A Name Shakes the Region; The Spirit Eye Tree

1,726 words

Chapter 640: A Name Shakes the Region; The Spirit Eye Tree

"Well, it's settled. You three may attend to your own affairs. Don't mind an old fossil like me. I need to properly study the gains and losses of this game." The child waved a hand at the other cultivators, shaking his head. Then he actually lowered his head to examine the chessboard before him.

Upon hearing this, the gray-robed elder and the others did not dare to neglect their formalities. They voiced their assent.

Then, led by the yellow-robed cultivator, they exited the hall through a side door.

"I never would have thought Fellow Daoist Bai was… Elder Yue! Did you know about this beforehand?" the middle-aged cultivator from the Hundred Ingenious Institute could not help but sigh once they were a short distance from the stone hall.

"No. Senior Blue only said he had matters to attend to here. How could I dare ask too many questions?" The yellow-robed cultivator's expression was also somewhat unpleasant.

Hearing this, the middle-aged cultivator shut his mouth and said no more.

The younger disciples behind them, having just witnessed what had happened, were even less inclined to speak recklessly.

In a somewhat somber atmosphere, Han Li and the others passed through a long corridor. After turning a corner, they were led to another pale-yellow stone door.

In front of this door sat a figure with disheveled hair, motionless.

Though the tangled hair obscured his face, his graying hair suggested he was quite advanced in years.

When the yellow-robed cultivator saw this man, a look of respect appeared on his face.

"Brother Wei, I have brought the disciples for the Sword Trial Assembly. Shall I send them in now?"

"Since you have arrived, let them enter. It seems the concentrated liquid will be delayed by a little more than expected. These disciples will have to wait a bit longer." The disheveled man spoke blandly, his voice surprisingly steady and deep.

Han Li's gaze swept over the man, and a cold glint flashed in his eyes.

This disheveled cultivator was actually a late Core Formation cultivator, and moreover, at the peak of the False Core stage.

This caused Han Li to pay him extra attention.

When the gray-robed elder heard the disheveled man's voice, a flicker of agitation appeared on his face. He stepped forward and spoke with a slightly trembling voice.

"Senior Brother Wei, you… are you well?"

This man was actually a cultivator of the Falling Cloud Sect!

"Junior Brother Yu. It has been many years. You've aged a bit yourself, haven't you?" The disheveled cultivator sighed faintly.

"Senior Brother, why are you…"

"Enough. For us brothers to meet again here can be considered an unfulfilled bond. Let's not speak of those days anymore. When I entered this place, I swore a venomous oath: I would not leave this mountain until I had formed my Nascent Soul. Besides, I know from the two uncles that everything in the sect is being managed well by Junior Brother Feng. There is nothing for me to worry about." This Senior Brother Wei spoke calmly.

Upon hearing this, the gray-robed elder's expression darkened. The words he had almost blurted out were swallowed back down.

"Wait a moment, Junior Brothers. I'll open the restrictions and let you enter the sacred ground." Senior Brother Wei stood up. With a flick of his sleeve, a spell light shot out and struck the yellow stone door. Instantly, the door silently split in two.

Before Han Li could even see what was inside, he felt an intensely pure wave of spiritual Qi rush out from the doorway.

So, this was indeed the location of the Spirit Eye Tree.

He made a quick comparison in his mind. The purity of this spiritual Qi was absolutely not inferior to his Spirit Eye Jade, and it might even be slightly superior. This was truly worthy of being called a top-tier spirit eye object.

Under the disheveled elder's guidance, Han Li and the others stepped through the door. A massive stalactite cavern appeared before them.

This stone cavern was several hundred zhang wide and twenty to thirty zhang high. At first glance, it felt as if they had stepped into an underground world.

What was even more astonishing was that the ground was covered in stalactite pillars of varying sizes, forming a natural stone forest that densely surrounded most of the cavern, like a small maze.

Upon closer inspection, Han Li could see faint white spiritual light flickering between the stone pillars. It was clear that some kind of restriction had been placed there.

While Han Li was pondering this, the disheveled elder had already led the group to the edge of the stone forest. He flipped his hand over, revealing a small, palm-sized white ancient mirror.

Without a word, the elder began to chant. He raised his hand, and a thick white beam of light shot out from the mirror, striking the stone forest ahead.

A soft "pfft" sound was heard. The beam sank into the forest like a stone thrown into the sea, vanishing without a trace.

The elder then put the small mirror away and stood still, his hands behind his back, saying nothing.

