Archfiend

Chapter 264: Heavenly Paradise

Translator: XTB

The room became quiet. Wei Zhongxian didn't continue straightaway but instead bowed. “Before this, wouldn’t it be better for Master to look at this item?”

Following the direction of Wei Zhongxian’s finger, Xu Yangyi saw a toad that was about a meter in size. It seemed to be jade but not jade, and its mouth was slightly ajar. Threads of hazy smoke slowly wafted out from the toad’s mouth.

Xu Yangyi calmed his mood as much as he could, and lightly sniffed. Faint yet unscattered, the smoke held a delicate aroma. Although the fragrance was light, it was soothing and pacifying, secreting into one’s innermost parts. It seemed to stroll around in the inner organs, and this stroll caused the internals to seem a bit fresh and clean. The mind was pure and the qi was crisp.

He closed his eyes and indulged in the pleasure for a few seconds. He raised a brow and said, “Ambergris?”

“An enlightened sage is no more than his master.” Wei Zhongxian covered his mouth and laughed softly, “In these ten-odd days, Celestial Mo, Celestial Jun, and Immortress Qin haven’t been idling. After using a qi flame to roast and dry the ambergris, and the addition of a good many secret arts, this censer of Soul-Cooling Fragrance was made. I hope Master will kindly accept it.”

Xu Yangyi’s strong brows raised up. The censer’s value was precious to Qi Condensation cultivators, especially young cultivators. Heart devils were extremely difficult to birth. The so-called heart devil was the period a cultivator achieved supreme enlightenment, experienced the changes of time, and watched those by their side grow old one after another. And yet they themselves were still in the spring of youth as in the past. A lamentation that flowers had no choice but to fall, a heart knot of a seemingly familiar swallow’s return. The rise of the essential suspicion of one’s own existence and cultivation.

The higher the realm, the more difficult it was to make peace with such doubts. Particularly at the Core Formation realm after incarnations could be created... If the matter wasn’t handled properly, the incarnation would instead replace oneself and become the true personality!

“A good item.” Xu Yangyi walked over and deeply stroked the censer. His distance from the Foundation Establishment realm... was not far.

“Master, please sit.” From some unknown place, Wei Zhongxian had produced a tea set and brewed a cup of fragrant tea. He flattered and laughed, “In fact, there was no need for Master to come ask me. The matter that Master wishes to know is in your memories.”

“My memories?” Xu Yangyi furrowed his brows, and a spark suddenly went off in his mind. “The Dao Scripture?”

“An enlightened sage is no more than his master.” Wei Zhongxian laughed, “The Dao Scripture is an assembly of secret Daoist texts, a supreme work of divine abilities. Master is currently cultivating a section of the Book of Changes, The Harmony of the Trium. It is vast like an ocean, and profound like a mountain. Once opened, you will be the cultivation world’s master of all.”

“I was just about to ask you about this point as well.” Xu Yangyi also laughed and looked over. “Why is it that so many characters rushed into my mind on that day, but I can’t remember anything at all now?”

Wei Zhongxian bowed respectfully. “That’s because... the present Dao Scripture was locked by His Majesty. And the key...”

Xu Yangyi laughed coldly, “That secret page which Ming Guangzong brought to the Thirteen Tombs?”

“Master is an enlightened sage.” Wei Zhongxian laughed as he fawned on Xu Yangyi.

“In other words, I’ve got a locked treasury in my mind, but if I don’t go to the Thirteen Tombs, the treasury won’t open?” Xu Yangyi’s smile became colder. “Grandpa Wei, you had all the time in the world, but you didn’t remind me to go to the Thirteen Tombs. Could it be that my back garden is actually there? To just take and ask without need for consent?”

He set down the teacup and stared straight at Wei Zhongxian. “Or... does Ming Guangzong want me to go in? Or maybe, the last mission he gave you?”

Wei Zhongxian immediately prostrated on the ground and said hastily, “How could this slave dare? His Majesty said that to see Master was akin to his royal arrival. How could I dare hold the slightest errant intention?”

