After sharing some basic information about the Mystic Jade Realm, Shen Wenrui looked at Tushan Shanhe, whose silver eyebrows were slightly furrowed, and asked, "May I ask what Fellow Daoist Tushan intends to do next? The temperature difference in this desert is enormous. It is early morning now, but once the sun rises higher, the water veins below may evaporate."
"Uh! This realm doesn’t belong to me, so how could I decide what to do with it? Besides, when you mentioned the names of those forces just now, several of them sounded familiar. There may be branch sect disciples from those forces down below. Since the Azure Frost Sect can establish contact with the Azure Frost Sanctuary here, the other forces should be able to do the same, right?" Tushan Shanhe could tell that Shen Wenrui wanted him to hand over the Heaven Origin Realm and its remaining water veins for the Falling Star Gate to manage and arrange. Since he could not refuse outright, he simply voiced his own speculation.
Shen Wenrui was taken aback. Raising his thick eyebrows, he asked with a half-smile, "May I ask which forces sounded familiar to you, Fellow Daoist Tushan? Perhaps my Falling Star Gate has some connections with them."
Judging from his reaction, things were indeed as Tushan Shanhe had suspected. The people of this realm placed tremendous importance on water. The shortage of water veins was clearly no exaggeration. This was truly...
Tushan Shanhe was at a loss for words. In his view, spiritual energy was all-powerful. With spiritual energy nourishing the world, all things should flourish, the land should be fertile, and water should be abundant. These were only natural. He had never imagined that a vast Spirit Realm could contain such an extraordinary place as the Mystic Jade Realm.
Although he thought this way, Tushan Shanhe had never experienced a water shortage. As a powerful cultivator, he had never personally endured the misery of extreme thirst, so he ultimately underestimated the severity of the situation. That was why he had been tempted to laugh at Shen Wenrui for being so particular about a few water veins.
Of course, he kept those thoughts to himself. Instead, he answered Shen Wenrui’s question quite sincerely, mentioning the sects he knew of that he believed might have connections with the forces in this realm.
Meanwhile, Fu Young had also witnessed Yun Zixuan taking away the seas and main water veins of the Heaven Origin Realm. After sharing his speculation with Xiao Shou, he fell into thought.
Seeing his expression, Xiao Shou could not help feeling a little concerned.
"Young’er, what’s wrong? Are you worried about what just happened? I don’t think we need to overthink it. We’ve only just arrived, and we have no ties to any of the forces in this realm. What difference does it make who is strong and who is weak?"
"Heh... Master! I’m not thinking about the various forces. I’m wondering why that person, when retrieving the mountain range belonging to the Azure Frost Sect, also took away the entire sea area and the main water veins of the Heaven Origin Realm. Sigh!" Fu Young sighed before continuing, "If my judgment is correct, then this realm, or at least most of the surrounding area, must suffer from a severe shortage of water."
"Oh? Young’er, why do you think that?" Xiao Shou was taken aback. He had no idea where his beloved disciple had gotten this idea from or why he had suddenly brought it up.
Looking at his Master’s utterly bewildered expression, Fu Young couldn’t help smiling. "Of course, it’s based on what I’ve observed. We had only just arrived in this realm, and the surrounding area was still filled with the spiritual energy of our Heaven Origin Realm. Moreover, we were inside the mountain protecting formation, so we didn’t notice much while the formation prevented our spiritual energy from mixing with that of this realm. But after some time passed, I began sensing what was happening outside the formation."
"After the spiritual energy of our Heaven Origin Realm mixed with that of this realm, the water spiritual energy quickly became scarce. Perhaps because I originally possessed all five spiritual roots, I could clearly sense the change. The five elements outside the formation had initially been balanced, but in such a short time, the spiritual energy had become deficient in water and overwhelmingly abundant in fire. The wood, metal, and earth attributes had also merged with the fire attribute, making them extremely difficult to separate."
"With the spiritual energy in this state, cultivators can only absorb the fire attribute along with the other attributes when cultivating. Considering this, along with the fact that the person who came to retrieve the Azure Frost Sect just now ignored so many spiritual veins in the Heaven Origin Realm, including the one in the Sunfall Domain, yet specifically took away every sea area and water vein, we can roughly conclude that water in this realm is likely even more valuable than spirit stones."
"Now that you’ve put it that way, it really does make sense. If water is scarce, then water spiritual energy must be scarce as well! Sigh! This will make cultivation troublesome for someone like me, who possesses a water spiritual root. Without water spiritual energy, cultivating a technique that requires multiple spiritual roots will result in an imbalance when absorbing the different attributes. Advancing my cultivation in the future will definitely become difficult."
Xiao Shou couldn’t help marveling at his disciple’s astonishing speed of thought. Was this what people meant when they said that someone’s intelligence was almost demonic?
No! His intelligence seemed countless times greater than that of any demon!
Having such an outstanding disciple was truly stressful. Xiao Shou constantly felt as though he might turn into an idiot at any moment just by standing beside him.
Xiao Shou continued as he muttering inwardly, "Why did we have to end up in a world so desperately short of water when there are so many Spirit Realms rich in resources? It almost feels as though the Heavenly Dao deliberately chose an environment unfavorable to our cultivation. Have we offended the Heavenly Dao somehow?"