As time passed while Li Yan and the other two absorbed the wood spirit rhythm, this lake water, which was originally as thick as milk, was rapidly thinning day by day.
But the white light hovering above the lake's surface remained, making it impossible to distinguish the problem at a glance.
But at this time, seven or eight voices were echoing in the forest.
"Where did the Giant Wood Clan bring these two cultivators from this time? If this continues, the wood spirit rhythm accumulated in the past will be completely devoured by them!"
"That wood spirit rhythm is not just the accumulation of these few decades, but also what was left over from each use in the past."
"Except for the few times when Nascent Soul stage cultivators entered and devoured it all, in the following times, the cultivators who entered could at most absorb fifty percent, which was already considered good. Should we expel them early?"
"Only one of these three cultivators is a Giant Wood Clan cultivator. It's not out of the question for us to expel them early!"
"I don't think it's necessary. They were brought here by the Giant Wood Clan, so there must be some connection."
"In any case, we agreed with them for once every hundred years. How much wood spirit rhythm gathers here after a hundred years, and how much they absorb, what does that have to do with us?"
"That's also true. Just like when that Nascent Soul cultivator from the Giant Wood Clan came in to absorb, the wood spirit rhythm gathered in the next hundred years was only about forty percent of what it used to be..."
"Those two Golden Core cultivators are really strange. One has a very pure constitution and seems to be cultivating a demonic clan cultivation method. The speed at which she refines the wood spirit rhythm is not much slower than that Nascent Soul old monster from the Giant Wood Clan."
"The other one is even stranger. He clearly showed water-attribute magical power when he entered the Wood Essence Pool, but how did it suddenly turn into such a pure wood spirit power circulation? Did I sense it wrong?"
"He should have a water-wood dual-lineage Heaven Spirit Root. Perhaps the wood spirit root is a Hidden Spirit Root, which is why he mistakenly took the water spirit root as his main spirit root and cultivated a water-attribute cultivation method."
"And under the washing of the wood spirit rhythm, the wood-attribute Hidden Spirit Root was finally revealed!"
Just by probing the attributes of a person's spirit root from the surface, even a Nascent Soul cultivator couldn't tell the other party's exact spirit root attributes at a glance.
Generally, one had to use spirit power to deeply probe the other party's Dantian to be able to do so. Therefore, Li Yan's appearance gave people a somewhat strange feeling.
If Li Yan had heard these voices in conversation, he might have been confused, not knowing what a Hidden Spirit Root was. This term was one that would only appear in ancient times.
Apart from the single-attribute Saint Spirit Root, all other spirit roots were multi-attribute. When ordinary people chose a cultivation method, they would, of course, choose the attribute they were most sensitive to. That way, their perception during cultivation would be the best.
But there was one exception, and that was when perception was wrong. The attribute spirit qi that one perceived as having the highest compatibility with oneself was actually not the best.
The best spirit root attribute was obscured for some reason. This would cause the cultivator to miss the direction when finally choosing a cultivation method. This hidden main spirit root was called a Hidden Spirit Root.
On the thirteenth day, in a tree hole.
At this moment, Ye Mingxin was a little dazed. She stared blankly at the lake water in front of her.
The lake water before her was no longer the slightest bit milky white. It didn't even have a hint of color. It was so clear that she could see her own alluring body soaked in the water with her naked eye.
Even the texture of her clothes could be seen with incomparable clarity.
Just yesterday, while she was cultivating, she had felt the active wood spirit rhythm become faint and elusive. But at that time, she was still refining the remaining wood spirit rhythm in her body and didn't pay it any mind.
But today, when she had finally finished refining the wood spirit rhythm in her body, she could no longer absorb even a single trace of wood spirit rhythm from the lake water.
She couldn't help but open her eyes, and then she saw the scene that left her stunned. The transparent lake water was so clear...
'What the Clan Head said before I came in wasn't like this, and the information I gathered from the senior brothers and sisters who had entered the sacred land before wasn't like this either.'
