Cultivation begins with harvest.

Chapter 258 Ice Pearl

In high spirits, they had no intention of staying in the cave and immediately set off to check out other places that could nurture spiritual creatures.

The aquatic plants at the bottom of the lake are now clear, making it the simplest of the several breeding grounds on the mountain. It was formed by the repeated washing of spiritual energy tides in the lake, creating a stagnation point in the center of the dense aquatic plants. As for why it can increase the hatching probability of fish and monster eggs, it is related to the source of the spiritual energy tides in the lake. It brings a mysterious spiritual power, which is the finishing touch. Since it is not within the protection range of the formation, we will not explore it for now.

Chen Guang moved some aquatic plants and made a similar dense arrangement a little further away, preparing to verify his conjecture. He wanted to see through the flags whether there were fish or monsters active in the lake deeper in the formation. The formation also allowed these monsters with weak spiritual power to pass through. He would wait a few days and see if it would have any effect.

The blue-and-white soil at the foot of the brown pine is located at the windy pass of the valley. The pollen of the spiritual flowers in the valley is swept up and captured by the brown pine as it passes by. The brown pine is rich in spiritual energy and has the function of enriching spiritual energy. These spiritual flower pollen, which already has some spiritual energy, are attracted by the brown pine. After all, the brown pine is a relatively ordinary spiritual tree. Although it can not digest all the captured spiritual flower pollen, once the pine cones mature, they can no longer absorb the pollen and let it fall into the soil in the cracks of the gravel at the base of the tree. With a stable spiritual energy environment, it slowly becomes blue-and-white soil.

Chen Guang had not yet figured out the Red Leaf Fire Tree, but he had figured out the principles of three of the four potentially unstable spiritual resource sites. He was confident that he could replicate the Blue Flower Soil, which made Chen Guang very happy. He stayed up all night and began to study the Wind Transport Technique.

The next day, Chen Guang held a round, oval seed that was interwoven with misty blue, maple red, and starry night black, and fell into deep thought, his gaze occasionally sweeping across the entire Shouling Mountain, searching for a suitable location.

This is a Three Wonders Fruit. The Three Wonders Fruit I obtained from Dongfang Hunshan was much shriveled and lacked vitality. It was fine as a material for alchemy, but it was almost impossible to cultivate. It was completely different from the seed in my hand, which I obtained from Ditang and had been processed so that it would germinate and grow if planted normally.

However, the Three Wonders Fruit is a third-tier Du Spirit Root, and its requirements for the environment are not low. It requires a calm and peaceful atmosphere, a stable spiritual atmosphere, and spiritual soil such as jade sand to grow.

Ruins destroy objects and damage spirits; Rare Earth encompasses everything and assimilates all things; Yang Cliff possesses strong and extreme attributes, fierce yet not evil; Jade Sand, on the other hand, has a pure spiritual nature, purifying evil and eliminating malevolent spirits.

With white mist floating around, Chen Guang had accumulated a lot of this jade-like spiritual soil called Frosty White Sand, which was enough for the Three Wonders Fruit to grow from sprout to seedling stage. He would replace it with spirit stones later.

An area was cleared at the valley exit, a small mound was created using an array, and the area was sealed off before the Three Wonder Fruits were planted. Then, Soul-Stabilizing Stones, Willow Shale, and Violet Horn Stone were used to surround the Three Wonder Fruits, leaving a two-foot-wide circle in the center. An eight-foot-wide circle was to be evenly laid out with these three materials. Upon closer inspection, each stone was carved with talisman blood, which was refined from the blood of three different types of demon beasts: Heaven, Water, and Earth. When placed together, they created a rather peculiar effect.

This is just the planting. Once the Three Wonders Fruit sprouts, it will need to be irrigated with soul essence and demon beast blood to grow. At that point, the demand for Frost-Pure White Sand and three kinds of spiritual stones will greatly increase. This is an important factor in ensuring that the Three Wonders Fruit is not contaminated. Otherwise, the Three Wonders Fruit will become the Three Witch Fruit, which is a completely different kind of spiritual plant.

