Chapter 382: Hua Ci's Soup

In the small building, Lu Ye was reading by candlelight.

Hua Ci came up, carrying a clay pot. She knelt beside Lu Ye, took out a bowl, and scooped some milky white soup from the pot. An alluring aroma immediately filled the room.

"Time for soup," Hua Ci said, her voice soft as water. Like a virtuous wife, she brought the bowl, filled with the milky white soup, to Lu Ye.

Lu Ye put down his book. He looked at the strange object in the bowl, which appeared to be a scorpion's tail, and his eyelid couldn't help but twitch.

Since Hua Ci's arrival, his physical condition had steadily improved. It had to be said that having a true medical cultivator to tend to his body was much faster than recovering on his own. His body had largely recovered days ago, and his strength was now fully restored.

All of this was thanks to the medicinal soups Hua Ci carefully stewed for him every day.

This medicinal soup was not only very nourishing but also tasted excellent. If it weren't for the large amount of burnt gray mist that rose from his Talent Tree every time Lu Ye finished drinking, he would have truly believed it was stewed from precious medicinal ingredients.

In reality, the ingredients for this soup were all found by Hua Ci in the Myriad Poisons Forest.

The Myriad Poisons Forest was full of venomous creatures. Spiders, toads, scorpions, venomous snakes, centipedes, and the like had all, at one point or another, appeared in the clay pot for stewing soup.

The ingredients used for the soup were indeed unconventional, but the effects were truly remarkable.

According to Hua Ci, since Lu Ye was immune to all poisons, she should naturally use all her abilities to care for him.

Lu Ye strongly suspected the woman was taking revenge on him and wanted to see him make a fool of himself.

Taking the bowl Hua Ci offered, Lu Ye slowly drank the soup. Hua Ci also served herself a bowl and enjoyed it with him.

Suddenly, he turned to Amber: "Want some?"

Amber, who had been staring at them with wide tiger eyes, didn't even think. She quickly leaped up and jumped out through the window. Amber was fearless, but lately, she had been avoiding Hua Ci.

"Oh, by the way, this is for you," Lu Ye said, suddenly remembering something. He took out a bracelet from his storage bag and handed it to Hua Ci.

Hua Ci's beautiful eyes narrowed. "What is it for? A token of love?"

"It's a family heirloom of my Lu clan, always passed down to the eldest daughter-in-law!"

Hua Ci took it and put it on her wrist. After a brief try, she understood the bracelet's function. She took it off and handed it back, saying, "You need it more than I do."

This bracelet had the effect of concealing one's presence and aura; it was precisely the Trace Concealing Bracelet that Lady Yun had given Lu Ye.

Lu Ye then, in front of her, activated the concealment spirit pattern on himself.

Only then did Hua Ci put the Trace Concealing Bracelet back on her own wrist. Recently, she had been continuously going out to hunt cultivators from the Myriad Devils Ridge, and this item was indeed useful.

When she killed enemies, she relied on poisoning them in secret. Combined with the unique environment of the Myriad Poisons Forest, people essentially died without knowing why they died. If she had the Trace Concealing Bracelet with her, it would undoubtedly be an immense advantage.

As for Lu Ye's words about it being a Lu family heirloom, always passed down to the eldest daughter-in-law, Hua Ci simply dismissed them as nonsense.

The clay pot of medicinal soup was quickly emptied by the two of them. Hua Ci tidied up, left the wooden house, and found a peaceful spot nearby to cultivate.

As she inhaled and exhaled, the surrounding emerald green poisonous mist was drawn into her body.

Since fully inheriting Ying Shan's legacy, Hua Ci's cultivation method had become different from ordinary people's. Now, to rapidly increase her strength, she had little need for spiritual energy but a great need for poison.

Simply put, the more potent the poison, the more it could enhance her strength.

The Myriad Poisons Forest was a forbidden zone for cultivators, but for Hua Ci, there was no better cultivation environment in the entire Spirit Creek Battlefield.

On the third floor of the small building, Lu Ye turned a page in his book. He saw a new spirit pattern and, upon closer inspection, his previously indifferent expression immediately became focused, and he even sat up straight.

He now possessed two sources of spirit patterns. One was naturally the spirit patterns inscribed on the leaves of his Talent Tree, which he could use at will with almost no risk of failed construction. In fact, he had no prior instances of failed construction to date; even the Fire Phoenix was successfully constructed on his first attempt, though the consequences were somewhat severe.

The other source was learned from books.

Compared to the former, spirit patterns from this source carried a considerable risk of failure during construction. The more complex the spirit pattern, the greater the risk of failure.

Therefore, when Lu Ye fought others, he only used spirit patterns obtained from his Talent Tree. He never dared to easily use those learned from books because any mistake in combat could lead to utter ruin, and he couldn't afford the consequences of a failed spirit pattern construction.

However, these learned spirit patterns were also very useful; for example, they could be arranged within formations to activate their effects.

Different spirit patterns had different levels of complexity. Based on the number of Yin and Yang elements required to construct them, spirit patterns could actually be categorized into different grades.

However, no one had ever done this because, regardless of the type of spirit pattern, when used skillfully, it could produce extraordinary effects.

Lu Ye, in his own mind, had categorized spirit patterns into corresponding grades based on their difficulty.

