On the eighth floor of the treasury, Lu Yun’s cheek spasmed when he heard Su He’s muttering. The little girl had quite an imagination! He put it out of his mind and was quickly entranced by the world on this floor.
An enormous herb garden in a lush, green landscape thriving with life met his eyes. Birdsong filled the air and flowers waved in the breeze. An endless expanse of plants came into view no matter which direction he turned in.
This herb garden was quite different from other ones he’d seen before. The usual gardens of other locales were man made, enormous fields in which everything was laid out according to various categories.
The garden on the eighth floor of the treasury retained a natural style. Everything was permitted to develop as they would and all herbs were allowed to grow according to their inherent characteristics. No effort had gone into specifically mapping it out.
“Although carefully maintained herb gardens result in better and more growth from their specimens, they also cause the plants to gradually lose some of their most essential qualities,” Lu Yun murmured. “Every spirit root has its own spirituality. Their medicinal effects are secondary, what is most important is their spirituality! If restrained against their innate inclinations, their unique spirituality will slowly fade away.”
If the usual herb gardens were denoted as a collection of carefully cultivated plants, then this one was wholly free range.
“But why is there a familiar feeling in the surroundings? It’s like these worlds…” Lu Yun cocked his head and thought for a while before his eyes brightened. He took out the Army Pagoda from his seed storage.
“Aha, it’s just like the nine floors of the Army Pagoda.” He finally recalled where he’d seen these worlds before—they were the exact same as the ones in the Army Pagoda!
“Since God created the pagoda, did he create this treasury too?” he mused while looking around.
“This is the inner world of the Profound Pagoda.” The king soldier of the Army Pagoda awoke and took a look outside the first floor of the tower.
“The Profound Pagoda?” Lu Yun blinked. “One of the eight great soul weapons of supplemental dao?”
“Correct.” The king soldier nodded. “The Army Pagoda is actually a Profound Pagoda as well, and it was created by the God Sovereign King! After he took it to the Central Hongmeng, he modified it into a cultivation treasure to train his juniors.”
The Army Pagoda used to be a powerful soul weapon, but since the supplemental cultivators of the Central Hongmeng didn’t practice soul force and the path of cultivation in that realm was full of traps, God had changed it to be a major treasure.
In its current form, the Army Pagoda lacked the offensive capabilities of a soul weapon and possessed the attributes to help cultivators train. The king soldier and others were just puppets commanded by the treasure’s rules. They were God’s subordinates in life; he’d saved their true spirits after they died in battle and sent them into the pagoda to become treasure spirits.
The tower’s offensive abilities now relied on the king soldier and his men.
As for defensive skills—the tower had been forged by God. Even though it wasn’t a soul weapon anymore, it was still durable enough that it could negate most attacks with just its body.
“We are also in a Profound Tower. Though it’s not quite on the level of the Army Pagoda, a powerful Sovereign King turned it into a strong treasury after injecting it with order,” explained the king soldier after he inspected the eighth floor. “Do you want to revert the Army Pagoda back into a soul weapon?”
“No.” Lu Yun shook his head. “If it does, then the cultivation rules within will dissipate and all of you will disintegrate, won’t you?”
The king soldier blinked, then nodded.
“The Army Pagoda is ranked first out of the eight soul weapons. If you encounter an overwhelming enemy, you can burn the one hundred and nine of us to return the pagoda back to its origins.” The king soldier still told Lu Yun the way despite receiving an answer in the negative.
“I won’t need to. When my soul force breaks through to grandmaster level, I’ll just claim Argent Snow.” Lu Yun put the Army Pagoda away.
While the pagoda was ranked first among the soul weapons, that didn’t mean it was the one most suitable for him. Perhaps traces of God’s power still remained inside, but most importantly, he couldn’t bear to consign the king soldier and others into oblivion.
Meanwhile, he’d already witnessed Argent Snow’s strength and its manner of attack was closer to sword qi. In contrast, that was more suitable for his style. While soul weapons had their own ranking, the user was the most important. Soul weapons drew upon soul force for their battle strength. The stronger it was and the deeper the understanding of dao, the stronger the weapon.
The prerequisite for using any soul weapon was grandmaster level soul force.
Lu Yun’s current soul force fell short, despite being able to summon the second forms of several connate treasures. The Principal Seventh Rank Lotus was here, so he refocused on the task at hand and started looking for it.
Given how boundless the herb garden was and the cornucopia of spirit roots present, very few visited this floor in ordinary times. Star Sect disciples usually visited the other treasuries if they wanted spirit herbs.
“There!” A smile curved his lips. Formula dao easily pointed out every spirit root to him.
Seven lotuses floated in the center of a pond roughly six hundred meters across. As its name indicated, the Principal Seventh Rank Lotus was a seventh rank spirit herb. It consisted of seven colors and was extraordinarily nutritious to the soul of living beings.
Cultivators would see an explosive increase in their soul force if they devoured it. Since Lu Yun’s soul force had reached ninth step, eating one of them would enable him to break through to grandmaster.
“But… it’s a bit of a pity to just eat it. Let me see what kind of pills can be refined from it.” He operated formula dao once more to determine a proper pill recipe.
He’d also extensively studied The General Principles of the Star Sect Pills and Spirit Herbs. Though the lotus was recorded in its pages, there were no pill recipes that incorporated it. That meant the sect currently possessed no method to refine the lotus or any recipe related to it.
Thus, Lu Yun employed all of his pill dao knowledge to simulate the various combinations possible with the Principal Seventh Rank Lotus.
“Got it!” He opened his eyes with a smile after six hours. “I’ll call it the Principal Seventh Rank Pill. Not only will it help ninth step soul force cultivators reach grandmaster, it’ll also help those whose mentality is lacking—like Xing Wuliang—become a true grandmaster!”
He stood up and reached for one of the lotuses in the pond.
“Stop, you ignorant fool!” An urgent voice rang out as power surged out of the void, rebuffing Lu Yun’s hand.
