Chapter 407 - Chapter 407: Chapter 399: Undermine the Foundation Part 1

Chapter 407: Chapter 399: Undermine the Foundation Part 1

Wang Wanyan’s eyes seemed somewhat swollen, likely shedding no small number of tears last night.

The heart of a young girl is tender and kind, having raised a cat for so long, she had grown quite attached to it.

Seeing it die, Wang Wanyan must have been very sad.

Qin Niu, rising early, took the three of them into the mountains for cultivation.

After making considerable progress in reaching the Dual Innate Realm yesterday, today he aimed to take it a step further.

…

Beneath the Ancient Banyan Tree, Qin Niu once more charged at the Innate Realm of the Medicine King Sutra based on yesterday’s foundation.

He cultivated at a steady and unhurried pace.

The Alchemy Stove, condensed from his cultivation power, turned at a uniform speed, and he could feel it becoming even more stable.

Two hours later, when Qin Niu started to feel a bit of a headache, he slowly ended his practice.

The enhancement of the Alchemy Stove seemed to have reached its limit.

Although he had clearly touched the threshold of the Innate Realm, he was just short of the final step.

First, he practiced the Everlasting Spring Technique to recover his depleted spiritual power.

Nearly two hours later, he ended his practice.

His spiritual power had been fully restored, and he looked energetic and spirited.

Trying to cultivate the Medicine King Sutra once more, he persisted with the determination and perseverance to turn an iron staff into a needle.

This time, just as the Alchemy Stove began to spin, its speed slowed down, and then, to his surprise, it began to spin in the opposite direction. The hard-earned cultivation power began to dissipate along with the reverse rotation of the stove.

Qin Niu felt a pang of distress.

Without any guidance, he didn’t know whether this was a cultivation mishap or a normal phenomenon in the assault on the Innate Realm.

His only option was to stabilize and continue cultivating.

The turnaround came quickly.

The Alchemy Stove spun in the reverse direction faster and faster, and not only did the power stop dissipating, it started to absorb the medicinal energy from outside back into the body. Raised patterns began to emerge on the surface of the stove.

They stretched out like tendons, from the three legs toward the entire surface of the stove.

As time rapidly flew by, these tendons evolved into nine principal meridians and countless branches.

They covered the entire outer surface of the Alchemy Stove.

This made the entire stove look ugly and somewhat ferocious.

Though it was not aesthetically pleasing, the stove had gained a framework, becoming as stable as a bronze stove. No matter how fast it spun, there was no need to worry about deformation or rupture.

Moreover, its speed of absorbing medicinal energy had nearly tripled from before.

It was like a giant whale crazily engulfing the medicinal energy of the Ancient Banyan Tree.

But there was no need to worry, the medicinal energy of this tree could be described as vast as the sea. No matter how fast Qin Niu absorbed it, it was nothing but a drop in the ocean for the tree.

As the Alchemy Stove transformed, his body also became stronger.

The benefits of the Dual Innate Realm were beyond imagination.

However, it was rare for someone to cultivate two techniques because it could lead to biting off more than one could chew, resulting in loss rather than gain.

“So this is the Innate Realm of the Medicine King Sutra, quite miraculous indeed,” he mused as he meticulously felt the brand-new realm.

Besides his body becoming stronger, going through a second refinement and nourishment, and the thrice-increased speed of absorbing medicinal energy, he could now see deeper aspects of the Ancient Banyan Tree.

It is said that the size of the tree crown matches the breadth of its roots.

He could feel that the roots of this tree extended over a hundred meters deep into the ground. Moreover, he could sense an odd energy within the trunk, very advanced and much higher-grade than his Innate Realm cultivation.

Additionally, at the top of the tree, mingled with the medicinal energy, was a hint of a faint, violent aura.

He couldn’t quite identify it.

It always felt somewhat like the legendary demonic aura.

If that violent and fierce aura was demonic energy, then the strange energy within the trunk of the tree could possibly be the power of a Tree Demon.

