Spirit Plant Entry: Immortality Begins with Farming

The sunlight from outside the cave cuts in obliquely about ten feet into the cave entrance, and then can't get any further in.

It wasn't that the light was weak; it was that the deep blue in the cave was too intense, like a pool of ink that couldn't be dissolved, swallowing up all the sunlight.

At the boundary between light and darkness, the floating dust particles are frozen in place, and there is a taut, almost snapping sound in the air.

Chen Yuan sat on the edge of the star-frost moss carpet, holding a small pinch of silver-blue moss powder in his hand.

The powder slipped through his fingers, landed on the sand, hissed up a very faint wisp of white smoke, and was then absorbed by the ground.

Like water droplets falling onto a red-hot iron plate.

Lieyun lay beside him, its massive beak almost touching the ground, its single, azure eye fixed on the rapidly disappearing trace.

Bai Zhi, holding the moss-covered sword, sat on a rock a little further away. Her eyes were closed, but beneath her eyelids, a very subtle silver-blue halo was flowing—she was seeing with her "eyes that see the minute details."

After ten breaths, she opened her eyes, and the silver-blue ring around the edge of her pupils was a little brighter than before.

Her voice was a little dry. "The whole mountain is absorbing spiritual energy, preparing for its awakening."

She pointed to the pebbles embedded in the ground: "Those stones are beating twice as fast as last night. The spiritual energy in the earth's veins is like a reservoir before a flood, about to overflow."

Chen Yuan didn't speak, but picked up another pinch of Star Frost Moss powder.

This time he didn't sprinkle it, but instead rubbed it between his fingers, feeling the cool and gentle spiritual energy seep into his skin, flow along his meridians, and finally be silently absorbed by the pale golden star in his sea of ​​consciousness.

The hidden injuries are 80% healed. The remaining 20% ​​is not due to insufficient spiritual energy, but because the newly formed meridians need time to grow stronger.

"This place," he said, his voice unusually clear in the silent cave, "is not safe to leave."

Bai Zhi and Lie Yun both looked at him at the same time.

"The spiritual energy concentration is ten times higher than outside, and you can freely gather Starfrost Moss." Chen Yuan brushed the powder off his hands. "My injuries will heal completely here in three days. Applying Starfrost Moss to the bones of Rift Cloud will speed up the healing process three times. You—"

He looked at Bai Zhi:

"Your 'Insightful Eye Technique' is just at the beginner level, and you need a high concentration of spiritual energy to nourish the meridians around your eyes. One day of practice here is equivalent to a month of arduous training outside."

Bai Zhi opened her mouth, but no words came out.

Lieyun's wings unfurled halfway with a "whoosh," then slowly folded back: "Kid, do you know what you're saying? The mountain spirit is about to wake up, and the first thing it will do is devour the three of us as snacks."

"I know." Chen Yuan stood up, walked to the cave entrance, and looked at the sea of ​​clouds outside, dyed golden by the setting sun. "So we have to find a way to keep it from waking up. Or... even if it does wake up, make sure it doesn't eat us."

The cave was deathly silent.

After three breaths, Bai Zhi asked softly, "...How do we do it?"

Chen Yuan turned around, his back to the sunlight, his face hidden in shadow, only his eyes shining—not the silvery blue of Star Frost Moss, but his own calm, slightly ruthless light.

"Talk to it."

Lieyun let out a short, sharp gasp, as if he'd choked: "Talk? Talk to a mountain? Talk to a 'spirit' that's been asleep for who knows how many millennia and wants to clear the field as soon as it wakes up? Chen Yuan, has your brain been frozen by Star Frost Moss?"

"It's not broken." Chen Yuan walked back, squatted down in front of Lieyun, and looked directly at its single, pale blue eye. "Baizhi said it's 'digesting.' So it's not completely unconscious—it's hungry, it needs spiritual energy, and it's preparing to wake up."

He paused:

"Hunger is the key to negotiation."

Bai Zhi tightened her grip on the sword: "You want to...feed it?"

