Chapter 638 - Retiring After Success
These plants took root in the immortal tomb, some fresh and green, others flickering with silver light, surging with purple energy like clouds, or resplendent golden… Their colors shone brilliant as lightning interwove.
s.h.i.+ Hao’s breathing was rushed. These plants were all too precious!
Every single stalk had different patterns engraved on them. They contained the power of lightning, as well as a trace of immortal dao energy. Lightning radiance flickered about. For those that cultivated lightning precious techniques, they were priceless treasures.
One stalk, two stalks...
s.h.i.+ Hao’s eyes stared blankly. This large expanse contained over a hundred plants. With so many medicinal herbs, it was several times more precious than even the medicinal field of a heavenly deity.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t pluck any of them, because these plants grew on the immortal tomb, a place he couldn’t walk on at all.
s.h.i.+ Hao found it difficult to calm down. The stalk of strange golden gra.s.s he dug up before allowed him to quickly cultivate the Thunderfall Sparrow’s precious technique, possessing divine efficacy.
Now, more than a hundred similar plants stretched out before him. This was even more of a fantasy than a legend. If he could pick them, he would definitely be able to push his lightning dao technique towards the peak.
“Worthy of being the immortal tomb.”
This tomb had existed for endless years already. It was covered in immortal dao lightning energy. After the endless pa.s.sage of time, there were actually plants that grew here one after another.
Of course, if there was an existence buried under the great tomb, then the value would be even greater.
“Could it be that there truly is an undying existence buried inside this tomb, that immortal?” s.h.i.+ Hao said to himself.
The highest point above the tomb was dyed in red true blood. It was sparkling and translucent, radiating scarlet multicolored light like that of gemstones. After the endless pa.s.sage of time, it still released an exuberant aura of life.
The legend had existed for too long. No one could prove its authenticity anymore.
After seeing this expanse of rarely seen gra.s.s that all grew on top of the tomb, with every stalk being so precious, s.h.i.+ Hao was unwilling to pa.s.s up this chance just like that. He truly wished to pluck a few, but how was he supposed to get close?
“Stake it all!”
There were a few stalks that weren’t that far from the grave and not on the tall slope either. He focused his attention there and decided to take some risks.
Pa!
As soon as he got closer, an electrical arc shone, blasting s.h.i.+ Hao tumbling backwards, lacerating his flesh and charring his body black. Blood poured outwards.
This was precisely the power of the immortal tomb. Any streak of light it released was destructive. Even though s.h.i.+ Hao’s physical body had been trained through hard work and was as tough as diamond, it still couldn’t hold on.
His current body was already far more durable than heavenly ranked vicious beasts, but under the immortal dao aura, he was still wounded.
However, he didn’t feel discouraged. He comprehended the lightning dao natural laws to make himself as clear headed as possible, merging with the lightning symbols to become a part of them.
Being able to stay in front of this great tomb for a long time and comprehend the natural laws was already quite difficult. If he wanted to scale the tomb, the difficulty was definitely extremely high. He tried several times, but in the end, he was always seriously wounded.
“Again!”
s.h.i.+ Hao’s ‘viciousness’ appeared, not willing to give up, continuing on despite repeated setbacks.
Hong!
He stepped onto the earthen tomb. A streak of crimson light flew over. This arc of electricity wasn"t particularly powerful, but it was like a blood blade that could cut everything. It hacked into s.h.i.+ Hao’s body.
A pu sounded. Blood splashed high into the air. s.h.i.+ Hao’s back ruptured, and it was scorched black as well. The lightning dao symbols flickered about intensely, about to tear him apart.
“This is for refining the body and accept the lightning dao’s baptism!”
s.h.i.+ Hao said to himself, enduring the great pain. He used up a day and night’s time to take just a single step into the great tomb. He sat down there, consolidating his strength without cowering back.
Xiu!
Not long after, a streak of purple energy drifted over, and then it erupted. This was lightning mist. It turned into a sphere of light and wrapped itself around him, making this place erupt with power.
s.h.i.+ Hao’s hair all stood on end. His body was scorched black, and his flesh was dried up. A layer of dry skin cracked apart. His current situation wasn’t good, appearing extremely dangerous.
“Allowing lightning into the body.” He was currently enduring a ‘baptism’ and doing everything he could to merge this lightning into his body. He was trying to harmonize with the aura to prevent more injuries.
