Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Chapter 395: A World of Plants

For the next few days, Mu Yi bathed in the herbal bath Tang Jie prepared for him every day.

Herbal baths weren’t particularly rare. What was rare was the mantra circulated while taking the herbal bath. Tang Jie naturally couldn’t give him the Parting Classic, so he did the same as he had done at the Immortal Fortune Conference and took out a part of the Parting Classic to teach Mu Yi. The effects were lesser than normal, so much more time was needed.

Even so, Mu Yi could feel a huge change to his body.

His body had originally been so weak that it was comparable to a mortal’s, but after successive herbal baths, his body took a clear turn for the better. Not only was his constitution getting stronger, the numerous internal injuries that even countless bigshots of the Seven Absolutions Sect couldn’t deal with were slowly starting to recover.

Seven days went by like this, until the herbs had all been used up. Mu Yi’s body was fully on the road to recovery, and while he couldn’t compare to body refiners like Wang Juemie and Tang Jie, he was now no different from an ordinary cultivator of the same level.

Mu Yi hadn’t had much hope in Tang Jie’s efforts, never expecting them to have such a miraculous effect. He couldn’t help but sigh in praise.

He said, “Actually, there’s no need to get some thousand-year Whitefiend Lotus. This method alone would be enough to have my Seven Absolutions Sect willing to trade the Mountain River State Diagram, without anything extra. Of course, it would have to be the complete version.”

Tang Jie smiled and shook his head. The Parting Classic was the Martial Lord’s core, so there was no way he could trade it away. He only said, “If you want to thank me, then you shouldn’t even teach anyone the part that I taught you.”

Mu Yi firmly replied, “Mu Yi swears on his Heart Demon that he will never transmit this secret method to anyone without Brother Tang’s permission.”

Tang Jie trusted in Mu Yi’s promise, but what was more important was that the method he had taught Mu Yi wasn’t worth transmitting to others. After all, when the method wasn’t complete, it was far too wasteful. Mu Yi was seeking treatment, so all the money spent was worth it, but for body refining, one had to consider the investment and the production. If one million spirit coins could only get one to the Jewel Body, then it was better to not even bring up that option.

Since their business was done, Mu Yi returned to the Seven Absolutions Sect to inform them that Tang Jie wanted to buy the Mountain River State Diagram.

After Mu Yi left, Tang Jie went back to his usual cultivation life.

Taking the Undying Celestial Origin Pill had filled in what had been an enormous flaw in his constitution, and he was at greater attainment of Hundred Refinement, so he could sense that he had reached the threshold for Nine Revolutions.

After entering the Mortal Shedding Realm, a cultivator could no longer advance through simple accumulation. A qualitative change was required, with each increase coming with a trial, and every subsequent trial being more difficult than the last. If he didn’t have the Undying Celestial Origin Pill, Tang Jie might have even graduated before getting this far, which was an indicator of just how effective this pill was. Amusingly, it was also for this reason that the avatar’s cultivation level was actually greater than that of the original body in the Nine Executions Immortal Formation.

The reversal of status left Tang Jie wondering what to do.

He suddenly had an idea. The avatar could just focus on cultivation while the original body could focus on body refining.

This saved resources while maximizing combat power. Moreover, he could have the avatar comprehend each phase, and once he had comprehended enough, the original body could catch up, increasing efficiency and safety.

Tang Jie had initially planned to continue strengthening his body now that the flaw had been fixed. With this new plan in mind, Tang Jie turned to buying a large number of cultivation medicines that he would need for the Nine Revolutions Tier.

This spending spree ended with him spending five hundred thousand coins. With five hundred thousand in cultivation medicines, Tang Jie anticipated that he could reach his first or second revolution within two years without a problem. The best record for Basking Moon Academy was someone reaching the fourth revolution before graduation. Thus, this sort of progress from Tang Jie would place him high in the ranks.

But Nine Revolutions wasn’t a tier where a higher number meant that one was better.

The Nine Revolutions of Mortal Shedding corresponded to the heart, the liver, the spleen, the stomach, the kidneys, the lungs, the intestines, the gallbladder, and the head—the nine weak points of the body. Of these, the heart was associated with Fire, the liver with Wood, the spleen with Earth, the lungs with Metal, the kidneys with Water, the stomach with Earth, the intestines with Metal, and the gallbladder with Fire. The head was the only one without an attribute, but it was also the most important, and it was key to cultivating the Spirit Will and opening the Violet Palace.

Each of these nine major weak points had a different cultivation process and refining method, and the effects and uses they had were completely different. One could say that this was where the true differences between cultivators began, creating various special schools and Immortal arts.

