Chapter 7: The Metamorphosis of Tu Mu Shi

  Ishikawa cautiously crawled into the pit from the ground and searched for valuable things such as food and daily necessities in the luggage of the woman whose body was still warm, but Ishikawa ignored them all.

  "Found it!" Ishikawa exclaimed, carefully lifting out a small box. The box was exquisitely crafted, with a hint of wood spirit energy emanating from it. Ishikawa opened the box gingerly, revealing a small sprout inside that radiated a rich spiritual energy. It seemed this wooden box was what had been blocking the release of the wood spirit energy.

  Seeing this spiritual grass, Ishikawa was so tempted that he almost drooled, wanting to swallow the spiritual grass into his belly, but after careful consideration, Ishikawa still dispelled this idea.

  This surname woman actually used so many talismans to kill her master brother who had been friends for over a decade just for this spiritual grass, which means that this spiritual grass must have a very great effect. Swallowing it down will certainly have some benefits, but it's definitely a waste of heaven's gift. Shi Chuan decided that when he has the chance, he will figure out the use of this spiritual grass before making plans.

  Ishikawa then searched the woman's body and found several shiny stones, which gave him an extremely pleasant feeling when he touched them.

  "This should be the spiritual stone." Ishikawa exclaimed, if there is a spiritual stone to assist in cultivation, Ishikawa would not have only reached the peak of the second layer of Qi Refining.

  After taking the Ling Stone, Ishikawa also found a bottle of Dan medicine on the woman's body, which was written with Lianling Dan. The fragrance of the medicine was full, and it should be the woman's usual cultivation medicine. Ishikawa took it together.

  As for the sect's cultivation techniques, Shi Chuan didn't even bother to take a glance, this water-based technique was completely useless to his earth-spirit root.

  This woman must come from a large family, ordinary inner disciples absolutely do not have such rich spiritual stones and elixirs, plus the big pile of talismans thrown out just now, absolutely priceless.

  As for the silver sword, it is a must-have spiritual instrument for the inner disciples of Shuilingmen. This spiritual instrument is ordinary and unremarkable, but for Shi Chuan, it is a rare treasure. What makes Shi Chuan even happier is that this silver sword can be shrunk to the size of a palm and hidden in his bosom without fear of being discovered.

  When Ishikawa was in Shijia Village, he liked to set traps to catch wild beasts. When he came to Shuiling Gate, he naturally couldn't help but make a trap. Unexpectedly, he didn't catch any wild beasts, but instead saved his own life.

  Fortunately, no one else knew about this trap, and with a bit of decoration, it would be flawless and imperceptible.

  After collecting his wits, Ishikawa hastily returned to where the dead man was.

  Looking at the damaged spiritual instruments on the ground, Ishikawa also felt a pang of regret. For Ishikawa, who was seeing the spiritual instruments for the first time, he naturally couldn't bear to throw away these damaged instruments, so he put them in his bosom, hoping that when he worked in the instrument workshop, he could learn some repair techniques.

  Apart from these few damaged spiritual tools, Ishikawa only found a yellow secret order on the man. Without looking at it much, Ishikawa quickly cleaned up the scene of the fight. Some damaged plants and trees were also thrown far away into the mountain cliff by Ishikawa. Generally, people passing by here would find it hard to tell that a fight had taken place.

  After doing all this, Ishikawa no longer tarried and hurried back to the outer gate as if nothing had happened.

  At night, Ishikawa returned to his room and took out a dan medicine. He hastily stuffed it into his mouth. A strong medicinal fragrance spread throughout Ishikawa's mouth.

  As the Dan medicine slid into his abdomen, Ishikawa felt a wave of spiritual energy striking his five organs and six viscera.

  Ishikawa sat down cross-legged without hesitation and began to breathe deeply.

  It wasn't until three or four hours had passed that Ishikawa finally opened his eyes with a look of satisfaction. A faint smile spread across his face.

  "This elixir is truly amazing, it's actually so effective that I only took one pill and my cultivation has advanced this much, almost breaking through the third layer of Qi Refining." Ishikawa was very satisfied with his cultivation this time, at least making up for half a month's worth of cultivation.

  After all, this was Ishikawa's first time taking dan medicine, and the effect was naturally much better than those who had been eating spiritual medicine since childhood.

  Looking at the dozens of elixirs in front of him, Shi Chuan's heart was filled with joy. So many elixirs made Shi Chuan feel like a nouveau riche.

  Ishikawa thought for a moment, took out the secret order he had obtained from that man, and began to read it.

  The sect's secret order is a letter used to transmit information between sects, and this secret order has a fire character and a water character on it. It should be the transmission of information between Huo Ling Men and Shui Ling Men.

  Although the major events between schools didn't have much significance for Ishikawa, since he got it, there was no reason for him not to read it.

  Under the moonlight, Ishikawa began to read one word at a time:

  "Yun Lao: I was shocked to hear that a Tu Ling Gen cultivator has appeared, and I am deeply worried. It is said that such a cultivator appears only once in a thousand years, and can even sense the heavenly energy on their own. However, the Tu Ling Sect is arrogant and self-important, if they were to obtain this child, they would definitely become overbearing and tyrannical. Within a hundred years, they would pose a great threat to our two sects. Nevertheless, from Yun Lao's letter, it seems that this child cannot circulate the 'Water Dragon Technique', likely due to his meridians being blocked. Unless he uses the 'Hundred Pulse Clearing Powder', it will be difficult for him to embark on the path of immortality. Therefore, Yun Lao need not worry, just imprison him within the Shui Ling Sect, and after a hundred years, everything will be resolved."

  This is a relatively simple reply, and it's not hard to see from the meaning of the letter: this is a conversation between Yun Changlao and a high-ranking member of Huo Lingmen, and the main purpose of their discussion is a disciple with five earth spirit roots.

