Rising from Small Cloud Rain Technique

Chapter 272: Chapter 251: Excavation

The Golden Feathered Eagle sensed its master’s joy, causing its crest feathers to stand on end, shimmering with a soft golden radiance as the strands of feathers danced in the sunset.

It let out a cry, soaring over the verdant plains, flying towards the distant fiery red land.

The spirit pines, resembling clusters of fire clouds, swept across the sky, giving a sensation of walking upon the heavens.

In the gourd field, the neat gourd trellises stood like ranks of soldiers, with purple gourds peeking from beneath the leaves.

Several spirit vines shimmered, revealing themselves as Tier Two Spirit Plants.

Now, Red Flame Peak consistently produces Tier Two Purple Fire Gourds annually, making gourd cultivation a pillar industry.

“Lower the altitude and land in the gourd field.”

Ji An patted the beast he was riding, intending to wander the spirit field to inspect the soil’s dryness.

All Tier Two Spirit Fields were personally overseen by him, with none entrusted to others.

The Golden Feathered Eagle began to decelerate, ultimately landing steadily on a clearing.

It landed with a few running steps like an airplane, without any feeling of turbulence.

This service is indeed thorough.

Ji An lifted his leg and jumped off the beast, chuckling:

“Tomorrow, let’s have Yu Lian purchase some fresh Foundation Establishment Deer meat, to reward you handsomely!”

The Golden Feathered Eagle let out a clear chirp and shook its head.

Ji An raised his eyebrows slightly and laughed:

“Still yearning for the thrill of hunting? You better let it go.”

Through the blood contract, he fully understood the beast’s thoughts.

Foundation Establishment Deer Demons often eat plants, but when faced with life-threatening danger, who knows what survival tactics they might deploy.

If they damaged the Tier Two Spirit Plants here, it would be substantial loss.

Ji An walked through the spirit field, occasionally bending down to grab a handful of red soil to feel the moisture, quickly inspecting half an acre of the spirit field.

He sprinkled the nearby piled red sand into the spirit field, then unleashed the Thick Earth Returning Origin Spell.

This red sand contained the bodies of Fire Crystal Ants.

The warm yellow spirit light mixed with the soil, channeling the earth’s qi, nurturing the subtle depths; everything was concealed beneath the earth.

These spirit ants grew in this land, and after growing old, returned to be ’buried’ here, a symbol of falling leaves returning to their roots.

With a change in the dharma seal in his hand, Ji An’s movements had a particular elegance.

The white mist barely covering the gourd field churned, revealing a golden crystal inside.

The spring breeze turned into rain, with droplets falling with a splash on the leaves like shattered jade beads, the sound clear and crisp, soundlessly seeping into the soil.

The spirit rain only lasted a moment before stopping, the mist dissipating.

Ji An bent down once more to grab a handful of soil, feeling its texture, and nodded in satisfaction.

He now not only could control the extent of the rain but also its timing precisely.

He paced with folded arms, while the breeze meandered, and his shadow followed among the fields.

He approached the nest of Fire Crystal Ants and released his presence.

Currently, this spirit field had ninety-six Tier Two Red Cloud Pine, all spirit woods in the middle-grade spirit field had advanced to Tier Two.

With such a nurturing of high-tier spirit wood, the Ant Queen had grown to the Fourth-Layer of Foundation Establishment.

The number of Fire Crystal Ants had slightly decreased, only about two hundred seventy eighty thousand.

This was because as Tier Two Spirit Plants increased, more spirit pines had to be felled to ensure the spirit field could sustain them.

While the quantity had decreased, the quality of the ant colony improved significantly, with several demon ants of the Foundation Establishment level emerging.

Moments later, an Ant Queen, as robust as a thigh, crawled out from the hole, extending its antennae excitedly to touch its master’s palm.

Because of the blood contract, although it didn’t see its master often, it was still very attached to him.

Unlike the Ant Queens on Earth, though this queen was very plump, it didn’t impair its mobility.

If combat was required, it could even expel the ’fat’ from its body in a short period.

Ji An communicated spiritually with the Ant Queen, his brows slightly lifted.

The Ant Queen informed him that the Fire Crystal Ant colony had opened a passage to the underground, discovering a strange blue plant growing amidst the magma.

’Tonight I’ll bring Golden Fur here, have the soldier ants guide it to dig a tunnel!’

Ji An immediately made a decision, plants growing in magma are mostly fire element spiritual plants, typically red.

A blue spirit plant thriving amidst flames should be a treasure plant or a curiosity.

…

After dinner, Ji An hurried to the underground cavern.

The Soul Nourishing Wood was now two feet seven inches tall, approximately two fingers thick when pressed together.

It had truly rooted itself in the ground, with around seventy to eighty leaves.

The moon had not yet risen, the cavern slightly dim, Ji An activated the Thick Earth Returning Origin Spell, a yellow spirit light rippling out.

The black leaves of the Soul Nourishing Wood emitted a purple sheen, and the nearby Earth Spirit Fruit Tree glowed even brighter.

“Golden Fur, come with me, big business awaits!”

Golden Fur leapt onto its master’s shoulder, its fluffy large tail swayed along.

It did not understand what big business was, only recognizing that when its master spoke with such a tone, it was time for it to exert its strength.

For the Spirit-Seeking Rat, hard work was nothing, for the reward was excellent, and it had the chance to eat some top-grade Earth Spirit Fruits!

Ji An released the Wind Control Technique, flying out of the underground cavern.

Not yet at the cave’s entrance, he fished out the flying shuttle from his storage bag.

He found the Rock Armor Bear in a nearby cave, “Dahuang, come with me.”

