Chapter 291: Time Flies

In the rice field, covered with spiritual soil, a three-foot-tall seedling, sacred, bright, and gleaming golden, stood within a golden glow at the center, slowly absorbing the blood essence from the water.

Despite two years of meticulous cultivation by two titans of the Longevity Realm, its growth had stalled.

Even An Xianjing, with her calm demeanor, felt secretly anxious; otherwise, she wouldn't have desperately sought help from a junior in the Five Seas Realm.

Golden Trace Meridians and golden rice were indeed easily associated.

"Is this appropriate?"

Li Weiyi didn't mind helping An Xianjing cultivate the rice, but if a child were to grow from it and bear even a slight resemblance to him, what kind of situation would that be?

An Xianjing was very patient: "Blood is merely a nutrient; it's not as complicated as you imagine. According to some legends, benevolent rice growing in mass graves absorbs the blood of tens of thousands of deceased; do they then have tens of thousands of parents?"

"I believe the existence of benevolent rice profoundly challenges human ethics and nature. Perhaps it means nothing to those who disregard emotions, but what about those who do care?"

For a moment, Li Weiyi thought of many things.

He somewhat understood why Chan Hai Guan Wu had prohibited its cultivation back then.

An Xianjing fell into contemplation. After a while, she said, "You could try providing it with sunlight using the spiritual phantom of the Fusang Divine Tree. I believe your spiritual essence has a very strong life force."

Li Weiyi had already noticed that in the area enveloped by the Fusang Divine Tree's phantom, the flame lotus flowers in the lake were growing exceptionally well.

Perhaps it would truly help.

Li Weiyi sat in meditation on the rice field embankment.

Gradually, his mind became clear and sharp, and he entered a state of meditation.

Whoosh!

The phantom of the Fusang Divine Tree rose behind him, reaching dozens of feet high. Its brilliance was like scattered gold, its leaves like flames, enveloping the one-acre spiritual rice field in its radiant light.

A miraculous scene unfolded.

The three-foot-tall seedling's previously drooping leaves gradually unfolded and stood upright.

It breathed in sync with Li Weiyi, continuously absorbing the light rain sprinkled by the Fusang Divine Tree.

The entire Southern Purity Palace and the surrounding few miles were plunged into darkness, with only this spot remaining bright.

An Xianjing was inherently a cheerful person, and at this moment, a radiant smile of joy bloomed on her face, making her seem utterly unlike an ancient figure who had lived for three hundred and sixty years.

She mused inwardly, "The blood essence nutrients for the golden rice are definitely sufficient. The reason its growth stalled might be related to sunlight."

Half an hour later, Li Weiyi opened his eyes.

Seeing the changes in the golden rice, he showed delight: "Senior An, it seems I am still useful to you. So, we don't need to use blood for irrigation for now, right?"

An Xianjing walked over to Li Weiyi and touched the Fengfu acupuncture point on the back of his head with one finger.

After probing.

She withdrew her finger and nodded gently: "It's true, you've indeed refined all your trace meridians into gold, and your Fengfu has even reached thirty-six thousand square units. Your constitution is certainly not ordinary; you must have a significant background."

"Please, Senior An, do not mention martial arts talent again."

Having had the experience of conversing with Yao Qingxuan, Li Weiyi feigned a look of deep pain and distress, speaking little and offering no explanations.

An Xianjing said, "The passing standard for a successor's ancestral field in the Five Seas Realm is only twenty thousand square units. Your Fengfu is thirty-six thousand, so you could completely use your Fengfu to replace the ancestral field. My only concern is that your ancestral field being crippled is a pretense, and you won't cultivate the Dao through your Fengfu."

Li Weiyi showed anger: "Senior, if you continue to rub salt in my wounds and cast doubt, you might as well just kill me. Anyway, after I help you cultivate the golden rice, I won't escape death. If my ancestral field hadn't been crippled, the Jiuli Hidden Sect would surely have dispatched top experts to protect me. How else would I have fallen into your hands?"

Who would have thought that the underground immortal mansion was actually the lair of the Twin Rice Sect?

Moreover, this sect was immensely powerful, with experts as numerous as clouds.

Before Li Weiyi came in, he had thought the underground immortal mansion truly had no Longevity Realm titans.

