After binding with a genius, I became an immortal by exploiting loopholes.

Chapter 137 Increase in Spiritual Energy Concentration

Since its transplantation, the Earth Vein Spirit Embryo has been very quiet, with no unusual activity except for the steady flickering of its emerald light and the slow growth of its roots.

He put down his spirit hoe, lifted the bluestone slab at the entrance of the cave, and jumped down.

Inside the cave, the emerald light of the earth vein spirit embryo was flashing rapidly, and its roots were trembling slightly in the soil, as if it was accumulating some kind of power, but it was still lacking a bit.

He squatted down, placed his palm on the surface of the Ganoderma lucidum, and could feel the powerful vitality within it surging around, trying to break through something, yet being restrained by some invisible barrier.

It needs to transform, but it doesn't have enough nutrients.

Without hesitation, Lu Qingchen immediately drew a wisp of cultivation from the Dao Stele's light pearl and injected it directly into Lingzhi's body.

The Ganoderma trembled slightly, its emerald light brightened a bit, and the force of the impact seemed to have calmed down somewhat.

He continued to inject, and the light beads shrank at an imperceptible speed. The green light of the Ganoderma lucidum grew brighter and brighter, and the roots trembled more and more violently underground.

It wasn't until the cultivation light pearl accumulated in the Dao Stele was used up by half that Lingzhi gradually calmed down, and the green light resumed its rhythm of bright and dim, but it was brighter and more powerful than before.

Lu Qingchen squatted in the cave and checked the root system of the spiritual embryo again.

The cultivation power that had just been injected had been completely absorbed, and a very faint golden luster appeared on the surface of the root system. It was slightly thicker than before, but it did not continue to spread outward.

After confirming that the earth vein spirit embryo had completely stabilized, he climbed out of the cave along the wooden ladder, replaced the bluestone slab, and covered it with soil.

He sat on the edge of the field for a while.

The image of the trembling Ganoderma lucidum just now is still vivid in my mind; that boundless vitality could not be produced by normal growth.

It must be that the cultivation level of the Dao Stele triggered some kind of change, and this earth vein spirit embryo is undergoing a transformation.

This is just the beginning; it's still a long way from a true transformation. It needs continuous cultivation support. If it gives up halfway, not only will all its previous efforts be wasted, but the spiritual embryo itself may also be damaged.

Lu Qingchen mentally prioritized the things he needed to do next.

The matter of returning to the sect and binding with Song Wenjin can only be put on hold for now. The most important thing right now is to ensure that the earth vein spirit embryo safely survives this transformation.

The bound object is always within the sect and cannot escape; if the window for the transformation of the earth vein spirit embryo is missed, it may never come again.

From that day on, Lu Qingchen directly poured a considerable portion of his Dao Stele cultivation into the underground cave.

Originally, the daily cultivation points were allocated as follows: 40% for tempering spiritual roots, 30% for improving cultivation, 20% for cultivating spiritual plants, and 10% for reserves. Now...

He lowered the priority of spiritual plants and put the nourishment of the earth vein spirit embryo first.

Every day at Chenshi (7-9 AM), the first thing he did after entering the Spirit Protection Field was to sink into his sea of ​​consciousness, draw out a wisp of cultivation from the light pearl, and inject it directly into the spirit mushroom's body through the bluestone slab at the entrance of the cave.

The Earth Vein Spirit Embryo absorbs Dao Stele cultivation much more efficiently than ordinary spiritual plants.

When ordinary spiritual rice is infused with spiritual energy, a trace of cultivation can nourish an entire plant; Vermilion Fruit and Jade Marrow Fungus consume slightly more, but only a few times more.

The Earth Vein Spirit Embryo was like a bottomless pit, injecting nearly ten times the amount of cultivation energy that a normal deep-level spiritual point would receive each day. It absorbed all the Ganoderma lucidum without even a burp.

In the first few days, apart from the light becoming slightly brighter, there were no obvious changes.

Lu Qingchen was not in a hurry. He knew long ago that the Earth Vein Spirit Embryo was not an ordinary spiritual plant, and cultivating it required a lot of patience and time.

It took Qingyun Sanren countless years for it to grow to the size of a palm. Now, with the blessing of the Dao Stele, it is a hundred or a thousand times faster than Qingyun Sanren was back then.

About ten days later, changes began to appear.

First, the frequency of the blue light.

The emerald light used to flicker, sometimes bright and sometimes dim, and when it was dim, it was almost invisible.

Now its alternating light and shadow are much gentler.

