Spirit Plant Entry: Immortality Begins with Farming

Widow Li brought food with her child.

A pot of wild vegetable porridge, two coarse flatbreads. The child squatted by the thatched shed, looking at the blood ginseng, and whispered, "Mom, is this plant sick?"

"Hmm." Widow Li patted his head. "Uncle Chen is trying to find a way to save it."

"Like my mother saving me?"

Widow Li's eyes reddened, but she remained silent.

Chen Yuan picked up his bowl of porridge, took a sip, and suddenly asked, "Fellow Daoist Li, if you knew that doing something would lead to death, but not doing it would also lead to death, what would you choose?"

Widow Li paused for a moment, then said, "Then... let's choose someone who dies knowing the truth."

"Die knowing why?"

"Hmm." She looked down at her child. "My husband went to the mine, knowing he might die, but he still went. He said, if he didn't go, the whole family would starve. If he went, at least my child and I could receive a pension and live a few more months. Later he died, and Fan Datong withheld most of the pension, but I used the remaining money to buy rice and raise my child to this age."

She looked up at Chen Yuan: "Brother Chen, I don't know what happened to you. But which person in the shantytown isn't waiting to die while looking for a way to survive? Death isn't scary, what's scary is accepting your fate before you've even lived."

Chen Yuan remained silent.

After finishing the porridge, Widow Li cleared the dishes to leave. Chen Yuan stopped her and took a small cloth bag from his pocket.

"Here are five spirit stones and the planting instructions for Uncle Zhao's Qingyang rice. If I don't come to the field tomorrow, take the child and these things to Manager Liao at Baicaotang. He promised me he would arrange for you and your child to work in the medicinal herb fields, so you won't starve."

Widow Li's hand trembled, and the cloth bag fell to the ground.

"Brother Chen, you..."

"Just in case." Chen Yuan picked up the cloth bag and stuffed it back into her hand. "Keep it safe."

Widow Li left with her child, turning back every few steps.

Chen Yuan sat back down in the thatched shed and looked at the pot of blood ginseng.

The black spots have spread to the stem, and the whole ginseng looks like it has been splashed with ink, with only a little gold remaining at the tip of the leaf.

Within my sea of ​​consciousness, the seedling of the word suddenly stirred—not a warning, but some kind of… resonance?

He focused his mind and looked inward.

In the hazy, gray space, the roots of the sapling had somehow extended towards the Blood Ginseng. A wisp of extremely thin black energy drifted from the direction of the Blood Ginseng and was absorbed by the sapling's roots. The instant it was absorbed, a faint black rune appeared on the lowest leaf of the sapling.

[A mixture of Yin energy, demonic energy, and obsession was detected]

[The seedlings mentioned in the entry have undergone unknown mutations]

[New ability being unlocked...]

Chen Yuan's heart pounded.

Is the sapling absorbing the evil energy of the blood ginseng?

He tentatively focused his consciousness on the roots of the saplings, actively guiding them to extend towards the blood ginseng.

hum-

The moment the roots touched the soil of the blood ginseng, a flood of chaotic images rushed into my mind:

Scarlet eyes, bone spurs piercing his chest, Old Zhao fell into a pool of blood;

The mandrill's corpse was ground into bone powder, and black smoke remained in the broken bones;

Liu Sanniang smiled as she handed over the cloth bag, a calculating glint in her eyes;

Yin Jiu's hands were pale, his pupils were grayish-white...

Finally, the image settled on an unfamiliar face—a man in his thirties with a sinister expression and a black vertical line between his brows.

The man stood in a pitch-black cave, before which lay a boiling pool of blood. In the center of the pool, a gigantic ginseng covered in human faces slowly writhed.

The image is shattered.

Chen Yuan suddenly opened his eyes and gasped for breath.

My back was soaked with cold sweat.

That strange ginseng... was seven parts similar to the Golden-Veined Blood Ginseng, only ten times larger and a hundred times more sinister.

"Ghost Spirit Sect... Ghost Planting Technique..." he muttered to himself.

Yin Jiu's goal was neither the Blood Ginseng nor to control him.

His blood ginseng was to be used as "nourishment" for that strange ginseng!

Within the sea of ​​consciousness, the transformation of the sapling of the term was completed.

New capabilities emerge:

【Name】: Devouring Evil (Beginner)

[Effect]: It can slowly absorb the evil energy attached to spiritual plants and convert it into nutrients for the sapling.

[Restrictions]: Use only once daily. Excessive absorption may lead to self-contamination.

[Note]: Absorbed evil energy can be converted into 'Resistance Fragments'.

Chen Yuan stared at the line of text, his mind racing.

