170: Chapter 170 Creating a Blessed Land!

...

After obtaining the qi of the wind dao, Elder Rat was in no hurry to act.

He spent three whole months wandering around the two Spirit Mountains of the Spirit Rat Lineage.

Of the two Rank Two Spirit Mountains, one was toward the north, with soft rock and heavy earth-attribute Spiritual Qi; the other was to the south, low-lying and waterlogged year-round with rising mist, carrying a hint of Yin Qi.

Neither of the two mountains had anything to do with the wind dao.

Elder Rat crouched on the peak of the southern mountain, plucking at his whiskers one by one, his Face wrinkled like a walnut.

To nurture a wind dao Blessed Land, there had to be a wind vent, right?

There had to be at least some Foundation of wind dao Spiritual Qi, right?

These two wretched mountains—one was tucked in a hollow, and the other was soaked in mist; there wasn't even a decent draft passing through.

"Tricky."

Elder Rat muttered for a long while before finally turning his gaze toward the long, narrow valley between the two Spirit Mountains, where astral winds did indeed pass through.

The valley ran north-to-south, about seven or eight li long, with steep cliffs on both sides and its narrowest point in the middle being no more than forty or fifty zhang wide.

This kind of terrain had one advantage: it was a natural wind path.

The monsoons from the Northern Mountain Range would pour into the valley mouth and accelerate through the narrow sections, forming strong astral winds, which barely counted as being related to the wind dao.

Having made up his mind.

Elder Rat crouched at the bottom of the valley and measured for seven days and seven nights, discovering that around the Zi Hour every day, the astral winds in the valley were at their fiercest, blowing his rat whiskers back.

"This is the place; at least it has some geographical advantage."

He requested ten Rock Bear Yao at the Qi Refinement Stage from Shi Pan and spent two months clearing away all the obstructive boulders at the bottom of the valley, leveling the protrusions on the cliffs, and smoothing the terrain between the valleys, even carving out several recessed turns.

This was to intercept a portion of the wind qi and condense it within this valley.

As the wind poured in, howling through the valley and passing through the various turns, the intercepted wind qi would continuously condense, gradually forming the prototype of a Blessed Land.

And what came next was the main event.

Elder Rat guided a branch of a Spiritual Vein from both the northern and southern mountains to converge and intertwine at the valley floor; the two Spiritual Veins, one earth and one water, had different attributes, yet they formed a weak Spiritual Qi turbulence at their intersection.

The turbulence itself was useless, but Elder Rat dug a deep pit, three zhang square, above the intersection point.

The deep pit faced the valley mouth directly; when the monsoon poured in, the turbulent Spiritual Qi would be swept up by the wind, forming a small Spiritual Qi vortex in the pit.

Though the vortex was small, it was the prototype of a wind dao spiritual opportunity.

"Just missing a catalyst now."

Elder Rat crouched by the pit, staring at that spirit-sealing jade box, hesitating for a long time.

Directly throwing the qi of the wind dao into the pit was like planting a seed in barren soil...

It would live, but it would grow slowly; it might not even sprout for hundreds of years.

Only by continuously investing various wind dao spiritual items in the future to build a Foundation for this place could the formation speed of the Blessed Land be shortened.

This was just like the Thunder Pool back then; it still needed to be nurtured slowly.

However, wind dao Spiritual Materials were not cheap.

He had collected a batch from Nine Winds Valley, but most of those Spirit Medicines were immature, and their quality was uneven.

What was truly usable were only about a dozen Rank Two Wind Spirit Grasses and a small pile of Wind Spirit Crystals; while they could boost the wind dao qi, this was clearly a drop in the bucket.

"Not enough, far from enough."

Elder Rat calculated over and over, and finally, gritting his teeth, he rode a yao cloud to find Zhao Yanshan...

...

In the blink of an eye, at the mountain peak of the Zhao Lineage.

Elder Rat arrived on his cloud and called out loudly: "Manager Zhao, business has come to your door."

Before long, Zhao Yanshan flew into the air. Seeing Elder Rat visit in person, he gave him Face, cupping his hands and inviting him into the hall for a chat.

"Elder Rat, what brings you here?"

"For Elder Rat to visit in person, does the Old Ancestor have some instructions?"

"Fellow Daoist Zhao is too polite. It's not that the Old Ancestor has any urgent matter, but that I have a request. May I ask how many wind-attribute spiritual items you have in hand?"

Hearing this, Zhao Yanshan was stunned for a moment, then pulled out a ledger.

In the Zhao family's inventory of Spiritual Materials, there were indeed not many wind-attribute items, but it wasn't as if there were none; in the markets of White Cloud Immortal City, many spiritual items were traded, and occasionally Loose Cultivators would sell them.

