No, something is wrong…
Contrary to the looks of delight on the faces of the crowd, Zhang Xuan had a deep frown etched on his forehead.
What had awakened the spirit wasn’t the Earth Vein Spirit Essence but his Heaven’s Path zhenqi!
The Heaven’s Path zhenqi was so rich in vitality that it could even easily neutralize lethal poison, so naturally, it had the ability to rouse the unconscious spirit within the Bodhi Saint Tree as well.
However, what had left a deep frown on his face was the realization that the spirit of the Bodhi Saint Tree had been unconscious not just because it was injured but because it was poisoned!
The Heaven’s Path zhenqi was incredibly pure, allowing it to travel through the tree unobstructed. As such, he was able to catch a clear glimpse of the state of the Bodhi Saint Tree’s unconscious spirit.
The spirit was indeed injured, but it wasn’t severe enough to drive it into an unconscious state.
What had truly sapped the spirit was a fight against a lethal poison that was ongoing even now.
And most importantly of all, he actually recognized that lethal poison…
It’s the Soul Purging Poison! A peculiar glint flashed across Zhang Xuan’s eyes.
Speaking of the Soul Purging Poison, most, including the school heads of the Master Teacher Academy, might be unfamiliar with the name. However, if one were to define it as the lethal poison concocted using the ‘Green-leafed Heart Nexus Plant’ and the ‘Soulless Flower’, most should understand what it was in an instant.
It was the lethal poison You Xu had given him during the Life-and-Death Physician Duel!
This poison, once consumed, would immediately corrode one’s heart and mind, resulting in a swift death. Not even Saint realm experts would be spared from this tragic outcome.
Even though the Bodhi Saint Tree was a saint herb rich in vitality, it was still difficult for it to stand its ground against the potent Soul Purging Poison. The only reason it was able to survive so long was because Elder Zhao and the others, even though their direction was wrong from the very start, had fed it many nourishing substances, granting it the strength to withstand the onslaught of the poison.
You Xu came here two years ago, and shortly afterward, the Bodhi Saint Tree fell ill… Could You Xu have really been the culprit? Zhang Xuan frowned.
The Soul Purging Poison was extremely hard to concoct, not to mention, the Green-leafed Heart Nexus Plant and the Soulless Flower had gone extinct centuries ago. On top of that, You Xu had an opportunity to strike as well… Following this line of deduction, all of the current evidence seemed to point toward You Xu.
But… if Yu Shenqing was willing to allow You Xu to get close to the Bodhi Saint Tree to procure its seedling, that could mean that there was no conflict between them.
So… what could You Xu stand to gain from poisoning the Bodhi Saint Tree?
Zhang Xuan contemplated over the issue a moment longer, but he was still unable to connect the dots. Shaking his head, he decided to turn his attention away from the matter. Forget it, this should be a matter for Yu Shenqing to worry about…
The only reason he had treated the Bodhi Saint Tree was to borrow it to save Wei Ruyan. As for uncovering the culprit who had poisoned it, that was a job for the others to do.
After emptying out the Earth Vein Spirit Essence in the gourd and pumping a few dozen more surges of zhenqi in, the weak Bodhi Saint Tree began to regain its vitality, and signs of its former glory started to appear.
Exhaling deeply, Zhang Xuan said, “Alright, I’m done.”
“Thank you, Zhang shi!” The agitated Yu Shenqing immediately rushed forward and clasped his fist in gratitude.
The Bodhi Saint Tree was the foundation of their Yu Clan. Once it was gone, the Yu Clan would start falling into decline, eventually disappearing in the annals of history.
Yu Shenqing had thought that it was hopeless, and he had already prepared himself for the worst. He really hadn’t expected the young man before him to be able to easily identify the cause and resolve the problem within less than half a day.
“Zhang shi…”
The faces of Elder Zhao and the others reddened in embarrassment, and if they could, they would have loved to vanish on the spot.
They had doubted the other party, accusing him of only being there for the fame. Yet, they—the ‘knowledgeable’ ones—had spent two years achieving nothing, but he—the ‘ignorant’ one—had solved the problem surrounding the Bodhi Saint Tree in just a few hours.
