain;
they also paused before an unknown spiritual herb that had struggled out of a crack in a sheer cliff, bathed in morning dew and the first ray of sunlight, and savored the tenacious wonder of creation contained within that tiny life;
they encountered newly emerging tribes, still small in number, performing primitive sacrificial rites. These beings prostrated themselves before heaven and earth, mountains and rivers, and whatever they believed to be gods. Their pure devotion and hopes for the future were deeply moving;
from afar, they also sensed the faint air of bloodshed along the fringes of the territories held by the Three Races—the dragons, phoenixes, and kirin. Their expansionist ambitions, cautious probing, and friction with one another hinted that the future might not be peaceful.
As they traveled, observing the birth, death, and transformation of all things and the countless temperaments of living beings, their Dao hearts gradually grew more harmonious and clear.
Zhenyuanzi's understanding of the earth's true meanings—bearing, nurturing, receiving all things back into its depths, and stability—grew ever deeper;
Hong Yun's insight into the clouds—their impermanence, gathering and dispersal, transformations, and freedom—likewise became more thorough.
Sometimes, they found a place of exceptional beauty and sat upon the ground to discuss the Dao for days or even months, sharing all they had seen and felt, their exchanges kindling sparks of wisdom; at other times, they remained silent for long stretches, each contemplating the rhythms of the Great Dao flowing through heaven and earth.
Their leisurely travels might have seemed idle and aimless, but they were another form of cultivation, a means of allowing everything they had gained on Buzhou Mountain to settle and take root.
The Primordial Wilderness was vast. They chose no particular route, simply wandering as their hearts led them, following whatever opportunities arose and going wherever their steps took them. They immersed themselves completely in communion with the natural world. Time slipped by in this way, and untold years of the Primordial Wilderness passed without their noticing.
Then one day, a familiar, welcoming mountain silhouette appeared in the distance. Longevity Mountain, made especially imposing and majestic by its concentration of innate earthen energy, finally came into view again. Only then did the two realize that their journey was drawing to an end.
Atop the mountain, Wuzhuang Temple stood peacefully amid swirling clouds and mist. The Innate Great Earth Formation outside it operated with flawless harmony, radiating the same steady, reassuring aura as when they had left.
Zhenyuanzi and Hong Yun exchanged smiles, no words necessary. Their travels, which had lasted an unknown span of years, had at last reached a fulfilling conclusion.
It was time to return to their cultivation abode, quietly assimilate the immense gains of their journey, and begin preparations to nurture the precious Gourd Vine that held such importance for the future.
Two streaks of light, one yellow and one red, ceased concealing their auras and abruptly accelerated. Like weary birds returning to the woods, they flashed across the sky and vanished into the billowing mist at Longevity Mountain's entrance. The formation at the Mountain Gate rippled faintly, then settled again, as though it had never opened.
Before you continue