Astral Force

Liu Yuanchen froze. This Ginseng Doll seemed a little unable to tell the difference between genders.

But on second thought, ginseng-type spirit plants seemed to be hermaphroditic, so father and mother should have meant the same thing.

Still, the meaning conveyed by its Divine Sense fluctuations was indeed "mother" as Liu Yuanchen understood it.

He picked up the Ginseng Doll and examined it. There was nothing between its legs; it truly had no distinguishable sex.

Liu Yuanchen sent another Divine Sense message. "I am not your mother."

At those words, the Ginseng Doll actually began to cry.

Having been single in both his lives, Liu Yuanchen truly had no experience comforting children.

He could only send a soothing message. "Call me Father instead. It means the same thing as Mother."

The Ginseng Doll was deeply confused and did not quite understand what he meant.

In the Ginseng Doll's world, mother and father were one and the same.

Still, it did not continue crying or making a fuss.

Whether it understood or not, Liu Yuanchen had to correct it.

After all, the legendary Ginseng Dolls were extremely intelligent.

With some learning, speaking human language would not be a problem.

If he did not correct it now, things would be terribly awkward in the future.

"Since you already have intelligence and can run and jump, you ought to have a name.

"Your true form is White Jade Ginseng, so I'll call you Xiao Yu."

Upon receiving a name, White Jade Ginseng revealed a delighted expression.

Afterward, Liu Yuanchen began patiently teaching it how to speak.

Of course, more importantly, he taught it how to work.

Xiao Yu was far too small to be of any use harvesting spirit plants for now.

However, it could still loosen soil and water plants.

There would be no insect infestations in the Blessed Land. As for disease, these spirit plants were all brimming with vitality and isolated from the outside world, so even getting sick would be difficult.

Though Xiao Yu was only one foot tall, its intelligence was truly not low. It was already comparable to a five- or six-year-old child.

It quickly remembered the words Liu Yuanchen taught it.

In merely a few Shi Chen, it could already carry out simple conversations.

As for work, it learned how to loosen soil as soon as he taught it.

After all, Ginseng Dolls were naturally capable of earth escape. As long as it traveled shallowly enough underground, it could easily loosen the soil.

Watering was somewhat more troublesome.

After all, it was too small to handle any useful container.

However, Liu Yuanchen made full use of its earth escape ability.

He had it travel close beneath the ground, leaving behind a narrow ditch over an inch wide wherever it passed.

Connecting these little ditches to the Spring Eye could draw in spring water.

Xiao Yu had the temperament of a five- or six-year-old child and played to its heart's content.

The Blessed Land did not have much space to begin with. In less than a quarter of an hour, every spirit plant had a small water channel beside it.

The spring water from the Spring Eye could directly irrigate every spirit plant.

Seeing Xiao Yu work so capably, Liu Yuanchen felt deeply gratified.

As for employing child labor, that was absolutely not what this was.

Before Xiao Yu developed intelligence, it had grown to the middle first rank and was even nurturing a soul body on its own.

Without several hundred years of accumulation, it could never have reached this stage.

It was at least ten times Liu Yuanchen's age. How could it count as child labor?

Having trained Xiao Yu into an excellent worker, Liu Yuanchen stopped paying much attention to it.

Xiao Yu had only just taken human form and could wander about freely, so naturally it could not sit still. It darted all over the Blessed Land.

Only near the Ginseng Fruit Tree Sapling did it utterly refuse to go.

Even when passing nearby, it had to bow before walking past with its waist bent.

Liu Yuanchen found this rather curious. "Xiao Yu, why do you bow to that Sapling?"

Xiao Yu pondered for a moment before answering, "It has the same aura as you, Father. Also, I feel that it is very powerful.

"If I disrespect it, I will become like I was before, when I understood nothing."

Hearing this, Liu Yuanchen thought to himself, *It seems the Ginseng Fruit Tree Sapling has a suppressive effect on the Wood Spirits it enlightens.

It may even be able to strip away a Wood Spirit's intelligence and turn it back into an ordinary spirit plant.

He carefully examined the Ginseng Fruit Tree Sapling and discovered that after enlightening White Jade Ginseng, even the Sapling's leaves had become dull and lusterless.

Just then, another stream of spiritual power flowed into his Sea of Consciousness.

He had not noticed before, but the spiritual power returned to him had decreased.

It had originally risen to one-ninth of a Low-Grade Spirit Stone, but now it had fallen back to one-tenth.

It seemed that enlightening White Jade Ginseng had indeed depleted the Ginseng Fruit Tree Sapling's power.

He simply did not know whether this depletion could recover.

He had originally planned to leave after teaching Xiao Yu how to tend the Spirit Field.

Now that he had discovered the Ginseng Fruit Tree Sapling was damaged, he decided to observe it for another two days first.

With nothing else to do, he might as well continue condensing the Astral Force Seed.

He drew forth a fist-sized mass of Blood-and-Qi power and guided it into his acupoint below the navel.

