Peach Spirit

On the north face of the stone monument was engraved the Tang Family Scholar's famous Peach Blossom Poem.

Perhaps they had been too embarrassed to carve it on the front. In any case, a famous name was enough to draw tourists.

The peach blossoms were now in full bloom across the mountain, stretching for hundreds of miles. As far as the eye could see, everything was crimson with flowers. In terms of refinement alone, it was not much inferior to famous mountains and great rivers.

After Peach Blossom Mountain became an online-famous attraction, Qi County's economy soared by leaps and bounds. It was not for nothing that the leaders had shamelessly promoted it in person.

Zhou Yi's father, Zhou Dayou, was a non-staff management employee who had made quite a bit of money working part-time as a tour guide.

His mother, Yi Wan, sold tickets at the entrance. After asking Zhou Yi a couple of questions about work, she simply let him in.

Zhou Yi felt that he had not seen his mother in more than three years, while his mother merely felt that he had come home last weekend. Why was he back again? Why was he not working properly? How would he marry a wife, support a family, raise children...

That barrage of soul-searching questions left the Guo Bei Sword Saint, Immortal Zhou, awkward and embarrassed. He covered his face and fled.

His father, Zhou Dayou, was leading a group of young men and women through the Peach Blossom Fan scenery. Upon seeing Zhou Yi, he gave him a meaningful look: Don't come over and delay me from making money.

Honestly, Peach Blossom Mountain was only six or seven hundred meters above sea level. It was neither high nor low for a mountain on the plains, but in the great mountains of the southwest, it would merely be a hill. Its forcibly attached cultural heritage was also utterly shameless name-dropping.

Still, no one could say for certain that the famous Tang-surnamed painter and poet had not visited Peach Blossom Mountain during his grand journey across a thousand miles.

What Zhou Dayou told them was the Tang Family Secret History. The tourists listened with relish, and with peach blossoms covering the mountain besides, they cried that the trip had been well worth it and promised to recommend it to their friends.

Zhou Yi listened from the side for a moment, easing his longing for his family somewhat, then turned and headed toward Peach Blossom Mountain's summit.

Ever since entering Peach Blossom Mountain, Zhou Yi had clearly sensed that the mountain's spiritual energy was distributed extremely unevenly. More than half of it was verdant wood-element spiritual energy.

Zhou Yi's True Self had no Spiritual Root in terms of innate aptitude. His cultivation was merely slow, but that did not prevent him from sensing spiritual energy.

In theory, forests had abundant trees, so wood-attribute spiritual energy was active. Rocky mountains had plentiful earth and stone, so metal- and earth-attribute spiritual energy was active. Oceans and rivers surged with vapor, so water-attribute spiritual energy was active. These were all normal phenomena.

However, the five elements generated and restrained one another. None could be absent. In theory, purely single-attribute spiritual energy did not exist.

Tree Demon Granny had operated on Black Mountain for a thousand years, and its wood spiritual energy was rich, yet it accounted for only thirty percent.

Thirty percent was already considered a place of abundant spiritual energy, let alone fifty percent.

"In the world of A Chinese Ghost Story, according to Senior Brother Yan Chixia, countless immortals had existed in the human realm during ancient times. Later, the immortal path gradually declined, while martial arts focused on body tempering flourished. By that reasoning, spiritual energy in that world had gradually dried up."

Zhou Yi pondered as he climbed the mountain.

"Blue Star was the exact opposite. Three years ago, there had been no spiritual energy at all. Then came the Spiritual Energy Revival, and the concentration of spiritual energy between heaven and earth had been rising..."

"Perhaps Peach Blossom Mountain has some extraordinary treasure!"

Peach Blossom Mountain's vast peach forest contained not a single other kind of tree. Along the way, Zhou Yi saw countless tourists taking pictures.

Most were young people. Older tourists preferred famous mountains and great rivers, as though it were some kind of obsession.

Zhou Yi's steps were light as he wandered around seemingly without purpose. At times, he stopped and closed his eyes in thought before changing direction. At other times, he picked up dead branches and fallen leaves from the ground, studied them carefully, then changed direction again.

Peach Blossom Mountain was not particularly tall, but its chain of peaks extended over a considerable area.

After searching for three or four hours, evening was approaching when he finally clearly sensed wisps of pure wood-element spiritual energy, faint and intermittent, drifting outward.

"Found it!"