Xu Yangyi didn’t speak. His eyes looking at Wei Zhongxian flashed with a cold glint. A long-dead Lord of the Nine Quiniums who hadn’t forgotten to plan for Xiaoqing and Fahai. He absolutely didn’t believe that the Thirteen Tombs would open wide and allow him enter.

Without necessary and complete preparation, there was no way that he would presently enter the Thirteen Tombs. Wei Zhongxian had already made several cool suggestions. If he hadn’t underwent Xiaoqing’s restructuring process, perhaps he simply wouldn’t hear the hidden bewitchment in the other’s voice. If it really was “akin to his royal arrival”, what matters were there that couldn’t be said to an emperor?

“In that case...” A cold smile curved at the crook of his mouth. He immediately covered it and said faintly, “Akin to his royal arrival. We want to hear you say it now. Straight. From. Your. Mouth.”

“To answer Your Master Majesty’s words!” Unexpectedly, upon hearing these words, Wei Zhongxian’s face became rosy in excitement, and he laid prone even more respectfully. His voice was almost devout. “What Master wants to hear, this slave certainly knows yet lacks the words. I am unaware if Master has ever heard of the word ‘Dragon Vein’.”

“Of course.” Xu Yangyi didn’t make Wei Zhongxian stand up. He towered above and looked down at the eunuch. “But this is only a legend.”

Wei Zhongxian laughed flatteringly and answered noncommittally, “As to theories real and false, I truly do not understand. But I know that Dragon Veins are divided into Greater and Lesser Dragon Veins. A Greater Dragon Vein is the master of a nation’s fate. Yet a Lesser Dragon Vein is a land of fortune. A so-called heavenly paradise... is in fact several Lesser Dragon Veins experiencing subterranean quakes for a period of centuries to a millennium, and tending towards convergence.”

“As several Lesser Dragon Veins converge, they’ll give rise to something. I once heard Celestial Master Zhang say that this is known as a ‘Spirit Point’.”

Spirit Point?

Xu Yangyi’s brows slightly knitted together, and he sunk into thought for a couple seconds and shook his head. This word was quite the stranger.

This unfamiliarity wasn’t to say that he didn’t know now. Instead, there had never been records of this word in Heavens Law’s teachings or the Featherwood Guard’s common data!

“A Spirit Point... draws endless qi from underground! The land that the Spirit Point is under will slowly transform and cause the surrounding land to become a natural transcendent-grade Spirit Focusing Formation. It attracts all roaming qi from everywhere! Master, I’ve heard that when celestials cultivate, they’ll use all kinds of formations to intensify qi concentration. But in a heavenly paradise, qi doesn’t need intensifying whatsoever because of the enormous Spirit Point’s bubbling underneath. One can say that any place you go to is the most supreme Spirit Focusing Formation!”

Xu Yangyi took a deep breath.

He somewhat understood... why a good many clans couldn’t relinquish this place. To one person, this land was at most a transcendent Spirit Focusing Formation. But to a clan or power, it was no understatement to call its function the most essential secret!

So long as some clan established a Dao sanctum over the Spirit Point... it would be no exaggeration to describe the speed of the cultivators there with the phrase of “a thousand miles in one day”!

“But this is only the first thing, Master.” Wei Zhongxian said respectfully as his forehead touched the ground. “To discuss this point alone is still unworthy to the great undertaking of these clans as they bear such arms of war. Its... true usefulness to the clans lies in the production of heavenly treasures.”

Xu Yangyi’s gaze faintly stirred, and he immediately recalled the few spirit plants he had saw on that day. Unexpectedly, they were growing by themselves after the qi reparation.

“A vast majority of heavenly treasures need a specific qi density to grow. Furthermore, spirit beasts also require dense qi to breathe. When spirit plants and spirit beasts reach a balance, they’ll grow and multiply endlessly. Its not that the other clans can’t create an equally dense heavenly paradise, but their creation is only limited to a room, a house, or a field. They have no way to produce a large environment that’s tens of thousands of square kilometers with an equal amount of dense qi.”

Xu Yangyi nodded deeply. Perhaps Wei Zhongxian didn’t realize what he was saying now, but he understood.

