Chapter 331: Taking the Tree Fruit

The Myriad Law Body is essentially a spirit energy avatar, but it’s no ordinary one. Instead, it must be continuously imbued with a variety of spells and divine abilities, tailored to the cultivator’s unique talent and spiritual consciousness.

While this cultivation technique initially seemed innovative, it grew progressively more formidable in its later stages.

Upon reaching the Nascent Soul stage, it was akin to having a second Nascent Soul. When facing an opponent of the same cultivation level, a two-on-one advantage virtually guaranteed victory.

However, the problem remained: previous cultivators’ experience with the Myriad Law Body was entirely useless. Each individual had to develop it according to their own physical constitution and innate talent, and then imbue it with spiritual essence through their spiritual consciousness.

This also led to the Wangu Sect’s irreversible decline after Grand Ancestor Wangu’s passing.

Because the Myriad Law Body was a late-stage cultivation technique, even if mastered in the early stages, it offered little increase in combat ability.

After the Wangu Sect was destroyed by the Seven Great Sects of the Eastern Barrens, its legacy scattered far and wide. Most major sects acquired portions of its techniques, including the basic cultivation methods for the Myriad Law Body.

Although some disciples later attempted to recreate Grand Ancestor Wangu’s invincible might that once dominated the Eastern Barrens, devoting immense effort to cultivating the Myriad Law Body, none managed to make any significant impact.

Gradually, the Myriad Law Body was shelved and neglected.

The copy of “Myriad Law Body” given to him by Yu Lian was the original version, making it slightly more complete than the versions seized by the Seven Great Sects of the Eastern Barrens. However, it merely contained additional annotations and cultivation insights from later generations of the Wangu Sect.

However, since human constitutions differ, these insights served only as a guide for initial understanding, becoming largely useless once actual cultivation began.

This particular copy of the Myriad Law Body was a handwritten transcript left by the founding patriarch of the Yinxiao Sect, who was also Grand Ancestor Wangu’s grand-disciple. It contained some of their lineage’s experiences in cultivating the Myriad Law Body.

Starting with a simple hand, one would first condense a single finger of the spirit energy avatar, much like forming a human body: beginning with illusory bones, then meridians and flesh, and finally gradually expanding to the entire body. This process was incredibly time-consuming.

Grand Ancestor Wangu reportedly spent five hundred years to truly master his unique Myriad Law Body. Once it emerged, it immediately made a name for itself in the Eastern Domain, ranking among the “Seven Wonders Beyond the Dao.”

Chen Mobai read up to this point and instantly lost interest.

With this much time, he would be better off improving his cultivation realm instead, since he already felt he didn’t have enough time to cultivate his Pure Yang Dharma Body.

However, just as he put down the Myriad Law Body text, he noticed the Formless Puppet beside him.

Compared to cultivators in the Eastern Barrens, he had a significant advantage in cultivating the Myriad Law Body because he could use the Formless Puppet to deduce all the steps for cultivating this technique.

For cultivators of the Myriad Law Body, the most difficult part was condensing a spirit energy avatar based on one’s own constitution and talent. After initial entry, it was akin to deriving from scratch an external avatar cultivation technique that was uniquely suited to oneself.

Even individuals of astonishing talent would find this exceedingly troublesome.

After all, even for a Foundation Establishment cultivator to deduce a Qi Condensation technique would require extensive experimentation and exploration. This was all the more true for the Myriad Law Body, a top-tier Eastern Barrens technique, which, to be fully effective, needed to be deduced all the way to the Nascent Soul realm.

But Chen Mobai was different. As long as his Formless Puppet had enough spirit stones, it could perform automatic deductions, leaving him with no worries at all.

He somehow felt that not cultivating this Myriad Law Body would be a great loss!

With this peculiar feeling, Chen Mobai input the Myriad Law Body text into the Formless Puppet and had the puppet begin deducing his cultivation path for it.