Using Divine Sense as a guide and spiritual power as hammer and anvil, he forged the Blood-and-Qi power.

To Liu Yuanchen's surprise, the effect of forging the Blood-and-Qi power this time was exceptionally good.

In only a quarter of an hour, he forged the Blood-and-Qi into a ball the size of a longan.

He carefully probed his Lower Dantian with Divine Sense and found that he had not been mistaken. There truly was a second mass of Blood-and-Qi.

Previously, when he forged the same amount of Blood-and-Qi on Yujin Mountain, it had taken a full two Shi Chen to achieve the same result.

This time, it had taken only a quarter of an hour. The speed had increased more than tenfold.

"The Blessed Land merely has denser spiritual energy, yet refining Blood-and-Qi does not consume much spiritual power.

"Perhaps there is some special connection between the Blessed Land and the physical body.

"With my limited knowledge, I probably cannot figure it out.

"Never mind the reason for now. Faster cultivation progress can only be a good thing."

"Since cultivating the Blood-and-Qi Tempering Technique in the Blessed Land is so much faster, I might as well push through and condense the Astral Force Seed in one go.

"There is nothing valuable on Yujin Mountain anyway. Staying here a few more days should not cause any trouble."

The Spirit Fields on Yujin Mountain could only be planted once a year. The previous crop of spirit grain had only recently been harvested, and the next crop could not be sown for at least another half year.

The only things in all of Yujin Mountain's Spirit Fields were some spirit herbs he had planted for personal use with public resources.

They were still seedlings and completely worthless.

At this time of year, the only thing requiring vigilance was independent cultivators secretly digging up soil from the Spirit Fields.

On the Red Wasteland, soil containing spiritual energy could be sold directly for money.

Using such soil as the foundation for opening Spirit Fields could turn ordinary farmland into Spirit Fields more quickly.

However, Liu Yuanchen did not care much about that either.

The higher-ups of the sect had long intended to abandon Yujin Mountain. As long as enough spirit grain was produced, they would not concern themselves with the Spirit Fields.

Even if the spirit grain output was insufficient, at most he would receive fewer Spirit Stones. It was no great matter.

Afterward, Liu Yuanchen once again moved Blood-and-Qi into his Lower Dantian.

Three days passed, and his Lower Dantian now contained sixty longan-sized masses of Blood-and-Qi.

If not for the Guiding Technique supporting him, he would have died of Blood-and-Qi depletion long ago.

Even so, he had used up every Grain-Banishing Pill he had.

Liu Yuanchen sighed. "This Blood-and-Qi Tempering Technique truly consumes resources at a terrifying rate. If I did not know alchemy, then even with a Blessed Land and this technique supporting me, I would not dare cultivate this thing."

"Fortunately, I have forged sixty masses of Blood-and-Qi. That is enough to condense the Astral Force Seed, so I do not need to consume additional Blood-and-Qi power."

He sat cross-legged and guided spiritual power into his Lower Dantian.

Under the guidance of Divine Sense, streams of spiritual power enveloped all sixty masses of Blood-and-Qi.

Then, the spiritual power gradually compressed the space, squeezing the Blood-and-Qi.

Soon, the sixty masses of Blood-and-Qi slowly began merging together.

An hour later, the sixty masses had fused into one, becoming a fist-sized ball.

Next, he simply repeated his previous method, controlling spiritual power with Divine Sense to forge this mass of Blood-and-Qi.

It took an entire day to refine the ball of Blood-and-Qi into something the size of a soybean.

At this point, the Blood-and-Qi sphere resembled a piece of blood jade, emitting an eerie radiance.

Following the secret technique's records, Liu Yuanchen continuously altered the blood jade.

Two days later, the surface of the blood jade showed no change. It was still a soybean-sized piece of blood jade.

Yet inside it, earth-shaking changes had already taken place.

Liu Yuanchen activated the secret technique, and wisps of Blood-and-Qi power flowed into his Lower Dantian, drawing close to the Astral Force Seed.

The moment this Blood-and-Qi touched the Astral Force Seed, it was completely absorbed.

Afterward, a dark red energy slowly flowed from the Astral Force Seed.

This energy was somewhat similar to Blood-and-Qi power, but far denser. It should have been Astral Force.

Liu Yuanchen wanted to test the power of Astral Force, but unfortunately, there was nothing in the Blessed Land that could serve as a target. He could only test it outside.

He had stayed here for seven days. It was time to leave.

He sensed the spiritual power returned by the Ginseng Fruit Tree Sapling and found that it had increased again.

Every hundred breaths, the returned spiritual power was equivalent to one-ninth of a Low-Grade Spirit Stone.

Moreover, the Sapling's leaves had regained their luster.

Clearly, the cost it had paid to enlighten Xiao Yu had almost fully recovered by now.

Liu Yuanchen was finally relieved. The Ginseng Fruit Tree was the foundation of his future path.

If something went wrong with it, then no amount of Wood Spirits could make up for it.

Now that the Ginseng Fruit Tree had recovered, it meant the cost of enlightening spirit plants could slowly be restored.