"Not only that." Chen Yuan took out the box full of Star Frost Moss from his storage bag and opened the lid. A silver-blue light hummed out, illuminating the faces of the three people with a bluish glow.

"Star Frost Moss is nourished by the condensation of earth veins; its essence is highly concentrated, gentle earth vein spiritual energy." Chen Yuan fiddled with the moss in the jade box with his fingers. "Mountain spirits consuming earth vein spiritual energy is like people drinking plain water—they can live, but it's tasteless. But Star Frost Moss…"

He picked up a clump and held it up to Lieyun:

"Like what?"

Lieyun's single eye stared at the cluster of glowing little things for two breaths, then he made a "gurgling" sound in his throat—not a threat, but some kind of... instinctive reaction.

"...Like wine," it finally said, its voice a little awkward, "wine brewed with spiritual energy. Just the smell...gets you drunk."

"That's right." Chen Yuan put the Star Frost Moss back into the jade box. "Water can quench thirst, but wine can make people drunk, make them feel good, and make them not want to wake up."

He closed the lid and looked into the swirling, eerie blue mist deep within the cave:

"What if we could keep providing the 'wine,' keeping it 'slightly tipsy' and letting it sleep comfortably?"

Bai Zhi's breathing quickened: "But where would we get that much Star Frost Moss? This box, is it even enough for it to 'drink' a few sips?"

"So you can't feed them directly." Chen Yuan stood up, dusted off his hands, "You have to plant them."

He then uttered two more words:

"Here."

With a crack, the skeleton of the Cloud-Splitter stood up, its wings fully spread, and its feathers rippled violently in the eerie blue light: "You want to grow crops in its mouth? To grow its favorite 'wine' on its core spiritual vein?"

"It's not for it to eat," Chen Yuan corrected. "It's for it to smell. Plant the Star Frost Moss at the nodes of the spiritual veins, so that it can slowly and continuously release gentle spiritual energy, like incense, spreading throughout the spiritual vein circulation of the entire mountain."

He walked to the stone wall and placed his hand on the translucent crystal layer:

"The mountain spirit is currently at the critical point of 'deep sleep - imminent awakening.' It needs a massive surge of spiritual energy to completely break through the seal and awaken. If we do the opposite—instead of surging it, we use the gentlest and most comfortable spiritual energy, like warm water, to envelop and soothe it..."

He turned around:

"It might feel like it hasn't had enough sleep, so it will turn over and continue sleeping."

Silence fell once again inside the cave.

Only a faint "humming" sound came from underground, like a giant beast grinding its teeth in a dream.

Bai Zhi broke the silence first: "...How do you plant it? The growth conditions for Star Frost Moss are extremely demanding; it needs a point where dew from the earth's veins seeps out. Although the spiritual energy here is abundant, it's not necessarily—"

"I have a way," Chen Yuan interrupted her.

He took something else out of his storage bag—not a jade box, but a palm-sized, rough terracotta flowerpot. There was no soil in the pot, only a dark red, slightly pulsating lump of flesh, its surface covered with fine, vein-like patterns.

Blood ginseng.

Bai Zhi and Lie Yun both shrank back at the same time.

"When will you..." Bai Zhi's voice was strained.

"I secretly separated this plant from the back of the Rift Cloud before entering the cave." Chen Yuan placed the ceramic pot on the ground and gently touched the surface of the blood ginseng with his finger. The fleshy piece trembled and extended a thin, blood-red tentacle, which wrapped around his fingertip.

It feels warm, moist, and slippery to the touch.

"One of the characteristics of blood ginseng," Chen Yuan said, "is its extremely strong ability to adapt to and coexist with the environment. It grows by absorbing blood energy, but it can also establish temporary connections with any form of 'life energy' through its root system—including the spiritual energy of the earth's veins."

He looked at the ground:

"I will let the roots of the blood ginseng grow downwards, penetrate this rocky shell, and reach the deeper spiritual veins. Then, using its symbiotic properties, I will 'graft' star frost moss onto the nodes of the spiritual veins."

Lieyun's single eye widened: "...Grafting?"

