High above Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain, the lightning tribulation vortex dissipated, and the dark clouds across the sky transformed into beautiful, radiant auspicious clouds.
At the same time, inside the cave, golden lotuses seemed to spring from the earth. Where the stone pillar had once stood, a jade platform now rested.
Bathed in golden light, Shi Mo's form solidified. He became a handsome young man with bare feet, dressed in white, with long black hair cascading loose and a face as fair as jade.
"Finally. I've finally taken human form." Looking at his transformed body, Shi Mo's eyes shone, and he could hardly conceal his delight.
With a wave of his hand, the dark-red Wind-Fixing Pearl dropped from above his head into his palm. Then, with a thought, he drew it into his body.
"Thank goodness this Ice Lotus wasn't destroyed." Shi Mo drifted up from the jade platform and landed beside the cold pool in the corner of the cave. Looking at the Ice Lotus, its glow flowing and cold mist curling around it, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"I wonder what this Ice Lotus can do?" Though Shi Mo wondered, he had no time to study it. Instead, he turned his attention to the jade platform, where light flowed across its surface.
The light had blasted through the final tribulation bolt, opening a passage that connected to the mountaintop. It now fell directly onto the jade platform, forming a bright halo around it.
Shi Mo's eyes lit up. He shot straight into the sky through the radiant passage and, in the blink of an eye, reached the summit of Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain's main peak.
At a glance, the nine perilous peaks surrounding him stood out like ice spires.
The main peak was just as steep, yet its cliffs were lush and green. Mist shrouded the area, making it a secluded immortal's abode!
In the distance, mountain ranges rose and fell, their peaks stretching beyond sight. Their magnificent, majestic grandeur left Shi Mo in awe.
"No wonder this is West Kunlun. Even a single mountain in the Primordial World is this vast. I wonder how boundless the entire Primordial World must be?"
"Hmm? This Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain seems..." Sensing something as he looked around, Shi Mo raised a hand and released the Wind-Fixing Pearl, making the void tremble.
At once, ripples shimmered around the nine perilous peaks. It was as if a vast web of runes enveloped all of Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain.
"An Innate Chaos Restriction? No wonder this place gave birth to a top-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure. It's no surprise that, despite cultivating here for so long, not even a single bird ever came to disturb me."
Shi Mo had his suspicions about the enormous web of runes.
Drifting down from the summit, Shi Mo gazed at the strange, unfamiliar flowers, plants, and trees growing along the main peak's cliffs. His curiosity gave him the feeling of having entered a whole new world.
"Is that... a Ginseng Baby?" Shi Mo suddenly stopped in midair and looked at a huge ginseng on the slope. It was as thick as an adult's leg, with more than half its body exposed above the soil and what looked like all four limbs. He couldn't help but marvel.
"That ginseng is so big, it really does look like a baby. How many years would it take to grow this large? Ten thousand years?"
"And a fruit tree... Is that a Vermilion Fruit?" The farther down the slope he went, the gentler it became, and the more numerous and larger the trees grew. Drawn by the scarlet fruits, each about the size of an infant's fist, Shi Mo drifted closer, plucked one, and popped it into his mouth.
The red fruit melted on his tongue, its flavor indescribably fresh and sweet. Then it turned into a wave of scorching energy that surged into Shi Mo's abdomen.
"What pure fire energy. Looks like this is a fire-type spirit fruit."
Shi Mo drifted slowly down to the foot of the mountain. The vegetation in the valley below was even more luxuriant.
A fan-shaped lingzhi grew from a cliff face. It was dark purple all over, with purple light rippling across it, and stood half as tall as a person.
"Th-this is lingzhi? Do all the spirit herbs in the Primordial World grow this big?"
His eyes had truly been opened. Jade and stones of every color were embedded in or scattered across the valley floor and the cliffs on either side.
"No wonder this is an immortal paradise. It's practically a treasure trove!" After a thoughtful spell of studying and pondering, Shi Mo had roughly figured out the Innate Chaos Restriction that enveloped all of Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain. He returned to the naturally formed cave, then used the jade platform to slip into the underground ley lines.
"I want to see just how vast the ley-line network of West Kunlun really is."
Through one of the underground main spirit veins, Shi Mo became one with the ley-line energy and traveled through the network. Before long, he reached a main spirit vein on the outskirts of the ley-line web, which he had sensed only dimly before.
"It seems my original body, made of jade, is naturally suited to earth-escape techniques. Traveling through the ley lines feels even more effortless—like a fish in water."
With the Wind-Fixing Pearl's aid, Shi Mo sensed the ley-line network across an even wider area.
"Now that I've taken human form, I can sense a much wider stretch of the ley-line network. There are so many main spirit veins—no wonder this is West Kunlun. And it seems that the more main spirit veins a place has, the fewer blocked veins there are between them, making it much easier to reconnect and repair them."
Shi Mo began reconnecting and repairing the ley-line network across a far wider area, working his way around Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain.
Who knew how much time had passed? As Shi Mo traveled through the ley-line network, constantly reconnecting and repairing it while absorbing and refining its spiritual energy to replenish his spent power, he gradually moved farther and farther from Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain.
"Hmm? What a thick main spirit vein! Could this be the primary ley line of all West Kunlun?"
After reconnecting countless ley lines and traveling through the network for who knew how long, Shi Mo suddenly sensed a massive main spirit vein, winding like a dragon.
Curious, he entered the main spirit vein. Before long, he saw countless roots reaching deep into it.
"Growing on a main spirit vein... Could it be an innate spiritual root?" Shi Mo's heart stirred at the thought. He hurried out of the spirit vein and emerged on the surface, where the spiritual root grew.
"What rich spiritual energy! This place is..." As soon as Shi Mo emerged, a wave of dense innate spiritual energy washed over him.
Before Shi Mo lay a beautiful, otherworldly realm, like a paradise beyond the mortal world.
Most striking was the pool atop a snowy peak, wreathed in immortal mist, along with the vast peach grove in the basin below. It was so pure and lovely, it made the heart ache.
Shi Mo was deep within that peach grove.
Looking at the broad stretch of peach trees, he even spotted several peaches on the ground, each as large as a soccer ball. Shi Mo froze for a moment. "What a huge peach grove. Where am I?"
"There must be several thousand peach trees here. And with all these peaches lying on the ground, could this place be unclaimed?" Shi Mo walked over and picked one up, raising an eyebrow.
"I wonder how long it's been lying here. It hasn't rotted at all; it looks freshly picked. No wonder they're immortal spirit fruits. Could this place somehow keep them fresh?"
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