Relocating a Spiritual Vein

The unexpected turn of events left everyone looking at one another. Yuanshi, Di Jun, and Donghuang Taiyi no longer had the mood to continue their dispute.

"Second Brother, Third Brother, let's go!" Laozi shook his head and called out to Yuanshi and Tongtian before taking flight and leaving first. Tongtian happily fiddled with the azure gourd as he followed.

Though Yuanshi was somewhat unwilling, seeing that they had all left, he could only resign himself to his bad luck and depart through gritted teeth.

Nuwa looked at the withered gourd vine, her brows furrowed in thought. Then, with a wave of her hand, she collected the withered vine along with a large chunk of the soil where it had grown.

Seeing this, Di Jun paused in surprise and was about to take the shriveled, dried-up green gourd when Shi Mo moved first, snatching it up. He then looked up at Di Jun, who had been a step too slow, with a faintly amused smile.

"Let's go!" Di Jun gritted his teeth slightly and could only call for Donghuang Taiyi to leave.

After Nuwa and Fuxi also took their leave, Hongyun looked at the shriveled green gourd in Shi Mo's hand and could not help asking, "Brother Shi Mo, that gourd never even matured. What do you want it for?"

"The other six gourds all matured, yet this one alone did not. I think it's rather unusual. Perhaps this gourd is the most special and best of the seven," Shi Mo said as he toyed with the green gourd in his hand.

As he spoke, Shi Mo handed the blue gourd to Zhen Yuanzi beside him. "Brother Zhen Yuan, this one is for you."

"For me? Brother Shi Mo, weren't you fated with this blue gourd?" Zhen Yuanzi was taken aback before asking.

"Fated?" Shi Mo laughed. "If you say it is fated with you, then it is fated with you. All right, take it! I can't have you come all this way for nothing."

"All right, then!" After hesitating slightly, Zhen Yuanzi finally reached out and accepted the green gourd at Hongyun's urging.

"Brother Zhen Yuan, there's one more matter in which I may need your help," Shi Mo said, mysteriously pulling Zhen Yuanzi and Hongyun along with him to Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain.

At Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain, when Hongyun saw Nebula Daoist, Shi Mo's good corpse incarnation, emerge from the cave abode, he could not help staring in astonishment and curiosity, even though he already knew Shi Mo had severed a corpse and become a Quasi-Sage.

"Brother Shi Mo, is this your good corpse incarnation? Why does his aura seem even stronger than yours?"

Zhen Yuanzi, meanwhile, looked at the Northern Xuanyuan Water-Control Banner floating beside Nebula Daoist, which was wrapped around something.

"Go!" With a thought from Nebula Daoist, he controlled the Northern Xuanyuan Water-Control Banner to fly into the air. It swiftly expanded, releasing the Yellow Central Plum wrapped within it.

Buzz. The instant the Yellow Central Plum appeared, carrying a large clump of hardened soil, the surrounding space began to tremble and distort. All energy became chaotic, as though it wished to evolve into chaos itself.

"This is an innate spiritual root?" At the sight of the Yellow Central Plum, even the steady-tempered Zhen Yuanzi could not help being moved and astonished.

Hongyun beside him widened his eyes in shock. "An innate spiritual root? I've never seen an innate spiritual root with such a powerful aura. It feels even more terrifying than a top-grade innate spiritual treasure!"

"This should be the highest-quality innate spiritual root in the Primordial World," Shi Mo said hurriedly. "It is called the Yellow Central Plum. It takes three kalpas—three to four hundred thousand years—for its fruit to mature, and it only bears nine fruits. Consuming one fruit allows a cultivator to directly attain Daluo Golden Immortal fruition."

"One fruit grants Daluo fruition?" Hongyun was shocked once again, then looked at Zhen Yuanzi beside him. "Brother Zhen Yuan, this is definitely better than your Ginseng Fruit—far better! It can absolutely be called the number one spiritual root in the Primordial World. Its only drawbacks are that it takes too long to mature and bears too few fruits."