After using up two more days and nights worth of time, he finally stabilized. He sat at the base of the grave. The wounds covering his body closed. Black and gray old skin separated, revealing fair and glossy skin again.
“After all of this, I only made it a single step!” s.h.i.+ Hao sighed in amazement. The closest plant to him was a ruby-like small tree. It was still several tens of steps away. Wis.h.i.+ng to dig it out was just too difficult.
However, he also understood well that his type of battering of electricity and continuous injuries was also a way of refining his own body. It continuously strengthened his resistance to electricity.
The most important thing was that he was becoming more intimate with lightning, making it easier to control.
Only, when he thought of the several tens of steps left, s.h.i.+ Hao’s scalp also felt a wave of numbness. He still had to risk danger and endure the most terrifying attacks just to get closer.
Chi!
He formed a large hand made of bone text and reached out. However, it was immediately blasted apart by an electrical arc, unable to approach the plant at all. The symbols were useless as well.
For the last several tens of steps, s.h.i.+ Hao took eight entire days before finally approaching. Every day, his body would be blasted until blood flew everywhere and his body was scorched black. This was a type of suffering, as if he had descended into the underworld.
However, this was much faster than what he had expected.
During this process, he also had to defend himself against the curse. Fortunately, after studying the lightning dao profound mysteries, the power of the curse weakened by quite a bit.
On the ninth day, s.h.i.+ Hao arrived in front of a small scarlet tree. He felt like crying. This had truly been a difficult process.
“Stupid grave!” He was furious. During these few days, his hair stood on end, and when he breathed, his nose and mouth spray out electrical radiance. His entire body was almost blasted into coal.
He was finally about to succeed. This entirely red little tree was enough to make up for the losses. Even though it’s only a foot tall, it’s covered in patterns and had scarlet electricity coiling about it that released waves of cries.
This could, without a doubt, aid s.h.i.+ Hao in his lightning precious technique cultivation. Just like how he was able to smoothly break through after studying the Thundersky Sparrow’s divine ability, he could use this to grasp even more lightning profound mysteries.
s.h.i.+ Hao carefully dug it out. During this process, his entire body was cracking apart from the lightning, and his pores were also gus.h.i.+ng out electricity.
“I finally obtained one.” He was satisfied.
After cultivating for two hours, he targeted another stalk. It was suffused with purple energy and appeared rather hazy. It was six or seven steps away from him.
This time, he used up three days and nights to reach it. His entire body turned purple from the lightning radiance. He couldn’t help but release a grunt.
s.h.i.+ Hao cursed outwards. This was just too painful! For the sake of picking a stalk of medicine, he was beaten like a sandbag, beaten here to an inch of his life.
“A golden mushroom.”
The next target was a human head sized golden mushroom. Lightning radiance crackled about with pi li pa la sounds. He used two days and nights before successfully harvesting it.
Then, s.h.i.+ Hao walked towards a green jade bamboo. It was only the thickness of a chopstick. It was two feet tall and dark green in color. There was green radiance around it.
---
Just like that, s.h.i.+ Hao continuously dug out five of them. Every single stalk contained rich lightning and had mysterious patterns engraved on them and a strand of immortal dao lightning aura.
When he wanted to dig more out, there were already no more near him.
He raised his head, discovering that the closest one was twenty something zhang away. They were all on the back of this great grave. For him, this was an astronomical distance.
It was because he had to pay a huge price for every few steps he took on this grave.
In addition, when he carefully observed that area, he discovered with shock that on the back of the great tomb, apart from lightning radiance, there were also strands of chaotic energy that seeped out from the earth.
This was definitely not something he could get close to. If he truly touched it, he would definitely be blasted into ashes.
“The true immortal dao lightning… is buried in the tomb?!”
s.h.i.+ Hao knew that he could only go this far. He couldn’t continue.
He backed out from the immortal tomb step after step, feeling a sense of relief. When he got back down, the load on his body became much lighter. He had experienced too much pressure during these past few days.
“Going to leave just like that?” s.h.i.+ Hao shook his head. He walked a circle around the great tomb, feeling that it was a bit of a pity.
Then, after thinking for a bit, he decisively took out a magical artifact to try and collect… the earth here.
The divine striking stone was startled, looking stupefied as he watched him. Its mouth widened, but it really didn’t know what to say. This really was a bit like angering man and G.o.d alike! He didn’t even let the tomb’s earth go.
“You really are a freak. Aren’t you scared of offending the deceased?” The divine striking stone said.
