Spirit Plant Entry: Immortality Begins with Farming

When the spirit crystal bud atop the Azure Vine ripened, Chen Yuan was staring blankly at the lake.

He was rubbing a handful of star-frost moss powder in his hand, but his eyes were fixed on the silvery reflection at the bottom of the lake.

The light was undulating, very slowly, rhythmically, like breathing—no, the entire lake, along with the mountains at its bottom, was breathing together.

"It's done." Bai Zhi's voice came from the side.

Chen Yuan snapped out of his daze and turned his head.

Bai Zhi held the cyan-gold spirit crystal in her hand, her fingertips gently touching the ring-like patterns on its surface.

"It's even better than expected." She looked up, the silvery-blue light around the edge of her pupils flashing for a moment. "The purity of the core spiritual energy... is about 30% of that of a high-grade spirit stone. The key is that it has wood element in it, and it's excessively gentle. Even if you absorb it directly during the Qi Refining stage, it won't cause your meridians to swell."

Lieyun brought its massive head closer, its single eye fixed on the spirit crystal: "One crystal a day, is that all?"

"What's the rush?" Chen Yuan stood up and walked to the side of the Qingyuan Vine.

The vines didn't wilt after producing the first spirit crystal; instead, they became more vibrant.

The main vine has grown a little higher, and two more side branches have appeared, increasing the number of leaves from nine to twelve. The purplish-gold light flowing through the veins of the leaves is much brighter than before.

The most eye-catching thing is the top of the vine—next to where the buds used to be, two small, bluish-gold bumps, about the size of rice grains, have appeared.

"See that?" Chen Yuan pointed with his chin. "This stuff grows on its own. Today it's one piece, tomorrow it might be one and a half pieces. In a few more days, it might even be two pieces."

Lieyun twitched its wings but remained silent.

Bai Zhi handed the spirit crystal back to Chen Yuan: "What's next? Are we really going to stay here?"

Chen Yuan took the spirit crystal and held it in his palm.

The warm and pure wood spirit energy immediately flowed along the Laogong acupoint into the meridians, causing a tingling, itchy sensation, like the first spring rain seeping into parched land.

He didn't answer immediately, but turned and looked back at the center of the lake.

He watched for a long time, so long that Lieyun impatiently poked the sand with his beak before he finally spoke, his voice low, as if talking to himself:

"You tell me... doesn't this whole lake, the mountain below, and this moss and vines we created... look like something alive?"

Bai Zhi and Lie Yun were both stunned for a moment.

"What do you mean?" Lieyun asked.

"The earth's veins are the blood vessels, and spiritual energy is the blood." Chen Yuan squatted down, placing his hand on the glowing purple-gold moss. "The blood ginseng is the heart, drawing and pumping blood. The star frost moss is the skin, breathing and dissipating heat. The green vine is... the liver? Or the kidney? Anyway, it's responsible for transformation and crystallization."

He paused, then looked up at Bai Zhi:

"And you? When you use your 'Eye of Microscopic Insight' to observe, do you feel... that the flow of spiritual energy between these things is too chaotic?"

Bai Zhi frowned, closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment, then opened them again and nodded: "It's chaotic. The spiritual energy of the earth veins rushed in too violently, wasting a lot of it during the transformation of the blood ginseng. At least 40% of the spiritual energy released by the Star Frost Moss dissipated into the air and was not utilized. Only half of what the Azure Vine absorbed was used for leaf crystallization."

"Yes." Chen Yuan stood up, patting the moss debris off his hands. "That's the problem. The 'living thing' we've built up is partially paralyzed. Its heart is beating erratically, its blood vessels are leaking blood, and its liver and kidneys are slacking off."

He walked to the lake and scooped up a handful of water. The water leaked through his fingers, creating ripples on the lake's surface.

"If..." Chen Yuan watched the ripples spread outwards, "If we could make the spiritual energy of this 'living thing' flow more smoothly? If we could stop the earth veins from rushing so violently, reduce the waste in the blood ginseng's transformation, prevent the spiritual energy of the star frost moss from dissipating, and make the Azure Vine use every bit of its strength to form the spirit crystal..."

He turned around and looked at Bai Zhi and Lie Yun:

"Would this 'living thing'... thrive a little better? Produce more? And give us a greater amount of spiritual energy?"

Lieyun narrowed his one eye: "You want to be a doctor? To diagnose a mountain and prescribe medicine?"

"Is that not allowed?" Chen Yuan walked back to the center of the mossy carpet, sat down cross-legged, and said, "I'm just idling around anyway. It's free to try."

Bai Zhi, holding her sword, sat down opposite him: "How do you 'take a pulse'? How do you 'prescribe medicine'?"

"See with your eyes, think with your brain." Chen Yuan closed his eyes. "Then... adjust with your hands."

He didn't explain further after he finished speaking.

In fact, he couldn't explain it either.

You can't exactly say that you have something called a "vocabulary system" in your head that popped up a notification the moment the spirit crystal matured, saying that "energy circulation redundancy and loss" has been detected in the current spirit plant-earth vein symbiosis system, and suggested "dynamic optimization," right?

He can only pretend.

Pretend that it's something you "realized," something you "observed," or something you "saw" coming up with on a whim.

Fortunately, he can indeed "see".

The instant he closed his eyes, the power of the silvery-white star (material analysis) in his sea of ​​consciousness spread silently like mercury. The energy nodes, spiritual energy flow directions, and loss data of the entire Starfall Lake Valley poured into his brain in a cold and precise form.

Too much, too chaotic.

But this time, Chen Yuan didn't panic.

