Hermit in the Mountains

Three months passed in the blink of an eye. Gu Changsheng, transformed into a spiritual energy identifier, continued his treasure hunt in the dark depths of the sea.

Ninety thousand meters below the sea, next to a bottomless fissure, lies a man-made cave.

The cave was dry and square.

In the center of the cave was a raised platform, and Gu Changsheng sat cross-legged on a soft futon.

A crystal glass bead hovered in front of him.

His mind was focused on the white lotus in the spirit pool within the grotto world.

The white lotus, the size of a washbasin, in the spirit pool transformed into the size of a millstone.

The first layer of nine-petaled white lotus grew into a twelve-layered, one-hundred-eight-petaled white lotus.

The white lotus exudes a faint, shimmering light, like a pure goddess emerging from the mud, untouched by its surroundings.

[Twelve-Petaled Purifying White Lotus: A nascent form of supreme innate spiritual essence, possessing inherent purifying power. It can purify turbid energy, resist inner demons, be impervious to all magic, and suppress destiny.]

In addition to satisfaction, Gu Changsheng's eyes also showed a faint sense of loss and regret.

For the past three months, he has been frantically searching for spiritual energy nodes around the clock, consuming a large amount of merit and grotto-heaven power.

He even fed Bai Lian his stockpile of eight innate, indestructible water-based spiritual light sources and nine innate, indestructible fire-based spiritual light sources.

They gathered forty-nine innate, indestructible spiritual sources from various systems.

But an unexpected event occurred: the white lotus was about to develop sentience, and the last wisp of innate, undying spiritual light source was hesitant to be fed to it.

Gu Changsheng knew that as long as the white lotus absorbed the last wisp of primordial power, it would inevitably develop sentience.

If the white lotus develops sentience, Gu Changsheng cannot erase it. Even if it only has the rudimentary form of a top-grade innate spiritual root.

His innate spiritual roots and fortune, as well as the karmic backlash, were beyond his ability to bear.

Since the innate spiritual root has not developed intelligence, it cannot be considered a living being and is in a state of being without a master.

At this point, the innate spiritual root is recognized as a master, its integrity is preserved, and it is refined into a supreme treasure.

The cultivator will fully absorb the innate spiritual root's fortune, enhancing their own fortune.

However, if an innate spiritual root develops intelligence, it becomes an independent life form in the eyes of the will of heaven and earth.

A cultivator who eliminates a person of great fortune will inevitably suffer karmic retribution.

Gu Changsheng had read a plot in a prehistoric novel where a powerful Primordial Golden Immortal forcibly erased a top-grade innate spiritual root and intelligence, extracting its origin and body to refine a top-grade innate spiritual treasure.

The consequence was that they suffered the backlash of karma in a major battle and were killed by their opponents.

Gu Changsheng originally intended to rely on the growth characteristics of the white lotus to cultivate it into a spiritual root comparable to a supreme innate treasure.

At that time, he will refine it into a natal protective artifact for a supreme innate treasure.

Given Bai Lian's current situation, things didn't go as planned, and she had no choice but to refine her into a top-grade innate spiritual treasure embryo.

He wasn't sure if the White Lotus could be upgraded to a Primordial Treasure in the future.

The World Pearl of Decay and Flourishing was an unexpected product, which exhausted the merits of Heaven, Earth, and Man that he had accumulated over the years, as well as more than fifty innate sources.

It was created by fusing with a top-tier spatial treasure embryo.

The top-grade innate spiritual treasure with forty-eight innate restrictions differs from the supreme innate treasure with forty-nine innate restrictions by only one innate restriction.

However, the difference is not small.

If one spends their entire life without the right opportunity, it becomes an insurmountable barrier.

Gu Changsheng didn't know if he would be able to obtain the same extraordinary opportunity again.

There are many top-grade innate spiritual treasures in the primordial world, but the number of innate supreme treasures can be counted on one hand.

This demonstrates the extreme rarity of innate treasures!

However, Gu Changsheng had no choice but to continue nurturing the white lotus, allowing it to develop sentience and advance to the twentieth grade of the Pure World White Lotus.

Alternatively, one could refine the white lotus into a top-grade innate spiritual treasure embryo at this time, awaiting a future opportunity.

The former, he could take him as a personal disciple, thus gaining a top-tier disciple with excellent background.