A sharp glint flashed through Zhou Yi's eyes. He appeared to be wandering aimlessly across the mountain, but in truth, he had constantly been sensing and distinguishing the source of the wood-attribute spiritual energy, gradually drawing closer to where it was most concentrated.

Blue Star appeared to be undergoing a spiritual energy revival, but in reality, its spiritual energy was extraordinarily thin. Even compared to the A Chinese Ghost Story world, which had declined for a thousand years, it was inferior.

Had Zhou Yi's Divine Sense not been keen and his sensitivity to spiritual energy far beyond that of ordinary people, he would never have found the source of the wood-element spiritual energy.

The faint wisps of wood-element spiritual energy were more than ten times purer than the spiritual energy in the air.

The spiritual energy had dispersed into the air, increasing the proportion of wood-element spiritual energy throughout Peach Blossom Mountain.

Following the faint, pure wood-element spiritual energy, Zhou Yi continually adjusted his direction until he finally arrived at the mountaintop.

There stood a half-dead Old Peach Tree. Its trunk was thicker than a man's embrace, and it had to be at least thirty or forty years old.

Before Peach Blossom Mountain had been named Peach Blossom Mountain, several generations of farmers had already made a living planting peach trees. This one was probably from that time.

Compared to the luxuriant peach trees around it, the Old Peach Tree looked truly terrible.

The upper half of its trunk was blackened and carbonized, while the lower half had already dried up. Only a few scattered new shoots remained.

Zhou Yi quietly watched the peach tree, which was ninety-nine percent dead, his expression strange. At times, he let out soft exclamations of surprise; at other times, he seemed doubtful.

"Spiritual energy has only just revived, yet a plant Spirit Monster has already appeared in the world!"

Zhou Yi could not possibly have sensed it wrong. This seemingly half-dead peach tree possessed more vigorous vitality than any other peach tree on Peach Blossom Mountain.

The spiritual energy around the half-withered, half-thriving peach tree was dense enough to be called the richest on Peach Blossom Mountain.

This peach tree should have withered and been on the verge of death, yet it had suddenly sprouted new vitality.

It looked half-dead now, but perhaps before long, it would recover into a flourishing peach tree.

Most importantly, this Old Peach Tree had already developed a hazy consciousness. When Zhou Yi approached, he sensed faint fluctuations of mental power.

Zhou Yi merely possessed keen Divine Sense now. In essence, he was still a mortal. He had not entered the immortal path or condensed Divine Sense, so he could not communicate with it.

The peach tree spirit's hazy consciousness was exceptionally simple. As Zhou Yi approached, it continually emitted spiritual fluctuations telling him to leave and not come closer.

"No wonder no one comes within dozens of yards. Suggestions to the soul are far more effective than psychological suggestion."

From where Zhou Yi stood, he could take in all of Peach Blossom Mountain at a glance. Calling it the mountain's most beautiful spot would not have been an exaggeration, yet not a single tourist came near.

The Peach Spirit had only recently developed consciousness and did not know wood-element spells. Merely by continuously projecting the thought of driving others away, it caused tourists to unconsciously avoid the place.

"With the revival of spiritual energy, many naturally gifted darlings of cultivation already existed in the world. Once they came into contact with spiritual energy, they automatically absorbed it to strengthen themselves. The Wolf Demon I saw before and this Peach Spirit are both like that!"

"Blue Star's human race numbers several billion, hundreds of times more than Great Jing. The number of geniuses born here is certainly not small..."

"For three years, not a single scrap of information has leaked out. Either the circles I have access to are too low-level and cut off from information, or the higher-ups have long had powerful means to manage it."

Zhou Yi suppressed his wandering thoughts and looked at the Peach Spirit before him again.

Purely in terms of cultivation speed, among those with equal aptitude, the human race was fastest, the demon race came next, and plant Spirit Monsters were slowest.

That was only the theoretical state. In reality, other factors affected cultivation speed even more than aptitude.

The Great Dao was impartial, but judging everything solely by aptitude was far too shallow.

For example, the demon race had the bonuses of various innate bloodlines, while plant Spirit Monsters were naturally attuned to the spiritual energy of every element. No one could say for certain who was faster or slower.

Moreover, in terms of lifespan, plant Spirit Monsters lived the longest, demons came next, and human cultivators lived the shortest.

Tree Demon Granny had lived for a thousand years. Who knew how many outstanding human geniuses she had outlasted?