Fang Yuan was extremely experienced in cooking spiritual rice.
However, he did not know what to expect from the Flame Jade Rice. For instance, the heat had to be brought up to cook it.
If he did not prepare enough Flame Jade Rice, he was afraid he would undercook and waste the first pot of spiritual rice, which would be a joke!
"Hu!"
Once the spiritual rice became cooked, Fang Yuan lifted the pot cover, and an intense heatwave came out of the pot.
"Keke!"
"Chirp! Chirp!"
The Flower Fox Ferret and Iron-tailed Black Eagle gathered around and stared at the cooked Flame Jade Rice.
In the pot, grains of spiritual rice were glowing red, and were of a much larger size than before, like a lychee. It was crystal clear, and there seemed to be a tiny flame in within.
"Why does this feel like I am making spiritual pills?"
In spending time guiding his disciple, he slowly understood Lu Renjia"s alchemy techniques and felt that cooking this pot of spiritual rice was rather similar to making spiritual pills, and the end products of the two processes were rather similar as well.
"Of course... Spiritual rice is grown naturally and will, therefore, be better than a normal pill. Furthermore, it can be eaten as a staple, but for a pill, one still has to be worried if it is poisonous..."
He took out two grains of spiritual rice and distributed them to the Flower Fox Ferret and Iron-tailed Black Eagle. He then took one grain for himself and stuffed it in his mouth.
"Wu!"
This rice was crispy and fragrant. Needless to say, its taste was wonderful. More importantly, after unsh.e.l.ling the rice, it was as though a burning flame exploded in his mouth, through his throat and down to his stomach. His Dantian became warm, like a small fireball in it.
"Wonderful spiritual property!"
With such a strong replenishment of spiritual energy, it was easily many times more beneficial than the Vermilion Jade Rice, which made Fang Yuan"s eyes glitter.
Even with his astonis.h.i.+ng magical energy, he could still feel that the elemental force in his Dantian was being stimulated, becoming just a little stronger than before.
"This scale... It is much larger than the spiritual tea in the Secluded Mountain Prefecture..."
Fang Yuan touched his forehead and his hand became moist. He was beginning to sweat.
"If I consume this on a daily basis, it will train my fire element and cleanse my bone marrow! Furthermore..."
His eyes flashed and he gestured something with his hands.
"Chila!"
A small flame appeared at his fingertips.
"Fire-type spiritual spells... I"ve learnt it?"
Fang Yuan was extremely interested in spiritual spells. He had read up all about it in the Secluded Mountain Prefecture and took down mental notes of it.
Liu Yan was a fire-type spiritual knight himself. Although he did not teach his secret spiritual spells, he did not reject Fang Yuan"s plea to learn a few basic spiritual spells used by spiritual disciples.
Spiritual spells were the hardest to learn, and as Fang Yuan tried to harness it, he encountered immense difficulties.
However, this time, with the stimulation of the spiritual spells, he felt that he understood fire-type cultivation even more, and he could even feel the fire-type force in the Heavens and Earth. It was a different path from dream accessing and harnessing wood-type spiritual spells, but the end goal was the same. All of them were equally profound.
"This Flame Jade Rice is fire-type. If I consume it for a long period, I would be able to increase my fire-type experience..."
Fang Yuan rubbed his chin and was in deep thought. "If Liu Yan knew about this, he would spend a fortune just to get his hands on these!"
He was already at the peak of the Elemental Gathering Realm and was just one step from Elemental Breaking Realm.
However, this last step was arduous!
In order to get a.s.sistance to have even the slightest chance to break through, he would s.n.a.t.c.h or steal this Flame Jade Rice if he knew of its existence.
"Keke!"
"Chirp! Chirp!"
While Fang Yuan was lost in his thoughts, he suddenly became aware and realised that the Flower Fox Ferret and the Iron-tailed Black Eagle had eaten half of the entire pot of Flame Jade Rice, and was a little frustrated. "Hmph... Both of you didn"t leave anything for me!"
He joined them in the queue to s.n.a.t.c.h for more.
This Flame Jade Rice was extremely filling. Every grain was as big as a lychee, and he became full after eating 7 to 8 grains of it. Seeing the Flower Fox Ferret and Iron-tailed Black Eagle both slowing down to slowing chew on it, he then remembered to slowly savour the taste of it.
"With my qualifications, if I focus on cultivating fire-type spiritual spells, I should be able to be on par with Liu Yan in less than 20 years!"
After the meal, Fang Yuan felt that he understood more about the Flame Jade Rice"s benefits.
"Of course, by purely training as a spiritual knight would be too dumb and a waste of my gifts!"
Fang Yuan"s eyes glittered. "With so much aid from all these spiritual objects, I don"t believe that I cannot break through the bottleneck of a dream master!"
"Chirp! Chirp!"
On the peak of the Green Peak spiritual land, a large flock of Red-eyed White Birds were flying around, flapping their wings and chirping.
As the owners of this entire land, other than hunting, these birds were extremely free, and once in awhile would fly to the river, comb their feathers and play around, as though they enjoy it very much.
In this peaceful environment, a grey shadow took a shortcut and climbed up to the peak of the mountain.
"This Red-eyed White King Bird is about to starve to death, and yet it is still so strong-willed! How troublesome!"