Spirit patterns requiring over a hundred Yin and Yang elements were considered Grade One. Over two hundred were Grade Two, and so on.

As for the Fire Phoenix spirit pattern, its level already exceeded Lu Ye's own defined standards. This was because constructing this spirit pattern required approximately hundreds of thousands of Yin and Yang elements, which was a terrifying number.

Most of the spirit patterns Lu Ye had mastered so far only required hundreds of Yin and Yang elements to construct. A few only needed one or two hundred, but apart from the Fire Phoenix, no other spirit pattern had exceeded a thousand.

Until now, he had found one in a book.

This spirit pattern required nearly three thousand Yin and Yang elements to construct. Undoubtedly, constructing this spirit pattern was very difficult.

However, the book's description of this spirit pattern and its various potential effects sparked Lu Ye's interest.

This spirit pattern was undoubtedly an extremely powerful one. Although it had little use in combat, if used at the right time and place, its effects would be absolutely incredible.

Lu Ye immediately calmed his mind and, following Lady Yun's previous teachings, began to deconstruct the spirit pattern.

This was an indispensable process. To successfully construct a spirit pattern, one first needed to become familiar with its structure: how many Yin and Yang elements were required, and how they fit and connected with each other. Any small mistake in detail would make the spirit pattern difficult to construct successfully.

It was precisely because of this that spirit pattern masters were few in number. Most of them specialized in spirit patterns of only one field; for instance, the spirit patterns cultivated by formation masters were suitable for setting up formations, those by artifact refiners were suitable for refining artifacts, and those by battle pattern masters were suitable for combat.

It wasn't that they didn't want to cultivate more spirit patterns; they simply didn't have the energy or ability.

Perhaps with the improvement of their cultivation and continuous accumulation, these spirit pattern masters specializing in a certain field could master more spirit patterns. But the path of spirit patterns was vast and profound, and no one dared to claim omnipotence.

Lu Ye was striving in this direction, not because he was arrogant or conceited, but because he possessed a unique advantage that no one else had: his Talent Tree.

It took a full day for Lu Ye to completely deconstruct the entire spirit pattern and become familiar with all its structures in his mind.

The next step was to attempt construction. He took out a jade tablet from his storage bag and activated his spiritual power to construct the spirit pattern on it.

Constructing spirit patterns with the aid of a jade tablet allowed for easier observation and summary and also made the spirit pattern under construction more stable. Furthermore, if the construction failed, it would not cause any harm to himself. These various benefits were all things Lady Yun had taught him previously.

Without the aid of a jade tablet, if construction failed and spiritual power exploded, it could easily pose a threat to oneself.

Time flowed by, and days passed.

Inside the Myriad Poisons Forest, it was peaceful. The Myriad Devils Ridge cultivators still surrounded the forest, unwilling to leave easily, because no one knew if such a good opportunity would arise again if Lu Ye escaped this time. So, no matter how impatient the Myriad Devils Ridge faction became, they could only continue to wait it out.

In the wooden house within the forest, while Lu Ye familiarized himself with the spirit pattern, he also didn't neglect his own cultivation. He consumed large quantities of spirit pills, and one spiritual aperture after another continuously opened.

When he entered the Myriad Poisons Forest, his spiritual apertures had only opened to two hundred and forty-eight, which was only eight more than when he left the Blood Sect's outpost.

Now, after being trapped in the Myriad Poisons Forest for a month, his spiritual apertures had reached two hundred and seventy-five, maintaining a speed of almost one aperture per day.

This speed of aperture opening was enough to make all Spirit Creek Realm cultivators in the Nine Provinces fall far behind. With abundant spirit pills and no shortage of fuel for his Talent Tree, aside from three to four hours of rest each day, Lu Ye almost continuously maintained a state of cultivation and reading.

From this perspective, being trapped in the Myriad Poisons Forest might not be a bad thing for him.

Especially after Hua Ci's arrival, Lu Ye set up a spirit-gathering formation in the wooden house and constructed spirit-gathering patterns within his own spiritual apertures, greatly increasing his cultivation efficiency.

He hadn't done this before, concerned that the flow of natural spiritual energy would place too much burden on the formation. If the formation broke, Yiyi and Amber would certainly be poisoned.

But with Hua Ci present, he didn't need to consider these concerns; even if the formation broke, Hua Ci could detoxify them.

This was the core zone, where the natural spiritual energy was still very abundant; it just wasn't as exaggerated without the blessing of the Heavenly Mystery Pillars.

He was only twenty-five apertures away from reaching Heaven Rank Eight. Originally, he planned to break out of the Myriad Poisons Forest after advancing to Heaven Rank Eight, but after seeing that spirit pattern in the book, he had more ideas. Whether he could actually implement them would depend on his execution at the time.

Lu Ye could now also construct the complex spirit pattern from the book. However, the success rate could not yet be guaranteed; such things required continuous, intensive practice and could not be rushed.

A few more days quickly passed. In the wooden house, Lu Ye stared in astonishment at Hua Ci, who was carrying a clay pot and walking in. He focused his sight to observe her spiritual barriers, confirming he hadn't seen wrong.

"Heaven Rank Seven?"

"Yes, I just advanced today," Hua Ci replied, scooping a bowl of medicinal soup and handing it to Lu Ye.

Lu Ye truly couldn't believe it.