Chapter 173: Chapter 62: Bountiful Harvest

"And I, too, benefited from this and recovered some of my power."

"So, what’s the good news?" Encouraged by Yara’s confident tone, Su Zhou couldn’t help but feel invigorated. He leaned over the table and met the smug Snake Spirit’s gaze, asking with anticipation, "How much power did you recover? What’s changed?"

Yara answered without hesitation, "I need even more blood!"

Su Zhou: "...?"

"What are you thinking, Su Zhou? At the end of the day, I’m just a snake barely thicker than your pinky. What did you expect me to do?"

Seeing Su Zhou turn his head with an expression that screamed ’a giant question mark is materializing over my head,’ Yara couldn’t help but shake its head. "For a long time to come, I won’t have any power other than providing commentary and giving you necessary hints. And if it’s a Trial I think you need to face, I won’t even give you hints. All of this is for your own growth."

"That’s true. Come to think of it, I don’t like it when someone is backseat gaming, either."

Su Zhou considered Yara’s words and had to admit he’d gotten ahead of himself. How long had it been since Yara broke free from its Seal? Where would it get the power to help him? Traveling to another world had likely drawn on the residual power of Yara’s True Body, but the Snake Spirit before him now was, in truth, just a little snake.

Letting out a breath, Su Zhou said, his spirits renewed, "My gains have been more than enough; no need to dwell on anything else. Yara, your help allowed me to clear the Divine Wood World in what felt like a mere moment in the Earth World. This has undoubtedly saved me an enormous amount of Cultivation time, and now I have more time to enact my plan for revenge against that Ghost Witch Family."

"But before that, I need to take stock of my gains from the Divine Wood World. Only then can I plan my next steps."

With that, Su Zhou began to take stock of his gains.

"First, the Celestial God Seal."

Su Zhou took out the Celestial God Seal. This creation from an unknown being, which originally had no hands or markings and resembled a broken Silver Pocket Watch, possessed the immense power to travel between worlds.

Originally, its empty face had held nothing, but now, a faint, teal-colored marking had materialized at the twelve o’clock position!

"Huh." Even Yara was surprised. It crawled up his arm to his head and, just as before, draped itself over Su Zhou’s ear to observe the Celestial God Seal with him. "It... it actually recorded the complete coordinates for the Divine Wood World!"

Yara’s tone was full of astonishment. "This means that in the future, as long as you supply enough Spiritual Power, you’ll be able to travel to the Divine Wood World again... A known, safe world with predictable and stable returns."

"Furthermore, the Divine Wood World’s influence on the Great Seal has almost completely vanished. The countdown to the chain destruction of All Realms has been delayed by about three years... In other words, you now have eighteen years left to save the world."

"It’s that good?!" Su Zhou’s jaw dropped. He’d never imagined that the Celestial God Seal, in which he had placed no hope, would yield such a reward. According to Yara, he would struggle to supply the amount of Spiritual Energy needed to cross worlds even after advancing to the Extraordinary realm, but that didn’t stop him from being overjoyed.

Next were the Spirit Plants and the changes to the Wisdom Tree Essence Soul.

The number of Spirit Plants in the Divine Wood World was far beyond Su Zhou’s imagination. In that world, because of the remnant will of the Tree of the Great Dao and the influence of the Immortal Banyan Tree, the Wood Qi was incredibly dense. The number of Spirit Plants was many times greater than on Earth, even with its ongoing Spiritual Energy Revival. Furthermore, the Martial Artists of that world didn’t dare to eat these Spiritual Materials, which were so rich in Wood Qi that they caused a so-called "erosion sickness," so many remained untouched.

Such were the benefits of inter-world trade: what was a treasure in one world was an unwanted, dangerous item in another.

The Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army had selected a batch of twenty-two Spirit Plants for Su Zhou, all chosen for their excellent taste and effects. Each one could be consumed by an ordinary person to strengthen their body. Of course, the most important part was that they were delicious, and most of them were fruit-like in appearance.

Su Zhou’s own physique had already reached a threshold where ordinary Spirit Plants had little effect on him. He had brought these Spirit Plants back mainly to prepare them as food for his loved ones, hoping to improve the physical condition of his parents and Shao Qiming’s family.

