Chapter 399: Chapter 398: The Spring Eye as a Formation, Mountain Collected

Just a moment ago, Li Jing was not sure about the nature of what was surging and flowing from the Array Eye as the starting point. But now he understood.

The substance flowing within Solitary Mountain and within the seven points of the array was the Spirit Spring originating from the Spring Eye.

Spirit Spring Eye.

This was something that did not exist in the present world.

It would occasionally be discovered in secret realms.

The Spirit Spring Eye was incredibly enigmatic.

They typically manifest as an unremarkable stone, but occasionally they may look like metal.

Regardless of its form, the Spirit Spring Eye would constantly spew out water from an unknown source.

No one knew why such water could emerge.

People knew only that the spring water from the Spirit Spring Eye was rich in Spiritual Qi.

Long-term consumption of Spirit Spring water was greatly beneficial for a person’s cultivation and physical body.

The most important aspect was...

Having a Spirit Spring Eye was equivalent to possessing an infinite amount of Spirit Spring, which could be drunk like plain water, and even used to rinse rice before cooking.

Of course.

The exact amount of readily available Spirit Spring depended on the flow rate of the Spring Eye.

If the flow rate was small, then naturally it wouldn’t gush out.

Clearly, the Spirit Spring within the Solitary Mountain before his eyes had an exceptionally large flow rate.

At least, as seen by Li Jing through his Heavenly Eye...

The Spirit Spring flowing within the array, with the Spring Eye as its core, was strong and lush, like a waterfall flowing continuously around the seven points of the array along the mountain.

Confronted with such a spectacle, Li Jing was overwhelmed with excitement.

Originally, he had merely intended to go to Shi Miaoying’s residence to see if he could find anything.

He had not expected this place to hide such a great treasure.

With excitement burning within him, Li Jing resolutely shouted.

"Linglong! Don’t touch that stone!"

"Oh!"

Linglong obediently responded, and then asked.

"What should I do now? If I don’t move this stone, isn’t the array situation going to remain intact?"

"Not a big problem, just wait a moment."

Li Jing took a step forward and gently stroked the transparent body of the Linglong Tower.

Theoretically speaking.

To have an inexhaustible supply of Spirit Spring, all you need is to catch hold of a Spirit Spring.

But a Spirit Spring Eye, on the other hand, was a bit more subtle.

The environment of the Spring Eye greatly affects its flow.

It’s hard to explain clearly what the principle is.

The essence of it can be summed up as "right place, right time."

In different environmental conditions, the water quality of the Spring Eye can vary greatly, though the flow rate will not change too much.

In a specific environment, the Spirit Spring produced by the Spring Eye can even be considered a high-grade spiritual object on its own.

The reverse side of this is that the quality of the Spirit Spring can degenerate to slightly better than ordinary water, containing only a certain amount of Spiritual Qi.

In this regard, scholars in the present world have already proven it.

So far, numerous Spirit Spring Eyes have been collected from secret realms into the present world, all of which initially experienced a huge drop in water quality, only slightly improving after being placed in a simulated similar environment.

Researchers dedicated to Immortal Learning have tried more than once to modify the various environmental conditions, hoping the water quality of the Spring Eye can be improved, but sadly they have been unable to simulate the desired environment for the Spirit Spring.

In short.

"Right place, right time" is a rather abstract concept.

When it comes to something like a Spirit Spring Eye, the science that is generally practiced in the present world and is rapidly advancing the world is completely useless.

A piece of stone that can continuously spurt water is, in itself, a non-scientific phenomenon.

How is science going to explain the fact that a Spirit Spring Eye modifies its water quality depending on the environment?

At this point, Li Jing had a good solution.

To maintain the water quality of the Spirit Spring without changes, he just had to put the entire Solitary Mountain into his possession, right?

His Little Universe at present was only about one and a half city blocks in size.

But to put this mountain into it was completely enough.

After all, the mountain was standing, not lying down.