The Zhao family's procurement Disciples had always collected them whenever they saw them.

"There are seventeen Rank Two Wind Spirit Grasses left, over twenty Wind-eye Stones, and three Rank Two or Three wind-attribute yao cores of decent quality."

"I want them all. Fellow Daoist Zhao, how many Spirit Stones will it be?"

Zhao Yanshan thought for a moment and gave a price; as soon as he spoke, it was fifteen thousand eight hundred Spirit Stones!

When Elder Rat heard this, his whiskers trembled three times.

Expensive, so damn expensive.

Over all these years, the savings Elder Rat had accumulated were only about twenty or thirty thousand Spirit Stones; this one purchase would directly hollow out nearly half of his net worth.

"Fellow Daoist Zhao, can it be a bit cheaper?"

Elder Rat rubbed his paws, his Face full of fawning.

"Elder Rat, you also know that wind-system Spiritual Materials are inherently scarce in our Northern Protectorate; rarity makes things expensive." Zhao Yanshan spread his hands: "But out of respect for your Face, I'll round down the change."

"Just give me fifteen thousand Spirit Stones; this is already the acquisition price."

"The Rank Two wind dao Spirit Medicines together are only four or five thousand Spirit Stones, but as you know, Elder Rat, a Rank Two yao core starts at two thousand Spirit Stones, and yours are wind dao yao cores, which are even scarcer."

Elder Rat's heart ached so much he gasped, but he still gritted his teeth and took out the Spirit Stones.

"In the future, give me priority for wind-system Spiritual Materials; the price is negotiable."

"Deal."

Although the Sun and Zhao families both served the various tribes of the Yao Race, it was clear that Elder Rat, unlike those of the Bear Clan, did not have such great authority.

He couldn't just take things for free, but being able to buy such a large batch of wind dao spiritual items was something.

Overall, it wasn't bad.

...

Returning to the valley with a large pile of Spiritual Materials, Elder Rat buried his head in work for half a month.

He planted many Wind Spirit Grasses in various hollows throughout the valley to gather wind qi and nurture the Spiritual Plants; as the plants grew, they would gather Spiritual Qi and wind dao essence, thereby driving the wind dao qi of the valley.

As for the Wind Spirit Crystals and Wind-eye Stones, they were embedded around the walls of the pit according to specific orientations, forming a rudimentary wind-gathering terrain.

And the three wind-attribute yao cores were buried by him at the deepest part of the pit's bottom to serve as the Foundation.

Everything was ready.

Elder Rat took out the spirit-sealing jade box and opened the lid.

A cyan brilliance gushed out, and the moment that wisp of Wild Sky Clear Mist Qi broke free from its constraints, the wind in the entire valley suddenly changed.

The originally steady draft instantly turned into an invisible Dragon, rampaging through the valley; even Elder Rat was knocked over, his dark red fur blown upright.

"This wind is exceptionally fierce; it truly deserves to be called heaven and earth qi!"

Elder Rat scrambled to circulate his spiritual power, pressing that wisp of heaven and earth qi into the deep pit.

The moment the heaven and earth qi entered the pit, the Wind Spirit Crystals on the pit walls lit up in unison; the cyan light intertwined with the grayish-white Spiritual Qi turbulence, and a weak but stable pillar of wind rose from the pit.

The wind pillar was no more than three feet high and as thin as an arm, slowly rotating in the pit.

It firmly bound that wisp of wind dao heaven and earth qi within it.

At this point, the prototype of the Blessed Land was established.

Elder Rat lay by the edge of the pit, looking at that pathetic little wind pillar, his feelings complicated.

Compared to the Old Ancestor's Thunder Pool, this thing was pitifully shabby; now the Thunder Pool was ten zhang across and nine zhang deep, with purple-gold lightning surging endlessly—how grand it was.

Now look at his own.

A three-zhang-square dirt pit with a wind pillar standing inside that wasn't much thicker than an arm.

Shabby, it was truly shabby.

"Forget it, everything is hard at the beginning."

"With this precious land, it can also become the core Legacy of my Spirit Rat Lineage in the future; at least the Foundation is established."

"It's countless times better than before; at least we're no longer rootless duckweed, and the Legacy will be orderly in the future—that's not bad at all!"

Elder Rat comforted himself, stood up, and patted the dust off his body.

In the following days, he came to check once every three days; the wind pillar was indeed growing slowly, from three feet to four feet, then to five feet, growing about an inch or so every month.

At this rate, to truly take shape—

It would probably take five or six hundred years.

Elder Rat stared blankly at the wind pillar for a long time, then quickly turned and left.

No.

Relying on this Blessed Land prototype to grow on its own was too slow; he had to find another way.

...