Opening a Blessed Land

For nearly eight years, whenever Liu Yuanchen cultivated by drawing upon plants and trees, this phenomenon would occur.

Absorbing the life force of vegetation did little to improve his cultivation speed, but it did strengthen his body somewhat.

Thanks to this, his physical strength had advanced by leaps and bounds, already far surpassing that of an ordinary Mid Qi-Nourishing Stage cultivator.

The plants and trees whose life force he drained would appear half-dead for a time.

As long as he did not take more than half their life force, they could still slowly recover.

The reason Liu Yuanchen had given up his duties within the sect and come to this desolate wilderness, aside from Steward Chen's suppression, was this ability to drain the life force of plants and trees.

Within the sect, every blade of grass and every tree drew attention. He simply did not dare lay a hand on those spirit plants.

But in the remote Yujin Mountain region, as long as he did not affect the harvest of the Spirit Fields, no one would care even if he stripped the mountains bare.

Within his Sea of Consciousness, after refining the spiritual power, countless streams of light surged forth from the sapling once more.

The streams of light gathered without dispersing, sketching out a phantom.

Within the phantom stood a sapling, a patch of black soil, and a small pool of water.

The phantom was remarkably solid, looking no different from something that truly existed.

Especially the sapling phantom within it—it was identical to the Ginseng Fruit Tree Sapling.

Liu Yuanchen was no longer surprised. This happened every time he cultivated by draining the life force of plants and trees.

At first, the phantom had been extremely blurry, and he could not make out its exact appearance at all.

Every time he absorbed the life force of vegetation, the phantom became a little more solid.

Only after years of effort had it reached its current state.

Whenever this phantom had appeared in the past, it would dissipate after roughly a dozen breaths.

But this time was clearly different. The phantom persisted for more than a hundred breaths, showing no sign of dispersing.

Not only that, he sensed a force continuously surging up from underground.

That force passed through his body, poured into the Sea of Consciousness between his brows, and was ultimately absorbed by the phantom generated by the Ginseng Fruit Tree.

Nourished by this force, the phantom rapidly expanded.

The sapling within the phantom did not change at all, but the surrounding land kept growing.

Only after a quarter of an hour did it slowly stop.

At this moment, Liu Yuanchen's face was full of delight.

According to Grand Immortal Zhenyuan's teachings, before opening a Grotto-Heaven and Blessed Land, one first had to evolve a Blessed-Land Phantom within one's body.

Once this phantom could absorb energy from the earth on its own, it would be time to open a Blessed Land.

Formally opening a Grotto-Heaven and Blessed Land meant turning this phantom into reality.

A treasure was needed during this process to suppress and stabilize the Blessed Land.

Liu Yuanchen was poor as a church mouse. The only thing he could bring out was the Ginseng Fruit Tree Sapling.

He had prepared for years to open a Blessed Land.

He rose and returned to his cave dwelling, spending a long while making preparations.

When he emerged from the cave dwelling again, he was dressed in the usual garb of an independent cultivator.

He left Yujin Mountain and headed east.

Before long, the last glow of the setting sun vanished completely, and a thin layer of Black Mist shrouded the eastern mountains.

This Black Mist was also a feature of Blackcloud Ridge. Even its name came from this mist.

The Black Mist spread from east to west. A thousand miles east of Yujin Mountain remained shrouded in it all year round.

Within those thousand miles, from east to west, the time the Black Mist lingered grew shorter, and the mist itself became thinner.

West of Yujin Mountain, Black Mist almost never appeared.

The Azure Elixir Sect's mountain gate lay several hundred miles west of Yujin Mountain.

Within the Black Mist, a cultivator's five senses and even Divine Sense would be suppressed.

In places where the Black Mist was dense, Eerie Creatures often appeared as well.

With their perception completely suppressed, if they encountered an ambush, they would either die or be injured.

Even near Yujin Mountain, there had been records of Eerie Creatures appearing many years ago.

Blackcloud Ridge was exceptionally dangerous at night. Even desperate independent cultivators would not dare enter the mountains after dark unless they had no other choice.

But to open a Blessed Land, Liu Yuanchen had no choice but to enter the mountains now.

A Blessed Land needed a Spirit Vein to supply it with spiritual power and could not be moved at will.