“What do you understand? This earth contains lightning, so it is definitely a priceless precious material. It is a great killing weapon too!” s.h.i.+ Hao said.
Hong!
Unfortunately, the magical artifact shattered, blasted to pieces by the tomb’s lightning on the spot.
s.h.i.+ Hao blinked his eyes. He wanted to bring it, but there was no way. The power inside the earth was too great.
“What do I do?” He watched helplessly, feeling there was no way.
“What else is there to do? Hurry up and get out of here! You really are going too far, not even letting the tomb’s earth go…” The divine striking stone curled its lips.
s.h.i.+ Hao scratched his head helplessly. He knew how unordinary this tomb’s earth was and wanted to bring some away, so in the end, he flung the divine striking stone out from within his heavenly pa.s.sage and said, “Don’t you love to eat earth and stone? Hurry up and devour several tens of thousands of jin of it.”
“Motherf.u.c.ker…” The divine striking stone began to curse outwards. It loved to eat, but it didn’t want to eat from an ancient tomb. This didn’t agree with its stomach at all.
“What is wrong with you? Every mouthful you eat will make you another portion stronger. Are you truly going to pa.s.s up such a great opportunity when it is right in front of you?” s.h.i.+ Hao urged.
“I won’t eat it even if you beat me to death! I am a rock with principles!” The divine striking stone was quite unyielding.
“You really aren’t going to eat? I can tell you that there is immortal dao aura inside. There’s no going back once you pa.s.s it up.” s.h.i.+ Hao said. In addition, he demonstrated the results of his most recent dao comprehension.
The divine striking stone was conflicted. It could also feel that the tomb’s earth was unordinary. There were wisps of mysterious energy inside. In the end, it clenched its teeth and said, “I am a divine stone with principles, my principle is… for the sake of becoming powerful, I’ll naturally… eat!”
s.h.i.+ Hao curled his lips in disdain. This fella’s principles were really something.
“Ah…” The divine striking stone cried out miserably. Not only was there lightning in the tomb, there was curse power as well. As soon as he ate a mouthful, its entire body was blasted until electricity flickered about and it tumbled through the air.
“I’m going to die from pain!” This was a difficult battle. With s.h.i.+ Hao’s help, the divine striking stone resisted the curse and refined the lightning, devouring the earth.
“This is no good… I want to collect a bit of the earth and use it for battle.” s.h.i.+ Hao said to himself.
In the end, he clenched his teeth and took out that pill furnace. He tossed the Taotie flesh into the heaven and earth pouch and said, “Let’s use this to collect the tomb’s earth first. I’ll properly clean it later.”
s.h.i.+ Hao began to use the mysterious pill furnace to collect the immortal tomb’s earth. This was a huge risk. Every time he collected even a bit, it would place him within an inch of his life.
He used up half a month to collect it bit by bit. Eventually, he was finally satisfied, bringing half a cauldron of earth with him as he left.
“Youngster… you really are vicious, not even letting the tomb’s earth go. You really are a freak!” The divine striking stone mumbled noisily.
After walking a period of time, s.h.i.+ Hao stopped again and stared at that sparkling heavenly river continuously. “What do you think about the river water?”
The divine striking stone went stupid. He stared with a dumbstruck expression. Only after a long time had pa.s.sed did he said, “Don’t tell me… that you want to take a bit of this river water too…”
“Don’t you think the value of the river water is high?” s.h.i.+ Hao said rather naturally. Then, he rubbed his hands and pulled up his sleeves in preparation of collecting some river water.
The divine striking stone was stunned. He felt that this youngster was truly incurable. “If news of this ever gets out, I don’t know you, okay? This is too shameful!”
This was, without a doubt, a type of torment. Collecting the heavenly river’s water was definitely an extremely dangerous task. s.h.i.+ Hao was blasted until his flesh cracked apart. Miserable shrieks rang out unendingly.
“Dumba.s.s, you brought all of this onto yourself!” The divine striking stone took joy in s.h.i.+ Hao’s disaster.
After using up several days, s.h.i.+ Hao would only obtain a small amount of water, but he would still be blasted until he hovered between life and death.
He continuously stomped in anger and cursed endlessly, feeling extremely unsatisfied. However, in the end, he still succeeded, leaving with large amounts of water from the river and a body full of wounds.
“Shameful guy… too lacking in integrity!” Along the way, the divine striking stone muttered endlessly.