Chapter 169 - 7: That Patch of Thousand God Tree_i
By the newly-constructed wooden hut outside the chicken farm.
Wang Ba stood silently, hands behind his back, attentively watching the middle-aged laborer busy working in front of him.
At that moment, the middle-aged laborer, Li Qi, was meticulously removing every bit of roughness from the wooden planks of the hut, completely oblivious to his surroundings.
In fact, in his sight, there was indeed no one else around.
In this ’empty’ state, a person’s true nature and real thoughts naturally reveal themselves.
Wang Ba watched silently for a long time, from daybreak to nightfall, then daybreak again, and another nightfall…
He monitored Li Qi’s initial surprise and fear when he arrived, followed by restlessness when he wasn’t summoned, then disappointment when there were no news, until desperation.
A person’s mood changes incessantly with the shift in thoughts, and one’s thoughts change persistently with changes in the external environment.
From the surface to the core, and from the inside out.
Through this observation, Wang Ba gradually understood how a newly-introduced thought can harmonize with one’s own will without contradiction.
He also learned how subtly different voices and images can be implanted into another person’s consciousness.
Afterward, he started experimenting on Li Qi’s body continuously.
One month later.
Looking at the worn-out Li Qi in front of the wooden hut, Wang Ba finally stopped using the Power of the Yin God and withdrew all the different impressions and illusions he had planted in Li Qi’s mind.
At that moment, it seemed as if Li Qi had unloaded an enormous burden. Nothing had occurred, but a heartfelt smile appeared on his face.
Even, when he noticed himself smiling all of a sudden, he was slightly puzzled.
Wang Ba shook his head slightly.
In the end, he instructed the Human Puppet about something.
Then, he turned around and walked into the chicken farm.
Soon, the Human Puppet quietly appeared in front of Li Qi:
“The master decrees. You have three choices. First, you can stay here, work for the master, and he will assure your peaceful death of old age.”
“Or, he can send you back to your hometown, leaving you with enough silver money for your later years.”
“Alternatively, you could return to Linggu House and continue working as a laborer.”
Even though he didn’t understand why Immortal Wang brought him here and then didn’t value him, the currently disillusioned Li Qi took his heart’s desire.
After a slight hesitation, he immediately made his choice.
“Immortal, I want to return to my hometown.”
“Are you sure? The Incense Fire Dao is wreaking havoc, and your hometown may not be spared. Do you still want to go? Staying here with the master may not give you the chance to become an immortal, but it can guarantee a long life.”
The Human Puppet asked expressionlessly.
Hearing about the possibility of a long life, a glimmer of hesitancy crossed Li Qi’s face, but in the end, he staunchly shook his head:
“Immortal, I choose to go back. Even if I die, I should die in my homeland!”
“Well then, let’s take you back. Where is your hometown?”
Saying this, the Human Puppet summoned the flying Magic Tool.
A glint of nostalgia flickered through Li Qi’s eyes.
“In Mengxing Villa. Haha, that place is lovely. Immortal, if you ever visit, do stay for a few days. Our local trench wine and donkey meat biscuits are unbeatable…”
The Human Puppet hesitated slightly, and then nodded:
“Hmm… it is indeed a good place.”
Then, he drove the flying Magic Tool, carrying Li Qi away from the farm.
Watching the Human Puppet and Li Qi disappear on the horizon, Wang Ba’s eyes were filled with a hint of melancholy.
“This world…”
The Human Puppet returned only three or four days later.
Wang Ba took out the bone chip from the Human Puppet’s skull that had recorded its journey.
As expected, outside, things were terrible.
The Human Puppet had passed through many villages and towns, and the followers of the Incense Fire Dao were everywhere.
Even some Incense-burning Dao Cultivators were not hard to spot.
However, perhaps because they recognized the Human Puppet’s puppet status, these Incense Fire Dao Cultivators didn’t intentionally obstruct it.
Of course, this was also because the Human Puppet had deliberately avoided some places likely to incite trouble during its journey.
“Wait, this is…”
Wang Ba spotted a quick flash in one of the scenes and paused.
Even if it was just a fleeting image, with his Foundation Establishment Practitioner’s insight, he managed to catch it instantaneously.
However, to prevent misjudgment, he immediately replayed the scene in the bone shard, and indeed, in one frame, he caught sight of a group of low trees.
These trees, each about ten feet high.
However, it was not their height that caught Wang Ba’s attention, but the peculiarity of these trees. Each tree had a straight stem, no creepers, no branches, only sprouting twigs at the top, each of which bore a few sparse leaves.
