Longzang

Chapter 165 An Eye-Opening Experience (Bonus Chapter 17)

Wei Yuan immediately communicated with Qingming, his divine sense sweeping across the realm to determine the source of the spiritual energy: the newly cultivated 500 mu of Liangmi field.

Wei Yuan leaped up and landed on the edge of the field a moment later.

At this moment, in Wei Yuan's eyes, tiny specks of spiritual light appeared in the fields, slowly rising into the air before disappearing into the night sky. The lights were faint but numerous, appearing as if the starry sky had fallen to earth.

Wei Yuan slowly squatted down. At this moment, he could already see tiny green shoots in the soil, just beginning to emerge.

The planted Liangmi has already sprouted and will mature in a little over a month, allowing us to harvest the first batch of spirit rice. Although Liangmi is only the most basic spirit plant, it is no ordinary tree or grass.

Wei Yuan's spirits lifted immediately. It turned out that the growth of spiritual plants could also enhance the nurturing effect of boundary stones and accelerate cultivation.

Wei Yuan originally possessed a great deal of Heavenly Power but didn't know how to use it. Now he knows what to exchange it for: spiritual plants.

Wei Yuan opened the merit book and looked at it. At this time, his Heavenly Merit was 1,880, ranking 101st.

The total Heavenly Merit for killing Blood Eye was 800. Wei Yuan received over 700, while the remaining 90 were taken by the young masters and ladies. Of course, the young masters and ladies didn't take it for nothing; they still contributed eight strands of Azure Qi, though they themselves were unaware of it.

With so many merits accumulated, Wei Yuan felt confident and headed straight for the Hall of Merit to see what he could exchange for.

Arriving at the Hall of Merit, Wei Yuan pushed open the door and entered. He immediately found that the surrounding world had changed, and he was in a void with a portal standing in front of him.

Wei Yuan was somewhat amused and exasperated; in his haste, he had momentarily forgotten about the defensive formation.

The formation successfully trapped and killed the fourth elder of the Xu family, demonstrating its formidable power. However, Wei Yuan already knew the challenge of opening the door and the location of the entrance, so he didn't need to worry about deviating and could simply fly there. Therefore, he didn't intend to disturb his senior sister and directly reached out to push the door open.

The formation was activated, isolating heaven and earth, and at the same time, a text appeared on the door.

Wei Yuan scanned the area with his divine sense and was instantly stunned.

"There is an iron ball with a certain weight. A person throws it upwards with all their might, and the iron ball rises a hundred feet into the air before falling back down. If this person throws it forward with the same amount of force, how many feet can the iron ball travel at most?"

A string of unpleasant thoughts welled up in Wei Yuan's mind.

Fortunately, his study of the theory of heaven and earth was not in vain. He still remembered what he had learned back then, and after a moment he finally got the answer, opened the portal and entered the void.

The void has already marked a direction for Wei Yuan. If he flies along the trajectory of the iron ball thrown forward in this direction, he can reach Qingming. However, this time he must fly strictly according to the trajectory and cannot deviate by more than one degree.

Wei Yuan cursed inwardly as he flew cautiously, until he was covered in sweat before finally entering the stone chamber where Qingming was. One more level up would lead to the Hall of Merit.

Wei Yuan couldn't help but complain in his heart, "Senior Sister is too cautious. She even changes the formation question!"
At this moment, Wei Yuan carefully recalled the details of entering the formation, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong.

Several parts of this formation were not present before; they must have been added recently by the senior sister. One part appears to be a question bank, the second part is timed, and the third part activates periodically. When the third part is activated, it randomly selects a question from the question bank and then resets the formation.

Wei Yuan was utterly speechless. Only now did he remember that Ji Liuli had been one of his teachers in the intensive course. He never imagined that after so many years, he would fall into her hands again. Did he have to review his old lessons before he could redeem merit points?
However, there is at least one advantage now: there is no need to worry about the security of the core of the realm. If an old-school array master like the Fourth Elder of the Xu family, who only knows the ancestral methods, were to arrive, it would take decades to break the array. These are questions that you simply cannot answer; trying to figure them out yourself is useless.

At this moment, a new fruit appeared on the laurel tree inside the Hall of Merit.

Wei Yuan picked up the jade tablet and connected it to the Hall of Merit. A moment later, a table of contents appeared on the tablet. Wei Yuan switched to the Spirit Plants section, ignoring all the Foundation Establishment level spirit plants and focusing on browsing the Dharma Aspect level spirit plants. There were dozens of Dharma Aspect level spirit plants on the merit book. Wei Yuan looked through them one by one and was immediately amazed.

For example, there is a Dragon Cry Tree that gathers the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Once it grows up, its core material can be taken out and made into a ready-made magic weapon-level immortal sword, which can be used by sword cultivators like Zhang Sheng and Xiao Yu when they reach the Dharma Aspect stage.

