Free Web NovelChapter 346: Chapter 341: Cultivation Advancement, the 3rd Element
Giant Stone City.
Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.
In the Underground Spiritual Spring, Su Ye sat cross-legged, circulating his Cultivation Technique.
A translucent, butterfly-like azure spiritual light flowed ceaselessly around him, exuding a serene and profound aura that soothed the mind.
At this moment, the Spiritual Spring, once ten zhang wide and as viscous as slurry, was now ninety percent dry. Only a single, precarious drop of Holy Spring Spirit Liquid remained, sustaining the spring’s very existence.
The origin essence of Giant Stone City’s Spiritual Spring, accumulated over nearly a thousand years, had been almost completely drained by Su Ye in just half a month!
"Hooo..."
"One Tier Three Spiritual Spring isn’t enough."
Su Ye opened his eyes and shook his head, a hint of dissatisfaction on his face.
Refining Giant Stone City’s Spiritual Spring had advanced Su Ye’s cultivation by a large margin, but... he still hadn’t reached Crystal Perfection!
’It really is just as I thought...’
Sighing softly, Su Ye lowered his gaze slightly.
He wasn’t surprised by this, however.
It was to be expected.
The gap between the Late-stage Crystal and Crystal Perfection was as vast as an entire minor realm!
The only consolation for cultivators was... that this minor realm had no bottleneck.
—One could slowly grind it out, spending time in arduous cultivation.
As long as a Late-stage cultivator spent enough time, they could always reach Crystal Perfection... Thus, for ordinary cultivators, the ’Perfection’ realm was something of a bonus stage.
’But for me, it’s a different story...’
Su Ye sighed softly.
He didn’t have any bottlenecks to speak of in the Crystal Realm to begin with.
The lack of a bottleneck between the Late stage and the Perfection Realm meant nothing to him.
On the contrary, without a bottleneck to break through for an instantaneous transformation of his Magical Power, it meant he had to accumulate the required Magical Power bit by bit until the gap was filled.
’About... twenty years?’
’Oh... now it’s fourteen years... The Giant Stone City Spiritual Spring saved me six years of hard work.’
The amount of Spirit Liquid accumulated in each Tier Three High-Grade Spiritual Spring varies.
The Spiritual Power in the Giant Stone City Spiritual Spring was a bit more abundant than in Aino City’s.
’But the difference isn’t huge...’
’I’ll still need at least two more Tier Three High-Grade Spiritual Springs to quickly reach Crystal Perfection...’
Su Ye pinched his fingers to make a quick calculation, then pressed his forehead in exasperation.
As a practitioner of Circulation Magical Power, he needed even more Spiritual Power to reach Crystal Perfection.
’Oh well, nothing to be done about it.’
He adjusted his mindset.
Accumulating Magical Power isn’t an overnight task.
"At most... I’ll just have to destroy a few more native city-states!" Su Ye narrowed his eyes, a sinister look appearing on his handsome face.
Let the Far South natives suffer a bit; I’ll bear the infamy!
’This is also a good chance... to farm some EXP.’
...
During this half-month period, aside from Refining the Spiritual Spring, Su Ye had also completed another task.
Namely: embedding the Tier Four wondrous object, the [Earth Crystal Core], into the Ghostly Flood Dragon’s Array!
’My Array skill has improved slightly?’
Su Ye was secretly pleased, his heart stirring with the thought.
However.
After several failed refining attempts...
Looking at the exploded Array Plates and array flags scattered all over the floor...
Su Ye’s mouth twitched.
He had to regretfully admit that he was still a "teeny-tiny" bit away from becoming a Tier Three Late Stage Array Master...
Let’s put it this way.
Su Ye did a quick estimate and discovered something.
At his current rate of progress, the time it would take to cultivate his skill in Arrays to the Tier Three Late Stage might... be even longer than the time needed to bring his Magical Power to the Perfection Realm.
’How boring!’
’Cultivators of my generation should focus on their Cultivation Realm as the foundation!’
