Earth Elemental Spiritual Energy

Jiangnan was lovely; its scenery was as familiar as ever.

He had left in the scorching summer and returned just as spring breezes brought success.

Compared to two years ago, Guo Bei County had completely changed.

Zhou Yi still remembered the first time he saw Guo Bei County's walls. Half of them had collapsed, while several listless soldiers at the gate collected the entry tax.

Now, beneath the renovated walls of Guo Bei County, merchants and travelers stood in long, bustling lines.

Two rows of soldiers inspected them one by one, while blade-wielders in green robes patrolled nearby. Anyone acting arrogantly or causing trouble was dragged aside first, so as not to disrupt the others.

Before Zhou Yi even entered the city, he could smell the rich fragrance of wine. The entire city seemed like one enormous distillery.

He slowly moved forward with the line. When Zhou Yi entered the city, the leader of the blade-wielders at the side lit up with delight.

"Greetings, Sword Saint." The blade-wielder was more than ten years older than Zhou Yi. He bowed deeply, his face full of awe and joy.

"Oh? You are... Senior Brother He from the Golden Saber Sect?"

Zhou Yi recognized him. Before joining the Golden Saber Sect, he had become acquainted with several disciples, including He Xu.

At those words, He Xu's face flushed red as though he had received an immense honor. He bowed and led the way. "Sword Saint, Fairy Chen has been waiting for you at Immortal's Pavilion."

Only after Zhou Yi disappeared from sight did the blade-wielders, soldiers, merchants, and commoners at the gate dare to discuss him.

The Guo Bei Sword Saint—a living legend, the pillar holding Guo Bei County steady.

Immortal's Pavilion.

Over the past two years, it had been demolished and rebuilt twice. It had gone from two stories to three, then to five.

Immortal's Brew was simply too popular, and it also had the Sword Saint's world-shaking reputation behind it. Even if someone had mastered the distillation method, who would dare publicize it?

The first through fourth floors were filled with merchants who had come to buy Immortal's Brew.

Chen Jinyu had divided them into four ranks. Those qualified to enter the fourth floor were all wealthy merchants worth at least a hundred thousand strings of cash.

The Star Picking Pavilion on the fifth floor was not open to the public. Only the Wine Fairy lived there.

By the time Zhou Yi came upstairs, Chen Jinyu had already received word.

Guo Bei County was run so tightly that not even a fly could enter unnoticed. Its arrival would be recorded—whether it was male or female, when it entered the city, why it had come, and when it left.

"Hmph! I thought... you couldn't bear to come back."

After two years, Chen Jinyu's air of nobility and authority had become even more pronounced.

Immortal's Brew controlled the livelihood of an entire city's people. Its downstream industries affected hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, and the wealth it brought in was like mountains of gold and seas of silver. How could it not cultivate an aura of wealth and power?

"I came back this time because I need your help with something."

"Century-old Spirit Medicine? While you were away, I collected quite a lot. I'll have Sister Hong fetch it."

Chen Jinyu gestured to the woman in crimson beside her. The woman nodded and, before leaving the room, gave Zhou Yi a curious glance.

The moment Zhou Yi entered, he had noticed that the woman in red possessed considerable martial skill, comparable to the Mad Monk, Yuan Zhi, and Divine Palm Yuan Ji from back then.

The Mad Monk and the other two could not withstand even a single move from Zhou Yi, yet they were already first-rate experts in the martial world. Figures such as the Lingnan Blade King, the Great River Dragon King, and the Bayu Sword Immortal were renowned heroes in their respective regions.

As for Mo Wentian, the former sect master of the Hengshan Sect and wielder of the Thousand Illusions Senluo Sword, he was already a legendary immortal relic in the eyes of ordinary martial artists.

That Sister Hong was not yet thirty, yet she had reached the level of the Mad Monk and Yuan Zhi. In the future, she might become a renowned hero in her own right.

However, this did not interest Zhou Yi in the slightest.

Zhou Yi asked, "Do you know of Western Fire Oil? A black oil that, once ignited, cannot be extinguished at all."

Chen Jinyu pondered for a moment, then nodded. "I have heard merchants from the Western Regions mention it. They call it Fierce Fire Oil."

"That is it. Spend money to collect it. The quantity... the more, the better. Enough to burn down a mountain would be best!"

"What do you need it for?"

"To kill enemies!"

Zhou Yi did not explain further. To ordinary people, demons and monsters were still nothing more than baseless legends.

"Go acquire it on a large scale. I will enter seclusion for a time. Send the Spirit Medicine to the place where I secluded myself before."

"How can you..." Before Chen Jinyu could finish, she realized Zhou Yi had already vanished without a trace.

She stamped her foot in anger, but there was nothing she could do.

The place of seclusion.

Back then, Zhou Yi had built it from four slabs of Greenstone, with only a single door at the front.

The interior was exceedingly bare. There was only a bookshelf holding martial arts manuals, along with a meditation cushion.

