Dual Cultivation God Returns

A cloud of ethereal white mist started condensing on a stone path leading to the entrance to a beautiful garden, and then a darker color mist seemingly seeped from within, creating an opening through the lighter mist.

Wu Long appeared from within, having passed through without Fen Baihu’s help, although with her active cheer-leading as he was doing it.

He could still hear her impressed rapid small claps when he managed to open a passage for himself in a record ‘short’ time of 17 minutes and 45 seconds.

The gates of the garden were open like in most times, and he stepped right in, noticing a spot where several butterflies circled in the air.

A head popped up in between the flowers under that spot, beautiful green eyes of Gong Liwei filling with joy at seeing him.

She stood up and began running to meet him, but since she was in a maze of flowers, she began running from side to side, turning several times.

‘Haha, so cute…’, he thought as he watched her run in an extremely lady-like fashion, fast but small steps restricted by the long skirt of her dress, and hands raised a bit to the sides, for better balance, thus being relatively slow despite obviously being in a hurry.

More than anything, what amused him was that she was so focused on going to him as fast as possible, that she forgot she could fly up and bypass all the flower rows.

When she finally cleared the medicinal plants field she ran out to the main pathway he stood on and into his embrace as he raised her a bit into the air and kissed her.

Her hands weaved around his neck in that peculiar balance between wishing to hug him tightly and realizing her hands were covered in soil as she was doing gardening just before.

He smiled while they kissed, and intensified the kiss, her eyes widening from surprise, and then closed, giving into the moment and basking in this feeling.

After the kiss, Gong Liwei’s eyes opened to look into his, her breathing a bit uneven from the passionate kiss, “So intense…”

“You don’t like it?”, he playfully asked while raising his eyebrow with a smile of mischief, knowing full well what her answer will be.

She quickly shook her head from side to side, “I… like it… I like it a lot… I just didn’t expect it”

Her quick whisper caused him to show a greedy look in his eyes, leaning his forehead against hers, closing his eyes, “Me neither, I just couldn’t hold back”

Surprise flashed in her eyes, and then pure joy, as she hugged him tighter while her hands still hung in the air behind him despite him being fine even if some soil got on his clothes or hair.

After some time, he slowly lowered her until her feet touched the ground again, reluctantly letting her go.

And at this moment, a figure flew above, as Wei Lan arrived from the gates to the area with the large tree deep within the garden.

Gong Liwei’s mouth involuntarily opened as she looked at the beauty’s floating figure with belated realization she could do it too, and as she looked back at Wu Long who began smiling in silent laughter, her face began reddening as she lowered it.

Wu Long rubbed her forearm with the hand wrapped around her, which slightly shook her and bumped her shoulder against him, and kissed her on the top of the head with a chuckle.

He then stepped forward and welcomed Wei Lan into his arms, exchanging a kiss that gave Gong Liwei some time to get past the embarrassment, since it too, lasted for quite a bit.

“Baihu told me Yuanfen was in your garden”, Wu Long asked after their kiss ended, and after releasing the tender hug that followed the kiss as well.

“I’ll show you to her”, Wei Lan nodded, and then chuckled, “She seems to have taken a liking to that Ancient Blessing Plum you brought from the Sun Shadow Realm, she has been visiting it from time to time”

Wu Long first raised his eyebrows in light surprise, and then turned a smug smile toward Gong Liwei, “See?”

This caused the latter to laugh, remembering the time they encountered the tree.

—

While Wu Long was collecting various valuable medicinal plants, ores and any other natural treasures possible on their way, he suddenly decided to take a bigger detour to the side from their planned path.

They soon entered a place rather abundant with Spiritual Qi, but nothing notable growing around, which was unusual.

As they arrived atop a hill, they saw it, a large, almost 40 meters tall tree with a thick trunk almost 2 meters wide, standing in a ravine down beneath.

“Ancient Blessing Plum!”, Wu Long exclaimed with unusual excitement, causing the three beauties with him to show surprised looks.

“Is that tree that valuable?”, Gong Liwei carefully asked, but curious since none of them saw him get so visibly excited over a cultivation resource, even when they found those hot springs he valued so much.

But he surprisingly shook his head, “No”, dumbfounding the three.

“Eh?”, Cai Yin involuntarily let out an ambiguous sound.

“Mm, it’s absolutely useless”, Wu Long nodded with a chuckle, seeing an understandable reaction, proceeding to explain a little, “The Ancient Blessing Plum, is a tree that has no useful properties whatsoever, bears no fruit, and generally is not considered to be cultivation-related even if it requires environments with very abundant Spiritual Qi to grow, and quite quickly withers if the amount of Spiritual Qi was lacking in the surroundings”

“Ah, that is why there is no other valuable natural treasures growing around here even if it is a spot with such rich Spiritual Qi…”, Gong Liwei nodded with understanding.

“…”, Hong Yue silently questioned him with her eyes, trying to understand what was the point of stopping for this tree. She was waiting for him to say that it grew atop something valuable or provided some useful information.

However, Wu Long proceeded to eye the tree’s size, muttering, “It’s not going to fit into the Spatial Ring… welp, I guess I’ll have to take it the other way…”

He proceeded to concentrate, preparing to put away the tree into his Mystic Realm, a process which was reserved for only the most valuable things because it took quite a bit of time, which was even more valuable in the Secret Realm.

