A Rippling Wonderwood that can produce Rippling Spirit Dew – this alone could massively boost the cultivation of water-attribute cultivators and even improve their water-attribute cultivation aptitude.
Then there’s the Nethermoon Soulwood, which produces Nethermoon Hearts – capable of greatly strengthening one’s spiritual soul and, with a bit of luck, enhancing one’s enlightenment.
Qi Ping had prepared the Rippling Wonderwood specifically for his Cloud Dream Immortal Tiger. Its growth directly impacted both his own safety and that of his territory – the faster it could break through its realms and undergo bloodline transformations, the better.
The Nethermoon Soulwood, on the other hand, had much broader applications. It was useful not only for Qi Ping himself but also for all his animal companions, including the Gold Marrow Bee Queen. The enhancement to enlightenment, in particular, would benefit them greatly.
“Having money sure feels great!”
Gazing at these two astonishing spirit woods, Qi Ping’s eyes were filled with pure joy and delight.
And this wasn’t even the end of it. Once he carved suitable spells into these two spirit woods, their strength and effects would undoubtedly continue to grow!
In the past, he’d only have dared to dream about spirit woods of this caliber. After all, these two woods cost a whopping two hundred and eighty thousand spirit stones plus twenty-eight thousand black market points!
That fortune alone could have bought him a rare spirit beast nearly on par with the Cloud Dream Immortal Tiger.
But now, this expense was less than a tenth of his current black market points!
Unfortunately, Qi Ping could only contract this level and quantity of spirit woods for now – otherwise, he wouldn’t have minded buying even rarer ones.
“Still, what I have now is already great. The real key is making good use of these resources and focusing on steady improvement – no point reaching for the stars without a solid foundation!”
Staying true to his path and keeping his cultivation journey clear was what truly mattered.
“And speaking of spirit beasts… I could definitely go for a top-tier one now!”
“Three hundred and eighteen thousand, seven hundred and eighty-five black market points. After buying the Rippling Wonderwood and Nethermoon Soulwood, I’ve still got roughly three hundred thousand left. That means I can still afford things worth three million low-grade spirit stones, or thirty thousand mid-grade spirit stones.”
“I’ve already bought the spirit wood seeds. In the short term, aside from picking up some more second-tier spirit herbs and seeds that I don’t currently have, there’s nothing else I really need to buy.”
“I should still plant more spirit herbs and spirit woods. The herbs can support my cultivation, and they’ll give the bees more options when brewing honey. As for the trees – even if I don’t contract them all, they’ll still benefit Little Tricolor Deer’s training and advancement, as well as the Treant’s cultivation!”
“But first, let me decide on my eighth animal companion! I’m going straight for an enlightenment-type spirit beast worth three million spirit stones!”
“Anyway, I’m only a bit more grinding away from reaching Level 8 Druid. I can buy it now, let it wait a while, and then start the contract once I’m ready…”
His current territory had restrictions that prevented him from planting trees that were too high in grade, but there were no such limits on spirit beasts!
So instead of letting those black market points and spirit stones just sit there, why not go all in on a two-to-three-million-level fourth-tier spirit beast with an overpowered enlightenment talent?
A fifth-tier beast, however, was out of the question – those were equivalent to Spirit Transformation realm monsters, far beyond what his tens of thousands of mid-grade spirit stones could handle.
And since Qi Ping was currently in need of creating spells, there was no better talent than an ultra-powerful enlightenment ability.
“Let me run a search and see what kind of spirit beasts I can find near the Azure Sky Region…”
【Searching for fourth-tier enlightenment-type spirit beasts!】
【This search will cost twenty thousand black market spirit stones. Continue?】
“Yes!”
Though it stung a little, information on such rare spirit beasts was definitely worth that price.
Soon, after Qi Ping confirmed, product listings appeared before him.
There weren’t many – only three.
“Well, that’s still more than the last time I searched for fate-type spirit beasts!”
Last time, even for third-tier beasts, he’d only found two! That just goes to show how incredibly rare fate-type spirit beasts really are.
【Soul Devouring Beast, Fourth-Tier High – Price: 5.7 million spirit stones + 570,000 black market points】
【Illusory Dream Moth, Fourth-Tier Low – Price: 2.2 million spirit stones + 150,000 black market points】
【Illuminating Mystic Serpent, Fourth-Tier Mid – Price: 2.8 million spirit stones + 280,000 black market points】
“Soul Devouring Beast, Illusory Dream Moth, Illuminating Mystic Serpent… each one is extraordinary in its own way!”
The Soul Devouring Beast went without saying – it was infamous across the cultivation world, known as the devourer of souls that leaves nothing but a wasteland of bones!
Ancient texts once recorded a terrifying Soul Devouring Beast that consumed every living being in an entire domain, including several Nascent Soul stage powerhouses. Its combat prowess was utterly ferocious!
However, this type of spirit beast was extremely difficult to tame and equally hard to nurture.
Even Qi Ping wasn’t confident he could handle it – the Druid philosophy was simply too far removed from what this beast represented.
Besides, the price was far beyond what he could currently afford.
“This beast definitely has the strength, but it’s just not right for me.”
Next, Qi Ping turned his attention to the Illusory Dream Moth.
“The Illusory Dream Moth – a dream of a thousand years, where life and death blur.”
That saying perfectly captured the essence of this creature in the cultivation world.
Despite having the word “illusory” in its name, the Dream Moth’s methods didn’t actually rely much on illusions. Instead, it wielded something far rarer and stranger – the art of dreams!
This was an exceptionally bizarre ability that could kill a person directly within their dreams or trap them in a state between life and death!
In all of Qi Ping’s current knowledge, there weren’t many ways to counter such methods. Even some cultivators with powerful souls could still fall to the Dream Moth’s tricks!
Many cultivators, when facing this beast, would die mysteriously without ever knowing what hit them.
That’s why, despite being a fourth-tier low-level spirit beast, its price was almost on par with the fourth-tier mid-level Illuminating Mystic Serpent.
The only downside was that this beast was also notoriously difficult to contract. Most beast-taming cultivators who tried to form a bond with a Dream Moth ended up failing.
However, Qi Ping actually felt a bit more confident about the Illusory Dream Moth – because it was naturally a gentle creature that loved planting all kinds of spirit flowers and sipping nectar. In that regard, it was quite similar to both Druids and Qi Ping himself.
So if he did buy the Dream Moth, Qi Ping had a fair chance of successfully contracting it.
Still, he didn’t hesitate to set it aside for now.
As tempting as its dream-based abilities were – and having a flower-loving companion did sound nice – the Dream Moth’s enlightenment talent was mostly focused on the dream path, which wasn’t the direction Qi Ping wanted his cultivation to go. So he had to pass on it.
But the even more important reason was that the Illuminating Mystic Serpent’s talent fit him so much better!
In the cultivation world, the Illuminating Mystic Serpent’s reputation went something like this: “If you can’t beat it the first time, never fight it a second time!”
Because while its spiritual soul and physical talents weren’t the most outstanding, it possessed an absolutely extraordinary learning ability. Almost any technique used against it would be seen through after just one showing, and simpler ones could even be learned outright on the spot!
