Spirit Plant Entry: Immortality Begins with Farming

This time, Chen Yuan recognized the voice—it was Yin Jiu.

His pace was slow and steady, each step firm and measured, as if he were surveying the land.

He quickly stuffed the Demon Transformation Pill and the Soul-Capturing Bell into his pocket, and just as he sat back down on the small stool in front of the Blood Ginseng, a figure in black robes appeared at the door.

Yin Jiu stood there, not immediately entering. His grayish-white pupils swept across the thatched hut, lingering for a moment on the table. There, a dark red powder, picked up from a Demon Transformation Pill that had rolled off, reflected faintly in the dim light.

"She came." This is not a question, but a statement.

Chen Yuan didn't look up, continuing to stare at the curled leaf of the blood ginseng: "Who?"

"Wearing a red dress, a beauty mark at the corner of her eye, and a purple scale belt around her waist." Yin Jiu walked in, the hem of her black robe brushing against the threshold, bringing in a chilling wind. "Hong Luan of the Blood Fiend Sect, the famous 'Blood Puppet Master' of the Eastern Wilderness. Did she give you the Demon-Transforming Pill, saying it could neutralize the impurities in the Blood Ginseng?"

Chen Yuan remained silent.

Yin Jiu squatted down to check the condition of the blood ginseng.

Seeing the leaf whose black spots had been partially removed by the Demon Transformation Pill, he let out a short, cold laugh: "The Demon Transformation Pill can indeed dispel impurities, but in doing so, it will refine demonic energy into the ginseng. After seven days, your Blood Ginseng will no longer be a ghost-path spiritual plant, but a demon-path spiritual plant. At that time, what she takes away will not be thirty percent of the essence, but control over the entire ginseng."

He stood up, his black robe appearing as a solidified shadow in the dim light.

"Did she also give you a string of bells?"

Chen Yuan's heart tightened, and his hand unconsciously pressed on the bell in his arms.

"The Soul-Capturing Bell, a magical artifact used by the Blood Fiend Sect to control corpses." Yin Jiu stretched out his hand, which was as white as a dead person's, with bluish nails. "Hand it over. You mustn't touch that thing. If you touch it for too long, your soul will be slowly gnawed away by the vengeful spirits inside the bell. It will gnaw away a little bit every day, and by the time you realize it, half of your three souls and seven spirits will be gone."

Chen Yuan didn't move.

"You don't believe me?" Yin Jiu narrowed his eyes, his gray pupils shrinking into two tiny dots in the dim light.

"Whom should I believe?" Chen Yuan looked up at him, his voice calm, but his hands clenched into fists inside his sleeves. "Should I believe that the Yellow Spring Soil can save my essence and blood, but not that it will damage my soul? Should I believe that the Demon Transformation Pill can resolve impurities, but not that it will ingest demonic energy? Or should I believe myself, a mere Qi Refining Level 3 cultivator who knows nothing but farming?"

Yin Jiu was stunned.

His body beneath the black robe seemed to stiffen for a moment. After a long while, he sighed, a long sigh carrying an emotion that Chen Yuan couldn't understand.

"You're right," Yin Jiu said in a low voice. "Neither of us had good intentions. The only difference is that I wanted the 'soul source' nurtured within the blood ginseng, while she wanted the blood ginseng itself."

He took out a jet-black jade pendant from his pocket and placed it on the table.

The jade pendant was about half the size of a palm, entirely black, with only a small swirling pattern in the center. Chen Yuan stared intently at it; the swirling pattern seemed to be slowly rotating, and looking at it for too long would make one feel dizzy.

"This is the 'Soul-Suppressing Pendant,' which I brought from the Yellow Springs Gate back then," Yin Jiu said. "If you carry it with you, it can block one soul attack. If Hong Luan tries to forcibly take it and crush the pendant, I can sense it."

"What's the price?" Chen Yuan asked.

"No price." Yin Jiu shook his head, his face blurred in the dim light beneath his black robe. "Consider it... something I owe you. I didn't tell you everything about the Yellow Spring Soil."

He turned to leave, but the man in black robes paused at the doorway.

"There's something else," he said, his voice low as he turned his back to Chen Yuan. "Hongluan isn't alone in the Southern Frontier. The Blood Fiend Sect is currently searching for something, supposedly the 'Blood God Pearl' left behind by an ancient demonic cultivator. That thing requires a large amount of living beings' essence blood to activate, and the recent disappearances in several villages in the Southern Frontier might be related to them."

