Cultivation begins with harvest.

Chapter 253 "The Art of the Void Soul of the Wood"

Holding a jade slip of emerald green, Chen Guang no longer hesitated and pasted his own blank jade slip onto it.

The jade slips on both sides were of different colors and were emitting a unique glow, but they could not attract Chen Guang's attention in the slightest.

He was somewhat disoriented about how long he had been in the stone building. In the end, he chose a spiritual cultivation technique from more than 60,000 years ago called "Yi Xing Xu Yuan You Hun Mu Shu Shi Fa" (乙性虚元游魂木术尸法), which has six volumes. Strictly speaking, like "Chang Ming Qi Qiao Jue" (长暝炁窍诀), the last volume can only be considered half a volume, and both can be underestimated.

But this technique was already impeccable for Chen Guang.

Firstly, he had already obtained the first and second volumes of the "Purple Qi Rising Sun Technique" from Xiantang, so there was no problem with cultivating the technique. This was also stated in the jade slip of the blue-robed boy. As long as one is qualified, any disciple of Ziling Peak can obtain the corresponding level of the technique if the conditions are met. As for the "Purple Qi Rising Sun Technique," it is even more special. Regardless of whether one cultivates the technique or not, as long as one wants to see it, one can see the corresponding level of the scroll.

Secondly, I do lack a spiritual cultivation technique. The Spirit Concentration Flower can directly obtain Spirit Concentration Pills from the reward light orb. Even if it takes a lot of time, the improvement of my spiritual realm is foreseeable. Why should I waste such an advantage?

Thirdly, Chen Guang could basically gather all the materials needed to cultivate this technique. The [True Essence of Yi Wood] required for the cultivation process was a special spiritual energy that only second-level spirit plant masters could easily obtain. It was purer and more specific than the essence of plants, but it was not very difficult to obtain. Apart from spirit trees, most spirit plants could be used to collect the corresponding Yi Wood spiritual energy. First-level spirit plant masters only needed to supplement a large amount of plant essence to nourish the Yi Wood to obtain it. It was a time-consuming and laborious process with low returns. However, obtaining enough [True Essence of Yi Wood] for cultivation was sufficient.

As for the second-tier Yi Wood spiritual plant needed to enter the Foundation Establishment stage, although the Heaven and Earth spiritual root is the best, followed by the mixed spiritual root, and the Du spiritual root is the worst, as long as it is not the Heaven and Earth spiritual root, Chen Guang is confident. In fact, for Qi Refining cultivators, the mixed spiritual root is a very good choice.

The most difficult part is comprehending the Daoist essence of the [Gathering of Righteousness] category within the Great Dao of Wood. This requires targeted comprehension and sensing the heavens and earth. Most people follow their nature and try to comprehend it in a targeted way, which can actually stifle many cultivators, preventing them from taking this step in their entire lives. But that's a matter for later. The "Yi Xing Xu Yuan You Hun Mu Shu Shi Fa" will only be considered when the cultivation of the "Yi Xing Xu Yuan You Hun Mu Shu Shi Fa" reaches the point where a foundation for Dao condensation is needed.

Fourthly, and most importantly, the "Yi Xing Xu Yuan You Hun Mu Shu Shi Fa" is an imitation of the "Qing Yuan You Ming Yi Xu Jian Jue". Its foundation is extremely solid, and its potential for future development is also enormous. Although the directions are different, the latter uses the spiritual roots of heaven and earth to reshape the foundation and cultivates with the aptitude of innate wood spiritual roots, while the former's greatest specialty is only the formation of a single wood attribute external avatar, but it has a more positive significance for Chen Guang.

Even though the external avatar of the "Yi Xing Xu Yuan You Hun Mu Shu Shi Fa" only has the wood attribute and will be suppressed to death by the attribute that it restrains, and even with all the limitations due to the fixed upper limit of the materials used and cultivation level, it is enough. This is one of the few techniques in the Stone Tower that can potentially cultivate an external avatar during the Qi Refining stage.

With an external avatar, there's no need to rely on Chanzhi to deal with those spiritual beings, thus maximizing the benefits.

With an external avatar, one doesn't need to personally risk their life when going on adventures.

Having an external avatar allows one to entrust the care of some spiritual plants, enabling them to care for more spiritual plants and gain more free time for cultivation.

The benefits are too numerous to list in a few words.

-

Even if I failed to cultivate an external avatar at the Qi Refining stage, since it's a soul cultivation technique, I wouldn't have lost anything.

Chen Guang faced two major challenges.