Placing the Solitary Mountain inside the Little Universe as a landscape feature was not a bad idea, was it?

Once inside the Little Universe, the array within the Solitary Mountain would become his possession.

Inside the Linglong Tower, Linglong had the final say.

Similarly.

In his Little Universe, Li Jing gave the orders.

Essentially, he didn’t have the privilege of a Creator God, but at least he could freely move to any location in the Little Universe.

The current issue of needing to touch an object to pull it into the Little Universe also found a good solution.

Li Jing couldn’t touch the Solitary Mountain, but he could touch the Linglong Tower that enveloped the Solitary Mountain.

Then just shove the tower, mountain and all, into the Little Universe!

However, there was some difficulty to this.

After all, the Linglong Tower had expanded to an astonishing size of two thousand feet. To take it, he would have to fully cover the Linglong Tower with his divine intent.

The good thing was...

Li Jing’s Primordial Spirit was strong enough.

If it wasn’t, his divine intent would be far from sufficient to cover the transformed Linglong Tower.

Closing his eyes and feeling quietly, Li Jing’s divine intent quickly expanded and soon covered the whole Linglong Tower. Then with a thought, he—along with the tower and mountain—entered the Little Universe.

...

In the military camp near the entrance to the secret realm, not far from the location of the Solitary Mountain...

Many of the Da Xia soldiers on night duty had their eyes fixed on the entrance to the secret realm, so as to not miss the "guests" from the present world.

A third-level soldier suddenly had the urge to relieve himself and called out to his partner.

"Elder Wu, can you watch for a while? I need to go for a big one."

"Hmm, hurry back."

The soldier called Elder Wu replied.

After saying goodbye to his partner, the soldier turned around and left.

At first, he was unaware of anything amiss. He walked a few steps, then suddenly stopped and looked up into the distance.

There...

Wasn’t there supposed to be a mountain?

Oh, right!

The place where the National Master was staying!

So...

Where’s the mountain?

The soldier looked puzzled, vigorously rubbing his own eyes.

Again, he looked up, but still, he saw no mountain, and his brows furrowed in suspicion.

Was it because the night was too dark, or...?

With a hint of doubt, he leapt into the air using Sky Control and looked around from above.

Yes.

No mountain in sight.

Looking left and right, the surrounding Earth Realm was as flat as a plain, and he saw nothing resembling a mountain. The soldier’s expression gradually lost its composure.

Without thinking much, he pulled out a horn and blew it with a loud "wooo".

The sound of the horn caused immediate chaos in the military camp, which had been very calm in the black of night.

The night-watch soldiers who heard the horn were first taken aback, then quickly assembled in the camp’s open area.

The other soldiers resting in the camp were also startled, quickly leaving their tents to gather in the open area and form ranks with those already assembled.

Da Xia, able to claim dominion over the Eastern Continent and establish a thriving dynasty, wasn’t doing so without reason.

When it came to military discipline, they did very well.

Tens of thousands of soldiers assembled in just minutes.

Once the formation was formed, everyone drew out their weapons. With serious expressions, they first looked towards the Secret Realm passage.

The horn, it wasn’t something that was casually blown.

Subconsciously, they thought the Present World People were going to attack in the middle of the night.

On the surface, Da Xia and the Present World People who came from the Big World appeared to get along initially, but actually, they didn’t trust each other at all.

Anyone with half a brain would never consider the other side to be good people.

???

Seeing the Secret Realm entrance quiet and void of human activity, the soldiers, who had formed in ranks, showed collective confusion.

At this moment.

Zhou Yi, the person in charge of the camp at the Secret Realm entrance, walked out in a hurry from a tent in the middle of the camp, pulling up his pants as he did. With him was a female general who hadn’t even had time to put her armor on properly.

What the two of them were doing beforehand was clear enough to all.

Their intimate moment being interrupted halfway, Zhou Yi was not in a good mood at all.

The female general, on the other hand, blushed.

Her relationship with Zhou Yi was not a secret.