"Hmm." Chen Yuan took out a small clump of Star Frost Moss from the jade box, bit his fingertip, squeezed out a drop of blood, and dripped it onto the surface of the Blood Ginseng.

The flesh of the blood ginseng began to writhe violently, and its tentacle suddenly stretched out and "plop" plunged into the root of the star frost moss!

The silvery-blue moss was visibly stained with a faint layer of blood.

The two colors intertwined and blended, eventually stabilizing into a strange violet color, and the light also changed from a gentle silver-blue to a calmer, more restrained dark purple halo.

"The Blood Ginseng will become a 'converter'." Chen Yuan held up the mutated Starfrost Moss, his voice eerily calm. "It absorbs the violent primal spiritual energy from the earth's veins and, through its own symbiotic network, transforms it into gentle nutrients that the Starfrost Moss can absorb. At the same time, the spiritual energy released by the Starfrost Moss will be 'filtered' by the Blood Ginseng, carrying a trace of... my aura."

He looked at Bai Zhi and Lie Yun:

"Every sip of 'wine' the mountain spirit swallows will taste my flavor. Over time, it will get used to this taste and think, 'This taste = comfortable = continue sleeping.' Just like... raising a dog."

He spoke the last three words very softly, but the echo in the cave amplified them.

Bai Zhi's face paled: "What if it's not 'used to' it? What if it feels offended and wakes up early?"

"Then let's run." Chen Yuan put the mutated Star Frost Moss back into the ceramic pot, and the Blood Ginseng's tentacles immediately wrapped around it, like a mother protecting her unborn child. "Lieyun is waiting in the sky. If things don't look right, we'll rush out immediately. It just woke up, so it won't move too quickly. We have a chance."

Lieyun's wings slowly folded: "...What are the chances of success?"

Chen Yuan remained silent for two breaths.

"Thirty percent," he said. "But if we stay here to cultivate for three days, my injuries will be fully healed, your bones will harden, and Bai Zhi's pupil technique will be stabilized. Going out and finding another place like this might take three months, or even three years. And—"

He paused:

"There may be all sorts of trouble outside. Here, at least for now, it's just us and a sleeping mountain."

He looked at Bai Zhi: "What do you say?"

Bai Zhi held the moss-covered sword, her fingers unconsciously tracing the three swirling engravings on the hilt. The sword responded with a warm, gentle sound, as if encouraging her.

She recalled the words in the jade slip: "From small things one can know the big picture; by observing the heavens one can see the heart."

It also reminds me of the final line from Blade & Soul—"The path is one you walk yourself. Once you've chosen it, don't look back."

She took a breath and looked up:

"kind."

Chen Yuan nodded and then looked at Lieyun.

Lieyun let out a long, sigh-like breath, then lowered its massive head and gently touched Chen Yuan's shoulder with its beak:

"Damn it... I'll lose my life if I follow you."

But it didn't say no.

Chen Yuan twitched the corners of his mouth, which could be considered a smile.

Then he sat cross-legged, placed the earthenware basin in front of him, and hung his hands over the basin.

Within the sea of ​​consciousness, five stars began to slowly rotate.

The pale gold stars shone brightest, stabilizing his life essence. The power of the silvery-white stars seeped downwards, analyzing the rock structure and the direction of the spiritual veins beneath. The emerald green stars glowed faintly, providing support for the laws of "growth."

The newly formed azure cyclone, representing the split clouds, slowly released the free spirit of the high sky, as if encouraging him.

Chen Yuan closed his eyes.

Under his control, the thick main root of the blood ginseng plunged into the ground with a "plop." It wasn't a brute force that penetrated it, but rather like water seeping into sand, following the finest cracks in the rock, downwards, and downwards still.

One zhang. Three zhang. Ten zhang.

At a depth of fifteen zhang (approximately 13 meters), the root tip touched something—

It wasn't a hard rock layer, but a warm, surging, milky-white stream of light, flowing like a river.

The main streams and tributaries of the earth's spiritual energy.

