After binding with a genius, I became an immortal by exploiting loopholes.

He followed the direction of each root, inserted his fingers into the cracks in the stone, and peeled them away bit by bit.

The stone wall was rough, and his fingertips quickly turned red from the friction, but he remained unhurried and deliberate in his movements.

After the main root was completely removed, he placed his palms on the stone platform at the bottom of the spiritual embryo and applied slight pressure with his fingertips.

A very faint friction sound came from between the stone platform and the spirit pool—this was the stone platform that Qingyun Sanren had personally placed there years ago, and it had remained untouched for decades, now stuck to the bottom of the spirit pool.

He tried a few times, but it didn't budge. So he changed direction and applied force from the four corners one by one, lifting it only a little bit each time, so that the connection between the stone platform and the bottom of the pool would slowly loosen.

After several attempts, the stone platform finally loosened.

He took a deep breath, supported the bottom of the stone platform with one hand and protected the top of the Ganoderma lucidum with the other, and lifted the stone platform and the Ganoderma lucidum whole.

The emerald light of the spirit embryo flickered slightly, as if expressing some kind of unease, but it quickly returned to normal.

He gently placed the stone platform on his lap, freeing one hand to take out a prepared piece of oilcloth from his storage bag, wrapping it tightly in several layers, leaving only the top part open for ventilation.

After wrapping it up, he had a sudden thought and put the whole package into his storage bag.

The stone chamber darkened.

The azure light vanished, leaving only the dim yellow light of the Bright Light Talisman illuminating the empty spirit pool.

Lu Qingchen glanced around the stone chamber one last time, making sure he hadn't left anything behind that could reveal his presence, before turning and walking up the stone steps.

Once outside the illusion array, moonlight bathed me.

He stood in front of the cave entrance for a moment, then moved a few rocks from nearby to block the entrance completely. He filled the gaps between the rocks with soil and covered them with some dead branches and leaves.

After all this was done, the stone wall looked no different from the surrounding mountains. Even if someone walked up to it, they would just think it was an ordinary mountain wall.

Although the illusion array is still in operation, having an extra layer of cover always makes one feel more at ease.

He let out a long breath, and without pausing, quickly walked back towards Qingmu Village along the way he had come.

......

It was already past midnight when we returned to Aoki Village.

In the protective field, Lu Qingchen lifted the bluestone slab at the entrance of the cave and jumped in.

He took out the oilcloth wrapping from the storage bag, peeled it off layer by layer, and the green light of the Ganoderma lucidum shone again, making the small cave glow with a faint green.

He carefully placed the stone platform in the center of the cave, straightened it, and then slowly poured the spiritual liquid from the porcelain bottle into the cave, allowing the roots to soak in it again.

The emerald light flickered a few times before gradually stabilizing, alternating between bright and dim, just as it had been in the stone chamber in the valley.

Lu Qingchen did not rush to cover the soil.

The earth vein spirit embryo had just been moved out of the stone chamber, some of its roots had been peeled off, and it had been trapped in the storage bag all the way, so its vital energy was somewhat depleted.

He sat cross-legged beside the cave, his mind sinking into his sea of ​​consciousness. He drew a wisp of cultivation from the light pearl of the Dao Stele and slowly infused it into Lingzhi's body.

The cultivation power transformed into a pure, warm current, seeping into the veins of the Ganoderma lucidum.

The Ganoderma trembled slightly, and its green light brightened a bit. The broken ends where he had peeled off the roots began to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye, and new roots as thin as hair sprouted.

Lu Qingchen secretly breathed a sigh of relief—the nourishing effect of the Dao Stele cultivation on spiritual plants also worked on this earth vein spiritual embryo.

But the cost also hurt him financially.

The egg-sized orb of light in the illusory dantian shrank visibly—he usually used only one or two strands of cultivation to infuse the spiritual rice in the entire spiritual field, but this palm-sized Ganoderma lucidum in front of him was like a bottomless pit that could never be filled, absorbing as much as he poured in, without even burping.

But even if it hurts, I have to take care of it.

This thing is related to future cultivation, and even more so to the Foundation Establishment and Spiritual Mansion Breakthrough. It's worth it even if it costs twice as much cultivation, let alone spending some cultivation.

