Chapter 1435: Wishing Pearl

All three spiritual insects had eaten the Myriad Spirit Fruit. Qin Sang set them out and observed them for a while, but no obvious change appeared.

The Myriad Spirit Fruit could not directly raise a spiritual insect's cultivation. According to Valley Master Mu, its benefit showed itself in spiritual intelligence instead, which was the rarest and most precious effect of all, and the reason it could improve the odds of a successful Spirit Elevation Rite.

"The change won't show until they've digested the medicinal energy." Qin Sang nodded slightly and let them sleep.

He then resealed the remaining Myriad Spirit Fruits and took out the severed length of root. The broken root held spiritual essence within it.

If he could cultivate it properly, he would gain a new Myriad Spirit Fruit Tree and an endless supply of the fruit.

The trouble was that Qin Sang had no idea how to raise one. A spiritual tree like that surely had an agonizingly long growth cycle, and even if he kept it alive, there was no telling what year it would finally bear fruit.

I'll look through some records when I get the chance. Qin Sang thought.

He left the meditation chamber, found the spot in the cave dwelling where the spiritual qi was richest, set up the most conservative barrier for nurturing spiritual herbs, and laid the root down inside.

The place was well hidden. He would keep the root here for now and carry it back to Qingyang Temple when he returned.

Back in the meditation chamber, he took out five jade boxes. Each held a single spiritual herb, and together with the one he had given Tan Hao, that made six, all of them rare enough that no amount of spirit stones would buy them on the open market.

The Spirit Cup Flower was the most valuable of the lot. Qin Sang intended to have it refined into a Hidden Fragrance Pill, which would strengthen his spiritual consciousness, and take it himself.

Although he had deliberately concealed his identity in the secret passage and the Chaotic Devil Elder could not be certain the attack had been his, old devils of that sort had always preferred to kill the innocent rather than let the guilty slip away.

Qin Sang urgently needed to grow stronger, and advancing the Fire Seed Golden Lotus to the second stage was the fastest route.

Once his spiritual consciousness took form, rivaling that of a great cultivator, he could walk right up to the Chaotic Devil Elder without fear of his disguise being seen through.

The fire lotus seed had long since taken shape, and he had been refining devilish fire continuously, so the breakthrough was only a matter of time. The Hidden Fragrance Pill would hasten it.

The remaining four spiritual herbs did not raise cultivation or strength directly. Each had its own use, but none was anything Qin Sang needed urgently. Better to trade them for treasures he actually wanted.

His thoughts turned suddenly to the Myriad Devil Assembly which was nine years away. He had already decided to attend, but after what had happened, the matter needed careful reconsideration.

A trading event on that scale, held among Spiritual Infant cultivators, would bring countless rare treasures into the open: materials for the Golden Sinking Sword, spiritual objects for the Spirit Elevation Rite, and all manner of unusual arts and secret techniques.

He had to prepare for his breakthrough to the late stage of the Spiritual Infant Realm, and he would refuse nothing that improved his odds. He happened to be holding spiritual herbs worth trading, so missing the assembly would be a genuine waste.

By Qin Sang's estimate, even Hundred Flowers Valley could not hold many of the precious spiritual objects the Spirit Elevation Rite demanded. Even if he offered up Myriad Spirit Fruit, one full set was the most he could expect to trade for there, and he needed at least two, one for the Fire Jade Centipede and one for the Sky-Eyed Butterfly.

But the Myriad Devil Assembly was held on Chaotic Devil Island, the Chaotic Devil Elder's own lair!

Tan Hao still needed several decades of quiet cultivation before he would dare attempt his breakthrough, so he could not attend, and as a mere Golden Core Realm cultivator he could not have stood in for Qin Sang at a trade fair of that caliber anyway.

Still, the Myriad Devil Assembly was the greatest event in Boundless Sea, drawing Spiritual Infant cultivators and demon kings from outside the region. Surely the Chaotic Devil Elder could not have the final say over everything there.

