Chapter 73: Incense
On Five Finger Mountain, Third Peak, by the Fire Spirit Spring pool, Hua Changxi lay on the top-grade Fire Spirit Stone bed, her brows relaxed, fully immersed in cultivation.
At this moment, as long as she absorbed Spiritual Energy, her cultivation would increase.
Cultivating for one day could increase her Realm data by 120,000.
Watching her cultivation grow bit by bit, she felt the same exhilaration as when she was a Qi Refining or Qi Sea Realm cultivator.
Originally, she hadn’t planned to stay on Five Finger Mountain for long, but she was too reluctant to interrupt her cultivation. Thinking that Elder You and Guo Yu would cover for her at the Medicine Valley, she stayed on Five Finger Mountain with peace of mind.
Time flew by, and more than two months passed.
On the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Hua Changxi ended her cultivation. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to continue, but she knew that with the New Year approaching, her family would definitely visit her at the Medicine Valley, so she had to return to the Medicine Valley.
『 Realm: Core Formation Realm 10,010,000/10,000,000』
After more than two months of cultivation, her cultivation finally broke through 10,000,000.
Looking at the dazzling, round, and smooth Inner Core hanging above her Qi Sea, like a brilliant sun, Hua Changxi was very pleased.
“During this period of cultivation, there was no bottleneck or stagnation at all.”
Hua Changxi recalled the cultivation journey after advancing to the Core Formation Realm and found that when her Inner Core disappeared, no matter how much Spiritual Energy she absorbed, her cultivation could not increase.
Only when her consciousness entered the center of her Qi Sea and she could see the Inner Core could the Inner Core absorb Spiritual Energy and grow stronger.
For these two months, her consciousness was directly above the Inner Core, so her cultivation speed was even faster. During this period, her cultivation increased by as much as she absorbed.
From this, it can be known that the key to Core Formation Realm cultivation lies in the Inner Core.
Only by ensuring that the Inner Core is always suspended in the center of the Qi Sea can cultivation continue to grow.
The same problem remains: why does the Inner Core move?
Why did the Inner Core become stable in the center of the Qi Sea after she was angered by Elder You Four last time, and after coming to Five Finger Mountain this time?
Hua Changxi felt that there must be a trick she didn’t know about, but unfortunately, no one told her what that trick was.
Suddenly, Hua Changxi saw the Mountain Spirit hopping over, and her eyes lit up: “Fatty, come here, I have a question for you.”
Seeing that Hua Changxi was not cultivating, the Mountain Spirit’s face lit up with joy. He trotted over and asked happily, “Fairy, are you done cultivating? Can you play with me now?”
Hua Changxi’s expression stiffened: “Well, there are so many spirits in the mountains to play with you, and you’re still bored?”
After forming a contract with Five Finger Mountain, she could sense the general situation in the mountain.
For example, many plants in the mountain had become spirits, and there were even more animals that had become Demonic Beasts.
She could vaguely sense that if her cultivation improved, she could actually control Five Finger Mountain more thoroughly, but due to her current strength limitations, she couldn’t do many things.
The Mountain Spirit pouted: “Don’t mention those little spirits, they’re all so stupid and boring.”
Hearing this, Hua Changxi felt like laughing: “Then I’ll tell you something interesting.”
The Mountain Spirit immediately looked at her with anticipation.
Hua Changxi quickly told him about the Inner Core moving on its own: “Do you know why this happens?”
The Mountain Spirit’s eyes widened, filled with clear confusion: “Why does the Inner Core move?”
Hua Changxi was taken aback: “Don’t you encounter this problem when you cultivate?”
The Mountain Spirit shook his head: “No.”
Hua Changxi: “Then how do you cultivate?”
The Mountain Spirit: “I just absorb Spiritual Energy, eat and drink Spiritual Fruits and Spiritual Liquids, and if someone cooks, I can have some Demonic Beast meat. Oh, and I can also cultivate with Incense.”
Hua Changxi became interested: “Incense? Like the Incense in temples?”
The Mountain Spirit hadn’t actually tried it, but the Inheritance mentioned Incense, and he understood it vaguely: “Probably.”
