Wanfa Daojun, starting from the Little Cloud and Rain Technique

Chapter 744 Traveling Far Away
The army besieged the Golden Spirit Sect, and dozens of Nascent Soul level True Demons broke through the mountain gate. Demonic energy poured in, the sky was torn apart, and countless demons poured down like a torrential rain. Black flames burned, and the mountains and rivers were shattered, as if the end of the world had arrived.

Familiar faces, some struggling in pain, others screaming in despair, were all reduced to ashes by the attacks of the true demons.

Chaoyang Peak, Ningcui Cliff, Yunhe Mountain, Chitong Mountain, Chiyan Peak—one after another, the mountain peaks collapsed.

Ji An suddenly woke up, finding his forehead drenched in sweat. He gasped for breath, "That was a nightmare."

He stood up, put his hands behind his back, and paced back and forth, wondering if it was some kind of omen for the future.

Cultivators rarely dream, which is even rarer than sudden intuition. However, they can deal with whatever comes their way and need not fear the future.

"We must speed up our cultivation progress."

After advancing in realm, both the total amount and quality of magical power increase, the strength of the divine soul increases, and the primordial fire of life becomes more vigorous—this is an improvement across all dimensions.

Ji An rode the clouds and found the Golden Spirit Eagle, which he put into his spirit beast bag. Then he flew to the sky above the center of the lava lake.

A group of golden carp playing around the small island in the middle of the lake saw him arrive and immediately sank into the lava, not daring to show their faces again.

The two trunks of the hibiscus tree are intertwined, and its leaves are crimson.

"There's no time to wait for you to grow slowly," Ji An sighed, his mind connecting with the stone tortoise in his dantian.
"Refine the Dao essence to upgrade the spirit wood to the middle grade of the third rank."

The Gathering Yuan Tree is already at the fourth level. Even if the ashes of the Nascent Soul cultivators are scattered, the effect will not be that significant. It would be better to use them to 'invest' in the Fusang Tree.

If this sacred tree of heaven and earth bears fruit soon, we can use mulberries instead of elixirs. Although it will be wasteful, we can't worry about that now.

Using the ashes of a Nascent Soul cultivator as fertilizer on a spiritual plant of too low a grade will not have a positive effect and may even harm it.

I remember in my past life, when I was a child, my family lived in the countryside. Every morning after waking up, I would give the roses a little bit of my urine, hoping that they would bloom big and beautiful flowers. But the roses couldn't bear the imperial favor and died.

The adults said it was "burned" to death, just like it had been given too much fertilizer.

The same applies to spiritual plants; if the fertilizer is too strong, they cannot withstand it and will wither.

The stone tortoise appeared above the spirit tree, and the red and gold spiritual energy threads intertwined, quickly forming a huge cocoon of light that enveloped the entire island.

The surrounding red lake surface reflects the Bagua pattern, its jet-black surface shimmering with a lively luster.

The spiritual plant is still very young, but it will grow tall after it is upgraded to the middle grade of the third rank, which means that enough space has been reserved for its survival.

The crimson color represents the Ding Fire spiritual energy, and the gold color represents the Bing Fire spiritual energy. Ji An's current abilities make it extremely difficult to normally separate these two spiritual energies, but the stone tortoise does it with ease.

Ji An initially did not intend to nourish Fusang with ashes, feeling that it was tantamount to the plant eating people. In the end, he ate mulberries, which was equivalent to indirectly eating people.

Under external pressure, that little bit of psychological fastidiousness has disappeared without a trace.

The philosophy of survival is to eat people rather than be eaten. Also, by the time the hibiscus tree grows to bear mulberries, the ashes will have already been digested.

It was unclear how long the spiritual wood would take to improve. Ji An left the lava lake and hovered over the nearby spiritual fields before finally landing beside the lightning-struck peach wood.

This spirit tree is a top-grade third-tier tree, bearing twelve fist-sized spirit fruits.

The color of the peel is similar to that of a normal peach, and it has already turned red in large areas. It should ripen gradually in the next few years.

