Chapter 1423: Invincible

In the Starry Battlefield of the Chaos Battle, Lu Ye's team maneuvered effortlessly, truly unstoppable. Their performance left the observing cultivators greatly impressed and cheering. Essentially, every cultivator who dared to underestimate this team paid an extremely heavy price.

The cultivation levels of Lu Ye and his companions were truly deceptive, especially the early cultivation levels of Xiaodai and the other four. For cultivators participating in the Chaos Battle, they were practically four irresistible targets, exuding a tempting allure that everyone wanted to exploit.

Lu Ye didn't sense anything when he wasn't actively looking, but if he deliberately investigated, he could clearly perceive the existence of the Talent Tree.

This miraculous tree was rooted within his Origin Spirit Aperture.

The medicinal power of the Spirit Nurturing Pill dissolved in Lu Ye's abdomen, transforming into spiritual energy. He simultaneously focused his mind to guide this energy into his spirit apertures while observing the Talent Tree. The spiritual energy obtained from converting medicinal power was not directly injected into a specific spirit aperture; instead, it first had to pass through the Origin Spirit Aperture. For instance, with Lu Ye's twenty-first aperture not yet full, the spiritual energy he absorbed from the pill would first need to pass through the Origin Spirit Aperture before it could flow into the twenty-first aperture. If a spirit aperture was located too far from the Origin Spirit Aperture, the energy might even require passing through several other spirit apertures as intermediaries.

Without exception, the Origin Spirit Aperture was always the first to receive spiritual energy. This is why it was called the Origin Spirit Aperture and was considered the most crucial spirit aperture for cultivators.

In Lu Ye's understanding, the Origin Spirit Aperture was similar to the Dantian of martial arts masters.

On a related note, the Origin Spirit Aperture was indeed located in the Dantian area, and the spirit apertures opened by low-level cultivation techniques were all nearby. Therefore, not much intermediary transfer was needed; passing through the Origin Spirit Aperture alone sufficed.

Lu Ye had never thoroughly examined this before, but this time, with intentional focus, he was surprised to discover that the spiritual energy converted from the Spirit Nurturing Pill's medicinal power seemed less pure than his own. It vaguely contained some indescribable impurities, which he suspected were harmful to himself.

"Is this medicinal toxin?" a thought popped into Lu Ye's mind.

The sect master had mentioned this to him before: "Every medicine carries some toxicity," let alone the spirit pills consumed by cultivators. The lower the quality of the spirit pill, the more potent the medicinal toxin. Therefore, after consuming pills for cultivation, cultivators needed to find ways to dispel this toxin, otherwise, it would leave behind hidden dangers.

The impure spiritual energy flowed into the Origin Spirit Aperture and, after being transferred through it, flowed into the twenty-first aperture. However, something miraculous happened: the spiritual energy that entered the twenty-first aperture no longer contained any trace of medicinal toxin. It had become as pure as the spiritual energy in his other spirit apertures.

Lu Ye keenly noticed this, thus confirming that the change in spiritual energy occurred within the Origin Spirit Aperture.

He quickly focused most of his attention on the Origin Spirit Aperture, observing meticulously, and soon discovered its profound secret.

The Talent Tree, rooted in the Origin Spirit Aperture, had grown roots. It appeared to be absorbing the spiritual energy from the Origin Spirit Aperture, and after flowing through its trunk and being fed back out, the impure spiritual energy became pure.

Throughout this process, a gray aura continuously emanated from the Talent Tree's trunk, resembling ashes after burning.

Indeed, the Talent Tree was at the heart of it!

Judging from his observations, the Talent Tree seemed to have the ability to purify spiritual energy, incinerating all the medicinal toxins.

Lu Ye then recalled something else: ever since he began cultivating after opening his apertures, he would feel uncomfortable after each cultivation session, as if covered in a layer of dust. This sensation became even more noticeable after he entered the Spirit Stream Battlefield and had a sufficient supply of Spirit Nurturing Pills.

Conversely, during a period when he lacked Spirit Nurturing Pills and cultivated by refining essence into qi, this phenomenon did not occur.