Without Zhou Yi, she might not even have had the opportunity to interact directly with people from the Big World in this camp.

The key point was that at this moment, she still had some lingering charm on her, which was somewhat embarrassing to see.

Nevertheless, military orders were absolute. As a military officer, she couldn’t refuse to come out because of shyness.

After exiting the tent, Zhou Yi and his beloved lady instinctively glanced at the Secret Realm entrance.

Seeing no commotion there, the two of them looked at each other. They then turned to look at the man still blowing the horn in the sky, just like the tens of thousands of soldiers who had urgently assembled below.

When he met everyone’s gaze and saw that Zhou Yi and his beloved had come outside, the man blowing the horn quickly put it down, pointing a finger to where the solitary mountain was supposed to be.

"Master Zhou! The mountain!"

?

Zhou Yi displayed his confusion.

Mountain?

What mountain?

While he was in a daze, the female general by his side quickly changed her facial expressions.

"Senior... Master Zhou, the direction you’re pointing to is where the National Master’s residence is supposed to be!"

Zhou Yi froze for a moment upon hearing this, then widened his eyes.

Holy crap!

Where’s the mountain?

Where has that huge mountain gone?

While staring blankly at the place where a lone mountain should have been, Zhou Yi’s expression was beyond interesting.

In principle.

His task was to guard the entrance to the Secret Realm.

The disappearance of a mountain didn’t concern him much.

But how could he pretend not to know that a mountain disappeared right under his nose?

Especially considering that this mountain was not only the only one near the Da Xia Imperial City, it was also an amazing sight and the residence of the National Master of the Da Xia, Shi Miaoying.

Who was Shi Miaoying?

In terms of power, she was incredibly strong and mysterious.

In terms of status, she was truly second only to one person.

The mountain of her residence simply disappeared. If she decided to hold someone accountable for this...

Zhou Yi felt on the spot, panicking, and quickly turned to the female general beside him.

"Quick! Notify the Forbidden City guards! Tell them the National Master’s residence has been stolen!"

...

Time rewinds a bit.

Little Universe.

After coming in early in the morning and finding nothing to do, Liu Sisi decided to take out a couch from Li Jing’s "collection" and put it next to the Consonance Heart. She then took out her phone and started teaching Ya’er how to use it.

The Consonance Heart, as a treasure that could transform a storage space into a living space, naturally emitted a potent Spiritual Rhyme.

Even Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure level Spiritual items were inferior in comparison.

In its proximity, one breathed in high-density Spiritual Qi with every breath.

Long-term inhalation of such dense and high-concentration Spiritual Qi wasn’t a good thing.

Your body would gradually become uncomfortable if it was accustomed to the natural environment. However, inhaling it occasionally had its benefits.

While instructing Ya’er, Liu Sisi suddenly noticed a huge shadow appearing nearby.

Ya’er was very sensitive and noticed it at the same time.

The two of them simultaneously raised their eyes.

The sight of a towering mountain, thousands of feet high, left both of them stupefied.

Before the two could recover, Li Jing arrived beside them, retrieved his Smoke Eye, followed by a enthusiastic statement.

"Sisi, I’ve brought back some good stuff."

Good stuff?

Liu Sisi blinked her beautiful eyes a few times, her voice filled with curiosity.

"You mean ... this mountain?"

As she spoke, her eyebrows furrowed in doubt.

"This mountain ... looks very familiar. If I’m not mistaken, this should be the one near Da Xia Imperial City..."

Interrupted halfway through her sentence, Li Jing nodded affirmatively.

"Yes, it’s the one near Da Xia Imperial City. National Master of the Da Xia, Shi Miaoying, lives on this mountain. It’s surrounded by powerful arrays and prohibitions and even has a Spirit Spring Eye."

"..."

Liu Sisi.

Li Jing’s seemingly innocent words held a lot of information.

He hadn’t told her about Shi Miaoying, and she hadn’t asked what information he’d obtained at the banquet.

This news was a bit too much for her to digest.