However, he found the process to be very slow.

The Formless Puppet’s screen suddenly displayed a prompt: “Please set the primary route. Do you wish to prioritize certain functions?”

This prompt suddenly appeared on the Formless Puppet’s screen, indicating that, without a structured entry point for the cultivation technique, even this versatile puppet was struggling.

This was the first time Chen Mobai had encountered such a situation, and he couldn’t help but marvel at it.

It seemed even heaven didn’t want him to cultivate the Myriad Law Body.

Not even the Formless Puppet could deduce it.

However, Chen Mobai didn’t mind this outcome.

He still preferred cultivation techniques like the Pure Yang Dharma Body and Longevity Dao Body, which could be mastered simply by having enough resources. The Myriad Law Body, which relied on comprehension and talent, was not suitable for someone of his mediocre talent.

After setting this matter aside, Chen Mobai fully immersed himself in the growth model curves of the Great Fruit.

Although his talent was average, he was still a Foundation Establishment cultivator, and by focusing on learning a particular body of knowledge, he quickly grasped its key points.

After spending half a month, he finally completed all the theoretical studies, with only practical application remaining.

By this point, Chen Mobai was already somewhat impatient.

After all, by merely consuming these three tree fruits, he could save over a century of arduous cultivation, directly advancing his Longevity Sutra from early Foundation Establishment to the perfected stage.

It was somewhat embarrassing to admit that more than three years had passed since he reached Foundation Establishment, yet the Divine Wood Sect’s signature Longevity Sutra had progressed very slowly.

His liquid spiritual power had only increased from “10 drops” at the time of Foundation Establishment to its current “15 drops.”

According to the cultivation experiences of many seniors in the Divine Wood Sect, one could attempt to break through to the mid-Foundation Establishment stage when accumulating roughly 35 to 50 drops, though the exact amount varied depending on the individual’s foundational strength.

With 100 to 120 drops of Longevity spiritual power, one could begin to break through to the late Foundation Establishment stage.

At the perfected Foundation Establishment stage, the Divine Wood Sect recorded a minimum of 150 drops of spiritual power, with Grand Ancestor Zhou having the most at 180 drops.

Compared to the Immortal Gate’s Pure Yang Scripture, which specified liquid spiritual power down to single digits for each of the nine Foundation Establishment layers, the Divine Wood Sect’s figures were all approximate.

Essentially, when one felt ready—when the Dantian Sea of Qi was full of spiritual power and no more could be condensed or improved—one could begin the breakthrough.

Whether the breakthrough succeeded or not was entirely up to fate.

If the bottleneck was broken, the Dantian would expand, allowing more spiritual power to be condensed and stored. If not, one would recuperate from the Dantian’s damage and continue the attempt after fully recovering.

In contrast, the Immortal Gate had already standardized the patterns and spiritual power quantities for each layer’s breakthrough.

These were derived from countless experiments, resulting in the easiest breakthroughs and minimal damage to the body and spiritual consciousness upon failure.

Taking the Pure Yang Scripture as an example:

15 drops of liquid spiritual power represented successful Foundation Establishment, and upon accumulating 30 drops, one could begin to break through to the second layer of Foundation Establishment.

45 drops corresponded to the third layer of Foundation Establishment.

The bottleneck from the third to the fourth layer was relatively more difficult, requiring an increase to 70 drops of liquid spiritual power.

However, because the Dantian Sea of Qi had already been expanded twice during the second and third Foundation Establishment layers, the original major bottleneck had already been breached in two places, making subsequent breakthroughs much easier.

70 drops, 90 drops, and 110 drops corresponded to the fourth, fifth, and sixth layers of the Pure Yang Scripture’s Foundation Establishment, respectively.

150 drops, 180 drops, and 210 drops corresponded to the seventh, eighth, and ninth layers of the Pure Yang Scripture’s Foundation Establishment, respectively.

