Spirit-Plant Intelligence Network

After choosing his spells, Liu Yuanchen arrived at the entrance to the Technique Transmission Tower.

He handed his disciple token to the elderly steward, who directly erased its contents before returning it to him.

With a kindly expression, the old man said, "Personal disciples may select one cultivation technique and five spells for free each year."

Only after thanking him repeatedly did Liu Yuanchen take his leave.

It seems that only personal disciples are truly considered the sect's own people.

Outer disciples often had to do dirty, exhausting work, yet received very few Spirit Stones. They were practically hired laborers.

Inner disciples were slightly better off. The missions they carried out were relatively safe, and their treatment was fairly good.

But if they wanted to obtain any resources from the sect, they still needed Spirit Stones.

Once one became a personal disciple, however, one could enjoy all kinds of privileges.

First of all, I did not need to carry out sect missions at all, yet the sect continuously provided subsidies of Spirit Stones, pills, and other resources.

"Fortunately, I'm a personal disciple now."

After selecting his spells, Liu Yuanchen returned to his cave abode.

At this time, Zhao Hong and Meng Tieshan were still eating roasted meat.

Even body cultivators of the Qi Refinement Path were all big eaters, let alone Earth Immortal Path cultivators.

Liu Yuanchen did not think much of it. After greeting them, he began cultivating Wind-Riding Evasion at the entrance of his cave abode.

This movement technique required one to sense the power of the wind and borrow that power when casting it.

He followed the cultivation method and tried again and again, but he could never get the hang of it.

After struggling for most of the day, Zhao Hong and Meng Tieshan finally finished the roasted meat.

The two walked to the entrance of the cave abode and watched Liu Yuanchen practice his spell.

Seeing that Liu Yuanchen still could not borrow the wind's power, Zhao Hong offered guidance. "Directly using the power of the wind is indeed rather difficult. You can start with water instead.

Water can flow, and so can wind.

Fallen leaves can float on water, and they can also float in the wind.

The two share many similarities."

Liu Yuanchen nodded slightly, then tried walking on water.

Walking on water was not particularly difficult for cultivators.

One only needed to release a burst of spiritual power beneath one's feet at the instant of stepping down, using the rebound against the water's surface to gain enough force to support oneself above it.

Liu Yuanchen stepped onto Reflecting Moon Creek and easily ran several li across the water.

Meng Tieshan's face was filled with envy. "When will I be able to do that?"

Zhao Hong chuckled. "You've only condensed Astral Force a few days ago. On top of that, you must weigh two or three hundred jin with that build of yours. You're still a bit short of being able to walk on water.

Train for another year or so, and you should manage it."

By then, Liu Yuanchen, who was running across the water, had already gained some insight.

He charged straight from the water onto the riverbank, stepped through the air on the wind, and shot forward more than twenty zhang before landing steadily.

Then he leaped continuously between the trees, truly seeming to ride the wind.

After returning to the entrance of the cave abode, he cupped his hands and said, "Thank you for your guidance, Master. This disciple can now borrow the wind's force to use this movement technique."

Zhao Hong nodded in satisfaction. "Not bad. Although Wind-Riding Evasion is an extremely basic spell, it is still somewhat useful for comprehending the power of the wind.

The Myriad Beasts Scripture contains spells specifically for flight, and they also require borrowing the power of the wind.

With this foundation, it will be more convenient for you to cultivate them later."

Meng Tieshan looked astonished. "Master, can you fly after cultivating a flight spell?"

Zhao Hong nodded proudly. "Of course. Back then, our patriarch imitated the cultivation methods of many members of the Demon Race. Naturally, he would not overlook demon birds."

Meng Tieshan immediately said, "Master, I want to learn that."

Zhao Hong smacked the back of his head. "At such a young age, you're already aiming too high. How many days has it been since you condensed your Astral Force Seed?

You can't even walk on water, yet you're already thinking about flying?

And your strength hasn't improved much, but your appetite has grown quite a bit.

You ate more than thirty jin of roasted meat just now.

That was a spirit beast raised by the Beast-Taming Office of the Spirit Cuisine Hall. I went through a lot of trouble to swipe one, yet I ate less than you did."

As a major sect, the Azure Elixir Sect naturally raised some spirit beasts as well.

However, there were no particularly powerful demon beasts on the Red Wasteland, and resources were scarce. Thus, no sect specialized in the path of beast taming.

The Azure Elixir Sect raised spirit beasts for their meat as well.

Moreover, the scale was not large, so there was no dedicated Beast-Taming Hall.

There was only a Beast-Taming Office responsible for raising spirit beasts, and it was managed by the Spirit Cuisine Hall.

Meng Tieshan looked displeased. "Master, you actually stole a spirit beast to eat.

My mother said stealing things is wrong."

Smack!

Zhao Hong smacked the back of his head again. "Watch how you speak! What kind of person is your master? Would I do something so sneaky?

I took it directly in front of the chief steward of the Beast-Taming Office.

He did not say a single word of objection, so he clearly agreed.