Hua Changxi: “Then do you want to build a few Mountain Spirit temples outside Five Finger Mountain?”
The Mountain Spirit: “Can I build them?”
Hua Changxi: “Of course, you can build as many as you want, as long as you can manage them.”
Upon hearing this, the Mountain Spirit became eager to try: “Then I’ll build one to try first. Fairy, don’t worry, I won’t forget you, I’ll build one for you too.”
A line of black lines appeared on Hua Changxi’s forehead: “I don’t need to be worshipped.”
What right did she have to be worshipped?
Just because she was lucky enough to get Five Finger Mountain?
She hadn’t made any great contributions, so if she were worshipped, she’d be afraid of being struck by lightning.
The Mountain Spirit tilted his head: “But only with your permission can outsiders enter Five Finger Mountain. I’ve seen many people lingering outside Five Finger Mountain these past two months.”
“Fairy, everything in the world requires balance and circulation. You can’t use up all the resources in Five Finger Mountain by yourself. What do you plan to do with the rest?”
Having suddenly obtained Five Finger Mountain, Hua Changxi honestly hadn’t thought about the subsequent matters: “I don’t mind people from outside coming into the mountain to find some Cultivation Resources.”
Five Finger Mountain was vast. Apart from the most prominent five peaks, it actually had many small, crisscrossing peaks and thousands of large and small canyons.
The richness of its Cultivation Resources was several orders of magnitude higher than that of the Three Forked Medicine Valley.
The Mountain Spirit’s face lit up: “Then it’s settled! I’ll build a temple for you, and then let outsiders request your permission at the temple. With your permission, they can enter the mountain for Experience!”
Hua Changxi: “But I can’t stay in Five Finger Mountain all the time.” As she spoke, her expression shifted, and she smiled at the Mountain Spirit: “Can you help me watch it?”
The Mountain Spirit thought that he didn’t even have enough time to play, so how could he have time to help the Fairy watch the temple? But he couldn’t refuse directly, so he lowered his head and played with his little hands, saying softly, “I still have to watch my Mountain Spirit temple.”
“You clever little thing.”
Hua Changxi snorted, and a sudden idea struck her: “There’s a Welcoming Pine on the summit of the Third Peak. Judging by its Spiritual Energy fluctuations, it has already reached the Qi Sea Realm. I’ll hire it to help me watch. What do you think?”
The Mountain Spirit thought about what the Welcoming Pine looked like: “Xiao Song is okay. Besides liking to poke people with pine needles, it has no other faults.”
Hua Changxi fell into thought. She had to carefully consider the subsequent matters of Five Finger Mountain.
Things like the Asura Gate digging for Mineral Spirits could definitely not happen again.
Without further ado, Hua Changxi immediately took the Mountain Spirit and rode a cloud to the Third Peak, where she found the Welcoming Pine: “Xiao Song, I’m a friend of the Mountain Spirit, and I’d like to ask for your help.”
“This little spirit is willing.”
Before Hua Changxi could finish speaking, the Welcoming Pine preempted her with its childish voice.
Hua Changxi didn’t expect the Welcoming Pine to be a little female, and she was stunned for a moment. Then she quickly explained that she couldn’t stay on Five Finger Mountain for long and needed it to help her deal with those who wanted to enter Five Finger Mountain.
“Fairy, this little spirit is willing.”
As she spoke, the Welcoming Pine glowed with a bright green light. Then, a miniature pine tree flew out from its trunk and hovered in front of Hua Changxi.
This action confused Hua Changxi, and she looked at the Mountain Spirit with confusion.
The Mountain Spirit also looked at her. After looking at each other for a while, the Mountain Spirit suddenly slapped his forehead. He almost forgot that the Fairy was a bit slow and didn’t understand anything, so he had to remind her: “Fairy, quickly form a contract with Xiao Song.”
Hua Changxi pretended to be calm and said ‘oh’. She understood contracts, it involved bleeding.
She broke her fingertip, and a drop of Essence Blood flew out, entering the miniature pine tree. The miniature pine tree was immediately enveloped in a red glow. When the red glow disappeared, Hua Changxi felt a connection between herself and the miniature pine tree.
