Special Effects of the Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art

The Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art was extremely useful for cultivating spirit plants, exactly what Liu Yuanchen needed.

He used his disciple token to read the spell's contents and firmly committed them to memory.

The Divine Farmer Art contained many methods for cultivating seeds and tending Spirit Fields.

Beyond spells, there were also methods that used medicinal solutions to enhance a seed's potential and accelerate spirit plant growth, with effects similar to fertilizer.

However, with the war currently underway, the sect tightly controlled all kinds of resources, and he could not gather all the spiritual materials needed to prepare the solutions.

Moreover, the ingredients for those solutions included things like spirit beast dung.

Handling such things was not only filthy, but also time-consuming and labor-intensive.

Since other methods could replace them, Liu Yuanchen had no intention of bothering with such things.

Afterward, Liu Yuanchen left the Divine Farmer Art inheritance area and went to the section that stored offensive spells.

Like wood-attributed spirit artifacts, wood-attributed spells truly left much to be desired in terms of offensive power.

Wood-attributed spells with respectable offensive power could be divided into two categories.

The first relied on certain spirit plants, and their power depended entirely on the spirit plants themselves.

As long as the spirit plants were strong enough, their destructive power would not be inferior to metal- or fire-attributed spells of the same rank.

Without suitable spirit plants, though, they were only good for scratching an itch.

The second borrowed the attributes of Wind-Thunder. As long as a wood-attributed spell carried even a trace of Wind-Thunder power, its destructive strength could increase dramatically.

Naturally, Liu Yuanchen also wanted to learn a spell with Wind-Thunder attributes, but he could not find one on the second floor of the Technique Transmission Tower.

The third floor might have such spells, but inner disciples could not go up there.

Left with no choice, he could only select spells that could be used in conjunction with spirit plants.

The Heaven-Reaching Divine Wood Technique itself was suited for fighting in places with lush vegetation. When paired with spells that controlled spirit plants, its power might rise to another level.

After selecting several spells, he settled on one called Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest.

Although Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest was not high-ranked, only a top-grade first-rank spell, it had considerable potential.

Once cast, it allowed the user to control all vegetation within a small area, borrowing the power of plants and trees to attack or defend.

The more vegetation within the controlled area, and the higher its rank, the greater the spell's power.

Furthermore, this spell could accelerate the growth of spirit plants.

Like the Entangling Art, it could speed up the growth of vines.

However, spirit plants force-grown by the Entangling Art would quickly wither after losing their supply of spiritual power.

Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest was somewhat more sophisticated. As long as the extent of forced growth was not excessive, the accelerated spirit plants could continue growing afterward.

Aside from its dependence on spirit plants, Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest consumed an enormous amount of spiritual power.

The greater the number and rank of the plants under control, the more terrifying the consumption became.

An ordinary cultivator at the Seventh Qi-Nourishing Layer could control vegetation within a radius of ten zhang for no more than twenty breaths.

If not for the Blessed Land constantly replenishing his spiritual power, Liu Yuanchen would never have chosen this spell.

Over the past year or so, the spiritual power returned by the Spirit Realm had steadily increased.

When he had first returned to the mountain gate, the spiritual power replenished over a hundred breaths was only one-thousandth of a Low-Grade Spirit Stone.

Now that the Spirit Realm had grown considerably, the spiritual power it replenished was already around one percent of a Low-Grade Spirit Stone.

If he were near Bluestone Mountain, the spiritual power replenished in a hundred breaths would likely exceed one Low-Grade Spirit Stone.

According to what Zhao Hong had said before, the primary function of a Grotto-Heaven and Blessed Land was similar to an Immortal Seed: it could convert energy such as spiritual energy and Earth Vein Baleful Intent into spiritual power.

As the Spirit Realm grew, the spiritual power it replenished would only increase in the future.

As long as he had enough spiritual power, the upper limit of Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest was still extremely high.

After memorizing Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest, he tried to find a Divine Sense secret art, but unfortunately found nothing.

It seemed that if he wanted to learn such secret arts, he would have to wait until he became a true disciple or a steward of the Elixir Hall.

Only by becoming part of the sect's middle ranks would he qualify to enter the third floor of the Technique Transmission Tower.

Returning to the first floor, he handed his disciple token to the steward at the entrance of the Technique Transmission Tower.

The steward examined the token with Divine Sense. "The Thick-Earth Spirit-Fortifying Art and the Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art are spells related to the various arts of cultivation, so they are cheaper. They only cost ten Spirit Stones.

"Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest is an offensive spell and costs thirty Spirit Stones.

"The three spells together cost fifty Spirit Stones."

After he paid the Spirit Stones, the steward erased the information stored in the token.

Liu Yuanchen sighed inwardly. A single spell can be sold endlessly, yet the price is still not low.

The Technique Transmission Hall's business really is all profit and no cost!

They say pill refinement brings huge profits, but at most it earns a little over double the cost. It cannot compare to the Technique Transmission Hall selling spells.

After returning to his cave abode, he immediately began studying Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest.

