Chapter 40: The Legendary Spirit Vein
Ding Ning slowly stepped out of the Scripture Scroll Cave, opened the food box placed at the entrance of the stone hall, and took out his own portion before sitting on the stone bench at the entrance of the hall, slowly eating the vegetables that were still warm as his mind began to sort out today's harvest.
Disguised as an ordinary gong method, the "Chopping Three Corpses and Selfless Innate Elemental Nerve" was definitely a very domineering gong method, not only could it possess better perception than ordinary gong methods, but the true essence that would be cultivated into it in the future would definitely be very violent.
If the true essence cultivated into an ordinary gongfu was like a big wave in a river, then the true essence of this gongfu would be like a big wave that still contained vicious beasts that were difficult to harness.
As for the Wildfire Sword Scripture, it was also definitely a sword scripture that had been severely underestimated by the cultivators of Changling over the years.
The true meaning of this sword scripture was not that wildfire started a prairie fire, but rather that wildfire could not be burned, but rather that it would grow again in the spring breeze.
Because the sword momentum was so complex, very few people had originally practiced this sword scripture, which led to even fewer people being able to discover the true sword intent of this sword scripture.
However, for Ding Ning, complexity was not a problem.
This first step to restarting his cultivation, he was fortunate to be well on his way.
A strange night breeze blew in, messing up his hair.
He lifted his head and saw a veiled and cold-faced Li Daoji jumping down from nowhere, shaking the rope bridge.
"Follow me."
Extremely simply, without even waiting for Ding Ning to say anything, Li Daoji turned around, signaling Ding Ning to follow.
"Senior Uncle Li Daoji." Ding Ning looked bitterly at the meal that he had only eaten a small half of, "I haven't finished eating yet."
"Some things are far more important than eating."
Li Daoji's sword hilt flashed with a faint red light in the dark night, like a lantern across his body, his footsteps did not stop in the slightest, the only thing that remained was his cold voice drifting in the night mist.
Ding Ning shook his head helplessly, grabbed a rice ball, and then quickly followed.
The glowing hilt of the sword swayed in the darkness of the night as it traveled upwards.
In the night mist, there was an additional narrow rope bridge that wasn't there in the daytime, extending into a crevice in the cliff face not far below the tallest small Daoist temple.
Between this crevice in the mountain, which was usually hidden by white clouds, there was strangely a flat piece of land.
On the flat land, there were even three identical grass huts.
In front of the grass huts, on the somewhat muddy flat ground, a few vegetable fields had even been reclaimed, planted with some mountain leeks.
"This one is your future residence."
Feeling that the Ding Ning following behind him had also crossed the narrow rope bridge and stepped onto the ground, Li Daoji, who had already walked to the front of the three grass huts, slightly turned his body sideways, nodded at the leftmost grass hut, and said to Ding Ning.
"During your weekdays, you can also practice here, you don't necessarily have to listen to the lectures like the other students, if you have any questions during your practice, you can directly ask me or Zhang Yi, but the three meals won't be sent here, they'll only be sent to the stone hall in the Scripture History Cave there."
After thinking about it, Li Daoji added another sentence.
Don't need to listen to the same lectures as other students, you can directly look for Li Daoji... This falls in the ears of other students, will definitely be shocked and envious to an incomparable degree, because this is the equivalent of directly obtaining the true transmission of Li Daoji, and now Li Daoji, is the White Sheep Cave in addition to the Cave Master who hasn't revealed his cultivation for many years, is recognized as the number one expert.
However, upon hearing these words from Li Daoji, Ding Ning did not have any expression of surprise, he only seriously whispered, "Uncle Li Daoji, I usually want to live back home."
Li Daoji's two thin eyebrows instantly raised, and he turned around with a huff, not refusing or agreeing, only looking at Ding Ning solemnly and coldly, saying, "Go in and look around."
Ding Ning sensed something strange in Li Daoji's demeanor and in his tone of voice, a hint of amazement flashed across his eyes, and without further ado, he walked towards the grass hut that Li Daoji had pointed out.
The roof of the hut was made of ordinary thatch covered with some yellow mud, and the door was also the most ordinary wooden door, however, Ding Ning's fingers had not yet touched the wooden door when his body was imperceptibly shaken slightly.
