He carefully observed the situation over there and discovered that the Earth Spirit Grass was surrounded by a circle of large stones. These stones were hidden among the green weeds, enclosing the three stalks of Earth Spirit Grass.
The stones were about half a meter high and had a somewhat bizarre shape, as if they had been casually twisted and kneaded by someone.
"This place feels a bit creepy. I'd better tread carefully."
He gripped his mountain-splitting axe tightly in his right hand, drew a Fireball Spirit Talisman from his Qiankun Pouch with his left hand, and released his spiritual sense before slowly walking down the slope, his eyes fixed the entire time on the stalks of Earth Spirit Grass and the bizarrely shaped large stones beside them.
The Fireball technique was a spell that could only be learned at the Qi Condensation Middle Stage; currently at the Qi Condensation 4th Layer, he could only cast it by borrowing a spirit talisman.
This stack of spirit talismans had been bought for him by his old lady for self-defense.
Having finally reached the bottom of the valley, he cautiously approached the large stones. After repeatedly confirming that there was no danger around, he suddenly rushed forward and swiftly swept the three mature stalks of Earth Spirit Grass into his Qiankun Pouch.
The three mature stalks of Earth Spirit Grass were now in his possession, their medicinal fragrance filling the air. Li Pingyi felt a solid sense of joy as he sensed the heavy harvest inside his Qiankun Pouch.
This was real, tangible cultivation resource!
At that very moment, a thought stirred in his mind. He directed his inner vision toward his Consciousness Sea and was shocked to discover that as the Earth Spirit Grass was harvested, the red pillar of light representing this location on the chessboard suddenly dimmed and shrank, eventually transforming into a pure red stream of light that slowly merged into the chessboard itself.
And the chessboard, having absorbed this red light, seemed to have its surface pale green fluorescence brighten by a fraction, while its archaic patterns also appeared slightly clearer.
At the same time, Li Pingyi clearly felt that his Consciousness Sea had condensed a fraction as a result, and his spiritual sense's perception range had imperceptibly expanded a little!
In the world of cultivation, the importance of spiritual sense goes without saying.
Spiritual sense exists by relying on the Consciousness Sea, and the strength and state of the Consciousness Sea directly determine the strength, range, and operational effectiveness of one's spiritual sense.
He had once heard the tutor at the school lecture about it, and had also learned from his parents' casual remarks that the cultivation world had near-stringent standards for spiritual sense. From ancient times to the present day on the Canglan Continent, countless cultivators had their paths to seeking immortality cut short simply because the strength of their Consciousness Sea was insufficient and their spiritual sense fell short, among whom were no shortage of proud sons of heaven possessing single spiritual roots or mutated spiritual roots.
The reason for this was none other than the fact that methods for cultivating spiritual sense were far too precious; most sects kept them secret and guarded them jealously as treasures, while those spiritual medicines capable of increasing spiritual sense were without exception rare treasures of heaven and earth, extremely difficult to acquire.
"This chessboard... can actually strengthen itself by absorbing 'opportunities' and feed them back to me?" A brilliance never seen before erupted in Li Pingyi's eyes, and his heart pounded wildly.
He hurriedly held his breath, concentrated his mind, and exerted all his might to release his spiritual sense.
However, the extended distance reached only about three zhang—truly shockingly short and pitifully weak.
"No rush, no rush," he comforted himself. "With 'Brother Chess' to help, this is only temporary. A brilliant future awaits, young man!"
Just as he was about to lift his foot to leave, he suddenly felt that the texture of the 'large stone' beneath his feet was wrong. It seemed... somewhat soft, and carried a trace of an elusive, faint fluctuation of spiritual Qi? A thought stirred in his mind, and he hurriedly reached out to brush away the surface. The soil on the outer layer of the 'large stone' fell away in a rustle, revealing dark brown soil underneath that emitted spiritual Qi far richer than ordinary dirt.
"This... this is grade-three spiritual soil!" Li Pingyi gasped out loud, his eyes erupting with a brilliance even more blazing than when he discovered the Earth Spirit Grass. "No wonder these three Earth Spirit Trees grew so close together—it turns out they were nourished by such a treasure!"
Overjoyed beyond measure, he hurriedly fished a shovel out of his Qiankun Pouch, and then took out the spiritual soil box that had once been "force-sold" to him.
The last time the school required them to buy this spiritual soil box, Li Pingyi hadn't held back on cursing Tutor Wang behind his back.
