Chapter 398 - Unexpected Encounter (1/2)

Deep within the Valley of Finesse, Lu Tianzi sat cross legged with his eyes closed.

He was seated under a rather special tree. Its leaves were silver instead of green, and even the flowers that bloomed on the trees were a shiny silver in colour. From the darkness of the night, the bright moonlight reflected off the surface of its leaves and flowers to create a picturesque scene of glittery beauty.

It was known as the Silver Blossoms Tree, an extremely rare spiritual plant.

The Valley of Finesse was vast with plenty of good cultivation spots, but this tree was the sole reason why Lu Tianzi had chosen to meditate here instead of anywhere else.

Of course, it was not for the tree's shiny appearance.

The presence of the Silver Blossoms Tree made this an extraordinary spot because it constantly emited spiritual energy, making its surroundings an ideal cultivation ground for martial artists of the Spiritual Essence cultivation system.

But at this moment, the usually vibrant-looking Silver Blossoms Tree seemed to have withered slightly.

If others were to probe closely with their perceptions, they would be able to see that Lu Tianzi had established some sort of spiritual connection with the Silver Blossoms Tree. And through this connection, Lu Tianzi was greedily absorbing spiritual energy from the tree.

After a long time, Lu Tianzi finally opened his eyes and let out a deep breath.

With the help of the Silver Blossoms Tree as well as the dense spiritual energy within the Valley of Finesse, he had managed to give his Spiritual Essence true origin core the final push needed to reach its utmost limit, then successfully compressed it back to its original size.

This also meant that he had finally broken through to the Second Cycle Origin Core realm of the Spiritual Essence cultivation system!

Lu Tianzi stood up and looked at the withering Silver Blossoms Tree, then started shifting some rocks around the tree with a calculated precision. After he was done, he stomped down on the ground without hesitation.

Weng-!

A energy gathering formation buzzed into life, drawing in World Origin Energy from the surroundings to feed into the Silver Blossoms Tree.

This energy gathering formation seemed extremely simple on the surface, like it was the most basic of energy gathering formations. However, anyone with a trained eye would be able to tell that there was more than met the eye.

The Valley of Finesse was a cultivation sacred ground, and the dense World Origin Energy present had nourished the terrain for countless years.

This created a phenomenon unique to the Valley of Finesse.

Each grain of sand, each rock and pebble... all of them now had a sliver of energy flowing through them.

It could be said that the terrain itself had transformed a natural medium of World Origin Energy.

Because of the energy within them, the different parts of the terrain acted in the same manner as energy nodes of a formation, forming into a natural yet complex web of interconnected formations that covered the entirety of the Valley of Finesse.

Unfortunately, not every natural formation was beneficial.

There were certain spots where World Origin Energy was denser than others, but there were also spots where World Origin Energy was considered scarce even when compared to the outside.

Some areas were concealed in an unnatural mist, while others threatened to take the lives of any careless trespassers.

As visitors to the Valley of Finesse, martial artists would be able to discern the differences between these spots rather easily as long as they cared to observe the native plants and beasts.

Places with dense World Origin Energy would naturally be where the plants and beasts congregated, and places with traps would only house the toughest lifeforms present.

Yet even though it was easy to spot the differences in these areas, few would be able to understand the reason behind such differences.

It was like formations were being stacked and overlapped upon each other without proper consideration, causing all the original formations' effects to go completely off tangent.

Some effects were amplified, while some effects were reduced.

Some effects were altered into something completely different.

Even Lu Tianzi, with his understanding of formations and his Limitless Mirror Eye, took quite a while before he finally managed to grasp the concept behind this complex web of natural formations within the Valley of Finesse. And that was only because he was a martial artist who practised Spiritual Essence cultivation system, giving him a greater affinity towards the rich spiritual energy in the area.

Now with just a few casual adjustments of the terrain, Lu Tianzi was able to set up a energy gathering formation such that the nodes of the formation tapped into the life points of the terrain, amplifying the original energy gathering effect to a much higher level.

This way of utilising nature to amplify the effect of formations was a concept that Lu Tianzi was only able to comprehend through his stay at the Valley of Finesse.

The Silver blossoms tree had already been in a prime position within the Valley of Finesse, but Lu Tianzi's mediation just made its spot that much better.

The withering Silver Blossoms Tree reacted immediately to Lu Tianzi's actions, crazily absorbing the World Origin Energy that had been drawn towards it.

Seeing that, Lu Tianzi smiled in satisfaction.

The tree might have withered slightly because Lu Tianzi absorbed too much of its spiritual energy, but it had yet to go past the point of no return. As long as the tree stayed here and continued absorbing the World Origin Energy from its surroundings, it should be able to recover soon enough.

Now then, the two month period was almost up, and it's about time for him to leave.

Lu Tianzi felt a little regretful, but he also knew that he had already benefited enough. Even if he stayed longer, his harvest would not increase much further.

At this moment, Lu Tianzi narrowed his eyes in focus.

He suddenly felt the presence of multiple individuals converging upon his position from various directions.

Under normal circ.u.mstances, he would not have been this wary.

After all, the Valley of Finesse was under the charge of the Blue Ember faction, so there should not be any unauthorised intruders. Moreover, he also knew that apart from himself, the Blue Ember faction had sent a few other inscription masters here to hone their psyche, so it was not too strange to come across others.

However, what caused Lu Tianzi to sense something amiss was the fact that these individuals had all hidden their presences. Moreover, they had done so in an impeccable manner as they quickly approached under the cover of the night.

Had it been any other Origin Core realm martial artist, they would never be able to sense the approach of these individuals.

Fortunately, Lu Tianzi's perception had always been exceptionally strong. He was even able to see through the cultivation level of Overlord realm powerhouses!

One, two, three... ten... fifteen Origin Core realm martial artists, all of them with a higher cultivation level than himself.

This was quite the party!