Chapter 72: Cultivation Complete, Spiritual Root Upgraded
Fang Shu’s words clearly rang out on the Lingzhi Platform.
“Begging for wine to drink?” The Lingzhi Mountain Lord heard this, shook the platform surface, and let out a light laugh:
“That’s quite interesting.”
Clang!
A bronze wine cup of unknown origin appeared on the platform surface, flying right in front of Fang Shu, and immediately moonlight from mid-air fell down, pouring into the cup and turning into wine liquid with a fragrant aroma.
Fang Shu held the wine made from moonlight, his face full of joy.
At this moment, the Lingzhi Mountain Lord’s laughter rang out again:
“Little Daoist Child, if you can drink three full cups, this lord will not only give you wine to drink but also let you directly join the banquet and take a seat, alright?”
These words immediately drew the attention of the other monster deities on the platform.
“Haha, it seems the Mountain Lord is truly drinking happily today. If one can join the banquet with a small ancient treasure from the collection, who knows how many immortal cultivators and monsters will envy this little Daoist Child.”
Another monster teased Fang Shu:
“Three cups of wine? This kid will probably get drunk after one.”
They laughed uproariously, all making fun of Fang Shu as they pushed cups and toasted each other.
Fang Shu himself, upon hearing this, had even more joy on his face.
He had originally just wanted to beg for a few cups of wine to drink, which would earn the Mountain Lord’s goodwill and let him taste the flavor of wine made from moonlight.
After all, judging by the quality of this wine, it might just be the Imperial Flowing Sap that the Weasel Daoist mentioned, an extraordinary Precious Medicine!
In the end, the Mountain Lord directly gave him a chance to join the banquet and drink.
If he joined the banquet, wouldn’t that mean unlimited wine, plus all sorts of tea and snacks!
Fang Shu’s heart pounded with excitement.
It must be known that the attending monsters on this platform were all at least at the Refining Qi level, and the food they used was definitely not mundane.
“Opportunity, opportunity.” He muttered in his heart, then without hesitation bowed down:
“This junior is willing to give it a try.”
The Lingzhi Mountain Lord wasted no more words and directly ordered:
“Drink!”
Fang Shu didn’t hesitate either. He raised the wine cup, didn’t cover his sleeve, and directly gulped it down into his mouth happily, opening his throat and downing the whole cup in one fierce go.
After downing one cup, he didn’t even have time to savor the taste before gathering his breath and calling out:
“Another!”
The monsters on the Lingzhi Platform saw how boldly he drank and all shook their heads, also calling out in response: “Fill it up, fill it up.”
“Quickly fill it up for him!”
Only the brocade-furred rat demon dressed as a scholar pretentiously covered his sleeve at his seat, slowly sipping his wine, seemingly disdainful of how crudely Fang Shu and the other monsters were drinking.
Glug glug!
The Lingzhi Mountain Lord wasn’t stingy either. In the blink of an eye, the wine cup in Fang Shu’s hand was filled.
As soon as the wine cup was full, Fang Shu held his breath and continued pouring it into his mouth.
Gulp gulp!
He fiercely downed three full cups in one go, not even tasting the wine’s flavor, and was still asking for more:
“Another, another!”
At this point, the Lingzhi Mountain Lord came back to his senses.
It realized Fang Shu’s intention and laughed to the crowd of wine guests:
“Today we’ve run into a rascal. This fellow seems willing to drink himself to death just to swindle more of this lord’s wine.”
The monster wine guests, upon hearing this, also reacted and clamored:
“Good kid! So you’re planning to guzzle as much as you can, regardless of getting drunk or not.”
“This kid is indeed interesting and clever. After all, what’s in the belly is one’s own.”
Some monsters hurriedly flattered the Mountain Lord, calling out:
“Not at all, not at all. It must be that the Mountain Lord’s wine is top-notch, making this kid so greedy.”
While they chatted idly, Fang Shu’s expression slightly changed, showing some anxiety.
He not only realized that his idea of drinking more had been seen through, but the wine’s effect surged in his belly, making his face flushed with drunkenness.
He swayed unsteadily, barely able to stand.
What surprised Fang Shu even more was that the group of monsters in front of him all transformed, turning into little people one by one, leaping up from their seats and dancing before him.
“This is…” Fang Shu struggled to hold on.
He looked around again and found that in the vast mountain forest, distant peaks turned into little people, nearby mushrooms turned into little people, and even the silver moon in the sky became a little person, falling to the ground to dance.
Laughter from the monster wine guests rang out around him: “Hahaha! Everyone, quick look, see what kind of drunken antics this little Daoist Child will put on.”
“Mm, the wine’s effect has come up.
The Mountain Lord’s wine is brewed from fresh seasonal mushrooms each year, extremely delicious, making one feel ethereal and soul adrift… serving to curb your greed, kid.”
In Fang Shu’s vision, the world spun, with little people circling him noisily.
What horrified his face even more was that the bronze wine cup in his hand had also turned into a little person.
The bronze wine cup grew eyes and a mouth, struggling in his hand, glaring at him and speaking:
“What are you looking at! Do you want this lord to piss a few times to reward you with more to drink?”
At this moment, Fang Shu belatedly began to suspect he was hallucinating, and it wasn’t the platform’s guests or the outside world that had changed.
