[Essence of the Spiritual Vein: The source of life energy in the world of cultivation. It can produce spiritual energy that gives vitality and energy to all things, nourish heaven and earth, and is one of the fundamental powers of the cultivation world.]
[The most fundamental way for the Essence of the Spiritual Vein to grow is by drawing upon mountains and earth meridians, forming a special spiritual vein at the heart of the earth’s network by absorbing the power of heaven and earth. The stronger and more powerful the mountain and earth meridian, the more powerful the spiritual vein it can nurture.]
[A spiritual vein is a special place formed by combining the Essence of the Spiritual Vein with mountains and earth meridians. It can gather the power of heaven and earth, rapidly condense and transmit spiritual energy.]
“Mountains and earth meridians are the very foundation of a spiritual vein, but for me, they aren’t of much use.”
For one thing, the best mountains and lands in the cultivation world have long been occupied by the major powers, leaving no room for Qi Ping to even compete.
For another, even if he used mountains and land, a spiritual vein would still take years or even ages to gradually take shape, which is very slow.
The advantage of mountains and land is that they can form incredibly powerful spiritual veins that benefit thousands of miles around, while the downside is the slow formation time.
The Cloud Mist Mountain Range isn’t particularly impressive in terms of its mountain and earth veins, which means Qi Ping can’t take this path to nurture a spiritual vein.
Moreover, if a large and powerful spiritual vein were to form in the Cloud Mist Mountain Range, that would bring him trouble, not fortune!
“So, the path of nurturing a spiritual vein through mountains and earth meridians isn’t suitable for me. The best path for me is to nurture it using heavenly and earthly treasures!”
“But I have an advantage in understanding how to harness the power of heaven and earth. I can use formations to draw some of that power, along with the power of mountains and land, into the Essence of the Spiritual Vein. This can speed up its growth and the production of spiritual energy.”
The effect of Qi Ping’s approach shouldn’t be particularly dramatic, but the advantage is its steady continuity, which is basically enough to support the growth of ordinary spiritual herbs.
Especially since all the spiritual energy produced by the vein is locked within his formation, the result is still quite impressive.
For a major power, this would be barely enough to make ends meet, but for Qi Ping alone, it’s actually pretty good.
“Next is to nurture the Essence of the Spiritual Vein using heavenly and earthly treasures.”
Nurturing a spiritual vein with heavenly and earthly treasures is very costly, but it’s a last resort for many independent cultivators. Some powerful cultivators who prefer to practice alone also use a combination of mountains, land, and treasures to accelerate the growth of a spiritual vein.
Though the cost is high, there are benefits too.
Using heavenly and earthly treasures to nurture a spiritual vein not only allows it to grow quickly but also confines the spiritual energy to a small area, maximizing the use of the energy produced.
Furthermore, using different kinds of treasures to nurture the vein can create special effects for the resulting spiritual vein.
The better the treasures used, the better the special effect of the spiritual vein.
For example, if someone uses the essence of earth fire to nurture a vein, the resulting spiritual vein will have special fire-attribute properties, which greatly benefits cultivators who practice fire-attribute techniques.
Another example: if someone uses the corpses of cultivators to nurture a vein, the resulting spiritual vein will be filled with intense resentment and killing intent, which strongly enhances demonic techniques and spells.
“So, if I mainly use the essence of spiritual trees to nurture the vein, supplemented by the laws of the five elements’ spiritual power and the power of the sun, moon, and stars, what kind of effect might the final spiritual vein have?”
Qi Ping has great ambitions for the spiritual vein he wants to cultivate.
First, his advantage in cultivating the vein comes from his skills [Tree Spirit Contract] and [Nature’s Sanctuary].
[Within the range of Nature’s Sanctuary, trees contracted through Tree Spirit Contract, as long as they are not dead, can rapidly recover using Nature’s Sanctuary.]
With these two skills, Qi Ping can nurture the spiritual vein as quickly as possible without spending a fortune on collecting heavenly and earthly treasures.