There was the sound of water in this grass hut.
He slowly took a breath and reached out to push open the wooden door that was not locked.
The arrangement in the hut was extremely simple, only a bed couch by the window, with the simplest bedding.
In front of the bed couch was a straw futon used for meditation.
The sound of gurgling water came from below the futon.
Feeling that this grass hut was filled with the aura of a strange and fresh spirit, Ding Ning had already vaguely guessed the outcome, and his heart beat a little faster than usual as he once again took a deep breath, walked forward, and moved away from the thick grass futon.
He saw, right in the middle of the rock below his futon, a fist-sized spring.
The spring water was constantly fluctuating like boiling, slowly releasing strands of milky-white aura from time to time.
Each strand of aura was like a tiny white sheep's horn.
This was the legendary spiritual vein.
In the world of cultivators thousands of years ago, most of the wars that took place stemmed from the seizure of spiritual veins, and nowadays, whether it was in the Great Qin Dynasty or the surrounding dynasties, the number of spiritual veins had become extremely scarce.
For those clans with spirit veins, only the most valued disciples could cultivate with the help of a spirit vein.
Moreover, this spirit vein, and the spirit vein of the White Sheep Cave that he had heard about, seemed to be too far apart.
Ding Ning turned around as he looked towards Li Daoji, hoping to receive some answers.
Looking at his somewhat puzzled gaze, Li Daoji was wrong, said expressionlessly, "This is the legendary spiritual vein, from the spiritual vein seeps out of the spiritual qi, accompanied by the practitioner's exhalation into the practitioner's body, will play a very big role in supplementing, like some of the elixir, can speed up the cultivation of the progress, but the most critical thing is that, these spiritual qi is the purest product of the heavens and earth, without any of the purest product of the heavens and earth. The purest product, without any impurities, and won't have undesirable side effects like some elixirs."
"I know." Ding Ning looked at him and shook his head, "That's not what I meant...I know that spirit veins are powerful things, but aren't only true disciples who have gone through a lot of tests qualified to utilize spirit veins for cultivation? Otherwise what if I become a rebellious disciple and deceive my master in the future?"
Hearing him say this, an icy mocking look appeared at the corners of Li Daoji's mouth, "The White Sheep Cave is gone, so how far can you go against the grain?"
This sounded like a broken phrase, yet at this point in time, it sounded filled with an unruly dominance and courage.
Ding Ning let out a bitter smile, and again looked seriously at the tiny spirit vein and the grass futon that could absorb the spiritual qi without dispersing, asking, "This is a spirit vein... but why does this spirit vein seem so different from the legendary spirit veins, and why is it so small?"
Li Daoji's face stiffened and he did not reply for a moment.
"Senior Uncle Li Daoji."
Ding Ning, however, was also silent for a moment, then looked at him more seriously and asked softly, "I've heard that our White Sheep Cave was merged into the Green Vine Sword Academy because we offended the Empress, our White Sheep Cave, how exactly did we offend her?"
"Where did you hear such words." Li Daoji's face plummeted, and a sharp murderous aura flashed in his eyes, "If you want to live longer, it's best not to even mention such words."
Ding Ning, however, did not feel fear, as he calmly looked at Li Daoji's eyes filled with a murderous aura, and muttered softly, "It's not because of offending her, how could the White Sheep Cave that possesses the Spirit Vein merge to a cultivation place of the level of the Qingteng Sword Academy even if it didn't produce any powerful cultivators. Even Wang Taixu knows that you guys have offended her, just that he doesn't know exactly how, otherwise I wouldn't have to ask you at all, as for wanting to live long... I wouldn't have been able to live long."
Originally, Li Daoji's eyes were becoming more and more stern, but upon hearing this last sentence of his, Li Daoji frowned, but suddenly felt that there was some truth in his words.
The murderous aura in his eyes began to dissipate.
"You won't live long, but I want to live a few more years when I can, so I haven't said anything, and whatever you heard must be an illusion."
