Saving Another Three Years!

On their way back to the territory, Wei Yuan acted as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened, calmly recounting his experience in the Arhat's Pure Land and showing them the Red Lotus Bodhi. "This is a supreme treasure before the Buddha, wondrous for purging karma—the further along you get, the more useful it becomes. However, you'll need to learn some secret karmic techniques so that you don't inadvertently purge karma you wish to keep," Ji Liuli reminded him. Zhang Sheng also chimed in, "That incantation, the Red Lotus Universal Deliverance True Words, counts as a kind of secret karmic art, though it only covers the Buddhist side. You still need to learn some secret techniques of our Daoist school to keep things in balance." Aside from that, Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli did not say much else, allowing Wei Yuan to finally set down his anxious heart. Both Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli held the Red Lotus Bodhi in quite high esteem, yet there lingered a faint aloofness in their demeanor, as though regarding it as a fleeting cloud. To the two of them, once their cultivation reached its peak in the future, every manner of immortal treasure would be within their grasp. If they could ascend to immortality, they could even turn ordinary, everyday items into immortal relics—this was the very origin of the saying, *when one attains the Dao, even their dogs and chickens ascend to heaven*. Even so, there was still a slight difference between them. Ji Liuli was unbothered because she already possessed immortal items of the same caliber, and could have more whenever she pleased. After all, while True Monarch Yanshi's Dao power was hard to measure, his financial might comfortably ranked among the top two in the Palace of Grand Beginning, rivaling even the Abbot of the Monastery of Creation. Zhang Sheng's indifference, on the other hand, was purely because such a thing was far too distant from him—just as an ordinary household would never concern itself with the cost of a grand mansion with crimson gates and towering eaves. Safe and uneventful all the way, they finally returned to the territory, and Wei Yuan slipped away from the sight of his master and Eldest Senior Sister. Back in his room, Wei Yuan sank his mind into his sea of consciousness and appeared upon the Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains. He opened his palm and looked down: sure enough, the Red Lotus Bodhi lay quietly in his hand. *A divine artifact indeed...* Wei Yuan mused. Divine objects possessed spirit; many could shift freely between the illusory and the tangible, just like the celestial laurel tree, and this Red Lotus Bodhi was no exception. As the Red Lotus Bodhi entered the Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, the celestial laurel tree suddenly stirred. A wisp of sword qi flew over to inspect it before withdrawing. Afterward, the entire tree quieted down significantly, its arrogant air imperceptibly diminished by a fraction. Wei Yuan experienced a sudden flash of intuition. Following his instincts, he strolled along until he arrived at a certain spot, sensing that this was where the bodhi seed ought to be planted. He looked up; this location was precisely thirty-three zhang, three chi, and three cun away from the Jade Mountain. Wei Yuan set the bodhi seed upon the ground, and it sank into the soil on its own, coming to rest exactly three chi and three cun beneath the surface. *Does the number three hold some special significance for the Red Lotus Bodhi?* With the seed buried, Wei Yuan intended to leave. Under normal logic, the rarer and more divine a spiritual plant was, the longer it took to grow—just look at that Celestial Star Nightshade, which still had not sprouted to this day. For a divine relic like the Red Lotus Bodhi, lying dormant for three to five years without sprouting would be entirely normal. Yet right at that moment, Wei Yuan felt an intangible, formless force emerge, drawing something away from his body. Startled, Wei Yuan halted. That wisp of formless power continued to draw from him in an unbroken stream. What it extracted was extremely faint, yet dark, viscous, and tinged with clamminess and killing intent. An understanding dawned within Wei Yuan's heart: this seemed to be human karma connected to him. Some came from those he had killed personally, while others stemmed from deaths caused by his orders—such as those who inevitably collapsed and perished by the roadside during the migration from Quliu Town to the territory. Although the grievance was sparse and had always been offset by azure qi karmic luck, some deeply buried resentment had still accumulated upon Wei Yuan. These traces were exceedingly faint, utterly undetectable in daily life, but over time, as they mounted day by day, the accumulated resentment would eventually reach a threshold where its consequences would surface. This was one of the reasons why, in ancient times, generals who fought in wars for years on end frequently met untimely, violent deaths. The resentment clinging to Wei Yuan was drawn away and channeled straight into the earth, three