Hermit in the Mountains

One night, the bright moon hung high in the sky, and its pure white light enveloped Changsheng Peak.

Gu Changsheng, who was meditating inside the wooden house, opened his eyes, looked at the beautiful night outside, and got up to walk towards the medicinal herb field.

In the very center of the medicinal field, Gu Changsheng stood tall beside the ginseng cultivation sample. Under the moonlight, he wore a light blue ancient-style robe, his long hair flowing over his shoulders. A gentle evening breeze blew by, causing strands of blue hair to dance in the wind, and his thin robe to sway in the breeze.

Gu Changsheng lowered his eyes and stared at a ginseng plant that was thirty centimeters tall in front of him. He pulled his right hand out of his sleeve, stretched out his arm, and placed his five fingers above the ginseng plant.

He has been cultivating this ginseng plant for nearly five months; whether it can evolve into a spiritual ginseng depends on tonight.

"The Gathering Technique... Gathering Wood Spirit..."

The Dao seal of the Gathering Word Technique appeared, and the ginseng plant seemed to take root in the center of the Dao seal.

The Dao patterns began to rotate, drawing the surrounding wood spiritual energy to the Dao seal, and strands of wood spiritual energy surged into the ginseng plant.

Gu Changsheng lightly lifted his right foot and tapped the ground, using his mind to do two things at once, activating the "Root of Heaven and Earth" supernatural power, and using his divine sense to control wisps of earth energy to inject into the root system of the ginseng plant.

Nourished by the spiritual energy of heaven and earth above, and nurtured by the earth's energy below, the combined efforts of all accelerate the evolution of the ginseng plant.

An hour later, the ginseng plant could no longer absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and the energy of mountains and rivers. Gu Changsheng then withdrew the Gathering Word Technique and the Root of Heaven and Earth Divine Power.

He activated his divine eye to observe the changes inside the ginseng plant. Earth energy, wood spirit energy, water spirit energy, soil spirit energy, the power of growth, and the power of moonlight were all fighting or devouring each other inside the ginseng plant.

Ginseng is a plant with both wood and earth attributes;

The five elements generate each other, with water nourishing wood, and the water elemental energy becoming the nourishment for the wood elemental energy;

The principle that the energy of mountains and rivers belongs to the earth is the supreme principle of the earth, and the earth's spiritual energy is assimilated and disappears by the earth's energy.

The Power of Glory and the Power of Moonlight are external energies, both of which govern the growth of plants. The two forces were quickly devoured.

Gu Changsheng, like an observer, calmly watched and recorded all the changes without any ripples in his heart.

Earth energy contains the laws and principles of the earth, belonging to higher-level laws, which are superior to the laws of wood.

Ultimately, the wood elemental energy failed and was swallowed by the earth energy. The victorious earth energy generated a weak pulling force, instinctively absorbing the earth energy in the surrounding land to strengthen itself.

When Gu Changsheng saw a wisp of spirituality appear within the ginseng plant, a look of joy flashed in his eyes. With a thought, he once again used the "Root of Heaven and Earth" divine power to help the ginseng plant accelerate its transformation.

With Gu Changsheng's help, the ginseng plant absorbed a massive amount of "earth energy" to strengthen its own earth attributes.

The earth's attributes are transformed into earth spiritual energy to temper the ginseng plant, causing it to transform into a spiritual ginseng.

Gu Changsheng painstakingly cultivated the ginseng plant for five months to reach the age of one hundred. Now, the age of the ginseng plant increases by one to three years every minute. It can only be described as "terrifying".

At 3 a.m., when the ginseng plant had grown to 500 years old, it seemed to have hit a bottleneck, and no matter how much it absorbed the earth's energy, it could not increase its age.

Seeing this, Gu Changsheng frowned. He thought the ginseng plant could successfully evolve, but he didn't expect it to be stuck at the last step.

He slowly withdrew his right hand, flicked his finger, and a wisp of grayish-brown thread flew out from his fingertip and instantly disappeared into the ginseng plant.

The power of withering entered the ginseng plant, like a wolf entering a sheepfold, frantically devouring the life force within the ginseng plant.

Before long, the ginseng plant withered rapidly, losing one-tenth of its vitality, but its spiritual essence was strengthened, and the earth energy transformed into the spiritual power of the earth.

Gu Changsheng's lips curled up slightly as he realized why the ginseng plant was experiencing a constraint. "I see."

In short, the ginseng plant's foundation is too weak or not yet fully formed, making it unable to support its leap to a higher level of life.

Since that's the case, Gu Changsheng will help the ginseng plant temper its foundation, which is his specialty.

He flicked his right hand at the ginseng plant nine times in succession, and strands of "withered magic power" were injected into the ginseng plant's body.

Like a withered tree that springs back to life, the ginseng plant should be able to complete its evolution at that time.

The "Power of Withering" has the properties of annihilating, purifying, and compressing the substances and spirituality within the ginseng plant.

The spiritual energy and earth energy within the ginseng plants were frantically attacked and eroded by the "power of decay," leaving them with no choice but to desperately band together to save themselves.

"Coo coo... Oh—"

Just as the illusory spirituality and earth energy within the ginseng plant were about to give way, a loud crowing of dawn rang out from Longevity Peak.

