Spirit Plant Entry: Immortality Begins with Farming

The pair of scarlet eyes in the pool were getting closer and closer to the surface.

wow-

A massive python's head burst from the water, sending up a splash of dark red. This black-striped python was thicker than the two we'd seen before combined.

The python's body was as thick as a bucket, and its jet-black scales gleamed with a metallic sheen in the dim light. The red line on its back was as bright as freshly drawn blood.

Python King.

A second-grade demonic beast is equivalent to the Foundation Establishment stage.

Chen Yuan's body stiffened, and his consciousness sank into his sea of ​​consciousness—where the five stars that had originally evolved into a stellar system now shone as dimly as candles flickering in the wind.

The emerald green growth law star was almost completely extinguished, the silvery white matter analysis star barely maintained a few thin strands of light, and even the gray-black evil-devouring purification star shrank a bit, as if it was being suppressed by something.

Only the dark red Blood Refining Law Star and the pale golden Life Origin Star were still rotating slightly, but their rotation speed was so slow that it seemed they might stop at any moment.

"Retreat." Chen Yuan squeezed out the word through gritted teeth.

Bai Zhi supported him, and the two moved backward step by step.

They moved very slowly, afraid of startling the giant python.

But the python king had already seen them.

The crimson vertical pupils locked onto the two of them. The python slowly raised its head and opened its mouth—not a forked tongue, but two rows of dagger-like barbed teeth, the tips dripping dark green venom.

"hiss--"

A deep, guttural wail echoed through the cave, causing pebbles to fall from the stone walls.

Chen Yuan stopped in his tracks.

It cannot be refunded.

Behind us was a narrow passageway, making it difficult to run fast.

There's a pool of water ahead, and there's no way around it. There are stone walls on both sides, nowhere to hide.

Dead end.

"Bai Zhi," he whispered, "I'll dash to the left to attract its attention. You run to the right, as far as you can."

"No!" Bai Zhi gripped his arm tightly. "You're injured like this; rushing in would just be suicide!"

"It's better than both of us dying here." Chen Yuan stared at the python king, the silvery-white stars in his mind barely trembling—allowing him to "see" the venomous veins flowing between the python king's scales. "Listen to me, I'll count to three—"

"I won't listen!" Bai Zhi's voice trembled with tears. "At the entrance of Yuancao Hall, you blocked my way. In Changchun Realm, you sacrificed your own life essence to destroy that formation. Now you want me to run away alone... Chen Yuan, do you think I'm particularly useless?"

Chen Yuan was taken aback.

"I'm useful." Bai Zhi released him, took out the blue lamp from her bosom, and held it up with both hands. "I can light this lamp. Although my spiritual power is exhausted, it can still light the way, it can..."

She bit her lip.

"At least let me help you."

The python king moved.

It wasn't an attack, but a probe—the enormous python slowly slid out of the pool, its body extending three or four zhang (approximately 10-13 meters) above the water. The python's body dragged across the ground, leaving a wet trail; the dew-covered grass on either side of the trail withered instantly, its leaves turning black and curling.

Highly poisonous.

Chen Yuan pulled Bai Zhi behind him, his right hand outstretched, palm facing up—where a fragment of the Chaos Divine Crystal was once embedded, but now the fragment has fallen off, leaving only a pale gray, star-shaped, tree-like scar.

The scar is burning hot.

Within his sea of ​​consciousness, the gray-black star (Devouring Evil Purification) trembled violently, instinctively repelling the poisonous stench.

"Listen," Chen Yuan said softly, his back to Bai Zhi, "when I yell 'Run!', run into the cave and don't look back. If... if I don't catch up, go find Gu He, or go back to the Flying Feather Sect to find Jiang Tianzheng. Just say..."

He paused.

"Just say that Mu Shoujing deserved to die."

After saying that, he walked towards the python king.

One step, two steps.

The python king's vertical pupils narrowed to slits, and its body arched like a fully drawn bowstring, staring intently at its prey.

Chen Yuan suddenly stopped, squatted down, and picked up a handful of dirt from the ground.