He said in a cold slow voice, "She wanted to plant a Spiritual Lotus in the Spiritual Spring of our White Sheep Cave, and the fruits produced by the Spiritual Lotus can be used to refine some very useful Realm Breaking Pills. In fact, she also just wanted to see our attitude, as she has always felt that there is something wrong with our White Sheep Cave's attitude. After all, although spirit veins are rare, with her ability, she's not too far behind. It's just that our Senior Uncle Du Qingjiao and the Cave Master weren't happy to fulfill it...because that kind of Spirit Lotus would suck up a lot of Spirit Qi from the Spirit Vein, leading to the depletion of the Spirit Vein. So before sensing that she had such intentions, Senior Uncle Du Qingjiao had already split our spirit vein into three tiny strands. It was a form of self-destruction, yet each strand of the spirit vein was insufficient to sustain the growth of that kind of Spirit Lotus."
Ding Ning was slightly disoriented.
He hadn't thought that the white-haired old man who had already left the White Sheep Cave had made such a choice.
"It's not exactly a preferred attitude, and our White Sheep Cave doesn't want to offend anyone."
Li Daoji looked at the pitifully small stream of spirit veins and slowly narrowed his eyes, "We only do what we think is just and right. The spirit vein may be small, but at least it can stay, and now we can at least send some use to our White Sheep Cave disciples."
"I want to go home." Ding Ning nodded, then said this seriously.
Li Daoji's hand subconsciously rested on the hilt of his sword, almost drawing it out directly to slice through it, he couldn't believe that since he knew that there was a Spirit Vein in this place, and since he had heard about so many things, he would not say anything else at this time, but also directly tell him that he wanted to go home.
"I know you cultivate quickly, but do you think cultivating in a place like Sycamore Fall would be better than sitting on this spirit vein?" His chest rose and fell violently as he forced himself to hold back his emotions and said in a chilling voice.
Ding Ning looked at him seriously and innocently, saying, "I know, but I can also cultivate here during the day. I'll sleep better if I go back at night."
Naturally, Li Daoji didn't know what was really in his heart, and looking at the serious-looking Ding Ning, he turned around in annoyance and whisked his sleeves away.
No objection was tacit approval, and Ding Ning smiled happily, shouting at his back, "Then you have to prepare a carriage for me."
......
When Li Daoji had the dry intention of drawing his sword again, in the Scripture Scrolls Cave, Nangong Cai Peas had already finished reading The Treatise on Enlightenment and was reading the second book, The Notes of the Master of Bashan Banana Pond, and the more she read, the whiter her face became.
The owner of these two accompanying books must not have been a particularly powerful cultivator, and the notes were also very messy, many parts of them were even just some guesses and temporary epiphanies in the midst of cultivation, but most of what was recorded were descriptions of the heaven and earth's Yuan Qi.
And most importantly, the owners of these two notebooks were both very humble in their attitudes towards Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi, and there was a great deal of similarity.
The master of the Treatise on the Enlightenment of Heaven likened himself to an empty bottle praying like heaven, and the process of cultivation was like the empty bottle praying devoutly for heaven and earth to grant some heaven and earth yuanqi to converge into his bottle.
The "Notes of the Master of Bashan Banana Pond" says that when he was feeling the energy of heaven and earth, it was raining, and he happened to see the vastness of heaven and earth outside, and countless rains were flowing down from the surrounding heaven and earth and converging into his pond.
Compared to the surrounding sky and earth, the pond in his courtyard, including himself, was very small.
The pond's water came from the bestowal of the heavens and earth, rather than drawing from it.
Looking at the same thoughts flowing out of these two very different essays, Nangong Caiyang's heart became more and more shocked.
She began to feel more and more that she and her own father might have been wrong in their attitudes towards the elements of heaven and earth.
It wasn't that the perception wasn't enough, it wasn't that the analysis of the heaven and earth yuan qi wasn't fine and thorough enough, it was that the attitude was too forceful to begin with.
She was trying to forcefully pull the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi into her body, yet she was very small to the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi.
So... was the only way to admit one's insignificance, the only way to open up one's body so that the heaven and earth yuan qi would be interested in this fresh container before they would tentatively enter?
Ten thousand trickles of water...a pond on a rainy night appeared in Nangong Cai Beans' mind.
Countless droplets of water descended from heaven and earth, landing in the grass by the pond, on the banana leaves by the pond, and then merging into a tiny stream of water that slowly flowed into the pond that did not have the ability to directly roll and suck in the water.
Her heart began to beat violently, her eyes glowing like stars.