Finally, upon reaching the perfected Foundation Establishment stage, provided one did not have an inherently weak constitution or congenital deficiency of vital essence, one would possess 240 drops of liquid spiritual power.

In a horizontal comparison, the perfected Foundation Establishment of the Longevity Sutra was roughly equivalent to the seventh or eighth layer of the Pure Yang Scripture’s Foundation Establishment.

According to Chen Mobai’s current cultivation progress—5 drops every 3 years—if every breakthrough were to succeed smoothly, it would take approximately 100 years to cultivate the Longevity Sutra to its fourteenth, perfected Foundation Establishment layer.

His wood spiritual root was still somewhat lacking.

This was also due to being in the Divine Wood Sect, which was rich in spirit stone resources. If he added the time spent cultivating the Pure Yang Scripture and Pure Yang Dharma Body, Chen Mobai felt that his current lifespan of three hundred years might just be enough to attempt Core Formation once, at the very peak of his physical vitality.

That was why Chen Mobai was so excited to obtain the Longevity Tree Fruit, this time-saving spiritual fruit.

This could save him a century of arduous cultivation!

First, he would perfect his Foundation Establishment in the Longevity Sutra, then use the Spiritual Artifact Dual Cultivation technique to elevate his Pure Yang Scripture realm. This way, he would be confident in attempting Core Formation before he turned a hundred.

Even if his first attempt failed, he would still have another century of peak condition to make successive Core Formation attempts.

Resources were scarce on the Immortal Gate’s side, but he could find ways in the Heavenly River Realm. At worst, like Meng Hong, he would consume Spirit Void Flowers and Rushing Void Ganoderma raw.

As long as he tried enough times, one attempt would eventually succeed.

With his strategy clear, Chen Mobai returned to the Immortal Gate.

He first went to Crimson City Grotto-Heaven.

He had arranged with Yu Rulin to purchase longevity pills, a transaction worth over four million merit points. Even though both were Foundation Establishment cultivators and chief disciples of their respective academies, they still needed to proceed cautiously.

However, as per Chen Mobai’s request, he did not require an invoice for this transaction.

This meant he wouldn’t receive cultivation points, which in turn meant the Longevity Academy wouldn’t have to pay taxes, saving a significant amount of merit points.

Yu Rulin was not surprised by this. After all, many who purchased longevity pills from their academy did not want others to know they had depleted their lifespan. And some, whose innate lifespan was naturally exhausted but still wished to desperately cling to life by wasting merit points, would also request transaction confidentiality and private accounts to keep their families unaware.

Chen Mobai purchased so many lifespan-extending pills at once that, had he not informed them in advance and had the Longevity Academy not started refining longevity pills, they might not have been able to deliver today.

“Senior Brother Chen, here are your pills. Please take good care of them,” Yu Rulin said.

Yu Rulin handed Chen Mobai a double-layered long wooden box. The latter opened it to find 30 Replenishing Longevity Pills in the upper layer and 30 Longevity Pills in the lower layer.

Each pill was individually packaged, very simply.

Chen Mobai carefully tore open the packaging of one Replenishing Longevity Pill and one Longevity Pill for inspection.

“The transfer is complete. Please check,” Chen Mobai said.

After confirming the pills were fine, Chen Mobai had his mother transfer the merit points to the Longevity Academy’s account.

Yu Rulin waited for a moment, then received a confirmation of payment from the academy’s financial manager, a pleased expression appearing on his face. He would earn a considerable commission from such a large transaction.

Furthermore, since it wouldn’t be counted for cultivation points, his share would be even greater.

However, Chen Mobai was not at a disadvantage either. Because no invoice was issued, the original transaction of over four million merit points now only cost him over 3.6 million.

If the Longevity Academy had to pay taxes, Chen Mobai would receive cultivation points, but the cost of these taxes would certainly be passed on to him.

By not going through official accounts, neither party had to pay taxes to the Immortal Gate.

