Wanfa Daojun, starting from the Little Cloud and Rain Technique

Chapter 897 The Dilemma of Both Sides

The earthen unicorn landed on the ground and let out a low roar, like a chorus of companions.

After the long howl, Ji An quietly sensed his body, trying to find the reason for the accelerated circulation of his cultivation technique.

After his cultivation broke through to the Golden Core stage, his cultivation technique was constantly in operation. As long as there was spiritual energy, he could absorb and refine it, which was equivalent to being in a constant state of cultivation. However, the speed of operation was much slower than actively activating the cultivation technique.

As one's cultivation level continues to improve, the speed of the cultivation technique's operation also continues to increase. If one does not cultivate for a day, the improvement gained by relying on the automatic operation of the technique is equivalent to half an hour of normal cultivation.

He closed his eyes and focused all his spiritual energy on calming his mind. As his mind became quieter, he finally discovered the clues.

I felt an energy cycle forming between the Wuji Earth Dao Seed, the Gathering Yuan Tree, and the earth, with a wonderful rhythm flowing and vibrating through my body.

Ji An sat down cross-legged and began to circulate the Five Elements Wheel Sutra.

The spiritual energy in the small world converged towards the center, and light spots formed by the convergence of the five elements of spiritual energy, such as cyan, red, and yellow, flew out from the spiritual fields and plants and were absorbed into his body along with the spiritual energy.

He was like a powerful machine, devouring all spiritual energy and the five elements.

The spiritual energy surged within the immortal veins, and after further refinement by the Five Elements Divine Palace, it transformed into golden magical crystal sand.

Because the refining speed was too fast, the spiritual energy could no longer form a large vortex.

Ji An made a comparison and found that his speed of refining spiritual energy had increased by 20% compared to before.

This is the resonance formed between him, the Gathering Yuan Tree, and the small world; if he leaves this place, he will lose this enhancement.

Once his magical power had fully recovered, Ji An stood up and inventoried the remaining urns containing ashes.

In order to improve the Gathering Yuan Tree, he prioritized using the ashes of late-stage Nascent Soul level experts. Now, he only has one urn of ashes from late-stage Nascent Soul level experts, five urns of ashes from mid-stage Nascent Soul level cultivators, and a dozen or so urns of ashes from early-stage Nascent Soul level experts.

He placed the urn containing the ashes into the Cave Void Stone, then rode the clouds and flew to the center of the lava lake.

The island where the hibiscus tree stands has been expanding over time, and now covers an area of ​​about one acre, where the roots with their exposed red bark can be seen.

The dense, intertwined veins look like a bunch of blood vessels, which can be quite frightening at first glance.

Thanks to the help of the ashes, the Juyuan Tree's grade improved too quickly, and other spirit trees haven't had time to improve significantly yet. Currently, the Fusang Tree's grade is still only mid-grade fourth rank.

Ji An channeled his magical power to create a crack, burying the ashes of the late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator inside. Then, he formed a hand seal and released the Thick Virtue Evolution Spirit Spell.

Yellow light spread across the ground, and the gaps closed up, restoring everything to its original state.

He left half of the urn containing his ashes under the Fusang tree, then flew on a cloud to the central area of ​​the white spiritual field, landing beside the Seven Luminaries Golden Branch.

The fruit of this spirit tree is already in its ripening period, but Ji An estimates that it will take another ten years or so to fully mature. The ripening period of high-level spirit tree fruits is measured in ten years.

He extended his divine sense to sense the situation underground, carefully avoiding the roots, and buried a jar of ashes of a Nascent Soul Stage 6 cultivator four feet away from the roots of the spirit tree.

In some ways, it's not a bad thing that spirit trees have a relatively long maturation period, as this gives him ample time to gradually improve the quality of the spirit trees.

As long as the grade of the spirit wood is improved before the spirit fruit is fully ripe, a fourth-grade superior spirit fruit can be harvested.

Ji An left the remaining urn of ashes under the Seven Luminaries Golden Branch Tree and returned to the Gathering Yuan Tree on colorful auspicious clouds.

He let out a clear whistle to signal the summons, and soon the five magical treasures of the Five Directions Flags returned to his side and entered his dantian.

Ji An sat cross-legged under the tree and activated the Melting Gold Divine Fire Technique. The flames of his primordial life force surged and burned fiercely.

The Five Banners Spiritual Treasures form a continuously circulating circle, radiating wisps of light towards the center, which then merge into the Five Elements Divine Mountain located at the center of the circle.

Lingbao was not damaged; this was done for a specific purpose.

The Five Elements Divine Mountain can absorb high-grade spiritual soils such as the Yellow Emperor's Virtuous Soil and the White Emperor's Crystal Soil and integrate them into itself, thereby gradually improving its own rank.

However, the fusion process is very slow. Previously, it would take less than six months to successfully integrate the spiritual soil, but now it takes about a year and a half.

Ji An accidentally discovered that activating the Five Directions Flags spiritual treasure could accelerate the fusion process, so he tried to set aside half an hour each day to use secret methods to promote the integration of spiritual soil into the Five Elements Divine Mountain.