Who didn't know that the spiritual tool shop opposite the school was run by Tutor Wang's brother-in-law? Back then, they gave it the high-sounding name of a special promotional event: buy a spiritual soil box and get a shovel for free, all for just five spirit stones.
However, after buying this spiritual soil box back, it had only been used once in class, which had thoroughly disgusted Li Pingyi.
Yet at this moment, Tutor Wang's standing in his heart shot straight up.
Because without the isolation provided by the spiritual soil box, the spiritual soil in his Qiankun Pouch would quickly lose its spiritual power and become worthless.
But the moment he opened the box, he froze.
The Qiankun Pouch given to him by his father was the smallest size, only one cubic unit in volume, and storing some pills and spirit talismans in it on ordinary days was already stretching it to the limit.
After buying this spiritual soil box back then, because of the insufficient space in his Qiankun Pouch, he had ended up using it as a miscellaneous storage box, stuffing it full of all sorts of odds and ends.
He gritted his teeth and began taking out the contents of the spiritual soil box one by one. Articles of clothing and pants, a pot, a fishing rod, a landing net, a small brazier, a pillow, and all kinds of miscellaneous bottles and jars were tossed out.
In the end, Li Pingyi's hands trembled slightly as he carefully scooped out a few books from the very bottom of the box.
These books all looked as though their edges had been curled from being thumbed through; their spines were covered in creases, their corners were worn, their pages were wrinkled, and hand-drawn illustrations could be vaguely glimpsed inside.
He closed his eyes, as if making a firm resolve, and tossed the books aside. The pages fluttered, faintly revealing the covers of several books:
"Comprehensive Customs of the Immortal Realm"
"100 Kinds of Spirit Plants You Must Know in the Seven Continents"
"Complete Encyclopedia of Monster Beasts and Spirit Beasts"
"The Untold Story Between Me and the Fox Maiden"
"Struggling Against Demons Amidst the Snow"
"A Bin, the Young Sword Cultivator"
"The Dragon-Transforming Life of True Lord Hou"
...
Those last few books were his own painstaking "masterpieces," born of Li Pingyi's blood and sweat!
As it happened, although Li Pingyi's parents were both outer sect executors of the Qingxuan Sect—which sounded nice as "executors," but in reality meant they were merely outer sect disciples from decades ago.
Their cultivation had reached the Foundation Establishment Realm, but alas, their aptitude, spiritual roots, and comprehension all fell short of those proud talents, leaving them with no hope of entering the inner sect, so they muddled along in the outer sect holding an executor position.
Don't underestimate this tiny position of executor; even this had to be fought for, especially Sifang Market located right in front of the Qingxuan Sect's gates—without some connections, there was truly no way to secure it.
Is the district chief of the capital the same as the district chief anywhere else? In Li Youdao's words, our Li family has people at the top.
Therefore, the Li family usually didn't lack spirit stones, but Li Youdao's cultivation had also reached the Foundation Establishment Late Stage, and these past few decades happened to be the critical period for him to make a breakthrough toward the Golden Core.
At home, Li Pingyi would occasionally catch stray words and phrases about Golden Core Formation, and even overhear discussions regarding things like the Qi Sea.
Yet whenever he wanted to keep listening, his parents would seal their lips, looking all mysterious.
Recalling his father, who had such a long scar across his face, Li Pingyi always felt that Li Youdao was hiding a huge secret.
Golden Core Realm!
These three words constantly stimulated Li Pingyi.
If his father could successfully form his Golden Core, he could be promoted to an inner sect elder, and at that time, he, Li Pingyi, would be a righteous "cultivation second generation"!
Having been an orphan in his past life and having suffered every hardship, his yearning for such a status surpassed even that of Li Youdao himself.
Yet at the thought of the astonishing expense required to form a Golden Core, his heart instantly turned half cold.
Thus, on a dark and windy night, the "novelist" Li Pingyi officially "debuted."
Now that his great cause was unfinished, he actually had to abandon these "fruits of his labor." How could his heart not ache as if being twisted?
These were the fruits of his fierce battles across countless nights!
"Forget it! A bird in the hand is worth ten in the bush! This spiritual soil is real, tangible spirit stones!"
A flash of resoluteness crossed Li Pingyi's eyes. He pushed those books aside and shoveled the spiritual soil even more energetically, not stopping until the spiritual soil box was packed to the brim, practically overflowing.
Looking at the scattered grade-three spiritual soil still on the ground, and then glancing at the treasures beside him that he likewise couldn't take away, his heart was filled with entanglement and reluctance.
