383: Chapter 383 Strange Movements of the Spiritual Veins

Lin Yue grinned, tears streaming uncontrollably. "I knew you wouldn't die, kid!" Using his remaining strength, he punched Gao Feng once and then collapsed onto the ground.

Luo Li gently held his hand, her eyes rimmed with red, yet her smile was incredibly radiant. "Welcome back." Her fingers were still wrapped in bandages and her face was pale, but her smile was beautiful.

Su Ning didn't speak, but the gratified light in her eyes said everything. Her seven orifices were no longer bleeding, but she was still very weak. She insisted on standing, watching Gao Feng.

Tian Xin revealed a rare sliver of a smile and said, "Don't be so reckless next time." Her Talismans were exhausted, but she didn't care; she only cared that Gao Feng was safe.

Yao Guang had cried herself into a mess, yet she was still smiling. "That's great... that's great..." Her hair had turned much whiter, but she smiled like a child.

Lin Jingyu patted his shoulder with his only remaining hand and laughed, "I knew you wouldn't die." His arm was still bandaged and his body was wrapped in gauze, but he laughed very happily.

Yun Xi, Ling Zhan, the Grand Elder, Han Shan... everyone crowded around, talking all at once, laughing and crying. Some hugged, some held hands, some patted shoulders, and some laughed through their tears.

Gao Feng looked at them, at these familiar faces, and at the deep concern and joy in their eyes. A wave of indescribable warmth surged in his heart.

"I'm fine," he said softly, a weak smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. "We won."

Everyone looked at each other and laughed, tears and smiles intertwining.

Yes, they had won. They had defended the Human Realm, defended their home, and defended everything they wanted to protect.

Gao Feng stood up and walked to the city wall, looking at the land in the distance that had been baptized by the flames of war.

There, once the camp of the Myriad Races army, now only devastation remained. The deep craters, the collapsed buildings, and the charred trees all spoke of the tragic intensity of the great battle.

Further away were rolling mountains, winding rivers, and villages with curling chimney smoke. In those villages were the people he protected and the home he guarded.

"What are you thinking about?" Luo Li walked to his side and asked softly.

Gao Feng shook his head and said, "I'm wondering, was it all worth it?"

Luo Li looked at him and said seriously, "It was worth it. Because you are here, and we are here, the Human Realm could be defended."

Gao Feng was silent for a moment, then slowly nodded.

He turned to look at everyone. Luo Li, Su Ning, Chu Lan, Tian Xin, Yao Guang, Lin Yue, Lin Jingyu, as well as Ling Zhan, Yun Xi, the Grand Elder, Han Shan... countless familiar faces, countless pairs of expectant eyes.

He smiled slightly and said, "Come, let's go home."

Everyone smiled at each other and followed him down the city wall.

Behind them, the morning sun was rising, casting golden sunlight on the walls of Meteor City, on those Human Race Cultivators who had fought bloodily, and on this land they had protected with their lives.

The morning mist had not yet fully dispersed, and Meteor Valley was shrouded in a thin silver veil. Dewdrops dripped from the mountain cliffs, making faint, crisp sounds.

Chu Lan was the first to jump off the flying boat. She took a deep breath, a satisfied smile appearing on her face: "Home is still the most comfortable!" In the Spirit Plant Garden, the war soul spirit plants, meteor spirit plants, and azure wood spirit medicine swayed gently in the morning breeze, the dewdrops on their leaves shimmering with a faint silver light.

After several months of hard cultivation, Chu Lan's Spirit Plant Garden had expanded to 1,500 acres, filled with all kinds of rare spirit plants. The Time Holy Vine climbed on a specially made trellis, its vines bearing several silver fruits—those were Time Spirit Fruits. Although not yet ripe, they already emitted a faint Time Power.

Yao Guang followed closely behind, holding a Storage Pouch full of Medicinal Pills, walking quickly toward the alchemy room. "I need to take stock of the inventory. We used quite a lot of azure wood healing pills and spring return golden pills during the battle; the priority is to restock." Her voice carried a hint of fatigue, but more so the relief of having survived a disaster.

During the great battle, her medical corps had pulled dying warriors back from the brink of death countless times, which was extremely taxing. Now, back in the familiar alchemy room, she felt much more relaxed.

Tian Xin did not return to the Talisman Hall but went straight toward the depths of the Immortal Cave. She still had a few unused Talismans in her Storage Pouch that needed to be carefully categorized and stored. During the battle, she had drawn thousands of Talismans, almost exhausting all Materials, but those Talismans played a huge role in the city defense. She was calculating in her mind that it was time to find another batch of Talisman-making Materials.

Lin Yue stood at the edge of the cliff, hands on his hips, gazing at the faint light of the defensive Formations in the distance. He grinned, but the smile held a hint of bitterness: "Ten of the twelve layers of the great array were broken; I have to set them up again." He counted on his fingers, calculating for each Formation how many Formation stones, Formation Flags, and Talisman papers were needed. The battles of these past days had deepened his understanding of the Ten Thousand Arrays Rock Demon Map, and many new Formation concepts were taking shape in his mind, urgently needing to be put into practice.

Luo Li did not return to the music room, nor did she go to handle the affairs of the Tianyin Pavilion. She just quietly followed behind Gao Feng, looking at his slightly tired back. She had a thousand things to say but didn't know where to start. During the battle, she had watched with her own eyes as Gao Feng was knocked away by the King of Ten Thousand Races time and again, only to stand up every time. That determined figure was deeply engraved in her memory.