Now that the Gathering Yuan Tree has been upgraded to the fourth-tier top-grade, the grade of the Spirit Field will also be upgraded one after another. At that time, we will be able to start upgrading the grade of the Five Elements Divine Mountain.

He now really likes this magical artifact. In battle, he doesn't need to use any tricks; he just needs to activate it and smash it down hard. It's simple, brutal, and extremely useful.

Lotus Temple, Mahavira Hall.

More than forty Samsara Realm monk kings gathered in the hall; all the monk kings of the Eastern Continent were present.

The number of Dharma Protectors is about twice that of the Sangha Kings, but they are essentially puppets of the Buddhist monks. In the eyes of the Buddhist monks, they are merely meat shields and henchmen, and cannot be considered cultivators in the pure sense.

The Venerable Master Jingci sat cross-legged on a futon, his long beard like a silver ribbon, a trace of sorrow on his thin face.
"Esteemed monks, the cultivators have been gathering outside Lanruo Temple during the day to launch fierce attacks. In the past six months, the power of vows generated throughout the Buddhist realm has been insufficient to offset the depletion caused by these attacks."

This situation is undermining our foundations; we must find a solution, otherwise we are committing slow suicide.

The area covered by the Lotus Subduing Demon Formation is known as the Buddhist Domain.

Two years ago, the passing of the Venerable Rabjadana, Venerable Rabjadana, and more than twenty other Venerable Rabjadana severely damaged the morale of the Buddhist community.

Immediately afterwards, the cultivators began to besiege Lanruo Temple. At the beginning, only thirty-odd Nascent Soul cultivators and hundreds of Golden Core cultivators participated in the battle. At that time, the enemy's daytime attacks consumed less of their willpower than the power generated in the Buddhist realm.

As more and more cultivators joined the battle, the situation gradually changed. Now, there are about eighty Nascent Soul cultivators and over a thousand Golden Core cultivators among the cultivators participating in the battle. The attack intensity has increased by about three times, and the power of vows obtained from the Buddhist Domain can no longer keep up with the consumption.

The gap in the power of vows began to widen continuously, and if this continued, the temples surrounding the Vajra Subduing Demon Formation would inevitably collapse.

The Pure Moon Monk King touched his bright bald head and said helplessly:

"The enemy's defenses are very tight. Even if I possess the supernatural ability to travel at will, it would be difficult for me to launch a surprise attack."

The attacking enemies consisted of four Nascent Soul Stage 9 cultivators and Golden Core Stage cultivators divided into four formations. They would set up a magic array before launching the attack, clearly to guard against his sneak attack.

Unless he can break through the formation in one strike and kill the Golden Core cultivators in the process, he will inevitably be intercepted by other Nascent Soul cultivators after making his first move.

Monk Yuanjue cleared his throat with a cough and then continued:

"This humble monk believes that we can organize our senior brothers who are in the late stage of the Samsara Realm to attack the enemy's formation when they launch an attack."

"As long as we can disrupt the enemy's attack rhythm and delay them for a few more years, we will receive reinforcements."

Harassment can only be done by senior brothers in the late stage of the Reincarnation Realm, because it is a bloody lesson. About a year ago, Lotus Temple organized a counterattack. Two senior brothers in the mid-stage of the Reincarnation Realm were ordered to stop the enemy, but they were instantly killed by the enemy with thunder magic and spiritual treasures as big as mountains.

He witnessed this scene firsthand, and cold sweat immediately soaked his back.

Since then, Lotus Temple has decided to temporarily refrain from going out to fight, which has led to the current situation.

His words were barely out of his mouth when someone refuted him, and the monk king Yuankong said solemnly:
"There are about thirty enemies at the late stage of the Reincarnation Realm on the battlefield. If they cannot penetrate deep into the cultivators' camp, they will not pose a sufficient threat. But if they do penetrate deep into the camp and are surrounded by the enemy, how many monk kings will be able to return alive?"

Nominally, everyone came to the Eastern Continent to spread the glory of Buddha, but the real reason is that the system in the Western Continent has become rigid. The allocation of resources such as vow power is based on seniority, which makes it impossible for many cultivators to obtain enough vow power to maintain their cultivation.

They traveled across the ocean to the Eastern Continent, hoping to expand their territory and turn the vast land into a 'pasture' for harvesting the power of wishes, in the face of the weak cultivators.

Spreading the glory of Buddha was not the main reason, but merely a side effect.

Most of the cultivators who come here are dissatisfied with the distribution methods in the Western Continent and want to obtain more resources here, rather than sacrifice themselves.

They thought that the cultivators, who had suffered greatly from the True Demon Tribulation, would not dare to launch a full-scale war, and that they could slowly erode this land by boiling it like a frog in lukewarm water.

Everything was going smoothly until the arrival of the Sea Monk King and his reinforcements, when the situation suddenly collapsed.

Perhaps their actions made the cultivators feel threatened, so they had no choice but to unite once again.

He paused, his gaze sweeping across the room, and said in a deep voice:

"I believe that the enemy's siege cannot last long. As long as we can withstand the attacks for decades, the internal contradictions of the enemy will erupt."