When it's bright, that layer of deep blue-green light can illuminate everything within a few feet; when it's dark, it always maintains a hazy glow.

Next is the root system.

The roots of the Earth Vein Spirit Embryo were initially only located around the stone platform of the Spirit Pool. When he transplanted it, he carefully separated all the main roots, but the small lateral roots were somewhat damaged.

Now, not only have all the damaged lateral roots healed, but new filaments have also grown.

The new roots are no longer translucent light green, but have a faint golden hue, and are thicker and stronger, slowly extending into the cracks of the bluestone slabs around the cave.

The bluestone slabs were originally intended to restrain the roots, but Lu Qingchen didn't want the roots of the earth vein spirit embryo to extend into other spirit fields of Qingmu Village, so as to avoid causing strange phenomena.

However, under the continuous nourishment of the Dao Stele's cultivation, the growth rate of the spiritual embryo far exceeded expectations.

The newly grown roots clung to the bluestone slab, initially just looking for gaps on the stone surface, but later they began to leave extremely fine lines on the stone slab.

The patterns shimmered with a faint golden hue and were slightly warm to the touch; they were the marks left by the continuous permeation of spiritual energy.

The bluestone slabs are fine-grained and hard, specially chosen to block the penetration of spiritual energy, but the spiritual energy of the earth vein embryo is simply too pure.

It's so concentrated that, after months of continuous soaking, even such a hard material has been gradually permeated.

When Lu Qingchen noticed this change, his heart sank.

The bluestone slab could not contain the spiritual energy of the spirit embryo—this meant that relying solely on his concealment methods was no longer sufficient to completely prevent the spiritual energy of the spirit embryo from leaking out.

But what happened next made him abandon the idea of ​​dismantling the cave and reinforcing the stone slabs.

Late that night, he was cultivating in the spirit-protecting field when the ground beneath his feet trembled once again.

The emerald light in the cave suddenly surged, piercing through the soil and illuminating the entire protective field with a faint emerald hue.

The roots of the spirit embryo expanded several times over overnight.

Those golden threads seemed to be infused with life, extending in all directions at a speed visible to the naked eye.

They burst out of the cracks in the stone slabs of the crypt, passed through the gaps in the soil, bypassed the root systems of other spiritual plants in the protective field, and wove themselves into a complex and orderly network of spiritual energy beneath the field.

The network resembled a magic array—each node was precisely positioned at the weakest point of the spiritual energy in the protective field, and the angle and direction of each root were accurate to the millimeter.

Lu Qingchen knelt on the ground, pressing his hands against the soil, carefully sensing and tracing the direction of each root.

The root system bypassed the array plate of the protective array precisely avoiding the core array eye, without touching a single spirit stone or disturbing any runes.

The roots bypassed the Spirit-Guiding Jade, deliberately leaving a blank area of ​​several inches around it.

The roots bypassed the main roots of rare spiritual plants such as the Vermilion Fruit, Jade Marrow Fungus, and Golden Leaf Orchid. The roots of the spiritual embryo carefully avoided them, with only some extremely fine lateral tendrils intertwining and coexisting with them, exchanging spiritual energy with each other.

It seems to be protecting other spiritual plants, re-weaving the spiritual energy pattern of the entire protective field underground in a strange symbiotic way.

Lu Qingchen opened his mouth, but for a moment he didn't know what to say.

The description of the Earth Vein Spirit Embryo in the jade slip by Qingyun Sanren is extremely brief. It only says that it is the "root of the spiritual land" and "can transform the earth's energy". It never mentions that it can actively avoid other spiritual plants or weave a network of spiritual energy.

This wisdom—yes, it truly is wisdom—has transcended the scope of ordinary spiritual plants.

It is not a spiritual object that can only passively absorb spiritual energy, but a living array eye that can actively modify the surrounding environment, allocate the distribution of spiritual energy, and optimize the ecological structure!

Just then, as the root network was fully formed, Lu Qingchen suddenly felt something being gently stirred deep within his sea of ​​consciousness.

The Dao mark that had been dormant since consuming the Vermilion Fruit was now faintly glowing.

Before he could react, a vast yet gentle life force surged up along the root network of the earth vein spirit embryo, and he passively "saw" the life veins of the entire protective spirit field.

The flow of spiritual energy within each spiritual plant, the exchange of spiritual energy at the tips of each root, and the rise and fall of earth energy in every inch of soil all surged into his perception at that instant.

