Chapter 56: Chapter 56: Picking Flat Peaches [Seeking Collection and Recommendations]_1
"Directly ask him?"
Great White Plane’s eyes flickered as he said, "Wouldn’t that be too deliberate? Besides, there’s something odd about his Flowing Sand River Cave now. He doesn’t come out, and I can’t get in either."
Maitreya Buddha smiled and said, "In a few days, I will personally go to find him."
Great White Plane and the Jade Emperor exchanged a look, shrugged, and didn’t care. After all, they had already handed the person over. If Buddhism wanted to verify the goods, they naturally wouldn’t stop it. As for why Maitreya Buddha took the initiative instead of working through Buddhism’s spokesperson, The Goddness of Mercy, they didn’t care about that either.
However, they also knew the reason. It was simply because the people of Buddhism were also vying for power and profit, planning to dip into the grand undertaking of the journey to the west to get a share and recruit people early on.
The two of them were also dissatisfied with the possibility that Sha Chen might have influenced Ao Lie and disrupted their arrangements. At the same time, they were also somewhat troubled about how to continue scheming against Ao Lie. That was the East Sea Crown Prince, a true dragon descendant, and the one appointed by Buddhism; there couldn’t be any problems.
Fortunately, Ao Lie was a spendthrift. He might have escaped this time, but that did not guarantee he would escape the next. They didn’t dwell on it any further. After all, there were plenty of important things to deal with in the world, and they couldn’t afford to waste too much energy on a single dragon.
After Maitreya Buddha took his leave, the Jade Emperor casually asked, "Has that brash monkey on Five Finger Mountain submitted?"
Great White Plane answered, "He has not."
The Jade Emperor nodded. "A hundred years have not yet passed; it’s no surprise he hasn’t submitted. Don’t let anyone get close to him easily, and you shouldn’t get too close either, lest you raise the suspicious monkey’s doubts."
Great White Plane said, "Understood. Besides Guanyin passing by for a glance at the beginning, Buddhism has not appeared since. As for our people, only the Earth God provides him with molten copper and iron daily. This keeps living beings away so that he has nothing to eat, thereby tormenting him."
The Jade Emperor said, "When the brash monkey has had enough torture and no one to talk to, he’ll learn fear. By then, he will be willing to join Buddhism."
Great White Plane smiled, then added, "Your Majesty, why didn’t we keep her? This subject feels his talent is no less than that of Erlang God."
The Jade Emperor fell silent for a moment, then gestured for Great White Plane to leave.
He murmured to himself, "I would like to as well, but one can’t twist the arm to outpower the thigh."
「Flowing Sand River.」
After sending Bai Yulong Ao Lie away, Sha Chen cultivated with even more diligence. He also began refining the rewarded Zulong Essence Blood. His body rapidly swelled, becoming stronger than it had been when he refined the Gluttonous essence blood.
Sha Chen used his devouring power to completely consume the God Source Stone mine, and Divine Power, like an abyssal ocean, surged into his body. However, this time his cultivation level didn’t increase; all of it was absorbed by his physical body.
Sha Chen’s physical body continued its draconic transformation, every cell greedily devouring Divine Power. His bloodline was also being transformed. Eventually, his physical body took on the form of a true dragon.
Sha Chen surveyed himself with his Divine Consciousness and sighed endlessly. "Worthy of Zulong Essence Blood, just a drop has turned my physical body into a true dragon. And now, the strength of my physical body should be at a level comparable to a Greater Primordial Golden Immortal. I didn’t expect that before my cultivation level broke through, my physical body would have already reached the Greater Primordial Golden Immortal level."
Sha Chen was overjoyed. With a strong physical body, his safety was more assured.
Nevertheless, he quickly reverted to his original form. True dragons were not welcome in this world. If he were discovered and misunderstood, he would be in grave trouble. Almost every true dragon was under surveillance in the Three Realms.
After my physical body transformed into a true dragon, that drop of Essence Blood seems to contain a Cultivation Technique suitable for the Dragon Clan: the ’True Dragon Body Forging Technique’. With persistent cultivation, I can make my body even stronger.