For example, the Thousand Passions Sect had always been known for its bizarre and agile movements, so at Nine Revolutions, they normally cultivated the lungs first. The lungs were the location of the soul, focused on energy, and had the Metal attribute. Cultivating the lungs was the best for energy circulation, allowing for extremely fast casting. After the lungs was the stomach, which had the attribute of Earth. Earth generated Metal, strengthening the effects of the lungs. The other choice was to cultivate the liver, which had the Wood attribute. While this did not benefit energy circulation, it benefited the body, ensuring that their movements could keep up. The last choice was the head, which was for increasing cultivation level.

As for the Basking Moon Sect, they mostly started with the heart first.

The heart’s attribute was Fire. It was the residence of the mind, the overseer of blood, the nexus of the arteries and veins, and the origin of all.

This was another reason the Basking Moon Sect was known as the Grand Orthodoxy. Its cultivation methods emphasized stability—so much so that even students from the Thousand Passions Sect ran over to the Basking Moon Sect to study its mantras.

Tang Jie cultivated the Lesser Sea Grotto Metal Mantra, whose principal meridian was the heart meridian. Using Fire to melt Metal made for a perfect pairing, and it was the norm for the cultivation arts of Basking Moon, like the basic skillset in a game. Thus, Tang Jie didn’t need to think about what his first revolution would be, deciding on the heart revolution. From there, it was easy to develop in any other direction.

It was from the second revolution where he would have to think carefully.

The earlier the revolution, the greater the effect. Thus, everyone needed to consider how to order the revolutions in order to maximize their power. But the number of choices and combinations were complex enough to make one’s head explode.

This was exactly why one would often seek out the instruction of several wise masters before making their choice, as they were the only ones who could say which choices were suitable.

Tang Jie was no exception, and he went to seek the guidance of Xie Fengtang.

To his surprise, even Xie Fengtang found the Nine Revolutions to be the most complicated and most difficult choice to make in the world. There was never a best choice, only the most suitable choice. Most importantly, until you actually got there, you would never know if your choice was correct or not.

“Normally, I would recommend that someone with hopes of reaching Violet Palace should cultivate their head second,” Xie Fengtang said. “The head is where the spirit of a person lies, and it is key to Cognitive Creation and establishing the palace, the core to linking to the heavens. Only when this place is strong can it endure the refining of will, Heart Demons, Soul Transformation, and Infant Condensation. Your talent is average, but you have superb courage and intelligence, and now, you have the support of numerous resources, which means you have some hope of reaching Violet Palace. Thus, I recommend that you choose the head. Of course, this choice will not be of much help to your combat power, but it will make you much better at staying alive, perhaps even conferring you some resistance to Divine Will attacks.”

“I see. So when Wang Juemie took Liang Xingbang’s Divine Will strike and didn’t die, it wasn’t just because Liang Xingbang was being stingy with his Divine Will, but also because of Wang Juemie’s choice.”

Xie Fengtang nodded. “Wang Juemie is arrogant and proud, so it would not be strange if he made this choice. As for the third revolution, things get more difficult…”

Concern appeared on his face as he muttered, “Cultivating the liver allows Wood to generate Fire, increasing the power. Cultivating the gallbladder gives dual Fire, boosting one’s strength. Cultivating the lungs improves energy circulation, allowing for fast casting. Cultivating the stomach is good for digestion and foundation, allowing for a vigorous vitality. As for the kidneys and intestines, one is counterproductive and the other provides no help. Excluding those two, the other five are all acceptable choices, each with their own use.”

After some thought, Tang Jie said, “This disciple cultivates the Lesser Sea Grotto Metal Mantra, which seeks to penetrate through metal and shatter jade. Thus, I seek sharpness and constant offense.”

“Is that so?” Xie Fengtang pondered his response and then said, “If that’s the case, you should cultivate the gallbladder. The heart and gallbladder are both Fire, so the increased burst of power combined with your Lesser Sea should make your spell arts extremely powerful.”

I also have to consider the Ninedark Mantra, Tang Jie noted to himself.

The Ninedark Mantra also had a part that boosted the power of spell arts. Even if the choice he made only increased his power by 20%, whenever Tang Jie cast a spell art, it would still be 60% stronger than an average person’s.

In the past, Tang Jie had primarily relied on his body, garnering a reputation for being unkillable. But starting from today, Tang Jie would change from being unkillable to being a firing platform.

In truth, this was what he had always wanted. Godhead Palace was famous for its formidable defense, and he had chosen the Grotto Metal Mantra precisely to deal with Godhead Armor. But his powerful body had obscured the sharpness of his attacks. However, as his constitution stopped increasing and his cultivation level rose, his offensive might would begin to show itself, and it was certain to leave many people stunned.