With Liu Yuanchen's meager strength, if the location of his Blessed Land were exposed, he would never be able to keep it.

Only at night, concealed by the Black Mist, could he avoid everyone's prying eyes and ensure that the Blessed Land's location remained secret.

Within the Black Mist, Liu Yuanchen could see no farther than three zhang.

Fortunately, Blackcloud Ridge was lush with vegetation. To Liu Yuanchen, plants and trees were the best guideposts.

By expending very little Divine Sense, he could sense the life force of vegetation within twenty zhang.

If any living creature other than vegetation passed nearby, it would block his perception of the plants, naturally exposing itself.

Under his skillful use, his ability to sense the life force of vegetation instead gained a powerful scouting function.

Even the Black Mist could not interfere with the special ability granted by the Ginseng Fruit Tree.

Using this special ability, he swiftly moved through the forest.

Soon, midnight arrived, and he had reached Bluestone Mountain, a hundred miles east of Yujin Mountain.

This mountain was Liu Yuanchen's destination.

Opening a Blessed Land was not as simple as picking any random place. Its growth required a vast amount of spiritual energy.

If he relied on Spirit Stones to provide spiritual energy, let alone Liu Yuanchen, who was poor as a church mouse, even the Azure Elixir Sect could not sustain it after exhausting its entire treasury.

Therefore, the Blessed Land he opened had to connect to a Spirit Nexus.

A Spirit Nexus was a node of a Spirit Vein.

Normally, Spirit Veins lay deep underground, and spiritual energy flowed only within them.

Only where a Spirit Nexus lay would spiritual energy gush forth.

The Spirit Spring on Yujin Mountain was also a Spirit Nexus. Now, its spring water had nearly dried up, leaving only a well containing a trace of spiritual energy, and the Spirit Nexus was basically ruined.

The Spirit Veins in Blackcloud Ridge were extremely large, so there were naturally many Spirit Nexuses.

And Bluestone Mountain happened to contain one Spirit Nexus.

Most importantly, this Spirit Nexus was inside an underground karst cave.

Naturally, one needed a hidden place to open a Grotto-Heaven and Blessed Land. A Spirit Nexus deep underground perfectly suited Liu Yuanchen's needs.

Setting aside the Black Mist, all of Blackcloud Ridge was unsuitable for opening a Blessed Land.

Though Blackcloud Ridge's Spirit Vein was large, its grade was not high, currently only low fourth-grade.

Moreover, Blackcloud Ridge's Spirit Vein was unstable, and the spiritual energy it produced constantly fluctuated.

Over the past thousand years, its spiritual energy had experienced two peaks and one trough.

At its peak, its spiritual energy was comparable to that of a low fifth-grade Spirit Vein.

At its lowest, it had reached only the level of a mid third-grade Spirit Vein.

At present, Blackcloud Ridge's spiritual energy was still slowly declining.

The near-dry Spirit Spring of Yujin Mountain had also been affected by the fluctuations of the Spirit Vein.

But Liu Yuanchen had no choice. Blackcloud Ridge was the only large Spirit Vein in the Red Wasteland.

The Red Wasteland was boundless. A Qi-Nourishing Realm cultivator could not possibly cross it.

Opening a Blessed Land in Blackcloud Ridge was his only option.

And Bluestone Mountain had also been carefully selected by Liu Yuanchen.

Ever since arriving at Yujin Mountain three years earlier, he had been preparing to open a Blessed Land.

The place where he opened it could neither be within the Azure Elixir Sect's territory nor too far from it.

Within the Azure Elixir Sect's territory, sect disciples often patrolled, and entering or leaving the Blessed Land would easily expose him.

Yet if it were too far away, it would be inconvenient for him to guard it.

Only after two and a half years of investigation had he found such a fine place as Bluestone Mountain.

Bluestone Mountain had no special resources, and it was covered by relatively dense Black Mist at night.

Coupled with the possible presence of Eerie Creatures, it was simply impossible for cultivators to establish a foothold there.

The Azure Elixir Sect had no interest in it, and independent cultivators were unwilling to set their sights on it either.

Liu Yuanchen arrived at a pile of boulders at the foot of Bluestone Mountain and pushed aside a millstone-sized rock, revealing a stone hole more than two chi across.

