Chapter 76 - 48: Sacrificial Spirit Offers a Peach, Qingxuan Third Layer

Chapter 76: Chapter 48: Sacrificial Spirit Offers a Peach, Qingxuan Third Layer

Before the sacrificial spirit peach tree.

After listening to Mu Xiaoyu explain the Dragon and Tiger Swallowing Relief Ancient Skill she had obtained, Li Yinsheng briefly attempted it himself.

To his surprise, even as a Daoist—and one with decent Cultivation at that—he hadn’t reached the so-called state of "Dragon and Tiger Harmony, Kan and Li Complete." It wasn’t that his cultivation method lacked this aspect, but rather that he genuinely hadn’t progressed far enough along his path to achieve it.

However, because of this, the Dragon and Tiger Swallowing Technique proved useful to him as well. Compared to Mu Xiaoyu, he was much closer to Dragon and Tiger Harmony. Thus, the Ancient Skill wouldn’t be nearly as effective on him as it was on his junior sister. Consequently, the side effects would also be much milder.

"Hmm, I wonder how much my Magical Power will increase after executing this Secret Skill?"

Mu Xiaoyu tilted her head. "If I had known this move when I fought that Python, it would’ve been a lot easier, right?"

"When you encounter a strong enemy in the future, won’t you have a chance to test it out?" Li Yinsheng said with a smile.

Mu Xiaoyu nodded instinctively before frantically shaking her head. "No strong enemies! No strong enemies!

"Hoping to run into strong enemies just to test this Ancient Skill would be incredibly stupid, right? If that’s the case, I’d rather never have the chance to use this move."

Li Yinsheng nodded in agreement. "That makes sense."

However, he knew it was impossible for his junior sister to avoid strong enemies during the Shifeng Conference and the Lesser Yang Dao Examination. After all, her ultimate goal was an A Class in the Lesser Yang Dao Examination!

Li Yinsheng made a quick calculation. If his junior sister secured an A Class in the Lesser Yang Dao Examination, he would also prove himself at the Zhengyang Field and succeed as the Temple Master. By then, with his junior sister carrying the title of an A Class prodigy, it shouldn’t be too difficult for him to pull some strings and have the Dharma Vein register her as the Vice Temple Master, right?

Perhaps he could even apply to the Dharma Vein, claiming that as a Daoist, it was inconvenient for him to serve as the Temple Master, allowing his junior sister to exceptionally take the position herself. After all, Daoists from other Daoist Temples never served as Temple Masters. Those positions were usually held by Cultivators with profound Cultivation who had not yet become Daoists.

With a Daoist’s proposal and Xuanzhen Temple’s unique circumstances, the Dharma Vein might just agree.

He hadn’t forgotten the two Cultivation Aspirations tied to the Lesser Yang Dao Examination and becoming Temple Master. For an A Class in the Lesser Yang Dao Examination, the Cultivation Aspiration rewarded a total of one hundred and eighty-one years of Cultivation. Becoming Vice Temple Master rewarded thirty years. Becoming Temple Master rewarded fifty years.

In other words, if his junior sister clinched the A Class, he would reap between two hundred and eleven and two hundred and sixty years of total Cultivation. Then there was the Cultivation from the Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword that he had yet to claim, totaling one hundred and twenty years. Coupled with his current two hundred years of Cultivation...

That would be five or six hundred years of Cultivation in total.

He wondered, "Can a Daoist live for five hundred years? Probably not, right?"

Li Yinsheng racked his brains but couldn’t recall ever hearing of a Daoist over three hundred years old.

Reining in his scattered thoughts, Li Yinsheng reminded himself not to celebrate too early. As a Daoist of Xuanzhen Temple, he was relatively confident about fulfilling the Cultivation Aspirations for Vice Temple Master and Temple Master. However, given the current situation, it wasn’t guaranteed he would receive the full rewards for the other two Cultivation Aspirations.

