NOVEL NEXT Chapter 23: The Subtle Use of Spirit
Even in the early morning, the summer heat lingered heavily in the air.
To the north of Shanhai Village lay the Old Woods.
After having breakfast at home and greeting Ling Xiaoshan and Zhang Dahe, Ling Yi and Zhang Lei, each armed with an iron birch slingshot and a pouch of smooth, polished stones, along with a sickle, flint, rope, rations, and other equipment, ventured into this place that many villagers avoided with caution. Following behind them were Ah Huang and Meow Meow.
Upon entering the woods, Ah Huang immediately darted about joyfully, while the usually aloof Meow Meow leapt and climbed up a tall tree, perching on a high branch to overlook the surroundings.
The tree canopies above were like vast parasols, blocking the scorching sunlight and dropping the temperature inside the forest by at least three to five degrees compared to outside. Ling Yi and Zhang Lei, who had just arrived and were slightly perspiring, felt much refreshed.
A gust of forest wind embraced them, as if sending greetings from the northern lands of the Douluo Continent.
Ling Yi learned from various sources that beyond these woods, which stretched over twenty miles deep, lay a mountain range that seemed to connect with the "Frozen Forest" in the north of the Heaven Dou Empire. As for the "Extreme North," it remained an unknown mystery, beyond the knowledge of those Ling Yi had contact with.
Entering the forest, Ling Yi held a sickle in one hand while catching a wooden stick pushed down by Meow Meow from above, his demeanor composed yet alert.
After all, they were merely at the outermost edge of the Old Woods, only a few meters from the sunlit expanse beyond.
In such a complex woodland environment, caution is never unwarranted.
Consider the misfortune of the first unlucky individual in "Stellar Transformations," Immortal Emperor Ni Yang. Despite being an illustrious eighth-level mystic immortal, a famed presence in the immortal realm, he obtained a grand opportunity from the divine realm yet was fatally poisoned by a divine insect he accidentally stepped on.
"What the hell?!"
Both a matter of luck and a lack of caution, Ling Yi, as a reincarnator, often keeps this in mind as a warning to himself.
In his journey of cultivation, Ling Yi regards the 'unlucky ghost' Emperor Niyang and the 'survivor sage' Li Changshou as guiding lights.
One serves as a negative example, the other a positive one.
In his hand is a black wooden stick, about thumb-thick and roughly 1.3 meters long. Ling Yi occasionally uses it to clear away the dead branches and leaves obstructing his path, sweeping aside some entangling vines and wild grass.
This scene makes Zhang Lei, who is trailing a few steps behind, look on with some envy.
Although he also possesses a wooden stick, just recently knocked down from the high branches of another large tree by Meow Meow.
His stick is thicker than Ling Yi's, about the size of a small egg, nearly 1.5 meters long, but its overall withered yellow color lacks the appealing look of Ling Yi's shiny black one with a slight metallic sheen.
"Ah Yi~"
Zhang Lei sidesteps to the front of Ling Yi, tapping the stick in his hand forward at an angle. His gaze briefly flickers to Ling Yi's stick as he speaks, "How about we visit the 'Iron Birch Tree' today? I also want to get an iron birch branch..."
He glances down at the withered yellow stick in his hand, noticing two insect holes and a fine crack that had appeared at some point, and a hint of disdain flashes in his eyes: "Look~" Zhang Lei lifts the stick towards Ling Yi, "It's only been on a tree for a few days, and it's already been bored into by bugs—"
"Alright~" Ling Yi took a moment to glance at the wooden stick Zhang Lei had raised and nodded at him, "As long as it's the right size, it'll do—"
With those words, and as Zhang Lei beamed with joy, Ling Yi adjusted his course, heading towards the location of the 'Iron Birch Tree' in the old forest.
Throughout the journey, Ling Yi kept his mind focused, constantly attentive to the movements of the wind and grass around him.
Thanks to years of developing his mental powers, beyond significant improvements in his spiritual strength, Ling Yi had also greatly enhanced his five senses.
As long as he paid attention, everything within a radius of tens of meters was reflected in his mind.
However, the further away something was, the blurrier it became, and the closer it was to him, the clearer it appeared.
