Chapter 1985: Rebirth
White light flashed as the figure of three people appeared. There were no welcoming flowers, applause, nor people to welcome them. Zhao Hai arrived in the True Spirit Realm in a quiet manner.
As soon as he arrived in the True Spirit Realm, Zhao Hai immediately felt a huge pressure. The pressure was so great that he almost couldn’t stand still. At this time, not to mention flying, he wasn’t even sure if he could walk without struggling.
Seeing Zhao Hai’s situation, the Yin Elder waved his hand and covered Zhao Hai with a white light. Then he said, “Come with me.”
When Zhao Hai was covered by the white light, he immediately felt the pressure around him vanish. He quickly responded to the Yin Elder, “Yes”. Then he hastily followed behind the Yin Yang Elders as he sized up the location he appeared in.
They seemed to have appeared inside a courtyard. However, it was much larger compared to the courtyards he had seen. The courtyard was divided into the main room, east room, and west room. In the middle was a huge tree that looked like it had lived for a very long time. The tree trunk was around ten meters in diameter. Its branches and leaves were full of vitality.
What’s surprising for Zhao Hai was that the courtyard didn’t have a stone floor. Instead, the floor was dirt. But the dirt seemed to be frequently stepped on, making it dark and compact.
Under the huge tree of the courtyard were two praying mats. The praying mats were faded, indicating that they had been used for a long time. However, it was clear that they had been cleaned frequently because they weren’t covered in dust.
Zhao Hai continued to follow the Yin Yang Elders as he inspected the surroundings. When they left the courtyard, Zhao Hai was stunned. He only paid attention to the courtyard and failed to notice where it was located. The courtyard was actually halfway up a mountain. Behind it was a mountain peak. Besides the courtyard, there wasn’t anything else. On the side was a pathway that led down the mountain. The pathway wasn’t wide and was carved out of the mountainside. There were weeds on both sides of the path making it look abandoned.
The Yin Yang Elders didn’t lead Zhao Hai down the mountain. Instead, they walked along the outer wall of the courtyard until they reached the back area. After turning a corner, Zhao Hai discovered that there was a small cave on the mountain wall. The entrance to the cave was two meters wide and three meters high. The area inside the cave wasn’t large at about 100 square meters. But Zhao Hai could see that there was a spring and a pool inside.
When the three entered the cave, Zhao Hai saw the entirety of it. Inside were two pools, one big and one small. In the middle of the small pool was a bubbling spring. The big pool was about five meters away from the spring. The cave was relatively low and it looked like it was excavated manually. The water flowed out of the small pool and into the big pool. There was also an outlet of water from the big pool. As for where the excess water went, Zhao Hai didn’t know.
At this time, the Yin Elder looked at Zhao Hai and said, “Little Hai, take off your clothes and enter the big pool. Soak in it for seven days before coming out.”
Although Zhao Hai was confused, he quickly complied and took off his clothes. He initially wanted to keep his underwear but he was told by the Yin Elder to remove everything. He could only enter the big pool naked.
Seeing Zhao Hai enter the pool, the Yin Yang Elders nodded before leaving. At this moment, Zhao Hai already closed his eyes and meditated.
As soon as Zhao Hai entered the pool, he immediately felt a change. He found that the water in the pool transformed into strands of energy that penetrated his body. He wanted to use his spiritual qi to block it, but it was impossible. He used all kinds of techniques but all of them were useless against this energy. It seemed to be invisible and shadowless. It easily invaded Zhao Hai’s body.
Not long after, Zhao Hai discovered that the energy that entered his body didn’t stay. After revolving around his meridians, the energy exited his body. He didn’t understand what was going on. He immediately closed his eyes to sense what was going on.
Actually, Zhao Hai doesn’t know that the laws in the True Spirit Realm were much stronger than the ones in the Soaring Dragon Realm. Compared to the pressure in the Soaring Dragon Realm, the pressure in the True Spirit Realm was multiple times more. This was the reason he struggled to walk when he arrived.
The pool that Zhao Hai was bathing in was known as the Cleansing Pool. The True Spirit Realm was abundant in these pools. There were even Cleansing Pools so large that they were called Cleansing Lakes.
Water in Cleansing Pools and Cleansing Lakes were no different compared to other fresh water. Even the people of the True Spirit Realm treat the water in Cleansing Pools as ordinary water. But to people who ascended from the Soaring Dragon Realm, the water in Cleansing Pools was important. Cleansing Pools can wash off toxins in their bodies and allow them to adapt quicker to the pressure of the True Spirit Realm. This was the same as a rebirth for their bodies. It was also because of this process that the first stage of cultivation in the True Spirit Realm was called the rebirth stage.
The Yin Yang Elders didn’t say anything about Cleansing Pools to Zhao Hai. Because of this, Zhao Hai became anxious when he felt the pool’s energy invading his body.
By this point, Zhao Hai was no longer nervous about the pool. He already confirmed that the pool wasn’t doing harm to his body. Conversely, after the strands of energy entered his body, he could feel that his spiritual qi was being compressed. His spiritual force was also being compacted. By this point, the spiritual qi and spiritual force inside Zhao Hai’s body has been compressed to a tenth of their original quant.i.ty.
Although his spiritual qi has been cut to a tenth, Zhao Hai was aware that his strength didn’t decrease at all.
Most importantly, Zhao Hai discovered that the spiritual qi he could absorb from the pool seems to be the compressed version, which was different to the spiritual qi that he was used to.
Although Zhao Hai was surprised, he didn’t dwell on it for long. He knew that the water was conditioning his body to adapt to the environment of the True Spirit Realm as soon as possible.
