Wanfa Daojun, starting from the Little Cloud and Rain Technique

Chapter 573 Third-Order Gathering Yuan Tree

At the summit of the Cloud Sea Immortal City, the image of a Azure Dragon appears in the east, and the shape of a White Tiger appears in the west, with the dragon soaring and the tiger leaping.

The roars of dragons and tigers echoed, and Ji An's spirits lifted. He chuckled softly:
"Finally, I've successfully condensed the Golden Core. It wasn't easy at all."

Today is the ninth day since the spiritual energy vortex was formed. If he still cannot refine the golden core, there is a high probability that he will fail to break through. He has worried about him countless times.

The dragon and tiger shapes gradually dissipated, and black tribulation clouds began to gather.

The first tribulation lightning was a water-based tribulation cloud, and the cultivator attempting the breakthrough was a female cultivator.

The tribulation clouds gathered and dispersed, and the cultivators passed through one lightning tribulation after another. About seven hours later, purple thunderclouds gathered at the mountain peak.

Once the final chaotic tribulation is overcome, another Golden Core cultivator will be added to the Immortal City.

A great calamity is about to begin, and the more prosperous the cultivation world is, the more secure people feel.

Purple clouds pressed down on the city, threatening to crush it. Fragments of lightning flickered within the clouds, eclipsing the world's color, with only that purple hue shining brightly.

Purple lightning descended from the sky, like a giant dragon extending its claws, carrying destructive power. The female cultivator could be vaguely seen manipulating her magical artifacts to fight against the tribulation lightning.

There is no way to avoid the tribulation lightning; one can only face it head-on. At this moment, the cultivator has a bottomless abyss behind them and must have the determination to forge ahead.

Ji An's eyes narrowed sharply as he saw the cultivator's body fall the instant the tribulation lightning struck.

The purple calamity clouds faded in color and eventually dissipated, but the moon of the moon never appeared.

A sense of sorrow rose in his heart. This was the first time he had seen a cultivator fail to break through to the Golden Core stage. The Chaos Divine Lightning was the final touchstone; if one could not withstand it, one would die and perish.

The stone tortoise floated out of the void onto his palm, merged into his body, and entered his dantian.

In the immortal city, many cultivators witnessed this moment. Some looked sorrowful, some had complicated expressions, and some had a gloating expression.

The full spectrum of human nature is revealed in this moment.

"On the road to immortality lie countless withered bones; who will ever die in such a place?"

Ji An recited softly, his voice fading into the wind.

Inside the Black Stone Mountain cave, Ji An drank a jar of spiritual wine and let out a long breath.

The success rate of cultivators breaking through to the Golden Core stage is not high. He was lucky and never saw the cruel side of it, which made him subconsciously ignore this fact.

Today was the first time he had witnessed a cultivator die while breaking through to the Golden Core stage, but it was definitely not the last.

In fact, there were many cases of failed breakthroughs when they were in the Western Continent.

Speaking only of the people he knew, Mu Songde failed to break through to the Chaoyuan stage and died on the spot; Zhang Yuanshan and Mu Qingwan also failed to break through to the Chaoyuan stage, but fortunately their lifespans were still long enough to save them from death.

Breaking through to the Golden Core stage is much more dangerous; no matter how much lifespan you have left, failure means certain death.

It is said that breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage is even more dangerous, and he will have to go through many more trials in the future.

Ji An clenched his fists, his bones cracking, determined to forge ahead despite the perilous road ahead.

Thousands of ships pass by the sunken boat, and thousands of trees bloom in front of the dead tree.

Only by arming ourselves with greater strength can we calmly face all difficulties and obstacles.

With the help of the stone tortoise and the support of his small world, his path to immortality is much smoother than that of most cultivators.

Ji An focused his mind on his dantian, connecting with the stone tortoise, and 'saw' clear writing in his sea of ​​consciousness, which surprised him.

