Gu Zuo cried out involuntarily: “Masculine Yang Clay?!”
Gongyi Tianheng listened to this, and couldn’t help lowering his eyes: “Ah Zuo?”
Gu Zuo hastily pulled Tianheng, and rushed towards one direction with flying speeds. In the meanwhile, he said: “Big brother, come quickly. We have the whereabouts of the first type of wondrous earth!”
Tianheng’s heart stirred. He simply gathered the other up in his arms: “Ah Zuo, point the way.”
Gu Zuo immediately raised his hand, and pointed to the front: “Over there!”
Without the slightest hesitation, Tianheng hastened their journey, and practically flew towards that place.
Before long, he had already ran several kilometers. Gu Zuo hurriedly said: “Big brother, stop!”
Tianheng halted his footsteps.
Gu Zuo jumped out of Tianheng’s embrace, and pulled him into a mountain hollow. There were several types of precious medicinal ingredients growing here. It also concealed some heavenly materials and earthly treasures that released a rose-tinted mist. Surprisingly, it seemed like a garden that specialized in producing marvelous resources. Others would look upon this scene with covetous eyes.
However, the most precious things here weren’t those few types of treasures that were deliberately displayed.
Gu Zuo guided Tianheng to a dusty-gray swamp. Settled on top of the swamp was a chunk of Scarlet Heart Iron, which flickered with mysterious rays of light.
Scarlet Heart Iron was also classified as an outstanding refining material. While it was likewise very rare, the places where it turned up were random. Yet, it also wasn’t surprising to detect such a thing on this qi vein. It was precisely because this iron was incredibly precious. If it had been other people in Gu Zuo’s place, after discovering the Scarlet Heart Iron with great difficulty, even with another meticulous round of searching, it would’ve been hard to find something even more valuable — The Masculine Yang Clay, which employed remarkable methods to conceal its own uniqueness amid the mundane.
Gu Zuo walked over to the edge of the swamp, and pointed at the ring of earth surrounding the Scarlet Heart Iron, and said: “Big brother, take a look. This is the Masculine Yang Clay.”
Following the direction of Gu Zuo’s gesture, Tianheng saw that there really was a layer of soil surrounding that chunk of dark-red iron. However, the color of this soil was very close to that of the swamp itself. It was just that some parts were slightly reddish, and these reddish parts happened to be next to the dark-red iron chunk. It was easy to think that this difference in coloration occurred after the earth had been contaminated by the energy of the Scarlet Heart Iron for a long period of time.
Gu Zuo said: “Big brother, this is something you need to take.”
Tianheng smiled: “Ah Zuo, just tell me what to do.”
Gu Zuo returned his own smiling expression: “It’s not very troublesome. Big brother just needs to use some strength to accurately scoop out that ring of soil and the Scarlet Heart Iron&#k2026; Right, you have to pay attention not to confuse that earth with the surrounding soil. Otherwise, the Masculine Yang Clay will be able to go back into hiding.”
This was a trivial matter. As for accurately controlling the application of force, this was nothing difficult for any successful martial artist.
Tianheng slightly pondered. At once, he took out a large, broad-backed cleaver from the spatial bangle. When he took action, his speed was fast and his movements were agile. In just the blink of an eye, that chunk of Scarlet Heart Iron and the ring of red earth were dug out in their entirety before falling to the ground.
At the same time, Gu Zuo’s psychic power burst out, and isolated the red earth from the ground.
The next moment, Tianheng watched as the red earth spread out the instant it fell down. The substance’s appearance became a lighter-colored, clay-like silt, which proliferated in all directions. However, because Gu Zuo used a lot of psychic power to cover the ground within a radius of a dozen or so meters, the silt couldn’t touch the ground no matter how much it spread out.
Immediately following which, the clay-like silt rapidly gathered together, and seemed to transform into a reddish, ordinary-looking stone with some unwillingness — Even until now, the Masculine Yang Clay was still trying to hide itself.
It could be seen that if the Scarlet Heart Iron had been directly dug out of the swamp, that ring of earth would’ve instantly entered the swamp and mixed with the rest of the soil. No one would’ve been able to find its traces again. Also, if there had been a lot of soil from the swamp intermingled with the red earth during the excavation process, the red earth would’ve similarly mixed together to make it difficult to distinguish.
But with Gu Zuo’s arrangements, Tianheng didn’t bring along a single clod of swampy soil. Gu Zuo also used his psychic power to separate the red earth from the land, which prevented it from blending back into the ground. When this red earth couldn’t find any gaps, it could only resume its original shape, and become a rock.
En, a rock with nothing special about it.
The unfortunate thing was that Gu Zuo recognized it from the start. No matter how it shapeshifted, it would be useless.
After snatching this stone, Gu Zuo placed it in Tianheng’s hand: “Big brother, check it out. This is the Masculine Yang Clay… Or, you can also call it the Masculine Yang Stone. It’s a slightly-yang wondrous earth, which can be absorbed by big brother to strengthen the spleen.”
Speaking up to here, he somewhat sighed: “I didn’t expect that we could find wondrous earth in this place. In this way, big brother’s five viscera can form a small cycle. We’re only missing two types of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Objects.”
