Xu Lian Blessed Land

The time flow in Xu Lian blessed land was faster than the outside world. While Xu Lian would experience a day, the beings in his aperture would feel that about a week has passed.

Bao Zhi's cultivation was calm and uninterrupted. His cultivation has advanced at a fast pace. He was at rank one peak stage, close to breaking through to being a rank two gu master. He was on the cusp of a major realm now.

He recited in his mind:

"The gu master, he cultivates with care and skill,"

"Nurturing the primeval essence within his will."

"He creates crashing waves to strengthen the wall,"

"This cultivation, it never ends at all."

"In the initial stage, the walls are light and bright,"

"The essence is jade green, a beautiful sight."

"But as he progresses through the middle stage,"

"The walls become water-like, the essence pale."

"In the upper stage, the walls are like stone,"

"The essence turns dark green, never alone."

"But as he nears the peak, the walls turn crystal clear,"

"The essence black green, a sight to hold dear."

"After the peak, the walls are shattered and broken,"

"But they reform stronger, a new cycle awoken."

"The gu master's cultivation never ends,"

"As he continues to nurture and comprehend."

Bao Zhi currently had crystal-like aperture walls after advancing from middle stage. This was the result of his primeval essence continuously strengthening and nurturing his aperture walls.

From illusory to becoming solid.

But the next step was different.

"Strengthening then breaking. This is the cycle of mortal cultivation." - Bao Zhi thought to himself as he prepared for the breakthrough to rank two.

Bao Zhi was in a state meditation, focusing all his energy and attention on breaking through to the next realm.

His will commanded and his black green peak stage primeval essence surged to rush at his aperture walls. The crystal walls shook under the pressure. Soon cracks started to form on the surface, a sign that the breakthrough was imminent.

Bao Zhi's heart pounded with excitement as he pushed harder, determined to break through and reach the next realm.

The cracks grew larger, spreading across the surface of the crystal walls.

Finally, with a loud cracking sound, the walls shattered, and Bao Zhi's cultivation advanced to rank two initial stage.

A new aperture wall started to form. It was similar to the rank one initial stage's light membrane aperture walls, but its strength even surpassing the previous crystal walls.

His primeval essence has also had a qualitative change, from the rank one green copper essence it became the rank two red steel primeval essence.

A portion of red steel primeval essence was equivalent to ten portions of green copper primeval essence. The difference between small realms was smaller.

Bao Zhi inspected his new essence.

The rank two initial stage essence had a light red appearance.

Bao Zhi had officially become a rank two gu master, a major milestone in his cultivation journey.

But he knew that this was only the beginning. There were still many realms to conquer and challenges to overcome on his path to becoming a true master again.

With renewed determination, Bao Zhi settled his mind and began to cultivate once again, ready to continue his journey towards greatness.

Time passed as wind blew.

"As expected. Passing rank two will take a longer time than rank one. Now that the Primeval Rafflesia gu house can't provide assistance I have to rely only on myself to cultivate." - He thought to himself as he settled into his meditation.

Even though gu houses were classified into ranks like gu, it didn't necessarily reflect their abilities. The Primeval Rafflesia gu house would be considered a rank three gu house because of the rank three Primeval Elder gu's rank. But the Rafflesia Essence gu was only rank one, it could not produce rank two primeval essence, it was the bottleneck of this gu house's capabilities. Without the gu house's help, Bao Zhi had to rely solely on his own strength to progress.

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Of course, Bao Zhi could raise the Rafflesia Essence gu to rank two and rank three thereafter.

"Raising the Rafflesia Essence gu's rank is pointless if it has no target to act upon." - He thought to himself.

A single glance was all it took to know the Primeval Elder gu was near depletion. Its primeval essence was almost completely drained and it would take a huge amount of primeval stones to refill. One had to know primeval stones were next to useless to gu immortals. Xu Lian wouldn't keep primeval stones in his aperture that Bao Zhi could snatch.

"Unless...!" - Bao Zhi did not finish his thought as he shifted his focus to his expansive root system.

* * * * *

Lingering Mountains Grotto, Ascension Peak

Xu Lian and Wen Bo arrived at a bubble-like boundary. Ascension Peak loomed before them, a barren and lifeless place where not even a blade of grass could grow. The surface of the whole mountain was made of black stone, and strange patterns glowed upon it, hinting at the ancient and transcendent powers that had been wielded here.

Xu Lian looked up at the peak of this place.

The top of the peak was cleanly chopped off, as if by a blade of unimaginable sharpness, and upon it rested an immortal formation, a nexus of energy that seemed to pulse with an incredible force.

"This place..." - Xu Lian couldn't help but feel a sense of awe wash over him.

"It is just like your... I mean, Bao clan's formation. The design is based on Wen clan's inheritance, on which I have improved upon." - Great Formation Wen Bo explained with pride in his voice.

"No, the mountain. It is just strange." - Xu Lian couldn't put a finger on it what he exactly meant.

"Oh that. This mountain was originally a cultivation ground for Wen clan's sword prodigy. When he comprehended his technique, he split the top off in a single strike. Later the mountain was brought into the Lingering Mountains grotto as a core and turned into the current ascension peak. This is already ancient history." - Wen Bo explained as he landed at the flat top of the peak.