Just recalling the matter was sufficient to fill them with embarrassment.
An elder stepped forward and said, “Zhang shi, if you are free, do come over and conduct a lecture for us. Our Sun Clan is willing to compensate you with a hundred Spirit pinnacle medicinal herbs in return!”
It was a problem that they couldn’t figure out despite coming together, but the other party was able to find a solution for it with a single glance. His mastery in herbology was far beyond their imagination.
If they could invite him to their clan to lecture them, the proficiency of their clan members would surely rise rapidly, and it would just be a matter of time before they surpassed the other herbology clans.
Another elder stepped forward and offered, “Zhang shi, come to our Chen Clan! We are willing to offer you 150 Spirit pinnacle medicinal herbs and five saint herbs!”
Knowing that Zhang shi could possibly herald in an era of prosperity for their clan, the other elders in the room could no longer hold themselves back either.
“Zhang shi, come to our Zhao Clan instead…”
“Our Liu Clan…”
…
“Thank you for your high evaluation for me, but I don’t have the intention of conducting any lectures for the time being!”
Seeing the previously haughty elders standing before him politely as if young junior school students before a teacher, Zhang Xuan was rendered speechless.
In truth, the offers the elders had made were extremely tempting, but the problem was that he had no idea how to lecture them on herbology!
The reason he was able to cure the Bodhi Saint Tree was due to his Eye of Insight and Library of Heaven’s Path. It had very little to do with his knowledge concerning herbology.
If he were to really conduct lectures for them, it wouldn’t be long before they started pestering him for refunds.
Seeing that Zhang Xuan was unwilling to conduct any lectures, Elder Zhao and the others could only back down in disappointment.
Zhang Xuan turned to the crowd and said, “Your Majesty and elders, I need to borrow the Bodhi Saint Tree to resolve some private affairs, so…”
Understanding the meaning behind Zhang Xuan’s words, Yu Shenqing turned to the crowd and smiled. “You have all worked hard to treat the Bodhi Saint Tree over the last two years. I will have the royal chefs prepare a feast this instant, so please follow me to the main hall!”
“Your Majesty, thank you!”
“We haven’t really done anything much…”
The other elders nodded as they followed Yu Shenqing out.
Soon, Zhang Xuan was the only one left in the residence.
He flew to the air to take a look at the surroundings and saw that Yu Shenqing had deployed the guards in the area away as well, strictly prohibiting anyone from coming close to the residence. Heaving a sigh of relief, Zhang Xuan took out the sickly Wei Ruyan from the Myriad Anthive Nest.
In recent days, he had been bringing her around in case her condition abruptly worsened and emergency treatment was required.
With a healthy Bodhi Saint Tree before him now, it was time to treat her affliction once and for all!
Zhang Xuan first drew his soul out of his body before summoning Wei Ruyan’s soul out as well, and using a secret art, he infused the latter’s soul into the Bodhi Saint Tree.
He had taken a close look earlier, and the Bodhi Saint Tree was indeed extremely effective in nurturing souls.
Zhang Xuan followed Wei Ruyan’s soul into the Bodhi Saint Tree to assess her condition, and he could sense the latter’s feeble soul being nurtured, growing stronger by the moment.
Hmm? She is recovering faster than I thought… Zhang Xuan fell in a moment of thought before the answer struck him.
It is the Soul Purge Poison! To think that the two years of pain the Bodhi Saint Tree suffered under the tyranny of the Soul Purge Poison would become an opportunity for Wei Ruyan instead!
Despite the massive size and greater medicinal potency of the Bodhi Saint Tree, it was just a matter of time before Wei Ruyan’s Poison Soul Constitution poisoned it and rendered its effects negligible just like with the Ten-leafed Flower.
However, after two years of fending against the Soul Purge Poison, this Bodhi Saint Tree had already gained a fair degree of immunity to poison. On top of that, the Poison Soul Constitution had the ability to consume lethal poison, and the lingering Soul Purge Poison left in the tree was greatly nourishing to her!
In other words, not only would Wei Ruyan’s soul not poison the Bodhi Saint Tree in the short term, it would even help to devour the remaining poison left within it.
At the same time, Wei Ruyan’s soul would recover faster as well.