Saying so, he tossed out a fist-sized dark red pill.

Dahuang had been napping but immediately perked up at the scent of the pill, lunging forward to swallow it.

Now it has reached the Ninth-Layer Perfection of the Qi Refining realm, truly a robust worker.

How could it be left out of the tedious task of digging holes!

Ji An cast a spell to activate the Flying Shuttle, and once the two beasts jumped on, they headed straight for the ant nest.

He didn’t activate the spiritual energy shield of the Flying Shuttle, letting the wild wind howl past his ears.

…

The crescent moon peeked out from the mountains, as the Flying Shuttle landed at the ant nest, the Ant Queen and several strong soldier ants were already waiting at the entrance.

Ji An tossed out a Spirit Feeding Pill the size of a pigeon egg, and Golden Fur leaped up to swallow it without even showing a swallowing motion.

“Squeak squeak!”

Now this small pill couldn’t fully satisfy the appetite of the Spirit-Seeking Rat.

“Work well later, and every three days you’ll be rewarded with a Top-Grade Spirit Fruit!”

“Squeak,” Golden Fur stood up nodding its little head, its fluffy large tail wagging.

“Woof!”

Dahuang opened its mouth wide, sitting on the ground with its scarlet tongue hanging out.

“Of course, you’re included!”

Ji An communicated mentally with the Ant Queen, forming a three-dimensional map in his mind.

He chose a spot and said softly:

“Let’s start working!”

The spirit plants nurtured within the magma are very precious, and the fewer people know, the better, so he didn’t call on Huang Xuan and others to participate in the excavation.

This task, he personally undertakes.

Saying this, he cast the Golden Light Technique, and beams of crescent moon blade-like golden light shot out, piercing into the rocks.

The Great Perfection Level Golden Light Technique, when used for stone excavation, was also quite the ’expert’.

The smaller the spell form, the stronger its damage; now it required not damage, but faster excavation.

After crisscrossing several spells consecutively, Ji An shouted in a low voice:

“Golden Fur!”

The beast understood instantly, rushing up to lift its sharp claws, effortlessly inserting them into the rocks.

The muscles on its body knotted, pulling back with little effort, it hauled out a stone larger than its body.

Though it was small, lifting a seven to eight hundred jin heavy object was no problem.

With gaps appearing between the stones, things got easier from there.

Dahuang moved forward, bear-hugging a stone to fling it far away.

Under the moonlight, Ji An led the two beasts, working diligently.

By the time the sky began to brighten, they had excavated an approximately forty-zhang deep, one-zhang diameter semi-circular tunnel.

The tunnel had a slope of about 45 degrees, quite steep and winding.

“Squeak squeak!”

Golden Fur bared its teeth, letting out a protesting roar.

The deeper the excavation, the hotter the rocks became.

Dahuang, a mutated demon beast, wasn’t afraid of such high temperatures, but Golden Fur couldn’t bear it.

Ji An felt the spiritual power of the pill was completely refined and immediately stopped cultivating, opening his eyes.

Doing ’construction work’ was no easy task, and he had exhausted his magical power several times.

The tunnel was very stuffy; though he didn’t feel it when activating the Evergreen Wood Skill, it now felt uncomfortable.

He cast a spell, releasing the Cold Wind Technique.

The rocks immediately sizzled, white frost formed on the rock walls, only to quickly melt away.

Repeating this a few times, the tunnel’s temperature dropped significantly, and the rocks were no longer scorching.

An all-purpose magic cultivator’s life is comfortable, Ji An thought smugly.

Generally speaking, only when a cultivator reaches the Chao Origin period do they have a chance to become omnipotent, but due to time constraints, they’re not truly proficient in many spells.

But he was different; by the time he broke through to the Chao Origin stage, who knew how much Spiritual Mechanism he could accumulate.

Though raising Chao Origin Stage Techniques to the Great Perfection Level might be difficult, enhancing one or two Five Elements Magic Techniques to Perfection Level for each type should be easy.

Excavation speed had slowed down considerably, so Ji An exited the cave and checked the current weather.

He took out the Communication Talisman Sword, recorded a message, and then launched it, informing Xia Yu Lian that he wouldn’t have breakfast today and that the Red Cloud Pine Forest was off-limits to others.

Ji An returned to the cave, periodically casting the Cold Wind Technique to cool down, maintaining the excavation.

About half an hour later, he cast the Golden Light Technique again to cut the rock, immediately sensing a rich flow of fire element spiritual energy seeping from the gap, faintly revealing a red hue behind the crevice.

His heart leaped with joy, the results were soon to be seen!

As the heat wave surged, Golden Fur darted backward.

It didn’t dare to activate the Earth Element Technique because navigating through this scalding rock was a disaster, possibly getting stuck in the stone forever.

“Move aside!”

Ji An shouted, casting the Golden Light Technique to carve out a square hole, and then pushed forcefully.

As the stone slab fell, waves of heat rushed out, mingling with a substantial amount of fire evil qi.

The flame’s color lit up his gaze as he peered in, seeing a magma pool about a zhang in area, with a three-foot-tall cyan lotus standing in the center.

The lotus leaves were as large as palm fans, beside it was a lotus flower glowing with spirit light, ready to bloom.

The lotus flower had a fire-like color, its radiance suffused with a dynamic aura.

From time to time, bowl-sized bubbles rose from the magma pool.

Ji An extended his divine sense, cautiously scanning the surroundings.

Even though he didn’t detect any danger, he still activated the Pan Mountain Technique, took out the apricot yellow banner, channeled magical power to protect himself, and then cautiously flew towards the position of the cyan lotus.