He could even visualize the sound of high-frequency wing flaps from the mosquitoes and flies flying around; inside the tree trunks, bugs were parasitically drawing sap from the trees...
These scenes Ling Yi could manifest in his mind without using his eyes.
This was a path of mental cultivation Ling Yi had crafted over several years, inspired by many novels he read in his previous life, particularly drawing from 'Galactic Emperor', leveraging this world and his own natural talents—a path of mind training he dubbed 'Second Phase of Deep Sleep'.
Regrettably, as described in that novel, Deep Sleep required absolute stillness and complete silence, as even a slight body movement would stir one back to wakefulness.
Ling Yi currently had some theories on how to reach the third phase, entering deep sleep while moving, but had yet to find a way to achieve it.
...
It wasn’t long before Ling Yi and Zhang Lei reached their destination.
Despite being on the outskirts of the ancient forest, they had traveled several miles deep. The surrounding trees were taller, and the sunlight filtering through was much more sparse than before.
A clearing roughly thirty meters in diameter abruptly appeared amidst the dense woods. In the center of the clearing stood a small tree, about twelve or thirteen meters tall, with a dark, metallic sheen.
Compared to the surrounding trees, all towering over twenty meters, this dark, metal-lustered tree seemed rather petite.
"Iron Birch Tree," a plant imbued with soul power, its exact age unknown. According to Ling Changqing, Ling Yi's grandfather, when his father, Ling Xu, Ling Yi’s great-grandfather, was young, this tree already stood here.
Back then, this tree was already over ten meters tall, and in all these years, it seems to have grown scarcely a meter more.
As for how the isolated and information-limited villagers of Shanhai Village came to know it as the "Iron Birch Tree," that remains a mystery. The older generation had always called it that, but as to when exactly this name originated, even the elders still living can’t quite trace back to its inception—it must have been even longer ago.
There were those who considered exploiting this soul power plant. Compared to hunting soul beasts in the Soul Hunting Forest for soul rings, this “Iron Birch Tree,” which grows quietly in the ground, offered so much more safety.
But unfortunately, no soul master capable of transforming the "Iron Birch Tree" into a soul ring has appeared in Shanhai Village as of now.
Moreover, this "Iron Birch Tree" is exceedingly hard!
Even a group of robust adults, armed with axes and machetes, could only leave a few marks on the trunk after exhausting themselves and dulling their tools.
Over the years, the villagers of Shanhai Village have merely picked up the occasional naturally fallen branches and put them to good use based on their size, length, and shape. Even these fallen branches possess tensile strength comparable to ordinary iron implements and are resistant to insects and wear.
Faced with such a challenging 'Iron Birch Tree', why did Ling Yi so casually agree to help Zhang Lei break off a branch?
Evidently, a life blessed with extraordinary abilities breeds confidence!
Much like the iron birch staff in Ling Yi's hand, which he had taken from a branch seven to eight meters above the ground while climbing the 'Iron Birch Tree' last year.
That moment was just like this one.
Zhang Lei's luck was favorable today, as he had come specifically for this reason, unlike before when he always hurried in and out, never spending much effort. But now, he quickly found a branch similar in size and length to the staff in his hand.
Ling Yi, with a casual kick at the tree root, transformed like a nimble monkey, using both hands and feet to swiftly climb the middle section of the 'Iron Birch Tree', reaching the branch he had aimed for earlier.
With a step forward, he crouched to sit, straddling a branch about fifteen centimeters in diameter, roughly one-third of its length.
With his legs tightly gripping the branch, one hand securing himself, and the other holding a sickle, he began to meticulously sharpen the base of a smaller offshoot.
Ling Yi focused his spiritual energy, sensing the textures at the branch's base connection.
At one point, his eyes narrowed slightly. The sickle, which had somehow been raised, swiftly sliced and pulled... 'Whoosh!'
Accompanied by a faint sound, a branch, seemingly forged from black iron, snapped and dropped to the ground.
'What a shame~' Ling Yi sat up straight, pressing his hand lightly against the branch beneath him. Standing up completely, he shook his head quietly in his mind, 'Even when adopting the method of Butcher Ding dismembering the ox, skillfully and seamlessly sliding through the gaps, this technique still has a long prelude. For now, it can only be used to cut apart some materials...'
(End of Chapter)