This pained Chen Guang. Everything else was fine; the essence blood of demonic beasts could even be replaced with the true blood of Qinghuang Yuanxu, which would only be more effective. However, the souls could only be purchased. Only cultivators who cultivated their divine souls could collect souls when slaying demonic beasts. Moreover, the souls of demonic beasts of the first rank (late stage of Qi Refining) were usually sufficient to solidify. The price was 6,000 yuan for ten souls in one bottle. He only had one bottle prepared at the moment. It wouldn't be too late to buy more when the Three Wonders Fruits had truly sprouted and grown.

With the Three Wonders Fruit planted, the Ice Pine on the other side also needed some attention. Two Ice Pine were alright, their ripening time was just delayed. One of the Ice Pine had been frozen by the cold air of the Ice Flower Wutong, completely damaging its internal texture. Not only could it not breed Blue Blood Mosquitoes, but its leaves were also falling off all day long. It was beyond saving and needed to be cleaned up in time. After Chen Guang absorbed the essence of the plants, he burned it to ashes with a ginseng flame, leaving no trace.

The two intact pine trees finally ripened today.

"Receive one Ice Lu Song (common) and obtain one rare item [Ice Pearl]."

You will receive one Ice Lu Song (Common) and one Spirit Item [Condensed Light Powder].

Glowing powder is a condiment-like substance used by gourmets, similar to ice salt; Chen Guang had never seen the Ice Pearl before. Only when he held the pale white, round bead, which was three times larger than a goose egg, in his palm did he understand its purpose.

The Ice Pearl is a type of icy spiritual liquid unique to horse demons. It can absorb a huge amount of cold energy and transform it into icy spiritual liquid or even icy evil. However, once it is taken out of the horse demon's body, the effect is not so strong. Only some of the cold energy can still be transformed into spiritual liquid. Fortunately, the effect of absorbing cold energy is still there, which is why it deserves the name of a rare item.

Chen Guang immediately thought of the Ice Pearl's purpose: removing the Ice Mist Array would allow for the use of another non-isolated array to block the cold air from all directions, preventing the Ice Flower Wutong from affecting the spiritual atmosphere over a large area.

The most direct drawback of spiritual plants cultivated entirely within an array is that even with the seed-forming technique, more seeds are needed. In contrast, spiritual plants exposed to the elements are much easier to cultivate. Secondly, only when exposed to the elements can spiritual plants reach true top quality.

Moreover, this only applies to first-tier spiritual plants. Whether it's cultivators, demon beasts, or spiritual plants, once they reach the second tier, they all begin to cultivate their nature, isolating themselves from heaven and earth, which is not conducive to the growth of the nine natures. That is the greatest damage to their quality.

Taking the Ice Pearl into the Ice Mist Array to test it out, Chen Guang could only admit that he had underestimated the "absorption of massive amounts of cold energy" he had received. After absorbing it once, the cold energy within the Ice Mist Array decreased by a small level, and only then did a hint of icy blue appear at the bottom of the Ice Pearl. The cold energy within the Ice Mist Array was now the amount accumulated over a year. Even with the help of the Purple Transformation Grass to differentiate it, the storage capacity was still enormous. The frozen clouds at the top of the Ice Mist Array began to flow again as a result. Based on this capacity, at most four Ice Pearls would be enough to control the spread of cold energy from the Ice Flower Wutong over several years.

Of course, too weak cold energy will actually affect the Ice Flower Wutong. Therefore, if the formation is set up, it is also necessary to prevent the Ice Pearl from absorbing indiscriminately. Thus, an Ice Pearl in the formation can probably support absorption for more than ten years.

For Chen Guang, as long as it's a spiritual object that can be obtained from the reward light orb, he just needs to focus on planting it and that's it. Thinking about how this thing popped out of the reward light orb is just an occasional, fleeting thought.

The Purple Canopy Fruit is currently being nourished by the Purple Qi of Dawn and will take about a month to sprout. If it were nurtured with Purple Cloud Soil, it would take seven years. Of course, nurturing with Purple Cloud Soil also has its advantages: the roots are strong and can withstand more stress. Once we find the spiritual soil for the Ice Flower Wutong, we will completely transplant the Purple Python Soil. For now, using a combination of Purple Spirit Soil and Purple Spirit Earth Root to increase spiritual power and provide some transition time is sufficient.

"Red Leaf Fire Tree—If I can't determine whether it's harmful within a month, then I won't wait. I can't let an uncertain second-tier spiritual plant ruin my entire cultivation plan."