The Divine Wood Fruit was a peculiar existence, something between a real fruit and a condensation of pure spiritual energy. It could be considered one of the unique creations of the Divine Wood Palace.
If an ordinary person obtained it, even if they destroyed the fruit, they would not be able to acquire the information stored within. Only by feeding it pure Wood Spiritual Energy could one easily receive the Divine Wood Fruit's return nourishment as it actively delivered its internal information to you.
This naturally posed no challenge to Liu Bai.
With a thought, a tiny wisp of green light appeared at his fingertip before slowly merging into the crystalline fruit.
With a crisp snap, the fruit that Liu Bai had previously been unable to pluck suddenly detached from the branch on its own and gently fell into his palm.
The sight made Liu Bai laugh despite himself.
"This little thing really does know who its parent is."
That green light just now was not merely ordinary Wood Spiritual Energy but the Wood Origin within his body. Even that small point of light was enough to nurture a Tree Spirit of the Divine Soul Rank. It was no wonder the Divine Wood Fruit was so eager.
The moment the Divine Wood Fruit landed in his hand, before it even began to actively transmit its information, a voice echoed in Liu Bai's mind.
"Ding. Minor Divine Art Heart of Wood detected. Begin inscription?"
Liu Bai raised an eyebrow. A Minor Divine Art he had never heard of, though it clearly was related to trees.
At the same time, the Divine Wood Fruit released all the information regarding the Heart of Wood.
"So it's an auxiliary ability that allows one to commune with trees and scout the surrounding area. Not bad."
All things possessed spirit; plants too were a form of life. The Heart of Wood not only enhanced the user's affinity with vegetation but also allowed them to comprehend the inner emotions of plants.
As long as one was within a forest, nothing in the surrounding area would be able to hide from you.
Of course, its main application in the Divine Wood Palace was managing various spiritual plants and herbs, as well as locating rare spiritual flora.
It was practical but not especially powerful.
However, Liu Bai's eyes brightened.
"I was just thinking how I might find a divine tree suitable to become my Wood Element Five Element Divine Object. With Heart of Wood, wouldn't that become much easier?"
Divine Mountain was far too large. Liu Bai could not possibly search the entire mountain within limited time, so he needed a faster method.
And Heart of Wood was precisely that.
Like the Water God Chant from the Taiyi Palace, the entry requirement for a Minor Divine Art was low. Liu Bai directly reached the entry stage before spending ten thousand experience points to raise it to the Minor Mastery stage.
Unlike the Water God Chant, the Heart of Wood would be immediately useful, so improving it made perfect sense.
Once the Heart of Wood reached Minor Mastery, Liu Bai instinctively perceived a faint, chaotic murmur in his ears—like wind rustling through leaves or insects crawling along tree bark.
This sensation faded quickly, leaving only the rustling branches of the trees around him, which now seemed unusually affectionate toward him as if greeting a familiar friend.
"So this is the plant affinity granted by the Heart of Wood. Truly incredible."
After closing his eyes to sense his surroundings, Liu Bai headed toward a certain direction.
Sure enough, he soon found another Divine Wood Fruit. But this time, Liu Bai did not feed it Wood Origin. He simply reached out and touched it.
The repelling force that had kept his hand away earlier was gone. His palm touched the Divine Wood Fruit effortlessly.
A pleasant system chime rang out.
A faint smile curved Liu Bai's lips.
As expected, this seemingly insignificant Heart of Wood was immensely valuable to him right now.
Unfortunately, this time it was not a Divine Art but a Wood Element Deity-grade Spiritual Art. Still, it was good. Liu Bai inscribed it immediately before moving on.
His Wood Origin was limited and needed for many things; he could not squander it here.
After spending considerable time searching, Liu Bai managed to inscribe quite a few Deity-grade Spiritual Arts and Divine Arts, including ones mentioned in the original story: the Mid-level Divine Art Tree Planting Art, the Minor-level Divine Art Divine Wheel of the Heavenly Wood, and the Greater-level Divine Art Divine Wood Scripture. All were recorded into his system.
But they were not particularly meaningful to him.
