Discussing a Solution

Third, merit. The merit he had gained over these five eons was almost comparable to the merit he had gained from cleaning up and restoring the Three Clans Battlefield over twenty eons.

If his cultivation realm had now been at the perfected Daluo Golden Immortal stage, this portion of merit would absolutely have been enough to raise his cultivation to the early Hunyuan Golden Immortal stage. This showed just how much merit he had obtained, and how valuable it was.

Therefore, Yuan Lun's gains over these five eons had indeed been greater than what they had gained previously from cleaning up and restoring the Three Clans Battlefield.

"I did gain quite a lot over these five eons, but the expenditure was just as great! Of the origin power I accumulated by using my own Great Dao to refine the corpses of the myriad races while cleaning up and restoring the Three Clans Battlefield, I have used up a full third."

"If I continue using it like this, it will be completely exhausted in at most eleven or twelve eons."

"Even if we take turns, switching every five eons, it will still be completely depleted after at most thirty or forty eons."

"When that time comes, how will we continue restoring the Western Continent's earth veins?"

"Relying solely on our own strength? It is not impossible, but the restoration efficiency would be painfully slow. Restoring the Western Continent would most likely go from being far more profitable than costly to becoming a losing proposition."

"As the saying goes, one who plans ahead thrives, while one who does not is ruined. We should work out some rules and a method now!"

Upon hearing this, Yuan Jie and Yuan Ling both fell silent and sank into thought. After pondering for a long while, neither of them had any ideas.

The reason their efficiency in restoring the Western Continent's earth veins was so high now was because they had employed the origin power they had accumulated before.

When cracks and fissures appeared in the earth veins, they all had methods of using vast quantities of origin power to evolve the profound mysteries of creation, allowing those cracks and fissures to rapidly heal on their own.

When they wanted the earth veins to grow and extend but their origin power was insufficient, they likewise had methods of using vast quantities of origin power to transform and replenish the earth veins' origin.

But without origin power, they could only rely on their own strength. Though they could divide off their own power in place of origin power and accomplish the same things,

if too much of their power was divided away and consumed, they would also fall into weakness.

Although returning to their peak state was not as difficult as recovering from Dao injuries, without vast amounts of heavenly treasures, innate spirit fruits, and medicinal pills, and relying only on absorbing innate spiritual qi, they might need one or two eons to recover even once.

When restoring the earth veins, they consumed origin power at an extremely rapid rate. At the previous rate of consumption, it would not even take ten thousand years before most of their power was depleted and they had to stop and recover.

Wouldn't the speed of restoring the earth veins then drop to barely one twenty-somethingth of what it had been?

Although they could comprehend the Dao and cultivate during that time as well, comprehending the Dao and cultivating while restoring earth veins and recovering their depleted power would absolutely be less than half as efficient as focusing wholeheartedly on Dao comprehension and cultivation.

Together with their other gains, the benefits would most likely still outweigh the losses.

But there was another problem. If they absorbed innate spiritual qi to recover their depleted power once, twice, or a few times, that would be one thing.

But if they did it too many times and absorbed too much of the Primordial World's innate spiritual qi, then either the merit they gained would be greatly discounted, or they would incur an enormous karmic debt to the Primordial World.

And either outcome would turn restoring the Western Continent's earth veins into a losing proposition.

Of course, they could refrain from absorbing innate spiritual qi. They could consume heavenly treasures, innate spirit fruits, and medicinal pills to replenish their losses, or even draw in and refine chaos qi directly through the boundless void to recover their depleted power.

But how many heavenly treasures, innate spirit fruits, and medicinal pills could he possibly have in hand?

While those could rapidly restore his losses, no matter how abundant his wealth was, it could not withstand such immense and unceasing consumption!

The heavenly treasures in his possession simply would not last long!

Furthermore, unless they were specifically meant for recovery, using heavenly treasures, innate spirit fruits, and medicinal pills to replenish his depleted power was sheer waste.

That was because the most important thing about such treasures was the laws, Great Dao, and Dao resonance contained within them, which could help people swiftly perceive the laws and Great Dao they contained.

As for directly drawing in and refining chaos qi through the boundless void to recover his losses—

Because the chaos qi of inner chaos had already been filtered once by the world membrane, its corrosive and assimilating power was not as strong as that of outer chaos. He could manage it.

But the chaos qi of inner chaos was still formidable and still possessed corrosive and assimilating power. At the very least, one needed to be a Daluo Golden Immortal to refine it.

Although he could refine it, the process would inflict no small amount of loss upon him, and the refining speed would be extremely slow.

If he refined and absorbed innate spiritual qi, he might need only one or two eons to return to his peak. But if he refined and absorbed chaos qi, it would already be good if he could recover to his peak within ten eons.

His recovery speed was not quick to begin with. If it dropped another six or sevenfold, it could no longer be described as a losing proposition—it would be more like being taken for a sucker and worked to the bone.

If only we could obtain origin power without end! Then we would not have to worry about this, Yuan Jie thought at this moment.

But in the next instant, Yuan Jie secretly shook his head. That was almost impossible.

The Primordial World would not experience another calamity that swept across the entire world anytime soon, and naturally there would not be so many corpses that had failed to return to heaven and earth for one reason or another.

And without an endless supply of corpses numbering in the hundreds of millions and trillions for him to refine, how could he possibly obtain origin power without end?

After pondering for a long time without finding any ideas, the three simply returned to the Great Awakening Blessed Land and conducted deep deductions.

No one knew how long they deduced things, but the three of them finally worked out a solution that was barely a solution:

They would use earth veins, innate spirit treasures, or innate spirit roots as formation foundations to evolve and set up one grand formation after another. Every one of these formations had to possess at least the might of a Daluo Golden Immortal. Only then could they draw in and refine chaos qi continuously through the endless void, transforming it into the power he needed.

Perhaps a single grand formation could not draw in and refine much chaos qi, not enough to provide him with sufficient power.

But what about a hundred? A thousand? Or even ten thousand? That would likely not only provide him with enough power, but leave a great deal left over.

Of course, setting up so many grand formations possessing Daluo Golden Immortal might would not be easy!

Evolving and setting up each grand formation required a considerable amount of time, as well as certain heavenly treasures or corresponding formation flags—

But that did not matter! He was in no hurry. He could simply take it slowly!

He could restore the earth veins while using the earth veins already restored, together with innate spirit treasures and innate spirit roots, to set up grand formations.

Although restoring the earth veins this way would slow the process considerably, they still had enough origin power on hand. It would not become a losing proposition; it was merely a matter of earning more or earning less, of making a little less profit.