The soil was dark red, mixed with the juice of the Dewdrop Grass and the root fragments of the Blood Marrow Ginseng.

He stared at the soil in his hand, and the silvery-white stars (matter analysis) in his mind began to circulate with difficulty—although weak, the passive ability to "analyze the essence of all things" was still in effect.

The composition of the soil, the cool and neutral properties of the dew grass juice, the domineering blood energy remaining in the roots of the blood marrow ginseng... fragments of this information flooded into my mind.

Guhe's words echoed in his ears: "Where Blood Marrow Ginseng grows, it is usually accompanied by Dew-Gathering Grass... Before harvesting the ginseng, gather the grass first. Apply the juice of the Dew-Gathering Grass to your palms, otherwise the bloodthirsty energy of the ginseng will seep into your body through your skin..."

Dew-covered grass can neutralize the blood-fiend energy.

So... is it possible to neutralize python venom?

he does not know.

But all we can do is gamble.

Chen Yuan turned around, walked quickly to a clump of dew-covered grass, plucked a few leaves, and rubbed them vigorously in his palm.

A pale blue liquid seeped out, cool and carrying a sweet, herbal scent.

He applied the juice to the palm of his right hand, the back of his left hand, his face, his neck—all exposed skin.

Then he stood up and walked towards the pool.

"Chen Yuan!" Bai Zhi called from behind.

He didn't turn around.

The python king stared at him, a hint of confusion flashing in its scarlet vertical pupils—this human suddenly exuded an aura that made it uncomfortable.

The scent of dew-covered grass.

Chen Yuan walked to the edge of the pool, only three zhang away from the python king.

He could smell the stench emanating from the python king and see the parasites wriggling in the crevices of its scales.

He took a deep breath and raised his right hand.

Palm down, aim at the pool of water.

It wasn't an attack—it was activating the last bit of star power remaining in my sea of ​​consciousness.

The dark red star (Blood Refining Law) and the pale gold star (Origin of Life) trembled simultaneously, and two faint rays of light flowed along the meridians to the palm, mixing into a chaotic stream of light that seeped into the water.

Light flows into water, like ink dripping into clear water, spreading rapidly.

The dark red "water" in the pool was actually the blood essence secreted by the roots of the Blood Marrow Ginseng. Now, stimulated by the Blood Refining Law, it began to boil and churn—the instinct of the Blood Refining Law is to refine and control blood energy.

The python king shook its head in frustration.

It loves the essence of blood and evil, but dislikes being disturbed.

This human is moving its "bathtub".

Chen Yuan continued to urge it on.

The two rays of light grew brighter and brighter, and the water in the pool boiled more and more violently, with the essence of blood and evil bubbling and bubbling like boiling water.

The python king finally couldn't hold back any longer.

It hissed and lunged forward, its gaping maw snapping at Chen Yuan.

Chen Yuan did not dodge.

He stood still, his right hand still aimed at the pool, and his left hand took out the last three Nourishing Yuan Pills from his pocket and stuffed them into his mouth.

The elixir melted upon entering the mouth, transforming into three warm currents that rushed into the meridians.

As his essence and blood recovered slightly, the light of the silvery-white starlight intensified.

The entire pool was enveloped in a silvery halo, and the objects at the bottom of the pool were clearly visible.

It's not silt, it's not stone.

It's bone.

The bones were densely packed and layered, some human-shaped and some animal-shaped. Some bones had turned black, while others still had bits of fresh meat attached to them.

The bones piled up into a small mountain, and the roots of the Blood Marrow Ginseng took root in this bone mountain, absorbing the essence and blood from the bone marrow to grow.

Deep within Bone Mountain lies a stone tablet.

The stone tablet was inscribed with words, the characters blurred by blood, but Chen Yuan recognized two of them—

"Suppress" and "Demon".

The python king is not a native of this area.

It was stationed here.

The core of the formation that suppresses it is these Blood Marrow Ginseng—the ginseng absorbs the essence of the Bone Mountain's blood and transforms it into the essence of Blood Fiend, forming a continuous suppressive force.

