Inside the cave abode.
When the Book Spirit Zhang Yin heard that Chen Shuangbai needed books about Spirit Plants, he pointed a finger and found him the books on the Frostleaf Red Maple.
Chen Shuangbai opened one of them. It contained a detailed description, with particular emphasis at the end on the tree's Jia Wood nature and the fact that its seed was a Jia Wood Spirit Seed.
At this, Chen Shuangbai's heart settled somewhat.
After bidding farewell to the Book Spirit Zhang Yin, Chen Shuangbai returned to his cave abode on Lesser Yang Peak.
After activating all the cave abode's restrictions, Chen Shuangbai summoned a drop of Moon Soul True Water from the Spirit Platform Lotus Marsh with a thought. He let it fall onto the Spirit Seed, which had lost most of its vitality and was almost entirely devoid of spirituality.
A moment later.
Chen Shuangbai gazed at the Spirit Seed floating before him, suffused with clear, luminous spiritual light and brimming with vitality, and clicked his tongue inwardly.
"I never expected the Moon Soul True Water to be so domineering!"
"Who would have thought that not long ago, this Spirit Seed was nearly devoid of vitality?"
Seeing the power of the Moon Soul True Water, Chen Shuangbai's thoughts began to wander.
This True Water can not only awaken and nourish Spirit Seeds and Spirit Plants, but also help spirit beasts cultivate. Perhaps it can help me cultivate too?
Chen Shuangbai sank his consciousness into the Dao Fruit and told it of his question.
Before long, a faint thought came from the Dao Fruit-
It was possible!
"That's wonderful."
Chen Shuangbai was overjoyed.
But he soon grew worried again.
"About a third of the spiritual liquid in the Life-Accepting Gourd only turned into three drops of True Water, and nothing but spiritual water can be transformed... That's another expense in Merit Points."
When he had gone to the Expenditure Hall to have the Spirit Seed identified, Chen Shuangbai had also taken the opportunity to look at the spiritual waters available for disciples to exchange for.
The Jade Spring Sect was renowned for its water arts, and several tributaries of water veins crisscrossed Sunken Jade Valley. Its underground water sources were also abundant, and with the sect-protecting grand array gathering and nurturing Spiritual Qi, it naturally produced many kinds of spiritual water.
A relatively well-known one that cost somewhat fewer Merit Points was the Clear Spirit Spring Water. It came from several spirit springs within the Jade Spring Sect and was initially purified and condensed. It contained mild water Spiritual Qi.
"But this is the most basic spiritual water. Its Spiritual Qi is thin, though it's plentiful and cheap.
"If I used it to transform into Moon Soul True Water... the efficiency would probably be extremely low. It might take a vast amount of spiritual water to produce a single drop."
The second kind was Cold Pool Yin Water.
It was pool water from deep underground, refined through a special method. Its nature was cold, and it contained a trace of yin Spiritual Qi.
"That's a better match for Moon Soul True Water, and its conversion efficiency might be higher than Clear Spirit Spring Water's. But it costs fifty times as much as Clear Spring Water, and if its yin and cold properties are too strong, it might not have the True Water's power to awaken and nourish."
The third kind was Earth Vein Milk Paste.
"Earth Vein Milk Paste is a lesser version of Earth Vein Stone Stalactite. It contains both earth and wood Spiritual Qi and is rich in vitality, so it's well suited to the True Water's power to awaken and nourish..."
After thinking it over,
Chen Shuangbai found himself struggling to choose.
It was not that he could not afford them at all.
But producing Moon Soul True Water was a long-term undertaking. He would probably need to purchase a batch every few days, so he would likely spend Merit Points faster than he earned them.
Even so, he was not particularly anxious.
He now had a means of producing spiritual water himself: the Life-Accepting Gourd he had just acquired.
The gourd could gather spiritual essence, absorb water and wood primordial Qi, and condense pure spiritual liquid. That also counted as a kind of spiritual water, and its quality should be slightly higher than that of Clear Spring Spiritual Water.
Thus, after further careful consideration, Chen Shuangbai decided to use large quantities of Clear Spring Spiritual Water purchased from the Expenditure Hall as the main ingredient, supplement it with the water-wood spiritual liquid produced by the Life-Accepting Gourd, and blend them for conversion.
His decision made, Chen Shuangbai hesitated no longer.
He went outside the cave abode and looked around before finally turning his gaze to the clear pool in front of it.
The pool was connected to the earth-vein water beneath Lesser Yang Peak, which in turn fed into the underground water veins of the whole of Sunken Jade Valley. Nourished by the Spirit Veins, it was just the place for the gourd.
With that thought, Chen Shuangbai activated it with Law Power. The green-skinned gourd spun, turned into a streak of green light, and sank to the bottom of the pool, where it slowly began absorbing the surrounding water and wood primordial Qi and converting it into spiritual liquid.
It was a slow process, and there was no rushing it.
As soon as the gourd settled, Chen Shuangbai felt the Spiritual Qi gathering inside and outside the cave abode grow denser. The joy on his face became even more apparent.
"This trip to the cave abode was truly the right choice."
He did not hurry inside to cultivate. Instead, he glanced at the scenery outside the cave abode. An eagle's cry, piercing enough to split metal and shatter stone, reached his ears, and he saw waves of verdant pines in the distance, green filling his vision. Moved by the sight, he sat cross-legged where he was, and the Moon-Worshipping Clear Illumination Method began circulating on its own.
The rich primordial Qi of heaven and earth surged in from all around, gradually taking on a misty form as it drew closer to Chen Shuangbai.
From when the sun stood three poles high until the moon rose above the branches,
Chen Shuangbai finally emerged from that peculiar state. Upon waking, he found his whole body somewhat sticky, so he formed a hand seal and cast the Clothes-Cleansing Technique on himself, becoming clean and refreshed once more.
"I never expected to have this little moment of enlightenment."
Although this enlightenment had not brought Chen Shuangbai to the Qi Refinement Fourth Layer Middle Stage, it had made his foundation much more solid than when he had first entered the Qi Refinement Fourth Layer Early Stage. Presumably, after cultivating for a while longer, he would be able to break through to the middle stage without trouble.
His heart grew even more joyful.
Cultivation was a matter of patient grinding.
And matters that required such patient grinding could not be rushed.
Among the Jade Spring Sect's newest intake of disciples, Chen Shuangbai's current aptitude already placed him near the forefront, and that was despite the sect's high threshold for accepting disciples.
After all, which Foundation Establishment great cultivator had succeeded in reaching Foundation Establishment in his twenties or thirties?
And which Golden Core True Person had formed a Golden Core before the age of a hundred?
Unless he was an immortal banished from the heavens or a Devil Master upon the earth!
But regrettably, Chen Shuangbai was neither.
Even so, he was not discouraged.
After cultivating for another night, Chen Shuangbai sent Du Zifeng a message, telling him plainly that he had found a Jia Wood Spirit Seed and asking how he should find him.
When Chen Shuangbai sent it, he thought the refiner might be in seclusion refining artifacts, and he was prepared to wait some time for a reply.
To his surprise, Du Zifeng's message soon arrived.
"Come find me at the Three Yang Peaks, in Earth Character Artifact Chamber Twenty-Six."
Without further delay, Chen Shuangbai released the Flowing Cloud Flying Pouch, stepped lightly onto the cloud, and departed as a streak of white light.
The Three Yang Peaks still blazed with red light.
Even with the scorching power of the earth fire under the array's control, its terrifying heat still made the temperature frighteningly high for ten li around.
Thus, this place was unsuitable for mortal attendants.
Only Qi Refining Stage cultivators could survive here.