Free Web NovelChapter 116: Chapter 116: Earthquake
The life force of the Azure Giant Flower surged out relentlessly.
After absorbing the earth’s energy for a full sixty years, it had finally reached the end of its life.
Even from a li away, the Cultivators could feel the powerful current of its fading vitality.
An instinctual unease stirred in each of their hearts.
Still, such potent life force was incredibly tempting.
After much deliberation, and despite having gotten their senior brother’s approval, a very real problem presented itself.
"This surge of life force is so powerful, not even all of us combined could withstand a sliver of it. What can we use to receive it?"
Li Dao, who had come up the mountain with the group, walked over.
"To tell you the truth, my body has all sorts of problems. My back is strained..."
"So why don’t I give it a try? We can see just how much a Cultivator of my generation can handle!"
Liu Tong shooed him away.
The impact from that much life force was so great, any normal person who intercepted it even for a moment would likely explode and die on the spot.
It would have absolutely no healing effect.
The slender young man stepped forward.
"Why don’t we try injecting it into medicinal seeds to spur their growth? That way, it won’t go to waste..."
Bai Mo rejected the idea outright.
"Ordinary medicinal seeds aren’t qualified to receive it. It would be like a farmer burning his sprouts. It’s not right, not right at all."
Liu Tong sighed.
"It looks like we’ll have to use the methods of the Array Dao for this."
Bai Mo’s eyes lit up.
"You mean that senior brother who’s an expert in the Array Dao..."
"I’ll go get him!"
Liu Tong left and returned a short while later with the array master in tow.
"This is Xin Meng. You can all call him Brother Xin. The faction he belongs to is quite famous within the sect."
"I’ve already explained the situation to him. I’ll leave you to it..."
Xin Meng had a smug look on his face.
"See, Brother Liu? You had to turn to me in the end!"
With that, he gave Liu Tong a playful pat on the chest before turning to Bai Mo and the others.
"So, my dear junior brothers, what ideas do you have?"
Bai Mo stepped forward and asked, "Brother Xin, are there any methods in the Array Dao to preserve life force?"
"There are!" Xin Meng said, nodding.
"But I don’t know how to do it. It’s far too obscure and difficult!"
The well-fed youths gathered closer.
"We’ve seen arrays within the sect that can disperse and conduct life force in gradual stages..."
Xin Meng shot them a look.
"Are you junior brothers talking about the array carved into the sect’s medicinal fields?"
"Do you know how many years of the sect’s accumulated knowledge went into that? If I could build something like that in just a few days, you’d all be calling me Elder!"
Everyone sighed.
Bai Mo said with a helpless sigh, "Our experience is limited. What solution does Brother Xin propose?"
Xin Meng thought for a moment, then took out an Array Plate. Tapping it against his palm, he mulled over his words before speaking.
"We Cultivators of the Array Dao deal with Spirit Stones quite a bit."
"Whether setting up, activating, modifying, or even breaking an Array, Spirit Stones are indispensable."
He gave a proud smile.
"There are many subtleties when it comes to Spirit Stones. I wonder if any of you junior brothers have heard of ’variant Spirit Stones’?"
Everyone’s eyes lit up, immediately grasping his unstated meaning.
"Brother Xin, you’re suggesting we infuse the life force into the Spirit Stones? Is that method truly viable?"
"Naturally, it’s perfectly viable!"
Xin Meng proved reliable after all. In just an hour, he had buried over a dozen Array Plates in the ground.
Bai Mo and the others did not remain idle, carefully digging away the topsoil.
After several attempts, they finally managed to excavate an undamaged root and transplant it into the center of the Array.
After Bai Mo and the slender youth meticulously created a conduit, they finally succeeded in siphoning off a portion of the cascading life force.
Their technique was so intricate and delicate that it drew everyone in to watch.
Buffeted by the life force, the root stretched out within the soil, guiding the flow of vitality.
"This is the moment! Activate!"
With a sharp cry from Xin Meng, the Array Plates blazed to life.
Almost instantly, the Spiritual Qi inside the Spirit Stones was brutally extracted by the Array’s violent power.
Within the bounds of the Array, a storm of Spiritual Qi erupted, condensing into a tangible form.