Yin Jiuming will arrive at midnight.

Manager Liao's Jingyang Powder has a 30% success rate, but the price is 30% of next year's harvest.

The seedling's ability to absorb evil energy can absorb evil energy, but it may contaminate itself.

Three paths, each a dead end.

unless……

He looked at the Blood Ginseng, then at the blood-red [Blood Ferment] leaf in his sea of ​​consciousness.

Unless the three roads are combined into one.

---

Midnight

Yin Jiu appeared outside the thatched hut right on time.

"Have you thought it through?" His voice was like fingernails scraping against a stone slab.

"I have conditions," Chen Yuan said.

"speak."

"First, I need the complete Blood Refining Technique, without any deletions or alterations."

"Can."

"Secondly, after it's refined, I need to utilize 50% of the blood ginseng's medicinal power, not 30%."

Yin Jiu narrowed his grayish-white pupils: "Forty percent."

"Fifty percent." Chen Yuan stood his ground. "Otherwise, I'd rather destroy it and nobody else will have it."

silence.

After a long pause, Yin Jiu nodded: "Okay."

"Third," Chen Yuan stared at him, "I want you to swear by your inner demons that the Blood Refining Technique you passed on to me does not contain any hidden methods to control me, and that when you use the Blood Ginseng Roots in the future, you will not harm my life or my foundation."

Yin Jiu laughed: "Kid, you're quite cautious."

"After being scammed so many times, you'll naturally learn your lesson."

"Alright, I swear." Yin Jiu raised his dead-looking hand and pressed it against his chest. "I, Yin Jiu, swear by my inner demons that the Blood Refining Ginseng Technique I passed on to Chen Yuan is complete and flawless, without any hidden control methods. In the future, when I use the roots of the Blood Ginseng, I will not harm its life or damage its foundation. If I break this oath, may my inner demons retaliate and my soul be destroyed."

The vow was made, and the air trembled slightly.

In the cultivation world, the oath of inner demons is the heaviest oath. Once broken, one will inevitably develop inner demons during cultivation, which can lead to the complete loss of cultivation or even the destruction of one's soul.

"Satisfied?" Yin Jiu lowered his hand.

"Satisfied." Chen Yuan stepped aside. "Please come in."

Yin Jiu entered the thatched hut and sat cross-legged in front of the blood ginseng. He took out a jet-black jade slip from his robes, pressed it to his brow, and handed it to Chen Yuan after a moment.

"The Blood Refining Technique is inside. Activate it with your essence blood and follow the steps."

Chen Yuan took the jade slip; it was icy cold to the touch, like holding a piece of ice.

He didn't rush to activate it, but instead asked, "How long will it take to complete?"

"Seven days. Each day at midnight, nourish it with three drops of your essence blood, combined with the incantation." Yin Jiu stood up. "I will come back in seven days. By then, I hope to see a compliant Blood Ginseng."

"Wait a minute," Chen Yuan called out to him, "After it's refined, isn't there still a risk of the Blood Ginseng turning evil?"

"No." Yin Jiu shook his head. "The Blood Refining Technique is to refine it into half of your body. If you live, it lives; if you are righteous, it is righteous. As long as your will is firm and you are not corrupted by evil energy, it will not cause any more problems."

"What if... my willpower isn't strong?"

Yin Jiu gave him a deep look: "Then you two will become the 'living Yin materials' I want together."

The black robe fluttered, and the figure vanished.

Chen Yuan held the black jade slip and stood in the thatched hut for a long time.

Then he bit his fingertip and dripped blood onto the jade slip.

The jade transformed into black light, which rushed into the space between the eyebrows.

A flood of information exploded in my mind—the complete formula for the Blood Refining and Nourishing Ginseng Technique, the timing of nourishing with essence and blood, the key points of mental control…

There is indeed no obvious method to control it.

However, there was no trace of the "ghost planting technique" that Manager Liao mentioned.

Either Yin Jiu's methods are too skillful, so skillful that they can even evade the oath of inner demons; or Manager Liao has misjudged, and this really is just a side path but orthodox ginseng cultivation technique.

Chen Yuan prefers the former.

He sat down cross-legged and circulated his spiritual power according to the incantation.

A faint connection was established between the Blood Ginseng and himself. He could sense the chaotic evil energy within the Blood Ginseng, and he could also sense the craving for that evil energy emanating from the roots of the Scripture Sapling.

"Come on," he whispered, "let's see if you turn me into a puppet first, or if I devour you as nourishment first."

The first drop of essence was forced from the fingertip and dripped onto the ginseng root.

Black light and blood light lit up at the same time.