Chapter 3: The Struggle for Supremacy is Only Due to the Refining of the Body in Past Lives and Planning for the Future

  Last time, Chen Zhenyuan's spiritual consciousness was absorbed into the giant tree, merging with the spiritual consciousness generated by the giant tree itself, and obtained the experience and memory of the giant tree, suddenly understanding the cause and effect, knowing the identity of the giant tree and himself.

  This tree is extraordinary, it's a famous ginseng fruit tree. It was formed in the early days of chaos, when the universe was still dark and the heavens and earth had not yet opened up. Its fruit is called ginseng fruit, also known as grass returned elixir. This treasure blooms once every 3,000 years, bears fruit once every 3,000 years, and only ripens after another 3,000 years. It takes almost 10,000 years to produce just 30 fruits. The appearance of the fruit is similar to that of a child under three months old, with four limbs and five senses complete. Those who have fate can smell it and live for 360 years; eating one will grant you 47,000 years of life. Because this tree was born early in the primordial chaos, after a long time, it naturally gave birth to spiritual consciousness, which is the Town Temple Son.

  The True Lord of the Town, also known as the Great Immortal of the Town, was a formidable figure. He was also called the Great Immortal of the Town, and his alias was "Worldly Same Gentleman". He was the ancestor of the Earth Immortals, and his Daoist temple was located in the Five Villas Observatory on Mount Wanshou in the Western Oxherd Continent. The Great Immortal's status was lofty, and his disciples once said: "The Three Pure Ones are our master's friends, the Four Emperors are our master's acquaintances, the Nine Luminaries are our master's juniors, and the Yuan Dynasty is our master's subordinate." The True Lord of the Town only served the two characters "Heaven" and "Earth", and his disciples said: "These two characters, the top honors us with incense and fire; the bottom cannot bear our incense and fire. This is our master's flattery." When Tang Monk and his party passed by, the True Lord of the Town happened to be invited by the Jade Pure Primordial Heavenly Master to attend a lecture on "Mixed Yuan Dao Fruit" at the Upper Clear Heaven Miro Palace. Before he left, he left behind his two youngest disciples, Qingfeng and Mingyue, and instructed them to entertain Tang Monk with two ginseng fruits, warning them not to be lazy. However, Sun Wukong, who thought himself knowledgeable, arrived at the Five Villas Observatory, listened to Qingfeng and Mingyue's introduction to the Great Immortal of the Town, and first "laughed so hard he fell over", then coldly ridiculed and spoke disrespectfully; he also stole the ginseng fruits, pushed down the fruit tree, and refused to admit his mistake or apologize. The master and his party quietly slipped away. The Great Immortal of the Town chased after them, asked questions, and used deceitful words to evade responsibility, but was caught by the Great Immortal's magical powers, along with their horses. That night, Sun Wukong used magic to escape, using a willow tree root as his substitute body, allowing the party to escape. However, they were caught again by the Great Immortal the next day. Sun Wukong had no choice but to go and ask for the Peaches of Immortality to revive the ginseng fruit tree, and only then did the Great Immortal let them go westward. The Great Immortal was magnanimous and extraordinary, and when Sun Wukong asked the Bodhisattva to revive the ginseng fruit tree, he forgot his previous grievances and became sworn brothers with Sun Wukong, even generously hosting a ginseng fruit banquet. In the Buddhist-Daoist struggle of "Journey to the West", there are few harmonious scenes, but only on the Great Immortal of the Town's body did the true realm of Daoism's tranquility and loftiness truly manifest, displaying the demeanor of a true Daoist immortal.

  "It has come to this, but we must carefully plan and make the most of this great opportunity!" After the fusion of their spiritual consciousness, Zhenyuanzi finally calmed down after a long time and began to think carefully.

  Since he became a tree spirit, he found that his sense of range had been expanded by tens of thousands of times, and the space around the treasure tree was clear. The branches and leaves of the treasure tree, one flower and one fruit, were familiar to him like his own body. However, although the range has been expanded, except for this ginseng fruit tree, nothing else has been found, still just a gray mist.

