Taking Turns, Reaping Rewards

The three of them could have stayed behind together and wielded the Mountain-Driving Whip. Naturally, they would have unleashed greater power and made the Supreme Awakening Range grow and extend another one or two trillion li more quickly.

But they could not make the Supreme Awakening Range grow and extend twice as fast—not even one time faster.

In other words, if all three acted together, they would simply be lowering their efficiency.

In any case, they had no intention of devoting themselves wholeheartedly to sorting out and repairing the earth veins. They needed to ensure that their own cultivation was not delayed.

Since that was the case, it was better to leave only Yuan Lun behind, while the other two returned to comprehend the Dao and cultivate. From then on, they would take turns wielding the Mountain-Driving Whip to repair the earth veins of the Western Continent, changing shifts at regular intervals.

With only Yuan Lun remaining, it took a full fifty or sixty thousand years before he made both ends of the Supreme Awakening Range grow and extend one or two trillion li. The two ends finally connected and closed together, and he perfectly mended the junction, completing the repair of this region.

However, because the Supreme Awakening Range lay within the Western Continent, whose ancestral vein and most of its earth veins had been detonated by Luo, its earth vein network had likewise been destroyed.

Without forming an earth vein network with Mount Sumeru's ancestral vein and countless earth veins of varying grades, although the earth veins of the Supreme Awakening Range could still draw in, degrade, and transform chaos qi through endless void, their efficiency had greatly declined.

Moreover, many parts of the Supreme Awakening Range had been damaged, leaving its earth vein qi obstructed. The accumulated source power was far from abundant, utterly insufficient to allow both ends of the Supreme Awakening Range to grow and extend one or two trillion li.

To avoid inflicting further damage upon the earth veins of the Supreme Awakening Range, and to repair this stretch of the mountain range, Yuan Lun could only take out the source power he had obtained earlier by refining the Three Clans Battlefield with his own Great Dao. He transformed it to replenish the earth vein source, and only then did he successfully restore this stretch of the Supreme Awakening Range completely.

Although he had already completely repaired this stretch of the Supreme Awakening Range, Yuan Lun did not contact Yuan Jie and Yuan Ling through their unseen connection and ask them to return to repair the Supreme Awakening Range with him.

When they had left, he had already made an agreement with them: they would take turns wielding the Mountain-Driving Whip, beginning with the Supreme Awakening Range to repair the earth veins of the Western Continent, changing shifts every five yuanhui.

Not even one yuanhui had passed yet. The time to change shifts was still far away!

Without further delay, Yuan Lun immediately headed for the next area of the Supreme Awakening Range that needed repairs.

However, the other areas of the Supreme Awakening Range that required repairs were nowhere near as severely damaged as this one. Even the most serious cases merely had shattered mountain bodies and earth veins; they had not been destroyed and erased into nothingness. In some places, the earth veins had merely been damaged and obstructed before, allowing turbid qi to accumulate and clog them.

In less than sixty thousand years, Yuan Lun resolved more than a dozen major and minor problems throughout the Supreme Awakening Range, completing its restoration.

It was precisely because he had resolved all these major and minor issues that the Supreme Awakening Range recovered greatly.

During this time, he successfully gained the recognition of the Supreme Awakening Range and became its master. He also successfully found several core spirit acupoints within the range and obtained numerous heavenly treasures from them: one high-grade innate spiritual treasure, the Nature-Illuminating Heart Lamp, and two innate spiritual roots.

After choosing the finest core spirit acupoint in the Supreme Awakening Range, setting up a protective grand formation, and establishing a Daoist field, Yuan Lun did not pause for breath before continuing to repair the other earth veins of the Western Continent that required restoration.

The first thing he repaired was naturally the shattered supreme-grade innate earth vein and its mountain body that connected to the Supreme Awakening Range.

Perhaps after it was repaired, as time flowed on and its earth vein source gradually accumulated and recovered, that stretch of earth vein might gradually grow and extend until it became a complete supreme-grade innate earth vein once more.

