Chapter 124: Life in Cultivation
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor:
No matter how silly Mo Wuji was, he would not just stop there. After he finished this, he started using the lightning spirit stone to flip the soil surrounding the seed. The truth was that Mo Wuji was circulating his elemental energy to stimulate the lightning spirit stones.
Even if Mo Wuji did not know the purpose of doing so, he had no other ways to nurture or grow a spiritual herb.
After about two hours, Mo Wuji stopped and took a look at the lightning spirit stones in his hand. Realising that the spirit stone was reduced to less than half its original size and with most of its spiritual energy gone, Mo Wuji looked at the soil on the medicine bed with doubt. The spiritual energy of the soil on the medicine bed did not increase by much, where did all the spiritual energy go?
Very soon, Mo Wuji was able to get a good grasp on the situation. Could it be that the spiritual energy from the spirit stone was absorbed by the seed?
At the thought of this, Mo Wuji used a normal spirit stone together with a lightning spirit stone and placed it within the soil. He started using his elemental energy to stimulate the spirit stone once again.
Another four hours had passed and the lightning spirit stone in his hand gradually disappeared. Even the size of the normal spirit stone had been reduced by more than half. Similarly, Mo Wuji did not feel that the spiritual energy in the soil had increased significantly. This gave Mo Wuji a huge boost of confidence.
After changing two spirit stones, Mo Wuji continued his way of stimulating the spiritual energy.
After the spiritual energy of another two spirit stones were absorbed, Mo Wuji finally felt something slightly different. The elemental energy and spiritual energy that he stimulated seemed to be absorbed by a force coming from the soil before disappearing. This was a force Mo Wuji had not experienced before as if it felt like it contained an endless lease of life.
Mo Wuji was so excited that both his hands were shaking. He was sure that this was the life force of the Flower of the True Gods. If he managed to feel the power of the Flower of the True Gods, this would signify that the Flower of the True Gods was about to germinate.
At this moment, Mo Wuji’s focus was solely on nurturing the Flower of the True Gods as he closed his eyes to shut everything from his surroundings out.
After the sixth spirit stone was exhausted of its spiritual energy, Mo Wuji heard what seemed like the world’s most touching sound. "Kacha" a small green shoot broke out from the surface and a new life was born.
Even though the sound was so soft that it could barely be heard by the others, Mo Wuji heard it very clearly. It was at this same instance that a brand new sensation penetrated Mo Wuji’s entire body as if a rapid stream flushed open a shackle on his body.
Majestic elemental energy flooded into his dantian and Mo Wuji hurried to open his eyes.
Channel Opening Stage Level 8.
His previous incomplete closed door training resulted in him not being able to advance into the next level but when the the shoot of the Flower of the True Gods appeared, he somehow advanced to the Channel Opening Stage Level 8.
This was not end. At the moment when Mo Wuji advanced into Channel Opening Stage Level 8, something seemed to have broke out of its shell within his mind.
Following this feeling, everything around Mo Wuji became crystal clear to him. As his hand trembled, he could not believe it as he saw the two leaves that he personally nurtured.
When his cultivation base was broken into Channel Opening Stage Level 8, the power of his spiritual will entered a whole new level. While the power of his spiritual will was constantly rising previously, he never had this feeling of such a breakthrough before. Mo Wuji did not have any spiritual will cultivation technique or handbook so he would not know which stage he was in now. However, he was sure that if he was in stage 1 previously, he had to be in stage 2 now. The difference in nature of these two stages made Mo Wuji so excited that he was trembling a little.
If he were to purify the Iron Core Bodhi Fruit, he was sure he need not use his hand to fry it anymore. If the power of his spiritual will was not enough then, it had to be enough now.
"Thank you!" Mo Wuji murmured as he saw the two-leaved wrinkled shoot from the seed. His heart was fully filled with gratitude.
He understood that there was life in cultivation too. If one was to treat cultivation like a pool of dead water, only adding water to it, then there will eventually be a limit.
Because he had no master to guide him along, he knew very clearly that this principle had a great impact on him.
After taking a deep breath, Mo Wuji carried a heart of gratitude to do his best with the spirit stones in his hand.
The two-leaved wrinkled shoot took in the spiritual energy so quickly it started to extend itself. It was like a tender young girl maturing, slowly revealing her beautiful figure.
Only at this moment, Mo Wuji could truly feel his improvement. With his previous cultivation base and spiritual will, the growth of the flower definitely wasn't so fast; his speed had increased by more than ten folds.
Mo Wuji was fully focused on this shoot of the Flower of the True Gods. He was confident that in half an hour’s time, the growth of this Flower of the True Gods would multiply and blossom into a real flower.
"Dang!" A loud and clear sound of a gong interrupted Mo Wuji’s entire spirit and he became clear-headed again.
Time was up and Mo Wuji felt a quiver in his body. He immediately looked around at the flower beds of the other pill refiners.
It was as if a bowl of cold water was poured all over his body, causing him to feel indescribably lost and disappointed.
