The successful growth of the first Frost Willow not only brought hope to Yang Hong and his companions but also a touch of vitality to the Great Snow Mountain.
Yang Hong divided the first batch of Frost Willow seeds into two.
One half was kept within the palace he had built, continuing to be nurtured in the air with the Dao rhythm of creation.
The other half was first nurtured by the Dao rhythm of creation until they were close to sprouting, then Yang Hong cast them out of the palace to grow naturally.
Although many seeds were bound to freeze to death in the extreme cold, the sprouting and growth of just one seed was enough.
This snow mountain needed more life.
Furthermore, if any seeds could sprout and grow naturally in this extremely low-temperature snow mountain, they would surely be new special plants. Cultivating them later would allow them to adapt to the harsh cold weather more quickly.
Yang Hong's plan was successful.
After the first batch of Frost Willow catkins scattered, three seeds successfully germinated within his observable range.
"Good luck. Three seeds sprouting is like hitting the jackpot."
Yang Hong had not forgotten the temperature outside the seal, which was below minus 200 degrees Celsius. Sprouting at such a low temperature could only be considered hitting the jackpot.
Upon observation, Yang Hong discovered that the three sprouted seeds shared a common characteristic: they had fortunately landed on a type of deep blue snowflake.
This snowflake was likely one that had appeared in the last two years, and its quality could be classified as Grade Four.
Realizing the special nature of this snowflake, Yang Hong began to consciously collect them.
Although Li Sen could not bring the snowflakes inside for research, he could still discover that the water spiritual energy within these snowflakes was higher than that of ordinary snowflakes, even when studying them through the seal.
Here, at the peak of the snow mountain, the snowflakes that fell were at least Grade Three spiritual items, and occasionally Grade Seven snowflakes could be seen.
A single Grade Seven snowflake brought a temperature close to minus 250 degrees Celsius. Yang Hong suspected that if there were Grade Nine snowflakes, the temperature might approach absolute zero, minus 275 degrees Celsius.
Of course, these were not the main points. The key was that ordinary snowflakes had over 80% ice spiritual energy, with other spiritual energies accounting for less than 20%.
However, this newly appeared deep blue snowflake was peculiar, with its water spiritual energy exceeding 30%.
It was precisely because of the high water spiritual energy content that the Frost Willow seeds had a chance to grow.
Yang Hong decided to get creative.
First, he used a Grade Five Frost Ice to refine a flower bed emitting a faint warmth. Then, he used Grade Four deep blue snowflakes to form a formation, arranging three spiritual fields within the three-foot-wide flower bed. Finally, he planted the Frost Willow saplings, nurtured and sprouted by the Dao rhythm of creation, in the flower bed.
With this series of operations, Yang Hong could now guarantee the survival of all viable Frost Willow seeds.
His willow forest began to be formally planted, and he started placing these special flower beds according to his envisioned formation.
This busy period lasted for over two more years.
By this time, Yang Hong had finally successfully infused nine Grade Nine spiritual plants, capable of shape-shifting.
To make a grand spectacle, Yang Hong had been holding back a powerful move, which he could now unleash.
The nine Grade Nine spiritual plants were arranged according to the positions of the lightning-attracting formation. To enhance the power of the heavenly tribulation, Yang Hong and his eight family members, along with the Nine-Colored Peony Mu Xiuhui, each stood beside a spiritual plant.
The nine individuals first concealed their aura. Only when the shape-shifting heavenly tribulations of the nine spiritual plants had converged did they suddenly unleash their full power, forming a challenge to the heavenly tribulation.
The tribulation clouds, originally only thirty to forty li wide, were directly stimulated to expand to over ninety li wide.
Rumble!
This lightning tribulation started directly with a platinum color, even more powerful than Mu Xiuhui's final shape-shifting lightning tribulation.
"Very good, this is what I wanted."
Looking at the platinum lightning tribulation split into nine, Yang Hong smiled with a sense of triumphant scheming.
The 108 waves of platinum lightning tribulation were successfully overcome with the voluntary sharing by Yang Hong and the nine others.
After being weakened by the seal, the tribulation lightning was so feeble that even Li Xuefeng, the weakest among them, could withstand it with his physical body.
Yang Hong's wives had their bodies tempered by the promotion tribulations of spiritual plants in the Qingfeng Villa years ago. Being cleansed by platinum tribulation lightning again allowed their long-stagnant cultivation to advance slightly.
"Thank you, Master, for your great kindness!"
"Rise. I will first teach you the basics of being human."
Saying this, Yang Hong transmitted some basic knowledge and the methods to refine their original branches and leaves into equipment and magical artifacts to the nine enchanting girls.
The nine spiritual plants this time were ornamental. Since being sealed on the snow mountain, Yang Hong had discovered that infusing medicinal herbs or spiritual plants with special functions resulted in extremely slow growth.
From Yang Hong's perspective, the difficulty of growth was a hundredfold!
Therefore, he reluctantly chose to cultivate nine ornamental spiritual plants.
Fortunately, Yang Hong had many wives. Although they disliked planting spiritual plants, they were interested in cultivating flowers and plants. Hence, he had a reserve of 15 ornamental Grade Nine spiritual plants in his scale space.
After imparting the teachings, Yang Hong immediately left to investigate the expansion of the seal.
"Holy cow! I miscalculated."
After a round of inspection, Yang Hong began to regret it. This time, the seal had only expanded by 30 zhang.
It was neither the 180 zhang Yang Hong had designed nor the 90 zhang he had anticipated. Shrinking threefold, it was only 30 zhang.
"This seal is truly bizarre. It cannot be calculated by common sense at all."
"Next time a spiritual plant undergoes tribulation, it should be done one by one. At least this way, some experience has been accumulated."
Although it was a pity, accumulating experience and avoiding detours was also a gain.
Putting aside his disappointment, Yang Hong began searching for seeds outside the expanded area of the seal.
However, possibly due to external weather and climate conditions, no seeds were found within the newly added 30 zhang space.
"Oh well, we'll wait for the next autumn."
Within the seal space, Yang Hong did not wait for the autumn harvest but received news no less dire than a harsh winter.
"You mean, you are finding it difficult to cultivate normally now, and the speed at which spiritual energy dissipates has accelerated!"
Upon hearing Zhu YuYan's report, Yang Hong immediately unleashed his divine sense to carefully sense the concentration of spiritual energy in the world.
The speed at which spiritual energy dissipated and was consumed was much greater than when they first arrived.
"Husband, it's not dissipating, it feels like it's being consumed. Consumed by our cultivation."
Zhu YuYan corrected Yang Hong's statement.
"At the same time, spiritual plants also consume some spiritual energy, and the last and largest portion is consumed by that intangible seal."
After hearing Zhu YuYan's analysis, Yang Hong went directly to the intangible wall of the seal, placed his hand on it, and began to carefully feel the spiritual energy flow of the seal and the flow of spiritual energy within the entire sealed space.
The result made Yang Hong feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave. This seal was truly "eating" spiritual energy.
It not only sealed the flow of spiritual energy but also continuously extracted spiritual energy from within the seal to reinforce itself.
Yang Hong's two tribulation events, although the lightning expanded the space within the seal, also accelerated the seal's extraction of spiritual energy.
This might be one of the reasons for the accelerated spiritual energy consumption.
Yang Hong did not know the immense effort Pujian had expended to seal him.
This was one of her remaining contingency plans!