It was so dark that no sunlight entered. Unless someone shouted at the doorway, almost no sound could reach inside either.

"Ever since I comprehended Sword Intent, my Soul Power has continued to grow and is now nearing perfection. Breaking into the Innate Realm means the energy of heaven and earth will flood into my body. Even with Origin to repair me, I need to adjust my blood and qi first, just in case!"

As Zhou Yi's Essence, Qi, and Spirit gradually approached perfection, his understanding of the Innate Realm deepened further.

To break through to the Innate Realm, none of Essence, Qi, and Spirit could be lacking.

Mo Wentian of the Hengshan Sect had comprehended the Thousand Illusions Sword Intent, and his Soul Power had long since reached perfection.

However, he was old and frail, and his Essence had already declined. If he tried to break through by force, the Innate energy would burst apart every meridian and bone in his body.

Unless he reached the end of his lifespan and took one final gamble before death, there would only be a one-in-a-thousand chance of extending his life by several decades.

An Innate Grandmaster had a lifespan of one hundred and fifty years.

Zhou Yi, however, had no need to worry. He was in the prime of life, his Essence complete and without leakage, and he had Origin to restore his body. He was at least ninety percent certain of breaking through to the Innate Realm.

By that reasoning, anyone seeking to become a grandmaster through martial cultivation needed to perfect their Essence, Qi, and Spirit before the age of thirty. After that, it would become difficult.

"By that calculation, even with my cheat, my cultivation speed isn't more than a few years faster than the Innate Grandmasters of history?"

Zhou Yi sat cross-legged within the Stone Chamber, silently reciting Daoist scriptures over and over, calming his mind and steadying his qi as he waited for the right moment.

Reciting.

Reflecting.

Comprehending.

The days passed one by one.

Whenever he grew hungry, he used Origin to replenish himself, satisfying his hunger while nourishing and strengthening his internal organs.

The century-old Spirit Medicine Chen Jinyu sent amounted to more than a hundred plants, along with one thousand-year-old ginseng. All of it was absorbed by the Gateway to Myriad Wonders and transformed into a full six hundred points of Origin.

If these medicinal ingredients had been sold, they would have been worth at least over a hundred thousand taels of silver.

The saying that scholars grew poor while martial artists grew rich was displayed to the fullest.

Zhou Yi had taught Chen Jinyu the method of distilling liquor, then challenged the world and established the name of the Guo Bei Sword Saint.

Over two and a half years, the profits from brewing had provided Zhou Yi with more than a thousand points of Origin, saving him at least a year and a half of time.

The Stone Chamber was lonely.

Zhou Yi's blood and qi had been adjusted to their peak. Sitting there, he was like a blazing inferno.

His spirit had grown to its limit.

His Essence, Qi, and Spirit were complete.

With a thought from Zhou Yi, the Purple Lightning Sword shot into the ground outside the Stone Chamber.

"Everyone must stay ten zhang away. Those who disobey will die!"

A series of footsteps sounded outside the Stone Chamber, gradually moving farther away.

After Chen Jinyu received the report, she immediately ordered several hundred Blade Hands to form a circle ten zhang away. No one was permitted to approach.

Then Zhou Yi began.

His Soul Power emerged from his body and sensed the omnipresent spiritual energy between heaven and earth.

Azure, red, yellow, white, and black represented wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Spiritual energy in five colors appeared within the range of his soul's perception.

Zhou Yi controlled his soul and tested them one by one, only to discover that he could mobilize Earth Elemental Spiritual Energy. The other four types—metal, wood, water, and fire—were exceedingly sluggish.

It was not that he could not refine even a trace of them, but compared with earth spiritual energy, they were more than ten times harder to manipulate!

"Could it be that the Earth Spiritual Root among my talents is taking effect?"

Zhou Yi abandoned the other spiritual energies and focused wholly on mobilizing the Earth Spiritual Root, guiding it into his bones and meridians to temper them without cease.

Spiritual energy entered his body.

As an external force invaded his body, it continually tore apart and fused with him.

Zhou Yi's meridians had long been nourished and strengthened by Origin, yet even they could barely endure it.

Origin was steadily consumed.

Wherever earth spiritual energy fused into him, Origin turned into silver threads and immediately repaired his body.

Destruction and restoration occurred at once.

The cleansing of his marrow and purification of his body by spiritual energy continued for nine days. At last, every part of his body had adapted to earth spiritual energy.

His body had adapted to the infusion of earth spiritual energy. Not only did it no longer reject it, it continuously absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

Within Zhou Yi's soul perception, after the earth spiritual energy within several zhang around him had been completely absorbed, the earth spiritual energy outside slowly seeped in to replenish it. However, the process was not fast.

Only after a quarter of an hour did the earth spiritual energy return to its previous concentration.

"No wonder cultivators fight desperately for places rich in spiritual energy. With the same aptitude, the concentration of spiritual energy directly determines cultivation speed!"