He was lucky; at least he was still alive. More unfortunate misjudgers had long since vanished without a trace or met an even worse fate.

An Xianjing frowned slightly: "Don't overthink it! As long as you don't become an enemy of the Divine Sect, this Hall Master will not kill you, nor will I discard you after you've served your purpose. Believe it or not, that's up to you!"

"Give me the Divine Snow Sword!"

Li Weiyi took out the Divine Snow Sword from his spatial bag and handed it over.

Filled with immense curiosity, he asked, "Has Tang Wanzhou been captured?"

"You should first worry about yourself!"

"Keep this bottle of Longevity Blood well," she continued. "Ten drops daily, no more, no less; it should be enough for two to three months of irrigation. Be more diligent. If the golden rice dies... consider the consequences yourself."

An Xianjing uttered a mild threat, asserting her authority as a Hall Master, lest Li Weiyi find her easygoing and take advantage. In reality, it was genuinely difficult for her to put on airs as a Hall Master in front of Li Weiyi, this kind and idealistic young man.

Just as she had said herself: "To the compassionate, I return compassion. To the wicked, I grant reincarnation."

Cultivating the "Formless and Featureless Buddhist Scripture" was like looking into a mirror; she would reflect the state of the person she faced.

Leaving behind a cold jade bottle, she left, carrying her sword.

Li Weiyi said, "What if something happens to it? Where should I find you?"

"At Spirit Valley Hall, look for the Divine Son Chief, Qiongji Daozi. I'll be away for a while recently," An Xianjing said.

"Do me a favor," Li Weiyi requested. "I have a friend named Qi Xiao who might have fallen into your hands; please help me find him."

"I am the Hall Master, not someone who searches for lost cats and dogs."

An Xianjing disappeared into the array's light barrier.

"Each and every one of them is so difficult to get along with," Li Weiyi muttered to himself. "Are Longevity Realm titans truly so formidable? When I reach the Transcendent Realm, I'll definitely put on a show in front of them too."

Li Weiyi mumbled to himself and opened his palm.

Besides the cold jade bottle in his palm, there was also a three-inch-long green jade array talisman used to activate various arrays within the Southern Purity Palace.

This was evident because the characters "Southern Purity Palace" were inscribed on the jade talisman.

From then on, he had free access to the Southern Purity Palace and could go anywhere within it.

However, An Xianjing hadn't given him a life token, clearly intending to restrict him to the Southern Purity Palace.

For the next three days, Li Weiyi sat on the rice field embankment, meditating and activating the Fusang Divine Tree's phantom to provide light for the golden rice, while also refining the Dharma Qi in his Fengfu, aiming to complete the Sixth Sea as quickly as possible.

He dared not activate the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish, fearing Yao Qingxuan and An Xianjing might suddenly return.

They had a habit of appearing silently behind or beside him.

After three consecutive days with no news from them, Li Weiyi could no longer suppress his eagerness. He left the array surrounding the rice field and went to another area of the Southern Purity Palace enveloped by an array.

Inside the array was a black pagoda, over twenty stories high.

The desolate courtyard outside the pagoda had no footprints.

This showed that An Xianjing and Yao Qingxuan would not enter this place, making it an ideal spot to activate the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish.

As for unpredictable dangers...

Li Weiyi could escape into the Blood Mud Space, so he was not very afraid.

Furthermore, according to Chan Hai Guan Wu, his blood could awaken corpses with a single drop, so it was uncertain who would restrain whom!

"I must seize this time before the golden rice fully matures to enhance my cultivation and strength as much as possible," he thought. "An Xianjing's words sound good, but who knows if she'll go back on her word once I'm no longer useful? Faces can change in an instant, let alone spoken words."

He left six Phoenix-Winged Moth Sovereigns outside to keep watch and gnaw on various medicinal herbs in the Southern Purity Palace.

Li Weiyi took out the green jade array talisman, opened the array's light veil, and walked inside.

Whirl!

In the dilapidated courtyard where the black pagoda stood, a cold wind picked up, swirling dust.

An ancient aura assailed him, and he faintly heard a few chants of Buddhist scriptures.

