Hermit in the Mountains

Gu Changsheng scanned the cultivation levels of the three animals—Big Red, Big Yellow, and Green Ox—with his divine sense.

The Great Red Dao Seed is at the fourth stage of cultivation; the Great Yellow Dao Seed is at the second stage of Qi Refining; and the Green Ox Dao Seed is at the third stage of Qi Refining.

They have only recently embarked on the path of cultivation and their cultivation levels are not high, but as spirit beasts, their physical bodies are their strongest trump card.

Ordinary Qi Refining cultivators are fragile mages; even cultivators at the fifth or sixth level of Qi Refining might not be able to defeat Da Hong and his two companions.

Moreover, cultivation is still in its early stages, and there are very few cultivators who can master magic.

Gu Changsheng withdrew his divine sense to investigate, and his hands changed hand gestures to condense the 'Withering and Flourishing Seal', which formed a Dao Seal of Inheritance and was then injected into the Earth Spirit Ginseng.

The inherited Dao Seal contains his insights into the cultivation of the Dao Seed Realm, and he hopes that the Earth Spirit Ginseng will undergo some changes.

"Cultivate diligently!" Regardless of whether he could understand, Gu Changsheng transmitted this message to the Earth Spirit Ginseng before turning and leaving.

Inside the warehouse, Gu Changsheng's gaze swept across the neatly arranged wooden crates, finally settling on one of them.

He stood in front of the wooden crate and glanced at the label on it: "Reviving Dead Wood: Heartwood Material".

Upon opening the wooden crate, one meter-long pieces of heartwood were neatly stacked inside.

He opened all the wooden crates one by one, revealing hundreds of heartwoods, as well as minerals such as fiery copper from the earth's core, cold iron from the deep sea, twin lotus blossoms, gold, silver, jadeite rough, meteorites, crystal clusters, and antique bronze...

The warehouse was expanded once to store more materials; otherwise, the original small warehouse wouldn't have been able to hold so many things.

Gu Changsheng moved a box of meteorites, crystal clusters, and bronze to a small warehouse next door and placed it above the spiritual energy node to nurture it. Whether it would produce any changes was up to fate.

He carried a large wooden box in each hand and walked to an open space in front of the wooden house. He let go of the boxes, and they fell to the ground with a thud.

He stood at the very center of the intersection of the four great spirit trees halfway up the mountain, preparing to give birth to a living spirit object that forms the core of the formation.

He chose the heartwood of a withered tree that could revive in spring, intending to cultivate a spirit tree containing the "withering and flourishing attribute" as the core of the formation, forming a four-season formation with the four spirit tree kings.

Gu Changsheng stood still, grabbed the wooden box with his right hand, and used his divine sense to retrieve the object remotely.

Heartwood pieces flew out of the wooden box and floated in front of him.

He grabbed one end of the heartwood and shoved it down hard, the wood sinking ten centimeters into the ground and standing firmly in place.

Before long, eighty-one identical pieces of wood stood around a heartwood tree, arranged in nine layers, with nine pieces of wood in each layer.

As soon as Gu Changsheng had a thought, fifteen smooth jade stones flew out of the bedroom and floated in front of him.

He inserted the jade stones into the pre-dug holes near the central heartwood of the tree in sequence.

After finishing everything, Gu Changsheng sat cross-legged next to the heartwood, supporting his left hand under his right wrist, and pointing his right hand with a sword-like gesture toward the jade buried in the earthen cave.

A wisp of the power of withering and flourishing flew into the earthen cave and disappeared into the jade.

"Spirit Gathering Array...Activate—"

The incomplete array patterns inside the jade stones were drawn together by a force, and the incomplete array patterns inside the fifteen jade stones were combined to form a complete array pattern.

The spirit-gathering array pattern flickered and slowly began to operate, generating a weak suction force.

With the spirit-gathering formation successfully set up, Gu Changsheng closed his eyes and meditated for three days and three nights.

Every day, he expends his own life-growth magic to nourish each piece of wood and strengthen its internal natural life-growth power.

Each piece of wood was also infused with a wisp of primordial purple energy and a wisp of imperial nectar, all in order to enhance the quality of the wood.