However, she readily grasped the implications of the phrase ’Spirit Spring Eye’.

Seeing Li Jing bring the entire mountain here, she immediately understood why he did it.

She knew equally well that Spirit Springs were very demanding of their environment. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Turning her head towards him, Liu Sisi looked at Li Jing with a strange expression.

"Acquiring a Spirit Spring Eye is definitely a good thing, especially considering that your Little Universe has no water source yet you’ve planted so many spirit plants. I see that the soil here is not so moist anymore, having a Spirit Spring to irrigate it would be a great improvement for the environment. However, according to you, this mountain should have an owner and the owner is the National Master of the Da Xia..."

"Ignore if it had an owner or not before, now it’s mine."

Li Jing gave a smile, then began to give her a detailed explanation about Shi Miaoying.

Upon hearing the details, Liu Sisi frowned slightly.

As the saying goes, the onlooker sees most of the game.

After listening to Li Jing’s recounting, Liu Sisi immediately realized that Shi Miaoying’s situation was unordinary and that there was an inside story behind the opening of the Secret Realm Passage.

Briefly thinking that it wasn’t something she needed to worry about and seeing that Li Jing didn’t seem too concerned either, Liu Sisi silently put it aside, asking instead,

"You just said that there are powerful arrays and prohibitions on the mountain. Have you broken through them?"

"No."

Li Jing shook his head, adding,

"The arrays and prohibitions are centered around the Spirit Spring Eye. To break them, you’d have to tamper with the Spring Eye. Regardless of whether Shi Miaoying, as Xia Zhengyang said, was greatly injured after opening the Secret Realm Passage, the mere fact that she could open the Secret Realm Passage by herself indicates that she is no ordinary person, and she possesses an exceedingly high level of understanding over arrays. The array set by her using the Spirit Spring Eye is surely very particular, and the Spirit Spring is most likely in the most prime position. I think it’s best not to tamper with it."

Listening to him, Liu Sisi found his reasoning convincing but still had a question,

"If we leave the mountain’s array and prohibitions intact, how are we going to climb the mountain? And how are we going to divert the Spirit Spring to irrigate the soil?"

"That’s not a problem."

Li Jing laughed, adding,

"This is my private Little Universe, everything here is under my control."

Speaking, he swung his hand, calling back the Linglong Tower that cloaked the solitary peak into his possession. A thought crossed his mind and he took Liu Sisi and Ya’er straight to where the Spring Eye was.

The Spirit Spring Eye, serving as the Array Eye, was located in a cave near the summit of the mountain.

Just arriving, the three saw a pool filled with rising dense Spiritual Qi that flowed through the water channel in the cave to the other side of the mountain, forming a waterfall that cascaded down.

The sight was breathtaking.

The Qi rising from the water stream near the pool plainly announced that this was a Spirit Spring, the dense Qi made the cave where the pool was located filled with mist, giving it the appearance of a fairyland.

Looking at the center of the pool.

There was a green stone exposed halfway above the water, resembling a rockery, constantly producing a stream of water.

Spiritual Beasts were well-known for growing naturally in the environment.

As a transformed Spiritual Beast, Ya’er was very sensitive to treasures that were born between heaven and earth.

Upon seeing the pool and the green stone, her eyes lit up. Her tiny body wriggled out of Liu Sisi’s arms into a fluffy ball of fur and hopped to the ground, proceeding to the edge of the pool and sticking out her small pink tongue to take a few sips of the Spirit Spring.

The moment the Spirit Spring touched her mouth, Ya’er’s golden pupils contracted, she turned her head and spoke,

"Mama! This water is so sweet, Ya’er wants to live here."

Hearing her, Li Jing twitched his mouth and frowned at Liu Sisi.

He had been a bit bothered when Ya’er had previously called him "Daddy".

Now hearing her call Liu Sisi "Mama", even if he was slow, he’d have noticed that his wife intended to raise Ya’er as their daughter.