Some of the younger disciples were puzzled, but then the ground began to tremble. Soon after, a sight left the low-level cultivators dumbfounded.

All the stone pillars, large and small, simultaneously emitted a milky-white glow. A vast yellow radiance then rose from within the forest. Before everyone's eyes, a portion of the stone pillars began to shift and move in a dizzying display of displacement. By the time the younger disciples snapped out of their shock, a straight path had opened through the stone forest.

Seeing this, a flicker of emotion crossed Han Li's face, but he quickly returned to a normal expression.

The group followed the path with ease, arriving at the center of the stone forest, where they finally saw the legendary Spirit Eye Tree.

"Is this thing really the Spirit Eye Tree?" Han Li was somewhat speechless as he looked at the object before him, which was about a zhang tall.

This straight, arm-thick, pale-green object was something most people would believe was a bluish stone pillar if you called it that. It was completely impossible to associate it with a tree.

However, the astonishingly pure spiritual Qi of the entire cave was indeed being emitted from this bumpy "stone pillar". Furthermore, the pillar was encased in a pale-golden light barrier from top to bottom. Just from the careful way it was sealed, this Spirit Eye Tree was probably genuine.

Although Han Li had plenty of silent complaints, the gray-robed elder and the other cultivators stared at the tree with burning gazes. If a cultivator could cultivate directly under this tree, as long as they didn't encounter a bottleneck, it could probably cut their cultivation time by a third.

Han Li, however, did not focus on the Spirit Eye Tree for long. His gaze swept past it and landed on a jade bottle beneath the tree.

This bottle was about half a foot high, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. A faint, familiar medicinal scent emanated from it.

Could this be the nearly completed "Clarity Spirit Water"? Han Li pondered.

The others had stopped a few zhang away from the Spirit Eye Tree.

Only the disheveled elder walked forward without hesitation. The pale-golden light barrier seemed to have no effect on him at all, allowing him to pass through as if it were nothing.

The elder walked up to the Spirit Eye Tree, circled it twice, then raised a single hand and placed his palm on the middle of the spirit tree. He gently circulated his spiritual power, and a green light flickered at the tips of his five fingers.

Seeing this, the others outside the barrier, though most had no idea what he was doing, couldn't help but hold their breath, afraid of disturbing the disheveled cultivator.

After a long moment, the disheveled elder shook his head slightly and withdrew his fingers. The green light vanished.

"The concentrated liquid within the spirit tree hasn't reached the optimal time for extraction yet. We'll need to wait another three or four hours. Until then, find a spot here to sit and rest. I'll complete the final steps of refining the Clarity Spirit Water now. It only needs the addition of the liquid when it's ready." The disheveled elder turned his head and spoke in a calm, steady voice.

"We shall do as Brother Wei says!" The middle-aged cultivator and the yellow-robed cultivator voiced their agreement. Elder Yu had no objections either.

Following the instructions of the several Core Formation cultivators, Han Li and the other young disciples found places in the center of the stone forest and sat down cross-legged. Some closed their eyes to rest, while others began to meditate and cultivate.

The disheveled elder, meanwhile, bent down and picked up the jade bottle from under the tree. Then, with a casual flick of his sleeve, the pale-golden light barrier suddenly emitted a blinding light, completely obscuring everything inside.

The others seemed unbothered by this, but Han Li frowned. He then silently began to call out to the artifact spirit, Silvermoon.

"Brother Han, what is it?" Silvermoon's voice came through leisurely.

"I recall you are proficient in the Earth Escape Technique. Can you secretly go underground and enter that light barrier? I don't need you to do anything else, just take a single root from that Spirit Eye Tree for me." Han Li stated plainly.

"Wait a moment, Brother Han. I'll try it in my artifact spirit form and be right back."

With these words, Silvermoon turned into a fist-sized miniature wolf and, without anyone noticing, burrowed into the ground from beneath Han Li.

Han Li's expression remained unchanged. He narrowed his eyes, appearing to be in a deep meditative state.

Suddenly, Han Li's brow twitched. The corners of his half-closed eyes shifted ever so slightly, landing imperceptibly on the large man, Du Dong.

This man was sitting in a corner of the group, motionless, with his head bowed and his hands forming a seal as if he were meditating.

Seeing this, the corner of Han Li's mouth curled up slightly, carrying a faintly detectable hint of mockery.