This also meant that it had one foot already stepping onto the threshold of becoming a demon.

“Does that firebird know that this Ancient Banyan Tree has turned into a demon?”

Qin Niu was not certain.

If the Ancient Banyan Tree was merely halfway into demonhood, trying to use it to scheme against the firebird probably wouldn’t work.

The firebird was an absolute Demon Bird, and its strength was extremely terrifying.

It probably could burn the Ancient Banyan Tree to ash with a single flame.

At that time, Qin Niu would lose an important resource for cultivation.

“Finally reached the Dual Innate Realm, the next step is to find a way to cultivate the Everlasting Spring Technique to the Spirit Qi Realm.”

His Everlasting Spring Technique was currently only cultivated to the peak of the initial stage, still some distance away from the middle stage.

Not to mention the Spirit Qi Realm.

However, with more than five months until the Water and Land Dharma Assembly, he had the Ancient Banyan Tree and over a hundred thousand Silver Money; as long as he used them wisely, there was definitely a chance.

…

Time flew by, and before he knew it, more than two months had passed.

The insect plague was still ongoing.

The Nine Insect Gang deployed a massive number of insects to attack the territory of the Black Tiger Gang, a move akin to pulling the rug out from under them.

Crops couldn’t be planted in the soil, and even the vegetation in the mountains and fields was entirely destroyed by the insects, which could lead to famine.

Added to that, the Shennong Sect’s blockade of ports and roads, cutting off the Black Tiger Gang’s channels to purchase food from other places, meant that famine would probably soon hit the Black Tiger Gang.

With the common people lacking food and the soldiers starving and wailing, how could they continue to fight?

The tide of land sell-offs was intensifying.

As the insect plague couldn’t be stopped and had lasted so long, landlords and farmers had already lost faith in the Black Tiger Gang.

The Beast Tamers of the Black Tiger Gang were very strong, but their ability to control insects was indeed a weakness.

If it weren’t for Qin Niu’s unexpected rise last time, directly annihilating several disciples’ insects of Elder Jiu Yin and seizing all of Elder Jiu Yin’s personal insects, the situation for the Black Tiger Gang would have been much worse than it is now.

This was also why the high ranks of the Black Tiger Gang agreed to bestow on Qin Niu the title of a first-class noble.

Because the higher-ups could see Qin Niu’s potential value.

Such a formidable young Insect Master definitely had to be fiercely wooed and tightly bound to the Black Tiger Gang’s battleship.

This was something Qin Niu only came to understand later on.

That time, in order to eliminate the Innate Realm powerhouse of the He Family, he even killed people in the streets of the city. This act was actually a challenge to the laws of Black Tiger City.

But when the Gang Leader of the Black Tiger Gang handled the matter, his attitude was quite ambiguous.

Not only did he not punish Qin Niu, but he also issued an announcement, listing all the various crimes of the He Family, to absolve Qin Niu of guilt.

This was a form of protection for Qin Niu.

During these two months, as long as it was not a rainy day, Qin Niu would take his wives, concubines, and the maid Xiao Qing to the mountains for training.

His cultivation level was also rising steadily, as the Everlasting Spring Technique advanced from the peak of the Initial Stage of the Innate Realm to the peak of the middle stage.

The Medicine King Sutra was starting to look as though it might overtake the former in its development.

It has now also reached the middle stage of the Innate Realm, moving towards the peak of the middle stage.

Xiao Qing’s talent for cultivating the Medicine King Sutra was extremely astonishing; she had now reached the peak of the tenth level of the Acquired Realm, only a thread away from advancing to the Innate Realm.

It was known that she had two Alchemy Stoves.

Having two Alchemy Stoves in her body was definitely much more powerful than Qin Niu with his single stove.

Qin Niu was considering finding a way to let her go to the city to learn alchemy.

The biggest difficulty in this was the challenge of becoming a disciple under a renowned teacher because they simply would not accept disciples lightly.