In the end, he gritted his teeth, placed those treasured books into the pit, scooped up the spiritual soil he couldn't take with him, and buried them bit by bit, muttering to himself: "Nothing to be done, it has to be this way. Using grade-three spiritual soil to bury you all is treating you fairly well. If we are fated, I'll come back and take you home next time."
After burying them, he bowed three times to the small mound in a proper manner, wiped away tears that didn't exist, and only then carefully inspected his surroundings. After repeatedly confirming nothing was left behind, he sat down heavily upon the pillow and began to continue studying the chessboard within his Consciousness Sea.
"Generally speaking, these red pillars of light should represent spiritual plants and the like; the thickness of the pillar should represent rarity—the thicker it is, the better the item."
Thinking of this, he sensed the distribution of the pillars again and discovered that beside every slightly thicker colored pillar on the chessboard, there were actually black pillars accompanying them. Moreover, in one place, not only were there blue and green pillars, but the single purple pillar on the entire chessboard was also among them.
However, the adjacent black pillar was thick beyond imagination.
Li Pingyi pondered for a moment, understanding in his heart: "This black pillar nine times out of ten represents a guarding monster beast! And the thickness of the black pillar represents the strength of the monster beast!"
Intuition told him that whatever the purple pillar represented was definitely a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering good treasure.
Yet intuition also told him that a hundred of him added together wouldn't be enough to plug the gap between that black pillar's teeth.
"A land of ideals, a forbidden zone of life."
Wiping away his drool, he laboriously moved his spiritual sense away from the purple pillar and began searching for the target closest to him.
There were two light pillars closest to this valley, both in the same location. One was red—slightly thicker compared to the grain-of-rice-sized pillar of the Earth Spirit Grass—and the other was green, clinging tightly to the red pillar. However, upon closer inspection, wisps of black thread were entwined around both pillars.
"What does this green pillar represent?"
Li Pingyi mused to himself. Having determined the direction, he hesitated no longer and dashed swiftly toward the target location.
Speed talismans were slapped onto his legs one after another, his figure transforming into a residual blur amidst the woods.
"Logically speaking, whatever these wispy black threads represent should be easier to deal with than the pillar-shaped ones. Whatever, I'll go take a look first. If there's danger, I'll run away immediately."
"I love black silk the most; I hope this time won't make me stumble again."
Thinking of this, Li Pingyi shuddered for no reason, as if recalling some unpleasant experience.
On that night fifteen years ago, before his intimate encounter with the dump truck, what his mind seemed to be thinking about was also black silk.
He shook his head, casting those bad memories out of his mind, and then subconsciously glanced into his Qiankun Pouch as if searching for something.
When his gaze swept across an exquisite spirit talisman lying quietly in the corner, alongside a spirit stone several times the size of an ordinary spirit stone, his heart gradually settled.
This was the heavy-duty item his parents had spent a great deal of money to specially reserve for him to save his life.
A top-grade Wind-Swift Technique spirit talisman, and a middle-grade spirit stone teeming with spiritual Qi.
The Wind-Swift Technique was an art that could only be cultivated at the Qi Condensation Late Stage; considering that his Qi Condensation 4th Layer spiritual power was insufficient, they had specially outfitted him with a middle-grade spirit stone to serve as an "external fuel tank."
Not to mention that this Wind-Swift Technique spirit talisman was also top-grade.
Basically, if it came to just running away, let alone Qi Condensation Late Stage cultivators, even an ordinary Qi Condensation Great Perfection cultivator would find it very difficult to catch up to him.
Unless he ran into a Qi Condensation Great Perfection cultivator who specialized in the Wind-Swift Technique—though such people were pitifully rare.
To reach Qi Condensation Great Perfection and not properly prepare for Foundation Establishment, but instead specialize in the Wind-Swift Technique—if he bumped into such a muddle-headed person wanting to kill him, there really wasn't much he could do about it.
He had also asked his dad what he should do if a Foundation Establishment cultivator wanted to kill him.
Foundation Establishment cultivators possessed the Flight Technique and could fly.
At the time, Li Youdao was wiping an old sword. Hearing this, he merely glanced at him indifferently, his tone carrying the warning of someone who had been through it: "What else can you do? If you can't outrun them, get on your knees. Make your attitude exceptionally sincere and your gaze as kind as possible. Then, 'accidentally' mention to the other party that True Lord Gu, an inner sect elder of the Qingxuan Sect, is your father's master. Whether you survive or not depends entirely on this sincerity of yours and whether the other party gives True Lord Gu face."
Li Pingyi firmly engraved his father's words into his heart.