Chapter 39: Chapter 34 Mobilize All Forces to Save the Master 1
Translator: 549690339
min
His cultivation progressed at a startlingly rapid pace.
Much faster than when he drank wolf blood or bear blood.
This marvelous feeling of rapid cultivation improvement engrossed and fascinated him.
Luckily, he didn’t forget his main task.
After maintaining a calm and undisturbed mindset, he tried to contact the Ant Queen again. 𝗳r𝐞𝐞w𝐞bn𝚘ve𝚕.co𝐦
“Success!”
He established a faint connection with the Ant Queen.
“Save me!”
Qin Niu transmitted just two words; given the long distance and the weak connection, the simpler the message the better.
After trying hard to send a distress signal, Qin Niu felt dizzy.
He knew this was because his spiritual power was still weak.
Communicating with the Ant Queen miles away consumed a massive amount of spiritual power.
Once the dizziness passed, his tenuous connection with the Ant Queen was severed.
Qin Niu felt sleepiness coming over him.
In such a situation, how could he dare to sleep?
Fortunately, he had grasped the cultivation method of the Everlasting Spring Technique the day before, and he could now use cultivation to recover the spent spiritual power in place of sleep.
For ordinary people, the best way to recover from excessive energy expenditure is sleep.
But after cultivating the Everlasting Spring Technique, he had an alternative option.
This also indirectly indicated that the Everlasting Spring Technique was more advanced than he had imagined.
Because ordinary cultivation techniques can’t nourish the soul during practice.
On the contrary, many people expend spiritual power when practicing ordinary techniques, and must stop to rest after one or two hours.
In this respect, Qin Niu’s practice of the Everlasting Spring Technique gave him a great advantage in terms of effective time utilization.
Because he could directly use his sleep time for cultivation.
If an adult’s daily sleep time is considered to be eight hours, he would have at least a third more time for cultivation than others.
He sat under the tree, with the Treasured Sword resting on his lap, with closed eyes cultivating.
A rich and cool energy rushed in through the pores of his skin and was absorbed by his body – either into the internal organs, into the blood, or into the sinews and bones. His physical body, nourished this way, was becoming stronger at an impressive rate.
His cultivation level was ascending rapidly.
As time trickled by, his rate of absorbing the cooling energy became faster and faster.
Although eerie, the area under the Ancient Banyan Tree was a treasure ground for cultivation.
How great it would be if he could cultivate here every day.
Qin Niu was desperately improving his cultivation in order to gain a bit more strength before danger arrived.
Having been here for such a long time, it was extremely strange that not a single bird could be seen on the whole tree.
He sensed that darkness seemed to be descending quickly and instinctively opened his eyes.
The area under the tree, which had been as bright as day, had now grown dim.
Outside, it must almost be dark.
The ‘reinforcements’ Qin Niu was waiting for still hadn’t arrived.
He wondered if the Ant Queen had understood his distress signal?
Even if it did, to them, it was ultimately still too weak. To hurry over to help, across a nearly five-mile distance, was an immensely distant journey.
Not to mention the difficult and dangerous obstacles along the way.
Any random mountain frog, spider, or centipede could end their lives.
Whether or not they could pinpoint Qin Niu’s location was also a question mark.
The nurturing of pets requires gradual accumulation and sedimentation; it’s not something that can be accomplished overnight. The termite colony had only been tamed for just over a month.
Being able to develop into an ant colony with Worker Ants, Soldier Ants, and even evolving into large strength Worker and Soldier Ants, was already a ridiculously rapid rate of progress.
He should have been cultivating under the tree for nearly six hours.
His spiritual power had returned to its original state, and had even strengthened a bit.
Feeling the surging energy inside his body, his cultivation level had definitely increased significantly.
He checked his personal attributes.
Cultivation: Mortal Realm Onefold 72.3/100.
He was almost startled by the result.
He remembered checking his cultivation level before he was trapped, and it was only at Mortal Realm Onefold 42.1/100 back then.
Just three hours of cultivation had brought an entire increase of 30.2.
He was astounded.
Drinking the blood of the aged wolf, gaining nearly 8 cultivation points in just a few days, he had found it terrifying enough.
Cultivating the Everlasting Spring Technique all of last night, his cultivation increased by 2.3. Subtracting the increase brought by the bear meat and bear blood, the technique alone had boosted his cultivation by 1.5, which had surprised him for quite some time.
But compared to the gains of these six hours of cultivation, it was like comparing a sorcerer’s tricks to the great witchcraft.
mm
Under this Ancient Banyan Tree, the speed of cultivation was more than twenty times faster than outside.