This told the three beauties that there was something about the tree itself…

They waited patiently for a long time until Wu Long was able to spread the mist and using the Earth Rune, lift the tree along with a large chunk of the ground its roots were planted in, taking it away.

He then turned to them with a satisfied look, and smiled, seeing the silent question in their eyes, and began explaining, as the three thought he would finally say there was a secret only he knew even if others thought the tree was useless.

But their gazes gradually became blank as they listened.

According to him, the tree was only valued for three properties.

First, its aesthetic properties, since when it flowered the flowers looked translucent, like thin, intricately designed pieces of colored glass, each petal akin to a piece of art, and carried ethereal beauty.

Second, its extreme scarcity since the tree could only be very rarely found in the wild, and no one knew a method to propagate the tree from an existing one.

“And finally”, he added, igniting a new hope in Cai Yin’s and Gong Liwei’s eyes, while Hong Yue long since gave up trying to understand, “third and last, it carries a traditional symbolic meaning, often generally associated with good luck and prosperity. This is true not only in the Current Era, but in Ancient Texts as well, since there were mentions of this tree in poems and non-cultivation related texts of the Ancient Era, though the symbolic meaning behind those mentions varies and is a cause for significant speculation…”

His voice trailed off as he saw the looks of the three.

“So… it’s just a beautiful and rare tree…?”, Gong Liwei asked, still believing there was some hidden meaning.

“Yes”, Wu Long nodded, “Cultivators often consider it a useless tree that’s taking up an exorbitant amount of Spiritual Qi, and requires quite a lot of care in general, which could possibly be the reason it is so rare to find, especially in this mature size”

Cai Yin still couldn’t fully believe him though, thinking he was teasing them.

After all, Wu Long was always pragmatic, almost never doing something without significant reason.

Unable to hold back her curiosity, she decided to ask him directly, “Umm, was the reason you decided to collect it…”

“Ah, I always liked it…”, he replied, dumbfounding all three, even Hong Yue who thought she wouldn’t be surprised no matter what the reason was.

He then added in a serene, lighthearted tone, “For me, it has value because I enjoy it. Sure, it’s a useless tree that has no real benefit for cultivators, but originally trees weren’t there for a purpose of being used by cultivators… trees are just trees, I just always liked this one ever since I saw one, so I always wanted to have it in a garden or something…”

—

“I think I fell for him even more than before when he was saying that…”, Gong Liwei chuckled, talking to Wei Lan, “I think Sister Cai Yin did as well”

“Who wouldn’t… I can just picture that scene in my head every time you tell that story”, the latter nodded and replied in the same half-whisper Gong Liwei used, as if the one they talked about wasn’t right there beside them as they walked to the place the tree was temporarily placed at.

They stopped at the place where the main pathway split in several directions.

“I’m going this way”, Gong Liwei said pointing toward her training spot, and then as Wu Long spread his arms, came into his embrace, “I’m close to a breakthrough”

“Already?”, Wu Long raised his eyebrows, since the technique he made for her was truly complex, and a lot of it required skills in Qi manipulation that required long practice rather than just understanding. The fact she already was close to some kind of breakthrough in regards to that technique showed just how much effort she was putting in.

In fact, apart from coming out for dinner with the whole Dao Family, and occasionally relaxing her mind by doing gardening, her time was entirely spent focusing on the technique.

She smiled, and after receiving a kiss, went on her way, turning after walking for a while to see he was still standing with Wei Lan, seeing her off.

He continued to do so until she could no longer be seen, only then continuing on their way. Wei Lan made a warm smile.

After a bit, they passed through a pailong gate that took them to a small valley, where the tree stood alone amid a field of rather short wild grass compared to how wild grass grew in this climate in nature.

Both stopped for a moment, taken by the scenery.

The top of the trunk, where the thick lower branches were coming out of, had a natural notch, which seemingly further slightly changed form to become more comfortable.

Yuanfen laid in that notch which now perfectly fit her when laying on the side slightly curled up. She was peacefully sleeping, the canopy shielding her from the sun.

And with her quiet, serene breath, there was a subtle inexplicable feeling that the world around breathed with her, creating that atmosphere of surreal beauty that stopped them in their tracks.

Wei Lan turned her eyes to Wu Long with a silent question, to which he shook his head with a smile, and they quietly left, not disturbing this peace.

“She has been sleeping a lot more lately, each time for quite a long period”, Wei Lan noted with slight worry, “And so soundly that her usual supernatural ability to tell when someone is around also doesn’t wake her up…”

“Don’t forget, she basically woke up forcefully, which is likely the reason why she hasn’t fully awakened her consciousness”, Wu Long reminded her with a reassuring smile, “It is normal she would need a lot of rest, it could be that she chose this method of periodic sleep instead of entering a long and deep sleep. Although I can’t be certain when it comes to her, my gut feeling is that it is not something to worry about”

“I see…”, Wei Lan nodded, understanding, and then asked “Should I call you when she wakes up? She came about half a day ago… so it should be a few hours still”

“A few hours…?”, Wu Long traced his chin in thought, and then replied with a smile, “Hmm, maybe I’ll just wait in your garden house”

Wei Lan’s eyes flashed with joy at this unexpected proposition, and she enthusiastically nodded, “Hehe, you haven’t eaten yet, right? I’ll make you something good”