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Reading Guide Decoding

The Calm Before the Heist: Tree-Looking and Secret Root-Stealing

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

This chapter provides a perfect case study in the Bottleneck Economy of the Mortal Stream. The Spirit Eye Tree is not a symbol of nature's beauty; it's a hyper-specialized, monopolized resource whose "concentrated liquid" is arguably the most valuable substance in this entire sub-sector of the cultivation world. The fact that a Core Formation elder (Wei) is willing to trap himself in a cave for years, swearing a deadly oath to guard it until he breaks through, shows just how brutal the competition for advancement resources is. This isn't about enlightenment; it's about securing the fuel for the next engine of power.

We also see the application of a Clarity Spirit Water—an alchemical concoction that can refine one's eyesight and spiritual perception. In the xianxia toolbox, specific pills and elixirs exist for almost every conceivable physical or spiritual limitation, making alchemy a foundational pillar of the world's magic system, on par with martial combat. Finally, Han Li's use of his artifact spirit, Silvermoon, to perform a subterranean heist is a classic Mortal Stream tactic. A powerful cultivator uses every asset at his disposal—not just his own cultivation, but bound spirits, treasures, and even the environment itself—to gain a strategic edge. Silvermoon is not a pet; she is an operational asset deployed for a surgical strike.

Chapter Overview

Welcome to the calm before the storm, dear readers. Chapter 640 is a masterclass in the Mortal Stream's signature blend of procedural dread and tactical maneuvering. Our protagonist Han Li and his cohort are finally led to the heart of the matter—the legendary Spirit Eye Tree itself—only to find it looks more like a mossy stone pillar than any tree you've ever hugged. But don't let the mundane scenery fool you. This chapter is a quiet, tense setup, laying out the rules of engagement for the coming Sword Trial Assembly while our boy Han Li, as always, is already three steps ahead, preparing to commit a little arboreal larceny under the noses of several Core Formation experts. The clock is ticking, the stakes are being finalized, and only one person in this cavern is actively plotting to steal a piece of the magic tree itself.

Key Plot Points

The chapter opens with the fallout from the previous hall's events being neatly dismissed—the child-like Senior Blue is back to his chess game, and the representatives of the three sects are ushered out with minimal fanfare. This quick pivot reinforces that in the world of cultivation, the mighty have little tolerance for the concerns of the merely strong. The group is then led to a sealed stone door, guarded by a disheveled hermit-like cultivator, Senior Brother Wei, who turns out to be a shocking old acquaintance of Elder Yu from the Falling Cloud Sect. Their brief, charged conversation reveals that Wei has trapped himself here under a venomous oath, refusing to leave until he forms his Nascent Soul—a glimpse into the desperate lengths cultivators will go to in pursuit of the next realm.

The focus then shifts to the sacred site itself: a massive stalactite cavern housing the strange, pillar-like Spirit Eye Tree, protected by a complex formation and a powerful golden barrier. While the other disciples are in awe of the pure spiritual Qi, Han Li's attention is immediately drawn to the jade bottle of Clarity Spirit Water beneath it and the defensive setup. After the guardian, Wei, retreats behind his barrier to finish concocting the elixir, Han Li makes his move. In a brilliantly understated display of tactical preparation, he silently tasks the artifact spirit Silvermoon to burrow underground and snip off a piece of the tree’s root—a low-risk, high-reward espionage play executed right under the noses of multiple Core Formation cultivators. The chapter ends on a sharp note of paranoia as Han Li’s gaze subtly shifts to the silent and unassuming large cultivator, Du Dong, hinting that not everyone in this room is who they seem.

Reading Guide

This chapter is all about setup and the quiet pressure of surveillance. Pay close attention to the social dynamics: the forced politeness between the three sect elders, the tragic backstory of the guard Wei, and the distrust simmering beneath the surface. The heavy-hitting action will come later; right now, the novel is letting you feel the weight of the rules and the cage. The real battle in this chapter is the silent one between Han Li's paranoia and the institutional security of the three sects.

Also, keep your eyes on Du Dong. The final glance Han Li gives him is a classic narrative cue. In the Mortal Stream, a quiet, unremarkable character who keeps to themselves in the corner is rarely just that. He’s a variable. He might be a spy, a hidden master, or a wild card that will throw the whole upcoming tournament into chaos. And finally, appreciate the masterful low-key audacity of Han Li. While everyone else is either resting or staring in awe at the tree, he's already sending a secret agent to steal its genetic material. That is the very definition of "never lifting a finger without benefit."