  The ginseng fruit tree is constantly absorbing the spiritual energy around it. The gray misty air absorbed by these precious trees is not as simple as it looks, but rather the primordial energy of chaos in the vast expanse, the ancestor of pre-heavenly spiritual energy, and post-heavenly spiritual energy are all transformed from this.

  "This treasure tree was born from the spiritual root of the primordial chaos, and not even one fruit has matured yet. The spiritual consciousness was just formed not long ago. From this, it can be known that the current time is still relatively early, and it should still be a very long time before Pangu opens up the sky and earth. It's just unknown whether Pangu has been born or not?"

  In the memories of his past life, he knew that Pangu was also born from a giant egg at the beginning of the chaos, and as soon as he was born, he had an axe with infinite divine power.

  "The top priority is still to materialize the physical body as soon as possible. In the Hongmeng, there are many spiritual roots and spiritual treasures that have no owner, only by taking shape one step ahead can we seize the initiative earlier!" Zhenyuanzi thought to himself.

  It is known that the Town Yuan Great Immortal of the previous life, although with an extraordinary bearing, was somewhat pedantic. He didn't establish a sect or spread his teachings, and only stayed in the Wuzhuang Temple to recite the Huangting Scripture. He didn't provoke trouble or create conflicts. His magical tools were just a scroll of earth scripture and a dust whisk. The ginseng fruit tree couldn't even be considered a magical tool. It was truly a bright moon and clear breeze. As the primordial divine residence that had achieved the Chaos Realm, being so frugal was rare indeed. After going through numerous great calamities, he didn't have the power to control his own fate, and could only become someone else's pawn, barely able to protect himself.

  At this time, Zhenyuanzi was naturally unwilling to be as cowardly as he was in his previous life.

  "If I continue to cultivate like this, I'm afraid it will take countless eons to transform into a human form! Moreover, if I rely on my true body to transform, then I am the tree and the tree is me. At that time, this ginseng fruit tree would become my primordial flesh body, losing its original wonderful use, and at most could only become a treasure."

  "This is a matter of burning the lute and cooking the crane, not even the Town God of my previous life has done it, only those two from the West have. I absolutely cannot do such a thing!"

  In his previous life, the ginseng fruit tree was still a ginseng fruit tree, and it could still bloom and bear fruit, and had not become a treasure. It can be seen that the Zhenyuanzi is very fond of the treasure tree, and after transforming, he did not harm the treasure tree. Moreover, Chen Zhenyuan in his previous life was extremely fond of flowers and plants.

  However, it's somewhat difficult to both quickly transform and not harm the treasure tree. Zhenyuanzi carefully comprehended the way the treasure tree absorbed the primordial energy of chaos, experiencing the Hongmeng rules within, while painstakingly pondering the method of transformation.

  It was unknown how much time had passed, but Zhenyuanzi only knew that the ginseng fruits on the branches were almost ripe.

  "Got it!" Looking at the golden ginseng fruits, Zhenyuanzi suddenly had an epiphany, a segment of his skillful method emerged in his mind, crystal clear.

  It turned out that Zhenyuanzi suddenly realized: Since this ginseng fruit is a pre-heavenly spiritual fruit, it contains the most abundant and unparalleled primordial energy of chaos, and it has a human shape. Why not use this chaotic immortal fruit to cultivate the flesh, and then transfer the spirit into it? In this way, the spiritual root will not be damaged at all, and as long as several hundred years pass, success can be achieved. Compared to the countless primordial meetings of Hongmeng, this period of time is just a fleeting moment.

  Wanting to do so, Zhenyuanzi immediately began to guide his own spiritual consciousness, slowly entering a ginseng fruit that matures the fastest.

  As soon as I entered, I felt that the primordial energy inside was exceptionally rich and nourishing, making my mind feel extremely comfortable, just like taking a cool shower on a hot summer day, with a sense of comfort emanating from everywhere.