Previously, Sha Chen had relied on his devouring power to strengthen his physical body by consuming Divine Power; there was no other method for improvement. This was too passive, like how eating can increase strength, but exercise can increase it even more.
Now, with a dedicated Cultivation Method coupled with his devouring power, Sha Chen felt that his physical body could take an alternative path, perhaps even becoming preeminent and growing stronger still.
Besides the increased strength of his physical body, Sha Chen’s constitution also underwent some changes. His talent and potential had increased slightly—not by much, but an improvement of ten to twenty percent compared to before. This would allow his cultivation speed to become even faster.
Sha Chen was full of joy, and he continued to cultivate.
「Meanwhile.」
Another three years passed.
Sha Chen opened his eyes and walked towards the medicinal fields. On this day, the osmanthus trees had matured. He wanted to pick some osmanthus flowers to brew osmanthus wine and also reserve some for making osmanthus cakes. These were all good things.
After taking care of these, Sha Chen went back into seclusion to continue cultivating.
Several more years passed. His cultivation level still hadn’t broken through, and his God Source Stone mine had long since been exhausted. In other words, he was once again destitute in terms of cultivation resources. He could only rely on the limited supply of elixirs, Immortal Herbs, and Immortal Rice, which were barely enough for his cultivation needs for half a year. Immortal Rice would be available the following year, but elixirs and Immortal Herbs required several years, or even decades, to yield another harvest. Sha Chen was extremely troubled by this.
Now, filled with anticipation, he came to the immortal fields again. This time, it wasn’t the osmanthus trees blooming but the peach trees maturing. The peaches on them had borne fruit and were ripe for harvesting. The peach trees in the Post-Heaven Earth matured especially quickly, with hundreds of peaches on a single tree.
It seemed like a lot, but Sha Chen felt it was too little.
He casually plucked a peach and took a bite; the juice sprayed out, the fruit juicy and delicious.
Sha Chen smiled with satisfaction. "Having planted them for decades, I have finally harvested them; it was worth it."
He ate several peaches in succession and felt as if his Primordial Spirit had become much stronger, and even his talent, which hadn’t changed for a long time, had improved somewhat.
Sha Chen hurried back to cultivate. After a month of experimentation, he found his talent had increased by ten percent. This ten percent was not to be underestimated. It was an increase in talent, signifying that his future path would stretch much further.
Overwhelmed with excitement, Sha Chen went back to pick more peaches. He ate them all at once, feeling his talent grow even stronger. Then he went back into seclusion to cultivate once more.
This time it was for half a year, and his talent had doubled.
His talent and potential doubling meant Sha Chen’s cultivation speed had more than doubled, and the road ahead of him would stretch much further than twice its previous length. If Sha Chen’s original talent could only have allowed him to cultivate to the early stages of the Greater Primordial Golden Immortal, he now had the chance to reach the peak of this realm. And if he could enhance his potential further, he might even be able to challenge the Daluo Golden Immortal Realm in the future.
A person’s lifespan is limited; the strength of talent determines the height of their future.
Now, Sha Chen’s lifespan had increased, his talent was enhanced, and his Primordial Spirit was strengthened. His future was boundless. However, Sha Chen also distinctly felt that if he ate more peaches, the effect began to diminish.
Feeling it was a pity, he collected a portion of the peaches, added Mysterious Heavenly Water and other elixirs, and brewed peach wine. After storing the wine away, he left the remaining peaches on the tree, to be picked whenever he felt like eating them.
After sorting all this out, Sha Chen went back into seclusion.
But this time, after only one year of seclusion, he opened his eyes and sighed. My talent has improved, and my absorption rate has increased, but without enough cultivation resources, my progress is hardly different from before!
This left Sha Chen somewhat frustrated. He could have had enough God Source Stones, but he had fed them all to his physical body, and now his cultivation had fallen behind as a result.
Feeling helpless, he began to miss the spider demon. It’s been over a decade since she left. Why hasn’t she returned yet?!
At that moment, someone called out from outside.
It wasn’t the spider demon. Judging by the voice, it seemed to be the black bear demon.