His consciousness seemed to become the spiritual field itself, able to feel the rhythm of the Vermilion Fruit roots absorbing nutrients deep in the soil, the path of the Jade Marrow Fungus mycelium spreading in the soil, and the amount of spiritual energy absorbed and released with each flicker of the golden halo around the edge of the Golden Leaf Orchid's leaves.

This feeling lasted only a few breaths before quietly dissipating.

Lu Qingchen opened his eyes, the coolness of the soil still lingering on his palms.

He could feel that the Dao trace of the Azure Path deep in his sea of ​​consciousness was slightly brighter than before. It was no longer a faint, indistinct light, but had gained a bit of real weight.

Before he could ponder this change, his gaze fell upon the young red fruit seedling beside him, and he suddenly stopped.

The pale blue spiritual energy in the leaf veins is flowing along the main vein to the lateral veins, with a uniform and slow flow rate.

He did not actively activate his spiritual eye technique, but these details appeared before his eyes on their own.

The specific flow of spiritual energy in each leaf vein, the differences in the concentration of spiritual energy in different leaf veins, and even the subtle, imperceptible turns in the lateral veins can all be clearly seen.

When spiritual energy flows through that place, it always stagnates for a moment. In the past, even with repeated observations using his spiritual eye technique, he might not be able to capture such subtle details. Now, he can see them without deliberately channeling his energy.

He tried to use the Spirit Cultivation Technique on the Vermilion Fruit.

As he applied spiritual energy to the leaves, he bypassed the bend, channeling the energy from both sides. The momentary stagnation disappeared, and the spiritual energy seeped into the roots at the same speed as usual, but more smoothly, consuming slightly less spiritual energy.

He withdrew his hand and sat on the edge of the field for a while.

This is the Spiritual Path—not some earth-shattering power, nor some deadly move that can defeat the enemy in one strike.

It is a deeper perception, an affinity for the laws of life.

Zhou Yuandao said that even Foundation Establishment cultivators might spend several years without ever touching the threshold of the Spiritual Path, while he himself had only touched it twice during the Qi Refining stage.

The first time was aided by the spiritual power of the Vermilion Fruit, and the second time by the spiritual energy network of the Earth Vein Embryo.

Both times, the medium was an external force, and he was unable to sense it on his own.

But with each increase in the brightness of that Dao mark, he was one step closer to that threshold.

Pulling himself back to reality, Lu Qingchen noticed that the concentration of spiritual energy within the protective field was gradually increasing.

Previously, the spiritual energy concentration in the protective spiritual field was one or two levels higher than that of the outside world. This was thanks to the Earth Qi Guiding Array—the Guiding Jade gathered the surrounding earth energy, forming a small area rich in spiritual energy.

Now the root system of the earth vein spirit embryo has directly become a "living spirit-attracting array"!

It no longer relies on the Earth Qi Guiding Array to gather the surrounding Earth Qi, but instead directly extracts spiritual energy from the depths of the earth and evenly distributes it to every corner of the Protecting Spirit Field through the root network.

The spiritual energy within the protective field changed from a light white mist to a condensed, milky-white mist that did not dissipate, and then from mist to a thick, tangible substance, swirling and floating in the dark protective field.

The texture and density of that concentration are comparable to those found in certain core areas of Mingfa Peak.

That's a privilege reserved for core inner disciples!

He tried circulating the "Azure Wood Spirit Absorption Technique," and his efficiency in absorbing the surrounding spiritual energy increased several times over.

The purity of the spiritual energy was also much higher than normal, and it was absorbed by the pure energy in the dantian with almost no need for refining.

The seedlings of the Vermilion Fruit swayed slightly amidst the surging spiritual energy, and the crimson light on their leaves became even more vibrant.

On the cap of the chalcedony mushroom, the milky white luster almost solidified into a solid form.

The edges of the leaves of the golden orchid have a golden halo that shines like a lamp, making it particularly eye-catching in the dim light.

Lu Qingchen took a deep breath, suppressing the excitement in his heart.

This transformation of the Earth Vein Spirit Embryo is the biggest breakthrough he has made since arriving at Qingmu Manor.

However, the surge in spiritual energy presents both an opportunity and a huge risk.

The protective array is only a low-grade first-order array. It can block external sight and divine sense probing, but it cannot prevent the leakage of spiritual energy fluctuations.

That very night, he began to set up covert measures and took out the jade slip that Zhou Yuandao had given him.

The latter half of the jade slip records a concealment formation, which is extremely ingenious. Although it is small in scale, it can only cover an area of ​​a few feet in radius.

However, it can distort the fluctuations of spiritual energy within a certain range, causing deviations in external perception and making the spiritual energy "look the same as the surroundings".