Taking all these observations into account, Lu Ye had a sudden realization.

The Talent Tree purified spiritual energy, incinerating all the medicinal toxins from his pill-assisted cultivation. This meant his pill-assisted cultivation had no hidden dangers. As the burned toxins couldn't simply vanish, they were expelled from his body, causing the sensation of being covered in dust after each cultivation session.

Everything was clear now. Lu Ye's previous conjecture had been confirmed, though he wasn't particularly surprised.

Now that he understood all this, he would no longer feel much psychological pressure when cultivating with pills in the future.

Relaxing his mind, Lu Ye continued to guide the medicinal power in his abdomen, and the spiritual energy in his twenty-first aperture gradually increased.

She was awakened by a whistling sound. When she opened her eyes, the sky had already brightened, and the campfire beside her had long since burned out. Not far away, Lu Ye was bare-chested, holding a saber in one hand, continuously swinging it. Each movement was unhurried, yet his expression was meticulous.

"Is this guy made of iron?" Yiyi's eye twitched slightly.

In fact, Lu Ye had slept for three hours last night. Although cultivators' physiques were stronger than mortals, they still required rest, especially low-level cultivators like him, who had not yet completely transcended the mortal realm.

However, knowing the road ahead was fraught with difficulties, he was unwilling to waste time.

By the time Lu Ye finished his morning cultivation, Yiyi and Big Tiger had already gathered enough firewood and lit a fire. Lu Ye then took out a section of snake from his storage bag and gave it to them to prepare.

After eating and drinking their fill, the group continued on their journey.

The journey was not as pleasant as he imagined. Amidst the bumpy travel, Lu Ye swallowed a Spirit Nurturing Pill. He wanted to try cultivating on the tiger's back, as failing to solve this problem would waste a lot of his time.

Along the way, they occasionally encountered some low-level cultivators rushing by. However, Big Tiger always avoided them in advance. Those cultivators, upon spotting Big Tiger's imposing figure from a distance, wouldn't dare provoke them unless they were insane. Moreover, they likely wouldn't even be able to catch up.

By nightfall, they routinely found a suitable place to rest.

They ate snake meat, practiced saber techniques, and then cultivated with pills.

Progress today was good. Although Lu Ye still felt the tiger's back was bumpy, he could at least begin cultivating, though the efficiency was somewhat low.

At dawn, Lu Ye took out his detailed map. He compared his current location with his starting point to determine his direction of travel and his closest objective.

After riding Big Tiger for two days, they still hadn't left the confines of Qingyun Mountain, which indicated the immense size of this mountain range.

Another day later, as evening approached, Lu Ye gazed at a market town not far away and let out a long breath. His nearest destination had been reached.

On the detailed map, this location was marked as Qingyun Market Five.

Lu Ye rode Big Tiger into the market, attracting considerable attention.

He had seen cultivators accompanied by demonic beasts in other Qingyun markets before, but those beasts were often unruly and rough, nowhere near as magnificent as Big Tiger.

Lu Ye had considered leaving Big Tiger outside to wait for him, but Big Tiger's strength wasn't particularly high, and they were unfamiliar with the area. If it accidentally trespassed into another demonic beast's territory, it might suffer harm.

After much thought, he decided to simply bring Big Tiger in with him.

He planned to rest here for the night.

It must be said that Big Tiger's presence was quite a deterrent; many timid cultivators kept their distance from Lu Ye.

About half an hour later, Lu Ye arrived at the Heavenly Secret Merchant Alliance in the market town. He had no spirit stones on hand, but the Alliance accepted spirit pills as payment. So, after Lu Ye paid with one Spirit Nurturing Pill, he was led by the staff to a guest room on the third floor.

The room wasn't particularly large, but it was commendably quiet. Big Tiger lay down on the floor to rest, and Lu Ye fed it a Spirit Nurturing Pill. Yiyi, who had been cooped up for half the day, came out to get some air. Meanwhile, Lu Ye sat cross-legged on the bed, guiding the medicinal power to assault the spirit aperture barrier of his twenty-second aperture.