  What a wonderful place, I didn't come here to experience it before, what a pity.

  Zhenyuanzi knew that now was the crucial moment, and if he could transform early, he would be able to seize the initiative earlier and have a firmer grasp on the opportunity. If he couldn't seize the initiative, with his originally shallow foundation and lack of innate virtues, no matter how hard he struggled later, he would still be like a fish out of water, unable to escape.

  At this point, Zhenyuanzi couldn't help but get out of his indulgence and started to refine his primordial energy, condensing his Dao body. As the practice unfolded, the ginseng fruit tree absorbed the chaotic primordial energy even faster, vaguely forming a vortex. The center of the vortex was the ginseng fruit, and as the spiritual energy increased, its color became duller, not as bright as before. This is what they mean by "things will inevitably reverse when they reach an extreme".

  It is known that the cultivation of plants and trees is extremely difficult, and it is unknown how many years of hard work are needed to cultivate spiritual awareness. If you want to transform into a physical body, it is a move against heaven, and the heavenly tribulation, human tribulation, causal tribulation, and unintentional tribulation will entangle your body. Moreover, they are not good at fighting, and before transforming into a physical body, they almost have no ability to protect themselves, making it even more difficult to pass through the tribulations.

  Fortunately, the heavens and earth have not yet opened, the Tao has not appeared, and there is no cause and effect. Zhenyuanzi has not yet had three disasters and six tribulations. However, because he was transformed in Hongmeng, what he needs to achieve is a chaotic body, which requires him to continuously compress and condense the absorbed chaotic yuanqi. The amount of chaotic yuanqi required is enormous. Therefore, even at the speed of absorbing spiritual energy from the ginseng fruit tree, Zhenyuanzi's physical refinement progress is extremely slow.

  After a certain period of time, the other eighteen fruits on the ginseng fruit tree had ripened one after another. - Why were they not the thirty known in the previous life? This is because since this tree began to grow, it has not yet fully matured and is still bearing fruit for the first time, so it did not reach the heavenly number and only bore nineteen fruits.

  After it has fully grown, if it is nurtured by the primordial energy of chaos, it will bloom once every thousand years, bear fruit once every thousand years, and mature once every thousand years. In three thousand years, it will produce a total of forty-nine fruits, in harmony with the celestial numbers. If it lacks the primordial energy of chaos and is only nurtured by the spiritual energy of the post-heaven, its spiritual root will be damaged, and even after about ten thousand years, it can at most produce only thirty fruits, and its efficacy will also be greatly discounted.

  The first result, although only nineteen, has a special effect, which is different from the results obtained later.

  The fruit where Zhū Yuánzi's spirit consciousness resides is sometimes bright and sometimes dull, alternating with each other like day and night. In the middle, there seem to be infinite colors and infinite light. After repeating this transformation nine times, it finally reached a critical moment and suddenly stopped.

  In an instant, he suddenly felt unbearable pain all over his body, as if every inch was constantly shattering and reassembling. The surrounding spiritual energy also gathered at a rapidly increasing speed, like a giant whale sucking in water, forming a huge vortex around the ginseng fruit tree, rumbling loudly, with an astonishing momentum.

  The fruit's skin grew darker and shriveled up, then suddenly split open, and a Taoist emerged from inside.

  But seeing him with his hair tied up in a knot, looking like a child's face, empty hands, wide clothes and big sleeves, three strands of beautiful whiskers under his chin, slightly fluttering. Indeed, it is the demeanor of an immortal, not like that of ordinary people!

  "Huh?"

  Just then, a surprised voice suddenly came from afar. Although the voice was not loud, it sounded like thunder to Zhenyuanzi, who had just transformed.

  It is indeed:

  A narrow road where people contend like playing chess.

  Take the initiative and you will have the upper hand.

  Born with a noble appearance, it is fitting to be early.

  The great way of destiny has arrived, and it can be expected.