Yggdrasil
"Is that a phenomenon? But only a natural treasure Black-grade or above can create one."
"Then did the Young Duke uncover a Black-grade treasure on his first try?"
"My heavens, the Young Duke's luck is amazing."
As the crowd of people in the Stone Gambling Pavilion began an uproar, the Spiritual Qi mist subsided and began unveiling what was in the Spiritual Jade Stone.
Since he had broken the membrane, Xue Bai was the closest to the center of the phenomenon and, therefore, the first one to see it.
And the second he saw the treasure, Xue Bai recognized it, not because the item was common but because he remembered it from the game.
At its core, the item that was in his stone was a fruit tree, but it wasn't any normal fruit tree.
But rather, it was a fruit tree that helped one of the Children of the Plane in the game rise to glory.
However, while his eyes were full of shock, more than anything, as he saw this tree here on the Southern Continent, Xue Bai became confused.
The Child of the Plane who found this tree didn't find it on the Southern Continent but instead on the Central Continent, millions of miles away from where Xue Bai was.
The tree was extremely unique and had many odd points about it, but there was one consensus about it for "Children of The Plane" players. The tree was stupidly overpowered.
The tree was a relic from ancient times, and because of that, its name wasn't known. But in the game, the protagonist who owned it named it Yggdrasil, after the sacred Tree of Life.
Yggdrasil was a fruit tree that, every ten years, would bear anywhere from 5-100 fruits depending on how well it was taken care of during the ten years.
The fruits created by Yggdrasil each had the miraculous effect of compressing and purifying Spiritual Qi.
And while these effects sounded simple, they weren't.
In the Baishen Plane, the rank of your Martial Veins also dictated your future potential. Or, in essence, how far you would be able to cultivate and what realms you could reach.
For example, a Low Yellow Grade Martial Vein would only allow someone to cultivate to the early stages in the Houtian Great Realm before you'd reach your innate limit, a stopgap that prevented you from even a step further.
This happened because your Marital Veins would only be allowed to absorb Spiritual Qi pure enough to match its rank. So unless you could find a treasure that could purify the Spiritual Qi you held within your Dantian, you'd stay at your peak for the rest of your life.
However, these treasures are extremely rare and were usually only given to geniuses trying to reach the 4 Purification stages.
In the Baishen Plane, almost every cultivation realm had nine stages. But no matter how well one cultivated each Realm, they couldn't reach the limit with only nine stages.
However, for geniuses or cultivation fanatics, there was another path they could walk down to perfection.
After every realm, there were 4 extra stages known as the 4 Purification Stages.
This realm had the purpose of strengthening your realm's strength, fortifying your foundation, purifying your impurities, and giving you more Spiritual Qi.
By cultivating these realms, you could not only condense and purify your Spiritual Qi, making it purer and giving you more in the long run but also perfect the cultivation realm and allow you to reach its utmost limit.
And the Yggdrasil Fruits helped cultivators overcome this.
What the fruits did was simple.
It took all the Spiritual Qi in your Dantian and compressed it to its limit while purifying it to its limit as well. So if someone in the 7th stage of the Law Engraving realm ate a fruit, their realm would decline to the 1st stage.
However, they would keep the same strength they had when they were at the 7th stage while at the same time also giving you a chance to reach the 4 Purification Stages.
And by taking advantage of Yggdrasil, this protagonist raised armies of untalented people that were ever loyal to him and helped him become the powerhouse he was.
But the protagonist found the tree in a secret realm, and it was much bigger than this tree in front of him. The only reason Xue Bai recognized it was because of the three purple-colored fruits hanging from a branch.
Also, the tree looked much weaker, too. In the game, it was easily dozens of meters tall and had the look that any tree named after the Sacred Tree of Life should have.
Yet now, standing in front of Xue Bai, it was barely three meters tall, and if it were not for the purple fruits hanging from the branches, it looked like a tree one could find in a park.
However, Xue Bai didn't care what its current strength was. Its potential was heaven-defying and was the core treasure of a Child of the Plane.
Now that he had it for himself, he wanted nobody to know about it.
"Uncle Li, block their vision!" Xue Bai shouted loudly.
Though some of the crowd might've already seen Yggdrasil, it could've only been, at most, a few of them, and Xue Bai wanted to keep that number as low as possible.
Xue Bai's shout confused Li Huo. However, hearing the urgency in his nephew's voice swept his hand and created a gust of wind that blocked any sight of Yggdrasil from outsiders.
Li Huo had a wind element Martial Vein, and with his strength, it was more than easy to wind a wind wall.
After seeing Yggdrasil get covered with a wall of wind, Xue Bai sighed in relief.
However, once he did so, Xue Bai realized that there were other people next to him.
Sighing to himself once more, Xue Bai turned to the two Stone Gambling Pavilion workers with a not-so-sincere smile.
