Way of Heaven

Chapter 12 – Spirit Roots

Translator: BipBop

The unending flood of spirit qi heightened the environment of the Yuan World. The rich spiritual aura caused the various races to grow stronger day by day.

Compared to the other races, the beasts, which resided in the treacherous mountains and jungles, grew stronger and faster. They gobbled spiritual herbs and spiritual flowers that littered the wilderness; they consumed spirit qi and increased their vitality and strength at a rapid pace.

Upon the advent of spirit qi, the wild beasts underwent drastic changes. Some gained intelligence and became no different from the intelligent races. Now able to grasp their terrifying power, the intelligent beasts, in order to distinguish themselves from the ordinary wild beasts, called themselves monsters.

However, most beasts didn’t gain intelligence and, on the contrary, became more frenzied, violent, their intelligence decreasing and size increasing. They were left with only their predatory instincts. The biggest of these beasts was the same size as a mountain!

As a result of their incomparable frenzied, bombastic force, their strength far exceeded beasts on the same level as them. They were called vicious beasts!

Although the monsters and vicious beasts’ origin was the same, the monsters would not deign to regard those vicious beasts as part of their species and killed the vicious beasts willfully.

All the intelligence races hunted the vicious beasts. It was well known that vicious beast meat increased one’s physical body once eaten. The meat empowered their strength and made their blood vigorous and robust. 

Once found out, this discovery surprised the intelligent races and consequently led to the races tirelessly hunting and massacring the vicious beasts to enhance their strength, which allowed those who hunted to prosper in this brutal world!

…

In the Heavenly Dao Dimension, the once brimming with Origin Energy lake that was under the heavenly throne had dried up. All the Origin Energy had been transformed into spirit qi, dispersing throughout the Yuan World.

Mu Yuan observed the situation. “The spirit qi descent has exhausted all the world’s Origin Energy. The seemingly endless amount of spirit qi is like a bucket of water. It lacks an origin that will supply it.

Although Origin Energy could be transformed into spirit qi and spirit qi will return to the world once the living beings who absorbed it went through the cycle of life and death, there were now billions of living beings in the Yuan World that absorbed spirit qi. The amount of spirit qi consumed every day was immeasurable. In addition, there would be only more living beings in the future.

“If I just let the living beings absorb spirit qi and only rely on the Yuan World to absorb and convert the void essence into Origin Energy, which is then converted into spirit qi, the Yuan World would never become the world I envisioned.” It was too inefficient. 

Mu Yuan kept thinking. How can I make an endless source of spirit qi? 

Suddenly, when Mu Yuan’s eyes swept over to the World Tree, his eyes lit up.

“Yes, the World Tree is currently a chaos spirit root. It absorbs void essence, converts it into energy, and then converts the energy into Origin Energy. Does that mean a lower grade spirit root, an innate spirit root, could also obtain energy from the void?” 

Mu Yuan couldn’t help but get excited. If innate spirit roots could also obtain void essence, then it not only resolved the problem of a lack of endless spirit qi, but also accelerated the Yuan World’s accumulation of Origin Energy, thereby exponentially decreasing the time it took for the Yuan World to become an Early Multiverse!

Mu Yuan pondered on how to create an innate spirit root. He racked his brain. Then, his thinking turned. Why couldn’t he just directly create a chaos spirit root?

As a Heavenly Dao, Mu Yuan could feasibly create a chaos spirit root. Even if he couldn’t create a complete chaos spirit root, he could still have a chance of creating a prototype chaos spirit root. If he could create a chaos spirit root, the benefits it would bring would be incomparable to an innate spirit root. When it grew up, it would rival the World Tree.

“Using the World Tree’s leaves and branches as a base and the world’s laws as the veins and arteries, there’s a possibility I can make a seedling of a chaos spirit root.” Mu Yuan no longer hesitated and took a few of the World Tree’s branches. “What kind of chaos spirit root will I create…”

Mu Yuan suddenly recalled those prehistoric legends on Earth. The great god, Pangu, who created the world, was born from a chaos spirit root, the “36 Chaos Cyan Lotus.”  

“Let’s create a chaos cyan lotus.”

First, I must extract the Origin Energy from the World Tree and merge it with the branch I picked.

Under his precise control, the World Tree’s branches began to swirl, revealing a cyan seed. 

The world’s Origin Energy energy and laws began flowing into the seed. They formed a web of thin veins.

Pu!

In a blink of an eye, the seed began to sprout stalks, lotus roots, and lotus leaves. 

A lotus with 36 cyan petals bloomed in front of Mu Yuan. It was engulfed in strands of chaos qi.

Suddenly, a ripple shook through the chaos lotus’s innards. The forming lotus collapsed, disappearing into nothingness. 

“What happened?”

Mu Yuan wrinkled his brow. His consciousness merged with the World Tree. He wanted to see what happened.  