Noncommittal, Zhen Yuanzi looked at Shi Mo. "You want me to help you plant it so it can survive?"

"Exactly!" Shi Mo nodded solemnly. "This Yellow Central Plum is the greatest harvest of my trip to Mount Buzhou. It originally grew on Mount Buzhou, and finding it a suitable environment to grow in now will likely not be easy."

"Indeed! A spiritual root of this kind cannot be planted carelessly," Zhen Yuanzi agreed with a nod. "Originally, planting it atop Eight Treasures Peak would have been a good choice. But you have already planted the Flat Peach Mother Tree atop Eight Treasures Peak, so it is clearly unsuitable for the Yellow Central Plum as well. As for the other peaks of Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain..."

As Zhen Yuanzi spoke, he shook his head slightly. Shi Mo glanced at the steep peaks surrounding Eight Treasures Peak and quickly said, "Those peaks truly aren't suitable for planting anything. They are almost entirely rock, with hardly any soil."

"So, you intend to..." Zhen Yuanzi looked at Shi Mo thoughtfully.

"Brother Zhen Yuan, do you remember where the Flat Peach Mother Tree used to grow?" Shi Mo asked.

Zhen Yuanzi's brows knit. "You want to plant the Yellow Central Plum there?"

"That place may have been ownerless before, but that may not be the case now. It truly is a rare blessed land. If anyone discovers it, they will surely occupy it as a cave abode," Hongyun could not help saying.

"I don't intend to plant the Yellow Central Plum so far away. However, there is a main spiritual vein there, where the Flat Peach Mother Tree had previously taken root," Shi Mo said. "So, I want Brother Zhen Yuan to help use the Earth Book to relocate that main spiritual vein to a mountain closer to my Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain, where the Yellow Central Plum can be planted."

"Relocating a spiritual vein will not be easy, much less a main spiritual vein. Still, it is worth a try," Zhen Yuanzi said after pondering for a moment, then nodded.

Thus, following the network of earth veins in West Kunlun, Shi Mo and the others returned to that Kunlun Immortal Realm.

"There's no aura of any powerful expert. Could it be that this place truly has never been discovered?" Hongyun was somewhat surprised as he looked at the Kunlun Immortal Realm, which had not changed much from before.

"It's good that it remains ownerless," Zhen Yuanzi said as he immediately acted. With a flip of his hand, he summoned the Earth Book and sent it down to envelop the underground main spiritual vein.

Then, the Earth Book bound and wrapped around that main spiritual vein, forcibly dragging it toward Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain. Shi Mo had already selected a great mountain near Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain as the place for the main spiritual vein to reside.

Forcibly moving a main spiritual vein, especially such a massive one, was indeed no easy task. Even with Shi Mo and Zhen Yuanzi working together to operate the Earth Book, they moved very slowly along the network of earth veins.

After finally advancing about a tenth of the distance, the bound main spiritual vein suddenly seemed to be drawn or provoked by something. It violently broke free from its restraints and shot off along the network of earth veins in another direction like a colossal energy dragon.

"What is this..." Shi Mo and Zhen Yuanzi were alarmed and suspicious as they hurried after it.

Not long afterward, when they caught up with the main spiritual vein, they discovered in stunned disbelief that it had already merged with the main spiritual vein of another mountain.

"The earth-vein network here... Could this actually be the core of the entire West Kunlun earth-vein network?" Sensing the dense, massive network of earth veins around them, with main spiritual veins gathering and clustering together, Shi Mo's heart stirred.

At the same time, Shi Mo keenly noticed that this dense network of earth veins seemed to be permeated and shrouded by an invisible, mysterious aura of power.

When Shi Mo and Zhen Yuanzi emerged from underground, they saw that the vast mountain range before them was enveloped in hazy mist. Even Shi Mo and Zhen Yuanzi's divine senses could not penetrate those clouds and fog.