At this rate, as long as he cultivated under the banyan for another six hours, his cultivation would directly break through the Mortal Realm onefold.
This was something he dared not even dream of.
Many people never reach such heights of cultivation in their lifetimes, and now it seemed within arm’s reach.
He looked up at the canopy overhead, and where the treetop had been at least seven or eight meters above ground before, it was now less than three meters above his head.
That oppressive feeling made him sense that a great danger was imminent.
“Perhaps when the canopy completely presses down, something terrifying will happen.”
Qin Niu had this premonition.
He hoisted the basket onto his back, gripped the Treasured Sword in his hand, and stood up to try walking outside again.
He no longer wasted time and energy hacking at the sinister Ancient Banyan Tree.
Instead, he adopted a new strategy and started to cut down the smaller trees and weeds on the ground.
To see if he could forge a bloody path and break out.
With a swing of his sword, there was unexpectedly the sound of a sword cry.
“Is this… because my cultivation has greatly improved, or because the
Treasured Sword has absorbed the green blood of the Ancient Banyan Tree and become stronger?”
Qin Niu couldn’t help but ponder.
There had never been a sword cry when he slashed before.
And now, with each swing of his sword, he easily cut down a large swath of brushwood and weeds in front of him, a power he had never experienced before.
He blazed a trail forward, ruthlessly cutting down the smaller trees and weeds under the banyan.
Qin Niu couldn’t deal with the Ancient Banyan Tree, but it was completely within his capability to take care of its offspring.
The small weeds and trees under the banyan, once cut down, also leaked ‘green blood,’ though much paler in color, demonstrating that they had become as malevolent as the Ancient Banyan Tree.
However, when he had made his way almost a hundred meters forward in one breath and then looked up again,
he saw the tree’s canopy pressing down even lower.
It was now less than two meters above his head, utterly unaffected by any of Qin Niu’s actions, pressing down steadily at a uniform speed.
“This damned tree-bottom prison!”
Qin Niu cursed, truly feeling on the verge of collapse.
He had prepared to fight against the oncoming branches and leaves of the banyan as it pressed down.
As the canopy continued to close in above his head, his scalp began to itch, his soul trembled, and even his eyelids started twitching.
The fear and shadow of death enveloped him.
The next day, there might be another body lying under the tree, or perhaps just another skeleton.
Or maybe no trace would be left at all.
Qin Niu remembered Xu Jiu from his village who had gone into the mountain to gather medicine for his sick mother and never came back. Many people rumored that Xu Jiu had been eaten by wild beasts in the mountains.
Now it seemed very possible that Xu Jiu had been devoured by this Ancient Banyan Tree.
Just when he was feeling afraid and desperate, he suddenly felt a faint connection.
It’s Fourth, and the Ant Queen!”
Qin Niu was overjoyed, like a drowning man who had just grabbed a lifeline in his desperation.
H
I’m here, I’m here!”
Qin Niu quickly calmed his excited heart and focused his mind to send a signal to the Ant Queen.
He swung his sword again, hacking at the weeds and small trees in front of him, picking up speed as he moved forward.
“No, that’s not right; it seems I’m getting farther away from them.”
Qin Niu could clearly feel the presence of the Ant Queen, Fourth, and the other worker ants and soldier ants.
They had probably all come out in full force to save their master.
Fourth was rapidly closing in on him, but the Ant Queen was not moving.
Qin Niu worried that his random wandering would make it harder for Fourth and the others to find him. Based on the faint connection he had felt earlier, he knew that although he was supposed to be moving forward, he was actually getting further away from the Ant Queen.
He simply stopped and waited patiently on the spot.
This moment was a test of his wisdom and that of the entire ant colony, as master and servants joined hands to confront this terrifying Ancient Banyan Tree.
The wait was excruciating.
Seeing a glimmer of hope for escape while awaiting Fourth, Qin Niu picked two relatively good small trees and dug them out, roots and all.
Then he put them in his basket.
If he could survive this ordeal, he planned to plant these two trees himself. Even if it took decades to grow them, they wouldn’t be as formidable as the Ancient Banyan Tree, but they would still be quite powerful in their own right.
The canopy of the Ancient Banyan Tree overhead pressed even lower, now less than half a meter from the top of Qin Niu’s head.
Chilling dark energy fell like a drizzle, bone-piercingly cold.
He could feel his blood qi becoming somewhat sluggish, and he was growing increasingly drowsy.
“Master, Master!”
At that moment, Fourth finally found him, climbing onto his foot, waving its single remaining antenna, calling out to Qin Niu in ant language..