Family Cultivation: Rise of the Wilderness

Chapter 405 Xu Qingchi

Pubei, Shenfeng Valley.

The clear stream meanders along, like a silver ribbon gradually disappearing into the vast sea of ​​mist. Several figures carrying bamboo baskets walk further and further away, adding a touch of tranquility to the surroundings.

After a long pause, a deep voice introduced, "These are the herbalists recruited by Shenfeng Valley. Each person only brings three days' worth of rations into the mountains, and very few of them come out alive."

"Isn't this just sending them to their deaths?"

Another incredulous voice rang out.

Zhang Min turned to Li Xiangming: "Sect Leader, we must stop them."

Before Li Xiangming could speak, Jiang Liang interjected, "They can't be stopped! If anyone is lucky enough to pick the spiritual herb, they will receive the Daoist teachings bestowed by Shenfeng Valley, which is something they have always dreamed of."

Zhang Min found it even more incomprehensible: "What's the point? Even for those with spiritual roots, it's extremely difficult to enter the Dao without the guidance of a master or elder. Not to mention that these mortals may not even have spiritual roots."

"What you know, they may not know, and you can't convince them otherwise."

"Why?"

Zhang Min frowned.

Jiang Liang countered with a question: "They traveled thousands of miles to Shenfeng Valley, braving danger to become herb farmers, all for the sake of a qualification to cultivate immortality. Now you're telling them it's dangerous in the mountains, they shouldn't go, and that cultivating immortality is just a vague lie—what do you think their reaction will be?"

Zhang Min shook her head.

“They will think that you also want to become a herb farmer, and that everything you say and do is just to compete with them for the profound skills and secret techniques bestowed by Shenfeng Valley.”

Li Xiangming casually uttered a sentence, then slowly walked in the direction where the herb farmer had disappeared.

Seeing this, Jiang Liang turned to look at Zhang Min and said, "Fairy Zhang, don't overthink it. This is their fate. It has always been like this in the cultivation world."

Zhang Min remained silent, but eventually followed.
-
After taking up his post at Puyin Mountain, Li Xiangming rushed to Pubei without stopping. His goal was clear: the Thousand-Jun Grass.

The Thousand-Jun Grass had always been on his mind; he had wanted to come here for a long time.

However, Qin Zhengyi disrupted the Foundation Building Ceremony, publicly exposing the conflict between the two families. In order to guard against the Qin family, the Li family urgently adjusted a series of strategies and policies.

At that time, Li Xiangming was the head of the Foreign Affairs Department and an important participant in these tasks.

He had to suppress his thoughts for the time being.

When all of this came to an end, especially when Li Qianxiong transferred him to Puyin Mountain, he finally gained some precious free time.

However, it was a bit awkward for him to come to Suyunling alone.

In addition to personally confirming the origin of the Thousand Jun Grass, he also wanted to transplant it to Pudong.

To achieve this, one must rely on the skills of a plant spirit master.

The Li family's spiritual plant heritage, while not exceptionally powerful, is certainly not ordinary.

For example, Li Qianji is an excellent plant master.

But Li Xiangming couldn't use Li Qianji. With a formidable enemy at hand, how could he possibly make excuses for Li Qianji, who had come all the way to Pubei to dig up spiritual herbs?
When the elders of the family hold a joint trial, the existence and function of the Thousand-Pound Grass will be fully exposed.

To be fair, he didn't want to hide anything from the Li family.

He also believed that the Li family would be overjoyed to obtain the Thousand-Jun Grass and would not do anything to harm him; on the contrary, they would reward him handsomely.

However, the Thousand-Pound Grass is related to the Foundation Establishment Pill, which is too far-fetched.

The more people who find out, the more uncertain and dangerous things become for the Li family.

He didn't want to take any risks.

Another point is that once the Li family learns of the wondrous uses of the Thousand-Jun Grass, he won't be able to explain it to the Green Sheep Taoist.