Xu Lian nodded in admiration. If he had to replicate such results he wasn't sure if a hundred moves of his could achieve it or not.

"We are here, this is Ascension Peak. You should already know how the formation operates, I will be controlling it from the outside while you are inside at the time your calamity begins. Do you have any questions or requests before that?" - Wen Bo turned to Xu Lian solemnly.

"There is actually something. I want to borrow some wood path resources to adjust the earthly calamity's might." - Xu Lian stated his request with some visible nervousness on his face.

Wen Bo raised an eyebrow.

The power of the calamities and tribulations were in accordance to the immortal aperture's prosperity. Bringing in more resources would mean the heavenly power would create a stronger tribulation to balance the surplus.

But a stronger tribulation would also bring more dao marks!

"Hmph, this kid seems confident in his ability." - Wen Bo thought to himself.

"You can borrow as much as you want." - Wen Bo said with a hearty smile on his face.

"This junior is grateful." - Xu Lian cupped his fists.

Seeing Xu Lian still bowed before him, Wen Bo knew he had other requests.

"What else? Speak your mind." - He got straight to the point.

"I would like to know if senior could share his knowledge about earthly calamities. It would greatly help this junior's success." - Xu Lian stated his request hesitantly.

"Hmm, that might be possible." - Wen Bo pondered for a few moments before finally giving in.

"I will give you a few pointers, but remember, this is still something you need to figure out on your own." - Wen Bo said as he started pointing out a few key points.

Xu Lian listened intently, absorbing all the information that Wen Bo was giving him. After a few hours, Wen Bo finished and Xu Lian thanked him profusely.

A third immortal has arrived at this moment.

"Reporting to Great Formation, I have brought the wood path resources."

Xu Liand opened his immortal aperture's entrance.

The resources were transferred to Xu Lian blessed land without a hitch.

"There is still some time. I will be preparing my arrangement in the meantime and let senior know when the calamity descends."

Wen Bo nodded and left Xu Lian in the middle of the formation.

* * * * *

Xu Lian Blessed Land

Xu Lian got absorbed into managing his aperture. He put the new wood path resources into key locations to protect them. He had to protect them so he could return them after the calamity.

He also inspected the newly repaired Eight Layered Leaf Nest gu house. It was easy to maintain, he just had to get a new batch of rank five gu to replace the ones he lost during his escape from Bao clan.

"With this, the preparations are complete."

"Let's see how much immortal essence I have left."

His will descended into his aperture's center, his aperture origin core was located here. Below that a small pile of green grape immortal essence was gathered.

Xu Lian counted them in his mind.

"Twenty-five beads left." - He frowned.

Recently he has expended some immortal essence to use the Eight Layered Leaf Nest and even more immortal essence to raise the blessed land's ambient primeval essence.

The living beings inside needed this to develop properly. This was also an investment. If he could sustain a bigger environment, it would raise his aperture's foundation, resulting in more immortal essence beads produced each month. This was a positive feedback cycle, the sooner one got in the bigger the results would be. Granted, he had enough immortal essence left to protect himself.

What were long term investments worth, if one couldn't keep his life till tomorrow? Nothing.

Xu Lian noticed something else. He looked at his aperture origin core. Now a root was curled around it.

"This lotus root has developed really well. Too bad it will take some time till it blooms and I can reap the rewards." - Xu Lian's will nodded to himself in satisfaction.

The lotus root had a very mysterious ability. Xu Lian couldn't understand the underlying mechanism, but he knew, as long as the lotus root matured it would attach itself to the aperture's origin core. When it flowered, two beads of immortal essence would be produced within its flower, as time passed the two would turn to four then to eight each month.

This was only an eight petal lotus root. Xu Lian had only heard about ones that could reach a higher level and produce even more beads.

But where there were gains there had to be losses. When the lotus root produced two beads, the aperture origin core would produce one fewer that time. Also, the immortal essence beads that the lotus root produced were inferior in their quality when compared to the real deal.

But the overall effect was still positive. Two inferior essence beads could be considered better than a single one.

Xu Lian was about to return, when he saw something from the corner of his eyes.

The lotus root started to bloom!

"How? This should take at least some months to reach this stage..." - He pondered incredulously.

But reality was right before his eyes.

"Could this be the effect of the resources I moved inside? Did it raise my aperture's foundation and the lotus root to flower sooner?" - Xu Lian wasn't sure, he knew the theory, but he was still lacking the experience in aperture management.

"Whatever the case may be, the more essence the better." - He started to observe the flower as it slowly opened up.

"What? Only a single bead?" - He scratched his head in confusion.

"Whatever. A total of twenty-six green grape immortal essence beads it is." - He noted the final sum and returned to his main body.

In the meanwhile, not far away from the aperture origin core, Bao Zhi was also looking at the results of his work.

"It worked! The lotus root worked!"

Bao Zhi focused his mind at his wood path aperture. There, a water-like green ball sat under his sea of primeval essence.

Green grape immortal essence!

* * * * *