The miniature pine tree flew back into the Welcoming Pine. The Welcoming Pine immediately exclaimed happily: “Xiao Song greets Master.”
Then the entire pine tree stood up, floated in front of Hua Changxi, and spun around: “Master, Master, what do I look like?”
This appearance was exactly the same as when the Mountain Spirit was seeking recognition.
Hua Changxi turned her head to look at the Mountain Spirit with a blank expression. The Mountain Spirit looked back innocently.
She knew it. There was no free lunch in the world.
She had even thought the Welcoming Pine was pure just now, and it had even taken the initiative to form a contract with her. It turned out that the pure one was her, waiting for her here.
On the path of cultivation, she still had much to learn.
“Master, Master, what do I look like?”
“I think you look like a person!”
As soon as Hua Changxi finished speaking, the Welcoming Pine glowed with a bright green light, its branches began to retract, and it slowly condensed into a half-meter-tall green mass. The green mass twisted and finally transformed into a little girl of three or four years old.
The little girl wore a green dress, green skirt, and green shoes, with two little buns on her head. She was exquisitely carved and endearingly naive.
“Xiao Song greets Master.”
Hua Changxi looked at the Mountain Spirit, then at Xiao Song. They were like a real-life boy and girl. She immediately smiled: “You two can play together, and you won’t be bored anymore.”
The Mountain Spirit circled Xiao Song once and nodded with satisfaction, as if he had accepted this little follower: “I can take you to play.”
For the next few days, Hua Changxi wandered around Five Finger Mountain, burying all the exposed mineral veins and collecting some needed Spiritual Plants and Spiritual Fruits to put into the Shen Nong Cauldron. After confirming that there were no problems, she prepared to go and give instructions to the Mountain Spirit and Xiao Song, and then planned to return to the Three Forked Medicine Valley.
However, after searching everywhere, she couldn’t find the Mountain Spirit and Xiao Song.
At the same time, the Mountain Spirit was enthusiastically leading Xiao Song out of Five Finger Mountain.
“Mountain Spirit, where are we going?”
“Aren’t we going to build temples? Of course, we’re going to find people to build them.”
“Where will we find people?”
“There are many houses around Five Finger Mountain, so there must be craftsmen who can build houses and sculpt statues. I must have my statue sculpted the most beautifully, and Fairy’s too.”
“But Master said she doesn’t want to be worshipped.”
“Then what should we do? Oh, I can have them sculpt a Fire Lotus for Fairy. Worshipping the Fire Lotus is equivalent to worshipping Fairy.”
“Can we do that?”
“Yes, yes, you’ll be right if you listen to me.”
In Thumb Village, An Ze and An Ran, a brother and sister, were about to go to the fields to work when they saw two chubby dolls appearing out of thin air at the village entrance.
The two dolls hopped and ran towards them. The siblings immediately remembered the rumors about spirits in Five Finger Mountain that had been circulating for the past two months. Seeing the two chubby dolls approaching, they were so scared that they fell to the ground.
“Mountain Spirit, look, those two are so clumsy! They fell. I haven’t fallen since I learned to walk.”
“They are quite clumsy.”
As they spoke, the Mountain Spirit and Xiao Song had already reached An Ze and An Ran. The two dolls curiously examined the pale-faced, trembling siblings.
Xiao Song blinked her big, watery eyes and poked An Ran, who was trembling: “What’s wrong with them?”
Mountain Spirit: “Are they hungry? I heard that people tremble all over when they are hungry.”
Xiao Song quickly took out a handful of pine nuts from her pocket: “I have pine nuts, I’ll give them some.”
The Mountain Spirit stopped her: “Your pine nuts are too hard. Let’s eat cherries instead.”
An Ze and An Ran looked at the handful of mouth-watering cherries that appeared out of nowhere in the Mountain Spirit’s hand, and their trembling intensified.
“Eat quickly, and you won’t be hungry anymore.”
Seeing that they weren’t eating, the Mountain Spirit even fed them kindly.
As soon as the cherries entered their mouths, they melted on contact. An Ze and An Ran swore that these were the most delicious cherries they had ever eaten.
