Journey to the West: Reincarnation as a Woman in the Cleansing Spring (Limited Time)

Chapter 10 The Everlasting Spring Technique

Before the Iron-Bone King could finish speaking, Teng San Niang raised her hand, signaling him to be quiet.

Her vertical pupils were fixed on Lu Changgeng's water-shaped avatar, her gaze thoughtful.

After a moment, she said, "Adding four more Earth Element Fruits wouldn't be out of the question."

"Madam!" King Iron Bone stamped his feet in frustration. "He's asking for an exorbitant amount! We've waited three hundred years for these three Earthly Fruits, and now he wants four more? Isn't this blatant robbery?"

Lu Changgeng remained silent; he was too lazy to argue with this fool. Teng Sanniang was the one who had the right to speak.

It must be said that this Teng San Niang is quite formidable; she, merely at the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm, was able to completely overwhelm a powerful demon at the high stage of the Nascent Soul realm.

After pondering for a moment, Teng San Niang said, "Immortal Master, how about I discuss this with my husband?"

"Please go ahead." Lu Changgeng wasn't afraid that the two of them might have any ill intentions. This was his home turf, and it was the two of them who should be careful.

……

At the foot of the ridge, Teng San Niang and Tie Gu walked to a secluded spot.

Iron Bone seemed uneasy, so he cast another spell, creating a transparent shield that enveloped the two of them.

Tie Gu wrapped his arm around Teng San Niang's slender waist and whispered in her ear, "Madam, just say what you want to say."

Teng San Niang let him hold her, then turned her head and asked, "Master, you fought him just now, did you figure out his strengths and weaknesses?"

Iron Bone King was taken aback, recalling the brief exchange just now.

The water-shaped incarnation was unpredictable in its true form, and the True Fire Finger was incredibly powerful, yet it never revealed its true form from beginning to end.

He didn't even know who the other party was, let alone figure out their background.

"This..." Iron Bone King scratched his head, "His true body is not here; this is just an avatar."

"Even an avatar can harm you," Teng San Niang continued, "Then what level of cultivation does his true form possess?"

The Iron-Bone King fell silent.

Teng San Niang continued, "And did you notice those seven little spiders? They cultivate legitimate immortal techniques, not some wild path. This place is neither a sacred mountain nor a spiritual vein. How could a wild spring nurture such disciples? There must be a master behind them, or the spring itself is extraordinary."

The Iron-Boned King wasn't stupid, he was just reckless.

After Teng San Niang pointed it out, he finally understood.

He could injure him by conjuring an avatar out of thin air; if the real body were to attack, he might not be a match for it.

Moreover, the other party also has seven little spiders practicing immortal techniques, and there might even be a complete sect behind them.

"But there were four..." the Iron-Bone King muttered. "We've guarded them for a thousand years, and we finally managed to save five. Now there's only one left?"

"My lord, I've been stuck at the initial stage of the Spirit Condensation realm for three hundred years. In another hundred years, the Five Signs of Decay of Heaven and Man will surely arrive. You know, for me, the hardest thing isn't accumulating magical power, but breaking through the bottleneck. As a being of plant origin, my magical power is inherently mixed. Without external forces, I might not be able to break through even after a thousand years. But that spring water can cleanse my foundation and purify my magical power. I have a premonition that if I soak in it for seven days, I can step into the middle stage of the Spirit Condensation realm, and there will be no more shackles before I take human form."

"Is that really so?" Tie Gu's eyes lit up, and he tightened his grip on Teng San Niang's hand.

"When have I ever lied to you?"

"Alright, since that's the case, I'll agree to that person's request."

Although Tiegu was ugly and reckless, he was truly devoted to Teng Sanniang. After meeting her a thousand years ago, he did everything he could to please her and obeyed her in everything he did.

I had hoped to cultivate the Great Dao with her and live happily ever after.

Unexpectedly, after breaking through to the Concentration Realm, Teng San Niang made no further progress, and in another hundred years, she would show signs of the Five Decays of Heaven and Man.

The Five Signs of Decay of the Celestials are a tribulation that every cultivator may encounter.

Whether it is a spirit or a human cultivator, once they are stuck at a certain bottleneck for too long, their magical power will no longer increase, and their lifespan will begin to decline.

When a certain critical point is reached, the five signs of decay will appear – the power of magic will fade, the physical body will decay, the spirit will become chaotic, the divine will dissipate, and finally, the body will die and the Dao will perish.

