78: Chapter 78 New Wood, Myriad Splendors!

This Dao rhyme...

There is a problem, a huge problem!

A low rumble issued from Shi Jian's throat, his beastly pupils slitting as they reflected the impenetrable white mist deep within the valley.

It was too harmonious, harmonious to the point of being eerie.

All things were bursting with vitality, yet everything was deathly silent, as if it were a beautiful painting that had been paused.

Life and death had actually reached a bizarre balance here!

"Old Ancestor, this mist can block Divine Sense."

Sun Yao's voice carried a hint of gravity. She tried to circulate her spiritual power, only to discover that her Divine Sense could not extend even three zhang before being blocked by a soft yet tenacious force.

"Girl, stay close to me, don't run around."

Shi Jian didn't waste words. He dropped to all fours, and the dark purple patterns on his thunder-covering mysterious armor slowly flowed, enveloping him and Sun Yao within a layer of electric arcs.

The man and the bear continued to explore deeper inside.

The deeper they went, the more unreal the vegetation appeared!

Spiritual plants grew wildly, their forms so perfect they were almost fake. Some first-order "Jade Heart Grass" had even grown taller than a person.

Yet there wasn't the slightest trace of withering on their leaves; they looked like handicrafts carved from jade, so perfect they felt unreal.

Passing through a "Jade Marrow Forest" laden with crystalline fruits, the view ahead opened up.

There was another waterfall, a thousand zhang high, cascading from the center of a sheer cliff. The water, however, was not silvery white but a pure emerald green, like an entire belt of jade.

In the center of the deep pool below the waterfall, a massive entity stood towering.

It was a spiritual ganoderma so large it blotted out the sky; it looked to be a hundred zhang tall, truly breathtaking!

The diameter of its cap was over a hundred zhang, layered and stacked like a magnificent canopy.

Its surface flowed with a gentle, wood-attributed spiritual light...

Beneath the cap, countless thick hyphae roots plunged into the deep pool, extending to every inch of the valley's soil!

At the very center of the ganoderma cap, a thread of emerald-green Qi, finer than a strand of hair, was slowly circling.

That Qi seemed weak, yet it appeared to contain the ultimate principles of life for the entire Heaven and Earth. Every time it circulated, it caused ripples in the surrounding space.

heaven and earth qi!

It really is heaven and earth qi!

And it is wood-attributed heaven and earth qi. Observing its vibrant vitality, if I am not mistaken, it is one of the Wood Dao heaven and earth qi: New Wood Thousand-Bloom Qi!

Shi Jian's breathing suddenly hitched. His Yao core pounded frantically, emitting a longing from his Origin, but there was also a hint of regret...

A bear Yao was not compatible with the wood attribute, and he had already cultivated the Way of Thunder.

In the future, he could only absorb thunder-attributed heaven and earth qi. The deeper his Realm, the less possibility there was to re-cultivate; he could only walk one path to the end.

Especially at the Late Foundation Establishment Stage, this stage of breaking through to the Golden Core...

Once a path was chosen, there was absolutely no room for turning back. The saying that cultivating the Dao is as difficult as ascending to heaven is based on this logic.

Many Cultivators find it difficult to achieve a Breakthrough.

Sometimes it is not because they lack talent, but because they missed the opportunity... In the end, they live with regret for the rest of their lives!

However, right now, regardless of anything else, this was a thread of pure heaven and earth qi; even if it wasn't suitable, its value was infinite.

Shi Jian's gaze quickly shifted away from that thread of wood-attributed heaven and earth qi and instead stared fixedly at the main body of the ganoderma.

Beneath that semi-transparent cap, a blurry human silhouette was looming.

It was sitting cross-legged with its arms raised high, seemingly putting its all into absorbing and refining that thread of heaven and earth qi, wishing to break through that layer of shackles!

With every breath it took, the vitality of the entire valley, along with the life essence of those "dead" spiritual carp and spiritual plants, turned into invisible trickles of water, flowing into its body.

"It is taking human form... No, it is attempting Core Formation!"

Sun Yao exclaimed in shock, her pretty face instantly draining of color.

This spiritual ganoderma was actually a Wood Demon spirit that had already birthed intelligence!

It was using this thread of heaven and earth qi to forcibly break through the shackles of spiritual plants. If the shackles of Yao Beasts were their Bloodline, then the shackles of plants and stones were the complete awakening of intelligence.

And the prerequisite for this was to charge toward the Golden Core Realm!

"False Core Realm..."

Shi Jian spat out three words, his voice dry.

The aura of this Wood Demon neither had the sense of a barrier from the Foundation Establishment Stage, nor did it possess the seamless Perfection of the Golden Core Realm.

It was stuck at an extremely subtle critical point; its power far exceeded Foundation Establishment Perfection, yet it had not truly stepped into the Golden Core Dao!

But even so, this was definitely not an existence that ordinary Foundation Establishment Cultivator could contend with.

Hum—

As if it had sensed the prying, the giant ganoderma suddenly shuddered.

The blurry human silhouette beneath the cap slowly "opened" its eyes; there were no pupils, only two emerald-green light vortices...

Indifferent, ancient, containing no emotion whatsoever!

The next instant, a Divine Soul pressure as vast as the sea swept out with a boom!

Sun Yao let out a muffled groan, feeling as if her head had been struck by an invisible giant hammer; gold stars danced before her eyes, and she swayed unsteadily.

Shi Jian reacted faster. He let out a violent bear roar, and his powerful Divine Soul force erupted as well, acting like an invisible shield, blocking in front of Sun Yao.

The two Divine Soul forces collided in mid-air, emitting an invisible, muffled thud.

Shi Jian's body swayed, feeling a stinging pain in his Divine Soul, but he managed to endure it in the end.

"Want to achieve Core Formation? Did you ask me first!"

He knew he absolutely could not let this Wood Demon refine the heaven and earth qi in peace.

Once it succeeded, never mind seizing the treasure, both of them would become fertilizer for this valley, sucked dry to death by this Wood Demon!

"Roar!"

Shi Jian no longer hid anything. His body expanded wildly to over two zhang, his four limbs exerted force suddenly, and the ground exploded with a boom.

His massive body transformed into a bolt of running thunder, electric light swirling around his thunder-covering mysterious armor, as he lunged straight at the giant ganoderma in the center of the deep pool.

When in doubt, strike first!