Of course, the prerequisite was that he guided and assisted it. Otherwise, there was certainly no hope. Even if there was hope, it would require an exceedingly long time—perhaps not even ten great calamities would be enough.

Time slipped away; the years flew like a shuttle. In the blink of an eye, the five-yuanhui term had arrived.

By this time, Yuan Yan had not only repaired the Supreme Awakening Range and the shattered stretch of supreme-grade innate earth vein connected to it, but had also repaired nearly half of the dozens of mid-grade and low-grade innate earth veins, damaged to varying degrees, that connected to the Supreme Awakening Range.

The agreed time had arrived. Without the slightest hesitation, Yuan Lun used their unseen connection to awaken Yuan Lun, who was in secluded cultivation within the Great Awakening Blessed Land, and Yuan Ling, who was in secluded cultivation on Yingzhou Immortal Island. He transmitted all of his experiences from this period to the two of them.

Before long, Yuan Jie and Yuan Ling arrived one after another at Ascetic Ridge, where Yuan Lun was carrying out repairs and had already restored one-third of the way.

"Yuan Lun, give me the Mountain-Driving Whip. It's time for me to take over your shift!" However, when Yuan Jie saw that Yuan Ling had also come, he was somewhat surprised. He asked, "Didn't we agree to take turns repairing the earth veins of the Western Continent, changing shifts every five yuanhui? By our agreement, it should be my turn now, and Yuan Ling's turn five yuanhui from now. Why have you come too?"

"Yuan Lun told me to come. He should have something to discuss with us," Yuan Ling replied calmly.

At once, Yuan Ling and Yuan Jie both turned their gazes toward Yuan Lun, waiting for him to give them an explanation.

"I've already passed on my experiences from these five yuanhui to you. What do you think of my gains?" Yuan Lun answered a question with a question.

"In the same amount of time, your gains were far greater than when we previously cleared and repaired the Three Clans Battlefield. Enough, we're all on the same side—stop being so mysterious. Just say what you want to say!" Yuan Ling said, waving a hand.

He was not joking when he said that Yuan Lun's gains over these five yuanhui far surpassed their previous gains from clearing and repairing the Three Clans Battlefield. It was the truth.

Yuan Lun's gains over these five yuanhui came in three parts:

First, during the process of guiding, connecting, and repairing the earth veins, he had also gained a deep understanding of the related Great Dao through the mountains, rivers, earth veins, and the Mountain-Driving Whip. Although his efficiency in comprehending the Dao and cultivating was far inferior to devoted cultivation, it was likely equivalent to two or three yuanhui of focused Dao comprehension and cultivation.

Second, all kinds of heavenly treasures, as well as innate spiritual treasures and innate spiritual roots that had not yet fully gestated or had been damaged.

Perhaps because he was repairing the damaged earth veins of the Western Continent, he was favored by fortune. Perhaps because the earth veins were damaged and the Western Continent's earth vein network had been destroyed, leaving it utterly unable to nurture innate spiritual treasures and innate spiritual roots any longer. Or perhaps those innate spiritual treasures and roots had themselves been damaged and urgently needed immense amounts of innate spiritual qi, Dao rhymes, and spiritual opportunities, which the earth veins where they were located could not provide at all.

His luck had been astonishingly good, and from time to time, he encountered some opportunities.

Although most of the innate spiritual treasures and innate spiritual roots he obtained had either not finished gestating or were in a damaged state, their value remained extremely high.

That was because it did not affect his ability to comprehend the Great Dao contained within them. As for the power of innate spiritual treasures and the fruits borne by innate spiritual roots, unless they were supreme-grade innate spiritual treasures or supreme-grade innate spiritual roots, they were of little use.

Moreover, he had Yingzhou Immortal Island, the Yinyang Grotto-Heaven, Mount Buzhou's Gourd Valley Blessed Land, as well as treasures such as the Three Lights Divine Water, Nine Heavens Breath Soil, and Primordial Chaos Divine Soil. Those innate spiritual treasures and innate spiritual roots would recover one day.