This was an ecological chain! Plants, animals, hunters, creators, and devotees existed in a state of balance. In that case, this ecological chain would become increasingly prosperous! This was something that countless modern biologists had proved. Ancient cultivators were unaware yet understood the related key within this through ancient wisdom.

Xu Yangyi’s mind began to quickly turn and swivel. A slender finger gently tapped the edge of his teacup. He mumbled to himself, reticent.

“That’s to say... this isn’t only an acceleration to cultivation progress. More importantly, it can offer not just a giant training ground for feudal powers, but also an enormous logistical storehouse. All kinds of pill elixirs, talismans, a place to manufacture magik artifacts; the skin, flesh, and essence of all kinds of spirit beasts... heh...” He made a long sigh. It was no wonder, no surprise that every great clan had to carve out their own territory in Longsu Province, even if a war was set off!

Cultivation cultivated wealth, scripture, companions, and land. Once a heavenly paradise was occupied, one half among the four would be immediately taken! As for scripture, were those clans lacking divine abilities? As for companions, did one still lack Dao companions with the possession of wealth, scripture, and land?

“Master.” Wei Zhongxian faintly raised his head and laughed respectfully, “It isn’t confined to this.”

There was more?

Xu Yangyi raised a brow in surprise. Just these present benefits were enough to cause those cultivation clans to struggle their utmost. There was actually more?

“Yes, Master... because a Spirit Point continuously gushes with qi, and that qi goes through plants and is breathed in by animals, it enters the underground again. Everywhere underground, there are all kinds of incredibly strong ores. Honored Celestial Master Zhang calculated that in twenty years or at most thirty years, the Spirit Point’s surroundings would form...”

“A spirit stone mine?” Xu Yangyi set down his teacup. His expression had become truly solemn.

If said that the prior spirit-plants were reserve goods, and spirit beasts were semi-strategic supplies, then a spirit stone mine... was a true strategic good and hard currency! Sitting on and owning a spirit stone mine was the same as sitting on a gold mountain! Furthermore... according to what he knew, when he was originally studying at Heavens Law, China’s sole five amalgamations of science, technology, and cultivation—the transcendent Slaughter Weapons—along with cultivation machines, all used the most supreme spirit stones!

Not to mention an organization, this was wealth that a nation wouldn’t relinquish!

“What grade of mine vein?” he asked lowly.

Although Wei Zhongxian was unaware of modern Cultivation Civilization’s ranking of spirit objects, he understood the meaning of Xu Yangyi’s question. Contemplating for several seconds, he said, “Master... have you heard of Harpmoon Colored Glass?”

“No.”

Wei Zhongxian’s voice carried a wisp of ardor. “I... once saw a small palm-sized piece in His Majesty’s collection... just that little bit. Once night arrived, the moon welcomed and dazzling, a dark-green light screen like muslin caused the slumber palace to be brightly lit. Touching it was like a flitting ice float... All bodily ailments vanished, truly a realm-inheritance treasure. This colored glass came from a paradise among the ten great paradises. His Majesty treasured it dearly...”

Xu Yangyi’s gaze flashed, and his fists clenched tightly without warning. Harpmoon Colored Glass. He hadn’t heard of this name before. However, the strange condition that Wei Zhongxian spoke of was exactly the same as another kind of heavenly treasure that he knew about!

Moonjasper Stone! SSS-rank heavenly treasure! Any magik treasure added with a gram would possibly bring about a strange organism—an artifact spirit!!!

On the black market, Moonjasper Stone could truly be said to be a priceless item! Transaction partners were all Great Circle Foundation Establishment or above! At most, it approached the Core Formation crowd! Ming Guangzong actually had a palm-sized piece? In the modern day, there were only ones the size of a fingernail! If he took a piece out, he wouldn’t even be able to think about taking it back!

1. Reminder. Book of Changes is a real Daoist Text. The Harmony of the Trium is name I made up for what is usually translated as The Oneness of Three/The Seal of the Unity of Three/etc. Harmony of the Trium is otherwise known as “Eternal Alchemy Canon”.

2. This “We” that Xu Yangyi is using is the royal “we”. The exact Chinese for “Akin to his royal arrival is: “如朕驾临”. Literally “like I esteemed presence”. I had to modify this a little bit so it makes more sense.