'They all said to be careful when absorbing the wood spirit rhythm here, or my physical body would explode. But why can't I absorb any wood spirit rhythm no matter how I try? Where is that dense wood spirit rhythm?'
This was because her cultivation was still shallow. If it were deeper, she should have discovered that something was wrong two or three days ago.
And at this time, although Li Yan and Zhao Min had also sensed that something was wrong, they still had a lot of wood spirit rhythm in their bodies that had not been completely refined, so they did not immediately stop cultivating.
At this time, the Golden Cores in their Dantians had surprisingly all turned golden yellow!
On the fifteenth day, when a calm-faced Ting Bixiao once again arrived before the "Wood Essence Pool," he saw Ye Mingxin sitting cross-legged and meditating by the lake.
Ting Bixiao was stunned for a moment, and then boundless anger surged in his heart.
This Ye Mingxin was a genius of his branch. Although she had the ability to enter here this time, it was also with the help of a large amount of cultivation resources given to her by the clan.
She didn't even cherish this once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity and actually ran up to the shore. It was simply heartbreaking.
"Ye Mingxin, why aren't you cultivating in the lake? What on earth are you doing?"
Ye Mingxin, who was meditating, was startled by the sudden voice. She hurriedly stood up. When she saw who had come, tears welled up in her pretty face.
"Clan... Clan Head, I... I can't absorb any wood spirit rhythm!"
"What are you talking about?"
Ting Bixiao couldn't help but feel annoyed. For a moment, he didn't even know what nonsense the other party was talking about.
"Clan Head, look!"
With a wronged expression and tears welling in her eyes, Ye Mingxin hurriedly pointed her finger at the lake water in front of her.
Ting Bixiao immediately looked in the direction Ye Mingxin was pointing. A layer of white light on the surface of the lake was a bit dazzling, but when he looked carefully through the white light, his expression froze.
Immediately, he hurriedly increased his Divine Sense...
A moment later, a look of shock appeared on Ting Bixiao's face. Because of the dazzling white light, he had not noticed anything different in the Wood Essence Pool before.
But when he saw the surface of the lake beneath the white light, he saw a stretch of clear, bottomless lake water. The familiar milky white wood spirit rhythm was completely gone.
"When did this happen?" he asked urgently.
"Clan Head, it's been like this for the past two days. I... I only improved by one and a half minor realms. I was about to break through to the Pseudo-Core, but... how is this different from what was said before I came in?"
Ye Mingxin said with a sob. This time, her plans and confidence had been shattered.
Ting Bixiao looked at the dream-like forest around the lake. He immediately sent a voice transmission to a certain place. After a few breaths, the expression on his face began to change constantly.
The muscles on Ting Bixiao's face twitched, and his robes fluttered continuously. After a long while, he finally took a deep breath.
"Fellow Daoist Zhang, Fellow Daoist Zhao, the time has come. We must leave this place!"
Outside that same rock wall, four figures walked out one by one amidst a flicker of light and shadow.
Ting Bixiao waved his hand back. The cave entrance covered in emerald green branches, leaves, and vines rapidly shrank. Soon, an azure-green small tree flew into his hand and was put away by him.
Not far away, both Li Yan and Zhao Min had apologetic looks on their faces.
"You two fellow daoists, could it be that I, Ting, have misjudged? You are not human cultivators?"
Ting Bixiao had been pondering all the way. He had known before that the female cultivator's physical body was formidable, but he hadn't expected Zhang Ming to be the same. The hard-accumulated wood spirit rhythm had been completely absorbed by them.
Thinking about the terrifying washing power contained in that wood spirit rhythm, Ting Bixiao himself felt his own meridians ache with pain.
Even if five or six Pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivators like him entered at the same time, they might not be able to absorb it so cleanly.
He figured that only the top one hundred third-rank demonic beasts on the demonic beast list might have this terrifying endurance.