After deciding on the first three revolutions, Tang Jie decided to just keep following the same line of thought, choosing lungs for the fourth for faster casting, the liver as the fifth for greater power, the spleen and stomach for the sixth and seventh, the intestines for the eighth, and the kidneys for the ninth. This was the typical offensive path, and it was one that only someone like Tang Jie, with the innate defense granted by the Jewel Body, could choose.

Once he made his choices, he officially started cultivating.

As the Nine Revolutions Period focused on cultivating the internal organs, it was far more difficult than before. Tang Jie spent every day diligently cultivating, supported by medicines and herbs as he made slow and steady progress. Although he knew that this was inevitable, he still couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated.

Today, Tang Jie was cultivating as always. As he was cultivating and cultivating, he inexplicably felt annoyed. Knowing that it would be difficult to keep going, he decided to stop and take a walk.

He had barely made it a few steps out when he spotted Yiyi squatting in the garden, looking at something.

Tang Jie called out, “Yiyi, what are you doing?”

Yiyi turned and said, “The seed has sprouted!”

Tang Jie was startled, and then he remembered. Going over, he asked, “You’re talking about those bean seeds?”

“Mm!” Yiyi firmly nodded.

She moved to the side, revealing a green sprout vigorously growing out of the ground.

These bean seeds were none other than the bean seeds that Shi Jingzhai had used.

Shi Jingzhai’s bean soldiers from that day truly were praiseworthy, but the real reason for their power wasn’t in that spell art that had turned the beans into soldiers. It was because the beans he had used were special, and contained an extremely powerful life force.

It was this vigorous life force that allowed the bean soldiers to be so fierce.

Bei Canghan had believed that Shi Jingzhai had used his embezzled profits to get these bean seeds, but Tang Jie had never heard of any place in the Rosecloud Domain that produced plants like these.

At the time, Tang Jie remembered the spatial fissure he had seen in that underground cavern, and he knew that these seeds had most likely come from there.

A plant from another domain!

After returning to the academy, Tang Jie planted the last few bean seeds Shi Jingzhai had left, trying to grow them himself.

Alas, no matter what he did, these seeds refused to sprout. A month had gone by, and Tang Jie had exhausted all the methods he could think of. Even countless waterings with Yiyi’s urine had only managed to make the surrounding weeds grow to the height of a man while doing nothing to the bean seeds.

But today, Yiyi had managed to make one sprout.

“How did you manage to make it sprout?” Tang Jie hastily asked.

“I don’t know,” Yiyi unexpectedly replied. “I just planted that seed of mine, and then it grew.”

‘Seed of yours‘?

Tang Jie was startled. What bean seed did Yiyi have?

He had a flash of insight and asked, “Was it that bean soldier I gave you?”

After he gave that bean soldier he had captured to Yiyi, the many things that had ensued afterward had made him forget about it. But now that he thought back to it, there was no way things could be that simple.

Sure enough, Yiyi nodded. “Yes, yes, that little guy. After a while, it turned back into a bean seed.”

As Yiyi talked, Tang Jie got a picture of what had happened.

It turned out that about one hour after the battle on that day, the bean soldier returned to its original form, though its color and shape had changed a little.

Yiyi found it amusing, so she had kept it around. It was only when she saw Tang Jie failing to grow his bean seeds that she had the idea of planting her own seed. To her surprise, it had actually sprouted.

“In other words, there’s actually a method to these beans. Do they have to transform into humans first?” Tang Jie muttered.

He decided to dig up those seeds. Using the spell art from Shi Jingzhai, he turned one into a human.

As he was the one who had created this bean soldier, it naturally wouldn’t attack him. Gripping its steel saber, it waited around with a savage expression for Tang Jie’s order to take Yiyi’s life. After an hour, it turned back into a bean seed.

Tang Jie had Yiyi check whether it looked the same as the seed she had planted, but Yiyi shook her head and said it didn’t.

Tang Jie looked at the seed and felt that its life force had been emptied out. It couldn’t even be turned into a bean soldier and was just trash.

His first attempt having failed, Tang Jie carefully recalled the events of that day. After transforming, that bean soldier had been particularly savage, taking big bites at him. He recalled how that bean had wildly bit away at his thigh, as well as the pain he had felt.

Could it be…

He suddenly had an idea. Taking out another bean seed, he trickled a few drops of blood on it. The bean seed suddenly let out a bloody light and turned red. The seed even became flatter.

Yiyi shouted, “That’s it! Just like that!”

“It’s similar now?” Tang Jie asked.