The shoot of the Flower of the True Gods right in front of him was at most 10 cm tall with only two leaves.
On the other medicine beds that he saw, the highest Flower of the True Gods was already half a meter tall. There was even a green coloured flower at the top. The flower was surrounded by many green leaves, it looked extremely beautiful.
Out of those whose flowers did not blossom, the poorest one was already above 20 centimeters tall and had at least four leaves.
Mo Wuji sighed and resigned to fate. After his cultivation and spiritual will advancement, he knew quite a lot about nature of the Flower of the True Gods. If only he was given just an hour more. No. Just half an hour more. He was sure that he could grow it to at least half a meter tall. If he was given another one hour, he could outdo all the other Flowers of the True Gods to claim first place.
...
It was a pity that he only managed to advance and just as he understood the nature of the flower, his time ran out.
This was a pill competition where nobody would bother listening to him lament about what he could do in another half an hour’s time. Zhen Shaoke, who was standing far away, released his tight fist as he saw that Mo Wuji did his best. Given Mo Wuji’s cultivation base, the fact that he was able to nurture the Flower of the True Gods was a success in itself. However, this was still a pill competition after all.
"Ai…" the black bearded elder beside Qu Wan’Er let out a sigh as he could tell that Mo Wuji was weaker than most of the other pill refiners.
"I guess he tried his best," Qu Wan’Er’s gaze shifted from the poor shoot on Mo Wuji’s medicine bed to Mo Wuji’s disappointed and slightly lost face.
The black bearded elder shook his head as he kept quiet. Whether or not he tried his best would not matter here. What truly mattered was success over the others.
Pill Master Ming Ning walked onto the round altar and said while laughing, " After a gruelling 20 hours of competition, the second round has come to an end. May I invite all the pill refiners to stand by the side as we wait for the results."
Mo Wuji followed the crowd of pill refiners to the side like a zombie. Since young, Mo Wuji had participated in countless of competitions and examinations, however, never was he so concerned and worried about the results like he was today. He knew that the result would determine if Yan’Er would be able to recover.
Mo Wuji, who only just realised the relationship between life and cultivation, had lost all forms of happiness. Currently, he would rather not have realised or understood anything at all and get into the top 100.
"Mo Wuji, I really did not expect you to make it into the second round. However, you really do not have to wait here anymore. You should be standing with the rest of the spectators," A sarcastic voice sounded beside Mo Wuji’s ear.
Mo Wuji subconsciously lifted his head and saw Ju Feiyang staring at him with no motive of hiding his killing intent.
This fella does have some skills up his sleeves as he made it into the second round too. Looks like he has been noticing me from the start, otherwise he wouldn’t have made such a comment.
"Don’t look at me like that. I saw the Flower of the True Gods that you nurtured, I mean it was way too eye-catching to not notice it anyway," Ju Feiyang saw Mo Wuji looking his way and he felt extremely pleased. As long as Mo Wuji failed to help Nine Moons Pill House earn their placings, they would probably not keep him there anymore and he would have the chance to finish Mo Wuji off.
"Pill Master Ju, junior apprentice brother Mo had already said before that Bo Mengyu courted his own death. If you keep insisting that he was at fault, aren’t you going overboard?" Yan Qianyin said with a lot of dissatisfaction.
Mo Wuji was so focused on getting into the top 100 that he did not notice Yan Qianyin made it in too.
"Junior apprentice brother Mo, do not worry. If I were to be able to get into the top 100, I will definitely give you a slot," Yan Qianyin was very clear why Mo Wuji was risking his life for this.
Since the first round where Mo Wuji used his hand to fry the Iron Core Bodhi Fruit, Yan Qianyin made her decision. Even if the sect head were to object, she would still force out a slot for Mo Wuji.
Mo Wuji gave a slight smile and the disappointment in his eyes disappeared in his smile. So what if he failed to get a slot or enter the Five Elements Desolate Domain? As long as he stayed alive, he would find a way to save Yan’Er. He was even planning to use his Spirit Strengthening Pill to exchange for a slot to enter the Five Elements Desolate Domain. He knew the value of the Spirit Strengthening Pill better than anyone else and he was confident it was worth a slot to enter the domain.
Even if he were to run out of options in the end, he could offer to give Granny Ling Long his wordless pill manual. Whatever the case, he would not be dejected and give up on saving Yan’Er. In his dictionary, there were no such words like ‘lost’ or ‘disappointed’.
"Thank you senior apprentice sister Yan. I have never been worried, I believe that as long as I am alive, I will find a way. I have gotten over the incident where I was bitten by a dog. As long as you are alive, you are bound to be bitten. However, when bitten, how can you not fight back? Mo Wuji said calmly and his eyes regained his fighting spirit and determination.
Qu Wan’Er was watching Mo Wuji from afar and saw him regain his fighting spirit. She subconsciously clenched her fist as she knew the strong willed man who killed two lightning crocodiles was back.