[Master: Ji An]

[Tao Yun: Gold 18.4, Water 17.9, Wood 18.3, Fire 19.2, Earth 21.4]

The deeper a cultivator's foundation, the greater the intensity of the lightning tribulation, and the more Dao essence the stone tortoise absorbs accordingly.

But are the cultivators who failed today truly profound?
It's obvious that, judging from the area of ​​the spiritual energy vortex and the speed at which the golden core was refined, the opponent's foundation is not strong, and is weaker than that of the cultivators who broke through a few days ago.

However, the stone turtle absorbed even more Daoist essence, and its combined values ​​were not much weaker than Li Haoran's.

What was the reason for all of this? Ji An had a vague answer in his heart.

When the lightning tribulation descended, the yin and yang energies within shifted, releasing the Daoist rhythm.

A cultivator's body should also absorb some of the Daoist essence, stimulating the sublimation and transformation of the body and soul.

If a cultivator absorbs less Dao essence, then the amount of Dao essence that is not absorbed will increase.

The cultivator died just as the chaotic lightning tribulation descended. Normally, the unabsorbed Dao essence would have dissipated, but it was absorbed by the stone tortoise.

The Daoist essence I obtained this time was somewhat like a blood-soaked bun.

Thinking of this, his feelings were complicated, and he murmured to himself:

"With death all things are empty, may you rest in peace, fellow Daoist."

He will not abandon the Daoist essence because of its origin; on the contrary, he will make good use of it so that when he ascends to a higher level in the future, he can also bring those fallen fellow Daoists to witness the glory of the upper levels.

Ji An took off the gourd-shaped stone pendant, rubbed it in his hand for a moment, and then entered the small world.

The Wuji Apricot Yellow Flag and the Azure Lotus Treasure Flag flew out as before, but he used his spiritual communication to stop them.

The earthen qilin tilted its head, letting out a low, adorable growl, as if to say, "What's wrong?"

Ji An did not answer, but gave the stone tortoise the order, "Refine all the spiritual energy and upgrade the grade of the Gathering Yuan Tree." The stone tortoise appeared above the Heaven and Earth Spirit Tree, and the ground shone with the light of the Bagua pattern. The earth unicorn understood everything.

It rode on a yellow spiritual cloud and flew to play beside the Soul-Nourishing Tree.

The Azure Dragon flew towards the Wood Spirit Field, letting out a deep, resounding roar. From somewhere in the dense forest, the chirping of a blue deer echoed, "Yo-yo!"

Upon hearing the two voices, Ji An couldn't help but smile knowingly. It was quite nice that the transforming magic weapon and the beast taming had become good friends.

Frequent contact with the Azure Dragon is beneficial to the pure bloodline of the Azure Deer.

The Gathering Yuan Tree was enveloped in yellow spiritual light, resembling a giant egg.

Waiting was too boring, and practicing the Five Elements Revolving Scripture was too time-consuming, so Ji An simply moved away from the Gathering Yuan Tree and began to practice the Immovable King Technique.

He has a very good physical foundation, and his cultivation method is in line with the Golden Jade Bone Body. In addition, with his Golden Core level cultivation, he can progress very quickly in cultivating this technique.

We have now entered the bone tempering stage and believe that we will soon reach the marrow cleansing realm, which will be the same as the realm of the Golden Jade Bone Body.

As he practiced, his muscles and bones resonated, and surging blood and qi flowed from his body, with hot air gushing out from his pores.

"Hmph, ha!"

As Ji An exhaled, he felt a sudden tightening in his bones, as if he were being squeezed by an invisible force.

A surge of heat rose from the tailbone, instantly impacting the back of the head, and then I felt my bones begin to burn, as if they were being boiled in hot water.

A stronger stream of air gushed from her pores, faintly reddish, because it contained a trace of waste blood from her bone marrow.

It must be said that the Immovable King Technique is indeed worthy of being a technique that can reach the Nascent Soul stage; it is much more powerful than the Golden Jade Bone Body.