Moreover, inside this Grotto Heaven, he could only practice his Cultivation Technique, not Magic. When it came to means outside of pure Cultivation, let alone Cultivators at his level, even those two or three layers below him would likely leave him in the dust.

Li Yinsheng shook his head. Alas, he still had a long way to go in his cultivation.

"Junior Sister, our fortune here is exhausted. Let’s go." Li Yinsheng stood up from the large boulder.

"Okay!" Mu Xiaoyu stood up as well.

Instead of leaving immediately, she ran over to the Ancient Peach Sacrificial Spirit and bowed deeply.

"Big peach tree, thank you for the Ancient Skill! We’re leaving now, bye-bye!"

Mu Xiaoyu waved at the Ancient Peach Sacrificial Spirit. Just as she was about to turn around, the Ancient Peach Sacrificial Spirit, which had lost its Spiritual Light, suddenly trembled and erupted with dazzling brilliance once more.

Standing so close to the tree, Mu Xiaoyu was almost blinded by the intense light.

Li Yinsheng, however, saw it clearly. Amidst the bright radiance, the ancient tree, once lush and covered in blooming peach blossoms, began to decay at a rapid pace. In the blink of an eye, the leaves turned yellow and withered, falling to the ground in droves, while the peach blossoms wilted and died even faster.

Conversely, on the branch closest to Mu Xiaoyu, a single peach blossom rapidly transformed into a small, delicate peach. The peach grew at astonishing speed. A dozen breaths later, when the last of the flowers and leaves had fallen, the peach was the size of a watermelon—so large it required both hands to hold.

During those dozen breaths, the branch bearing the peach slowly extended toward his junior sister. When the brilliant light finally receded, the barren peach tree, now completely stripped of its leaves and flowers, held out a single branch offering the massive peach. It stopped right in front of Mu Xiaoyu, perfectly within arm’s reach.

Having failed to see what happened, Mu Xiaoyu jumped in fright at the sight of the ground covered in dead leaves and a withered branch offering her a peach.

Although Li Yinsheng wasn’t startled, his mind was no less turbulent.

Since arriving, he hadn’t felt any Spirituality from the ancient peach tree itself, only the Spiritual Light of its existence as a Sacrificial Spirit. This wasn’t unusual. In this world, Spiritual Items born from anything other than humans were exceedingly rare. For example, his Martial Uncle’s White Rainbow Sword, a Magical Treasure, possessed only basic Spirituality and was far from having true sentience.

As for the ancient peach tree before him, despite him never sensing any Spirituality, it was hard to explain its proactive offering of the peach without it. Furthermore, his Divine Sense swept over the peach.

Its aura was pure and clear, untainted by any foul or impure energies. It was far superior to ordinary medicinal herbs or spirit fruits, and could almost be considered one of the Heavenly and Earthly Treasures. Once consumed, it could not only be easily processed through Refinement into Magical Power without causing any instability in one’s foundation, but it might even solidify it further.

This was the primary difference between Heavenly and Earthly Treasures and ordinary Elixirs.

The problem was that the energy contained within wasn’t particularly abundant. Li Yinsheng estimated that this single peach might only grant a few years’ worth of Magical Power.

If a tree possessing Spirituality sacrificed all its leaves and flowers, withering to the brink of death just to bear a fruit of this caliber, then its Spirituality was far too cheap. After all, only existences at the level of a Daoist’s Magical Treasure possessed even rudimentary Spirituality.

In his opinion, it was more likely that this peach tree, acting as a Sacrificial Spirit, contained another inheritance besides the Ancient Skill. If a visitor met certain conditions, it would trigger a Restriction within, causing the tree to exhaust everything it had to produce a peach and bestow it upon the inheritor.

"Senior Brother..."

Mu Xiaoyu called out to him, but her eyes were glued to the peach, her mouth practically watering.

She thought, "What a fragrant, fragrant peach! It smells even better than the Crane Egg!"

"The peach tree gave this to you. Accept it," Li Yinsheng said.

