"Thank you, Uncle Long. Ju Yin has figured it out." Ju Yin respectfully bowed to the Dragon God Long San.
"Good child! Come, come, no need for formality! Let's talk business. The island space is upgraded with spirit stones, and immortal spiritual energy is the most potent. Feng Chu and the others have adapted to immortal spiritual power, which means they are being rejected by this space's laws.
Every independent space has its derived rules. This way, any independent space has the opportunity to grow into a small world. After a long period, a small world, upon encountering a fortunate opportunity, its laws develop consciousness, thus creating a heavenly way, forming a mature world..." Long San explained the rules of spatial world formation in the most concise terms.
"Uncle Long, are you saying the island space is currently rejecting immortal spiritual energy?" Ju Yin understood.
"You could say that!" Long San, drinking the spiritual tea brewed by A You, did not clarify. Little Ju Yin needed to grow. He knew she had lost crucial memories. So what? Memories can be lost, but what is carved into the soul cannot be.
"Uncle Long, then let's turn the island's spiritual energy into immortal spiritual energy!" Ju Yin blurted out. She was stunned by her own words, but the more she thought about it, the more feasible it seemed!
"Hahaha!" Long San genuinely burst into hearty laughter this time. Looking at little Ju Yin, he was suddenly filled with mixed emotions. He had thought it was a coincidence: the Heart of the Divine Wood was with her, it had merged with her spiritual essence space, and it had been stripped from her soul. This was indirectly a miniature Divine Wood Realm! Long San suspected that the memories Ju Yin had lost must have hidden this secret. She was already a Divine Venerable then. Perhaps all of this was her own arrangement. Who could scheme against themselves so ruthlessly? How could his Dragon clan and all the beings of the Divine Wood Realm repay her? She was saving the Divine Wood Realm with her own power...
If the island's spiritual energy turned into immortal spiritual energy, the spiritual spring would be nourished, leading to earth-shattering changes. And as the Divine Wood was born with the spiritual spring, the Heart of the Divine Wood would surely sprout and grow...
"Uncle Long, what are you laughing at? Is it feasible?" Ju Yin looked at Uncle Long, who was sometimes happy, sometimes sad, and felt it was inexplicable.
"Little girl, thank you. The Dragon God clan hereby swears their loyalty to Fairy Ju Yin, for all generations to come! May little Ju Yin achieve perfect merit, attain the Great Dao, and live as long as the heavens!" Long San placed his right hand over his heart and swore. Suddenly, a thunderbolt struck the island! The oath was fulfilled!
Ju Yin was shocked, but she couldn't stop it. Her soul had already been imprinted with the oath!
"Uncle Long, why are you making such an oath out of the blue?" Ju Yin was furious. She treated Uncle Long and Little White as family; who wanted their loyalty?
"Haha, little girl, don't be anxious! Let's put this aside for now. We're talking business. What you said about changing the island's spiritual energy to immortal spiritual energy is feasible. This needs to be done by you. The Heart of the Divine Wood is in your hands. If you change your own spiritual energy now and nurture it in your dantian, the spiritual spring will gradually change. I will set up an immortal spirit array around the spiritual spring and infuse it with immortal spiritual energy. They will complement each other and slowly bring about the change. It's equivalent to upgrading the spiritual spring..."
Ju Yin's attention was diverted by Long San, and she no longer dwelled on Uncle Long's oath. She focused entirely on how to upgrade the space. When she was dazed and pushed out of the space, she finally came to her senses. But at this moment, the immortal stone mine was the most crucial matter. She explained the situation to Feng Chu and planned how to mine it.
When Chi Zu and Zhi Meng returned with the fish, Ju Yin fulfilled her promise and personally grilled the fish. Ji Wu Ye ate with immense excitement; it was grilled by his sister. It was truly delicious!
Ju Yin glanced at her brother's expression and was speechless. Her brother was what modern people called a "sister complex." Everything about his sister was good, and whatever his sister said was right! It was truly a sweet burden. Could she return her brother?
Ju Yin hadn't eaten her own cooking for a long time and ate heartily this time. It seemed that after awakening the memories of the Divine Venerable, she had stopped cooking delicious food. At that time, she seemed to be lost in her past life, in the chaos of time and space between the past and the present. She didn't know which one was herself?
Following her heart, eating when she wanted to eat, laughing when she wanted to laugh, happiness was all that mattered!
After eating their fill, Qi Mo transformed into a divine dragon and, carrying everyone, descended into the water, swimming towards the immortal stone mine at the lakebed. Indeed, the closer they got to the lakebed, the more they could feel the increasingly dense immortal spiritual energy. The lakebed surroundings had changed. The dense immortal spiritual energy formed a barrier. Within the barrier, no grass grew, and there were no living creatures. Clearly, the surrounding life forms could not withstand this potent immortal spiritual energy. However, the small amount of overflowing immortal spiritual energy had nourished the plants and animals at the lakebed, causing mutations.
All things have their laws. The sun reaches its zenith at noon, the moon waxes until it is full, and water, when full, overflows! All must follow certain rules. Extremes lead to the opposite! Cultivation is the same, emphasizing the conservation of energy!
Upon reaching the entrance of the immortal stone mine at the lakebed, the immortal spiritual energy was even more concentrated. There were no creatures around; it was dim and silent.
"Venerable One, it's alright. There are no fish nearby. This immortal stone mine likely appeared suddenly. Other parts of this secret realm still have ordinary spiritual energy; only the vicinity of this lake has immortal spiritual energy," Feng Chu explained as he saw Ju Yin observing the surroundings.
"Feng Chu, when will this mine disappear?" Ju Yin guessed it was the same principle as the entrance they came through, with its location changing at any time.
"Venerable One, this mine disappears at noon every day and reappears an hour later. When it coincides with the middle of the moon cycle, it disappears for a day. I have figured out the pattern over these past few months. That's why I've been mining desperately, as it might disappear suddenly any day," Feng Chu explained while leading everyone into the cave entrance.
Upon entering the cave, everyone was surprised to find that there was no water inside, and they could breathe freely without using magic. The terrain sloped upwards. Feng Chu waved his hand, illuminating the areas in the cave passage where lights were placed. He discovered that the lamp oil was made from a special type of fish oil, which Chi Zu had caught and rendered. The lamp wick was made by tearing up their outer clothing. No wonder Feng Chu and Chi Zu looked so disheveled when Ju Yin saw them; the hems of their outer garments were all in strips.
"Brother Feng Chu, I have pearls, I'll lend them to you!" Little White, seeing the dim and crude fish oil lamps, generously took out over a dozen luminous pearls.
"Haha, thank you, Hu Hu. Brother was afraid this mine might suddenly disappear one day, so I didn't use the luminous pearls. Otherwise, that would be a huge loss!" Feng Chu, a phoenix in his past life, loved shining treasures no less than the dragon clan. He was just as stingy as Little White!
Ju Yin shook her head and chuckled, "Little White, remember to put away your pearls when we leave the mine. If they really get lost, don't cry!"
"Okay, Sister. Although I have many of these pearls, I still can't waste them!"
They walked through a passage and arrived at the place where Feng Chu was mining. Some of the ore was not covered by stone skin, revealing pink, crystalline crystals, like inlaid gemstones, glittering brightly!