He regained his composure, covered it with soil, leaving only the top of the Ganoderma lucidum exposed on the surface.

Then, they checked the mud sealant between the bluestone slabs along the four walls of the cave to confirm that it was completely sealed.

These stone slabs will restrain the root system of the spiritual embryo, preventing it from extending unchecked.

As long as it is checked regularly and any roots that have strayed beyond the boundaries are pruned in time, its root system will not extend into other spiritual fields of Qingmu Village.

Finally, he covered the entrance with the bluestone slab, then covered it with soil, making it level with the surrounding area.

Several more spirit rice seedlings were planted above—exactly the same as the spirit rice in other areas of the spirit protection field, with no discernible difference.

He sat down on the edge of the field and let out a long breath.

From the discovery of the stone chamber until now, several months have passed, and the earth vein spirit embryo has finally been planted safely in its own territory.

With a protective array shielding it from outside detection, an earth energy-guiding array gathering and nourishing the earth's energy, a concealing jade disrupting the fluctuations of spiritual energy, and bluestone slabs restraining the roots' growth—four layers of protection stacked together, unless someone turns the entire spiritual field upside down, it would be impossible to discover what's hidden underground.

He reached out and touched his chest, where the Qingling Jade Marrow was pressed against him, its warm sensation seeping into his skin through his clothes.

Jade marrow can slightly increase cultivation speed, and when a person cultivates near the spiritual embryo, they can also use its spiritual energy to accelerate the process.

With both of these combined, your cultivation speed will be quite fast in the future.

The only thing to worry about is the minor bottleneck in one's skill level.

However, one can also overcome this by improving one's spiritual root through the Dao Tablet—as long as one's spiritual root is tempered to the middle grade, the difficulty of breaking through will be much less.

What is an insurmountable barrier for others is just a matter of taking a little more time for him.

......

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away in a desolate mountain, a manhunt was drawing to a close.

Elder Zheng stood with his hands behind his back on a protruding rock, his robes fluttering in the mountain wind.

Beside him stood Elder Han of the Enforcement Hall, his face grim, dressed in a black robe with a black iron token hanging from his waist. The two stood side by side, their gazes fixed on the figure running wildly along the mountain path ahead.

From Baicaoji to several small markets in the surrounding area, and from those markets to several cave dwellings where independent cultivators gathered, the clues were fragmented. The two Foundation Establishment elders joined forces to investigate and eventually found their way here.

The man in front was in his thirties, with an ordinary face and an old scar on the web of his left hand—he was the rogue cultivator who had sold the red-veined ginseng seeds to Wu Decai.

The two did not rush to attack, but concealed their presence and followed at a distance, wanting to see where the person had fled to and whether he had any accomplices to meet him.

The rogue cultivators crossed the mountain and rushed into a dense forest.

Just as Elder Zheng was about to speed up and catch up, Elder Han suddenly reached out and stopped him.

Elder Han's intuition, honed by years of law enforcement and crime-hunting, sensed something amiss—the flow of spiritual energy in this forest was abnormal, and someone had laid an ambush ahead.

At that very moment, a beam of light shot out from the side of the mountain wall, heading straight for Elder Zheng's face.

The spiritual light was dark gray, and halfway through its flight it suddenly split into three, transforming into three thin gray thorns as thin as bamboo sticks, which respectively pierced Elder Zheng's brow, throat and dantian.

The gray spikes pierced the air silently and at extremely high speed, each one condensing highly compressed spiritual energy.

A beam of azure light flew out from Elder Zheng's sleeve.

When the light appeared, it was just a blurry cloud of light, but it suddenly spread out in the air—countless tiny blue light spots exploded like sprouting seeds, each spot hitting a gray spike with pinpoint accuracy.

The moment the light touched the gray thorn, the surface of the gray thorn was covered with a thin layer of light in pale blue, as if something had taken root and sprouted inside the gray thorn, forcefully disintegrating the three attacks from the inside.

This is the life force of Qinghua Spiritual Path—penetrating the opponent's spiritual energy structure with life force and dismantling it from the inside.