chi and three cun down. In addition, stray wisps of floating black qi materialized all around, likewise getting pulled beneath the soil. Wei Yuan was usually blind to these ambient vapors, but now they all revealed themselves one after another. Deep underground, the Red Lotus Bodhi continuously absorbed the resentment and karma, slowly expanding until a fissure cracked open across its surface, revealing the glistening white flesh inside. A tender sprout reached out from the flesh, growing segment by segment. The instant it broke through the soil, a surge of spiritual qi erupted forth! This spiritual qi was so dense it was practically solid. In Wei Yuan's eyes, it resembled a fountain gleaming under brilliant sunlight, dazzling and radiant, accompanied by vibrant arcs of rainbows. This stream of spiritual qi gushed for the time it took to drink a cup of tea before gradually subsiding. That burst alone saved Wei Yuan three years of arduous cultivation. Wei Yuan was filled with joy, finding the bean-sized sprout utterly pleasing no matter how he looked at it. A bodhi seed from before the Buddha truly was something no wild immortal plant could compare to! Just as he was about to depart, well-pleased, the surrounding air stirred with wind once more. Within three hundred and thirty-three zhang, countless floating wisps of black qi emerged, all drawn in toward it. The sprout climbed taller segment by segment, branching out and unfurling leaves. In the blink of an eye, another wave of spiritual qi surged forth. *Another three years of bitter cultivation saved!* Wei Yuan praised silently. Following this round of erupting spiritual qi, the bodhi tree paused for a moment. Then, its leaves and branches rustled as it began absorbing the karma and resentment within three hundred and thirty-three zhang above and below. Wei Yuan had learned patience by now. A short while later, the surge of spiritual qi arrived as expected, sparing him another three years of hard cultivation. Yet the bodhi tree was still not satisfied. Finally, it began drawing out the faint, drifting karma lingering within the Jade Mountain. This was the residual karma left behind after the masses of Shamans dissolved into the black pool without being fully cleansed, and the bodhi tree swept it all up. Since taking charge of Qingming, Wei Yuan had slain over a hundred thousand Shamans—how massive of a karmic debt was that? Though most of it had been dissolved by the black pool, and the bodhi tree only absorbed a tiny fraction of the remnants, it was still enough to fuel its growth. Ultimately, spiritual qi erupted like a leviathan breaching the sea, saving Wei Yuan six years of arduous cultivation in a single breath! Only then did the precious bodhi tree settle down, preparing to grow quietly. By now, it was a young tree three chi and three cun tall, not much shorter than the neighboring celestial laurel tree. Right then, a patch of ground nearby shifted, and a dark, deep-hued sprout broke through the soil. In the blink of an eye, it sprouted two new branches, growing to about a chi in height. The Foul Earth Nightshade! It had finally sprouted. Had it taken any longer, Wei Yuan had been planning to dig it up to see what was going on. If it truly couldn't sprout, he could always stew it into soup. This Foul Earth Nightshade certainly did not disappoint after all the karmic luck Wei Yuan had poured into it. The moment it broke ground, it offered up spiritual qi equivalent to a month of hard cultivation, after which it continually gave off visible ribbons of spiritual qi. The Ruby Lantern was overjoyed, immediately gliding over to coil itself around the base of the Foul Earth Nightshade. The plant was still too small for now; the lantern seemed to be waiting for it to grow a bit larger before climbing up. Not far away, the Laurel Nightshade had also grown taller, now reaching two chi. Wei Yuan soon noticed that every spiritual plant within three hundred and thirty-three zhang of the bodhi tree had experienced a burst of growth, whereas those outside the boundary remained unchanged. The most striking example was the patch of Wood Spirit Ginseng, exactly half within the circle and half outside. The ones inside had shot up by an entire cun, while those outside had not budged. For a spiritual plant like Wood Spirit Ginseng, a single cun represented decades of growth. In total, between the Red Lotus Bodhi itself and all the incidental benefits, Wei Yuan had been spared more than fifteen years of bitter cultivation. By his current estimate, it would only take about a year to achieve Foundation Solidification. This pace barely caught up with the average standard of the Palace of Grand Beginning. Yet joy was ever fleeting; once he stepped out of the Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, Wei Yuan had to face reality once again. He summoned Cui Yu and said, "I need all available information on the royal family of the Western Jin—especially who the crown prince is, which princes there are, and what backgrounds they each have. The more detailed, the better." Cui Yu gave him a strange look, asking instinctively, "Are you planning to take part in the struggle for the throne?"