Spirit Plant Entry: Immortality Begins with Farming

When the rooster crowed for the third time, Chen Yuan opened his eyes.

A few rays of grayish-white sunlight filtered through the thatched roof, falling on my face with a cool touch.

He sat up. The wound on his left arm had scabbed over with a dark red scab. It still hurt when he moved, but it was much better than it had been two days ago.

The black jade slip in his arms made his chest feel tight.

The runes of the Blood Refining Technique had been swirling in his mind for three days, as familiar as if they were etched into his memory. He threw off the tattered burlap covering him and walked to the corner of the shed.

The pot of blood ginseng sat quietly in the darkest corner.

After three days and nine drops of her essence blood were given, the dark spots disappeared completely.

The leaves had turned completely dark gold, with molten gold flowing through the veins, making them almost blinding to look at.

The stem had thickened, and its surface had a metallic sheen.

In the sea of ​​consciousness, the roots of the seedling and the roots of the blood ginseng were intertwined, indistinguishable from each other.

The black runes on the bottommost leaf of the sapling have stabilized and stopped flashing.

【Name】: Golden-Veined Blood Ginseng (Blood Refining Bound, Semi-Mature)

[Entries]: Weak Growth Promoter (Extractable), Blood Refinement Resonance (Exclusive)

[Status]: Healthy, growing rapidly (expected to be fully mature in four days)

[WARNING]: A deep symbiotic relationship has been established with the host. The host's state will directly affect the growth of the blood ginseng.

Chen Yuan reached out and touched the leaf.

Warm.

It doesn't resemble a plant; it's more like freshly boiled warm jade.

"What's meant to happen will happen," he said softly, turning and leaving the thatched hut.

---

Before dawn, the shantytown was eerily quiet.

There were few people on the road. Occasionally, an early-rising old cultivator would squat at his doorway smoking a pipe, the flame flickering in the morning mist, illuminating his numb face. When they saw Chen Yuan walk by, some people would raise their eyes, then lower their heads again.

"Young Chen." A voice came from the alley entrance.

It was Widow Li. She stood in front of her courtyard gate, holding a bamboo basket and leading her child. The child was huddled behind her legs, only half of his thin face showing.

"Fellow Daoist Li." Chen Yuan walked over.

"Here you go," Widow Li said, handing over the bamboo basket in a low voice. "Two pancakes and a pot of cold tea. Be careful today..."

Chen Yuan took the basket: "How's the field?"

"I went to see it last night, and the rice..." Widow Li's throat moved, "...it looked terrifying. The ears of rice were so heavy that they bent the stalks. I've been farming for ten years, and I've never seen anything like it."

How heavy?

"At least 150 catties per mu."

Chen Yuan did some mental calculations.

Eight mu of land, even at the lowest estimate of 150 jin, would yield 1200 jin.

Plus blood ginseng...

"Brother Chen?" Widow Li called softly when she saw him staring blankly.

Chen Yuan snapped out of his daze: "Did the child take his medicine?"

"After taking it, the fever subsided." Widow Li's eyes reddened again. "Thanks to your five spirit stones..."

"Let's not talk about this," Chen Yuan interrupted her. "Today, Fan the Skinflint is here to collect taxes, so take the children and don't go out. No matter what the commotion outside is like, don't come out."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm not doing anything." Chen Yuan smirked. "Collecting rent and paying taxes is just a matter of course."

He carried the basket and walked into the field.

After walking a dozen or so steps, Widow Li called out from behind, "Brother Chen!"

Chen Yuan turned around.

The woman stood in the morning mist, her figure as thin as a sheet of paper: "Come back alive."

Chen Yuan nodded without saying anything.

---

Several people were already standing on the ridge of the field.

Old Wu was squatting at the intersection with a shovel on his shoulder. When he saw Chen Yuan coming over, he stood up and said, "Kid."

Uncle Wu.

"I went to check the fields," Old Wu said, wiping the dew from his face. "The rice isn't growing right. The ears are too heavy, the stalks are too strong, and the color... is wrong too."

"Something's not right?"

"Yellow sprout rice should be a light golden color, but your rice..." Old Wu paused, "is a dark golden color, the same color as the leaves of blood ginseng."

Chen Yuan's heart tightened.

The effects of the Blood Refining Technique?

He walked quickly to the edge of his own field and squatted down.

In the field of vision, countless tiny characters floated above the entire rice paddy:

【Name】: Yellow Sprout Rice (Blood Infection · Mutation)

[Entry]: High-efficiency yield increase (extractable), weak and resilient (extractable), rapid maturation (extractable)

[Status]: Fully mature and ready to harvest.