Moreover, Qi Ping feels that a spiritual vein nurtured from the essence of many spiritual trees should have extraordinary effects, at least being absolutely suitable for a Druid.
“It’s just a pity that in all the books and materials I’ve read, I’ve never seen anyone purely use the essence of spiritual trees to nurture a vein—because the cost is simply too high!”
“If it weren’t for the support of Nature’s Sanctuary, even with my ability to grow plants, I couldn’t afford the luxury of nurturing a spiritual vein solely with spiritual tree essence.” Intuition tells Qi Ping that if he continues this nurturing over the years, he should develop a very special kind of spiritual vein, especially using rare spiritual woods.
And Qi Ping’s goals don’t stop there. He also wants to incorporate the five elements of heaven and earth and the power of the sun, moon, and stars into the vein’s development.
The five elements are the foundation of all laws; the sun, moon, and stars are among the most unique powers in heaven and earth. Channeling these forces into the spiritual vein—while he doesn’t know exactly what effects it might produce—will definitely be beneficial, not harmful, to both Qi Ping and the vein’s growth. It might even boldly raise the upper limit of the vein’s development.
Once he decided on the method for nurturing the spiritual vein, Qi Ping acted immediately.
He took out the Essence of the Spiritual Vein, which shimmered with a mysterious spiritual light, and placed it in the ground at the center of the formation.
Then he put in the effort to set up two more formations: one to draw in the power of mountains and land, and another to draw in the power of heaven and earth.
For a formation master, these two formations are not particularly difficult. Qi Ping had already prepared for them, and after gaining his talent [Three-Colored Spirit], setting them up was even smoother.
“The formation for drawing on the power of mountains and land is just about right. Any more would cause some unusual phenomena.”
“As for the formation for drawing on the power of heaven and earth, I can keep studying it. The power of heaven and earth in the cultivation world is vast and boundless. As long as my formation skills are good enough, there’s no limit to how strong I can make it!”
With the continuous infusion of power from mountains and land and from heaven and earth, the Essence of the Spiritual Vein began to slowly revive, emitting strands of pure spiritual energy.
“Not bad, not bad!” Feeling the pure spiritual energy radiating from the Essence of the Spiritual Vein, Qi Ping’s heart was filled with immense joy.
He could finally produce his own spiritual energy!
From now on, no one could choke him by controlling his access to spiritual veins!
After setting up the formations, Qi Ping used a spiritual herb refining method to extract about ten percent of the essence from the Star Spirit Wood (Spirit Gathering Art).
After Qi Ping completed the extraction, the Star Spirit Wood (Spirit Gathering Art) appeared noticeably weaker, though the impact wasn’t huge.
Because it was inside Nature’s Sanctuary, the wounded Star Spirit Wood gradually began to recover under the sanctuary’s effect.
Perhaps because it involved the essence of life, the recovery wasn’t super fast, but it definitely wasn’t slow either.
“I estimate it’ll fully recover in a while!”
After confirming the Star Spirit Wood’s condition was fine, Qi Ping went to the Essence of the Spiritual Vein and spread all of the Star Spirit Wood’s essence over it.
As the tree essence appeared nearby, the Essence of the Spiritual Vein seemed to sense it and actively began absorbing it!
As the tree essence was drawn in, the presence of the Essence of the Spiritual Vein grew steadily stronger, and the amount of spiritual energy it emitted increased as well!
“The effect is pretty good!”
“At this rate, once I grow the four third-order spiritual wood seeds I have, it probably won’t take many years for this Essence of the Spiritual Vein to reach first-order perfection or even advance to second-order. Then I can focus on nurturing spiritual herbs and improving my cultivation.”
Qi Ping was very satisfied with the effect of spiritual tree essence on enhancing the spiritual vein.
And this was just from a second-order low-grade spiritual wood. When his four third-order spiritual woods are fully grown, that’s when the Essence of the Spiritual Vein will really take off.
Just as the spiritual energy emitted by the Essence of the Spiritual Vein was gradually increasing, the stone spirit, which usually couldn’t be woken up even with all the noise, suddenly stirred awake!