One night, under a bright moon and few stars, Gu Changsheng began with the outermost layer of nine pieces of wood, using his divine sense to guide the rich natural energy of decay and growth within them into the inner layers.

Before long, the outermost nine pieces of wood seemed to have been hollowed out by insects and broke, with wood chips falling to the ground.

The wood broke layer by layer until all eighty-one pieces of wood broke, and the heartwood in the center emitted a rich power of decay and prosperity.

Gu Changsheng placed his hands outstretched on either side of the heartwood in a yin-yang embrace, his left hand radiating emerald green "power of prosperity" and his right hand radiating grayish-brown "power of decay".

Two opposing yet complementary magical forces formed a transparent gas that enveloped the entire heartwood of the tree.

Gu Changsheng slowly squeezed his hands inward, and the natural power of decay and growth on the heartwood began to converge inward.

At midnight, the heartwood turned into powder, and a sesame-sized energy ball floated between Gu Changsheng's hands.

He stared into thought as he looked at the energy cluster in front of him, a mixture of grayish-brown and emerald green.

He originally intended to refine the heartwood into a magical artifact, but things didn't go as planned. The heartwood couldn't withstand the rich natural power of decay and growth and broke, leaving only a pure energy cluster.

Therefore, the problem of how to transform the energy cluster into a seed that can grow is now before Gu Changsheng.

Suddenly, a bold idea popped into Gu Changsheng's mind.

"Can the primordial Dao guide bestow energy clusters, and give birth to special spiritual beings?"

The moment this idea popped into Gu Changsheng's head, he felt a surge of excitement. If successful, he would possess the ability to transform things, including rocks, water veins, air, and spiritual energy...

Gu Changsheng thought of a divine power in mythology—the ability to manipulate creation and enlighten life.

[Manipulating Creation: The first of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Techniques, capable of creating something from nothing, establishing life or reversing laws, with an emphasis on endowing it with soul and vitality.]

Nuwa created humans from clay, and Taiyi Zhenren resurrected Nezha using lotus roots. Both used the supernatural power of manipulating creation. The former comprehended the realm of creating something from nothing, while the latter only learned a little bit of it.

Gu Changsheng was extremely conflicted. Firstly, the number of times he could use the "Origin Dao Guidance" was limited and the cost was enormous. Secondly, he himself was not sure whether he could succeed.

If successful, a soul will be born in the future, and the person will become a practitioner of the Path of Withering and Flourishing. The person can be provided with insights into the power of Withering and Flourishing, but the upper limit will be locked, and another spot in the Path of Laws will be lost.

Lost in thought, Gu Changsheng muttered to himself, "Cultivation... what kind of path is it?"

"Cultivating the Tao, or cultivating the mind."

"The mind or thought is formless and without appearance."

"The heart or emotions are unfathomable."

His tone shifted from question to affirmation: "Every choice is a form of self-cultivation, a path to enlightenment."

"The way lies in choice."

In an instant, Gu Changsheng entered a state of oneness with nature, generating a powerful suction force around his body.

The wood elemental energy within a radius of 800 meters around Gu Changsheng was attracted, and the earth energy from the ground converged towards him.

Strands of pale blue silk threads drifted in from all directions and flew into Gu Changsheng's body.

Strands of yellow silk threads from underground flowed into Gu Changsheng's body along his feet;

The pure white moonlight from the sky flew into Gu Changsheng's body like fireflies.

Gu Changsheng's Dao root transformed into a gaping maw, frantically devouring the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, the energy of mountains and rivers, the essence of the sun and moon, and the energy of the void.

His cultivation level, which had just broken through a few days ago, surged upwards, his Dao root sprouted green buds, grew branches, and overnight entered the fruiting stage.

The massive amount of magical power crashed against the bottleneck, but the bottleneck was like an indestructible city wall, and the impact of the magical power had no effect on the bottleneck wall.

As his state of oneness with nature vanished, Gu Changsheng's eyes twitched, and he slowly opened them, a hint of disappointment flashing in his eyes.

"Ugh!"

This rare opportunity to break through to a higher level seems to be missing something.

He had a feeling that if he couldn't find out what was missing in his heart, then after his cultivation reached the ninth level of the Dao Root, breaking through to a higher realm would be a long way off.