Xu Ziqing was suddenly lifted into the air, seated on Yun Lie’s arm. He hastily braced both hands against his senior brother’s shoulders, feeling awkward and bashful at once.
Being carried around like a little child! This was really, really…
At a loss, Xu Ziqing allowed his senior brother to carry him into the cave. Before he could gather his wits, a chill beneath him announced that he had been placed on the stone couch.
The cold finally brought him back to his senses. He drew a deep breath and said, “…Thank you, Senior Brother.”
If not for his overwhelming embarrassment, he would have been delighted to be so close to his senior brother. But being carried in such a fashion left him torn between laughter and tears. Recalling how closely they had been pressed together, he found that the heat in his cheeks refused to fade.
Yun Lie had no such thoughts and naturally noticed nothing of Xu Ziqing’s feelings. After setting him down, he helped him into a cross-legged posture suitable for cultivation and meditation.
These few adjustments made Xu Ziqing considerably more comfortable. Remembering how his senior brother had swallowed the divine-tree seed, he set his embarrassment aside and looked at him. Still unable to help himself, he asked, “Senior Brother, are you truly all right?”
Yun Lie answered, “I’m fine.”
He sat cross-legged as well, directly facing Xu Ziqing.
Xu Ziqing watched him without blinking.
Yun Lie extended a palm toward one of the enormous trees supporting the roof of the cave and struck it from a distance.
The moment Xu Ziqing saw that palm force, something stirred in his heart.
It contained extraordinarily potent Jia-Wood qi, even fiercer than the power inside the seed. Indeed, it carried a burning heat!
When the blow landed, the great tree shook with a thunderous rumble. Yet it swiftly absorbed the force, as though it had suddenly received some precious nourishment. In an instant its trunk thickened and its Wood qi grew stronger.
Yun Lie then struck out again, sending the remaining force into each of the other great trees.
Their roots intertwined and their branches and leaves flourished. A canopy of green soon obscured more than half the cave and continued spreading toward the surrounding stone walls.
The air within the cave immediately grew cooler, quieter, and more secluded.
Xu Ziqing considered this. “Senior Brother, did you just release the Wood qi you obtained from that seed?”
Yun Lie nodded slightly. “Geng Metal subdues Jia Wood. It causes me no harm within my body, but it offers me no benefit either.”
Xu Ziqing understood. If the seed was of no use to Yun Lie, then swallowing it just now had been a test performed for Xu Ziqing’s sake.
As expected, Yun Lie said, “The Yang-Wood power within the seed will benefit you. So long as it is not activated, its nature is mild. Your constitution differs from that of others. You can swallow it directly and absorb its power through your cultivation art.”
Ordinary Wood-attribute cultivators also regarded these seeds as treasures. They had excellent applications in both alchemy and artifact refinement, and processing them by such means was usually the only practical way to make full use of them.
Some had tried eating them outright, but cultivation arts varied greatly in quality, and few cultivators possessed pure Wood constitutions. As the Jia-Wood qi entered their bodies, their techniques often failed to absorb it quickly enough. Interference from other spiritual energies then caused most of the Wood qi to dissipate. Direct consumption was therefore far less worthwhile than refining the seeds first.
Xu Ziqing, however, was different again. When he swallowed a seed, the voracious Wood-feeding plants in his dantian would join the feast. The Wood qi would not merely circulate through his blood and disperse, so none of it would be wasted.
He understood at once and felt even more grateful to his senior brother. His eyes grew faintly hot with emotion.
He blinked that sting away, took out another divine-tree seed, and smiled. “My meridians and internal organs have suffered considerable damage. Absorbing Jia-Wood qi ought to help. I’ll eat one first and trouble you to protect me while I recover.”
Yun Lie inclined his head. “Concentrate on healing.”
Smiling, Xu Ziqing placed the seed in his mouth and closed his eyes.
The seed’s skin was neither thick nor difficult to break. A single bite split it open, releasing a rush of sweet juice that slid down his throat. A powerful surge of vitality spread throughout his entire body, bringing an exquisite feeling of comfort and even pleasure.
Almost instantly, the damaged meridians began knitting themselves together. Xu Ziqing could practically “see” slender wisps of Wood qi seeping into the channels throughout his body and drawing the damaged strands together as deftly as a spider weaving its web.
Countless fine threads of green essence coursed between his organs and sank into them, heightening their vitality. Old injuries hidden within his muscles also began mending rapidly under the nourishment of that essence.
Before long, this vitality was used up, yet in those few breaths alone, an astonishing thirty to forty percent of his injuries had healed!
After absorbing the last trace of Jia-Wood qi, he opened his eyes. A flash of green light appeared in his pupils and vanished.
Without hesitation, Xu Ziqing retrieved two more seeds from his storage ring.
While circulating his cultivation art, he had discovered that once a seed was bitten open, its juice entered his body like clear water soaking into parched soil. Not a trace was wasted. Moreover, although the juice was not as gently Yin in nature as the Essence of Yi Wood, it was still mild and stable. It would cause him no trouble.
Therefore, to speed his recovery, Xu Ziqing decided to eat several more at once.
Sure enough, when the two seeds entered his mouth, the sweet current flowing down his throat intensified. The Wood qi within him suddenly swelled like a surging river, washing over his body in wave after wave without pause.