’These side branches like the four arts of cultivation are things most high-level cultivators only go back to study after reaching a higher realm.’
Su Ye remained expressionless.
He packed up all the Array Formation materials and stuffed them into the deepest corner of his Storage Ring.
Out of sight, out of mind.
...
Then, he got up and left the Underground Spiritual Spring.
He headed to the outskirts of Giant Stone City to begin testing the changes to the Ghostly Flood Dragon after implanting the [Earth Crystal Core] and acquiring the third element!
BOOM!
The heavy cannons roared as Solid Rock Bombs whistled through the air.
In the distance, several pillars of dust rose from Giant Stone Mountain!
Seeing this, Su Ye raised an eyebrow.
’The increase in shelling power is quite weak...’
After implanting the Earth Crystal Core, the Ghostly Flood Dragon gained a new type of ammunition—the Solid Rock Bomb. In terms of destructive power, this bomb was on par with the basic Blood Flame Bomb.
Its only commendable feature was being slightly superior against physical targets.
However, compared to the Plasma Bombs formed from the dual elements of [Blood] and [Wind], the power of the Solid Rock Bombs was far inferior.
The Plasma Bomb performed better against any and all targets.
However, the focus of the Earth element’s enhancement was not firepower.
It was armor!
According to Su Ye’s tests and Jiaojiao’s feedback, after implanting the [Earth Crystal Core], the Ghostly Flood Dragon’s armor protection had increased by nearly sixty percent!
Simple and brutal!
Stacking armor!
The formidable defensive power left Su Ye quite satisfied!
Additionally, the Earth element excelled at Gravity Manipulation. The Ghostly Flood Dragon’s Magnetic Reversal was also enhanced, increasing its effect while reducing its energy consumption!
Furthermore, it could now project an external Gravity Field to suppress targets within a certain range, enforcing a no-fly zone!
However, according to Su Ye’s actual tests, the effect of this Gravity Field was rather mediocre; Tier Four beings could almost completely ignore it.
In other words.
"It’s just for crushing weaklings."
Su Ye commented.
Projecting the Gravity Field was merely icing on the cake; the tangible increase in armor strength was what was truly substantial!
...
After the test concluded, Su Ye pondered a question.
’Speaking of which, that’s the third element now.’
"Blood, Wind, Earth..." Su Ye murmured.
’How should I choose the remaining three elements?’
’The system panel’s requirements don’t seem to have any restrictions...’
But the problem was, this panel was a complete mute.
It only stated requirements and provided some simple information.
There was no mention at all of the effects that choosing certain elements would produce!
This made Su Ye hesitate.
What if he randomly threw elements together, only for it to cause irreversible negative effects on the Ghostly Flood Dragon when the spirit ship advanced? What would he do then?
’It probably...’
’...wouldn’t come to that, right?’
Su Ye broke out in a cold sweat. One could never be too sure about such things.
’Hmm...’
’I should be more conservative with the next element choices.’
’Earth and Wind... I can use them to form ’Earth, Fire, Water, Wind’!’
Su Ye mused.
The four elements, the five phases.
These are the foundations for constructing a world. If he built upon such fundamental elements, even if problems arose, they couldn’t go too wrong, and there would be room for a remedy.
...
With the tests concluded, Su Ye returned to the city and resumed overseeing the city-state while continuing his cultivation.
Even though the Spiritual Spring was dry and his Magical Power accumulation was slow, as a newly conquered territory, the rules of the two worlds intertwined and floated on the surface in the Giant Stone City region.
This made it easier for cultivators to comprehend the rules and nurture their divine seeds.
And just as Su Ye was immersed in his comprehension,
powerful natives from several city-states began to gather at the borders, as if they had received some kind of decree.
Meanwhile, within Giant Stone City itself, things appeared calm, but...
a strange plague originating from the Fog Forest, one that caused bodies to rot and sprout branches, continued to spread at a slow but inexorable pace.
...