"Shopkeeper, Blacksmith Guo, while I wouldn't have liked you two to see this item, some circumstances aren't up to me. So I will give you a choice, you can come and join our dukedom or mysteriously disappear after this wind wall dissipates." Xue Bai spoke as he motioned toward his left.
Following up on his nephew's threat, Li Huo unleashed the pressure of his cultivation base on the two workers.
Seeing the amicable Young Duke suddenly turn hostile made two workers' hearts go cold. They knew if they turned Xue Bai down, they would die. And looking at Li Huo at his side, who was now fully ready to fight, they knew that Xue Bai had the ability to do it as well.
Li Huo had a cultivation base no weaker than Xue Feng, being at the peak of the Domain Lord realm.
If it weren't for the fact that Li Huo didn't want his own fief to manage and wanted to live near his sister, he could've also been a Duke.
But these two workers were still middling in the Dharma Idol realm, so forget about the peak stage Domain Lord realm Li Huo. Even the Wang twins could kill them.
And while the workers were angry at first under the invisible coercion of Marquis Li, they both submitted with a deep bow. "We are grateful to work under you, Young Duke."
"You two may stand." Xue Bai paused for a moment before continuing. "While we haven't started on the right foot, I can guarantee you both won't regret this decision."
Nodding at their obedience Xue Bai left them alone and turned back to his uncle, who had confusion written all over his face.
"Nephew Bai, while I know you need to talk to your new subordinates, tell me what's going on with this fruit tree. Yes, a Black-grade treasure is something special, but to do all this to hide it from a bunch of hunters and commoners seems a little too much." Li Huo's calm voice came from behind.
"Uncle Li, while I can't explain to you much about this tree, all you need to know is that this tree can turn any cultivator into a genius." Xue Bai vaguely replied.
He wanted to end the conversation there so he could hurry and bring Yggdrasil home, but Li Huo was the opposite.
While Xue Bai only said a few superficial words in response to his question, each of them was monumental.
"Xue Bai, don't you dare lie to me. I'm not a child who doesn't understand the meaning of your words." Hearing Xue Bai's words, Li Huo was at first astonished, then became enraged.
He might've believed Xue Bai if the fruit tree was an Earth-grade or maybe Heaven-grade natural treasure. But the tree in front of him was at most low Black-grade, and not only that, but it was also on its last legs too.
"Uncle, while I know that this tree doesn't look like anything special right now, give me at most ten years, and I'll back up my words. But now make sure if anybody has seen the tree to make a Dao Oath to never speak of the tree. They can speak of me opening up a low Black-grade natural treasure but don't say what it is." Xue Bai spoke solemnly to Li Huo, surprising the Marquis.
In the short time he had been with his nephew, Li Huo had only seen the boy act cheerful and curious, but seeing him suddenly change tunes and speak so seriously made Li Huo understand that he was indeed special.
But while Li Huo started to believe Xue Bai, whether the boy managed to back up his words or not would only be figured out with time.
So giving Xue Bai some faith, Li Huo stepped out of the wind wall and began to round up the crowd and made sure to find anyone who saw too much and silence them with a Dao oath.
A Dao Oath was something simple. You swore an oath with your Dao on the line, and if you broke the oath, you'd cripple yourself, losing any cultivation you had.
And while the oath wasn't much of a threat to most people in the Southern Continent since they had the lowest average cultivation base for any continent, it was different in the Stone Gambling Pavilion.
Almost every person in the Stone Gambling Pavilion was a hunter, so if they lost their cultivation base, not only would they lose their livelihood, but they could also die on the spot.
Once a person lost their cultivation base from a crippling, they would become their true age instantly.
So while a 50-year-old Law Engraving realm cultivator was young at the cultivation bases standards, 50 years old was near the lifespan limit of mortals in the Baishen Plane.
And most people in the Stone Gambling Pavilion were much older than 50.
Without much choice, everyone swore the Dao Oath.
Better to do that than die where they stood.
Seeing Li Huo handle the work so easily, Xue Bai remembered his father's words and shouted, "Uncle, I had planned to stay in town longer, but this has changed things, so I'm going to go home now. I'll trust you with this. Bye-Bye!"
Then before his uncle could say anything in response, Xue Bai ran out of the Stone Gambling Pavilion with his bodyguards.
Li Huo got a good laugh as he felt a bit of nostalgia for how Xue Bai acted.
"This kid is just like his father, leaving me to do all the work while he goes off and has fun. But today has been a good day. Maybe I should have a kid of my own." Seeing Xue Bai run off so cheerfully, Li Huo was somewhat jealous.
While he fought alongside Xue Feng before becoming a noble, Li Huo never had any romantic interest, let alone thoughts about kids. But spending a day with Xue Bai sprouted the idea into his head.
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