Spirit Plant Entry: Immortality Begins with Farming

Hong Gu watched this scene unfold.

She stood on the edge of the battlefield, covered in blood, her spiritual power depleted. The Soul-Capturing Bell on her wrist was cracked from overuse, and the vengeful spirits inside were wailing, struggling, and urging her to escape.

But she didn't run away.

She simply stood there, watching Xuan Gu close his eyes and await death, watching Gu Yi Yin Jiu pounce on him, and watching Jing Ling's pale figure stand by the well like a merciless judge.

Many images flashed through my mind.

The mother's hand stroking her cheek.

The rough calluses on my older brother's palms.

My little sister's canine tooth.

The father tapping his pipe.

And then there was… that person. The one she once loved. His last glance at her before he died wasn't out of hatred, but out of pity.

"You've chosen this path," the man said. "Don't regret it."

She didn't understand at the time.

Now I understand.

Once you've made a choice, don't regret it. Because regret is useless. A sin is a sin, and it won't become a "good deed out of necessity" just because it's "unavoidable." Blood is blood, and it won't fade into clear water with the passage of time.

She looked down at the Soul-Capturing Bell on her wrist.

Seven bells, seven vengeful spirits, seven loved ones.

She gently stroked the bell, her fingertips feeling its cool touch.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, addressing both the bell and herself. "I'm really... sorry."

Then she made a crazy decision.

It's not about escaping.

She bit her tongue, and this time, instead of spitting out blood, she bit off her entire tongue!

The excruciating pain made her vision go black, but she ignored it and poured her severed tongue, along with her blood essence, fragments of her soul, and all her life's cultivation, into the Soul-Capturing Bell!

The bell trembled violently, cracks spread, and it emitted a mournful wail, unable to bear the weight.

"Blood Soul Pearl..." she roared, her voice muffled by her severed tongue, "Explode!!!"

Her natal magical artifact, the "Blood Soul Pearl," emerged from her dantian.

It was a bead the size of a fist, entirely crimson, with a blood-red glow flowing across its surface. Sealed within it were her century-long cultivation, half of her divine soul, and... the vengeful spirits of her seven closest relatives.

The bead began to expand.

Fine cracks appeared on the surface, and a dazzling red light shone through the cracks.

A destructive, chaotic energy, mixed with blood, soul power, and demonic energy, surged from the crack, distorting the surrounding space.

Jing Ling raised her head for the first time.

It looked at Hong Gu, and a very faint emotion resembling "surprise" flashed in its dark eyes.

Then it raised its hand and pointed at Hong Gu.

But it's too late.

"boom--!!!"

The Nascent Soul level magical artifact self-destructed.

What exploded was not fire, but blood.

The crimson, viscous blood-red light, seemingly capable of devouring all light, instantly filled the entire valley.

A hundred-foot-deep pit opened up beneath their feet, and everything—soil, rocks, and withered trees—was swallowed, torn apart, and annihilated by the bloody light.

A chaotic energy storm raged, and demonic energy, blood energy, and soul power intertwined into a violent vortex that obscured all visual and auditory perception.

Hong Gu was at the epicenter of the explosion.

She could feel her body disintegrating—her skin melting, her flesh evaporating, her bones shattering. She could feel her soul burning, like a lit candle rapidly shortening.

Is it extremely painful?

Of course it hurts.

But strangely, amidst the excruciating pain, she felt an unprecedented...relief.

In the last instant before her consciousness completely dissipated, she saw seven blurry figures emerge from the bloody light of the explosion.

It was her parents, brothers, sisters, and...that person.

They looked at her with no resentment or anger on their faces, only a deep, profound tenderness she had never seen before.

Her mother reached out and patted her head, just like she did when she was a child.

"Go to sleep if you're tired," her mother said softly. "This time... I'll stay with you."

Hong Gu smiled.

With the last bit of strength, I tugged at the corner of my mouth.

Then close your eyes.

His body was completely annihilated in the bloody light, leaving not even a trace of ashes.

But the last seven figures she saw reached out illusory hands and gently held up her dissipating soul fragments, carrying them away in the aftershocks of the explosion.

There is no reincarnation. There is no afterlife. Not even a remnant soul remains.

But Hong Gu didn't care.

This was her own choice.

Pay back the sins owed, sins that can never be repaid, with the most tragic death.

She won back the tenderness in the eyes of her seven closest relatives as they looked at her one last time.

He regained the courage to finally confront his sins and choose to bear the consequences before he completely disappeared.

This is enough.

---

The aftershocks of the explosion lingered for a long time.

Blood, demonic energy, and soul power mingled into a thick fog that enveloped the valley and blocked out the sunlight.

The air was filled with the smell of burnt blood and something deeper, like the slightly astringent smell of a soul being burned.

The fog gradually thinned after a long time.

The view of the valley floor being revealed.

The hundred-foot-deep pit resembled a hideous wound on the earth.

The bottom of the pit was filled with molten, glassy rocks that were still emitting wisps of blue smoke.

The soil at the edge of the pit was burned to a dark red by the high temperature.

Xuan Gu was still kneeling, but he no longer had the strength to even kneel. He lay on his side on the ground, his black robe tattered, his body covered in blood, his chest rising and falling slightly, and with each breath, blood foam spilled from the corner of his mouth.