After receiving the information from the World Tree, Mu Yuan came to a realization. “Ah, so that’s the reason. The World Tree and 36 Chaos Cyan Lotus are both chaos spirit roots and are thus born naturally from the void. They can’t be artificially created. The chaos lotus would self-destruct in the process of its creation.”

“It appears I can’t make chaos spirit roots right now and only can make innate spirit roots.”

“Pulling from my memory, there were ten innate spirit roots in the prehistoric Earth.” Mu Yuan smiled. “Maybe my world can also have ten innate spirit roots.”

Mu Yuan arrived at the sun, which now had expanded several times over. It unleashed light and heat at every moment. It was the foundation of life in this world. He tossed a World Tree branch into the surface of the sun. Countless threads of Origin Energy merged into the World Tree branch and mixed with the sun’s laws. Buds began blooming on the World Tree branch, its growth visible, rapid. Numerous roots latched onto the surface of the sun. In an instant, the branch had become a spirit root, its height dozens of meters.

Although the spirit root wasn’t big, the leaves on the branch flourished. The shape of leaves resembled mulberry leaves. The spirit root appeared like a sea of fire from a distance, flickering with the laws of the sun. This was the first innate spirit root of the Yuan World – the Sun Fusang!

TL Note: Fusang is a divine tree in Chinese mythology. 

Ring! The Fusang Tree gently shook its leaves, and ripples pierced through the world’s crystal sphere. A transparent hole appeared in the tree. The boundless void essence gushed into the tree’s body. The tree transformed the void essence into Origin Energy and stored it in its body.

Mu Yuan looked at this scene, his face full of joy. “So it worked. The Fusang makes five drops of Origin Energy a day from converting the void essence. The crystal sphere’s efficiency rate is much worse.

Moreover, the Fusang Tree was only a seedling.  Once it reaches the stage as the one in the prehistoric Earth, I wonder how many drops of Origin Energy it can create? Once that happens, I’ll have a steady stream of Origin Energy.”

Thinking of the Origin Energy provided by the Fusang Tree every day, Mu Yuan became eager. Soon, he calmed his mind. He steadily controlled the Fusang Tree to produce 20% spirit qi, 30% Origin Energy, and the remaining 50% of energy would go towards its own growth.

Then, Mu Yuan created 9 other innate spirit roots.

The Lunar Tree took root in the moon and grew on the stars. Its Yin and the Fusang Tree’s Yang integrated, forming a field of Yin and Yang that engulfed the entire Yuan World. These two innate spirit roots complemented each other. Yin and Yang were perfect complements. As a result, the efficiency rate of extracting and absorbing the energy from the void essence increased by 50%!

The Star Tree, placed and rooted in the vacuum of the Yuan World by Mu Yuan, sucked the void essence from the outside world, transforming the energy gained to help stabilize the Yuan World’s stars. The phantom stars gradually became real. This spirit root would be the founder of the stars, the galaxy.

The Five Element Tree contained the laws of the five elements and the power of creation. When Mu Yuan was in a sea, which was far from any land, he created the Five Element Island and placed the innate spirit root there. The Five Element Tree dictated the island with the oppression of the laws of the five elements, preventing anyone from entering the island and touching the tree.

The Saturn Peach Tree, placed in a swamp south, was guarded by a continental barrier. The entrance to the tree was placed in the middle of a swamp that had a radius of over 50,000 meters. In addition, Mu Yuan laid many heavenly restrictions throughout the swamp.

An innate spirit root, the Gourd Vine was surrounded by ginseng and bitter bamboo, which were placed personally by Mu Yuan. Mu Yuan made this place extremely deadly. This allowed it to grow in peace.

Mu Yuan arrived at the top of Tongtian Mountain, his hand holding a sapling. “The Bodhi Tree, the last innate spirit root, should be placed here. If someone comes here, they will receive enlightenment.”

The sapling took root in the Tongtian Mountain, growing in the breeze. The Bodhi Tree was wrapped around in Taoist rhymes, which all the laws of the world grasped.

When the Bodhi Tree took root, a connection formed between the ten spirit roots. This connection increased the spirit roots’ efficiency of absorbing void essence, thus stabilizing the foundations of the Yuan World. 

Mu Yuan had not anticipated this. But, after second thought, all the innate spirit roots came from the World Tree, so such a connection forming wasn’t that abnormal.

Mu Yuan did not stop after he created the innate spirit roots. He systematically created 365 outer spirit roots and hid them in various places around the world. Then, he created countless plain spirit roots.

Outer spirit roots could only absorb tiny threads of the void essence, and plain spirit roots couldn’t absorb the void essence at all. However, plain spirit roots could stabilize space, purify the spirit qi, and refine the terrain. Any place with spirit roots would gradually transform into a spiritually blessed land.