The moment the roots of the blood ginseng touched the spiritual energy, they trembled, swelled, and split wildly! Countless tiny roots spread out like a net, burrowed into the edge of the light stream, and began to greedily absorb it.

The blood ginseng in the ceramic basin had visibly grown larger. Fine, silvery-white patterns appeared on the surface of the dark red flesh—traces of the initial transformation of the earth's spiritual energy.

And the mutated star frost moss grafted onto it began to glow.

It wasn't the restrained dark purple of before; it was a bright, swirling, purplish-gold light, like a nebula.

Light shone from the center of the moss, flowing along the tendrils of the blood ginseng into its body, and then down along the main root, into the earth's spiritual energy.

Like a drop of ink falling into clear water.

A purple-gold halo began to spread slowly but steadily along the tributary of the spiritual vein.

Inside the cave, the rhythm of the pebbles embedded in the ground flickering suddenly became disordered for a moment.

Then, it became slower and smoother.

Like rapid breathing, it was soothed into a deep sleep.

Lieyun lay on the ground, its single eye fixed on the pottery basin, its wings motionless.

Bai Zhi gripped the sword, her palms sweating profusely.

Fine beads of sweat appeared on Chen Yuan's forehead, and his face began to turn pale. Simultaneously controlling the blood ginseng to penetrate deep into the spiritual veins, transform spiritual energy, and maintain symbiosis was an enormous burden on his divine sense.

But his hands are very steady.

Time passed little by little.

Outside the cave, the light of day had completely faded, and the stars began to shine. But inside the cave, illuminated by the glow of the mutated star frost moss, a purplish-gold halo flowed across the ground like a miniature galaxy.

One hour later.

Chen Yuan suddenly opened his eyes, withdrew his hands, leaned back, and gasped for breath.

"It's done..." he squeezed out the two words through gritted teeth.

Inside the ceramic basin, the blood ginseng had grown to twice its original size, its surface covered with intricate patterns of silver and purple-gold, resembling a natural work of art.

Meanwhile, the mutated star frost moss had spread beyond the pot, taking root in the surrounding sand and growing a second and third new clump of moss.

Every single clump is glowing.

A purple-gold halo stretched out, like a small, glowing blanket spread out near the cave entrance.

The "humming" sound coming from underground had disappeared at some point.

Instead, there was an extremely low, slow "thump...thump..." sound, like the heartbeat of the earth.

Each time the sound rang out, the crystals on the cave wall would light up slightly.

With each ring, the spiritual energy in the air becomes a little more docile.

Rift Cloud cautiously extended its beak and touched the nearest clump of mutated Star Frost Moss.

It feels warm and soft to the touch, like animal fur.

It retracted its beak, the flame in its single eye flickered slowly, and then turned towards Chen Yuan:

"...Is it asleep?"

Chen Yuan propped himself up, wiped the sweat from his face, and looked into the depths of the cave.

The deep blue mist no longer churned.

They were still, like frozen lakes, their surfaces reflecting a faint purple-gold light.

And deep within the fog, there was that enormous black shadow...

He rolled over.

It wasn't a sudden turn over upon waking, but rather an unconscious adjustment of position in sleep. The movement was very light and slow, carrying a sense of contentment and languor.

Then, it stopped moving completely.

Chen Yuan let out a long, long breath.

"I'm going to sleep," he said.

Bai Zhi's legs went weak, and she collapsed to the ground. The moss-covered sword clattered to the sand, but she didn't pick it up. She just hugged her knees, her shoulders trembling slightly.

It's not fear, it's lingering fear.

Lieyun spread its wings, and the air currents and feathers gently brushed past Chen Yuan and Baizhi, bringing with them a gentle breeze.

"Three days," it said, its voice hoarse with the pain of surviving a near-death experience. "Just three days. After three days, whether the wounds are healed or not, whether the bones are stiff or not, I have to leave. This place... is fucking terrifying."

Chen Yuan nodded and lay down on the glowing moss blanket.

Beneath me was warm sand, before me were glistening crystals on the cave ceiling, and behind those crystals lay a deep, star-studded night sky.