“Mm!” Yiyi firmly nodded. “Mine wasn’t that big, red, or flat, though.”

Tang Jie somewhat understood. “That’s because it didn’t turn into a bean soldier, so it didn’t use up its own life force. Since that’s the case, we can do some individual tests now.”

He planted the seed and put up a sign saying that it was No. 2. As for Yiyi’s seed, it was marked as No. 1.

Besides that, Tang Jie planted two more seeds: one given Yiyi’s blood, and one given mortal blood. He wanted to see what the difference was.

Seven days later, Bean 2 was the first to sprout, though its form was completely different from Bean 1. Although it had the form of a bean sprout, a small part of it was edged with teeth, which gave it a chilling feeling.

After twelve days, Bean 3 sprouted, and it was also different from the other two seeds, emerging as a little white flower. The edges of this flower also had a circle of teeth, making it seem like a carnivorous flower.

Tang Jie threw Bean 3 a mouse, which the plant immediately ate up, even burping.

Tang Jie was rendered speechless. Whatever species this bean was, depending on the way it was cultivated, it would grow up with an entirely different form.

After another four days, Bean 4 sprouted.

This guy was also different from the other three, bursting out all of a sudden, needing only a few days to go from small bean sprout to dominating a small part of the garden.

In comparison, Beans 1 and 2 didn’t do anything after sprouting.

But while it grew well, it was like a weed, lacking any special properties.

Bean 4 rapidly grew and was on the verge of consuming the garden. Tang Jie was just about to remove it like the weed it was when the situation suddenly changed.

As Bean 4 ran into Beans 1 and 2, it suddenly dissolved into plant particles that sprinkled on the two bean sprouts, forming a thick layer of plant matter. As for Bean 4, it rapidly withered away.

Tang Jie was startled.

Tang Jie was thinking about what to do with all the accumulated plant debris in the garden, but Yiyi stopped him. “Don’t touch it. This is what they need.”

Three days later, Tang Jie discovered that all the plant matter was gone.

After another two days, Tang Jie found that Beans 1 and 2, which had not grown for some time, had now restarted their growth.

But this time, these two bean sprouts which had once been similar now began to differentiate.

Bean 1 started to form a bean pod while Bean 2 remained barren. It just grew around half an inch.

But that was all.

But Tang Jie could sense that while this plant was short, it had a sharp edge and seemed like a very metallic plant, like the king of all these plants!

It proudly and stubbornly grew, an immense life force flowing through it.

Two months later, Bean 1’s bean pod had matured.

It burst open, sprinkling out bean seeds.

Tang Jie picked up one and found that it was identical to the bean seeds from before.

“I see.”

After three months of observation, Tang Jie finally understood.

This was the bean world’s elimination process, and there were many factors that determined the outcome.

Bean 4 was undoubtedly the first to fail. It had only mortal blood, and while it was able to rapidly grow with its own energy, it was ultimately a mortal object. Of course, it wasn’t completely useless… It could become food for its kind.

Bean 3 had used Yiyi’s blood. Yiyi was a sprite, rich in the Wood attribute. This made it so that Bean 3 directly developed into a monstrous flesh-eating plant. But its existence wasn’t pointless. Cultivation of this kind of plant required blood, particularly blood that was strong in spirituality. This plant ensured a supply of blood to the others, which Tang Jie had confirmed by throwing this adult-sized, man-eating flower a lamb. He had watched as the flower bit into the lamb, splattering blood over the soil and on the bean sprouts.

As for Bean 1 and Bean 2, things were again different.

They had both used Tang Jie’s blood.

But it was clear that there were innate differences between them.

Bean 1 had been turned into a bean soldier, consuming much of its energy, but Bean 2 had preserved its energy, so it was naturally healthier than Bean 1.

However, Bean 1 had used its first-growth advantage to try to strangle Bean 2 in the cradle. The two bean sprouts had bitterly struggled against each other while growing, thus influencing each other.

In the end, it was the innately stronger Bean 2 that won the war of development. Bean 1 lost the chance to continue developing and started to turn to reproduction.

If Bean 4 was a complete evolutionary failure that could only be used for food, and Bean 3 was the guard and worker, Bean 1 was the concubine, responsible for reproduction, and Bean 2 was the king!

The only king of this bean kingdom!

Tang Jie found this rather amusing.

They were clearly just plants, but they had created their own little society in their growth process.

This definitely couldn’t be a plant from Rosecloud. Tang Jie was growing more and more interested in its background.

The king bean in the garden was still in its budding stage. There was no telling when it would ripen or what it would look like.

Tang Jie was brimming with anticipation.

Only the author knows what the point behind all this bean experimentation is.