Chen Yuan's heart skipped a beat, and he abruptly stood up: "You mean...?"

"I'm just reminding you," Yin Jiu interrupted him without turning around, "The actions of demonic cultivators are sometimes even more ruthless than those of ghost cultivators. To achieve their goals, slaughtering entire villages and towns is nothing to them. Your shantytown of over three hundred people is just over three hundred 'materials' in their eyes."

With a flick of his black robe, he disappeared into the night.

The thatched hut fell silent again.

The oil lamp flame still flickered, casting erratic shadows on the wall. Chen Yuan stood there, looking at the three items on the table:

On the left is a dark red jade box containing seven Demon Transformation Pills.

In the middle, there is a string of dark purple bells, one of which is still trembling slightly.

On the right, the pitch-black Soul-Suppressing Pendant, its swirling patterns seemed to come alive as they slowly rotated in the dim light.

The three items came from two people who both wanted to scheme against him.

It also comes from two people... who may both be telling part of the truth.

Chen Yuan took a deep breath and picked up the Soul-Suppressing Pendant. It was icy cold to the touch, the coldness seeping straight into his bones. Staring at the swirling pattern in the center of the pendant for too long made him feel as if something was gently tugging at his soul.

Within the sea of ​​consciousness, the seedling of the word tree reacted calmly to the jade pendant—neither rejecting nor yearning for it, treating it like an ordinary stone.

He put down the jade pendant, picked up the jade box, opened it, and took out a Demon-Transforming Pill.

The moment the pill was obtained, the sapling immediately felt a strong sense of disgust. Its roots twisted in the gray mist, as if they had been scalded.

Finally, there was the Soul-Capturing Bell. He carefully avoided the bell, only holding the thin silver chain holding the bells as he lifted it.

The bell jingled but didn't ring, but the sapling trembled violently, the kind of instinctive alertness one feels when encountering a predator.

Chen Yuan put down all his things and squatted down in front of the blood ginseng.

The three drops of essence blood on the fourth day had been used to feed the blood ginseng, and the black spots on the ginseng had faded by more than half, but the edges of the leaves began to turn dark red—that was the medicinal power of the Demon Transformation Pill seeping in.

He bit his fingertip and squeezed out a fifth drop of blood.

Blood beads gathered at the fingertips, deep red and full.

This time, he didn't let the blood drip directly into the soil. Instead, he dripped it onto the palm of his left hand, then closed his eyes and activated the [Evil Devouring] ability of the sapling.

Blood beads rolled in his palm.

A wisp of extremely thin black energy was extracted from the blood, as if drawn away by some invisible force, floated up, and was then surrounded, wrapped, and devoured by the roots of the sapling in the sea of ​​consciousness.

The entire process lasted three breaths.

Three breaths later, the blood droplet lightened in color, changing from dark red to bright red, like freshly flowed blood that hadn't yet congealed.

Chen Yuan dripped the purified blood onto the ginseng root.

The moment the blood seeped in, the blood ginseng trembled slightly, the dark red on the leaves faded a little, and the golden veins brightened a bit.

effective.

But it's too slow.

At this rate, it definitely won't be purified in seven days.

However, Hong Gu only gave seven Demon Transformation Pills, and there were issues with Yin Jiu's "Soul Source" and Hong Gu's "Demon Qi Refining"...

Chen Yuan stared at the blood ginseng, his mind racing with a jumble of thoughts.

unless……

He looked at the box of Demon Transformation Pills.

Unless you use the "dissolving" ability of the Demon-Transforming Pill to first strip away a large amount of impurities, and then use [Evil Devouring] to slowly purify the residue.

unless……

He looked at the Soul-Capturing Bell.

Unless the vengeful spirits within the bell are used as bait to lure out the most stubborn core of evil thoughts deep within the blood ginseng—those "soul sources" that Yin Jiu wants to take away.

unless……

He looked at the Soul-Suppressing Pendant.

Unless you use a jade pendant to protect your soul and prevent it from being backfired on or devoured by vengeful spirits during the purification process.

Three dangerous things. Three traps that could cancel each other out.

Chen Yuan smiled.

He was laughing so hard he was almost maniacal, his mouth stretched wide, but there was no smile in his eyes.

"Yin Jiu, Hong Luan," he whispered, his voice unusually clear in the empty thatched hut, "you both want to use me as a pawn."

"They all want to use my life to nourish your ginseng."

He stood up, walked to the table, grabbed the jade box, poured out a Demon Transformation Pill, and crushed it.

