Bamboo Mound

He had his own plans. He remembered that among the bamboo seeds he had obtained earlier, there was one that was different from the others, which was picked from a giant bamboo shoot. He figured that it was the mastermind behind all the Green Spirit Bamboo, and its abilities were even greater.

Once a method is researched or obtained that can increase the strength of the Azure Bamboo with one's own cultivation level, the bamboo seed will be spawned, and the bamboo forest with the legendary story will be rebuilt!

"As for the price of the secret realm, I haven't decided what I want yet. Sect Master Ge can take it first, and I can ask for it again when I've thought of it."

"That's fine then. We look forward to your next visit, young friend."

Ge Shu put away the sharp cone and led Ning Chang away from the place, returning to the outer perimeter of the Astrology Pavilion.

Ning Chang declined Ge Shu's invitation to stay longer, said a simple goodbye, and headed towards his small valley.

...

Looking at the desolate valley with its spiritual energy content several times higher and the loose soil covering the ground, even though he had expected it, he still felt somewhat helpless.

When he entered the secret realm, the core of the Azure Bamboo at his waist lost its activity, and the bamboo forest outside naturally decayed as well.

Fortunately, he was already very skilled at it, and in less than three days he restored the bamboo forest to its original size. His cultivation level also improved further due to the spiritual energy absorbed by the bamboo forest, and he reached the initial stage of the ninth level of the Spirit Platform!

This was all thanks to the abundant spiritual energy in that secret realm. In just ten days, the spiritual energy he breathed in had unknowingly brought him to the middle stage of the eighth level of the Spirit Platform, close to the peak!

"Thinking about it that way, it is indeed a bit strange. That day, the Illusionary God-King's inner world had so much spiritual energy; in theory, he could have completely reconstructed his physical body and resurrected. Even using external spiritual energy would only have taken a little longer, but he just stubbornly waited..."

"Whatever, it's none of my business."

After clearing out a new plot of land, Ning Chang began to test his conjectures about blood plants and withered growth.

Before that, he first took out the Hidden Knowledge Stone containing the two cultivation techniques and the weapon shrinking, and used them one by one.

The simplest one is "Soldier Shrinking," which is used to shrink objects proportionally without affecting their integrity. After just a few practice sessions, I became familiar with all the operations!

He just couldn't understand why Medicine King Valley would divide the shrinking and enlarging techniques into two separate cultivation methods. They were both about changing size, and in reverse, they could only restore the object to its original size.

Secondly, there is withering growth. Compared to rapid growth, it changes some of the trajectory and nodes of spiritual energy. Although it is more violent, it is surprisingly easier to control than rapid growth!

Moreover, it only has one speed. Once you learn it, the speed of learning is the same for beginners and proficient users. The difference in speed only depends on the user's skill level!

Then came the blood plant. The contents of the Hidden Knowledge Stone recording the blood plant had many gaps. Whenever there was a sign of theoretical research and common sense summary, it would be followed by specific practice tutorials. In the end, even the reference for the growth speed of different realms and mediums was not preserved.

It is likely to prevent anyone from delving deeper into this evil art and devising even more wicked uses for it.

Similar to withering growth, blood plants also do not have directly divided growth levels; their growth speed depends solely on the sacrifice of flesh and blood and the user, something he had anticipated.

"Let's start with withered growth and see if we can accelerate germination, and also explore the feasibility of using the Green Spirit Bamboo Core to replace the control later."

The initial attempts were not very smooth. He had entered the initial habituation stage of using the rapid growth technique, which was the most difficult stage to change. When practicing similar techniques, he would always forget to change at the necessary points, which would lead to failure in the practice.

But with zero trial and error costs, he still managed to successfully unleash the withered growth technique quickly after slowing down his cultivation speed!

Under the influence of withering and growth, in just a few breaths, the bamboo seedlings begin to resemble bamboo shoots, and then quickly grow taller, becoming half again as tall as the surrounding normally growing green bamboo!

The already pale blue background now has a metallic texture, reflecting a golden sheen under the warm sun, as if it were cast in bronze!

"Not bad, it's several times faster, and the intensity seems to have made a leap, but if we're going to use it as an offensive tactic, the startup speed is still too slow. Even someone at the Fusion Realm can easily react to it... It's probably because my cultivation level is too low. I'll try again when the fetal heartbeat is ready to see if I can go faster."

Ning Chang stroked the bronze bamboo, her thoughts drifting away again.

"This texture, if used as a building material, would definitely create a sense of age, but the sunlight would have to always come from a fixed direction, and..."

"It's still not quite suitable; pure cyan is more pleasing to the eye."

"Moreover, plants that grow like this cannot be used as building materials."

He cut the green bamboo in half, and the upper part dried and cracked as soon as it hit the ground, then twisted into rotten threads.

"Keep going."

Ning Changzhong crushed the remaining half of the Green Spirit Bamboo into powder and buried it underground along with the pile of silk threads. Then he took out a bamboo seed.

After the second growth was completed, Ning Chang stopped the withered growth process and began to communicate with the Green Spirit Bamboo Core beside his waist, preparing to control the bamboo that had been grown from the withered growth.

To his surprise, as soon as the withering and growth stopped, the green bamboo quickly lost its vitality. Just like the upper half of the bamboo that had just been cut off, it quickly dried up, cracked, and rotted, turning into a pile of damp soil in just two breaths!

"Huh? That requires a lot of skill!"

He had just chopped up that half-bamboo, so he naturally didn't have time to notice the changes after it withered, grew, and stopped operating.

It seems that in this world, bamboo still cannot escape the category of herbaceous plants, which is why it rots so quickly under the influence of withering growth.

If he wants to use the spirit core to control the withered and growing green bamboo, he needs to switch control methods in the blink of an eye while the green bamboo is still active after the operation stops!

"Wow, really... If only I could multitask, communicate with the spirit core before letting it wither and grow."

Unfortunately, he didn't think he could multitask.

For Ning Chang right now, the time he has left to operate is far too short. After all, there is still the medium of the spirit core in between, and the control is not directly issued from his own body. Some delay is to be expected.

"Just treat it as training; having better control will be beneficial in the future."

Sunrise and sunset, rosy clouds and billowing light; moon hidden and bright, shadows flickering...

Countless days passed, and for this fleeting moment, he had used up most of his bamboo seed inventory, approximately several thousand seeds, before he finally seized the opportunity during the withered growth period, successfully taking over control and connecting it to the spirit core!

To this end, he even dug a pit several meters deep to bury the waste generated from the failure, and it is now almost overflowing!