In terms of offense, his Five Element Divine Lightning was far superior to the Divine Wood Scripture, not to mention that the Divine Wood Scripture required specific environmental conditions and needed the Tree Planting Art to function properly.
For someone without access to Divine Arts, these would be invaluable. But Liu Bai was not such a person.
"So the highest recorded here is only the Major Divine Art Divine Wood Scripture? It seems that to obtain higher level Divine Arts or even Divine Ability, I must climb higher!"
Unfortunately, with the golden token in his hand, he could only enter the second floor. Beyond that, he lacked even the right to open the next gate.
Despite the golden tower having collapsed by more than half, it was still not something one could forcefully break through. Liu Bai even tried striking the entrance to the third floor with Metal Lightning, and the backlash from the restriction nearly killed him.
At that moment, he understood. Even if he truly broke through to the Sovereign Realm, he would not be able to break that door. It was better to accept the limits and move on.
"Among all these Deity-grade Art and Divine Art only the Wood Spirit Art is somewhat interesting. It can bestow true spirit to ancient wood, creating powerful Wood Divine Warriors. Normally they remain dormant as ordinary trees, but once activated, they can fight immediately."
The Wood Puppets in the original story were similar, except these Wood Divine Warriors possessed the ability to grow on their own. The older the ancient tree, the stronger the warrior.
Liu Bai now wanted to see if he could find a suitable ancient wood to experiment with.
"Next, let's head to the Spiritual Courtyard."
If one wished to roam the Great Thousand World, Sovereign Spiritual Liquid was indispensable. Without it, one would quickly find themselves unable to take even a single step forward.
For low rank Sovereigns especially, obtaining Sovereign Spiritual Liquid was extremely difficult.
A single drop required a First-Grade Sovereign to spend an entire month in deep cultivation before it might be successfully refined.
And once a person passed the Three Minor Disaster of the Sovereign Realm, Sovereign Spiritual Liquid would become vital.
To assault the Sovereign Realm, one needed a massive amount of Sovereign Spiritual Liquid. Only its pure and overwhelming power could completely transform one's body and allow them to truly become a Sovereign.
Originally, Liu Bai had intended to exchange something with the Northern Heaven Spiritual Academy's Dean for some Sovereign Spiritual Liquid to assist in his breakthrough.
But before he could speak, Dean sent him to the Ruins Continent, so Liu Bai naturally set aside the idea.
Along the way, Liu Bai encountered many spiritual lands clearly containing treasures, but compared to Sovereign Spiritual Liquid, none of them were attractive enough.
At full speed, after about twenty minutes, he descended upon a mountain peak and gazed ahead.
There lay an expanse of extremely dense Iron Thorn Trees.
These trees were pitch black and covered in razor sharp spikes, giving off a cold and sinister feeling. The tips of the spikes emitted faint violet light, clearly poisonous.
Through the towering Iron Thorn Trees, Liu Bai could vaguely see the remnants of ancient halls hidden deep within.
However, those halls were completely enveloped by the forest of thorns, making the entire place resemble a giant hedgehog.
"So the Spiritual Courtyard is inside here…" Liu Bai murmured.
According to the original text, a massive Spirit Sealing Array was set up in this forest. Once inside, one's spiritual energy would become disrupted, making it impossible to circulate normally.
But this had little effect on Liu Bai, especially since no one here could stop him.
Activating the Heart of Wood, the sharp thorns around him immediately softened. When Liu Bai placed his hand on the trunk, a wave of pleasant emotion flowed toward him.
Liu Bai smiled and stepped into the thorn forest. As he passed, the pitch black Iron Thorn Trees twisted their bodies to pull their spikes away from him, afraid of harming him.
Thus, Liu Bai easily reached the grand hall deep within the thorn forest.
A defensive formation guarded it, but with the golden token in hand, Liu Bai bypassed the restriction and stepped inside without effort.
Upon entering the hall, the first thing he saw was a corridor bathed in gentle green radiance…
The corridor wasn't long, so Liu Bai quickly reached its end, and then his field of vision suddenly opened up.
What appeared before him was a pool of water suspended in midair. The pool glowed with a verdant jade hue, radiating a dense vitality as well as a rather terrifying fluctuation of spiritual energy.
