Spirit Plant Entry: Immortality Begins with Farming

Su Wanqing's hoe stopped in mid-air.

She stared at the half-cut blood ginseng in the soul-nourishing soil, at the tender golden bud on its tip, for three breaths. Then she put down her hoe and turned to look at Chen Yuan standing outside the garden.

"What did you do last night?"

Chen Yuan's right sleeve was rolled up, and the earth vein mark was already purplish-black and shiny, with the bloodstains seeping from the edges dried into brown scabs.

His face was still pale, but his eyes were bright.

"I didn't do anything," he said. "I just... stayed with it for a while."

"Accompany me?" Su Wanqing approached, her gaze landing on his arm. "Accompany me with your ley line mark?"

Chen Yuan did not deny it.

Su Wanqing grabbed his wrist. The moment her fingertips touched the mark, her brows furrowed: "The backlash from the earth's veins has worsened. You forcibly extracted the earth's vein energy—although only a trace, its nature has changed. Before, it was yin energy erosion; now it's blood energy pollution. This mark is ruined."

"What does 'crippled' mean?"

"That means it's no longer a simple 'channel,' but has become a 'wound.'" Su Wanqing released her grip. "The blood-polluted ley line mark will continue to drain your blood until your blood and qi are exhausted, or... the mark completely rots away, peeling off skin and flesh."

Chen Yuan looked down at his arm.

The purplish-black lines seemed to come alive, pulsating slightly beneath the skin.

With each pulse, a needle-like stinging pain would come, accompanied by a subtle, sweet-smelling warm current—his own blood, drawn away by the mark and seeping back into his veins.

"How long?" he asked.

"It depends on your Qi and blood reserves." Su Wanqing turned and walked back to the herb garden. "With your foundation at the fifth level of Qi Refining, you'll have at most three months. After three months, either you'll break through to the late stage of Qi Refining, greatly increasing your Qi and blood reserves and being able to suppress the mark; or the mark will fester, and you'll lose an arm."

She crouched down and carefully poked at the new sprout with a silver needle: "As for this ginseng... the sprout is fake."

Chen Yuan suddenly looked up.

"It's not a real bud, but a 'phantom bud' nurtured by blood energy." Su Wanqing flicked her silver needle, and a tender golden bud detached from the ginseng head, landing in her palm. The moment it left the body, the bud quickly withered, turned black, and turned into a clump of ashes. "You forcibly stimulated it with your blood energy; it's just a brief respite. Once your blood energy is exhausted, it will wither even faster."

Chen Yuan stood there, watching the clump of ashes being blown away by the wind.

The stinging sensation in my arm persisted.

"So..." his voice was hoarse, "it's completely useless?"

"Yes." Su Wanqing stood up. "It proves that your blood energy can indeed stimulate this half-ginseng. Although it was only a fleeting moment, it shows that the 'symbiosis' of fateful grafting is still there. If you are strong, it can catch its breath; if you are weak, it dies along with you."

She walked up to Chen Yuan, staring into his eyes: "But this shouldn't be your path. Spirit plant masters cultivate spirit plants through knowledge, skills, and guiding nature—not by feeding them with their own blood."

"And what if," Chen Yuan said slowly, "what if I didn't want to be a spirit plant master, and just wanted to save it?"

Su Wanqing remained silent.

The morning light shone through the light barrier of the medicine valley, elongating the shadows of the two people.

In the distance, one could hear the sounds of disciples watering plants, the muffled thud of hoes breaking the soil, and birdsong.

"Then don't stay in Medicine Valley." Su Wanqing turned around, her voice indifferent. "Medicine Valley teaches 'the Way,' not 'emotion.' If you want to fight, go somewhere else. Don't dirty my land."

she left.

Chen Yuan stood alone by the Soul-Nourishing Soil Garden, looking down at the half-cut ginseng.

The cracks on the ginseng head are still there, the amber tears of dark golden sap are still there, and the four withered leaves are still there.

There was a tiny dent, like a punctured scar, where the new shoot had just grown.

He reached out, his fingertips hovering above the ginseng head, but didn't touch it.

The mark on my arm suddenly burned intensely.

It wasn't a stinging pain, it was a burning sensation—like fire bursting from the mark, burning up his arm to his shoulder, and then to his heart. Chen Yuan groaned, kneeling on one knee, his left hand gripping his right arm tightly.

My vision began to blur.

He saw the blood ginseng in the soul-nourishing soil, and the amber tears on the ginseng head... were glowing.