Although Li Weiyi felt a little apprehensive, he knew that the array here hadn't been opened for many years, and it was normal for wind to be present when it suddenly opened, allowing air currents to flow in and out.

He glanced at the open door of the pagoda's first floor.

The withered skeleton sat cross-legged in the darkness, bound by chains. Who knew what story it had in life, or why it was locked here?

Had it been locked for tens of thousands of years?

In any case, Li Weiyi had a dangerous feeling that it might suddenly stand up and rush out.

Li Weiyi dared not approach and sat down beside the array's light veil.

First, he activated the light red fish eye of the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish, then he entered the Blood Mud Space.

Using the spatial power of Shaoyang Star, Li Weiyi piloted his jade boat to Tanggu Sea.

Waves surged, and the light was scorching.

He gazed far into the distance at the sacred and magnificent Fusang Divine Tree on the horizon, bathed in sunlight, his vision vast. The chilling aura from the pagoda's desolate courtyard earlier was completely swept away. "Currently, Shaoyang Star can only open a spatial channel leading here, not to other places," he mused. "Perhaps I need to cultivate not only spiritual power but also the Dao of space."

"Tang Wanzhou is already at the peak below the Longevity Realm, and he's only just begun to dabble in spatial cultivation methods," he thought. "I shouldn't aim too high for now. I should focus on breaking through to the Dao Seed Realm first."

Li Weiyi stopped overthinking. He sat down at the bow of the jade boat and mobilized his spiritual power to activate the light blue fish eye of the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish.

His two spiritual power stars rapidly diminished; their brilliance grew dimmer, and the stars themselves grew smaller.

The Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish began to operate...

Whoosh!

Strands of faint blue light emanated from the fish eye, enveloping him.

The time cocoon was still only about ten feet in size.

"After becoming a two-star Spirit Master, the cocoon threads have indeed solidified considerably," he noted.

"The waves in the sea are moving so slowly," he observed. "It seems there truly is a difference in the flow of time inside and outside the time cocoon."

"It is said that there are many places in the universe where time distortion exists," he pondered. "Did someone master this power? The former owner of the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish?"

Li Weiyi cleared all distracting thoughts and began to refine his Qi.

Time passed day by day.

Whenever the Golden Crow flew out from the bottom of the sea, Li Weiyi would leave Tanggu Sea and return to the Southern Purity Palace. He would sit in meditation on the rice field embankment, practicing meditation techniques to restore his depleted spiritual power, while also providing light for the golden rice with the Fusang Divine Tree's phantom.

It usually took him half a day of meditation for his spiritual power to fully recover.

As time passed, Li Weiyi gradually understood the state of the time cocoon.

With his current spiritual power as a two-star Spirit Master, the time cocoon could only be maintained for one day.

However, inside the time cocoon, far more than one day passed; Li Weiyi estimated it to be three or four days.

Therefore, after each Qi refinement session, he would experience an intense feeling of hunger.

He had originally estimated that even with the help of the Fusang Divine Tree, it would take three months to complete his Qi refinement and fully cultivate the Sixth Sea.

In reality, he completed the Sixth Sea in just one and a half months.

During this period, he also spent a significant amount of time recovering spiritual power, tending to the golden rice, refining Star Day Pills, and cultivating his physical body. His strength in all aspects improved at an extremely rapid pace.

The underground immortal mansion was spherical, not a flat single layer.

The Twin Rice Sect spent a thousand years roughly dividing the developed areas into three layers: upper, middle, and lower.

The uppermost layer, the "Sacred Heart Layer," was the cultivation ground of the two Rice Ancestors. It was extremely mysterious and rarely visited, holding the ultimate great secret left by the ancient Boghara Sect.

The middle layer, the "Mortal World Layer," was the safest and most fertile area, heavily protected and isolated from other regions.

The Mortal World Layer was divided into twenty-eight prefectures, each spanning dozens of miles. These were the cultivation areas for the main altar's young disciples and the benevolent rice cultivation areas, responsible for propagation and education.

Spirit Valley Hall, located in the Mortal World Layer, held the greatest authority.

Even external sect members affiliated with the World Hall, upon arriving at the main altar, had their accommodation and cultivation arranged by Spirit Valley Hall and had to obey its management.