So far, only the Green Sheep Taoist has successfully refined the Thousand-Jun Pill.

Faced with a second-tier alchemist who could continuously produce Foundation Establishment Pills, how could the Li family remain indifferent?
Whether through coercion, enticement, or even forcing Qingyang Daoist to spend his entire life refining pills at Yiyuan Peak, it is all possible.

Li Xiangming dared not gamble on the darkness of human nature.

So, he eventually invited Zhang Min over.

Zhang Min is not only a true disciple of Green Cloud Cave, but also a spirit plant master.

Not only her, but one-third of the current disciples of Green Cloud Cave can be called Spirit Plant Masters.

It is precisely because of the large number of spiritual plant masters that Green Cloud Cave is able to cultivate spiritual herbs with ease, and every year a large number of spiritual herbs are stockpiled and cannot be sold.

"Master Li, is it useful to follow these herb farmers?"

After being inside Suyun Ridge for quite some time, Jiang Liang asked in a low voice.

Li Xiangming glanced at him, "It's better than taking a chance."

Although he and Jiang Liangjun deduced that Suyunling was the place where Qianjun grass was produced, Suyunling was so big that no one could provide the exact location of Qianjun grass.

Instead of trekking through mountains and valleys aimlessly, it would be better to first observe the whereabouts of the herb farmers.

People's thought patterns are often fixed.

Once someone finds a spiritual herb in a certain place, they will continuously spend time and energy in the surrounding area.

Since the herbalists of Shenfeng Valley have been able to find Qianjun Grass in Suyun Ridge several times.

Therefore, the places where they appear may be the production areas of Thousand-Jun Grass.

Even if these people are not from the same group of medicinal herb farmers.

But at least it gave Li Xiangming a reason to narrow down the search scope.

Soon, three days passed.

The herb farmers could no longer hold on and dragged their weary bodies out of the fog-shrouded Suyun Ridge.

"Old Zhang, you're still alive?"

One of the young men, who was somewhat lame, looked surprised.

The middle-aged man, referred to as Old Zhang, looked sullen: "If you, brat, can survive, why should I be eaten by a monster?"

"Hehe, I was just surprised."

"It's strange, but it seems that not many of us have been lost. During my trip into the mountains, I didn't see many monsters or even wild animals."

"Huh!? Now that you mention it, it seems like I feel the same way."
-
Watching the last two herbalists leave, Li Xiangming frowned slightly. It seemed that this trip to Suyunling would take up quite a bit of time again.

However, he quickly adjusted his mindset.

Shenfeng Valley has been using mortals to gather herbs for many years.

Every year, at least eight or ten thousand medicinal herb farmers go into the mountains.

With so many people and such a high frequency of venturing into the mountains, it still takes an average of two to three years to find a single Thousand-Jun Grass.

Therefore, even though Suyun Ridge is the origin of Qianjun Grass, this unique spiritual herb is not commonly seen.

Shaking his head, Li Xiangming decided to continue searching.

At this moment, Jiang Liang, who was standing nearby, suddenly spoke up: "Someone else is here."

"Oh?"

Li Xiangming looked over curiously and saw a boy of about twelve or thirteen years old, dressed in short clothes, carrying a small basket on his back, walking towards him through layers of thick fog.

"He's a cultivator!"

Li Xiangming was surprised, as his divine sense detected a faint magical power emanating from the boy in short clothes.

If an ordinary cultivator were to be scanned by divine sense, they would probably immediately become alert.

The boy in the short-sleeved shirt seemed a little confused, only glancing around, seemingly unaware that someone was nearby.

"He's a novice; he doesn't even know how to use his divine sense. He must have just entered the Dao recently."

Li Xiangming made his judgment, but at the same time he was even more surprised.

According to Jiang Liang, Shenfeng Valley lured a large number of mortals here and arranged for them to go into the mountains to collect herbs. Logically speaking, Shenfeng Valley should not lack herb farmers.