Plop.
A faint sound rippled through the emerald pool as several tiny jade-green fish swam out of the water. Their tails swayed gently as they drifted into the air and continued swimming through the atmosphere itself.
These little fish were completely jade-green, glowing faintly, appearing lively and spirited. Yet Liu Bai could sense within each of them an extremely pure and extremely powerful—rippling of spiritual energy.
"Sovereign Spiritual Liquid…"
A bright smile appeared on Liu Bai's face.
Although it was called spiritual liquid, Sovereign Spiritual Liquid contained a trace of the spirituality of a Sovereign expert. High-grade Sovereign Spiritual Liquid could even manifest illusions or transform into various forms.
Although the Hidden Spiritual Courtyard had proper preservation array's, tens of thousands of years would inevitably cause most of the Sovereign Spiritual Liquid to dissipate. Only the highest-grade portions could remain.
This suspended pool of water should be the residue left after the Sovereign Spiritual Liquid lost its spirituality and energy. Yet precisely because of this pool, the remaining highest-quality Sovereign Spiritual Liquid was able to maintain its spiritual nature.
Liu Bai did not immediately rush in to capture the fish-like Sovereign Spiritual Liquid. Instead, he approached the pool, focused his senses, and soon found several blurry ancient characters within it...
"Spiritual Condensing Bowl!"
Liu Bai smiled faintly. It seemed the information in his memory was correct—this pool containing the Sovereign Spiritual Liquid was itself a rare artifact.
"Heh, according to the records, this Spiritual Condensing Bowl was a masterpiece forged by the ancient Spirit-Condensing Clan. When fully activated, it could cover the heavens themselves; any spiritual energy absorbed would automatically be refined into Sovereign Spiritual Liquid."
"Unfortunately, the one here is clearly a replica. The true Spiritual Condensing Bowl is an Ancient Saint Artifact—even the Divine Wood Palace likely wouldn't qualify to possess it."
Still, even a replica was not so easily taken.
At the very least, unlike Mu Chen from the original storyline, Liu Bai had not become the Divine Wood Palace's successor, and thus could not directly claim the Spiritual Condensing Bowl…
But that didn't mean there was no other way.
After a moment of thought, Liu Bai raised his palm. Instantly, five-colored light slowly seeped out from his hand, and an intense surge of Five Elements Spiritual Energy burst forth.
The Five Elements Source Energy—one of the most refined and primal energies in the entire Great Thousand World. For an artifact like the Spiritual Condensing Bowl, which naturally desired to absorb spiritual energy, this was the greatest possible temptation.
Buzz—
With the appearance of the Five Elements Source Energy, the previously motionless pool subtly trembled. Faint rays of light began to rise from the emerald water.
Seeing this, Liu Bai's face lit up.
His method was working!
The pool's radiance grew stronger and stronger until, at last, the entire pool began to shrink—slowly collapsing inward…
After a few minutes, the originally several-meter-wide pool had transformed into a jade bowl emitting an ancient verdant glow.
The bowl hovered for a moment, wobbled slightly, then flew toward Liu Bai and landed in his outstretched palm.
The instant it landed, the five-colored light sphere at his palm dissolved and vanished. In its place appeared a five-colored jade disk…
The moment the jade disk emerged, rich five-colored light surged forth, instantly enveloping the jade bowl.
No matter how the bowl struggled, it could not break free from the five-colored divine light. In the end, it could only submit obediently, wrapped tightly by the jade disk before being drawn into Liu Bai's Qi Sea.
"Done!"
Although he didn't yet know exactly how much Sovereign Spiritual Liquid was stored here, from what he'd seen earlier, the quantity was absolutely substantial.
And since he had cleared out everything in one sweep, this Hidden Spiritual Courtyard no longer had anything left worth taking. He could now leave directly.
"Good. Less than three days remain until the one-month deadline. The final goal is… locating the Divine Wood."
Having made up his mind, Liu Bai found a dense section of forest and sat cross-legged beneath a hundred-meter ancient tree. He then activated the power of the Heart of Wood, extending his mind to envelop the forests within a thousand-mile radius…
"Divine Wood…"
....
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