A wisp of primordial purple energy was swallowed by the ginseng plant. It seemed to have grasped a lifeline and frantically poured its remaining spiritual energy and earth energy, along with the primordial purple energy, into a root to preserve a sliver of life for itself to break through the soil and be reborn in the future.

How could the "Power of Withering" let the duck that was about to be eaten fly away? It relentlessly pursued the ginseng plant, wanting to devour its last bit of life.

However, no matter how hard the "Power of Withering" tried to devour the last vestige of life in the ginseng plant, it could not swallow it up. In the end, the "Power of Withering" ran out of energy and disappeared, leaving only the remaining "Power of Withering" still eroding other parts of the ginseng plant.

A nine-inch-long ginseng root lay quietly in the soil, its interior containing a wisp of life, a wisp of materialized spirituality, and a wisp of atmospheric spiritual power, a faint pulling force slowly absorbing the 'earth energy' from the soil.

Gu Changsheng, standing to the side, was contemplating the transformation process of the ginseng plant, which was also his path of cultivation.

Suddenly, a terrifying suction force appeared around Gu Changsheng.

The spiritual energy of water and wood within a one-kilometer radius was drawn towards Gu Changsheng.

A stream of "earth energy" flowed into Gu Changsheng's feet.

Gu Changsheng's Dao Root was devouring the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, the energy of mountains and rivers, and the 'purple energy' of the primordial sun, while the 'withered and flourishing Dao Tree' in his sea of ​​consciousness was growing wildly.

It grows into a tree, blossoms, and bears fruit.

After the 'Withered and Flourishing Tree' bore fruit, it did not transform into a seed; the entire tree withered directly, and all its energy was squeezed inward by a force.

After an unknown amount of time, the entire 'Withered and Flourishing Tree' was covered with cracks. With a 'crack', pieces of the withered trunk fell off, and the withered bark of the roots cracked open to reveal the tender new roots inside.

The fallen tree trunks and roots turned into a grayish-brown mist that flowed into Gu Changsheng's body.

The sun was high in the sky, and under the glaring sunlight, Gu Changsheng, standing in the medicinal herb field, twitched his eyelids and slowly opened his eyes, a look of joy in them.

He muttered to himself, "What an unexpected delight! I've actually entered the legendary state of 'unity of heaven and man,' completing a cycle of growth and decay."

"Observing the process of plants and animals transforming from mortal to spiritual can yield unexpected gains. Observing the transformation process can lead to the acquisition of spiritual plants and beasts, as well as the understanding of visualization techniques and the improvement of cultivation—a win-win situation."

Breaking through the Dao Root Realm is considered the tenth cycle of life and death, so this is the eleventh cycle.

Gu Changsheng used his divine sense to examine the roots radiating vitality in the ground. Seeing that the roots were slowly absorbing the earth's energy and accumulating power in preparation for breaking through the soil and being reborn, he stopped paying attention to them.

He turned and left, returning to the living room where he sat cross-legged and observed the changes within his body.

His physical strength surged to 40,000 jin, and his blood and qi power doubled. Even ghosts would avoid him if they got too close, lest they evaporate.

His divine sense covers a radius of two hundred meters, and his perception covers a radius of two thousand meters.

Lifespan increased by forty years, with the lifespan limit reaching three hundred and forty years;

The armor's defense, recovery, and damage reflection are doubled.

Nine new roots grew from the Dao Root, increasing the amount of magical power it could bear and significantly enhancing its ability to sustain combat.

The roots that are firmly planted on the original space of the destiny chart occupy two-tenths of the space;

As his cultivation level increased and his Dao foundation strengthened, he could feel that by using the "Origin Dao Guidance" divine power once, he could replenish the lost strand of origin in just one month.

A month's recovery time was within his acceptable range, and he felt he could try the abilities of the "Original Dao Guidance" supernatural power.

Gu Changsheng was torn about who would be the first lucky one.

He wouldn't waste the precious nine chances against Yang Dashan, Zhang Yuanfu, and the others. Firstly, they lacked spiritual roots, making failure highly likely; secondly, human nature is the most unpredictable thing.

The most suitable one at present is the Yellow Giant that has just completed its evolution, which has the foundation to carry the Dao guide and cultivate techniques.

Da Hong and Qing Niu are also on the shortlist.

His three pets are the closest to him and are worth investing in; he should raise them as guardian spirit beasts.

Another thought popped into his mind: 'Those who are not of our kind are bound to have different hearts.'

He was confident he could maintain peak combat strength, but what if...?

It would be best to first deduce the "Soul Contract Technique," recognize the three pets as his master, and then bestow the "Guiding Spirit" upon them, allowing them to live or die at his whim.

Gu Changsheng made his decision. The moment he opened his eyes, he looked at the bamboo forest swaying in the wind outside the house, and a flash of inspiration struck him.

Suddenly, a question arose: "Why be so fixated on humans and animals? Can't we be fixated on plants?"

His mind was instantly opened: "Mountains, rivers, sun, moon, stars, earth, rocks, springs, flames, objects, etc., why can't they be used?"

He wondered if the "Original Dao Guide" might possess the power of enlightenment.