Taking something without telling anyone is stealing. What I did was take it openly and aboveboard."

After hearing this, Meng Tieshan felt that taking it openly did not really count as stealing, but something still seemed off.

Liu Yuanchen stepped in to smooth things over. "Master, you said there are flight spells in the Myriad Beasts Scripture. Can I cultivate them now?"

Zhao Hong shook his head. "Your cultivation is still too low. Even if you cultivate one now, it would not be much stronger than this Wind-Riding Evasion. At most, you would be able to walk a few more steps on the wind.

To truly ride the wind and fly, you need at least Sea of Qi Realm cultivation."

Native Sea of Qi Realm cultivators of the Red Wasteland, like Qi-Nourishing Realm cultivators, still needed flying artifacts in order to fly.

As for flying merely by controlling an ordinary artifact, that was something only Condensed Origin Realm cultivators could do.

The only person Liu Yuanchen had ever seen fly directly on the wind was his own master.

"Sea of Qi Realm cultivators can fly through the air? Sea of Qi Realm cultivators on the Red Wasteland cannot even fly with artifacts."

Zhao Hong looked disdainful. "That is because the inheritance on the Red Wasteland is far too poor. Outside the Red Wasteland, Sea of Qi Realm cultivators can fly using artifacts.

But even they cannot do so immediately after breaking through to the Sea of Qi Realm.

They must first condense the prototype of a natal magic treasure. Only by relying on the magic treasure and artifact-controlling techniques can they fly."

Liu Yuanchen understood. The inheritance of the Red Wasteland was truly far too backward.

Once he grew stronger in the future, he had to leave the Red Wasteland and see the world beyond it.

After staying in the cave abode for two days, Liu Yuanchen left the mountain gate again and headed for Qinghe Town.

After all, he was still considered to be in a state of war and was under the command of Deputy Hall Master Hu Shanren in Qinghe Town. He could not be too arrogant.

After checking in at Qinghe Town, he headed out once more to patrol both banks of the Qingshui River.

After wandering around for half a day, he did not see a single wicked cultivator.

Since the great battle at Jintong Mountain, the Azure Elixir Sect had strengthened the defenses around its mines, and the frequency of wicked cultivator disturbances had noticeably decreased.

Throughout the Qingshui River basin, attacks by wicked cultivators had become much rarer as well.

As night gradually fell, Liu Yuanchen entered the Bluestone Mountain Spirit Realm once again.

After offering incense to Great Immortal Zhenyuan, he began cultivating the Jia Wood Withering-and-Flourishing Art.

This spell was related to vegetation, so Liu Yuanchen cultivated it with little effort.

After practicing it only twice, he successfully cast it.

Seeing that he had learned the spell, Xiao Yu immediately came over. "Father, can the spell you cultivated make spirit plants increasingly intelligent?"

Ever since learning that Liu Yuanchen's spell could make spirit plants smarter, he had been thinking about it constantly.

Liu Yuanchen nodded. "That's right. This spell does have that effect.

However, exactly how effective it is still needs to be tested."

With that, he cast the Jia Wood Withering-and-Flourishing Art and condensed a ball of emerald-green spiritual power in his palm.

Then he sent that spiritual power into Xiao Yu's body.

Xiao Yu immediately sat cross-legged to meditate. It took him a full quarter of an hour to completely refine the ball of spiritual power.

When Xiao Yu woke from meditation, Liu Yuanchen hurriedly asked, "How does it feel?"

Xiao Yu answered without hesitation, "That ball of spiritual power also contained the energy that can turn me into a spirit.

Moreover, there was more than twenty times as much of it as the special energy in the two spells you cast last time."

Xiao Yu usually managed the Spirit Fields in the Bluestone Mountain Spirit Realm and needed to communicate with the spirit plants there, so Liu Yuanchen had specifically taught him some arithmetic.

Hearing this, Liu Yuanchen was delighted.

The Jia Wood Withering-and-Flourishing Art was indeed suitable for cultivating a reserve force of Wood Spirits.

The special energy it contained was more than twenty times that of the Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art.

This meant that far fewer castings would be needed to cultivate a spirit plant into a Wood Spirit.

Beside the spring, that Azurewater Spirit Peach tree had already grown more than a foot tall.

Liu Yuanchen cast the Jia Wood Withering-and-Flourishing Art again, condensing a ball of spiritual power in his hand.

Then he injected the ball of spiritual power into the Azurewater Spirit Peach sapling.

The Azurewater Spirit Peach was, after all, only an ordinary spirit plant, so it absorbed spiritual power much more slowly.

Liu Yuanchen was not in a hurry. He simply sat down in the Spirit Realm and cultivated.

By the next day, the peach sapling had finally absorbed all of that spiritual power.

Liu Yuanchen released his Divine Sense to examine the sapling's condition.

Within the sapling, emerald-green points of light had condensed into liquid and were nearly overflowing.

Suddenly, a light screen appeared in his Sea of Consciousness.