His talent for cultivating wood-attributed spells was still fairly good.

In less than two hours, he had comprehended seventy or eighty percent of the entire secret art.

He walked out of the cave abode and came to the bank of Reflecting Moon Creek, silently circulating the spell.

A swath of emerald-green spiritual power dispersed from Liu Yuanchen's body and entered the surrounding plants and trees.

In an instant, all the vegetation within a radius of one zhang lowered its branches and leaves, as though bowing to him in solemn worship.

Liu Yuanchen's heart stirred. This scene somewhat resembled how Xiao Yu had bowed to the Ginseng Fruit Tree Sapling before it became a spirit.

I cultivate the Heaven-Reaching Divine Wood Technique, so I can borrow the might of the divine wood to command all vegetation.

These plants and trees are paying their respects because they sensed the aura of my divine wood.

With a thought, a weeping willow beside him swayed its branches. Like long whips, they lashed out in every direction.

Piercing whistles tore through the air beside his ears.

The power of those willow branches was enough to injure cultivators at the Late Qi-Nourishing Stage.

Under his control, willow leaves shot out like flying darts.

One willow leaf struck a tree on the opposite bank of Reflecting Moon Creek, directly severing a branch as thick as an adult's wrist.

Liu Yuanchen exclaimed, "If I had known this spell when the Azure Spirit Bees surrounded me, I would not have been in such a sorry state.

"I was still not vigilant enough back then. I never expected the Chen Household to dare act so brazenly within the mountain gate."

He tried once more to expand the range controlled by Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest. At present, he could only extend it to around three zhang.

He had only just begun learning it, so achieving such power was already quite good.

He felt somewhat puzzled. Casting Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest does not consume nearly as much spiritual power as the records claim.

Controlling the vegetation within a radius of three zhang for a quarter of an hour seems effortless.

By that calculation, its spiritual power consumption is even much lower than that of ordinary spells of the same rank.

"Perhaps this is the effect of the Heaven-Reaching Divine Wood Technique. The reason Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest consumes so much spiritual power is that it must use spiritual power to control the surrounding vegetation.

"The larger the range and the more plants and trees there are, the greater the consumption.

"But I can borrow the might of the divine wood to control vegetation. These plants and trees submit to me, so I do not need to expend additional spiritual power to control them."

Afterward, he began testing Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest's ability to stimulate spirit plant growth.

He injected spiritual power into one willow branch, and it sprouted a side shoot.

In less than a breath, the side shoot had grown more than an inch.

He chose several more willow branches and stimulated side shoots of varying lengths.

After half an hour, all the new side shoots longer than one chi had withered.

The side shoots shorter than one chi could still survive normally.

"Although its ability to stimulate spirit plants is not particularly strong, it can still accelerate their growth.

"Those high-rank spirit plants require hundreds or even thousands of years to mature.

"Using this spell to hasten their growth can greatly shorten their maturation time.

"In the future, this spell's value will only grow higher."

Liu Yuanchen returned to the cave abode and studied the Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art.

The Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art was specifically used to cultivate plant seeds, and Liu Yuanchen comprehended it with exceptional speed.

In just half an hour, he had fully grasped it.

He took several grains of Golden-Thread Rice from his storage bag. Through his perception of life force, he could tell that these grains all possessed relatively abundant vitality.

However, they were all dormant.

In Liu Yuanchen's perception, the emerald-green life force was gathered near the embryonic buds, with almost no movement at all.

He circulated the Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art, gathering a ball of emerald-green spiritual power in his palm and wrapping the rice grains within it.

Before long, all the spiritual power had been absorbed by the grains.

He examined the life force within the grains again. This time, every grain was filled with vitality.

Furthermore, this vitality was no longer stagnant and motionless. It was circulating rapidly.

Based on his past experience, once a seed showed such a condition, it would soon sprout.

Liu Yuanchen thought to himself, The general outline of the Heaven-Reaching Divine Wood Technique says that after cultivating this technique, spells related to plants and trees may gain special effects.

The Ten Thousand Woods Become a Forest I used earlier consumed far less spiritual power, which counts as a special effect.

The Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art is also a plant-related spell. I wonder what special effect it will have on this Golden-Thread Rice.

He planted the grains in a small patch of Spirit Field outside his door. When the time came to harvest them, he could see what changes they had undergone.

Afterward, he began studying the Thick-Earth Spirit-Fortifying Art. This spell had little to do with plants and trees, making it quite difficult for him to comprehend.

It took him two days before he could barely cast it.

He came to the small patch of Spirit Field outside the cave abode. First, he cast the Sweet Rain Art to replenish the Spirit Field's spiritual energy.

Then, he cast the Thick-Earth Spirit-Fortifying Art on the small patch of Spirit Field.

Emerald-green spiritual power transformed into a rain of light and fell onto the Spirit Field.

Afterward, every grain of soil in the Spirit Field absorbed the rain of light.

Immediately afterward, those soil particles greedily absorbed spiritual energy.

