Big Data Cultivation

Chapter 392: 392: Kidnapping

Chapter 392: Chapter 392: Kidnapping

Feng Jun accepted the cultivation technique from Yu Changqing with a smile, “How can I let you give it to me for free? How about this, aren’t you in need of cultivation? I’ll give you a Spirit Stone to drive the Spirit Gathering Array.”

“Oh no, how could I possibly accept this,” Yu Changqing hurriedly waved her hands upon hearing this. The Five Elements Transcendence Technique might be precious to mortals, but it really is nothing to cultivators, “Senior, you have Spirit Stones, just lending me one would be enough.”

The Spirit Gathering Array is driven by Spirit Stones, but the spiritual energy in the array comes from the heavens and earth, so the consumption of the Spirit Stone itself is very small.

“I didn’t say I’m giving you a whole one,” Feng Jun laughed when he heard this, “You also helped me check the prices of walkie-talkies. I might as well give you the half Spirit Stone I got from breaking the formation last time… Now you can’t refuse this, right?”

Yu Changqing’s heart was moved. For her, even half a Spirit Stone was a precious treasure, and it was quite common for cultivators to trade half a Spirit Stone; there was nothing shameless about it, especially for lower-ranking cultivators—this happened even more frequently.

Although she was pleased inside, she still modestly declined, “I’ve received guidance from Senior several times and benefited greatly. I still wish to seek advice from Senior in the future, so there’s no need for the Spirit Stone.”

“Then consider it a gift for Zhu Er. The two of you sisters are of one body,” Feng Jun said with a smile, “I know that she really wants a Spirit Stone.”

Yu Changqing still wanted to refuse, “This can’t be done…”

“I say it can!” Someone charged into the room from outside, it wasn’t anyone else, but Yu Changzhu.

She glared angrily at the middle-aged man, “Sister, if you don’t want it, don’t be generous on my behalf. It was clearly a whole Spirit Stone, and you’ve already cut it into half, and now… you’re not even giving me that half?”

“Zhu Er, that’s not what I meant,” Yu Changqing looked helplessly at her sister, “A man of integrity carries no blame for possessing a jewel…”

“If it’s given to me by the Divine Doctor, I’d like to see who dares snatch it,” Yu Changzhu spoke loudly, then with a twinkle in her eye, “If you’re not afraid of the Divine Doctor, he has even more Spirit Stones, so why bother snatching mine?”

Feng Jun couldn’t help but cough dryly, “Zhu Er… if you knew to speak less, you’d be even more adorable.”

Yu Changqing spread her hands helplessly toward Feng Jun, giving a wry smile, “She’s spoiled by me, but she’s actually very good natured.”

“Alright, the Spirit Stone is for you,” Feng Jun casually threw it, and a pink crystal flew straight toward Yu Changzhu, hanging suspended in the air before her.

Yu Changzhu reached out and caught the Spirit Stone, bowing gratefully to Feng Jun with a beaming smile, “Thank you, Divine Doctor.”

Then she held the Spirit Stone, turning it over and over, smiling brightly.

Yu Changqing felt a bit embarrassed by her sister’s behavior—please, it’s just half a Spirit Stone, right?

But in fact, even half a Spirit Stone was not bad at all… the Wonderful Hand Pavilion wanted to do away with Feng Jun, and it was relying on this half a Spirit Stone.

Seeing Yu Changzhu accept the Spirit Stone, Feng Jun lifted his chin toward Yu Changqing, “Your Simplified Version Gathering Spirit Array… may I take a look?”

This sect property was something Yu Changqing guarded closely, not allowing others to touch lightly. She was naturally cautious, and if something went wrong, she could not afford the consequences.

However, she found it truly hard to refuse Feng Jun. Firstly, they had a good personal relationship, and secondly, the sect valued him greatly—otherwise, she would not be carrying the Spirit Gathering Array with her.

So she slapped the Storage Talisman, and suddenly, an Array Plate the size of a tire appeared on the table with a creak, causing the table to groan and its legs to shudder violently.

“Such a big Array Plate?” Feng Jun’s eyes widened slightly, “It seems… quite heavy?”

“It’s the simplified version after all,” Yu Changqing said lightly, “Not that heavy, less than three hundred jin, practical.”

Immortals are indeed immortals; even such weight is considered nothing!

Feng Jun stretched out his hand, gently touching the Array Plate, and casually asked, “How durable is this thing… I mean, how long can it be used?”

“I’m not very certain,” Yu Changqing shook her head, pausing to think before speaking again, “This Array Plate… might be five years old? It is said that the longest-used Array Plate lasted more than thirty years.”

“Truly practical indeed,” Feng Jun nodded with a smile, while mentally commanding—exit~

The next moment, he found himself back in the Earth Realm, looking at the huge Array Plate before him, he smiled, “It took quite an effort to bring it here.”

He couldn’t learn the Sweet Dew Talisman in a short time; he had no other choice but to set his sights on the Spirit Gathering Array.

The Spirit Gathering Array and the Sweet Dew Talisman share a similar essence, both capable of concentrating Spiritual Energy, but the Spirit Gathering Array clearly gathers more Spiritual Energy than the Sweet Dew Talisman.

Feng Jun would not actually take others’ treasures for nothing, but he had brought the Spirit Gathering Array with him, and since time was paused on that side, using it here would at most wear it down a little, which was no big deal.

The Spirit Gathering Array was a public asset of the Wuyou Platform, not Yu Changqing’s personal property, so he didn’t need to explain to the other party.

He had technically given away half a Spirit Stone, which could be considered the rental payment.