The screen was roughly one zhang square, and the image displayed within it was precisely the scene inside the Spirit Realm.

Moreover, the scene was not viewed from Liu Yuanchen's own perspective, but from the perspective of the peach sapling.

Liu Yuanchen did not find this strange. Previously, he had already been able to use spirit plants cultivated by the Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art to see and hear what was around those plants.

Now there was merely a change: a light screen had appeared.

Perhaps this was the special effect of the Jia Wood Withering-and-Flourishing Art.

Then he noticed that there were many small light screens, each three cun square, around the larger one. Images seemed to flicker within them as well.

When he sent his Divine Sense into one of the small light screens, it instantly expanded into a large screen one zhang square.

The screen also displayed a scene within the Spirit Realm.

However, the primary perspective of this image was no longer the peach sapling, but a Golden-Thread Rice Plant.

That Golden-Thread Rice Plant had also been cultivated with the Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art.

At this point, Liu Yuanchen came to a conclusion.

Spirit plant seeds cultivated with the Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art could serve as Scout Spirit Plants after sprouting.

However, this function had considerable limitations. First, spirit plants could only survey a limited range around themselves.

Second, there was also a distance limit when he used spirit plants as his eyes and ears.

Once the distance exceeded ten li, he could no longer use the spirit plants as his eyes and ears.

Yet this peach sapling could not only serve as his eyes and ears itself, but could also relay the sights and sounds perceived by other Scout Spirit Plants.

If he wanted to investigate a distant location outside the Spirit Realm, he could plant a Scout Spirit Plant there.

If he was more than ten li away, he would be unable to directly obtain the images that Scout Spirit Plant observed.

But now, Scout Spirit Plants cultivated through the Jia Wood Withering-and-Flourishing Art could relay images observed by other Scout Spirit Plants.

If he planted another Scout Spirit Plant between himself and this Scout Spirit Plant,

perhaps the second spirit plant could relay to him the images observed by the first spirit plant.

As long as there were enough Scout Spirit Plants, with one relaying to another, would he not be able to see whatever he wanted from hundreds of li away?

If this could be achieved, these Scout Spirit Plants would be equivalent to signal relay stations.

As long as there were enough relay plants, he could completely construct a Spirit-Plant Intelligence Network.

"Before the Azurewater Spirit Peach was planted, I cultivated its peach pit with the Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art.

I wonder whether this current effect is entirely due to the Jia Wood Withering-and-Flourishing Art, or the combined influence of both spells."

Afterward, he cast the Jia Wood Withering-and-Flourishing Art on a Yellow-Scaled Pine.

This Yellow-Scaled Pine had been planted when the Spirit Realm was first opened, and its seed had not been cultivated with the Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art.

A day later, the Yellow-Scaled Pine displayed the same phenomenon.

As long as he examined the Yellow-Scaled Pine with his Divine Sense, a large light screen and many small light screens would appear in his Sea of Consciousness.

The perspective on the large light screen was precisely that of the Yellow-Scaled Pine.

"Spirit plants cultivated with the Jia Wood Withering-and-Flourishing Art can also serve as my eyes and ears, and they have the additional ability to relay information from other spirit plants.

In that case, isn't the Jia Wood Withering-and-Flourishing Art essentially an enhanced version of the Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art?"

As for what internal connection existed between the two, Liu Yuanchen had no mind to concern himself with it at the moment.

The Jia Wood Withering-and-Flourishing Art completely covered the functions of the Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art. Whether a Scout Spirit Plant cultivated with the Jia Wood Withering-and-Flourishing Art had previously been cultivated with the Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art made no difference at all.

This would make it far more convenient to construct a Spirit-Plant Intelligence Network in the future.

He would not need to cultivate spirit plant seeds one by one, find suitable places to plant them, wait for them to sprout, and then cultivate them with the Jia Wood Withering-and-Flourishing Art.

He only needed to find a spirit plant in a suitable location and cultivate it with the Jia Wood Withering-and-Flourishing Art. A Scout Spirit Plant capable of relaying information would then be born.

The cost of constructing an intelligence network would be greatly reduced.

Beyond that, using Scout Spirit Plants to construct an intelligence network involved several other issues.

First, what was the maximum distance at which two cultivated Scout Spirit Plants could relay information to each other?

If this maximum distance was very short, only a few zhang,

then transmitting information over a hundred li would require thousands upon thousands of spirit plants. It would simply be unaffordable.

Second, an intelligence network not only needed to transmit information, but also needed to gather it.

That information-gathering ability depended on how large an area a Scout Spirit Plant could survey around itself.

Previously, the survey range of spirit plants cultivated with the Yi Wood Origin-Nourishing Art depended on the size of the Scout Spirit Plant itself.

Some of the Yellow-Scaled Pines planted outside had already grown two or three zhang tall, and their survey range was not small either, already exceeding ten zhang.

The Bluestone Mountain Spirit Realm was still too small. At present, its diameter was only around five zhang and one chi.

To determine the survey range of Scout Spirit Plants and the distance over which they could relay information to one another, he would have to test it outside.