To bestow upon such a foundation the original path is a complete waste;

Without the guidance of the original source, he cannot receive its nourishment.

Just one word.

I feel terrible!!

He possesses the Dao Guide of Origin, which allows him to gradually improve his foundation and ensures he will not lack top-tier disciples.

Disciples are easy to find, but rare treasures are hard to come by!

After struggling and pondering for three minutes, Gu Changsheng still chose to acquire a top-grade innate spiritual treasure to complete his protective artifact set!

The defensive power of a 12th-grade purified white lotus is no less than that of a supreme innate treasure.

It's definitely worth it!!!

Having made his decision, Gu Changsheng stirred his mind and condensed a drop of his life essence and a wisp of divine soul power.

It was then incorporated into the origin of the twelfth-grade white lotus.

The method of refining one's natal magic weapon is activated, and the power of one's natal essence, blood, and soul erodes the origin of the white lotus, leaving a mark on it.

The power of divine sense began to guide the white lotus to absorb the power of the source of the protective array and the source power on its roots;

He remotely took a lotus seed and kept it for future growth.

The remaining eleven lotus seeds all returned to their original form;

It is all absorbed into the lotus platform, forming a perfect circle like the original source.

The white mist that enveloped the spirit pool surged into the white lotus's body;

The roots and stems of the white lotus are slowly withering;

Eleven lotus seeds lost all their vitality and turned into dried-up lotus seeds.

With the branding successful, Gu Changsheng could not sense any signs of the birth of intelligence;

His feelings at that moment were complex—regret, happiness, sadness...

Once a move is made, there's no going back!

He quickly adjusted his mindset to welcome the birth of a top-grade innate spiritual treasure.

Suddenly, the white lotus unleashed a powerful suction force.

The spirit pool, ten meters in diameter and three meters deep, is rapidly descending;

In the blink of an eye, the entire pool of spiritual liquid was drained.

Bai Lian seemed not to have had enough to eat, and set her sights on the miniature innate spiritual vein next to her.

Just as Gu Changsheng was momentarily lost in thought, the miniature innate spiritual vein was instantly refined, leaving only white dust.

The white lotus began to extend its tentacles into the primordial spiritual spring of the cave world;

He cursed inwardly, "What a spendthrift!!"

With a thought, he moved the white lotus to the outside world, not wanting it to continue ruining the cave world.

Once the white lotus is outside, its powerful suction spreads in all directions.

A huge funnel formed outside the cave, and the surrounding seawater was churned by this force;

An underwater tornado has appeared.

As the cyclone continued to rise, a giant eye formed on the sea surface, and the seawater began to flow clockwise.

The underwater cave at a depth of 90,000 meters was filled with pale blue mist, and people lined up to enter the white lotus.

Seeing this, Gu Changsheng stared at the white lotus in front of him with a look of surprise and delight. This movement was somewhat like breaking through a barrier.

"Could it be...?" he exclaimed in surprise.

He extracted the last wisp of innate, undying spiritual light from the cave world and cast it into the white lotus.

With a thought, the World Pearl of Withering and Flourishing floated above the white lotus, activating its spirit-gathering effect and attracting various spiritual energies from the surrounding area.

The spiritual energy of different attributes is purified and transformed, and strands of spiritual essence fall and drip onto the white lotus.

Gu Changsheng was multitasking.

While controlling the spirit gathering of the withering and flourishing world pearl, he observed the changes in the white lotus;

While using the Innate Breath Concealment Technique to hide the surrounding spiritual energy fluctuations;

Finally, he fully opened his divine sense, covering an area of ​​10,000 kilometers in radius, to explore the surrounding environment.

If any being at the Foundation Establishment stage or above approaches within 100 kilometers of the cave, he will release his aura to drive them away.

Any creature that enters the cave within a one-kilometer radius is indiscriminately slaughtered.

Gu Changsheng was fully focused, ready to deal with any unexpected events at any time, to ensure that the white lotus could complete its evolution normally.

An unknown amount of time passed, and the white lotus grew to its thirteenth, fourteenth, ... twentieth petals...

When the white lotus pedestal reaches the twenty-third grade, its growth resembles a snail crawling, showing signs of weakening.

Not only did no new lotus petals grow, but the outermost lotus petals were slowly degenerating.

Gu Changsheng's expression changed drastically, and he thought to himself, "This is bad!"