Dark red powder leaked through his fingers and sprinkled into the ginseng basin.

The moment the powder touched the soil, a dark red mist rose up, swirling and churning as if it were alive, drilling into the roots of the blood ginseng.

The blood ginseng trembled violently, and the black spots on its leaves faded away frantically, but the dark red color spread even faster—that was demonic energy being refined into it.

Chen Yuan grabbed the Soul-Capturing Bell and shook it vigorously.

The moment the bell rang, the temperature in the thatched hut plummeted. The oil lamp flame shrank to the size of a bean, and the shadows on the wall froze.

With the second sound, countless transparent shadows surged out of the bell—blurred human figures, mutilated limbs, and distorted faces. They roared silently as they pounced on the blood ginseng.

The third sound came from the depths of the blood ginseng, a sharp hiss, as if something was being forcibly dragged out from the deepest part. A ball of pitch-black, constantly twisting mist emerged from the ginseng root, with a tiny, dark golden light, the size of a grain of rice, wrapped in its center.

Yin Jiu needs the "Soul Source".

Hong Gu wanted the "Demonic Core".

They've all been forced to reveal their true colors now.

Chen Yuan crushed the Soul-Suppressing Pendant.

The jade pendant shattered in his palm, leaving no fragments, only a transparent barrier that spread from his palm, instantly protecting his entire body.

The black mist crashed into the barrier, emitting a piercing shriek, which was mixed with the wails, curses, and cries of countless people.

Then the roots of the seedling sapling swarmed up on it.

twine.

pack.

Swallow.

The entire process lasted for ten breaths.

Ten breaths later, the black mist disappeared.

The dark golden light shattered, turning into specks of golden light that were absorbed by the sapling's roots.

The blood ginseng has completely changed.

The black spots on the leaves have completely faded, and the dark red color has also disappeared. The golden veins on the leaves of the entire ginseng plant are as brilliant as molten gold, emitting a faint golden glow in the dim light.

The stems stand tall and straight like blood jade, with a smooth and warm surface, without a trace of other colors.

Within the sea of ​​consciousness, the seedlings of terms grew rapidly.

Having absorbed a massive amount of evil thoughts and soul essence, its roots grew twice as thick and took deep root in the gray mist.

The sapling suddenly grew from the height of a palm to more than a foot, and the third leaf fully unfolded, with the pale golden light flowing in the veins brighter and more vibrant than ever before.

However, this growth carries a sense of "superficiality"—it does not stem from Chen Yuan's own solid breakthrough in cultivation, but rather seems to be the result of being forcibly induced by excessive external nutrients.

New information surfaced in Chen Yuan's mind:

[Successfully purified 'Golden-veined Blood Ginseng']

[The "Evil Devouring" ability has been upgraded to "Evil Devouring (Intermediate)": It can purify intermediate-level Yin evil pollution, and can only be used three times per day.]

[Gain 'Purifying Aura': Passive ability, increases resistance to Yin and evil attribute attacks by 10%]

[Warning: Absorbing excessive fragments of vengeful spirits during the purification process may affect your mental state (current impact level: 3%)]

Chen Yuan collapsed to the ground.

I felt completely exhausted, as if I had just run a hundred miles of mountain road, and even my bones felt tired.

The left palm was marked with deep red marks from the fragments of the Soul-Suppressing Pendant, and the right hand was still trembling slightly from gripping the bell too tightly.

But he had a smile on his face.

A genuine laugh.

He pushed himself up, walked to the blood ginseng, and reached out to touch the leaves.

It is warm, smooth, and as pure and ethereal as a mountain spring.

There was no longer that unsettling smell of blood, coldness, or violence.

"Yin Jiu," Chen Yuan said to the empty thatched hut, "you want the Soul Source? I've purified it."

"Red Phoenix," he said again, "you want blood ginseng? I've purified it."

"Now, this ginseng is clean and pure, and belongs to me."

"Who among you wants...?"

He wiped away a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth, which had spilled out due to the shock to his soul. The blood spread across his fingertips, revealing its bright red color.

"You'll have to pay more."

In the distance, the faint sound of roosters crowing could be heard.

One sound, two sounds, three sounds.

It's almost dawn.

The real game has only just begun.

Chen Yuan blew out the oil lamp and lay back down on the creaking wooden bed.

Before closing his eyes, he glanced at the foot-tall sapling of words in his mind.

The sapling stood quietly in the gray mist, the pale golden light on the third leaf slowly swirling.