These past few days, he had been wholly focused on cultivation and had not paid much attention to Xiao Yu.

The little fellow was quite obedient. After finishing the work of loosening soil and watering, it imitated Liu Yuanchen and sat cross-legged nearby to cultivate.

Though Liu Yuanchen did not know what technique it cultivated, it was indeed absorbing spiritual energy.

Liu Yuanchen patted its head. "Little fellow, I am going out for a while. Take good care of the Spirit Field here."

During his breaks from cultivating the secret technique, Liu Yuanchen had also taught it how to speak.

It had to be said that Ginseng Dolls were truly exceptionally gifted among Wood Spirits.

In just a few days, Xiao Yu could already communicate normally with people.

It looked somewhat confused. "Going out means going to the place where I used to live?"

Liu Yuanchen nodded. "Yes. I still have matters to attend to outside."

A frightened expression appeared on Xiao Yu's face. "Father, be careful. Outside is very dangerous.

"When I had just formed memories, a strange person wanted to eat me.

"Later, a group of creatures that walked on four legs also wanted to eat me."

Liu Yuanchen was rather surprised. "You remember things from before you developed intelligence?"

Xiao Yu nodded slightly. "I do not remember clearly, but I still have some impressions."

Liu Yuanchen could not understand how plants stored memories without a soul body.

However, there was no need to investigate the matter further.

When night fell, Liu Yuanchen left Bluestone Mountain again and returned to Yujin Mountain.

He did not return to his cave abode. Instead, he went directly to the back mountain and found an ironbark pine that would have taken one person to encircle.

This tree was merely ordinary vegetation and had not become a spirit plant.

However, ironbark pine wood was tough and especially suited for use as a target.

First, he wrapped his fist in spiritual power and threw a straight punch at the trunk.

The entire tree swayed several times, and leaves fell from its branches.

A fist print an inch deep appeared on the trunk.

Without the force of a thousand jin, it would have been impossible to leave such a deep fist print.

Then, he drew Astral Force from his Lower Dantian and wrapped it around his fist.

He threw a fierce punch. The tree shook violently, dropping many more leaves along with some dead branches.

Another fist print appeared on the trunk, but this one was deeper, reaching a full two inches.

He could confirm that he had exerted roughly the same amount of force in both attacks, yet the destructive effect had doubled.

Seeing this result, Liu Yuanchen was utterly shocked. "I never expected Astral Force to be so much more destructive than spiritual power.

"I have only just condensed Astral Force and have not even tempered my muscles and bones yet, but it already possesses such might.

"Once I finish tempering my muscles and bones, its power will rise another level."

"Unfortunately, I have no spells suited to Astral Force. Wrapping Astral Force around my fist is the crudest possible method of using it.

"If I had spells specifically meant for using Astral Force, the killing power would increase even further."

Liu Yuanchen tried again, channeling Astral Force and spiritual power into his muscles to test how much they enhanced his strength.

Before long, two more fist prints appeared on the ironbark pine.

The fist print made with spiritual power was more than two inches deep.

The other fist print had already reached a depth of five inches.

Liu Yuanchen marveled inwardly. Astral Force enhances physical strength so much more than spiritual power.

Afterward, he drew out Astral Force again and circulated it through his body.

He soon discovered in surprise that circulating Astral Force did not consume Divine Sense at all.

With a mere thought, the Astral Force moved as his mind commanded.

Spiritual power was different. Whether guiding spiritual power through the meridians during cultivation or drawing it out when casting spells, Divine Sense was required.

Since Astral Force did not require Divine Sense to operate, casting spells with it was much faster than using spiritual power.

In a battle between cultivators, the difference in spellcasting speed meant the difference between life and death.

He marveled again. "No wonder the beast-hide book praised Astral Force so highly and dismissed spiritual power with such contempt.

"Whether in power or casting speed, spiritual power simply had no right to be compared with Astral Force."

Liu Yuanchen tried releasing his Astral Force, only to find that it could extend no more than half a foot beyond his body.

At his current realm, spells cast with spiritual power could already strike targets within ten zhang.

"No wonder Astral Force was so powerful, yet still vanished into obscurity.

Its high consumption was only one reason. The other was that it was unsuitable for external release."

If a cultivator of Astral Force fought a cultivator of spiritual power, the latter could freely cast spells from a distance.

If the Astral Force cultivator had no means of closing in, even the strongest offensive power would be useless.

No matter how powerful Astral Force was in attack and defense, if it could not touch the opponent, its user could only take hits passively.

With such a severe flaw, coupled with the Red Wasteland's lack of resources, it would have been strange if the Astral Force inheritance had not been eliminated.

Even though he had a Blessed Land to provide resources and could obtain them fairly easily,

when choosing between spiritual power and Astral Force, he would still focus on spiritual power.

Astral Force could only serve as an auxiliary means of strengthening his muscles, bones, and defense.

Unless there was a powerful method that could make up for Astral Force's inability to attack from afar,

Astral Force could not replace spiritual power's position.