Chapter 370 - 186: Jiang Yiyi
Chu Xuan was somewhat dumbfounded, "Is it that precious?"
The Floating Cloud Elder coughed, "I’m talking about legends. According to legend, that Dragon Blood Tree was a towering giant tree. It couldn’t possibly be this small. Maybe this is a branch sapling separated from the ancestor tree."
"Even so, this is still an extraordinary spirit root of heaven and earth, long extinct in the human realm, only glimpsed in some ancient books."
"The fruits from this small tree might not have such strong effects, but correspondingly, it doesn’t take three thousand years to yield results. Perhaps it can flower every three hundred years, bear fruit every three hundred years, and ripen every three hundred years."
"This tree is known for its lush vitality and won’t easily die even after a thousand years away from soil, but it’s very difficult to cultivate it to thrive. I will try sending it to the Moonlit Celestial Flight Realm later."
With a smiling face, the Floating Cloud Elder said, "This thing is such a treasure—are you really willing to hand it over to the sect?"
Chu Xuan nodded without hesitation, "My master has taken great care of me, especially last time allowing me to go out with the portrait of the ancestor, which likely caused dissatisfaction among the elders. This time, I can make amends."
In his heart, he vaguely felt, "Even if I leave the Dao Palace in the future, I wouldn’t have let down the sect’s years of nurturing."
The Floating Cloud Elder didn’t think too deeply, and with a joyful stroke of his beard, he commented:
"The ancient lotus in the sect is about to bloom. I’ll give you a lotus seed then. With such a great contribution, others won’t accuse me of favoritism towards my own disciple."
Chu Xuan knew which "ancient lotus" his master referred to. Dao Palace’s founding ancestor, Cyan Lotus Daoist, had profound fortune and once received the cultivation technique heritage from an ancient mighty figure, along with a "Chaos Green Lotus Seed."
Legend has it that it was a lotus seed borne by the true form of that mighty green lotus. The Dao Palace has carefully nurtured it in the Moonlit Celestial Flight Realm. It took a full thousand years to grow, and another thousand to bloom. The Dao Palace song, "In a thousand autumns, I plant a lotus," refers to this Chaos Green Lotus.
According to Floating Cloud Elder, a new millennium is approaching, and the Chaos Green Lotus is about to bloom. It’s said that twelve lotus seeds are produced each time it blooms.
Though it seems like many, it’s only harvested once every thousand years. Some are even pre-scheduled for exchange with other sects.
What’s eventually left for our own people can’t be used all at once. Consideration must be given for the next millennium, which creates a bit of rationing.
This kind of spiritual object has numerous marvelous uses, most precious of which is its ability to help rebuild one’s enlightened body and physical form, even stronger than before.
Chu Xuan immediately shook his head, "Master, you should keep it. I don’t need such a precious thing for the time being."
The Floating Cloud Elder made no comment, simply smiling, "Let’s talk about it when the flower opens."
"There’s also this," Chu Xuan poured the fragments of the Qianming Celestial Bottle onto the table, explaining its origins.
The Floating Cloud Elder was surprised as he picked up and examined the Immortal Artifact fragments but couldn’t discern much, shaking his head and stating:
"Our Dao Palace has Celestial Secret Peak, Celestial Sword Peak, Celestial Derivation Peak, Celestial Register Peak, Celestial Array Peak, Celestial Pill Peak, but we lack a Celestial Artifact Peak."
"The way of artifact refining only has a refining division. Honestly, our palace’s tradition in this aspect has never been strong. We probably can’t provide much assistance. You’d best keep it for now and see if better opportunities come along in the future."
Chu Xuan agreed and continued to sit with his master, drinking two cups of tea before taking his leave and heading toward the South Sea.
...
The South Sea, with its vast, boundless sea surface, was once a perilous realm where the sky collapsed, the seabed sank, and the ’Devastating Black Flame’ spread all around, its extent was astonishing and far beyond what an ordinary array could contain or block.
But through the joint efforts of the Dao Palace and Tianxu cultivators—more accurately, with Jiang Yiyi turning the tide, and others assisting—the area finally shrank to the size of a spring of water.
To the current extent, no matter how Jiang Yiyi deployed her ’Immortal Technique,’ it couldn’t shrink it further, let alone cause it to completely vanish.
So she finally gave up, allowing others to set up an array to seal the place.
"So tired, so tired!"
"I want roasted crane wings and three-hundred-year-old monkey brew—not a year less!"
This was a young girl, around seventeen or eighteen, wearing a goose-yellow long dress. Her arms were entwined with white silk, and she was pretty and lovely, with an ethereal grace that instantly engendered goodwill.
But as long as she didn’t open her mouth, that "celestial demeanor" was intact. Yet, now she was rolling back and forth on the sea.
The people around were old acquaintances, so Jiang Yiyi wasn’t worried about losing face.
However, Ye Xingming was still a bit helpless, "Old Ancestor, we’re about to return to the sect. As soon as we go back, I’ll have someone arrange it for you immediately."
A female cultivator in a light green dress standing next to the Dao Palace’s young junior brother covered her mouth, chuckling slightly, "Your Grandmaster really has some childlike nature."
Ye Xingming coughed slightly, feeling a bit embarrassed, diplomatically expressing, "Grandmaster is just a little tired, not usually like this."
Besides the three of them, there were four others around, men and women, half from the Dao Palace and half from Tianxu, all busy setting up the array.
Ye Xingming was whispering to the female cultivator beside him when he suddenly raised his head cautiously, gazing into the distance.
The South Sea was far from a peaceful place. Though not as chaotic as the East Sea, it had much filth and many evil individuals hiding, where murders for treasures were quite common.