If one wanted the Tiandu Body to be capable of healing itself, the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys had to reach an equilibrium of the five elements as well as of the yin and yang. Originally, the wondrous water and wondrous wood were both balanced in yin and yang. Meanwhile, the wondrous fires were two types of extreme flames that cooperated with one another, so there also weren’t any issues. As such, only the wondrous metal and wondrous earth were left.
The wondrous metal previously absorbed had a yin affinity, and this Masculine Yang Clay had a yang affinity. Speaking of which, this outcome was much better than having both being slightly yin or slightly yang.
One couldn’t focus on how they had already obtained Heaven and Earth Spiritual Objects of four attributes. So long as one type was missing, it would be a huge problem. On the contrary, once the Tiandu Body completely absorbed the wondrous earth, there was no need to worry about the Tiandu Body’s issues for a long time to come. Even if there was a problem, it would only happen many realms later.
Tianheng scrutinized this lump of Masculine Yang Clay. His frame of mind was naturally delighted, and he plainly said: “Ah Zuo has been worrying about me every day. You’ve really been working hard.”
Actually, Gu Zuo didn’t feel like he had gone through much hardship. In fact, he and big brother formed a bond of fate in the beginning because of the Tiandu Body. At that time, he hoped that it could be treated slowly so that he could be seen as indispensable. However, after he secretly fell in love with big brother, he wished to cure big brother immediately to prevent him from suffering further. By the time the two affirmed their love, he felt as if it was happening to himself.
However, he also couldn’t celebrate too early…
Gu Zuo was a little conflicted: “Big brother, although it’s good that we can set up a small cycle of five elements, if we want to use this Masculine Yang Clay…”
Tianheng looked at his little pharmacist: “Ah Zuo?”
Gu Zuo furrowed his brows, and said: “Then, the other kind of wondrous earth must be the Feminine Yin Clay.”
The masculine yang and the feminine yin were a pair. If Tianheng absorbed the Masculine Yang Clay, but couldn’t find the Feminine Yin Clay, they would never be able to change the small cycle of five elements into a large cycle. The Tiandu Body would be plagued with private worries forever.
But if he didn’t absorb the Masculine Yang Clay, who knew when they could find another portion of wondrous earth? Even in Ten Ultimates Sect, Heaven and Earth Spiritual Objects of the five elements were practically out of stock. Because the constitutions of martial artists basically had no way to extricate themselves from the five elements, so long as the corresponding five elements were within the body, one could make use of these Heaven and Earth Spiritual Objects. One couldn’t be fooled by the fact that Tianheng used these spiritual objects to treat his body. In reality, if other martial artists obtained such things, they could be used for cultivating martial disciplines. There were even many other marvelous uses.
These things were very rare, so who would be foolish enough to let a spiritual object go? Even if it wasn’t used personally, it could be exchanged for treasures with the sect or other people. Any information would be kept extremely hidden.
If the opportunity to use the Masculine Yang Clay was passed up to use another type of wondrous earth, who could say when they could come across it?
The good luck of the Tiandu Body was one thing, but good luck didn’t mean that one’s every wish would come true. What’s more, their luck had given them something they could use. After missing this chance, would their luck really let them obtain another type?
Gu Zuo’s mood was very conflicted and hesitant. As a result, he just gave a suggestion, and intended to let big brother decide for himself.
As Tianheng’s thoughts turned, numerous ideas flashed by. He gave a faint smile: “An opportunity should always be grabbed firmly in the hand to live up to one’s expectations. Ah Zuo, my Tiandu Body currently needs to be nursed with every realm advancement. Constantly paying attention to these things is very troublesome, so establishing a small cycle of five elements first would be better. We can talk about getting rid of this shackle at a later time. As for the Feminine Yin Clay and the other wondrous metal, we can endure while the world lasts. We can always look for them before I’m negatively affected again.”
In fact, Gu Zuo was just overly worried due to emotional attachment. Now that he heard Tianheng’s decision, he nodded and said: “What big brother says is right.”
In this world, every struggle was a race against time. Indeed, this opportunity couldn’t be wasted.
Compared to big brother, he had always been a little less resolute.
Later on, he had to overcome his “modern” indecisiveness, which never completely disappeared.
After making up his mind, Gu Zuo’s mood relaxed. He couldn’t help smiling: “In any case, the Feminine Yin Clay’s name is known to us. We’ll have a target in our future searches.”
Tianheng smiled back: “What Ah Zuo says is true.”
Following this, Gu Zuo put away the Scarlet Heart Iron. This could be used to forge his big brother’s natal spirit weapon. It couldn’t be squandered. Right. From now on, they needed to save up some more top-notch refining materials, too…
As expected, once the two people traveled across this final qi vein, they found even more precious treasures.
This wasn’t strange. It was only natural that the larger the qi vein and the longer it existed, the better the things along its surface.
In the end, the pair returned from a rewarding journey. As for Gu Zuo, he silently arranged the things they acquired based on category. From these arrangements, he took thirty percent. The remaining seventy percent would be placed in the public storehouse.
Of course, any rare things that suited them wouldn’t be distributed — After all, whether it was establishing an organization or assembling subordinates, everything was for the sake of gathering enough resources to provide for their own cultivations and to safeguard their friends and relatives.
Only the strong could have the right to speak and be heard. The roots and branches couldn’t be flipped upside-down.
T/N: Thanks for the corrections, Charysa.
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