Marrow Cleansing Realm achieved.

Almost simultaneously, the giant yellow egg enveloping the Gathering Yuan Tree suddenly collapsed, and countless stars twinkled in the small world, like a dazzling constellation of stars falling from the night sky, adorning everything with a beautiful rain of light.

The Bagua diagram on the ground around the Gathering Yuan Tree quickly faded, like watermarks on dried earth, leaving faint traces.

A rumbling sound came from deep within the earth, and the land shook.

Bubbles rose from the pond, stirring up the mud and making the water murky. The fish leaped high into the air, seemingly unable to tolerate the unclean environment.

In the lava abyss, numerous bubbles rose from the magma lake, and several crimson carp surfaced, breathing with their mouths wide open.

A strong wind blew, and the spirit tree swayed violently involuntarily.

Ji An was suddenly startled. Wind?
There's no flow of the five elements in this small world, so how can there be wind, and such a strong wind at that!
Only then did he realize that the thin membrane of air between the spirit fields had seemingly disappeared.

He could sense that the fire elemental wind was scorching hot, the water elemental wind was moist as spring rain, the metal wind was vast and filled with a chilling aura, and the wood wind was gentle on his face like a spring breeze through willows.

The 'atmospheric cycle' of the small world has truly been established.

The spiritual plants that had been planted just a few days ago were 'ravaged' by various spiritual winds and became somewhat wilted.

'Won't this affect the growth of the spiritual plants?'

The thought had barely formed in his mind when Ji An laughed and shook his head.

If there were no darkness, how could the preciousness of light be revealed? If it were always spring, the world would become monotonous.

Spring breeze, summer rain, autumn frost, and winter snow—these elements together form a rich and varied cycle of life.

He looked back at the center of the small world, where a spirit tree nearly three zhang tall stretched its body toward the sky, its branches extending outwards by a factor of two.

The newly sprouted branches are full of tender buds, and a warm and lively luster shines on the leaves and bark.

All of this indicates that the Gathering Yuan Tree has finally transformed into the third tier.

Fire burns everything, turning ashes into mud, and it is in this mud that trees grow stronger.

Once the Heaven and Earth Spirit Tree is cultivated to the third level, it will soon bring a series of positive effects.

The spiritual plants in the small world can all be upgraded to a minor grade in just a few years.

The Phoenix Tree, Night Tree, Purple Gold Wutong Tree, Azure Mist Pine, Star Tree, Soul Nourishing Tree, and Azure Moon Jade Tree, all of which are of mid-grade tier three, are enough to excite anyone to think about them.

The only regret is that he can enjoy this joy alone, and the Tier 3 resources cannot be released.

At this moment, Ji An's desire to improve his cultivation level as soon as possible was even stronger. Once his cultivation reached the late stage of the Golden Core realm, he would dare to take the initiative to reveal the fact that he possessed the Azure Lotus Burning Heart Flame.

Then, using this as a brand, they offered "leveling services" to others, charging them Tier 3 resources as compensation.

In this way, he can gradually release the third-tier resources he has stored away without arousing suspicion.

Ji An strode over to the Gathering Yuan Tree, placed his hand on the trunk, and felt the flow of life force within it.

Based on the power of Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, and Fire gather together, but these energies are intertwined and so harmonious, yet only the power of Earth is revealed.

Water is Taiyin, fire is Taiyang, wood is Shaoyang, metal is Shaoyin, and earth is the combination of yin and yang, old and young, and is the product of the collision of wood, fire, metal and water.

He knew this theory before, but only now did he truly grasp a sliver of its essence.

Let's not be fixated on Ren and Gui water for now, but consider them as 'water', which represents Taiyin (the moon). Bing and Ding fire are both manifestations of the fire element, and together they are called 'fire', representing the sun.

The fusion and transformation of Yin and Yang created everything in the world.

(End of this chapter)