Meeting Li Jing’s gaze, Liu Sisi averted her eyes guiltily and coughed once.

"Husband, I think that Ya’er ..."

Before she could finish, Li Jing interrupted.

"I’m fundamentally opposed to this."

He paused, then uttered through spiritual sense,

"We’re not sure if Ya’er has the same kind in the Northern Polar Region. If she has family and companions, it would be better for her to return to nature."

Upon receiving his spiritual sense message, Liu Sisi bit her red lips lightly and responded spiritually,

"What if she doesn’t have any?"

"If she doesn’t, then you can do as you please, but she has to agree to it personally."

Li Jing sent his spiritual message, and then sent again,

"We’re, after all, going to leave the Heavenly Saint Land. If you want to adopt Ya’er, we’ll have to take her to the Present World. There’s no room for regret then, regardless if she can adapt to life in the Present World, it’s unlikely that she can return to the Heavenly Saint Land in short term. You need to explain these things to her clearly."

After speaking, he added,

"One more thing, Ya’er’s human form is not complete, she will have a lot of inconveniences in the Present World. Although she’s an extraordinary transformed Spiritual Beast, you know as well as I do that Present World people are extremely sensitive to certain things. If you want to adopt Ya’er, to avoid her causing any troubles or getting involved in any, you’ll have to coach her well."

"Okay, I understand."

Liu Sisi communicated back through her spiritual sense.

At this response, Li Jing nodded silently.

He really didn’t mind whether they adopt Ya’er or not.

As long as Liu Sisi was happy, they could always treat it as keeping a pet.

It’s just that it, in fact, involved quite a few things.

Things that needed to be spelled out, otherwise things could get tricky.

Seeing that Liu Sisi had acknowledged, Li Jing didn’t veer the conversation and directed his attention back to Ya’er, now revealed in her true fluffy form,

"Ya’er, you go back first, we’re heading up the mountain to take a look. The Spirit Spring is right here, you can drink from it anytime you want."

As a shape-shifting Spiritual Beast, Ya’er was exceptionally smart and well-behaved.

Hearing Li Jing’s words, she ’uh-huh’ed after a slight hesitation, and hopped over to him.

Seeing this, Li Jing was taken aback and instinctively reached out to catch the ball of fluff.

He wasn’t entirely sure if Ya’er was braver in her original form, but she confidently burrowed into his arms as soon as he caught her.

It felt rather enjoyable to Li Jing.

Her soft and smooth fur was incredibly comforting to the touch.

He suddenly realized.

Having Ya’er didn’t seem like a bad idea.

In her original form, she was quite pleasant to pet, and she even smelled quite nice.

As for her human form, he decided against it.

Although he wanted to, he knew others might misunderstand his intentions and think he has unique preferences.

Seeing Ya’er jump into Li Jing’s arms, Liu Sisi felt a pang of jealousy. She snatched her back, pouting and grumpily ordered,

"Change back."

"Oh."

Being obedient, Ya’er transformed back into her beautiful and delicate girl form.

With Ya’er taken away by Liu Sisi, Li Jing didn’t dare show his disappointment.

Seeing Ya’er transform into a human girl in response to Liu Sisi’s "command" in a matter of minutes, he couldn’t help but smirk with envy.

In just a short time, Ya’er had been "trained" by Liu Sisi to obey her every command...

Was she tamed now?

Coveting the cat-eared loli Ya’er in Liu Sisi’s arms, Li Jing, with a single thought, led them to the top of the solitary mountain.

When Li Jing and Liu Sisi first entered the Secret Realm, they took notice of this solitary mountain.

However, they didn’t know then that it was the home of the National Master of the Da Xia and never paid much attention to it.

But where there is a home, there is building.

It wouldn’t be right that Shi Miaoying, a woman, would live with the earth as her bed and the sky as her blanket, would it?

And, indeed, it was not so.

Upon reaching the top, they found a very opulent pavilion hidden in the dense forest over the mountain.

The entire pavilion was made of wood.