As soon as the thought flashed through Chen Yuan's mind, the python king's mouth was already three feet above his head.

The venom dripped down and landed on the skin where the Dewdrop Grass juice had been applied, making a "sizzling" sound, but it was mostly neutralized, leaving only a few shallow pits.

Chen Yuan gritted his teeth and poured the last bit of star power into his right hand.

It is not the power of the silvery stars.

It is a gray-black star—devouring evil and purifying.

This star, which is specifically designed to suppress evil spirits, instinctively repelled the malevolent aura emanating from the python king.

Chen Yuan guided this repulsive force not to attack the python king, but to inject it into the blood essence of the pool.

wow——

The essence of blood and evil solidified instantly.

It wasn't freezing; it was forcibly "purified" by the power of purification, instantly solidifying from a liquid state into dark red crystals.

The crystals spread rapidly, freezing the lower half of the python king's body.

The python struggled, causing the crystal to crack, but it couldn't break free for the time being.

It's now!

Chen Yuan turned and rushed towards the Blood Marrow Ginseng, tearing off a Dew-Gathering Grass with his left hand and grabbing the nearest Blood Marrow Ginseng with his right, pulling it out forcefully—

The moment the ginseng was unearthed, the entire cave began to shake violently.

It wasn't the vibration from the python king's struggle, but a deeper, more fundamental vibration.

The stone wall cracked, stalactites broke and crashed down, and countless cracks appeared on the ground. What surged out of the cracks was not malevolent energy, but... demonic energy.

A demonic aura, as black as ink and as viscous as paste.

"Oh no..." Chen Yuan's heart sank.

He guessed half right.

The Blood Marrow Ginseng is indeed part of the formation, but this formation suppresses more than just the Python King.

Deep within Bone Mountain, beneath that "Demon-Suppressing Stele," lies something else.

Now that the formation is missing a corner, the suppressing power is weakening, and that thing... is about to come out.

"Run!" he shouted at Bai Zhi, grabbing the Blood Marrow Ginseng and the Dew Grass and rushing into the cave.

Bai Zhi followed, and the two rushed into the narrow cave one after the other. Behind them came the python king's frantic roar and the "crack" sound of crystals shattering.

Deeper still, there was a heavy, slow... breathing sound.

run!

Chen Yuan had only one word in his mind.

The cave was collapsing, and rubble rained down. He protected his head and the medicinal herbs in his arms, desperately rushing forward. Bai Zhi followed behind, the light of the green lamp flickering in the darkness, illuminating the first three steps beneath her feet.

Rushing through the fork in the road, through the glowing moss, through the initial narrow passage—

A light appeared ahead.

Cave entrance!

Chen Yuan was overjoyed and quickened his pace.

Just ten feet from the cave entrance, a non-human roar came from behind.

It's not the python king.

It's an older, crazier sound.

Immediately following was a tremendous earthquake, and the entire Black Wind Cave collapsed instantly, like an eggshell struck by a giant hammer.

Large chunks of rock fell from the cave ceiling, blocking the way in and the way forward.

Chen Yuan and Bai Zhi were trapped in a narrow space less than three zhang long.

Both the front and back were blocked, and rocks were still falling from above.

A desperate situation.

"Cough cough..." Chen Yuan coughed because he was choked by the dust, and what he coughed up was blood foam.

Bai Zhi helped him sit down and used a green lamp to illuminate the surroundings.

The space was only three zhang wide, with huge rocks blocking the way at both ends, and the cracks overhead were widening, threatening to collapse completely at any moment.

"We..." Bai Zhi's voice trembled, "Are we going to die here?"

Chen Yuan didn't speak. He looked down at the Blood Marrow Ginseng and Dew Grass in his arms, then looked inward at his sea of ​​consciousness—the light of the five stars had become extremely weak, especially the gray-black star that he had just forcibly activated, which was almost completely dim.

The power of the stars has been exhausted.

Its essence and blood are almost exhausted.

He leaned against the stone wall, panting heavily, his vision beginning to blur.

"Angelica dahurica," he said softly.

"Um?"

Give me the Dewdrop Grass.