As he thought of this, Zhao Hai immediately took some water and sent it to the s.p.a.ce. The moment it entered the s.p.a.ce, a prompt was heard, “High-level adapting water detected. Can be used to adjust materials to adapt to the laws of the True Spirit Realm.”
Hearing the prompt, Zhao Hai’s heart jumped with joy. The prompt might be short, but the message it brought was very crucial. The water’s ability to make things adapt to the laws of the True Spirit Realm might not be very useful to other people, but it was a great help for Zhao Hai. Other people would have no further need of this water since their bodies have already been cleansed. But for Zhao Hai, the water allowed him to adapt the materials in the s.p.a.ce to be used in the True Spirit Realm.
Zhao Hai worried that the materials in the s.p.a.ce would be too low-level for the True Spirit Realm. When he felt the pressure of the True Spirit Realm, he could feel that most of the materials in the s.p.a.ce would never be able to survive. When he takes them out, they would be rejected by the laws and be turned to ash. As for the Undead, there’s no need to mention them. He couldn’t even release Undead below the immortal stage.
But after obtaining this cleansing water, the s.p.a.ce would be able to adjust. With this, Zhao Hai would be able to take things out of the s.p.a.ce.
While Zhao Hai was feeling happy about the prompt, another prompt was heard, “High level plane discovered. Adjusting water discovered. The s.p.a.ce will update. The update will take seven days. While the process is ongoing, the Host can only use basic functions of the s.p.a.ce. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
It was a prompt that Zhao Hai hadn’t heard before. Zhao Hai didn’t think that the s.p.a.ce could level up in this way. Right after the prompt, a string of numbers appeared that counted down. Under the numbers was a progress bar that showed less than a percent of progress.
Zhao Hai didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Then he quickly called out with his thoughts, “Laura, Laura, can you hear me?”
Because the s.p.a.ce was undergoing its evolution, Zhao Hai was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to get in contact with Laura and the others. If that was the case, Zhao Hai would be worried for the entire seven days.
Fortunately, a reply from Laura came, “Brother Hai, we can hear you. It seems like the s.p.a.ce’s upgrade doesn’t have a great effect on us. You don’t have to worry.”
Zhao Hai let out a sigh of relief as he replied, “That’s good.” Then after exchanging a few more words with Laura, he returned his focus on the Cleansing Pool.
Time pa.s.sed and Zhao Hai discovered that the water of the pool seemed to decrease. However, he wasn’t worried about it. And on the seventh day, he almost couldn’t feel the energy of the water. It seems like his transformation would finish soon.
At this time, Zhao Hai heard footsteps heading towards him. From the sound of the footsteps, it seems to be the Yin Yang Elders. But Zhao Hai didn’t get out of the pool. He didn’t know if it was time for him to come out or not.
However, Zhao Hai still opened his eyes. When he opened his eyes, Zhao Hai saw the Yin Yang Elders entering the cave. When the two saw the pool Zhao Hai was in, their expressions couldn’t help but change. Then the Yin Elder looked at Zhao Hai and asked, “Little Hai, do you feel anything?”
Zhao Hai shook his head and said, “Master, I no longer feel anything. It feels like I’m only soaking in ordinary water.”
The Yang Elder quickly asked, “How about before this? Did you feel anything?”
Zhao Hai paused for a moment and said, “I feel strands of energy in the water entering my body. I wanted to block it but I was not able to. As time pa.s.sed, the strands seemed to become fewer and fewer. Then today I could no longer feel them.”
Hearing Zhao Hai’s explanation, the faces of the Yin Yang Elders relaxed. Then all of a sudden, their expression turned serious. As they looked at Zhao Hai, four characters suddenly appeared in their minds: Innate Dao Body!(先天道体)
Cultivators pay great attention to their spiritual roots. Spirit roots were divided into three types, Heaven, Earth, and Mortal. Heaven-grade spiritual roots were the highest followed by Earth-grade and then Mortal-grade was the worst. Spiritual roots don’t follow the rule of the less the better. On the contrary, having a single spiritual root would cause an imbalance of the yin-yang and five elements inside the body. In this case, the person would not be able to live for a long time. Even if they cultivated, they wouldn’t have a lot of success. To a cultivator, a lack of spiritual roots was akin to malnutrition. Not only would it be detrimental to the body, it would also cause the body to acc.u.mulate excessive spiritual qi, causing the person to burn their life force.
For a cultivator in the True Spirit Realm, having a certain spiritual root doesn’t mean that they only have that one spiritual root. Instead, it meant that their body was most suitable for that certain element of spiritual root. For example, you have metal, wood, water, fire, and earth spiritual roots, but if your body was very close to the earth element, then your progress in earth element techniques would be greater. Naturally, this doesn’t mean that you need to stop practicing other elements. If you fall into a situation where the elements in your body become imbalanced, then you would become crazy. Even if you survived, there would be backlash from the earth element. There was even a possibility where the earth element overflows, which would turn you into stone.
The level of the spiritual root is related to the cultivator’s compatibility with it. If you only have one or two compatible spiritual roots, then this means that you have Mortal-grade spiritual roots. And because you only have one or two spiritual roots that you specialize in, your future progress would be greatly affected.
If you’re compatible with four spiritual roots, then you would have Earth-grade spiritual roots. Compared to those with Mortal-grade spiritual roots, cultivators with Earth-grade spiritual roots would have greater progress in cultivation. Having more than five and below seven spiritual roots meant that you would have Heaven-grade spiritual roots. Such people were extremely rare. They were referred to as geniuses in the True Spirit Realm.
Why would people with more spiritual roots be geniuses? Shouldn’t they be too distracted with too many elements and end up mastering nothing? This was a misunderstanding that most people have. The more compatible spiritual roots you have, the better your future would be. Cultivators live longer compared to mortals. This longevity is also related to how many spiritual roots a cultivator is compatible with!