His entire inner world seemed immersed in vigorous life force. His body felt as though it had been lowered into a warm spring, and every acupoint and pore radiated gentle warmth.
The sensation was so delightful that he could not help narrowing his eyes, a hint of languor spreading across his face.
The Great Art of Myriad Woods Heart-Planting circulated ceaselessly in his dantian, absorbing Yang-Wood power with every revolution. The true essence tempered by Yi-Wood qi began to stir as well.
This was the attraction between Yin and Yang.
When Jia-Wood qi first entered the body, its task was to nourish and repair. Once his injuries were nearly healed, any surplus would instead strengthen his cultivation.
Without opening his eyes, Xu Ziqing raised his hand and swallowed another three seeds, cracking them all between his teeth.
Vast currents of Yang-Wood power rushed into his abdomen, transforming the stream in his meridians into a great river.
Because the crushing pressure of the great experts at Ruyi Immortal Estate had badly damaged his meridians, Xu Ziqing now seized the opportunity to widen them a little while healing them with Yang-Wood power.
His meridians could consequently hold more true essence than before, and the force coursing through them surged with even greater might.
Recalling his senior brother’s earlier teachings, Xu Ziqing steeled himself. Before his dantian had healed completely, he gathered all the Yang-Wood power together and drove it fiercely downward!
The true essence in his dantian received the Yang-Wood power and instantly fused it with his Yin-Wood power. As Yin and Yang harmonized, the two kinds of Wood qi mingled to form a force possessing even greater vitality!
That power imparted a broader, more expansive quality to his true essence. It was as though his understanding had previously encompassed only half a realm of insight, and something had now begun supplying the missing half.
Xu Ziqing had no leisure to think about it, yet in some unfathomable way his comprehension of the Wood Dao seemed to deepen.
The spiritual energies of heaven and earth comprised the Five Elements, each bearing its own color, and these energies entered the human body.
Green signified Wood qi. Where Yi Wood flourished, Yi-Wood qi was plentiful; where Jia Wood prevailed, Jia-Wood qi predominated. In ordinary places, however, the Wood qi was impure, and its Jia and Yi aspects were difficult to distinguish.
Once Jia Wood and Yi Wood united, they became Chaos Wood qi.
The higher the grade of a plant, the purer the Wood qi it contained.
And among all things beneath heaven, the Essences of Wood, whether Jia or Yi, were its purest forms.
Xu Ziqing’s advantage was that he possessed a single Wood constitution and had absorbed the Essence of Yi Wood. He had also obtained the Bloodthirsty Demon Vine, the most savage and formidable of Yin-Wood plants. In his understanding of the Yin aspect of the Wood Dao, he had therefore gone much further than ordinary cultivators.
But he was, after all, a man. Since his first Yang essence had been lost, the Yang qi within him had grown even scarcer. In the long run this might prove detrimental. Fortunately, he now had these divine-tree seeds. Their Yang-Wood power could not match the Essence of Jia Wood or stand as a true equal to his Essence of Yi Wood, but it was rare and precious nonetheless. Even partial harmonization would be enormously beneficial.
The Great Art of Myriad Woods Heart-Planting immediately began revolving faster, continuously joining Yang-Wood power to Yin-Wood power and tempering his true essence until it possessed the force of Chaos qi.
Unfortunately, Yang-Wood power was ultimately less pure and of lower grade than the Essence of Yi Wood, so the resulting Chaos qi still leaned toward Yin softness. Nevertheless, because some harmony had been achieved, certain problems that might have emerged in the future had been eliminated.
Thus Xu Ziqing alternated between swallowing seeds and harmonizing Yin and Yang. His true essence continually changed in nature, becoming better suited to his cultivation art and growing more powerful in quality.
This went on for three days and three nights. Only after he had consumed a full nine times nine, eighty-one divine-tree seeds did he finally regulate all his true essence. His cultivation had become considerably purer.
When Xu Ziqing finally opened his eyes again, he had reached the peak of the early Essence Transformation stage. Not only was his realm thoroughly stable, but every one of his grievous injuries had healed.
He opened his mouth and exhaled a breath of turbid qi, feeling light and refreshed throughout his entire body and delighted in his heart.
At the same time, Yun Lie opened his eyes.
He could sense that Xu Ziqing’s aura was more harmonious than before, and that it now held a quality of merging with heaven and earth. Most strikingly, when Xu Ziqing stood upon the ground, he seemed possessed of an unshakably rooted steadiness.
It was as though he had already grasped something of the essence of myriad trees sinking their roots deep into the soil and standing there since time immemorial.
Moreover, the aura of decline that had accompanied Xu Ziqing’s severe injuries had disappeared entirely. Instead, he now brimmed with such vitality that it seemed ready to overflow.
After sweeping his spiritual sense over Xu Ziqing, Yun Lie understood his condition, and his gaze softened slightly.
Xu Ziqing smiled. “You’ve worked hard, Senior Brother.”
Yun Lie nodded. “You have recovered completely. Good.”
Xu Ziqing’s lips curved. “It was thanks to the divine-tree seeds you gave me that I could recover so well.”
The two martial brothers exchanged a few words in a pleasant atmosphere.
Then Yun Lie said, “I will descend the mountain before long. I was just about to tell you.”
Xu Ziqing froze. “Where are you going, Senior Brother?”
Yun Lie replied, “The Savage Beast Plains.”