What's different is that occasionally, twisted, forked, bright patterns flash across the surface of the spirit fruit; those are flowing lightning radiance.

Ji An narrowed his eyes slightly. He wondered how long it would take for the Fusang tree to grow to the fourth level and bear mulberries. Here, there were ready-made spiritual fruits that could be eaten directly to improve cultivation.

To make the spirit fruit more effective, the spirit tree must be upgraded to the fourth rank.

Judging from its medicinal properties and pharmacology, the fruit of the lightning-struck spirit peach tree not only contains abundant pure spiritual energy, but also contains the power of lightning, making it very suitable for stimulating muscles, bones and nerves, and can be regarded as a wonderful medicine for body tempering.

If he could elevate the Immovable King Technique to the Vajra Realm at the Nascent Soul level, his strength would also be greatly enhanced.

A breakthrough in body-refining techniques is equivalent to enhancing life potential; the primordial fire will become more vigorous, and all magical treasures will benefit.

In particular, one's natal magic weapon can accelerate its advancement to the fourth-tier spiritual treasure level.

Normally, only when a Nascent Soul cultivator's natal magic weapon is upgraded to the fourth rank does he truly possess powerful combat strength.

About half an hour later, the stone tortoise flew to Ji An's side. It was now much faster than before at improving the grade of spirit wood or accelerating the ripening of spirit herbs.

Ji An focused his mind on his dantian to check the consumption of Dao energy.

[Tao Yun: Gold 500, Water 500, Wood 500, Fire 64.5, Earth 500]

Having lost over 400 points of Daoist essence, it must be said that the cost of upgrading one's spiritual root is quite significant.

He immediately issued another order: "Refine the Dao essence and upgrade the grade of the lightning-struck spirit peach tree."

The stone tortoise left its dantian and began weaving a cocoon of light. Ji An did not linger and flew back to the center of the lava lake on a cloud.

The hibiscus tree is now over ten feet tall, with each main trunk branching out into numerous twigs. Its leaves are about the size of his palm, fiery red in color with a flowing light, and the veins have changed from dark green to silvery white.

When the veins of the leaves turn golden, that's when the hibiscus tree advances to the fourth level.

Ji An took out the wine jar containing the ashes of the demonic cultivator from the Void Stone, and used his magic to open a crack two feet away from the roots of the Fusang tree, then poured the ashes into it.

The ashes were white, resembling finely ground jade powder, with a faint green glow—a testament to the Azure Lotus Heart-Burning Flame. With the help of Nascent Soul level ashes, the Fusang Tree's advancement to the third-tier top-grade level would be much easier.

Ji An stroked the slightly rough brown bark of the hibiscus tree, feeling a warmth spreading through his palm.

A slight smile appeared on his lips. "Grow up quickly, time waits for no one."

With a change in the hand seals, he activated his magic power to release the Thick Virtue Evolution Spirit Mantra. Yellow spiritual light rose, and the small island in the center of the lake trembled slightly. The ashes in the rock and soil beneath his feet were automatically and evenly distributed at the roots of the spirit tree.

After doing all this, auspicious five-colored clouds rose from beneath his feet. Ji An returned to the vicinity of the lightning-struck peach tree, sat down cross-legged, and began to contemplate the details of the Moon Palace. Spare moments were perfect for this.

It only took the stone tortoise a quarter of an hour to complete the upgrade of the spirit wood's grade. Ji An couldn't help but be surprised when it returned to his dantian.

It's important to know that upgrading a lightning-struck peach tree from a top-tier third-order to a fourth-order tree involves far more energy transfer than upgrading a Fusang tree from a mid-tier third-order tree.

"Perhaps the spirit wood itself is not far from being upgraded in rank."

Ji An muttered to himself and once again focused his mind on the stone tortoise, where golden characters appeared in the sky above the Guanghan Palace.

[Tao Yun: 500, water 500, wood 426.8, fire 0, earth 500]

The fire element Daoist energy was exhausted, and it was transformed using the wood element Daoist energy.