Why would they send out a small child?

Moreover, he was just a lowly henchman at the first level of Qi Refining. There must be a special reason for this special situation.

Li Xiangming immediately instructed Jiang Liang and Zhang Min to continue searching for the Thousand-Jun Grass, while he followed behind the boy in short clothes.

The boy in short clothes was very familiar with the mountain path, obviously not his first time in the mountains. He wielded his machete, splitting the weeds and thorns along the way, and entered the heart of Suyun Ridge with ease.

"Strange, it seems like there are fewer monsters today."

The boy in the short-sleeved shirt muttered something but didn't take it seriously, continuing to climb a steep cliff.

Standing atop the cliff, his view suddenly opened up, and looking down, he could see the dense jungle stretching out before him.

The boy in the short-sleeved shirt stopped talking, silently tied a rope around his waist, and then tied one end of the rope to a boulder on the cliff.

After doing all this, he took a deep breath and jumped.

The wind howled, and the strong airflow made him grimace and stagger, but fortunately, the rope was of limited length, and he quickly regained his balance. However, the enormous inertia then hurled him violently against the cliff face.

In the nick of time, the boy in short clothes widened his eyes, gathered all his magical power in his palm, pulled the rope sharply, and used the momentum to jump, nimbly leaping onto an old tree that grew out of a crack in the cliff.

Once he had a firm footing under the old tree, the boy in short clothes was pale and covered in cold sweat.

Although he was a cultivator, his magical power was very weak, and he couldn't fly. If he fell, he would probably die.

After resting for a while, the boy in short clothes stood up, climbed to the base of the old tree, and jumped into the crevice in the cliff.

Just as he was about to take a step forward, he suddenly stopped and looked around.

All around was silent and empty.

The boy breathed a sigh of relief, then cleared away some rubble to reveal a grayish-white Ganoderma lucidum.

"Stone Ganoderma?"

Li Xiangming, who was silently watching this scene, was surprised once again.

This stone Ganoderma is a real treasure. Even a fifty-year-old one can sell for more than ten spirit stones.

In comparison, the low-grade spiritual herbs that herbalists risk their lives to pick might only be worth one spirit stone for several of them combined; the two are simply incomparable in terms of rarity.

The boy in short clothes clearly knew the value of the stone spirit mushroom, and a silly smile appeared on his face.

However, he did not rush to pick the palm-sized Ganoderma lucidum. Instead, he piled up the fallen stones next to it, trying to cover its existence.

"He does seem to know his stuff."

Li Xiangming nodded approvingly.

Spiritual herbs are a broad category. Apart from some spiritual creatures nurtured by nature and parts of demonic beasts with medicinal value, most spiritual herbs have both medicinal age and maturity period.

Take evening primrose as an example. It matures every five years, and its medicinal properties reach their peak when mature, making it an excellent material for refining Huangya Dan (a traditional Chinese medicine).

However, this does not mean that only mature evening primroses can be used for alchemy.

In fact, the evening primroses planted by the Chi family in Xiaolan Valley were all harvested after only one year.

Although the medicinal power of one-year-old evening primrose is not as strong as that of five-year-old evening primrose, it can still be used for alchemy. However, the final product is often a low-grade Yellow Sprout Pill.

However, one point cannot be ignored.

Suppose a spiritual farmer owns two acres of spiritual land, one acre planted with evening primrose that has been grown for one year, and the other acre planted with evening primrose that has been grown for five years.

Therefore, five years later, the yield of one-year-old evening primrose will be five times that of five-year-old evening primrose.

In other words, without considering the alchemist's skill level and other factors, the pills produced by this kind of fast-growing spiritual herb should be five times that of mature spiritual herbs.

Sometimes, quantity is a more intuitive and powerful advantage than quality.

At least for the Chi family and most cultivation forces, they would prefer to distribute five low-grade Yellow Sprout Pills rather than just take out one high-grade Yellow Sprout Pill.