Qin Sang tapped the jade box in his hand, his expression thoughtful, and decided to hold off until he had learned more.

He adjusted the sealing method for each herb according to its particular nature, then took out the three astras he had obtained in the Buddhist hall.

The Devil-Subduing Vajra he had already analyzed with Tan Hao. He set it aside for the moment, meaning to try reforging it later and changing its shape.

That left the pearl and the seven-story stupa arranged before him, both so utterly pure that they invited the imagination to wander. Qin Sang's gaze shifted to the pearl, and he closed his hand around it.

"Wishing Pearl..." he murmured soundlessly.

He had already tested it on the way back. When he probed the pearl with his spiritual consciousness, those two words surfaced in his mind unbidden. It was presumably the pearl's name, but nothing further came with it, so he would have to work out the rest himself.

Gripping the pearl, he half closed his eyes and gave it his full attention.

Two hours passed. Qin Sang's expression flickered as the Wishing Pearl in his palm changed abruptly. Something rippled inside it like water, and then it erupted with dense golden light.

For a moment he seemed to carry a trace of Buddhist nature about him, a devout Buddhist bathed in Buddha's light. The change was not finished. The golden light welled up and, without any direction from him, formed a pale golden round gale shield that enclosed him completely.[1]

The shield proved unstable. It held for three breaths, then shattered without a sound, and the Wishing Pearl dimmed at once and returned to its former appearance.

That was because Qin Sang had not yet finished refining it. After several more attempts, he managed to force the shield to hold.

He studied the pale golden gale shield around him and thought. Not an offensive astra, and it doesn't seem to have any special function either. Unless...

Struck by a thought, he called up the Golden Sinking Sword, split off a single strand of sword light, and stabbed it at himself.

Ding! The sword light stopped short, and the shield shattered on impact.

After a bit more experimenting, he had it more or less figured out. The Wishing Pearl was not the esoteric astra he had hoped for. It was a defensive astra!

That was a fine result in its own right. Since the Nine-Life Black Tortoise Shell had gone into refining the Divine Sun Tree, Qin Sang had been short of exactly this sort of protective treasure.

The best defensive astras were those that sensed danger and shielded their master of their own accord. The Wishing Pearl was not one of those, but it could be stored in his dantian, and a single thought was enough to release the shield.

The problem was that Qin Sang could not determine the Wishing Pearl's grade, and he considered his attainments in artifact refinement to be far from shallow.

"Strange. Is it because it's a Buddhist treasure? Maybe the refinement methods the Buddhist sects use aren't the same as what I studied." He stroked the Wishing Pearl lightly with his palm. "I won't know its true power until I've finished refining it. That shouldn't take long."

He performed a preliminary refinement and stored the pearl in his dantian next to his Spiritual Infant.

It was only when he picked up the seven-story stupa that he realized this thing was stranger still than the pearl.

"This isn't an astra?"

Qin Sang's astonished voice rang out in the meditation chamber. He had just tried everything: spiritual consciousness, true essence, even manifesting his demon body. Through all of it the seven-story stupa gave no response whatsoever and lay quietly in his palm.

Its glow never varied, never so much as rippled, until Qin Sang began to suspect the light came from nothing more than the material the stupa was made of.

Even a Buddhist treasure that could only be wielded by a Buddhist cultivator should not have behaved this way. Unfortunately, he knew far too little about the Buddhist sects.

Is it really not an astra? Qin Sang repeated the question to himself.

He had run enormous risks to obtain this thing, and it annoyed him, so he worked through every method again. The result was the same.

This approach led nowhere. He would have to start from Pure Sea Sect and the Buddhist hall instead.

Qin Sang thought back over what he had learned from Tan Hao, and over the furnishings of the Buddhist hall itself.

1. Gale shield can refer to a shield formed by gale qi. ☜

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