At this rate, it will only take a day for her to regain consciousness… Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up.
It seemed like it was the correct decision for him to choose to save the Bodhi Saint Tree.
Even though he had used up a fair bit of precious Earth Vein Spirit Essence in the midst of doing so, it would be well worth the cost if he could successfully cure Wei Changfeng’s daughter of her affliction with this.
Heaving a sigh of relief, Zhang Xuan returned his soul to his body, and he stowed Wei Ruyan’s body back into the Myriad Anthive Nest as well.
Shortly after he did so, a voice suddenly sounded in his mind. “Master, I need you to come in here urgently…”
Hearing that voice, Zhang Xuan frowned.
It was the Myriad Anthive Queen.
A while ago, it had devoured Kong shi’s folded space, and it was currently using it to expand its nest. According to its deductions, it would require at least three months to finish the job. Given that less than five days had passed, it must have met with some kind of issue.
Thus, Zhang Xuan quickly entered the Myriad Anthive Nest without any hesitation.
The Myriad Anthive Nest was considerably larger than before, stretching twenty meters from one end to the other. Even with the Byzantium Helios Beast and the Golden Origin Cauldron standing within, there was still plenty of space to move around.
While admiring the incredible ability of the Myriad Anthive Queen, Zhang Xuan walked up to it and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Master… I think I might have underestimated the difficulty of this task. I know that I said that I would be able to succeed in three months, but due to my cultivation being too low… I am already starting to lose control over this space!” the Myriad Anthive Queen explained awkwardly.
It had previously declared confidently that it would be able to assimilate Kong shi’s folded space into the Myriad Anthive Nest within three months, but from the looks of it now, it wouldn’t happen that easily.
With the Myriad Anthive Queen’s current cultivation of Perfect Harmonization realm, it was still within its means to control a space of around ten meters wide. However, when the nest was increased to twenty meters wide, the space became a little too large for it to control properly.
At the current rate, the space might just very well collapse even before the nest could be fully constructed.
“Lose control?” Zhang Xuan said with a grim expression.
Even though the unique constitution of the Myriad Anthive Queen allowed it to utilize spatial manipulation despite only being at the Perfect Harmonization realm, its abilities were still limited by its cultivation. If it were to forcefully expand its nest, it could very well suffer a backlash, and huge trouble would ensue.
“Is there any way to solve the problem?” Zhang Xuan asked.
“There is, but… it will be rather troublesome!” The Myriad Anthive Queen shook her head.
“Speak.” Hearing that there was a solution, Zhang Xuan heaved a sigh of relief.
“The problem can be solved by raising my cultivation swiftly. As long as I reach Saint realm, I should be able to retain perfect control of the space and even hasten the assimilation process at that,” the Myriad Anthive Queen said.
“Raising your cultivation? That’s easy, I can easily do that. However, to reach Saint realm…” Zhang Xuan frowned. “Forget it, I will do what I can first.”
If raising the Myriad Anthive Queen’s cultivation was all it took, it wasn’t really a huge issue. With Zhang Xuan’s Heaven’s Path zhenqi, he could cleanse the bloodline of a spirit beast and raise its cultivation.
Kacha! Kacha!
Under the nourishment of Zhang Xuan’s zhenqi, the Myriad Anthive Queen’s body jolted, and its cultivation began rising steadily.
Six hours later, under the nourishment of the Heaven’s Path zhenqi and Earth Vein Spirit Essence, the Myriad Anthive Queen’s cultivation reached Chrysalis realm primary stage, just like Zhang Xuan’s.
Due to the limits of Zhang Xuan’s cultivation, he could only raise its cultivation this far.
Even though Perfect Harmonization realm pinnacle to Chrysalis realm primary stage was a rise in cultivation by slightly more than a realm, the Myriad Anthive Queen was still a significant way off from reaching Saint realm.
After reinforcing its cultivation, the Myriad Anthive Queen contemplated for a moment before speaking.
“Master, I heard that the Beast Hall has a bottle of the blood essence of a Saint realm Myriad Anthive Queen in its inventory. If I can obtain it, I should be able to raise my cultivation to Saint realm swiftly…”