The spiritual energy brought by the Sweet Rain Art was soon completely absorbed by the soil particles.

In addition, they absorbed a stream of earthen-yellow energy from the soil below.

According to the records of the Thick-Earth Spirit-Fortifying Art, this was the thick-earth energy hidden within the earth.

Absorbing this energy helped stabilize the spiritual power contained within the soil particles.

About an hour later, the changes in the Spirit Field came to an end.

This one casting alone was more effective than burying two rounds of rice stalks.

If he cast the Thick-Earth Spirit-Fortifying Art another two or three times, he could raise this Spirit Field to a middle-grade first-rank Spirit Field.

If he were an earth-attributed cultivator, one casting would probably be enough to raise the Spirit Field to middle-grade first-rank.

However, the Thick-Earth Spirit-Fortifying Art truly consumed a massive amount of spiritual power, using nearly seventy percent of Liu Yuanchen's reserves.

If he had practiced this spell before breaking through, he likely would not have been able to cast it successfully at all.

Four days later, Liu Yuanchen cast the Thick-Earth Spirit-Fortifying Art on the Spirit Field for the third time.

When the spell's effects ended, the spiritual power contained within the Spirit Field Soil had visibly increased.

At this point, the Spirit Field had become middle-grade first-rank.

He had intended to return to the cave abode and continue cultivating, when he suddenly sensed movement in the Spirit Field.

Before long, several tender green leaves pushed up from the Spirit Field.

Liu Yuanchen was extremely familiar with these seedlings. They were Golden-Thread Rice Seedlings.

However, the vitality of these seedlings was exceptionally robust.

Judging from their location, they were precisely the seedlings that had grown from the Golden-Thread Rice he had cultivated with the Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art four days earlier.

Golden-Thread Rice usually sprouted five to ten days after being planted.

Sprouting in four days must have been the effect of the Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art.

This spell could accelerate germination, so perhaps it could also accelerate growth.

The spirit plants in the Bluestone Mountain Spirit Realm grew more than twice as fast as those outside.

Now, the seeds cultivated by the Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art had a similar effect as well.

If he planted those cultivated seeds in the Bluestone Mountain Spirit Realm,

with the two effects stacking, he wondered just how quickly the spirit plants would grow.

What truly puzzled Liu Yuanchen was that he had clearly not used his Divine Sense to inspect the seeds just now, yet he had been able to see with his own eyes as those seeds sprouted.

Now that the seeds had finished germinating, even if he did not look at the seedlings at all, as long as he willed it, the seedlings and their surroundings would still clearly appear before his eyes.

Liu Yuanchen returned to the cave abode and shut the door.

With a thought, he could still see those seedlings and everything within a radius of one chi around them.

Moreover, he could clearly hear the sound of wind passing through the seedlings.

Liu Yuanchen sighed inwardly. The seeds I cultivated with the Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art actually gained scouting abilities after sprouting. They can completely serve as my eyes and ears.

"The value of this scouting ability is immense. Whether for guarding against incoming enemies or gathering intelligence, it will be useful.

"Unfortunately, the scouting range is still too small.

"I wonder whether the range will increase once the seedlings grow larger, or once I master this spell completely."

Afterward, he moved far away from the cave abode, intending to test whether there was a distance limit to using spirit plants as his eyes and ears.

As he gradually moved farther from the cave abode, the sight he saw through the seedlings and the sound of the wind he heard did not weaken in the slightest.

Only after he was more than ten li away from that small patch of Spirit Field did the sight and wind sounds vanish instantly.

"It seems there is still a distance limit when using cultivated spirit plants as eyes and ears.

"The current limit is ten li. I wonder whether that distance will change once my cultivation is higher, or once the seedlings mature?"

Over the next several days, Liu Yuanchen studied the changes in those rice seedlings every day.

Their growth rate was around twenty percent faster than that of ordinary rice seedlings.

Moreover, the life force they contained far surpassed that of ordinary rice seedlings.

As the seedlings grew, the area he could see through them also expanded.

Ten days later, the rice seedlings had grown to five inches tall.

Through the rice seedlings, Liu Yuanchen could see an area with a radius of around one zhang.

However, the distance limit remained unchanged.

As long as he was more than ten li away from the crops, the connection disappeared.

The sensing distance limit was probably unrelated to the size of the seedlings.

"After cultivated seeds sprouted, the detection range would increase as the crops grew.

The factors affecting this detection range still needed further study.

The maximum distance between me and spiritual plants had always been ten li.

I wondered whether this maximum distance would change if I cultivated a different kind of spiritual plant.

It would be best to use the Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art to cultivate tree seeds, then compare Saplings with crops."

Liu Yuanchen looked through his stockpile of seeds. The only one that could grow relatively tall was Charcoalwood.

Charcoalwood had no use other than being burned into Spirit Charcoal.

In terms of value, on plots of the same size, planting Charcoalwood earned far fewer Spirit Stones than planting spirit grain.

However, it was only an experiment.

Whether it was good or bad did not matter.