And on these leaves were droplets of colorless spherical water clusters that Wang Ba was very familiar with.
Looking closer, there were over a hundred of these water cluster on each tree.
There were about twenty or thirty trees like this!
“Divine Dew!!”
“So, those trees are ‘Thousand God Trees’!”
Wang Ba recognized them almost at first glance.
He was immediately excited.
The Thousand God Tree is a Class II top grade spirit plant and extremely rare. It hardly ever appears within the borders of Chen State. Although there are a few in Sen State, they are not many.
He never imagined that the human puppet’s trip would encounter such precious treasures!
However, Wang Ba quickly calmed down.
The reason being that he spotted traces of a formation surrounding these Thousand God Trees.
Apparently, this place had already been occupied by someone, and these Thousand God Trees might even have been planted by them.
“Could it be those guys from the Incense Fire Dao?” Wang Ba couldn’t help but wonder.
It could very well be since he had once obtained the Divine Dew from a cultivator of the Incense Fire Dao. In other words, there’s a high likelihood that these Thousand God Trees were planted by a cultivator of the Incense Fire Dao.
If indeed the Incense Fire Dao cultivators planted them, then his hopes might be dashed.
After all, even the powerful Tianmen Cult found dealing with Incense Fire Dao a headache. He was just a fledgling Foundation Establishment Cultivator, not worth mentioning at all.
However, he couldn’t help but locate this place on geomancy map.
“The place south between Yushui City and Mengxing Villa….”
“The location of Yutang Mountain.”
The distance from here to East Saint’s base wasn’t far. Given his current speed, it would just take him over one Shichen to reach.
After some hesitation, he finally decided to give up on the temptation.
Except for this unexpected grove of Thousand God Trees, there was nothing else of particular interest.
As for Li Qi, the human puppet did not record his fate.
For the following days, Wang Ba didn’t go to Winter House for cultivation.
Mainly because Bu Chan has reached a critical point in her cultivation. She was preparing to breakthrough the Qi Refining Stage VII bottleneck, he gave the cultivation room to Bu Chan.
Once Bu Chan crossed the bottleneck, she could quickly advance to Qi Refining Stage VIII, getting closer and closer to Foundation Establishment.
Although it seems so, Wang Ba estimated that at Bu Chan’s current pace, she may need more than a decade to peacefully reach the peak of Stage X of Qi Refining before harmonizing the three elements and striving for Foundation Establishment.
Such speed, even without practicing the Demon Dao cultivation method, was extraordinarily fast.
Only the continuous supply of chicken essence from Spirit Chicken could subtly improve Bu Chan’s ordinarily mediocre talent, allowing her cultivation speed to gradually accelerate.
On top of this, the help of the Class II Spirit Plant, Spirit Gourd Vine, made her progress almost parallel to the past Zhao Feng.
However, speaking of the Spirit Gourd Vine, Wang Ba couldn’t help but feel a pang of pain.
No wonder Zhang Qingniu was willing to sell this Class II Spirit Plant to Wang Ba back then.
Mainly because the growth cycle of this Spirit Gourd Vine was just far too long.
Over seven years, this Spirit Gourd Vine grew a vine that was just under ten feet long, with seven or eight leaves. Forget about gourds, it doesn’t even have buds.
If it weren’t for the fact that it did indeed aid Bu Chan’s cultivation, Wang Ba actually considered getting Zhang Qingniu to return the Spirit Stones.
With Bu Chan in seclusion, the tasks in spirit field naturally fell upon Wang Ba.
From taking care of the Spirit Grass, catching the Spirit Insect and so on.
Anything with spiritual energy becomes complex.
Furthermore, he took advantage of this opportunity to continue studying on how to facilitate a successful Bloodline Breakthrough for Jia 15 and Jia 16, which are Class II middle grade creatures, and Class II lower grade Mountain Moving Ape, repeatedly researching their physical structures and conditions.
For a time, he was frantically busy.
In the meantime, he attempted the Bloodline Breakthrough for Jia 15 and Jia 16, but unfortunately, due to lack of experience, after several failed attempts, he ultimately didn’t have the heart to continue torturing them.
He decided to continue his research until he had a more precise plan and ratio before attempting it again.
That day.
As he was weeding in the field, his spiritual sense suddenly stirred.
A look of surprise appeared on Wang Ba’s face.
“This guy, I just chased him away last time, why is he back?”