This grey shadow was indeed Fang Yuan!
Without a doubt, this was the dream world of the Red-eyed White Bird.
It was a certain level to be able to awaken and become lucid in one"s own dream world.
However, he was now able to become lucid in someone else"s dream, which meant that he had attained a higher level in his journey as a dream master.
Furthermore, after a few reincarnations as birds and much experimenting, Fang Yuan was able to adopt a human body in the dream and therefore did not have to force himself to adapt to a bird"s life anymore.
Otherwise, if he did this a few more times, he was afraid that he would pick up the habits of the birds and therefore affect his own lifestyle. For instance, the feeling of having wings, or the urge to fly once he was on a cliff.
"The Elemental Gathering Realm of a dream master is split into two parts. The first is dream accessing, and the second is dream building!"
A dream-accessing master can enter the dream of anything with a spirit. Editing the dream world and creating imagery would be for a dream-building master!
"When a person is dreaming, he would put his guard down. By building a similar scene to the person"s dream, one would be able to steal secrets... This is the most basic use of dream building. Who could tell the difference between reality and imagery? The true essence of dream building is mashed-up memories!"
Fang Yuan approached the top of the cliff. He was already familiar with the terrain, as he aimed at the platform and jumped.
"Ping!"
After falling for a while, he landed on his feet first and did a somersault.
"Chirp! Chirp!"
The sound attracted the attention of the Red-eyed White Birds, and a few white birds chirped and rushed towards him.
"Get lost!"
Fang Yuan struck his hands as claws and aimed at the birds.
"Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+"
His ambush broke the skull of the Red-eyed White Birds, which fell to the ground. Fang Yuan continued to rush towards the king bird"s nest cave.
Ultimately, this was the Red-eyed King Bird"s dream and it was alert. Therefore, Fang Yuan"s ability here was only that of a 4 Heavenly Gate martial artist.
But that was enough!
"The king bird is now out hunting and have yet to return. Of course, it would return shortly... This is because the eggs in its nest are about to hatch. It will need to rush back to let the chicks see it at first sight!"
Fang Yuan smiled.
Birds had a specific habit. The newborns will treat whoever they see first as their parents, and would become more intimate with them.
"Chirp! Chirp!"
Outside, there was the shriek of birds. The Golden Crown King Bird had returned and realised something which made it very angry.
"Wait out there! Dream building!"
At this moment, Fang Yuan felt that he had increased control over this dream world, and started to affect the cave.
"Eagle Claw!"
"Rumble!"
As his claw struck, the opening of the cave crumbled and large rocks fell and covered the entrance of the cave. The Golden Crown King Bird was frustrated but could do nothing.
"I want... light!"
Fang Yuan mumbled a few words and suddenly, the entire cave was lighted up by a warm light.
"Chh! Chh!"
At this moment, in the next, a few huge eggs started to wobble, and cracks appeared on the eggsh.e.l.ls. Small beaks protruded and slowly pecked at the sh.e.l.l, forming small holes.
"That"s right, keep it up!"
Fang Yuan approached the nest and observed.
"Kacha! Kacha!"
Accompanying the distinct cracking sounds, the eggsh.e.l.ls cracked and revealed chicks with little to no feathers. There were still pink little chicks.
Seeing the baby chicks, no one could imagine that one of them would eventually go on to become a red-eyed white king bird.
"Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!"
As the chicks opened their eyes, they carved an impression of Fang Yuan in their little minds.
"Good chicks!"
Not only that, Fang Yuan even stretched out his arm and stroked them one by one, making the chicks remember his breath.
In the cave, Fang Yuan opened his eyes.
At the same time, the Red-eyed White King Bird in front of him opened its eyes too. As it looked at Fang Yuan, it was weird. It did not have the fierce look it once had, but rather, a kind look.
"Good... here, have some food!"
Fang Yuan smiled and pa.s.sed it a bamboo fruit and a few grains of Flame Jade Rice.
"Chirp! Chirp!"
The Red-eyed White King Bird chirped weakly and obediently opened its beak to eat the food.
"It"s done!"
Seeing this scene, Fang Yuan was overjoyed. He knew that the Red-eyed White King Bird had fully accepted him.
"Who would"ve known that this attempt at changing its memories would be so successful. Luckily, I had prepared myself mentally for this..."
Although the dream world was different from memories, a lie repeated a thousand times would become the truth. As long as he continuously convinced it in its dream many times, the Red-eyed White King Bird would confuse its dream world with its memories.
Furthermore, this spiritual bird"s mind was more innocent than that of a human, and it would be easier to work on it.
The only thing the Fang Yuan didn"t expect was that he would succeed on the first try!
"Very good... This Red-eyed White King Bird has the capabilities of a 4 Heavenly Gate martial artist, and would even be on par with a 12th Gate martial artist when it is raged! Furthermore, it is a spiritual bird and has the ability to fly, and can also control the flock of red-eyed white birds. I have another strong aide now!"
Since he had tamed the Red-eyed White King Bird, Fang Yuan immediately released the chains on it and fed it with large amounts of spiritual food for it to recover.
"I have now entered the stage of a dream-building master, and just lack practice on a human"s dream... I still cannot be considered experienced..."
Fang Yuan knew his own abilities well. Half a month after the first harvest of the Flame Jade Rice, his cultivation was improved quickly.