Bai Zhi took the pale blue herb out of her bosom. Chen Yuan took it, tore off a few leaves, put them in his mouth, chewed them, and swallowed them.

The cool liquid slid down my throat, relieving the burning pain in my internal organs.

Then he picked up the Blood Marrow Ginseng.

"You...you're going to eat it directly?" Bai Zhi's eyes widened. "Grandpa Guhe said we need to use Dew Grass to neutralize it, otherwise it will..."

"There's no time," Chen Yuan interrupted her. "I've already taken the Dewdrop Grass, which should neutralize some of the medicine's effects."

He paused, looking at the blood marrow ginseng in his hand.

The ginseng has a bright red body and golden patterns. It feels heavy in your hand, like holding a beating heart.

"If...if I can't hold on," he looked at Bai Zhi, "take the spirit stones from my arms and try to dig a path out. Remember, don't go back to the Flying Feather Sect, go find Gu He, or..."

He smiled.

"Or find a beautiful place with clear waters and lush mountains, plant some spiritual plants, and live a peaceful life."

"Chen Yuan—" Bai Zhi's tears fell.

Chen Yuan didn't look at her again. He closed his eyes, opened his mouth, stuffed the entire Blood Marrow Ginseng into his mouth, and chewed it forcefully.

The sea cucumber's body is hard, biting into it is like biting into wood. But the moment the juice gushed out, an extremely violent heat surged into the throat, burning through the esophagus like lava, burning into the stomach, and burning into every part of the body.

"Ugh—!"

Chen Yuan screamed in agony as his body convulsed violently.

heat.

too hot.

It was like being thrown into a steel furnace, every inch of flesh burning, every bone melting. The domineering medicinal power of the Blood Marrow Ginseng was like thousands of red-hot steel needles, piercing into the meridians, the dantian, and the sea of ​​consciousness.

In his mind's eye, the five dim stars suddenly lit up after being stimulated by the violent medicinal power.

It wasn't a gentle brightness; it was an explosive brightness.

Five-colored light exploded in his mind's eye: gold, cyan, blue, red, and yellow. The five colors intertwined, swirled, and collided, like a runaway nebula.

The first to react were the pale gold star (the source of life) and the dark red star (the law of blood refining). Like sharks smelling blood, the two merging stars frantically absorbed the medicinal power of the Blood Marrow Ginseng. The medicinal power surged in along the starlight, and the merging speed of the two stars accelerated at a visible rate—from the original slow infiltration to an active absorption and fusion.

Next came the emerald star (the law of growth). This star, which governs growth, guided the most vital part of the medicinal power to flow to Chen Yuan's damaged meridians, internal organs, and flesh. The broken meridians began to reconnect, the damaged internal organs began to repair, and the withered flesh became plump again.

The gray-black star (devouring evil and purifying) is being tempered. It strips away and purifies the violent and impurities from the medicinal power, leaving only the purest essence, which is then delivered to other stars.

Meanwhile, the silvery-white star (material analysis) maintained its highest level of operation. It analyzed the composition of the medicine, monitored the body's reactions, and adjusted the distribution of energy—like a calm commander, coordinating this violent evolution.

At the center of the nebula, those silvery-white roots that were originally just phantoms grew and spread wildly under the influence of the medicine.

But this time, their growth pattern has changed.

It is no longer tangled like tree roots.

Instead, they are orderly, regular, and resemble the orbits of celestial bodies – “star trails”.

The roots connect with each other, forming a ring-shaped track.

Five stars orbit each other, and the light flow between them is transmitted through the orbit, forming a complete, self-circulating "star system".

From "word seedling" to "light tree", and now to the "star system" - the system has finally completed its final form evolution!

The system of five-colored stars truly took root at this moment.

Chen Yuan's consciousness was at the center of this storm.

He could clearly "see" his physical body being reconstructed: the broken meridians were being repaired and widened by the power of the emerald stars; in his parched dantian, the power of the five-colored stars was mixing into a chaotic, higher-level energy that was slowly gathering; most astonishingly, his bones—the foundation laid by cultivating the "Blood Bone Chapter" was now tinged with a faint dark gold under the combined effect of the pale gold and dark red stars, and their strength had increased many times over!