Now that Teng San Niang said that one could use that spring water to break through to the Nascent Soul stage, Tie Gu would naturally not be reluctant to part with four Earth Origin Fruits so that they could cultivate the Great Dao together in the future.

After the two finished their discussion, Iron Bone King removed the transparent cover and returned to the Cleansing Spring with Teng San Niang.

Hearing that Teng San Niang and the other woman had agreed, Lu Changgeng was not surprised and simply nodded.

The two agreed to come back the next day with the Earthly Fruit.

The following afternoon, Teng San Niang and Tie Gu Da Wang arrived as promised.

Teng San Niang was still wearing that dark green long dress, thin and clinging to her body, which clearly outlined her figure.

She clapped her hands, and the two maids behind her took out four golden fruits from their bags and placed them on the stone platform by the spring.

Four Earthly Fruits, each the size of a fist, shimmered with a pale golden light and emitted a wonderful fragrance.

Ziying lay by the spring, her eight legs beginning to stir again, but Chixiao clamped her down with a pair of pincers, and she whimpered twice before becoming quiet.

"Thank you, Madam Teng." Lu Changgeng cupped his hands in thanks, then asked, "When will Madam Teng begin her cultivation while soaking in the spring?"

Whether Teng San Niang was in a hurry or not, he was somewhat anxious.

Of course, they were eager to receive feedback for their cultivation.

"It can be done right now."

Without much thought, Teng San Niang walked to the spring, took off her long dress, and sank naked into the spring.

The Iron-Bone King remained squatting on that large rock, his yellow eyes wide open like copper bells.

However, he remained surprisingly silent and motionless, seemingly having been informed beforehand by Teng San Niang.

The spring water reached above her shoulders before Teng San Niang stopped moving.

Lu Changgeng's water-form incarnation remained seated cross-legged by the spring, motionless.

"Immortal Master, I shall begin."

Teng San Niang didn't say much, and closed her eyes to enter meditation.

The true fire energy of the sun seeped into her meridians, and the mixed magical power within her body was once again slowly cleansed and refined.

Teng San Niang had only been in meditation for a short while when the spring water began to react.

Unlike before, this time Teng San Niang seemed to be using some special technique. Her magical power was flowing around her at an extremely fast speed. She was frantically absorbing the true fire energy of the sun in the spring water into her body and expelling the refined impurities from her pores.

In the back and forth, Lu Changgeng sensed a wisp of magical power flowing into the spring.

It happened very quickly, much faster than yesterday.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the feeding came back.

But this time, the feedback wasn't magical power, but rather a fragmented incantation.

Suddenly, a passage of text appeared in Lu Changgeng's mind. It was ancient and obscure, completely different from the "Celestial Immortal Manual" he had obtained from the Seven Fairies.

Fragments of "The Longevity and Prosperity of the Withered and Flourishing".

The cultivation method for plant spirits is based on the vital energy of life and the principles of withering and flourishing.

When one cultivates to the highest level, one can bring withered trees back to life, limbs to grow back, and even extend one's lifespan by a thousand years.

Unfortunately, it is an incomplete text, containing only the techniques before the transformation, with most of the later parts missing.

Lu Changgeng quickly skimmed through it. Although it was incomplete and far inferior to the "Celestial Immortal Technique," the ingenuity of this method impressed him.

The Celestial Immortal Manual follows the orthodox path of immortality, emphasizing purity, loftiness, and transcendence of the mortal world, and has extremely high requirements for the cultivator's background.

The "Eternal Spring and Withering Technique" takes a different path—entering the Dao through the body of plants and trees, not pursuing transcendence, but pursuing continuity.

It contained only a few hundred words, describing how plant spirits transform the life force within their bodies with the spiritual energy from the outside world. One sentence in particular made his heart skip a beat.

"Withering and flourishing give rise to each other, yin and yang complement each other. Isolated yang cannot produce life, and solitary yin cannot grow."

Although Lu Changgeng could not directly cultivate this method, the principles of life force transformation within it gave him a new understanding of his own spring water.

He is the Cleansing Spring, which contains the true fire energy of the sun. This is the most yang and the most powerful force. He has been unable to condense the elixir for fifty years, perhaps because of the "isolated yang".

If the vital energy of plants and trees is harmonized and yin and yang are balanced, perhaps that step can be taken.

But the fragment that Teng San Niang gave him was too little, far from enough.

Fortunately, he had a direction. Lu Changgeng took a deep breath, suppressed his excitement, and continued to draw on Teng Sanniang's cultivation.