Hearing her senior brother’s words, Mu Xiaoyu hesitated no longer. She decisively reached out with both hands and lifted the peach from the withered branch. The moment she removed it, Li Yinsheng felt the peach tree’s final trace of vitality completely dissipate.

"Senior Brother! Come try it! This peach is so fragrant!"

Mu Xiaoyu ran over, hugging the peach that was larger than her head. It did indeed give off a refreshing aroma.

"This peach can increase Cultivation without causing an unstable foundation," Li Yinsheng explained. "However, the Cultivation it grants isn’t much. It won’t mean much to me, but it will be very useful to you."

"So you aren’t going to eat it, Senior Brother?" Mu Xiaoyu understood his implication.

"Right." Li Yinsheng nodded. "If you eat it, your Qingxuan Scripture will definitely reach the Third Layer."

His junior sister still had the Crane Egg Primordial Qi settled within her body. Combined with this peach, breaking through to the Third Layer of the Qingxuan Scripture would be absolutely no problem. However, he estimated that achieving Perfection in the Third Layer would require her to thoroughly complete the Refinement of the dormant Crane Egg Primordial Qi within her.

Furthermore, the Magical Power required to reach the Fourth Layer was quite high. It was highly unlikely she could reach the Fourth Layer directly. Still, since the effects of both the peach and the Crane Egg required time for Refinement, it wouldn’t be too long before she achieved the Fourth Layer.

After Li Yinsheng urged her repeatedly, Mu Xiaoyu lowered her head and began taking huge bites of the peach. She wore an expression of absolute contentment, as if saying, "What more could one ask for in life?"

However, when there was only a third left, she once again held the peach out to Li Yinsheng, adamantly insisting that her senior brother try it. In her own words, the slight boost in Cultivation might be useless to him, but it was truly the most delicious peach in the world—he would regret it for the rest of his life if he didn’t taste it.

Unable to dissuade her, Li Yinsheng had no choice but to slice off a small piece with the Cold Bright Sword and taste it himself. Well, whether it was the most delicious peach in the world was up for debate, but it was certainly the best one he had ever eaten.

By the time his junior sister had eaten half the peach, she had already reached the Third Layer of the Qingxuan Scripture.

This was partly because the aura within the peach was extremely pure and gentle. She only needed to circulate her Cultivation Technique slightly for Refinement, directly converting it into Cultivation and breaking through to the Third Layer. Had Li Yinsheng not reminded her, she wouldn’t even have realized she had broken through.

After finishing the peach, she took out a brocade handkerchief and carefully wrapped the fist-sized peach pit as if it were a precious treasure. Glancing at the withered peach tree, Mu Xiaoyu looked at her senior brother with pleading eyes.

"Senior Brother, this peach tree died, and the pit is all it left behind. Why don’t we... plant this pit once we return to the Daoist Temple?"

Li Yinsheng nodded. "That works. This peach tree does seem quite extraordinary.

"Moreover, there is a Spirit Refining Array in the temple. Spirit Charm is quite beneficial for the growth of Spirit Plants. Since we can’t use up all the Spirit Charm anyway, I’ll allocate some for this peach pit."

Mu Xiaoyu cheered, carefully placing the peach pit into her Qiankun Bag.

She thought, "Once it grows into a big peach tree, won’t I get to eat such delicious peaches every day?"

Li Yinsheng could guess what she was thinking, but he didn’t burst her bubble—it would take far more than a mere three to five years to grow this kind of Spirit Plant.

"Huh?" After putting the peach pit in the Qiankun Bag, Mu Xiaoyu raised an eyebrow. With a flip of her hand, she took out the Black Stone from before—the one that repelled poisonous miasma and couldn’t be detected by Divine Sense.

"Senior Brother," Mu Xiaoyu said, her tone somewhat uncertain, "it seems like... my Divine Sense can feel this stone now?"

Li Yinsheng was taken aback. The Black Stone was still undetectable to his own senses, but his junior sister didn’t look like she was joking.

He thought, "Could it be... that this is also thanks to the peach?"