It was a win-win situation.

In truth, if Chen Mobai hadn’t wanted to keep his purchase of longevity pills discreet, he would have preferred to pay taxes to earn cultivation points, as all the good items in the Immortal Gate could be exchanged for points.

After drinking coffee with Yu Rulin, they parted ways, both satisfied.

Chen Mobai thought for a moment, then returned to Giant Wood Ridge with the box of longevity pills.

After all, he didn’t know what might happen when he consumed the Longevity Tree Fruit to break through. If there were any unusual celestial phenomena or energy fluctuations, it would be difficult to explain if exposed within the Immortal Gate.

He decided to first try consuming Yan Jinye’s small fruit.

Small South Mountain also had a third-tier high-grade spirit vein, and with the spirit gathering array he borrowed from Yun Yangbing, it could temporarily be elevated to a fourth-tier spirit vein, making its environment no worse than that of the academy.

Moreover, the entire spirit vein of Small South Mountain belonged solely to him, so there was no need to worry that if the spirit gathering array drew too much spiritual energy, the academy administrators would discover it and cut off the supply.

Before consuming the Longevity Tree Fruit, Chen Mobai carefully used the Formless Puppet to deduce the scenario of him breaking through to the mid-Foundation Establishment stage using the Longevity Sutra. After confirming there were no issues, he took a deep breath and bit open the fruit’s outer shell.

In an instant, an indescribable, immense vitality surged from within the fruit, cascading into his internal channels like a pouring galaxy. Carrying a vast, torrent-like energy, it flowed throughout his entire body.

Chen Mobai felt as if his five zang organs, six fu organs, and twelve main meridians were being bathed in a warm current, beginning a rapid transformation and elevation. The Longevity spiritual power circulating within his body, like condensing dew, formed drop by drop within his Dantian Sea of Qi after one complete grand cycle after another.

The two mid-grade spirit stones he held in his palm were quickly drained dry, turning into white powder and dissipating.

But Chen Mobai had already prepared. Yun Yangbing’s specially made spirit gathering array activated, and in an instant, the spiritual energy concentration on Small South Mountain’s peak rose to the fourth-tier low-grade.

Zhuo Ming, who was weeding at the foot of the mountain, even felt the earth’s energy suddenly weaken slightly and couldn’t help but look up in confusion.

Then, she saw a white vortex suddenly appear above the perpetually cloud-shrouded peak of Small South Mountain, devouring and sweeping away the surrounding spiritual energy. Faint rainbow light overflowed, like a pool of colorful cloud-sea churning on the mountaintop, or a multicolored sun slowly rising from the peak, casting forth beams of rainbow light. It was incredibly dazzling and beautiful.

At this moment, Luo Yixuan also returned.

Before entering seclusion, Chen Mobai had instructed her to take the hired mortals and low-level Qi Condensation disciples who tilled the fields on Small South Mountain to Small Yang Ridge. This was to prevent any unusual phenomena during his breakthrough from becoming widely known.

However, this had always been the practice in the Heavenly River Realm. When Ji Zhenshe broke through to the late Core Formation stage, he had also done so in secret, intending to catch his opponents off guard. But he hadn’t expected to encounter Zhou Shengqing and Mo Douguang, and was nearly killed.

Before this seclusion, Chen Mobai told Luo Yixuan there might be some commotion. The latter was very pleased, feeling that her master entrusted such important matters to her, evidently meant he trusted her the most.

In truth, it was simply because Zhuo Ming was good at farming but not adept at handling such affairs, which was why Chen Mobai entrusted it to Luo Yixuan.

On the mountaintop, Chen Mobai’s Longevity spiritual power quickly increased to 35 drops, but it was far from stopping there.

Having consumed spirit rice since childhood, his innate primordial essence was abundant, so the minimum standard was clearly insufficient for him.

At this moment, Chen Mobai also felt his lifespan draining away.