I Don't Agree to the Terms
Chapter 238 - 145: I planted myself in the ground

Chapter 238: Chapter 145: I planted myself in the ground

"Heavenly City doesn’t seem to have noticed Bai Fen’s death up to now," Gu Shanhai realized the Jianghu remained serene without a hint of disturbance.

According to his earlier assessment, the ones from Heavenly City descending to the lower realm used a technique to pinpoint individuals with the topmost renown in the world as anchor coordinates, and it was likely some sort of Cultivation Technique, though the specific method was unclear.

However, it appeared that they lacked a means to monitor the vital signs of those they sent down, otherwise they would have dispatched another wave of people his way by now.

It’s been nearly a month with no movement—a silence that was telling.

"I wonder if it’ll be like defeating the small ones only for the bigger ones to keep coming to their deaths in succession," Gu Shanhai actually rather hoped something like this would happen. If he defeated the grandchildren and then the grandfathers, getting a whole family bucket deal, he might scrape a good haul of things from their brains.

"But it’s unlikely to happen so soon; it’s only been a month and a bit. They wouldn’t just give it that much time." Although Bai Fen’s memories indicated his mission had no time limit, it couldn’t truly go on indefinitely—if there was a prolonged lack of response, Heavenly City would surely send someone down to investigate.

This was a mission personally issued by the Martial Arts True Immortal; the higher-ups of Heavenly City would certainly take it seriously.

"Forget these people, the source of Spiritual Energy predicted by the divination before is right in this area, I need to get to work." Gu Shanhai limbered up; these days, he had constantly been on Little White’s deer back, doing nothing but cultivating without many opportunities for action.

His practice mainly involved turning the witness of power gifted by Black Tiger into a Fear Aura, upgrading the Curse Boar he obtained from the Fiona Knights’ camp to a Curse Aura, as well as transforming the Fairy’s Blessing and Elven Blessing given by Atilis into a Blessing Aura.

In essence, he piled on Auras relentlessly, and the effect was quite impressive. The Fear Aura, combined with the attribute suppression of Gu Shanhai’s natural mark, worked exceptionally well. The curse effects within the Curse Aura were also fairly potent; even though it wasn’t as opposed to the natural order as the original Sliver Gui Lion’s Curse Boar, it was still substantially strong.

Besides these three types of Auras, Gu Shanhai was also contemplating the fact that there were indeed numerous Auras. He thought of trying to synthesize them, for instance, into two categories: ally reinforcement and enemy debilitation. But the matter was too complex, such as with the Flame Aura, which could grant allies fire-type damage during attacks, enhance fire resistance, provide a Flame Shield while also causing burn, explosion, and other types of damage to enemies.

Thus, it was difficult to categorize Auras as either ally reinforcement or enemy debilitation.

Primarily because Gu Shanhai had developed a variety of derivative uses for a single Aura, pondering potential scenarios now and then, so if someone fully acquired the enhancements of Gu Shanhai’s Mana Auras, their strength would be unimaginably elevated.

While it appeared Gu Shanhai learned a mix of things, he actually possessed just two abilities—Magic Domain and the "Green Emperor Longevity Scripture"; the former akin to a talent and the latter a system. Whether it was Azure Dragon or the so-called "Heavenly Gang Child Skill," they were part of the "Green Emperor Longevity Scripture."

Due to the classification issues with the Mana Auras, Gu Shanhai abandoned categorization altogether. As for the number of Auras, it was a matter of indifference; instead, he was prepared for a lasting solution, which was to refine the Aura identification program. As long as it correctly identified foes and allies, Auras could be directly effective, thus avoiding complications.

Regrettably, this was destined to be an even more difficult bottleneck.

"Speaking of which, why does everyone like to dig underground structures..." Gu Shanhai muttered to himself. After roaming around the area, he soon found his destination—an underground palace.

And buried quite deep at that; if not for his treasure-hunting instinct kicking in, he might not have sensed it at all.

The sense was very vague, indicating it was genuinely exceptionally deep.

"So... how should I descend?" Gu Shanhai looked distressed. Digging wasn’t an issue, but he had no idea how long it would take.

Moreover, although this was a desolate wilderness, there were inhabited areas not too far away, with woodcutters and hunters occasionally passing by. If his digging was discovered, rumors might spread of a haunted location by the next day—at best. At worst, tales of a hidden treasure might emerge, which would indeed be troublesome.

As for the journey thus far without any ominous signs from the death detection, it was quite normal; the danger was likely within the underground palace, probably something still alive.

Apart from some benighted bandits on the road, there were no special encounters. If these bandits could pose a threat to Gu Shanhai, this world wouldn’t be the Middle Martial World; it would be the Immortal Martial World.

"What if I plant myself and see?" Gu Shanhai suddenly thought of a brilliant solution.

Growing a mass of Spirit Plants meant he was essentially a Spirit Plant, and as a plant, rooting himself in the soil was an instinct—equivalent to saying he could root in soil.

Then he could just naturally sink downwards.

This way, he wouldn’t need to dig and could even replenish some nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

"Hisss~ It could work!"

"Why didn’t I think of such a good restoration method before?"

"Wait a minute, if I can replenish nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, if I grew some leaves, could I also partake in photosynthesis?"