He stood up and walked back to the lightning-struck spirit peach tree. He saw that the spirit tree was thicker than before, but its height had not changed much, only two feet more.

Not only that, the spirit fruit had also become 'plump' and was shiny and juicy.

"In a few more years, we'll be able to eat fourth-tier spirit fruits! How wonderful!"

Having decided on a strategy to quickly improve his cultivation, Ji An simply began to accelerate the ripening of spiritual herbs, spending most of the day to ripen the herbs for a batch of Five-Color Pills.

These medicinal herbs were planted only a few years ago, and the total cost of various Daoist techniques was over 1,100 points.

There's no way around it; wanting quick gains inevitably comes at a price.

After obtaining the elixir, Ji An meditated and regulated his breathing for a while, and then immediately began refining the pills.

Having already gained experience in refining, he no longer refined them one by one, but directly refined the whole batch.

One batch of medicinal herbs can produce five pills. This time, three pills were produced, two of which were of the highest quality.

Ji Anxin put the two fine pills into the jade bottle and stored them in the Void Stone. Then he took out the jade slip to record his alchemy experience.

There are subtle differences between refining a single pill and refining an entire batch. This refining process has provided him with experience in refining entire batches, and he is very confident that he can improve the success rate when refining the Five-Colored Pill again next time.

A regular-quality Five-Flower Pill is equivalent to adding ten years of arduous cultivation, while a premium-quality pill is equivalent to adding thirteen or fourteen years of arduous cultivation.

If the pill-forming rate can be increased to 80%, then improving cultivation can reduce the consumption of pills, and there will be no need for so much Daoist essence to accelerate the ripening of spiritual herbs.

Ji An put away the jade slip, then directly picked up an ordinary quality pill and swallowed it, and began to refine it by circulating the Five Elements Revolving Scripture.

The vital fire in the lower dantian surged, swaying gracefully; the veins on the surface of the Five Elements Divine Palace flickered, their light shining in turn.

The nascent soul, with its hand seals and solemn countenance, sat cross-legged in the Guanghan Palace, absorbing and releasing the soul power and magical power it had refined.

Two days later, inside the Wuji Hall.

Ji An sat at the head of the table and said slowly:
"Before the demonic energy reaches the sect, I have important business to attend to and will be heading to the Hundred Thousand Mountains."

There's something I need you to keep an eye on: check if there are any disciples in the sect who are on the verge of breaking through to the Golden Core stage.

He needs to go to the Hundred Thousand Mountains to capture some Golden Core demon beasts, but he also needs a cultivator to trigger a tribulation lightning, otherwise these demon beasts will be useless.

Lin Jiuxiao scratched his head and said with a wry smile:
“True Lord, the sect has been closed for decades. If any disciple had met the requirements to break through to the Golden Core stage, they would have applied to form the Golden Core stage long ago. It's impossible that they waited until now.”

Generally speaking, the biggest obstacle for cultivators after opening up their Five Elements Divine Palace is comprehending the mutual generation of the Five Elements. It's extremely rare for someone like Junior Brother Liu Yu to be stuck at the Five Qi Convergence Realm for many years.

In the future, disciples who have reached the peak of the Five Elements Divine Palace can only comprehend the mutual generation of the Five Elements within the sect, but there is no such condition within the sect.

It is impossible for any new Golden Core cultivators to be born before the True Demon Tribulation ends.

Ji An sighed softly, "I'll have to figure it out myself."

He was well aware of the sect's situation, and he had only asked that question as a precaution.

Now that he clearly knows he can't rely on the sect, he can only rely on luck and hope to happen to encounter a demon beast that is breaking through in the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

If you are unlucky and do not encounter it, you can only go to the Southern Continent or the far north, or go to Yuanhe Mountain.

He stood up and said in a deep voice:

"I'm setting off. If all goes well, I can return this year. If not, I'll return to my ancestral home within two years."

Lin Jiuxiao didn't ask why the other person was going out; there must be a reason they had to go. He solemnly cupped his hands in greeting:

"Take care, My Lord."

(End of this chapter)