As this Spiritual Qi mixed with the diffusing life force and was funneled back into the Spirit Stones, they became...
Liu Tong worked hard, gathering up all the Spirit Stones from everyone present. By the end, he had only managed to collect a little over five thousand.
He then threw all of them into the Array.
"To think that disciples of an Upper Sect could only scrounge up five thousand Spirit Stones... It’s downright pathetic!"
Xin Meng wiped the sweat from his brow.
"This is just about right. I couldn’t handle any more."
"You might not know this, Brother Liu, but there’s something strange about this plant’s life force. It keeps trying to bore deep into the earth..."
By this time, Bai Mo and the slender youth had stabilized the diverted stream of life force.
The rest was now up to Xin Meng. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
Manipulating such an immense flow of Spiritual Qi was incredibly taxing, even for him.
Seeing the Spirit Stones inside the Array faintly turning green, Bai Mo let out a sigh of relief.
"Thankfully, we didn’t fail our mission."
"Heh, this was just an experiment to begin with. Why so worried, Junior Brother?"
Liu Tong said softly.
Bai Mo shook his head.
"It would have been a terrible shame if we had failed."
"You see, even that Mountain God, who is clearly no simple character, has his own plans for it."
"I just don’t know what that fellow is up to up there."
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「In the blink of an eye, the eight-day deadline mentioned by the Mountain God had arrived.」
The petals of the Azure Giant Flower were completely wrinkled and desiccated, hanging drily overhead.
Qin Yu was wandering about below with nothing to do and was nearly hit by a falling petal.
It gave him a nasty shock.
"Will that Mountain God come down today?"
Qin Yu asked, tilting his head.
Bai Mo, standing nearby, looked up.
"He should be here soon."
The life force in the Azure Giant Flower’s petals was exhausted. Next would be its main body.
Bai Mo could see that this strange plant had deliberately preserved the life force in its main stalk.
It seemed to be a primal instinct for survival.
BOOM!
Suddenly, a deep rumble arose, like a clap of muffled thunder.
Only when the ground began to shake did they realize with a start that it was the sound of the earth itself groaning.
The surrounding vegetation, far more lush and towering than any of its kind, was now facing its glorious demise.
The vitality in the soil vanished in an instant, like water into sand, as the life force within the plants was mercilessly drawn out.
A patch of deathly yellow appeared in a corner, then spread with terrifying speed, as if it were a contagion.
"Our work here is done."
Bai Mo said to Qin Yu.
The other man was currently terrified by the aura of death.
Bai Mo could see that Qin Yu’s mental fortitude was still a bit lacking.
Everyone reacted differently, watching wide-eyed as the yellow boundary swept past their feet and converged on the Azure Giant Flower.
In the face of the fundamental laws of heaven and earth, life’s instinctive struggle was utterly futile.
In a mere instant, the life force preserved in the main stalk was disturbed.
Like a collapsing glacier, it plunged straight down into the depths of the earth.
An exceptionally tall figure leaped down from the top of the flower.
"It’s the Mountain God!"
Bai Mo squinted, his eyes fixed on the figure.
THUD!
The Mountain God landed, unleashing his cultivation base in its entirety. A divine light burst from his eyes as his qi and blood surged.
He emanated an intensely oppressive pressure.
"His cultivation has grown even more profound!"
Everyone watched in stunned silence.
ROAR!
The Mountain God roared. With an peerless aura, he reached out and made a sweeping gesture toward the Azure Giant Flower.
He displayed a heaven-defying technique, swiping the life force away. With a flash of his hand, the vitality vanished on the spot.
Then, with a stomp of his foot, he thundered off into the distance without a backward glance.
He charged ahead recklessly, snapping countless ancient trees in his path.
Everyone stood there, stunned. They only came to their senses when the stalk of the Azure Giant Flower came crashing down with a tremendous THUD.
"The Mountain God stole the life force! His technique was far more brilliant than Brother Xin’s!!"
someone yelled.
They had completely forgotten that their own bags contained the hundred-odd variant Spirit Stones they had received as their share.
BOOM!
The earth bucked as if a dragon were turning over. The ground split open, and a black abyss shot out, chasing after the fleeing Mountain God.
