Chapter 403: Nurturing the Spirit Root
Except for the first cultivation session, where Ethan absorbed the Death Essence to get Life Points, he started converting it into Golden Essence, which is the liquid form of the purest Spirit Essence for the Cultivators.
As for why he preferred Golden Essence over the Life Points, it was because he was using it to nurture his Obsidian Spirit Root.
[The Death Essence is converted into Golden Essence and it is rapidly absorbed by the host's Obsidian Spirit Root]
The Obsidian Spirit Root is a Special Rank 7 Spirit Plant that Ethan consumed to replace his Mid-Grade Spirit Root, and upon successfully nurturing it to maturity, his Spirit Root would turn into a High-Grade Spirit Root.
Unlike other Spirit Plants that get tired for a specific time of nurturing, this Obsidian Spirit Root is tireless and could absorb the Golden Essence to grow faster.
'Although Life Points are valuable, having a High-Level Spirit Root is more important to me.'
With a High-Grade Spirit Root, along with his Heavenly Technique and the Cultivation Time Pearl, he could condense as many Golden Blood Drops as possible and recover his cultivation in no time.
Since he has a good number of Rank 5 and Rank 6 Spirit Beasts and would get even more in the future, Ethan needs to condense those Golden Blood Drops.
Thus, after thinking about it, Ethan decided to give up on the Life Points for now and focus on nurturing the Obsidian Spirit Root.
'If everything goes smoothly, within a year, I can successfully upgrade my Spirit Root to a High-Grade Spirit Root.'
For the past nine days, Ethan cultivated for an hour, providing a million Life Points worth of Golden Essence to his Obsidian Spirit Root.
Every day, the maturity of the Obsidian Spirit Root decreased by 100 days.
It means, in just a single year, it would fully mature and transform into a High-Grade Spirit Root.
'Originally, it required 100 years to mature, but, according to my realm's time, it will mature in less than four days.'
Since 100 days in the Greenheart Realm is just a single day in the Verdant Skymount Province, one year will be less than four days.
Previously, Ethan was worried that he would need to spend his full time for a year or two on cultivation just to nurture the Obsidian Spirit Root.
However, the environmental conditions and the time differential in the Greenheart Realm saved him a lot of time.
'Wait a second…if I can cultivate longer, won't my Obsidian Spirit Root grow even faster?'
Suddenly, a thought flashed in Ethan's head, making him thrilled.
Every day, after cultivating for an hour, Ethan would attract three Undead Armies, which he would take care of before returning to the Stronghold. However, after seeing the requirements for his Undead Avatar's breakthrough to the Death Core Realm, he had already decided to destroy more Undead Armies, meaning he would have to cultivate for even more time to attract those Undead Armies.
To do that, Ethan wouldn't be going after them; instead, he had already planned to cultivate longer to continue attracting more and more Undead Armies.
'If I cultivate for two hours every day and nurture my Obsidian Spirit Root, it will mature in less than six months, and if it is four hours, then it will be only three months.'
'What if...I cultivate 24 hours…no, 12 hours per day, it will mature in just a single month.'
Ethan knew cultivating for the full day was not possible because he had to take care of the Undead Armies that would come to him.
Moreover, he straightaway rejected the thought of cultivating at night because the Spectral Death Knights seemed to be very active at night.
With his current battle prowess, Ethan was not confident in winning against the Spectral Death Knights, who could assassinate him even before he knew it.
Thus, Ethan felt that he should cultivate for 12 hours every day to mature the Obsidian Spirit Root.
'Let's see how long I can cultivate in the first place before planning all that.'
Ethan didn't plan anything because he knew that as the duration of his Cultivation Session increased, the harder it would become to cultivate, because who knows what kind of powerful Undead Beings would come.
Thus, Ethan started cultivating under the watchful eyes of the Undead Avatar.
That's right!
The reason Ethan was able to concentrate on his cultivation was that his Undead Avatar was standing guard, protecting him.
Even though its current strength is only Peak Bone Foundation Realm, when it enters battle more, the Dark Overlord's battle prowess will increase to 75 percent of Ethan's battle prowess.
Before the breakthrough, it was 50 percent, and after the breakthrough, the [Loyal Soldier]'s effect increased to 75 percent.
Moreover, with its latest Special Skill: Death Chains, even if a powerful Death Soul Realm Undead Being appears, it could stall for 10 seconds, which is enough for Ethan to act.
Time continued to pass, and in a flash, around 50 minutes passed by as Ethan had already absorbed his daily quota of Death Essence.
'Thud'
'Thud'
As usual, three Undead Armies came one after another, where Ethan quickly took care of their Skeletal Commanders and collected their Death Cores.
As for the 3000 Skeletal Warriors, they were easily taken care of by his Undead Avatar.
After collecting all the bones, Ethan gave them to the Greenfolk People inside the Stronghold before resuming his cultivation session.
After one hour,
The second cultivation session was a bit slow, as he was always keeping an eye out for possible assassination attempts on him.
As he expected, the Spectral Death Knight didn't appear, confirming his assumption that the Spectral Death Knight would be active only at night.
'Thud…thud…thud.'
As for the Undead Armies, they appeared again; however, this time, there were 10 Undead Armies, which was completely out of Ethan's expectations.
Nevertheless, Ethan was confident that he could easily take care of them and with some assistance from Dark Overlord, he quickly destroyed the Skeletal Commanders.
'I don't know whether I should be happy or not.'
As he was collecting the bones of the 10 Undead Armies, Ethan bitterly smiled.
He was happy because with so many Undead Armies, in no time, he could fulfil the requirements for his Undead Avatar's breakthrough.
However, the sad thing was that if he continued cultivating, he didn't know how many Undead Armies would come now.
'I have already used both of my two powerful bloodlines, and I am left with only the Blood Beast King's Bloodline, which boosts my battle prowess by two times for 10 minutes.'
Even with his Lightning Dragon Ape Ancestor's Bloodline, Ethan had a bit of a hard time dealing with the 10 Undead Armies, and if he continued cultivating, in the next round, there might be 20 Undead Armies or even more.
'Should I stop cultivating for today?'
Ethan hesitated a bit, and in the end, he decided to take risks and cultivate.
'In the worst case, I will get killed again, but I will gain another Undead Avatar.'
Of course, he didn't want to die; however, he knew the benefits he would get from dying.
After another 90 minutes,
'Thud'
'Thud'
Soon, he successfully completed his third Cultivation Session, which was longer than the previous two sessions because of was cautious.
It only requires 45 minutes for Ethan to finish a cultivation session, which would give him one million Life Points if he chose to convert the Death Essence into Life Points.
However, since it was his third Cultivation Session, Ethan was overly cautious as he could stop his cultivation in the middle to check for the dangers every now and then, which directly doubled the Cultivation Session's time to 90 minutes.
'T-this….is this what you call an Undead Legion?'
The moment he opened his eyes, what he saw thoroughly shocked him.
Stretching across the horizon like a tide of darkness was an endless army of skeletal warriors and towering Skeletal Commanders, their hollow eyes burning with cold green flames.
'Thud'
The ground trembled under their march, and their collective killing intent was like a wave of death itself.
Behind them, there was a three-meter skeletal warrior, riding a Skeletal Beast, who seemed to be the General of the Legion.
A twisted grin formed on Ethan's lips as he realised—this was no longer just an Undead Army…it was an Undead Legion!
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