This made Ting Bixiao think that he had made a mistake in judging the race of Li Yan and the other, and for a moment, he felt even more heartbroken.
He looked with some regret at Ye Mingxin, who was following behind him with a wronged expression and tears in her eyes, and his heart dripped with blood.
'This time, the clan has really, really suffered a heavy loss. The Wood Essence Pool won't recover for another two or three hundred years. And this child, Mingxin...'
Ting Bixiao was in a state of turmoil!
To the side, Li Yan rubbed his nose.
"This time, we have indeed caused some loss to this little fellow daoist's cultivation!"
He paused for a moment, then patted his waist. A small, exquisite purple jade bottle appeared in his palm.
Under Ye Mingxin's astonished gaze, the purple jade bottle had already flown in front of her.
"Here is a fourth-rank 'Dustless Pill'. It should be difficult to find a second one in this world. When you form your Golden Core in the future, it will lend you a hand!"
Li Yan only had this one fourth-rank "Dustless Pill" on him. It was one of the two fourth-rank "Dustless Pills" that Zuo Qiudan had given him back then.
The other one he had stuffed to Gong Chenying before falling into the Devil's Cliff Crevice.
This one was originally meant for Zhao Min, but when Li Yan saw Zhao Min again later, she had already successfully formed her core, so this pill was left over.
According to Zuo Qiudan, the "Dustless Pill" was only a third-rank medicinal pill. He had improved the formula for Bu Luo and had gone deep into the Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda to find materials.
Afterward, he had only managed to refine a total of five "Dustless Pills" with a rank as high as fourth-rank. So many years had passed since then, so this might be the only one left in the world.
Li Yan could sense that Ye Mingxin's cultivation was already very close to the Pseudo-Core Realm. If he and Zhao Min hadn't absorbed the wood spirit rhythm so cleanly, Ye Mingxin should have had a chance to break through to the Pseudo-Core.
This fourth-rank "Dustless Pill" was already useless to Li Yan. Seeing that Ye Mingxin was very well-behaved, and had only been secretly sad from beginning to end without showing the slightest complaint, he felt a bit bad.
Especially since the benefits he and Zhao Min had received from the Wood Essence Pool this time were more than they had anticipated. They had benefited more, so after some thought, he took out this medicinal pill.
"What? A fourth-rank 'Dustless Pill'! This... how is this possible?"
Before the somewhat at-a-loss Ye Mingxin could speak, Ting Bixiao was already moved.
On the Verdant Continent, even if one wanted to buy a third-rank "Dustless Pill," it was a priceless commodity. This kind of medicinal pill was extremely difficult to obtain even in first-rate sects.
Even in major sects and clans, only some core disciples could obtain it. Yet, the other party not only said this pill was a "Dustless Pill," but its rank was also unheard of...
Li Yan smiled faintly.
"That's why I said this medicinal pill might be the only one in this world. Its rank is beyond doubt, but its origin is inconvenient to disclose!"
This sentence from Li Yan shook Ting Bixiao to his core.
'The origins of these two are not simple at all. To produce a medicinal pill that has never even been heard of, their action is truly generous.'
'However, just from the fact that they could easily absorb so much wood spirit rhythm, one can conclude that these two have cultivated some top-tier body refining technique, or they would have exploded long ago.'
'Fortunately, the Ancestor didn't let us touch them. Although there were some obstacles to them entering the 'Wood Essence Pool' before, overall, we still fulfilled our promise. Otherwise, we would have made a powerful enemy for the Giant Wood Clan out of thin air!'
He looked at the still-dazed Ye Mingxin and couldn't help but shout softly.
"What are you still standing there for? Hurry up and thank the two seniors. Don't you know how hard it is to come by a 'Dustless Pill'?"
Ye Mingxin was dazed at first, not knowing what Li Yan meant by directly giving her a purple jade bottle. When she heard Li Yan's words, she was even more stunned!