Xu Lian Blessed Land
Bao Zhi felt his wood path aperture, the bead of rank six green grape immortal essence calmly sat at the bottom. It was a deep green color and contained a powerful aura.
He did not dare to put this bead in his other aperture. The reason was simple, if any problems occurred, a mere mortal aperture would not withstand such pressure and explode.
What was immortal essence?
Immortal essence was akin to primeval essence, but the difference in their quality was enormous.
It is widely known, that among the ranks of cultivation the biggest gap was between rank five and rank six. One was called rightly mortal while the other immortal.
It was a difference of heaven and earth!
A rank five gu master could only fight as long as their limited rank five primeval essence lasted. It could only sustain a handful of rank five gu, before they had to replenish their essence.
This was the reason that fights between mortal gu masters did not usually last long, the winner would be decided if one ran out of essence. Without essence, gu worms could not be activated at will, and the gu master's strength would plummet.
On the other hand, rank six immortals could stockpile their essence without limit. A single bead of immortal essence could be diluted to a near-infinite amount of primeval essence. Thus, gu immortals could fight with mortal methods near endlessly.
Only immortal gu would put them in the same situation, where they again had to be mindful of expenditure. They did not have to worry about the expenditure for mere mortal gu. Only if their amount was really high would it put a dent in their reserves of essence.
Primeval essence and immortal essence had another important trait. Just as refined gu worms, they also contained the will of their owners.
In the case of gu, one could lend it to someone else to use. In that case, the will inside the gu would cooperate with the other gu master and the gu would activate.
But it was not the case for essence, even though it contained owner's will, it wasn't as flexible. One's own essence could only be used by themselves, it was useless for others' gu worms.
There was one exception to this rule. Gu houses could be operated with foreign immortal essence. Gu houses were different from gu. Gu houses didn't even have to be composed of gu from a single owner.
This was often the case for immortal formations, such as gu houses owned by organizations with multiple immortal gu in them.
So what use was this bead of immortal essence to Bao Zhi? It clearly did not have his will inside it, because it was not his immortal essence.
But it wasn't Xu Lian's immortal essence either!
This bead of immortal essence was special. It came not from an aperture origin core, but from the lotus root itself. It contained a type of plant will inside. This plant will was incomparable to a human's will.
If the cultivator had a wood path aura, the immortal essence from the lotus root was usable. The will inside could not tell the difference or resist. It could be considered neutral.
This was the reason that using such immortal essence beads were considered inferior. They had a minor conflict when used and would not be the same as immortal essence with the owner's will.
It was also less suitable for refinement. If someone used this essence to refine gu the gu would have its natural will replaced by the neutral plant will and not the owner's will.
But to Bao Zhi this special essence was a good thing! It meant he could get access to a much more potent kind of essence.
Xu Lian even footed the bill for him unknowingly. The foundation for the lotus root was still the aperture origin core.
Bao Zhi carefully observed this green bead. He still had some leftover essence in his wood path aperture.
Rank one green copper essence surrounded the rank six green grape essence.
It was a strange sight to behold.
Bao Zhi found it amusing.
There was a correlation among the ranks of primeval essence and immortal essence.
"Rank one green copper, rank six green grape. Rank two red steel, rank seven red date. Rank three white silver, rank eight white litchi. Rank four yellow golden..." - He stopped at this point.
"It should be the mystical rank nine yellow apricot essence. Only the eight venerables possessed it. As for rank five's purple crystal essence..." - He was not sure.
Before going into endless speculations, he returned his attention to the task at hand.
After a while of reassuring inspections, he decided to dilute a very small amount in his wood path aperture.
There was no way around this, he could not cultivate a rank two aperture with rank six essence. A single bead of green grape immortal essence could have devastating results even on a rank five aperture.
He could not control this essence as freely as his own.
This essence felt like a mountain of cast iron, sturdy and immovable. Bao Zhi had to expend much of his mental effort to have a tiny effect.
After a long while, he split off a small speck of immortal essence. As soon as it separated from the main bead, it instantly expanded into primeval essence. It was one rank lower, rank five peak stage purple crystal essence.
Even though Bao Zhi calculated carefully, this sudden pressure of primeval essence almost caused irreparable damage to his wood path aperture. Luckily, it was carved from wood path dao marks on his body, so the burden was lessened.
"The most critical part is over. It is now much safer to transfer to my other aperture." - He thought.
A trickle of essence left his wood path aperture and flowed into his human path aperture. He felt the human path aperture shiver from the influx of essence.
His human path aperture was only rank two, it was still in its infancy.
The reaction was immediate.
Even without stirring up waves and clashing it against the aperture walls, Bao Zhi could feel the essence nurturing this rank two aperture.
"Ten times, a hundred times... a thousand times! The difference between rank two and rank five is not small, after all." - He noted to himself.
He watched with delight as his cultivation rose at a visible speed. His human path aperture was improving at a speed that made him feel excited.
But this was a double-edged sword. The more essence he used, the greater the risk of the aperture exploding.