[Warning]: This plant contains trace amounts of blood-refining energy; long-term consumption may affect one's temperament.

"As expected..." Chen Yuan muttered to himself.

The moment the sapling's roots took hold in the paddy field soil, a flood of information rushed into my mind:

[Large-scale mutated spiritual plants detected]

Number of extractable terms: 37

[Entry Quality: Low-level (32), Mid-level (5)]

[Warning: Extracting too much at once may trigger a surge of spiritual energy.]

Thirty-seven entries.

Chen Yuan's hands were shaking slightly.

He took a deep breath and reached out to press down on the nearest rice stalk.

A thought crossed my mind.

The phrase "[Highly Efficient Yield]" transformed into a pale golden light and entered my palm, adding a golden leaf to my consciousness. Then came the second, the third…

When I extracted the tenth one, my lower abdomen started to feel swollen and painful.

By the twentieth time, the meridians felt like they were about to burst.

But he didn't stop.

One plant after another, one field after another.

By the time the sun reached the treetops, all eight acres of land had been visited.

Chen Yuan slumped on the edge of the field, drenched in sweat, his face as pale as paper. Around the sapling in his mind's eye, thirty-seven leaves of various colors floated—pale gold, dark red, tender green, grayish-white…

"Kid, are you alright?" Old Wu came over and handed him a water bottle.

Chen Yuan took the water and drank a few mouthfuls. The cold water went down his throat, and he felt a little more alive.

"I'm fine," he said, panting. "It's just... I feel a little full."

Old Wu stared at him for a long time: "You don't look like you're alright."

"I'm really fine." Chen Yuan propped himself up and stood up, his legs still trembling. "Uncle Wu, can you help me?"

"explain."

"Go to the market and spread the word that Chen Yuan from the western shantytown paid his taxes today and his harvest... broke records."

Old Wu frowned deeply: "Are you crazy? Making such a scene at a time like this?"

"It's not ostentation." Chen Yuan looked towards the distant mountainside, where the outline of the Flying Feather Sect's outer gate was faintly visible in the morning mist. "It's fishing."

"Who are you fishing for?"

"Anyone who wants to take the bait."

Old Wu was silent for a moment, then nodded: "Okay. But I'm warning you, the fish is too big, be careful not to break the rod."

"If the pole breaks, use the net," Chen Yuan said. "If the net tears, use your hands."

Old Wu is gone.

Chen Yuan sat on the edge of the field and began to organize the entries in his mind.

Thirty-seven, divided into four categories:

Yield-increasing category (12 items): From "minor yield increase" to "high yield increase", it can increase the yield per mu by 10% to 30%.

Growth category (10): "Rapid maturation", "Developed root system", "Enhanced disease resistance"...

Quality category (8 items): "Rich in spiritual energy", "Optimized taste", "Easy to store"...

Special category (7 items): The most precious and the strangest.

【Blood Resonance】(Exclusive): Can only be used by Blood Ginseng Symbiotes. It can briefly stimulate the potential of spiritual plants, but at the cost of consuming essence blood.

【Slightly Resilient】: Enhances the plant's resistance to lodging.

[Environmental Adaptation]: To enable spiritual plants to survive in harsh environments.

【Micro-regeneration】: Damaged spiritual plants can slowly repair themselves.

There are three more that Chen Yuan doesn't understand:

[Definition of Residual] (Fragments): Origin unknown, effect unknown.

[Law Affinity] (Weak): Has some adaptability to environments with disordered laws.

【Cross-boundary resonance】(extremely small amount): generating a faint connection with an unknown entity.

"Defining residue... Law affinity... Cross-boundary resonance..." Chen Yuan murmured repeatedly.

The colors of these three entries are also strange—they are not gold, silver, green, or red; they are semi-transparent, like they are covered with a layer of fog, and looking at them for too long can make you dizzy.

He temporarily set aside those issues and focused his attention on terms related to increasing production and growth.

If all twelve yield-increasing terms were used on one acre of land, the yield per acre would at least double.

In addition, it matures quickly and has a well-developed root system...

"That's enough to eat," Chen Yuan breathed a sigh of relief. "Not only is it enough to eat, but we can also sell it."

He stood up and looked at the field.

The dark golden rice ears swayed in the morning breeze, heavy and undulating like a frozen wave.

The distant hum of a flying boat could be heard.