The longer this sword is nurtured, the more it resonates with its wielder, and the greater its power becomes. It can be used until the time of Yu Jing without needing to be replaced. However, this tree is thirty zhang tall and will take eight hundred years to grow. It cannot be transported in time, and Wei Yuan cannot wait that long.

In a short while, Wei Yuan went through all the Dharma Aspect spiritual plants, eliminating those that were too large or had too long a growth cycle, and finally narrowed it down to three types.

First is the Thunder Crystal Wood. Planting this tree attracts celestial lightning; the longer it grows, the stronger the lightning becomes. If special minerals are laid around the tree, they will slowly transform into rare spiritual minerals under the lightning. This tree is said to be able to grow for ten thousand years, and there is a glimmer of hope that it can break through its limits and advance to a higher level.

However, after this tree was transplanted, lightning could strike at any time within a radius of ten miles, making it uninhabitable and impossible for vegetation to grow.

There is a Thunder Crystal Wood sapling in the Hall of Merit, which requires 1,200 days of merit to exchange for.

The second type is the Spirit Immortal Grass. This grass typically matures in fifty years and is an auxiliary ingredient in many Dharma Aspect level elixirs, thus its value is quite stable. At the same time, this grass can slowly improve the surrounding environment; one seed takes fifty days to cultivate.

The third type is the Jade Nectar Immortal Apricot. This is a rare immortal tree that generally begins to bear fruit after fifty years. The immortal apricots it produces can increase the cultivation level of cultivators at the Dharma Aspect stage, and are a common main ingredient in Dharma Aspect stage cultivation pills. This tree's function is stable and practical, without any surprises.

There is a ten-year-old sapling in the Hall of Merit, which requires 500 days of merit to exchange for.

Wei Yuan hesitated between the three spiritual plants before finally choosing the Thunder Crystal Wood. After Wei Yuan made his choice, the fruit of the osmanthus tree slowly swelled, then split open, and a small sapling fell out and landed in Wei Yuan's hand. At the same time, Wei Yuan only had 670 Heavenly Powers left.

The sapling was about the size of a palm, with a crystal-clear trunk, like a deep blue crystal, and it didn't look like a tree at all.

Along with the sapling, a piece of jade paper was also delivered, which explained how to plant the Thunderwood, the corresponding formation, and several kinds of ores that could be transformed in lightning.

Wei Yuan scanned the area with his divine sense and discovered that the various ores were quite rare; most of them were unheard of. These ores were essential for making full use of the Thunder Crystal Wood, but they could only be obtained by exchanging them from the palace. After being refined by lightning, they would transform into extremely rare immortal materials.

This level of immortal materials is beyond the capabilities of most small sects and clans, let alone solitary weapon refiners. Only behemoths like the Heavenly Crafting Hall can afford to use them, collecting as many as they can get their hands on.

Because there aren't many people who can use them, the purchase price of these minerals isn't high. Wei Yuan estimates that the average annual return is only about 10%.

If you think about it carefully, you'll realize that those raw stones were already two or three times more expensive when exchanged, and the purchase price was at least halved. With all that coming and going, the Taichu Palace made at least six or seven times the profit. Moreover, once you exchanged for Thunder Crystal Wood, you had to keep buying raw stones and selling minerals, continuously contributing immortal silver to the palace.

But that's precisely what Wei Yuan valued when exchanging for Thunder Crystal Wood.

The northeastern region of the realm is mostly rolling hills, where Wei Yuan plans to plant Thunder Crystal Wood. With a stable supply of raw materials and the palace purchasing the minerals, Wei Yuan won't need to worry much; he'll just need to collect stones and exchange them for silver each year.

With this Thunder Crystal Wood, which is considered a mid-grade spiritual plant among Dharma Aspect plants, Wei Yuan's cultivation speed can be greatly improved, so it's not a bad deal.

After the osmanthus fruit falls, a new bud sprouts on the branch, beginning to nurture a new fruit. If you want to exchange for more, you can use Jiamu Shengxuan to accelerate the growth of the fruit, which will greatly speed up the growth rate, producing one fruit in half a day.

In truth, Wei Yuan was truly captivated by another type of immortal plant: the Frosty Golden Osmanthus Tree. This osmanthus tree was considered a mortal variety of the Moon Laurel Immortal Tree, said to possess a trace of the Moon Laurel Immortal Tree's bloodline, and its exchange price was 10,000 Heavenly Merit Points.

After obtaining the Thunder Crystal Wood, Wei Yuan took the sapling to find his senior sister. Thunder Crystal Wood cannot be planted simply; it must be planted within a specific formation. When it comes to setting up formations, no one can compare to his senior sister.

(End of this chapter)