However, in the next moment, the features of the two contorted in pain, veins bulged, their bodies curled up, and they let out pained roars.
The Mountain Spirit and Xiao Song were startled.
“What happened to them?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do we do now?”
“I don’t know.”
At this moment, someone from the village heard An Ze and An Ran’s pained roars and ran over.
Seeing that someone had arrived, the Mountain Spirit grabbed Xiao Song and flew back to Five Finger Mountain on a cloud.
“An Ze, An Ran, what happened to you?”
“Quick, take them to see a doctor.”
“Oh no, they seem to be in critical condition.”
The Mountain Spirit and Xiao Song hid behind the plants and trees, listening to the villagers’ chaotic shouts, and exchanged innocent glances.
“We seem to have done something wrong.”
“What do we do now?”
“Let’s go find the Fairy.”
The Mountain Spirit and Xiao Song returned to the Third Peak and saw Hua Changxi by the Fire Spirit Spring pool. They immediately rushed over: “Fairy, Fairy, we met two fragile people, and after eating two cherries, they are about to die.”
Hua Changxi looked at the Mountain Spirit’s incredulous expression and then at the Spiritual Fruits in his hand, feeling a headache coming on: “Mortals cannot eat Spiritual Fruits. The Spiritual Energy in Spiritual Fruits is too dense, and it will burst their bodies.”
“Let’s go, quickly take me to see them, see if we can still save them.”
Hua Changxi grabbed one doll in each hand and rode a cloud at high speed towards Thumb Village.
Upon arriving at Thumb Village, Hua Changxi couldn’t bring the two dolls out in the open, so she had them hide behind the plants and trees while she entered the village.
“An Ze, An Ran, such good children. What bad luck have they encountered to be dying at such a young age? What a pity, what a pity.”
The people of Thumb Village were all discussing the accident that had befallen An Ze and An Ran.
Without needing to ask for the victims’ family’s location, Hua Changxi followed the crowd’s discussions and the place with the most people.
“I am a traveling doctor, and I can cure those two.”
Hua Changxi walked into An Ze and An Ran’s house and directly approached the eldest elder.
The village chief of Thumb Village looked at Hua Changxi. Seeing her clear and honest demeanor, and thinking that the village doctor couldn’t cure An Ze and An Ran’s illness, he nodded and let her enter An Ze and An Ran’s room.
As soon as Hua Changxi entered the room, she saw the two victims lying on the bed, their faces contorted in pain.
Seeing that they were only in pain but showed no signs of bursting, she raised an eyebrow.
Hua Changxi asked everyone else in the room to leave. After closing the door, she circulated her Spiritual Power, quickly expelled the Spiritual Energy from the two victims’ bodies, and then gave them healing pills to repair their bodies.
“Alright, they should be fine now.”
After giving instructions to the villagers, Hua Changxi, ignoring the village chief and villagers’ questions, quickly left Thumb Village, grabbed the two dolls at the village entrance, and returned to Five Finger Mountain.
“From now on, you are not allowed to feed people things randomly.”
The Mountain Spirit was still somewhat shaken: “Fairy, are those two people alright?”
“They are fine.”
Hua Changxi compared the situation of the two with that of Yang Chuan.
Yang Chuan had relied on three Grandmasters to constantly supply him with Internal Energy and suppress his Spiritual Energy to avoid exploding to death in a short period. However, those two had no one to help them and showed no signs of exploding.
Could it be that those two both had Spiritual Roots?
Having Spiritual Roots, they could accommodate some Spiritual Energy, hence no signs of exploding?
Hua Changxi was quite happy to have encountered another case of a suspected cultivator. On the way back, she reminded the Mountain Spirit and Xiao Song again: “Tomorrow is the fifteenth of the twelfth lunar month, I have to go back. When I have time, I’ll come to see you.”
“Xiao Song, remember the rules for entering the mountain.”
“Fatty, don’t build a temple for me. Build a house. As long as outsiders request to enter the mountain according to the rules, Xiao Song can give them a pine needle. No need for any other tricks.”
The Mountain Spirit readily agreed: “Fairy, I understand.”