"Go rest first," Luo Li said softly. "You haven't really closed your eyes these past few days. Although your Golden Core has healed, the mental exhaustion isn't something spiritual energy can compensate for."

Gao Feng nodded without saying much. He was indeed tired.

Deep within the Immortal Cave, in the stone room he used for cultivation, the Spiritual Qi of the Spiritual Vein was still dense. He sat cross-legged in the center of the stone platform and closed his eyes. He didn't immediately Cultivate, but instead, his mind sank—

The Myriad Spirit Space.

This was his greatest secret and his strongest trump card along the way. That independent space was constantly expanding as his cultivation level rose, and it was now several hundred feet across. In the spiritual spring pool, layers of milky white spirit marrow were stacked; that was the family fortune he had accumulated from countless Secret Realms. In the spiritual fields, several rare spirit plants were slowly growing, absorbing Spiritual Qi. In the depths of the space, several Jade Slips and a few Magical Artifacts floated, all treasures he had obtained from various places.

Gao Feng sat cross-legged on the spirit marrow stone platform in the center of the spiritual spring, closing his eyes to regulate his breathing. His cultivation at the Middle Stage of the third level of the Golden Core had completely stabilized over the past few days after the battle. He could clearly feel that golden round core slowly rotating in his Dantian. With every rotation, pure spiritual energy surged out from it, flowing into his limbs and bones. The cracks on the surface of the Golden Core had completely healed, and it was even smoother and more rounded than before, emitting a warm luster.

But he knew this was only "fine" on the surface. The erosion from that Chaos Power during the battle had not completely disappeared, and the lingering rhythm of the King of Ten Thousand Races' Chaos Power still remained deep within his body.

It was a grayish-black power lurking in the corners of his Meridians, drifting in and out of contact with the golden War God Power. He needed time to completely refine them; otherwise, it would eventually leave hidden troubles.

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the ancient Jade Slip floating in the corner of the Myriad Spirit Space—there was actually a faint fluorescence flowing across its surface!

It was a Jade Slip he had obtained from the Meteor Ruins. At this moment, ancient characters emerged on the surface of the Jade Slip, slowly appearing line by line:

"Spiritual Veins are like trees; if the roots rot, they wither. They require the Five Directions Spiritual Roots to extend their life. The five directions are: East Sword, West Law, South Treasure, North Valley, and Central Palace."

Gao Feng's brow furrowed slightly. This wasn't the first time he had seen the theory of the "Five Directions Spiritual Veins." Years ago while traveling among the myriad races, he had seen a similar description on a broken stele in a certain Star Clan ruin, though he hadn't paid it much mind then. Seeing it again now, and thinking of the changes in the Spiritual Qi of his fief after the battle, he vaguely felt—this was no coincidence.

"Five Directions... Spiritual Roots..." he murmured to himself, staring at those lines of text, trying to discern more information. But the light of the Jade Slip quickly dimmed, and no more characters appeared.

While he was lost in thought, a hurried set of footsteps came from outside. Gao Feng's mind exited the space, and he opened his eyes to see Chu Lan standing at the door of the stone room, holding a spirit plant, her expression not looking very good.

"Senior Brother Gao Feng, look at this." Chu Lan handed the spirit plant to him.

It was a Rhino Spirit Grass; its leaves were curled into tubes, the edges slightly yellowed, and the spiritual energy fluctuations at the root were noticeably weaker. Although Gao Feng was not a Spirit Plant Master, he knew that Rhino Spirit Grass was the most sensitive indicator plant for spiritual energy concentration—once the surrounding Spiritual Qi dropped, its leaves would be the first to show abnormalities. The state of this Rhino Spirit Grass now was clearly a typical symptom of insufficient Spiritual Qi.

"The spiritual energy concentration in the fief has dropped?" Gao Feng frowned, standing up from the stone platform.

"I'm not certain either." Chu Lan shook her head. "I used a spiritual energy detector on several places; some dropped, some didn't change, and the magnitudes weren't large. If it weren't for the Rhino Spirit Grass being so sensitive, it wouldn't be detectable at all. But I just felt something was wrong, so I went back to the Spirit Plant Garden and checked the other Rhino Spirit Grasses—every single one has curled leaves to varying degrees. This shows that the Spiritual Qi of the entire fief is indeed dropping, just very slowly."

Gao Feng didn't speak. He strode out of the stone room and toward the Spirit Plant Garden. In the garden, several Rhino Spirit Grasses indeed showed the same symptoms, while the surrounding Spirit Gathering Grass and Spirit Nurturing Flowers were all normal.

This indicated that the drop in spiritual energy was extremely faint, such that only the most sensitive spirit plants could capture this subtle change.

But it was precisely this "faintness" that made Gao Feng more alert—because if it were a temporary spiritual energy fluctuation, the leaves of the Rhino Spirit Grass would only curl temporarily and recover in a few days; however, the edges of the leaves on this Rhino Spirit Grass had already turned yellow, which meant the lack of spiritual energy was not a matter of a day or two, but had persisted for a considerable amount of time.

Just as he was checking the Spirit Plant Garden, a clear sound of a zither came from the distance. Gao Feng looked toward the sound and saw Luo Li sitting cross-legged by the cliff, the flowing sound zither across her knees, her fingers lightly plucking the strings.