He crawled into the hole, beneath which lay a maze-like underground karst cave.

Within these caves grew vines as thick as chopsticks.

He had left them behind while exploring the caves, using them to mark the way.

These vines were called Azure Silk Vines, mid first-grade spirit plants with extraordinary toughness.

Following the vines, he soon arrived in a hemispherical stone chamber roughly ten zhang in diameter.

At the center of the chamber was a Spirit Spring.

Its flow was small, however. In one breath, it could only produce about half a jin of spring water.

Liu Yuanchen sat cross-legged beside the Spirit Spring, immersing all his focus into his Sea of Consciousness.

At this moment, the Blessed-Land Phantom still existed within his Sea of Consciousness, continuously emitting light.

He gathered all his Divine Sense and drew the phantom outward.

The Blessed-Land Phantom was remarkably cooperative. Once his Divine Sense pulled it, it followed.

Moments later, the Blessed-Land Phantom, about one zhang in diameter, appeared outside his Sea of Consciousness.

At this time, the Ginseng Fruit Tree Sapling had appeared within the Blessed-Land Phantom.

Together with the black soil and the Black-Gold Meteorite, it had all left his Sea of Consciousness.

Liu Yuanchen was somewhat worried. If the Ginseng Fruit Tree left his Sea of Consciousness, would he lose his Immortal Seed?

Just as he worried, the Blessed-Land Phantom descended into the Spring Eye.

The spring water vanished instantly, and the Blessed-Land Phantom continued sinking.

More than a dozen breaths later, the Blessed-Land Phantom reached the bottom of the Spring Eye.

Rumble—

A muffled boom echoed through the underground karst cave.

Immediately afterward, a vortex of spiritual energy formed within the cave.

The already meager spiritual energy was completely sucked into the bottom of the Spring Eye in an extremely short time.

By then, the Blessed-Land Phantom had vanished without a trace.

Liu Yuanchen was not worried in the slightest. He could clearly sense that the sapling was at the bottom of the Spring Eye.

A quarter of an hour later, the spiritual energy vortex vanished completely, and the entire underground karst cave returned to calm.

Liu Yuanchen understood. The Blessed Land had already fused with the Spirit Nexus.

All the spiritual energy in the Spirit Nexus had been drawn away by the Blessed Land.

For a long period of time, the Blessed Land would need external energy to sustain its growth.

Only once it had grown to a certain extent could it feed back into the Great World.

Just as he wanted to inspect the Blessed Land, the scene before him underwent a tremendous change.

The surroundings were no longer a dark, damp cave, but a rather bright space.

A dense wave of spiritual energy washed over him. Its concentration was even slightly greater than at the Azure Elixir Sect's mountain gate.

The entire space was hemispherical, about three zhang in diameter.

At the center of this space was a water pit roughly three chi across, constantly bubbling with water. It should have been a Spring Eye.

The spring water contained dense spiritual energy, far beyond anything comparable to the well water of Yujin Mountain.

Beside the pool stood the Ginseng Fruit Tree Sapling.

Although the space held no sun, moon, or stars, it was not dim. Its brightness was roughly that of an overcast noon outside.

At the edge of the space was a gray membrane, beyond which stretched a pitch-black expanse.

Liu Yuanchen walked to the edge of the space and reached out to touch the gray membrane.

The membrane was soft yet resilient. With a little force, he could press a dent into it.

But no matter how much strength he used, he could not pierce it.

Recalling Grand Immortal Zhenyuan's teachings, the edge of a true Blessed Land should resemble rocky mountain terrain.

The current state of his Blessed Land did not yet qualify as a true Blessed Land. At most, it was a Blessed Land Embryo.

Still, this was perfectly normal.

His origins could not compare with Grand Immortal Zhenyuan's.

It was only natural for his Blessed Land to fall a little short.

Suddenly, a surge of pure spiritual power appeared in his Sea of Consciousness.

Somewhat startled, he immersed all his focus into his Sea of Consciousness.

With only a slight guidance from his Divine Sense, that pure spiritual power moved entirely according to his will.

In other words, this spiritual power had already been refined and could be drawn into the Middle Dantian in his chest for storage.

