I Pick Up Talents on the Interstellar Battlefield

Chapter 517: Chapter 420: Jie La’s Breakthrough, Celestial Plant Tribulation

“It’s been ten days.”

Qin Tian raised his hand and touched the stubble on his chin, feeling a rough texture at his fingertips.

He gazed at the undulating purple energy clouds in front of him, feeling emotional inside—this was the tenth day he and Dongfang Mingyue had been drifting in subspace, and the tenth day he had been hunting dimensional creatures to accumulate evolution points.

The initial hunting process was far from smooth compared to now.

Even though the Subspace Dimension Physique granted him a 300% increase in perception range, covering hundreds of kilometers, the subspace was too vast, like an endless chaotic sea. The dimensional creatures, unlike humans, did not live in groups; they were more like nomadic beasts wandering after energy, difficult to track down.

During the first three days, he could only sporadically encounter a few waves of low-tier dimensional creatures every day, and the evolution points he gained were only in the hundreds of thousands, far from the 50 million needed to upgrade to {Void Dominator}.

Until he figured out the habits of dimensional creatures—they might not live in groups, but they had an instinctual thirst for high-concentration energy. As long as he found a place where energy gathered, he could wait for them to come.

The energy cloud cluster in front of him was the “ideal hunting ground” he discovered. In just seven days, he had ambushed six waves of dimensional armies here, obtaining a wave of evolution points almost every day. The number on his panel steadily rose from the initial 33 million to 45 million, getting closer and closer to the target.

“Qin Tian, take a break.”

A gentle voice sounded from behind. Dongfang Mingyue walked over slowly, surrounded by a faint layer of subspace energy.

She handed over a milky white porcelain bottle as she approached Qin Tian.

Qin Tian looked at the porcelain bottle handed to him. Although his consumption of spiritual energy just now wasn’t too great, he still took the bottle, poured out a round elixir, and put it in his mouth.

The Qingmu Spiritual Energy Pill melted in his mouth, and the pure spiritual energy quickly spread throughout his body, flowing slowly along the meridians, quickly replenishing the consumed spiritual energy.

“These Tier Five elixirs, I made plenty of them while practicing alchemy, and there are more in the space ring. You can take them after every battle without worry.”

Seeing Qin Tian take the elixir, Dongfang Mingyue showed a faint smile. Over the past few days, she watched Qin Tian hunt dimensional creatures alone, while she could only wait on the sidelines due to her unhealed origin, feeling somewhat guilty.

But being able to help Qin Tian through elixirs gave her a sense of value, rather than feeling like a burden dragging him down.

Feeling the spiritual energy surging inside him, Qin Tian looked at Dongfang Mingyue’s smiling face and said seriously, “Mingyue, it won’t be long before I find an energy anchor point so we can go home together.”

Dongfang Mingyue nodded forcefully, her eyes full of trust, “I know you can do it.”

She was well aware of how difficult it was to open a path from subspace to the real cosmos by oneself—a feat only Tier Eight powerhouses or even demigods could achieve.

But whenever Qin Tian said those words, she inexplicably believed, especially over these ten days when she saw the determination in Qin Tian’s eyes. The hope of returning home grew stronger.

Just then, Qin Tian’s expression suddenly changed—his Demon King Avatar, which he released, sensed something. At a nearby energy flow convergence point, a sizable dimensional army appeared.

He was just about to tell Dongfang Mingyue about this when a sudden sensation came from his wrist—the green vine wrapped around his wrist suddenly glowed intensely. Jie La’s consciousness, as if just awoken, sounded in his mind, urgent, “I… I’m about to breakthrough!”

Qin Tian’s heart tightened, his eyes fixed on the green vine on his wrist—the vine, originally coiled around his wrist, was now trembling violently, with the verdant patterns on the surface flashing as if coming alive. Dense life energy spread along the vine, yet with an undercurrent of chaotic imbalance.

He immediately realized: previously, the subspace storm interrupted Jie La’s slumber. However, after silently accumulating over these ten days, Jie La had still finished assimilating the source energy of the Ten Thousand Wood Source Crystal, reaching the critical point of breaking through to Tier Seven!

Before Qin Tian could think more, the green vine wrapped around his wrist suddenly broke free, soaring towards the energy clouds in the sky like a giant snake given life.

Upon touching the purple energy cloud, Jie La’s vine began growing insanely—the main vine thickening visibly, its diameter quickly surpassing a meter and extending thousands of meters away.

Soon after, thousands of branches split from the main vine, each as thick as a man’s arm. Some vines were ablaze with pale golden flames, some entwined in ominous blue lightning, and others oozed dark green venom, exuding a dangerous aura in subspace.

As energy clouds continuously poured in, Jie La’s aura rocketed upwards, from the peak of Tier Six charging towards Tier Seven. Yet, the growth became increasingly unstable, with the energy fluctuations around her waxing and waning, faintly emanating a disturbing, inexplicable wave, seemingly invoking some kind of world rules.

“That’s a Celestial Plant Tribulation!” Dongfang Mingyue’s face changed slightly.

As a member of the Dongfang Clan, she understood well—the life-or-death test that a spirit plant must undergo when breaking through to Tier Seven, known as the Celestial Plant Tribulation. Once triggered, it heralds three-fold tribulations against the spirit plant’s origin, with even a slight mistake leading to soul-destruction.

But she also remembered when Dongfang Yuansheng gave Qin Tian the Ten Thousand Wood Source Crystal, he mentioned that Qin Tian had the Center of Wood Marrow given by Elder Ke of the Dongfang Clan. With the protection of the Center of Wood Marrow, the spirit plant would safely endure the Celestial Plant Tribulation.

At this moment, Qin Tian did not hesitate at all. He immediately fetched from the spirit space a bright green crystal exuding vast life energy— the very Center of Wood Marrow entrusted to him by Dongfang Ke, specifically to aid the spirit plant in breaking through to Tier Seven, capable of enhancing the spirit plant’s racial talent.

Almost instantly as the Center of Wood Marrow appeared, a vine from the sky swooped down like a long snake, accurately seizing the Center of Wood Marrow, then quickly retracting it, coiling it around the main vine.

The moment the Center of Wood Marrow touched Jie La’s vine, it was activated, with pure life spiritual energy gushing out like a spring, absorbed crazily by Jie La.

Yet, the spiritual energy had only been half absorbed when a sudden change occurred—all of Jie La’s vines simultaneously ignited with blazing red flames. Different from ordinary flames, these flames emitted a destructive high temperature upon appearing, visibly charring and curling the vine’s surface.

Watching Jie La, despite the support of the Center of Wood Marrow, Qin Tian couldn’t help but reveal a tense look in his eyes.

The first tribulation, the Tribulation Fire Tempering, had arrived!