The prerequisite for creating an external avatar in the "Yi Xing Xu Yuan You Hun Mu Shu Shi Fa" is to release one's divine sense. Therefore, one must first refine the Autumn Water Pill. Only this kind of miraculous pill can do this. One has already worked on two of the three main ingredients, and only the Autumn Water Pill is missing.

Secondly, one must cultivate the companion spell [Qingming Three], one's own spiritual path. After all, it is a dual cultivation, and even if there is some bias, it will not be short of time.

Going forward, the top priorities are still Jade Heart Grass and Vermilion Fruit. One can directly enhance magical power, and the other rewards an uncertain light orb, but it will still be useful if I refine it into a pill. Thunder Jade and Emerald can further enhance the Transparent Body. The Zhan Yang Flower is related to comprehending the Dao. These items are the most important and have a crucial impact on whether one can establish a foundation.

The rest of the spiritual plants can be ranked later. After that, there are plants like the Concentration Flower, the Cloud Butterfly, the Mysterious Pattern Bamboo, and the Three Wonders Fruit, which can be of great use.

Based on priority, they can be roughly divided into five levels.

Imprinting the cultivation method is an extremely simple task, completed in a single stroke. Unsurprisingly, there are only the first and second volumes. Like the "Purple Qi Rising Sun Technique" in my mind, it can only be obtained after reaching a higher level. My main cultivation method in the future will naturally be the "Purple Qi Rising Sun Technique," which is the most practiced technique on Purple Spirit Peak. It is like standing on the shoulders of giants, so there is no need to change it.

"Um?"

Just as Chen Guang was about to leave, a golden scroll suddenly floated to his front, unfurled on its own, and revealed a silver pen floating in the air, its tip gleaming with a mysterious charm.

"This is a document governed by the laws of cause and effect. Sign your name on it, and it will be used to track down any secret techniques or methods you might reveal in the future. You are currently free from all constraints, and the inheritance marks of the Nine Husbands and Cloud Tower have been erased. However, this is a sect's property. You can pass on the part you have comprehended, but the original parts are absolutely forbidden. I can use the wisdom of the Qingheng ancestors..."

I swear to Heaven, there has been no lying or deception.

The voice that preceded him to the stone building rang out again, and Chen Guang picked up the silver pen and wrote down his name.

Swearing an oath to the heavens is fine, as the retribution for inner demons won't take effect immediately; but within the Qingheng Sect, swearing an oath by the sages will immediately trigger a reaction if it's false.

"You should be clear about what you can and cannot say. This constraint is not strong; you just need to know it in your heart."

Watching the golden book and silver pen disappear, Chen Guang breathed a sigh of relief and finally left the stone building. When he sensed the change in the atmosphere outside, he knew that three days and two nights had passed. Now the sun was setting and it was getting dark again.

With a vague sense of the world, one can roughly perceive these changes in the outside world. Even if one is in seclusion for an unknown period of time, one can know the general situation as soon as one comes out of seclusion.

It was only then that Chen Guang noticed Gao Wen's message on the message disk, reminding him to collect the classics. After picking up the message disk and asking a few more questions, Chen Guang realized that there were some troublesome things involved.

When Chen Guang arrived at the room where the books were stored, he received a blank jade slip. He could use it to make copies of up to one hundred books, but he could only choose the direction he had already studied. For example, since Chen Guang came from the Earth Hall, he could only choose books on spiritual plants, magic, and formations. Magic and formations were options available to all disciples. If he had chosen other skills in the Cloud Tower, he could still read other types of books. Even if he wanted to obtain some information, he could only do so indirectly from the spiritual healer.

But there were too many books in the Jingwen Hall. If Chen Guang were to choose for himself, it would seem as if he should make copies of every single one and study them carefully.

Gao Wen and his companion took this matter quite seriously, personally selecting a batch of classic texts for Chen Guang, focusing on spiritual plants, supplemented by magic techniques, and secondarily on formations. According to them, if he could master these formation books, he could go straight to the tenth floor of Yunlou. It wasn't until the moonlight was cold and desolate that Chen Guang finally left the Scripture Hall.

After leaving Tianheng Plain, several days passed. If there was anything they hadn't done, it was that they hadn't paid for Zhanyang Flower, but they had already left a message that they would pay it next year, so it wasn't a big deal.

Sitting cross-legged on the Azure Cloud Boat, he couldn't help but chuckle as he flew. By now, he had everything he needed: cultivation techniques, spiritual plants, and resources. Not to mention the trust the sect placed in him, which truly warmed his heart. In this state, his future was like the bright morning light on the horizon; he could already see the dawn that was about to rise from the horizon.

"Alas-"

Chen Guang yelled and rushed into the purple mist.