But the price of all this is excruciating pain. It's an extreme experience where every cell is being torn apart and reassembled.

He rolled and convulsed on the ground, his fingernails digging into the cracks in the stone, drawing blood.

Bai Zhi held him tightly, tears falling onto his face.

"Hold on...please hold on..."

I don't know how much time passed.

It might take an incense stick to burn, or it might take an hour.

Chen Yuan gradually calmed down.

He opened his eyes.

The world before my eyes is different.

It's not the "difference" you see with your eyes, but the "microscopic vision" unlocked after the initial fusion of the silvery-white stars (matter analysis)—a passive ability that cannot be turned off, but whose level of detail can be adjusted.

He could "see" the crystal structure of every mineral in the stone wall, the movement trajectory of water vapor molecules in the cracks above his head, and the path of every wisp of life flowing in the soft, green herbal essence within the Angelica dahurica.

They could even "see" the five-colored stellar power flowing through their own meridians, with each star slowly moving along its corresponding orbit. Deep within their consciousness, the stellar orbit system was as stable as the starry sky.

Peak of the eighth level of Qi Refining.

Only one opportunity is needed to reach the foundation stage.

The stellar system has begun to integrate with the physical body, and the silvery-white stars have unlocked microscopic vision—this is the final step in the "mortal foundation building" stage, and a key node in the transition to "deep spiritual roots".

Chen Yuan propped himself up on the ground and sat up.

"You...you're alright?" Bai Zhi asked, her eyes red.

"I'm fine now." Chen Yuan moved his arms and felt his strength return, even stronger than before he was injured. "My essence and blood have been replenished by 80%, and my cultivation has recovered to the peak of the ninth level of Qi Refining."

He looked down at his right palm.

The fragments of the Chaos Divine Crystal had fallen off, and the wound on his palm had healed, leaving five small, pale gray scars arranged in the shape of a star trail tree.

Each scar corresponds to a star.

"We have to get out of here." He stood up, walked to the boulder blocking his way, and placed his hand on the stone.

Consciousness connects with the silvery stars.

Microscopic vision activation.

The stone's structure is laid bare—the direction of the cracks, the weaknesses of the minerals, and the weakest stress points.

He found that spot and clenched his fist.

This time, instead of using brute force, he infused the power of the Emerald Star (the Law of Growth) into his fist, instantly increasing its hardness by 30%, before slamming it down.

boom!

The boulder shattered, revealing a hole that had been partially blocked.

Light is coming in.

Its daybreak.

Chen Yuan pulled Bai Zhi out of the pile of rubble and stood at the entrance of Black Wind Cave again.

The sunlight outside was blinding.

He squinted, adjusted his eyes to the light, and then looked back at the collapsed mountainside.

Black Wind Cave has completely collapsed, leaving only a pile of rubble on the mountainside.

But just as he turned to leave—

"roar--------!!!"

An indescribable roar came from deep within the mountain.

It's not the python king.

It is a deeper, more ancient, and more frenzied voice.

Its roar was filled with endless resentment and hunger, like a demon that had been suppressed for thousands of years and was finally seeing the light of day again.

The entire Black Wind Mountain began to tremble.

It wasn't the kind of tremor that causes a collapse; it was the kind of tremor that makes you feel like something is trying to emerge from the mountain.

The pile of boulders on the mountainside rose upwards, cracking open huge fissures from which pitch-black demonic energy surged straight into the sky.

Wherever the demonic aura passed, vegetation withered, rocks weathered, and even sunlight was swallowed up.

Bai Zhi's face turned deathly pale: "What...what is that?"

Chen Yuan did not answer.

On the palm of his right hand, one of the five star-shaped scars, a grayish-black one, was burning hot—the grayish-black star (devouring evil purification) was issuing a warning, instinctively and extremely repelling that demonic energy.

The suppressed demon has been reborn.

"Run!" Chen Yuan grabbed Bai Zhi and turned to run down the mountain.

Behind them, the mountain was completely blasted open.