Chapter 387: A Second Spring of Life!
The previous entrance had automatically sealed itself after the ten-minute time limit expired.
Seeing this, Jiang Chen raised his right hand. Tapping into the water spiritual power within his dantian, he traced a glowing talisman in the empty air.
Instantly, the gray vortex materialized once more—this time, an entrance unbound by any time limit.
It anchored to the exact same peripheral location as before. Since he had never set foot inside the secret realm and knew nothing of its internal layout, altering the destination coordinates was impossible.
Jiang Chen turned his gaze to the Bone Script Puppet standing before him and issued his first directive: “Enter the realm. Prioritize your survival. Extract three similar skeletons each day, and map out the surrounding routes.”
Acknowledging the command, the Bone Script Puppet pivoted and marched toward the vortex. With every step, its skeletal frame emitted sharp, brittle cracks, sounding as though it might shatter into dust at any moment.
Fortunately, the dense network of puppet talismans carved into its bones provided immense structural integrity, easily supporting the physical stress of movement, combat, and heavy lifting.
Without the strength of a Golden Core cultivator, I absolutely refuse to set foot in that secret realm, Jiang Chen calculated as he watched it disappear. It’s far safer to let the Bone Script Puppets harvest the resources piece by piece. There are still over four hundred years until the realm officially opens again. The treasures inside will all be mine eventually.
This strategy completely eliminated his personal risk while guaranteeing a steady influx of heavenly and earthly treasures. Even if the puppets were destroyed, it wouldn’t hurt his bottom line.
After all, the periphery of the Script Bone Tomb alone held tens of thousands of skeletons—more than enough to sustain a daily attrition rate.…
…
Leaving his portable space, Jiang Chen stepped out of the stone house.
It was already late afternoon. Though the sun hung bright in the sky, the air lacked any real heat, carrying instead the crisp, refreshing chill of autumn.
Dragging a rocking chair onto the porch, Jiang Chen settled in. As he rocked back and forth, he pulled out the Collapse Talisman Sword gifted to him by Heart-Eye Sword Mo Yuan, turning the weapon over in his hands.
According to Mo Yuan, this blade contained the full-force strike of a late Foundation Establishment cultivator. In practical terms, a single Collapse Talisman Sword was a disposable late Foundation Establishment powerhouse.
If he could amass ten, a hundred, or even a thousand of these… the destructive potential would be apocalyptic. Driven by the sheer profit of such an arsenal, he focused his spiritual sense, dissecting the weapon’s construction layer by layer.
Reverse-engineering this will be a breeze, he mused. Ah, I see. There’s a concealed Spirit Gathering Point right here! Thunder-Struck Wood bound with Mysterious Iron and a Lightning Attraction Talisman… it acts as a universal trigger. Any type of spiritual power can detonate it!
Under Jiang Chen’s meticulous scrutiny, it took barely any time to completely map out the Collapse Talisman Sword’s internal schematics.
The actual refinement process wasn’t complex at all. It relied entirely on three core components: Thunder-Struck Wood, Mysterious Iron, and a Lightning Attraction Talisman.
Mysterious Iron was as common as dirt and dirt cheap. The Lightning Attraction Talisman was slightly pricey on the market, but Jiang Chen could draft them himself at cost.
The only bottleneck was the Thunder-Struck Wood. It was exceptionally rare and carried a steep premium; even a scrap piece could fetch anywhere from dozens to over a hundred Mid-grade Spirit Stones.
Clearly, Heart-Eye Sword Mo Yuan hadn’t skimped on his gift.
Fortunately, Jiang Chen happened to own an entire Thunder-Struck Tree. He had stumbled upon it during his first expedition into the Black Dragon Pool. If he harvested the whole thing to manufacture Collapse Talisman Swords, churning out a thousand units would be a walk in the park.
“What the hell?!”
As Jiang Chen extended his spiritual sense into the Jade Green Gourd to inspect his inventory, he froze. The Thunder-Struck Tree—a charred husk he hadn’t paid attention to in ages—had actually sprouted.
It was actively regenerating.
Suddenly, the inherent properties of the Jade Green Gourd flashed through his mind.
Jade Green Gourd
Effect 1: Internal space of 20 cubic meters.
Effect 2: Long-term preservation of fresh items.
Effect 3: Passively increases wood Spirit Qi absorption efficiency when carried.
Effect 4: Slowly repairs wood-attribute items stored within.
Because his inventory was so cluttered, Jiang Chen rarely monitored it closely. He never expected that simply leaving the dead tree inside for a few years would trigger a slow, passive restoration.