Just as his reason told him, on the Lingzhi Platform, the other monster wine guests were all properly sitting in their original seats, wild in behavior but not turned into little people.
They laughed heartily, watching Fang Shu, expecting what funny thing he would do next.
Only Fang Shu’s steps staggered, stumbling on the platform, his body swaying east and west, as if he would collapse drunk to the ground and show ugliness at any moment.
So the next moment, Fang Shu took a deep breath, simply closed his eyes, and stopped looking at the bizarre world in his vision.
Enduring the ethereal strange sensation, he performed a set of fist forms on the spot.
“Yo, drunk fist?”
This action stunned the other monster wine guests.
Immediately after, these monsters saw puffs of white steam rising from Fang Shu’s head, like boiling water.
Fang Shu’s swaying figure gradually steadied, his steps though unsteady, but the drunken state lessened greatly in an instant.
This was Fang Shu setting up the Insect Skill fist stance, stimulating the Purple Lead Poisonous Blood in his body to quickly refine the three cups of wine inside him and dispel the alcohol.
After a few sets of fist forms, Fang Shu opened his eyes again. Though his face still showed obvious drunkenness, the little people in his vision had mostly disappeared.
The wine he drank today was poisonous, but the Precious Blood he cultivated was also Poisonous Blood, with the ability to repel all worms!
It allowed him to adapt to poisoned wine better than ordinary immortal cultivators and actively detoxify.
Thus, after circulating and refining the blood, Fang Shu successfully endured the three cups of mountain mushroom wine without collapsing drunk.
This performance also surprised the monsters on the Lingzhi Platform: “Didn’t fall?”
“Looks like this guy’s body is quite sturdy.”
The Lingzhi Mountain Lord, seeing Fang Shu endure three cups of wine, immediately burst into laughter:
“Good kid! Being able to eat is a blessing. Since you can handle it, this lord doesn’t need to swap for something else to give you.
Join the banquet. Tonight, eat as much as you can!”
Rustle!
On the Lingzhi Platform, the entrance to the Treasure Vault closed, but on the platform surface appeared a Lingzhi cap shaped like a cushion, placed among the crowd of monster wine guests.
Fang Shu, upon hearing this, was overjoyed.
He hurriedly cupped his hands: “Many thanks to the Mountain Lord for granting a seat.”
Then, Fang Shu staggered over, humbly but without fear, slipping into the midst of the monster wine guests and sitting cross-legged.
On his left and right were respectively the rat-faced scholar wandering deity and the burly crab general clad in silver armor.
Although he had been allowed to join the banquet and even earned a bit of the Mountain Lord’s favor, Fang Shu didn’t get carried away.
After cupping his hands to the monsters on both sides, he held his wine cup, buried his head in drinking, and didn’t join the conversation of the monster wine guests.
These monster wine guests glanced at him a few times, teased and laughed among themselves, but seeing him so well-behaved, found him somewhat cute, like keeping a little cat or dog nearby to freeload food and drink, and had no objections.
Moonlight flowed continuously, turning into wine and blending into the silver mist drifting over the mountain peak, pouring into the cups before the wine guests.
Now that Fang Shu had some leisure, he slowly sipped, refining the alcohol while drinking, finally tasting the flavor of this wine.
It was indeed exceptionally delicious, refreshing and tasty, making him feel so ethereal it was as if his soul would leave his body.
But for him, this flavor was secondary.
More crucially, in his mind, the Dao Talisman was shaking nonstop. With every cup he drank, text floated and flowed in the Dao Talisman:
【Realm: First Tribulation Refining Essence Human Immortal（99.1%）】
【Realm: First Tribulation Refining Essence Human Immortal（99.2%）】
……
Swish swish, his cultivation progress was filling up at a speed he could hardly imagine.
And what was manifesting in him now was only part of the wine’s medicinal power, with more spiritual energy and medicinal power precipitated in his body, not yet digested for the time being.
After downing ten cups of wine, Fang Shu looked again and found the realm column in the Dao Talisman had changed to:
【Realm: First Tribulation Refining Essence Human Immortal（Complete）】
At this point, Fang Shu’s early Refining Essence stage was completely perfected in cultivation, ready at any time to attempt breaking through and passing tribulation to advance to Second Tribulation Refining Essence Human Immortal!
Joy filled his heart, and his body and mind relaxed.
But this wasn’t over yet. Besides the wine at the banquet, there were also fruits and vegetables and tea snacks brimming with spiritual energy.
Fang Shu immediately picked up a mushroom and tasted it in his mouth.
This mushroom melted in his mouth and even stirred up a few gu worms in his body, so he fed some crumbs to the gu worms.
After Fang Shu gorged himself, his mouth and nose breathed out spiritual energy with every exhale.
Text shook again in his Dao Talisman, and the quality in the Spiritual Root column had changed to 【Upper Middle】.
This meant Fang Shu now had upper-grade Spiritual Root!
If not for the wine gathering not being over, he would now borrow the abundant spiritual energy and medicinal power in his body to break through and pass tribulation on the spot.
But he held back, continuing to eat voraciously, seizing this rare opportunity.
All the way until the sky lightened slightly, the scene a mess of cups and plates, even the monster wine guests thick with drunkenness, unwittingly falling into a dazed sleep.
Only then did Fang Shu truly unable to hold on, overcome by drunkenness, and sweetly fell asleep.