He immersed himself in it, like diving into an ocean of data. The surging rate of the tributaries of the earth veins, the absorption curve of the blood ginseng roots, the heat dissipation point of the star frost moss, the photosynthetic efficiency of the leaves of the Qingyuan vine... countless parameters tumbled, collided, and reorganized in his consciousness.

Then, he began to "adjust".

It's not about brute force, it's about intention.

His first thought was: loosen the connection between the tributary of the earth vein and the root of the blood ginseng.

There was no movement, no gesture. He simply "thought" for a moment.

Fifteen feet underground, the milky-white spiritual stream slowed its surging speed by an imperceptible one percent.

With just this one percent, the absorption pressure of the blood ginseng roots dropped sharply, and the conversion loss decreased by five percentage points on the spot.

It became.

Chen Yuan understood.

He continued.

The second thought he had was to block the unseen "spiritual energy dissipation channels" among the star-frost moss.

In the air, those previously scattered and wasted purple-gold specks of light, as if caught in an invisible net, obediently gathered and sank back into the mossy carpet. The dissipation rate decreased by 20%.

On the third thought, he decided: "Don't waste the spiritual energy that evaporated from the leaves of the Qingyuan Vine. Guide it to feed those two new buds."

At the tip of the vine, the two rice-grain-sized protrusions visibly swelled up.

Fourth, fifth, sixth...

Chen Yuan sat there, eyes closed, motionless, like an old monk in deep meditation.

Only the beads of sweat gradually seeping from his forehead and his increasingly pale face betrayed that what he was doing was anything but easy.

Bai Zhi and Lie Yun were initially staring at him.

After watching for half an incense stick's time, Lieyun couldn't wait any longer. It spread its wings and flew to hover above the center of the lake—it needed to stretch its muscles and bones, as its newly grown bones were still a bit stiff.

Bai Zhi didn't move. She held the sword, her eyes fixed on Chen Yuan, the silvery-blue light in her pupils shining steadily.

She is seeing with keen insight.

She saw the purple-gold moss carpet beneath Chen Yuan slowly and steadily brighten. The pulsation of the Blood Ginseng gradually became steady and powerful. The two new buds of the Azure Vine were expanding at an abnormally fast pace.

Most astonishingly, the flow of spiritual energy throughout the valley was being rewoven in her eyes.

The pale golden spiritual energy, which had been flowing wildly like a runaway horse, was now being organized, guided, and channeled by an invisible hand, gradually forming a well-ordered network of light that covered the entire lake valley. At the heart of this network was Chen Yuan, who sat motionless in meditation.

He was like a spider weaving its web, quietly, attentively, and almost coldly optimizing every detail of this vast system.

As this "net" grew denser and more stable, the silvery light in the center of the lake began to move.

It was not an attack, nor was it reconnaissance.

It is a response.

A wisp of pure, solidified spiritual energy, as pure as liquid silver, separated from the center of the lake. As if it were sentient, it flowed gently along the network of spiritual energy woven by Chen Yuan, eventually reaching the core of the network—the space between Chen Yuan's eyebrows.

It seeped in with a gentle touch.

hum-

Bai Zhi "saw" Chen Yuan's entire aura surge.

It wasn't the kind of explosive surge in cultivation, but rather a stubborn "stagnation" that had been stuck in his body, which was cleanly and decisively shattered by this foreign yet incredibly welcoming force.

Qi Refining Level 7.

Things will fall into place naturally.

There was no lightning tribulation, no unusual phenomena. Only the awkward feeling caused by the ever-present conflict of spiritual energy on Chen Yuan's body disappeared. In its place was a harmonious and transparent temperament, like a rough stone being polished smooth by flowing water.

Chen Yuan swayed, then fell forward, landing face down on the warm mossy carpet, and remained motionless.

"Chen Yuan!" Bai Zhi exclaimed and rushed over.

Lieyun also flew back from the center of the lake, creating a gust of wind as it landed: "What happened?!"

Bai Zhi turned Chen Yuan over. His face was deathly pale, covered in sweat, and his chest heaved violently, but his breathing was still relatively steady. His eyes were closed, as if... he had fainted from exhaustion.

"He's alright." Bai Zhi checked his pulse and breathed a sigh of relief. "His spiritual energy is flowing very smoothly, more than twice as strong as before. It's just that his spiritual consciousness was overused, and he's exhausted."

Lieyun gently nudged Chen Yuan's shoulder with its beak: "What was this kid doing just now?"

Bai Zhi didn't answer. She looked up at the Qingyuan Vine.

The two new buds at the tip of the vine have already grown to the size of soybeans. At this rate, the second spirit crystal will be matured before sunset tomorrow.

She looked at the center of the lake again. The silver light had returned to calm, but the glow seemed much softer and gentler than before.

Finally, she looked down at the glowing purple-gold moss carpet at her feet. The edges of the carpet were visibly spreading further into the sand.

"...He's fixing things," Bai Zhi said softly, as if answering Lie Yun, or as if telling herself, "He's fixing this lake, fixing this mountain, fixing this land. He's made this place... even better."

Lieyun remained silent for a while.

Then it lay down, spread its huge wings, and half-huddled Chen Yuan underneath, blocking the night wind blowing from the lake.

"As long as it's fixed well," it muttered, its one eye gazing at the darkening sky outside the cave. "Anyway... we're not going to be able to leave anytime soon."

Chen Yuan lay unconscious on the soft mossy blanket, fast asleep.

At the center of his brow, a faint silver light slowly settled down, like a seed buried deep within.

Nobody saw it.

Even he himself didn't know.

---