"Oh no!" - He noticed a sudden change.
His aperture walls started cracking, even tough he was only at the initial stage of rank two.
Breaking his aperture at this stage would not lead him to rank three, it would directly shatter and cripple his aperture!
He quickly removed some of the essence and diluted the rest into rank four essence.
The cracks stopped spreading, but only that, they didn't mend. The pressure was still great.
"I'll leave these there as a reminder for myself." - He thought to himself solemnly.
If an outsider could witness his situation, they would watch with popping eyes and gritting their teeth. An aperture was most important, to trifle with it was like dancing on the edge of a knife.
How could Bao Zhi dance on a knife's edge like this? A wrong step and he would end up with the same fate as someone who had the ten extreme physique.
Exploding by too rapid cultivation!
But compared to other's, there was a crucial difference at play here. Bao Zhi had a place for his essence to advance and retreat in the form of his wood path aperture. It was unaffected by the presence of essence, it could not be cultivated in this way.
* * * * *
Lingering Mountains Grotto, Ascension Peak
Xu Lian stood at the center of the formation. He closed his eyes and exhaled. His earthly calamity was here, and he was ready to face it. He opened his eyes, and the bright light of the formation shone on his face, making him appear like he was made of gold.
For a gu immortal to fight off a calamity or tribulation, they usually had to enter their own aperture to defend it.
This was possible through placing down an immortal aperture.
Normally, the small world of the immortal aperture would be inside while the gu immortal's body would be outside. Placing down the aperture would reverse this and the body would enter the aperture.
Once placed, an immortal aperture took up no space. It was hard to detect if its entrance wasn't opened.
From the outside perspective, the gu immortal's body would vanish, and the immortal aperture would appear at that location.
But there was a problem!
This was only the case when an immortal aperture was placed in the gu world and not in a grotto heaven, which itself was another small world.
When someone placed an immortal aperture into another immortal aperture, the one inside would self-detonate and its foundation would be added to the outer immortal aperture in the form of dao marks.
Because the inhabitants of the two grotto heavens could not leave to face their tribulations outside, they had to come up with the ascension formation so they could place down their immortal apertures while they faced their calamity.
This was the formation that isolated the two immortal apertures, so the one inside did not self-detonate.
Xu Lian vanished on the spot. This was the signal.
Seeing this, Wen Bo activated the formation, and the space was locked around the center area.
But this was only the first part of the problem of facing calamities and tribulations inside another small world.
Where did the tribulations come from, how did they form?
They were formed from heaven and earth qi!
Heaven and earth qi had to be in balance inside an immortal aperture for it to be stable.
Normally, an immortal would open the entrance of their immortal aperture to the outside gu world and draw in the heaven and earth qi from there.
The tribulations would form then.
But doing this inside a grotto heaven would diminish its heaven and earth qi. The difference in foundation of even the largest grotto heavens and the gu world were truly unimaginable. While it had no effect on the gu world when someone drew in heaven and earth qi, drawing qi from the grotto would damage its foundation over time.
This was unacceptable to the Bao and Wen clans! They naturally had their countermeasures.
Next, Xu Lian opened his blessed land's entrance.
Yellow colored earth qi started to rise on the surface of the black stone of ascension peak. The patterns of formations lit up in full force throughout the mount.
The yellow earth qi was drawn towards the top, at first slowly, then as the streams of qi coalesced towards the top, a surging yellow river reached the formation core.
Xu Lian's blessed land's entrance looked like an illusory rounded hole. It floated in the air.
Like a hungry mouth, it sucked in the earth qi. The streams of qi got bigger and bigger, and soon the whole area was filled with a yellow hue.
It was a breathtaking sight.
The streams of earth qi circulated around, weaving together with the formation's arrays.
As the earth qi circulated in the formation, the arrays of the formation were slowly being filled and emptied.
The formation core was like a giant furnace, slowly heating up with the yellow earth qi.
A similar scene was happening above the formation as well.
White clouds gathered, growing bigger and denser gradually. The clouds were white and crystal clear.
The clouds were pulled downwards, and soon the white clouds were like a white waterfall.
Soon, white strands of clouds were drawn towards the center. It looked almost like a white tornado.
If one looked from outside the boundary bubble of Ascension Peak, they would see a web of yellow and white streams running towards this place, originating from the other peaks of the Revolving Mountains Formation.
An icy cloud stopped in the air as their path was intercepted by such a stream.
"Senior brother Hao Meng, what are these lines in the sky? They just appeared in front of us." - Asked Wen Tu in amazement.
"Junior brother, I'm not sure myself. But what I know is that these phenomena are related to the immortals. Traditionally, it is a cause for celebration." - Hao Meng explained to Wen Tu and Qinyang.
"You were right, sister. This place is way more exciting than Icy Peak Mountain." - Sighed Wen Tu gratefully.
This was the extent of Wen clan's foundation. Worthy of a former super clan.
The formation on Ascension Peak was only a sub-formation of the Revolving Mountains Formation!
* * * * *