No matter what, he quietly took possession of the item without too much guilt—of course, it wasn’t something he could say he was entirely proud of. He could only tell himself that if he had asked to borrow it directly, they certainly wouldn’t have lent it to him. It was a matter of urgent circumstances calling for desperate measures.

After transporting the Spirit Gathering Array, his first reaction was: Can this thing be replicated?

However, after studying it for half a day, he was disheartened to find that this gadget… probably couldn’t be replicated.

The patterns and designs on it were all inscribed using Spiritual Energy, and some of the things similar to talismans were drawn on it. Not to mention the strangely colored talisman ink, which was unlike anything that the Earth Plane had to offer.

Even the Array Plate itself was made of extremely special material, with part of it composed of Profound Iron, as well as peculiar stones and wood, which he estimated couldn’t be found on Earth as substitutes.

After analyzing for some time, he temporarily set aside the thought of replicating it and placed the Array Plate into a specially made large bag, taking it to a low-lying cement area—this was where he planned to practice in the short term.

Feng Jun placed the Array Plate on a stone table, put a Spirit Stone on the Array Eye, and activated the Formation.

Before long, the originally hot and dry air became somewhat cooler, and it seemed as if something was flowing through the air, but it felt like an illusion upon closer sensation.

However, Feng Jun could feel that the surrounding Spiritual Energy was gradually becoming denser. The rate of increase was slow, but it was indeed growing.

Two hours later, the crows around the villa sensed the changes here and flew over, flapping their wings.

By nightfall, the change in Spiritual Energy finally stabilized, and its concentration was not insignificant—easily more than ten to eighteen times denser than that of Mount Zhige. It was evident that the Earth Realm was not entirely devoid of Spiritual Energy, just extremely barren.

The range covered by the Spirit Gathering Array was roughly a ten-meter radius semicircle. Beyond this range, the concentration of Spiritual Energy declined significantly, though it was still denser than further away.

Feng Jun could finally sit cross-legged and breathe in Spiritual Energy. This method of absorbing Spiritual Energy was far superior to the energy he gained by consuming food.

Of course, compared to the “Heaven-Swallowing Formation” composed of twenty-seven Spirit Stones, these amounts of Spiritual Energy seemed rather insignificant.

In fact, the Devouring Primordial Heaven Technique didn’t necessarily require the Heaven-Swallowing Formation for cultivation. The “swallowing heaven” part of the technique was the essence, as the denser the surrounding Spiritual Energy, the faster the growth in cultivation level.

It was only necessary to use the Heaven-Swallowing Formation when advancing to a higher level or breaking through a barrier.

That involved not just the issue of Spiritual Energy but also compatibility with the cultivation technique. In essence, the Heaven-Swallowing Formation was a unique array designed for the Devouring Primordial Heaven Technique, but it wasn’t true that this technique could only be practiced within the formation—it could be cultivated even while eating.

While cultivating within the Spirit Gathering Array, Feng Jun did not initially care about absorbing and transporting Spiritual Energy but was very cautious in probing the upper limit of the Spirit Gathering Array.

He quickly found out that the amount of Spiritual Energy was approximately one-sixth that of the Heaven-Swallowing Formation. If he exceeded this rate of absorption, the Spirit Gathering Array could not ensure a sufficient supply of Spiritual Energy from the outside for a cultivator’s practice.

In other words, the Spiritual Energy brought by such a Spirit Gathering Array was equivalent to having four to five coalescing Spirit Stones. The total amount of Spiritual Energy that Feng Jun consumed in the large array over three days would take about twenty days to accumulate in the Spirit Gathering Array.

This speed was much more efficient than his previous method of frantically consuming food.

As for the Heaven-Swallowing Formation, Feng Jun decided not to use it unless necessary.

The next morning, as the sky began to brighten, he stopped cultivating and shut down the Spirit Gathering Array.

Observing the surroundings, sure enough, besides himself, many of the local plants and animals had also benefited, especially the bamboo that had only been planted a couple of days before. Some individual plants had grown half a foot taller overnight!

The effective radius of the Spirit Gathering Array wasn’t very large, but beyond the range of the formation, the concentration of Spiritual Energy decreased in steps, rather than sharply. The reason wasn’t difficult to understand: only if the concentration of surrounding Spiritual Energy increased could the Spirit Gathering Array gather enough Spiritual Energy.

Without surrounding Spiritual Energy, from where would the Spirit Gathering Array obtain such high-quality Spiritual Energy?

Many insects on the plants appeared invigorated, while more beneath them perished.

Feng Jun did not pay attention to these insects—the crows would take care of these remnants for him.

After closing down the Spirit Gathering Array, the Spiritual Energy began to dissipate slowly. However, the dispersion was slow, much slower than the speed at which the Spirit Gathering Array attracted the Spiritual Energy—perhaps, because this place was in a valley?

Feng Jun hid the Spirit Gathering Array under a rock, turned around, and went to the villa to sleep and recharge.

Upon waking in the afternoon, he returned to this place and noticed that the plants had grown even more robust, and most of the Spiritual Energy gathered yesterday remained.

After pondering for a moment, he went back to find Li Xiaobin and asked her to purchase some fresh and precious medicinal herbs like ginseng and fleece-flower root.

In the following days, he was more focused on observing the changes brought to the valley by the Spirit Gathering Array than being in a hurry to cultivate.

The Spiritual Energy in the valley became denser day by day, and the plants grew better and better. Even the newly planted ginseng and fleece-flower root thrived without showing any signs of failing to adapt to the soil and climate.

(Update to call for double monthly tickets.)