At the place where the spiritual power had appeared stood an emerald-green sapling phantom, identical to the Ginseng Fruit Tree Sapling within the Blessed Land Embryo.

The sapling phantom hung alone at the center of his Sea of Consciousness, with no trace of black soil or the Black-Gold Meteorite around it.

Before opening the Blessed Land, there had already been a sapling phantom within the Blessed-Land Phantom.

Now that the sapling's true body had entered the Blessed Land Embryo, the sapling phantom had instead remained in his Sea of Consciousness.

It seemed that the sapling's true body and phantom had exchanged places.

That meant he effectively possessed two Immortal Seeds, one illusory and one real. He simply did not know how this would affect his cultivation speed.

He sat cross-legged beside the sapling's true body and circulated the Azure Wood Formula. Streams of wood-attributed spiritual energy entered his body through his acupoints.

Although the Blessed Land Embryo contained only the water spiritual energy produced by a single Spirit Spring, spiritual energies could transform into one another.

Water generated wood, and water spiritual energy would naturally transform into wood spiritual energy.

Guided by the cultivation technique, this spiritual energy surged into his Sea of Consciousness and was absorbed by the sapling phantom.

After more than ten breaths, jade-green mana surged from the Sapling's phantom.

This Sapling phantom fully possessed the Immortal Seed's ability to refine spiritual energy into mana, though the mana's purity was somewhat lacking.

Liu Yuanchen also breathed a sigh of relief. At least he could still cultivate normally.

He was somewhat puzzled. Earlier, he had not circulated his cultivation technique, nor had much spiritual energy entered his body, yet a mass of pure mana had appeared out of thin air in his Sea of Consciousness.

It required no refinement and could be used directly. Where had this mana come from?

Just then, another large mass of pure mana surged from the Sapling's phantom.

Liu Yuanchen muttered to himself, "According to Grand Immortal Zhenyuan's lecture, Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands complemented Earth Immortals.

Opening a Blessed Land could accelerate cultivation.

Could this pure mana be feedback from the Blessed Land?"

He stopped circulating his cultivation technique and released his Divine Sense, bringing the entire Blessed Land Embryo within his range of detection.

He soon discovered that the Ginseng Fruit Tree Sapling was constantly absorbing the spiritual energy within the Blessed Land Embryo, and the spiritual energy accumulated within the Sapling was steadily increasing.

After several dozen breaths, a portion of the spiritual energy accumulated within the Sapling suddenly vanished.

At that moment, another mass of pure mana appeared in Liu Yuanchen's Sea of Consciousness.

He could now confirm that the mana appearing out of nowhere came from the Sapling's true body.

Before the Blessed Land was opened, the Sapling's true body had always served as an Immortal Seed.

It was only natural that he could directly use the spiritual energy refined by the Sapling's true body.

Through some connection between the Sapling's true body and its phantom, this mana was transmitted into his Sea of Consciousness.

As for how it was transmitted, Liu Yuanchen could not discern any clues.

However, every hundred breaths or so, the Sapling's true body would transmit a mass of pure mana to him.

The amount of this mana was equivalent to one-tenth of the spiritual energy contained within a Low-Grade Spirit Stone.

Though it did not seem like much, this mana was free.

He could obtain it once every hundred breaths. Over a single day, the accumulated mana would be equivalent to several dozen Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Even a Sea of Qi Realm cultivator would be reluctant to spend so many Spirit Stones cultivating in a single day.

A Blessed Land Embryo alone possessed such formidable power. How powerful would it become once it turned into a true Blessed Land, or even a Grotto-Heaven?

P.S.: Units of measurement in this book:

Unit of length: one chi = 25 centimeters. Fen, cun, and zhang are tied to the chi.

Ancient units of length varied constantly. A chi could range from 23 centimeters to over 30 centimeters. This book uses 25 centimeters per chi, which differs from the modern 33.3 centimeters.

Some readers enjoy calculating lengths and areas. When writing, I also like to do some calculations in my head, so this unit is easier to work with.

When describing height, seven or eight chi would not be considered exaggerated.

Unit of time: one breath = 1 second; one cup of tea = 10 minutes; one quarter-hour = 15 minutes; one shi chen = 2 hours

Unit of weight: one jin = 500 grams = 10 liang = 100 qian

.