Yellow Dragon rose and smiled faintly as he looked over his flourishing cave abode, which Ziling and her swarm of Purple Jade Bees had tended so well.
He turned to Ziling, whom he had pressed into service. She was a rare talent as a steward and could brew spiritual honey that nourished the body. Her cultivation was still too low, though. The honey she made had little effect on a Golden Immortal like him, but it was a valuable resource for others.
After a moment's thought, Yellow Dragon took a tea leaf from his sleeve. It came from the Enlightenment Tea Tree, an Acquired Spiritual Root in his private courtyard.
"Ziling, you and your swarm have kept this cave abode in excellent order. You've done well."
"I'm giving you this Dao Enlightenment Tea leaf. I hope it helps you break through your Heavenly Immortal bottleneck soon."
Yellow Dragon handed her the bright green leaf.
Ziling froze. She knew the leaf well—there was a tea tree in Yellow Dragon's courtyard, and she had long yearned to taste its leaves.
Unfortunately, that tree produced only one ripe leaf every few years. Its entire yield was barely enough for Yellow Dragon himself.
All Ziling could do was visit the courtyard while Yellow Dragon was away and cultivate in the fragrance of the Dao Enlightenment Tea. Even that had helped her cultivation advance rapidly.
Now that she had been given a leaf, Ziling trembled with excitement. Delight filled her face. "Thank you, Master!"
Only then did Ziling carefully hold out both hands and take the leaf from Yellow Dragon. It felt warm and smooth, its Dao resonance flowing naturally. The familiar fragrance made her heart leap.
"Cultivate diligently. Once your cultivation improves and you can brew better spiritual honey, I'll reward you again!"
Yellow Dragon spoke gently, encouraging her.
At his words, Ziling declared, "Master, Ziling will work hard! I'll brew even better spiritual honey!"
Yellow Dragon stepped through the air to the center of the Grotto-Heaven and looked down upon his vibrant domain. Its spiritual energy was abundant, no less so than Senior Brother Nanji's Jade Pillar Grotto-Heaven.
He calmed his mind and formed a hand seal, circulating all his Magic Power as his Primordial Spirit connected with the laws of water and life in the world around him.
In moments, pale blue-white clouds gathered across the sky above the thousand-mile expanse of the Five Elements Grotto-Heaven. They thickened into dark clouds brimming with life and spiritual vitality.
As the clouds gathered, they gradually covered the entire Grotto-Heaven.
Pitter-patter—
Drops of rain filled with pure life-giving power fell silently from the clouds, joining into threads that shimmered faintly blue. The many Spiritual Roots and immortal plants in the Grotto-Heaven swayed their branches and leaves, greedily drinking in the spiritual rain.
The Blood Jujube Orchard, Lotus Pond, Enlightenment Peak, and Spirit Herb Peak received the most Sweet Dew for the longest time under Yellow Dragon's deliberate care.
As Yellow Dragon sustained the technique, he contemplated the laws of the Great Dao within it.
The life-giving Sweet Dew fell for days on end.
Only when every Spiritual Root and spiritual plant in the Grotto-Heaven had stored so much life energy that it could absorb no more did Yellow Dragon end the technique.
After this rainfall, every spiritual herb would grow rapidly for a long time to come, its spiritual energy and medicinal potency several times greater than those of herbs growing naturally in the wild.
The technique faded and the Sweet Dew stopped. The clouds parted, the mist dispersed, and a great sun rose. A wisp of Violet Qi fell with the morning light upon Spirit Herb Peak, where the spiritual herbs welcomed the sunrise and absorbed it. Several drew in far more Violet Qi than the rest.
Yellow Dragon placed a mark on each of those herbs. He would know at once if anything changed.
With a flicker, Yellow Dragon returned to his courtyard on Enlightenment Peak. The affairs of his cave abode were settled, but something more important still awaited him.
He sat cross-legged on a cushion beneath the tea tree. At a thought, the Mysterious Yellow World Pearl floated out of his body, spinning steadily.
Previously, when his three teachers had expounded the Great Dao on Three Purities Peak in Kunlun Mountain, golden flowers had fallen from the heavens.
As one of the disciples listening to the teachings, Yellow Dragon had received many of them. Unable to absorb and refine them all at the time, he had fused the surplus into the Mysterious Yellow World Pearl rather than let it go to waste, using them to nourish and strengthen the Spirit Treasure's source.
Now he sent his divine sense into the Mysterious Yellow World to examine what had changed.
The moment it entered, Yellow Dragon stopped short.
At the heart of the Mysterious Yellow World, within the region of Chaos that held the world's source and laws, a new innate restriction had formed beside the thirteen already visible!
And the Mysterious Yellow World had expanded by a full tenth!
Its mountains rose higher, its plains stretched farther, and the Earth Veins beneath its surface had grown stronger.
Within the Mysterious Yellow World, the five innate Spirit Veins of the five elements served as the main arteries. Dozens of smaller Innate Spiritual Veins had formed on their own throughout the realm, allowing its spiritual energy to circulate more smoothly and its laws to grow more complete.
The two Acquired Spiritual Roots transplanted into this world—the Enlightenment Tea Tree and the Blood Red Date tree—had fully integrated with it and become the Heaven-Supporting Spiritual Roots of the Mysterious Yellow World.
Benefiting from the growth of the world's source, both roots now glowed with rosy light and were covered in Dao patterns. Their auras had reached the very peak of Acquired Mid-Grade Spiritual Roots. They needed only one final opportunity to break through and advance to acquired high-grade Spiritual Roots!
The Nine-Rank Pure World White Lotus, however, had not changed at all.
"Good! Good! Good!"
Sensing the changes in the Mysterious Yellow World, Yellow Dragon said it three times, unable to contain his joy.
Every bit this Spirit Treasure recovered made him that much stronger.
He entered the Mysterious Yellow World and, as before, cast the Sweet Dew Technique across its sky.
He poured in a vast tide of Magic Power. Sweet Dew fell across the Mysterious Yellow World for days, its life-giving force soaking into the earth and nourishing all things. It also hastened the stabilization of the newly formed Spirit Veins and strengthened the world's source.
Yellow Dragon could clearly feel that he had refined the Mysterious Yellow World Pearl further. Controlling it had become increasingly effortless, as natural as moving his own arm.
With everything in the Five Elements Grotto-Heaven and the Mysterious Yellow World arranged, his mind had fully recovered from the exhaustion of receiving the inheritance.
Several hundred years remained before his three teachers would expound the Great Dao of Sages to the beings of the Primordial World at Kunlun. Yellow Dragon decided to use the time to study artifact refining.
Once he had made his preparations, Yellow Dragon carved out a temporary refining cave on Blood Date Peak. An innate fire Spirit Vein ran through the peak, making artifact refining far more efficient.
He sat quietly inside the cave and swept his sleeve. A heap of materials piled up before him like a small mountain, glittering with treasure light.
There were lustrous varieties of innate Spirit Jade with Spirit Light glowing within, heavy spiritual iron gleaming with a metallic sheen, and a few pieces of spiritual wood nourished by spiritual energy for ten thousand years. He had accumulated them over years of travel or gathered them from Kunlun Mountain.
Yellow Dragon glanced over the ordinary materials, took a deep breath, and stilled his mind. A concentrated flame of Jade Pure True Fire sprang to life at his fingertip. The temperature around him surged, and the air rippled faintly.
His mind remained immersed in the vast inheritance of artifact refining. Methods for refining spiritual artifacts and the secrets of Spirit Treasure restrictions streamed through his Primordial Spirit.
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