He had to admit, that stylish Big Sister really knew her stuff.
Truthfully, Jiang Chen had always harbored suspicions about this Thunder-Struck Tree. After all, he had found it right beside the corpse of the demon dragon, and it had even birthed a Wood-Fire Spirit Crystal.
If it were just an ordinary piece of wood, a demon dragon would never have guarded it so closely.
Driven by curiosity, Jiang Chen pushed himself out of the rocking chair. As he transitioned back into his portable space, he couldn’t help but mutter, “What’s with today? I’m constantly popping in and out of this place.”
Stepping back into the familiar dimensional pocket, he first checked the entrance to the Script Bone Tomb. Seeing that three Bone Script Puppets had already been successfully transported inside, he nodded in satisfaction.
With a mere thought, he extracted the Thunder-Struck Tree from the Jade Green Gourd, planting it firmly on the ground before him.
The tree stood roughly ten feet tall. Stripped of foliage and reduced to bare branches and a charred trunk, it looked incredibly emaciated.
Yet, thanks to the Jade Green Gourd’s restorative properties, clusters of dark green buds had sprouted across its blackened bark. It was undeniably coming back to life.
Jiang Chen didn’t mind giving his investment a little push. He immediately circulated the Four Seasons Sutra, drawing upon the wood spiritual power in his dantian to frantically stack growth-accelerating effects onto the sapling.
The dark green buds swelled and unfurled, rapidly spreading across the branches as the tree surged with renewed vitality.
He lost track of time. Once the wood spiritual power in his dantian ran completely dry, he seamlessly transitioned to the elemental cycle of “water generates wood,” burning through his reserves of water spiritual power to sustain the growth.
Fortunately, the massive expenditure paid off. The Thunder-Struck Tree finally shed its charred exterior, returning to its true, original form.
The trunk was a deep, rich brown, its surface textured with deep longitudinal fissures from which dozens of silver-white aerial roots cascaded. Its leaves were narrow and lance-shaped, shimmering in a vibrant emerald green tinged with an inky darkness.
It still stood at roughly ten feet tall; its physical height hadn’t changed.
Jiang Chen’s eyes widened as he recognized the species. “This… this is actually a Sinking Water Tree,” he muttered in disbelief.
In terms of sheer market value, it was easily on par with a Thunder-Struck Tree. Not only was its timber as dense and unyielding as iron, but it also possessed an innate, absolute water-purification effect.
Though classified as a tree, it functioned more like a biological reservoir. It absorbed ambient water Spirit Qi through its silver-white aerial roots and stockpiled it within its trunk.
This storage system was highly organized, compartmentalized according to the tree’s annual growth rings.
The outermost rings stored pure water.
The middle rings stored highly concentrated water Spirit Qi.
And the absolute core housed Liquid Water Essence.
Legend had it that these trees could only take root in the habitats of legendary Mystic Tortoises.
More importantly, it possessed a highly specialized trait: it was an irresistible beacon to aquatic dragon species. Whether it was a fish-dragon, a flood dragon, or any draconic beast dwelling in the depths, the mere scent of a Sinking Water Tree would draw them in like moths to a flame.
Because of this, it was known in cultivation circles by a much more infamous name: the “Dragon Lure Root.”
So that’s how it is, Jiang Chen realized, the pieces of the puzzle finally snapping into place.
A demon dragon had been imprisoned in the Dragon Locking Abyss. Later, for reasons unknown, it managed to escape. During its flight, it was lured by the scent of the Sinking Water Tree, eventually uprooting it and dragging it into the Black Dragon Pool.
In other words, this was never a natural Thunder-Struck Tree to begin with. It was highly probable that the demon dragon, seeking to balance its yin and yang, intentionally subjected the Sinking Water Tree to a heavenly lightning strike, forcibly mutating it into a Thunder-Struck Tree.
Judging by the charred husk he had found, the dragon had succeeded. Unfortunately for the beast, it failed to survive the resulting tribulation and perished alongside its prize.
In the end, the Sinking Water Tree was reduced to a Thunder-Struck Tree, its mutated core eventually birthing the Wood-Fire Spirit Crystal that had allowed Jiang Chen to Awaken his fire Spirit Root.
But in a stroke of absolute, profitable irony, Jiang Chen’s Jade Green Gourd possessed the exact passive ability needed to repair wood-attribute items. By simply tossing it into his inventory, he had inadvertently granted this priceless artifact a second spring of life!