From the concentrated Spiritual Qi detected inside and outside the building, it was easy to conclude that the woods used to construct the building were high-quality Spiritual Wood.

Upon seeing the pavilion, Li Jing’s mouth curved into a smile.

"This makes things much easier. I had been thinking about building a house in the Little Universe, but never got the time to select the materials, and I am not good with architecture either. Now that we have a mountain, a Spirit Spring, and a house, it seems like everything has fallen into place."

Liu Sisi laughed at his comments, finding them both amusing and peculiar.

In a way, Li Jing had indeed accomplished everything in one go.

But the fact remains that they had taken these things without the owner’s permission...

It felt a bit awkward, to be honest.

However, she had to admit.

The value they got from this single peak was unbelievably worthwhile.

While feeling torn, Li Jing turned his head towards Liu Sisi and said,

"Sisi, you and Ya’er stay outside for now. Shi Miaoying might have set up barriers or something. I’m going to check it out."

"Okay."

Liu Sisi obediently nodded.

Having left instructions, Li Jing briskly walked towards the pavilion.

It was obvious that Shi Miaoying was confident in her own array since there was no additional imposition of restrictions in the living area.

Li Jing’s entry into the pavilion went smoothly.

The Heavenly Eye rendered no sign of abnormal spiritual Qi obstruction.

The pavilion was three stories high and had ample space inside.

For one person, living here would be overly luxurious.

The pavilion was large enough to accommodate dozens of people.

After a round of inspection, Li Jing found no anomalies, but did discover numerous books in the study on the top floor.

Randomly picking up some books and perusing through them, he confirmed that they were all about array formation.

This discovery was indeed a pleasant surprise.

These books on array formation were highly profound, and Li Jing couldn’t understand them.

However, he noticed that these books weren’t authored by an outsider but personally written by Shi Miaoying.

Inside them were not only complete array diagrams but also many of her personal views on the subject.

If these books were to be exchanged for merit, they would be immensely valuable.

But after careful consideration, Li Jing thought it best not to act rashly.

If these books were used to gain merit, it might hugely advance the study of arrays in the Long Yu, but he couldn’t guarantee these array books written by Shi Miaoying did not contain any subtle traps.

At least before understanding what Shi Miaoying was hiding, it would be best to hold back.

Ever since he got an initial understanding of the Heavenly Saint Land, Li Jing felt that the pitfall in this secret realm was huge, the Sky Demon Great Method practiced by the Da Xia being one of them.

In a nutshell, it’s better to keep the books as of now.

Once he understood Shi Miaoying’s background and purpose, he would study them by himself.

This event rekindled Li Jing’s interest in the study of arrays. He would spare some time to learn about it when he was free.

If possible, he would try to figure out the array based on the Spirit Spring Eye, so he could remove the restrictions preventing anyone other than him from entering or leaving the solitary mountain.

After making sure there was nothing notable left, Li Jing was left somewhat disappointed.

The haul was big, but, except for these array books, there was no other useful information related to Shi Miaoying.

With resolve in his mind, he let Liu Sisi and Ya’er in, took out Smoke Eye, and put it on, saying,

"There’s nothing wrong with the pavilion, you and Ya’er can settle here for now. The prohibitions on the mountain do not affect getting out, but once out, you both might not be able to come back. If you have the time, tidy this place up a bit, settle in. I’m sure that the outside world is abuzz with the fact that I’ve taken this mountain, I need to leave soon."

At his words, Liu Sisi chuckled.

So Li Jing did realize that there must be uproar outside now?

Smiling, she nodded, and replied,

"Alright, be careful out there. Also, bring your belongings in here. It will make it easier for Ya’er and me to tidy up and settle in. I don’t have much in the way of daily necessities in my storage."

"Okay."

Upon her request, Li Jing telepathically transferred his tons of daily necessities and material reserves to the top of the mountain, along with their ascension, he also moved some spirit objects.

The mountain was big enough to effortlessly accommodate all his belongings.