Outside the Dan Wood forest, at a spot with a shed much like Granny Qian's, Lin Donglai met the Old Man Ma that Granny Qian had spoken of.
The man looked like an ordinary old farmer from the fields, but his arms were thick and burly, faintly bronze in color—clearly he had achieved some success in body tempering.
Tong'er said, "Grandpa Ma, Granny sent someone over to chop wood for you!"
Old Man Ma glanced at Lin Donglai.
Under that sweeping gaze, Lin Donglai felt an inexplicable chill, as though he had been marked by some ferocious beast.
"Senior!"
Old Man Ma rumbled, "That old woman is too unreliable. Sending me an immortal seedling who hasn't even reached Qi Refining First Layer!"
Still, he pointed at the axes inside the shed: "It's not time for felling trees yet—only pruning stray branches. See those scorched, self-igniting branches? Chop those down. Two loads will earn you one spirit stone, and one load is at least a hundred and twenty catties."
Lin Donglai nodded, picked up an axe, and headed into the Dan Wood forest.
The axe felt extremely heavy in his hand—at least a dozen catties, completely different from the axe he had held at Granny Qian's place. An ordinary axe weighed two or three catties and already felt quite heavy to use; this dozen-catty axe would surely drain his stamina far more.
At last Lin Donglai understood why Old Man Ma's arms were so thick—no doubt from all that chopping.
Upon entering the Dan Wood forest, he found it scorchingly hot, like the height of midsummer.
The Dan trees grew there with dark red bark and deep green leaves, their veins flowing with a faint orange-red color, as if firelight were flickering within.
The entire forest was covered by a "Yang-Gathering Formation," which could gather the yang qi between heaven and earth, including the pure yang energy contained in sunlight—that was why it was so hot here.
But neither Granny Qian nor Old Man Ma had told Lin Donglai any of this.
Others were chopping in the forest as well, all bare-chested, their skin glistening dark, muscles knotted and twisted.
These people were all menial servants who, because their spiritual root aptitudes were too poor, had chosen the path of body tempering, which placed lower demands on spiritual roots.
The poor study, the rich train.
Body tempering consumed natural treasures like a bottomless pit—ordinary cultivators could not afford it, let alone these servants.
And so the so-called body tempering of these servants was merely pushing the external martial arts of the mortal world to their limits—enough to withstand mortal blades, but powerless against magical implements and spells.
Still, for chopping ordinary spirit wood, their strength sufficed.
"Craving sunlight!"
The thought of the spiritual root seed was swiftly satisfied after entering the Dan Wood forest.
Lin Donglai felt a stream of heat entering through the pores of his skin, flowing from his limbs and bones toward some unfathomable place.
Moreover, he was barefoot, walking on the ground—how it burned his feet! But it was still within the range of endurance.
Lin Donglai closed his eyes to check on the seed's condition and found that, besides the green qi around it, there was now a flow of golden light as well. Overall, it seemed to have gained a stirring, sprouting impulse.
The two root tendrils had also darkened in color, as if gaining some resilience... faintly thicker and longer than before.
Opening his eyes, Lin Donglai casually picked a Dan tree with tangled stray branches and began chopping and pruning.
"Clang!"
"Clang!"
The axe fell with a ring of metal and stone!
And once, twice—he couldn't cut through.
What he had chopped at Granny Qian's was dried Dan wood that had lost its vitality.
What grew living on the tree had an added toughness and rigidity.
"Hah!"
"Hoo!"
Each breath seared with scorching heat.
Lin Donglai's internal organs were being faintly scalded.
Fortunately, the two root tendrils, following the breathing method of the Primordial Origin Breathing Technique, drew in spirit energy and helped repair him.
His skin was not so lucky; by now Lin Donglai was like a boiled shrimp, red all over.
"Thirsty!"
Lin Donglai felt that chopping wood here was like being a roast duck in an oven, his moisture evaporating rapidly.
After chopping only seven or eight branches, his mouth was dry and lips cracked. Left with no choice, he hurried out to find water.
Fortunately, a large water vat stood ready outside the Dan Wood forest. Lin Donglai drank his fill in one go—for it wasn't just him who was thirsty; the spiritual root seed was thirsty too.
"Hm? Why does it seem like there's more green qi?"
Green qi was transformed from the vitality of vegetation. Before, it had only grown a little through the half-spirit herb and his breathing exercises in the small grove.
Now it was more than double what he had before.
Lin Donglai thought briefly and arrived at an answer: "It seems that chopping these Dan tree branches made the trees leak vitality, which the seed collected as it breathed."
Dan wood was, after all, a first-rank spirit wood, its vitality vastly greater than those unranked spirit herbs. Even if the seed fleeced it, it would be a mere drop in the ocean. Besides, the trees were being pruned anyway, so this vitality counted as normal loss—being collected by the seed was simply putting waste to use.
"This Tengshe Peak really is a treasure ground!" Lin Donglai thought to himself, then immediately plunged back into the forest, chopping away with clanging sounds.
Who knew how much time had passed when Old Man Ma's voice came: "That's it for today. Come back tomorrow!"
Only then did Lin Donglai notice the sky was nearly dark. He hadn't eaten all day, having drunk only some water, yet he felt no hunger at all—in fact, he felt vigorous, as if he had boundless energy to expend.
"Oh, eight more drops of essence blood!"
Lin Donglai's frame had already grown much thinner by now, though not gaunt as a skeleton—the result of the essence throughout his body being converted into essence blood.
Fortunately, Lin Donglai had the seed continuously cultivating the Primordial Origin Breathing Technique, absorbing spirit energy from the void
as supply. Otherwise, condensing a dozen drops of essence blood in a single day would have drained his marrow long ago and left him dead on the spot. Even so, it was quite uncomfortable—a strong wave of hunger was surging over him.
Lin Donglai immediately carried the Dan branches out. Old Man Ma lifted them with one hand and gauged the weight.
"Two hundred and sixty catties?"
"Not bad, lad! You've got some talent for body tempering after all?" Looking at the dried blood scabs on Lin Donglai's skin, Old Man Ma understood that Lin Donglai was treating tree chopping as cultivation.
But this was clearly from over-harvesting his marrow in excess, rapidly condensing essence blood—his body had been drained considerably, and he would need to eat large amounts of spirit beast meat over a long period to slowly recover.
"Though a bit too eager for quick results."
He took out a spirit stone and handed it over: "Those twenty catties, I'll carry over to next time."
With this spirit stone, plus the one Granny Qian had given him, he had two—the monthly stipend of an outer disciple at Qi Refining First Layer.
Of course, Lin Donglai still owed Ding Zhen two spirit stones, but he didn't plan to repay them now; once he entered Qi Refining, repaying a few more would be the same.
These two spirit stones could, when he cultivated the Primordial Origin Breathing Technique tonight, have their spirit energy fed to the spiritual root seed.
Spirit stones in hand, Lin Donglai sprinted back to Immortal Seedling Peak, just barely making it before the dining hall closed.
The spirit chef there was about to pack up the leftovers to feed the spirit pigs when he saw a starving ghost rush in.
Lin Donglai frantically shoveled food off the plates into his mouth.
The chef was startled: "Just how hungry does someone have to be to get like this!"
Lin Donglai's tendon-transforming and bone-forging had borne fruit, and his absorption and digestion of food were astonishing. The moment the spirit food entered his stomach, it was rapidly refined into essence, flooding his body, gradually plumping up his shrunken flesh.
"There's more here. Eat slowly, no rush!"