The bone-winged Yin Jiu hung above the deep pit.

The pair of white bone wings that blotted out the sky slowly flapped, stirring up a faint airflow.

His dark-rimmed eyes "looked" downwards—not at Xuan Gu, nor at Jing Ling, but just blankly and aimlessly.

Jing Ling's pale figure, standing by the well, resembled a ghostly shadow that might vanish at any moment in the thin mist.

It looked down at the deep pit.

Look towards the place where Hong Gu vanished.

Looked for a long time.

Then it whispered:

"madness."

"But...it's rare."

It raised its head, its gaze sweeping over Xuan Gu and then over Yin Jiu.

"One who was willing to bear a hundred years of sins and imprison himself in the prison of his own heart in order to protect his junior brother."

"A puppet who willingly cultivates the path of the ghost and transforms into a demon body to live out his obsession for his deceased wife."

"One who is willing to perish both body and soul to atone for his sins, not even wanting the chance of reincarnation."

It paused, and for the first time, a very faint hint of emotion, a kind of "reflection," appeared in its voice:

"Deeply fixated on his beliefs, resilient in will, and of decent character."

"Not bad, suitable... as 'firewood' for guarding the well."

It raised its hand.

The opening of the Well of Rebirth began to widen.

It is not an expansion in the physical sense.

It's a distortion at the spatial level—the edge of the wellhead ripples like water, spreading out in concentric circles, its diameter expanding from three feet to thirty feet, thirty feet, three hundred feet…

A sound came from the well.

It wasn't the sound of water.

It was the sound of chains being dragged. The clanging and rattling came from the deepest depths, growing louder and closer.

Then the chain extends out of the well.

It wasn't an ordinary chain. It was a chain with a jet-black surface covered in intricate runes. At the end of each link of the chain were not grappling hooks or loops, but rather "mouths."

A pale, lipless mouth covered with fine, sharp teeth.

Those mouths opened and closed, emitting silent hisses.

The chains snaked out and lunged at Xuan Gu and Yin Jiu.

Xuan Gu did not resist.

He didn't even open his eyes.

He simply lay there, letting the chains wrap around his arms, legs, and neck.

He could feel the coldness of the chains, the stinging pain of the "mouths" biting into his flesh, and the sensation of being dragged toward the well.

But he felt completely calm.

My junior brother's obsession has been broken.

Hong Gu has redeemed herself from her sins.

He himself... should rest too.

He's been too tired for the past two hundred years. So tired that he can't even bring himself to hate anymore. So tired that even living feels like a burden.

It's fine as it is now.

The chains dragged him across the bluestone, across the mud, towards the bottomless well.

In the last moment before he was dragged into the well, he opened his eyes and looked at Yin Jiu in mid-air.

Bone Wing Yin Jiu was also entangled in chains.

The black chains wrapped around his bony wings, his body, and his neck. He hung there like a moth caught in a spider's web.

But strangely, Xuan Gu saw two lines of bloody tears suddenly flow from his junior brother's dark, empty eye sockets.

Something was shimmering in those tears of blood.

It wasn't light. It was something... fainter but more resilient.

Xuan Gu looked at the two lines of bloody tears.

Looked for a long time.

Then he laughed.

With her last ounce of strength, she managed to force a smile and silently spoke a sentence to her junior brother in mid-air:

"I'm not afraid."

"Senior brother is here."

The chains tightened suddenly, dragging him completely into the well.

Darkness swallowed everything.

Xuan Gu's last sensation was that his body was falling.

He closed his eyes.

It sinks into a deep sleep in its eternal fall.

---

Beside the well.

Bone Wing Yin Jiu was also dragged into the well.

In the last instant before being swallowed by darkness, the blood and tears in his dark eyes finally dried up.

As the last drop of blood fell, his lips moved, uttering two silent syllables:

"division……"

"Brother..."

Then darkness engulfed him.

Jingling stood by the well, looking down at the closed well opening.

It reached out its pale fingers and brushed them across the dark green moss on the well's edge, a gesture as gentle as caressing a lover's cheek.

"The firewood has been added," it murmured, as if talking to itself or something deep at the bottom of the well. "It can burn... for a long time."

Then it leaped into the well.

The figure disappeared into the darkness without splashing a single drop of water.

The wellhead is closed.

The marks on the bluestone disappeared again, and the moss regrowed at a visible speed, covering all traces.

The soil at the edge of the pit began to wriggle and heal.

The wind blew from the top of the cliff, swirling up a few withered leaves that fell silently into the soil.

The valley returned to its deathly silence.

Hundred miles away.

The outer sect medicine garden of the Flying Feather Sect.

Su Wanqing had just planted half of the blood ginseng into the specially made soul-nourishing soil and was about to water it with the Spirit Rain Technique when she suddenly stopped.

She suddenly looked up and gazed southeast.

There, the sky darkened for a moment.

Although it was only for a moment, she sensed it—a vast, ancient, and ominous aura emanating from the depths of the Qingyang Mountains, which then quickly vanished.

It looks like something...

After eating, I let out a burp.

She looked down at the newly planted blood ginseng.

The golden-red veins on the ginseng leaves are slightly warm.

Even more bizarrely—

A tiny crack appeared out of nowhere on the ginseng head.

A little dark golden liquid seeped out from the crack.

The taste of that juice...

It looks just like Soul Source.