However, unlike other medicinal herbs with short growth cycles, the maturation period of Ganoderma lucidum is very long, requiring two hundred years, and its medicinal properties are far more complex than those of evening primrose.
A year-old stone lingzhi is almost equivalent to an evening primrose before it even sprouts.

What kind of medicinal effect could it possibly have?

Removing the Ganoderma lucidum at this stage would be a terrible waste.

Generally speaking, in the cultivation world, it is generally accepted that only 50-year-old stone Ganoderma lucidum can be used as medicine.

The stone Ganoderma in front of us has actually reached this limit, or even far exceeded it.

Although Li Xiangming could not determine its exact age, judging from the scale of its spiritual power, it was only slightly inferior to a hundred-year-old stone spirit mushroom.

In other words, if we wait a few more years, it can be sold at a better price by using the gimmick of "century-old stone Ganoderma".

As for waiting two hundred years for it to fully mature, apart from demonic beasts, probably no one would be willing to spend that time.

Just then, the boy in short clothes climbed out from the crack in the cliff.

He tugged at the rope binding him and began to climb.

Perhaps because he possessed magical powers, this action, which was extremely risky for ordinary people, seemed to be nothing to him.

In just a moment, the boy in short clothes returned to the top of the cliff.

He did not slack off, but instead rushed to the next location without stopping.

Li Xiangming hesitated for a moment, then continued to follow.

He was genuinely curious; this child was clearly not there to gather herbs, but rather to check if there had been any mishaps with the medicinal herbs he had discovered.

Sure enough, the young man in short clothes examined the four medicinal herbs in succession, but did not pick any of them.

Li Xiangming was secretly amazed.

Even if ordinary herbalists risk their lives, they still find it difficult to find a single miraculous herb.

Without spiritual herbs, there are no cultivation techniques, so one can only keep going into the mountains and become unpaid labor for Shenfeng Valley.

Of course, even if you have the skills, you still have to go into the mountains.

The so-called spiritual roots that the herbalists talked about were nothing but lies fabricated by Shenfeng Valley, and they were incapable of truly entering the Dao.

At this point, Shenfeng Valley would use some useless pills disguised as "elixirs" to deceive them, claiming that as long as they took the "elixirs," they could embark on the path to immortality.

The price to obtain the "elixir" is, of course, to collect more spiritual herbs.

Ultimately, the vast majority of herb gatherers will perish in this endless life of collecting herbs.

However, ordinary people from the outside world still believed that Shenfeng Valley was a sacred place for cultivating immortality, and flocked there in droves.

However, the young man in short clothes was clearly much more capable than the ordinary herbalist.

Not only could he find the medicinal herbs, but he could also resist picking them and keep them as "stock" for the future.

After wandering around for a while, the boy in short clothes came to an unnamed mountain stream. Following the stream to its end, there was a deep pool with some large rocks scattered around its edge.

Suddenly, the boy in the short-sleeved shirt looked around warily again, but still found nothing.

"You scare yourself."

The boy in the short-sleeved shirt scratched his head. Things had gone so smoothly so far; there was no reason why an accident had only happened now.

Thinking this, he came to a boulder and rummaged through the weeds underneath, finally revealing a slender seedling that emitted a faint glow.

"Thousand-pound grass!"

Li Xiangming lost his voice, and the illusion surrounding him dissipated.

"Who?"

The boy in the short-sleeved shirt immediately turned around, his face revealing a fierce glint, like a lion ready to hunt.

Suppressing his excitement, Li Xiangming slowly flew to the boy in short clothes and asked kindly, "What's your name?"

The boy in the short-sleeved shirt did not answer, his expression quite unfriendly.

Li Xiangming didn't mind. He held out his palm, revealing five spirit stones, and said with a smile, "One spirit stone for one question. What do you think of this deal?"

"My name is Xu Qingchi."

(End of this chapter)