As for the Wisdom Tree Essence Soul, after Yara had a mysterious conversation with the Tree of the Great Dao, it received a wisp of what seemed to be the Tree of the Great Dao’s aura, allowing it to quickly break through to a new major stage.

Now, instead of constantly crying ’I’m hungry, hungry, hungry!’ in the Soul Space as it used to, it had fallen into a deep slumber to digest this benefit. Once it finished and was nurtured with Spiritual Blood, it was certain to produce even better Wisdom Fruits.

"The remaining twelve Wooden Pearls from the Demon Emperor can be used as fertilizer for the Wisdom Tree if you mix them with some Spiritual Materials, in addition to being used as poison," Yara reminded him. Su Zhou made a mental note to do it later.

Next, the Evil Souls.

In the Divine Wood World, Su Zhou had slain a great number of Evil People and obtained their Evil Souls. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Aside from the Demon Souls of the National Preceptor and the Red Land Demon General—which had transformed into the legacy of the Five Extremes Divine Thunder True Technique and the Attaching Spirit for the Red Land Demon Poison, respectively—Su Zhou had used all the other Evil Souls to enhance his physical attributes.

Now, Su Zhou once again had no idea what the limits of his strength were. In any case, he hadn’t felt strained when trading blows with the Dragon Body Demon Emperor, who had just entered the Innate realm—so long as his opponent didn’t use the Coiling Dragon True Form. That was like a Great Demon’s true form, or a transformation for a Fake X Knight or Ultraman; the power boost was so massive that even Su Zhou couldn’t withstand it.

’Speaking of the Red Land Demon Poison, my old Long Spear was completely destroyed when I killed the Demon Emperor.’

As he reached this point in his summary, Su Zhou’s gaze fell upon the Blade of Annihilation and a brand-new Spirit Iron Long Spear set to the side. He nodded in satisfaction. "Although the Grand Master I knew is bedridden, the other two Grand Masters from the Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army used the Demon Emperor’s Dragon Horns and remains to forge a brand-new Dragon Horn Cross Long Spear for me!"

This Spiritual Spear, forged from the remains of the Coiling Dragon—or, the Heavenly Calamity Wood Dragon—had lost its previous shadowy Spirit Core Enchantment and Red Land Demon Poison Enchantment. However, in terms of quality and hardness, it was far superior to its predecessor.

Furthermore, as a base for Attaching a Spirit, it was far superior to the old Wood Centipede Spear, with much greater potential for future upgrades. What he had gained far outweighed what he had lost.

’Most importantly, I now have the Blade of Annihilation.’

Su Zhou looked to the side, at the Divine Weapon sheathed in its Thunderstruck Wood Blade Scabbard, and his heart burned with excitement. ’With this blade, I wouldn’t be afraid even if that Ghost Witch Family rolled out fully armored robots! You have technology, I have a Divine Weapon—let’s see who’s tougher!’

’What’s more, I’ve already mastered a Thunder Technique. As long as I’m not facing a storm of metal, stray bullets are meaningless against me!’

Su Zhou had used his own blood to perform a Sealing Orbit on the Blade of Annihilation, sealing a portion of its Spiritual Light. As long as it remained sheathed, its Spiritual Power fluctuations would be no greater than those from the Flower Fairy at Brother Chen’s neighborhood fruit and vegetable stand. Speaking of which, that little fairy had apparently gone on to take a government post, becoming a professional cultivator for some "Spirit Plant Garden," which had finally made Brother Chen’s parents proud for once.

’Very good. That’s the gist of my gains. No need to summarize the Cultivation Technique legacies I picked up, like Qinggong, Qi Condensation and Object Manipulation, and the Rigid Shooting Technique.’

His summary complete, Su Zhou stood up. He looked out the window at the biting wind and snow, which was just as fierce as it had been in the Taibai Mountain Area, and couldn’t help but laugh out loud. "And my strength has reached the Awakening Peak! All I need is one more Orbit, and I can advance to the Extraordinary realm!"

’On Earth... aside from the likes of the Saints of the Righteous Country—people who were probably at the Awakening Peak even before the Spiritual Energy Revival and may have already advanced to the Holy Seats of the Extraordinary realm—there’s no one stronger than me.’

But before he advanced, Su Zhou had a few things to take care of.

"It’s time I used this unrivaled martial might to take care of those bastards who only know how to curse women and children!"