In this case, all we need to do is maintain enough willpower each day to replenish everyone's cultivation and the energy consumed when attacked.

After hundreds of years of development, there are hundreds of millions of believers in the Buddhist realm. If these people are more devout in their faith, their vows will naturally increase.

These mortals live too well under our protection; only suffering increases the quality of our vows. By creating some minor troubles for them, believers will naturally come to the temple more often to pray for blessings.

If the situation drags on long enough, problems such as the depletion of resources, stagnation in cultivation, and continuous reduction in lifespan will inevitably arise for cultivators.

Cultivators are difficult to deal with, but believers are easy to manipulate.

“What the monk Yuankong said makes sense, and I wholeheartedly agree.”

Only through suffering can the Buddha's compassion and power be revealed; only when believers have greater desires can they contribute more merit and effort.

Everyone agreed, saying that when faced with the choice between risking one's life and solving the problem safely, the latter, which seemed better, was the obvious choice.

"This humble monk seconded that."

Seeing that more and more people were agreeing, Jingyue Zhenjun spoke up in rebuttal:
"This proposal is only a temporary solution. The area of ​​the Buddhist realm will not increase, but the number of mortals is constantly increasing. One day, we will have internal conflicts over survival."

On the other hand, although the cultivators have mobilized a large number of people to besiege us, they still have vast areas behind them to recuperate and rebuild, giving them more war potential than us. We must come up with a way to restrain the cultivators' development.

I remember there are many spies who have converted to Buddhism hidden within the forces of independent cultivators. It's time to activate these spies and cause trouble for the cultivators.

Prolonged defense inevitably leads to defeat; once the initiative in war is seized by the enemy, defeat is only a matter of time.

Monk Yuankong pondered and said:
"This humble monk agrees to activate the hidden agent, but I refuse the proposal that involves leaving the Lotus Subduing Demon Formation to fight elsewhere."

Luofeng Mountain, Fengyi Palace.

Ji An and several other Nascent Soul Ninth Level cultivators sat attentively in the main hall, listening intently to the Nanhua Sect Leader's explanation.

The Azure Phoenix True Lord had a full head of silver hair, and the crow's feet at the corners of his eyes were etched with the marks of time.

She sighed softly and pointed outside the hall, saying:

"The Nanhua Sect has been established on Luofeng Mountain for over 20,000 years, and has devoted a great deal of effort to cultivating the spiritual veins from the third-grade upper level to the fourth-grade middle level."

We have endured the baptism of the True Demon Tribulation, and our spiritual veins have been damaged. Now, we are responding to the call of the cultivation world to attack the Buddhist cultivators, but our damaged spiritual veins are simply not enough to support so many high-level cultivators to absorb and exhale spiritual energy.

Half a year ago, I discovered that the concentration of spiritual energy contained in the spiritual field was constantly decreasing. If this continues, I don't know if the Buddhist cultivators will be dragged down, but the Nanhua Sect will definitely collapse first.

We earnestly request that you, the True Lords, consider the difficulties faced by our sect and relocate some of our cultivators.

The Spirit Gathering Array can extract spiritual energy from spirit stones for cultivators to use in their practice, but such an array is simply not enough to sustain the cultivation of True Monarchs.

The spiritual energy exhaled by the eighty-one True Monarchs was enormous, consuming far more spiritual energy than all the cultivators of the Nanhua Sect combined.

Although the allied forces provided a lot of resources as compensation, the negative impact of a drop in the grade of the spiritual veins would be too far-reaching.

If she had a choice, she would never agree to let Luofeng Mountain become the base of the allied forces, but as a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, she simply couldn't go against the will of a top-tier sect.

Azure Dragon True Lord nodded solemnly, sighed, and said:

"I will send someone to inform the Allied Forces' logistics of the True Lord's request and order them to arrange for several fourth-tier spiritual veins to divert cultivators. However, it will require a teleportation array to connect to your sect's mountain gate. Is that acceptable?"

As a cultivator of the Divine Wood Sect, he was well aware of the devastating impact of a decline in the grade of a spiritual vein.

The war lasted for two years. The only good news was that there were very few casualties, but the consumption of resources was enormous.

Putting aside everything else, countless high-grade spirit stones have been scattered, in addition to the damage to array plates and flags, and the consumption of pills and talismans, which are like a bottomless pit constantly devouring the cultivation world that has just begun to recover some vitality.

The monks responded to the call to fight, but without compensation, it would be impossible to maintain their morale for long.

Everyone understands what righteousness is, but when it comes to survival, survival is of course more important.

Leaving aside the difficulty of finding other spiritual veins, if a teleportation array is built, the high-grade spirit stones consumed by activating it twice a day would be a huge expense.

The greater the distance, the greater the consumption. It seems that there is only one spiritual vein within tens of thousands of miles that meets the requirements, so it is necessary to set up an ultra-long-distance teleportation array.

Azure Phoenix True Lord cupped his hands and, steeling himself, asked:

"Thank you, True Lord. I wonder how long it will take for your words to be put into practice?"

The sect's spiritual veins have already begun to be affected, and she will not agree to let it take a year or two to resolve this.

(End of this chapter)