  "Isn't this referring to himself?" Even if Ishikawa is a fool, he can see the general idea from the letter.

  In the few months since arriving at Shuiling Gate, Ishikawa had been able to gather a lot of information from the other disciples even without having the opportunity to obtain any cultivation methods.

  For example, the method of cultivation must match one's spiritual root; otherwise, it will be difficult to make progress in this life, and there is also a possibility of going astray.

  Yun Changlao, as the foundation period elder of Shuilingmen, wouldn't be so ignorant that he didn't teach any breathing techniques and directly let Ishikawa cultivate "Water Dragon Scripture", his heart is sinister, it can be seen in general.

  "Since you're not benevolent, I don't need to mention the bond between us as fellow disciples." Ishikawa said with a scowl. Although he had some doubts about Yun Lao previously, he couldn't find any reason why Yun Lao would harm him, so he didn't have much resentment in his heart, only a sense of vigilance.

  Now Ishikawa has figured it out, it's because he himself has five Earth Spirit Roots. Because of the five Earth Spirit Roots' infinite potential, they will pose a threat to the Water Spirit Gate.

  Ishikawa Nodō said, "The Five Elemental Spirit Roots are a heavenly gift and not something I can choose. Moreover, even if I were to attain the Golden Elixir, it's not necessarily true that I would be able to get away from the Water Spirit Gate."

  "This grudge, I will settle sooner or later." For a moment, Ishikawa Moe had the idea of leaving Mizu no Mon. But if she left Mizu no Mon, where could she go?

  The location of the Tǔ Líng Mén is unknown to Ishikawa, and whether or not he can be accepted by the Tǔ Líng Mén is also an unknown matter.

  Moreover, if Ishikawa were to disappear, the Mizu no Mon would definitely search everywhere for him. With Ishikawa's cultivation at the second layer of Qi Refining, he wouldn't be able to escape anywhere.

  Qingchuan is also at Shuiling Gate!

  Waiting until Ishikawa calmed down and thought about it, he suddenly realized that since the beginning, Yun Lao had not killed him, but instead used indirect methods to deal with him, which meant that Yun Lao did not dare to openly lay a hand on him again. He only dared to use some unconventional methods.

  So it seems that Yun Lao still has some reservations. However, for whatever reason, Ishikawa no longer cares. This hatred has been deeply etched in Ishikawa's heart.

  "Cultivate the Water Dragon Fist!" Ishikawa sneered "Then I'll let you cultivate the Water Dragon Fist properly."

  As long as there is a mother stone, no matter how familiar you are with "Water Dragon Decision", it has no effect on Ishikawa.

  Unconsciously, it was already morning. Ishikawa received today's task, which was to help out at the Alchemy Workshop. Generally speaking, helping out at the Alchemy Workshop wasn't an easy job, and many outer sect disciples would rather go fetch water or cook meals.

  Because those refining utensil disciples one by one had their noses pointing to the sky, they would order around outer sect disciples with a raise of an eyebrow. If something was not to their liking, they would either beat or scold them.

  But today's trip to Lian Qi Fang was actually arranged by Ishikawa who had swapped shifts with someone else.

  The purpose of coming to Ishikawa's Refining Workshop was to repair the few damaged spiritual artifacts on his body.

  "What are you staring at? Get back to work!" a disciple of the Refining Sect shouted.

  Ishikawa hastily picked up a pile of semi-finished spiritual instruments and headed to the next room. These instruments were quite simple, made by disciples with slightly stronger refining abilities, and then assembled by other disciples. There were also many outer sect disciples among them, but they all had some family background or were introduced by a core disciple. As for Ishikawa, this kind of outer sect disciple who only came to take on tasks was just here to do some physical labor.

  After Ishikawa's careful observation, it was found that the damaged spiritual instrument sword on his body only had a damaged crystal core of the demon beast at the hilt. If a new crystal core is replaced, it should be possible to use it again.

  Thinking of this, Ishikawa happily reached into his bosom, but to his surprise, the damaged spirit tool was gone. It wasn't just that one, all the damaged spirit tools were gone. Including the undamaged silver sword.

  "Could it have been lost?" However, Ishikawa quickly dismissed this idea, as it was simply impossible. The sacred object was tightly hidden in his chest, along with the Earth Mother Stone. The Earth Mother Stone was still there, but the sacred object had vanished. It was truly strange to the extreme.

  But now, this situation doesn't allow Ishikawa to think too much.

  After hastily finishing a day's work, Ishikawa returned to his residence without stopping, carefully searching around to make sure he hadn't left those damaged spiritual tools behind.

  He then took out the earth mother and made an effort to empty his pockets, but still got nothing.

  "What's going on?!" Ishikawa muttered, looking down, but suddenly found that the ground above had several blue light spots.

  "What is this?" Ishikawa was puzzled, as the soil itself was a clear yellow color without any impurities. Now, several blue dots had appeared, which naturally caught Ishikawa's attention. This was Ishikawa's treasure, and he usually kept it tightly wrapped up. Even the slightest change couldn't escape his eyes.

  This small blue dot, like a fluorescent light, flashed on and off on the soil mother, leaving Ishikawa very confused.

  "Not good!" Ishikawa suddenly discovered that in the earth mother's body, there was still half a flying sword, which was a miniature version of the silver sword.

  "How can the Silver Sword possibly be inside the Earth Mother?" But indeed, the Silver Sword was actually inside the Earth Mother. Ishikawa boldly speculated, "Those damaged spiritual artifacts might have also been absorbed by the Earth Mother. It seems that this Earth Mother is indeed a rare treasure. However, why did the Earth Mother Stone attract these spiritual artifacts? Ishikawa couldn't quite figure it out."