The light was a faint, dark golden color, but it was definitely shining.

At the same time, he felt his heart beating in sync with some distant, deep throbbing...

thump.

thump.

thump.

With each strike, the arm mark burned a little more, and the glow of the blood ginseng brightened a bit more.

"Chen Yuan!"

Someone called his name. The voice sounded distant, as if through a layer of water.

It was Zhou Ming. The boy ran over and saw Chen Yuan kneeling on the ground, his right arm gleaming with a purplish-black sheen. He was so frightened that his voice changed: "Senior Brother Chen! What happened to you—"

"Don't touch me!" Chen Yuan growled.

Zhou Ming stood frozen in place.

Chen Yuan gritted his teeth, using the last bit of clarity to sense where the synchronized pulse came from.

It's not the heart.

It's underground.

It is a pulse coming from a very distant and deep place deep within the earth's veins.

That pulse carried the energy of blood, the chill of darkness, and a certain ancient, resentful...call.

Well of rebirth.

It is the yin form of the Blood Ginseng. It is in the well, hundreds of miles away, separated by the earth's layers, separated by the sect's grand formation... calling for the yang form.

They are also calling for him.

Because of the destiny that brought them together, his soul and the blood ginseng's soul were now bound together.

The Yin body is calling out to the Yang body, and also calling out to him, the "host".

Chen Yuan suddenly opened his eyes.

The blood ginseng in the soul-nourishing soil had all eight leaves wither at the same time—not slowly, but instantly losing water, curling, and turning black, as if it had been burned.

But new sap seeped out from the crack in the ginseng head.

It's not dark gold.

It is bright red.

Blood-red.

The juice slid down the ginseng head and dripped onto the soul-nourishing soil. White smoke hissed up from the soil surface, as if it were being corroded.

"What... what is this..." Zhou Ming's voice trembled.

Chen Yuan didn't know.

But he could feel that the burning sensation of the mark on his arm lessened slightly the moment that drop of bright red juice seeped out.

It was as if... the blood ginseng was sharing his pain.

Or rather, he was sharing the pain of the blood ginseng.

Symbiosis.

True symbiosis.

It's not charity, it's not feeding; it's sharing life, sharing harm, and sharing death.

Chen Yuan pushed himself up and staggered to the edge of the garden. He reached out—this time, he didn't hover, but pressed his hand directly onto the blood ginseng.

The moment my palm touched the ginseng head, bright red juice smeared onto my skin.

Scalding hot.

Like molten iron.

Chen Yuan gritted his teeth and didn't let go. He felt the drop of juice seep into his skin, flow along his meridians to his arm, and then to the earth vein mark.

The purplish-black color of the mark has faded slightly.

And the bottommost leaf of the withered blood ginseng quietly fell off.

It fell to the ground and turned into ashes.

But a drop of bright red juice seeped out from the crack in the ginseng head.

"Senior Brother Chen! Your hand!" Zhou Ming exclaimed.

Chen Yuan lowered his head.

On the palm of my right hand, where the blood ginseng touched, the skin began to change color—from normal skin tone to dark red, and then to the same purplish-black as the earth vein mark. The lines spread from the palm, like tree roots branching out, climbing towards the five fingers.

He tried to pull his hand away, but it felt like it was stuck to the ginseng root.

No, it's not long.

It is... fusion.

The skin on my palm is melting, and the ginseng juice is seeping in. The boundary between the two is blurred, and flesh and plant fibers intertwine, as if they were originally one.

"Teacher Su! Teacher Su!" Zhou Ming turned to run.

"Stop," Chen Yuan said hoarsely. "Don't call her."

"But--"

"I said, don't call her."

Zhou Ming froze.

Chen Yuan looked at his palm, which was gradually changing color, and watched the blood ginseng slowly "swallow" his palm. Suddenly, he smiled.

His smile looked worse than his tears.

"So that's how it is..." he murmured, "The grafting of destiny... it's not that I made the ginseng mine, it's that I... made myself a part of the ginseng."

As soon as he finished speaking, a clear, piercing pain shot through his palm, as if the roots of his body were burrowing into his flesh.

It's not a hallucination.

From the broken end of the blood ginseng, several extremely fine, dark red roots emerged—not real roots, but "virtual roots" formed from the condensation of blood and soul. They burrowed into Chen Yuan's palm and grew upwards along the meridians.

With each inch it grew, Chen Yuan felt his perception of the blood ginseng become clearer.

He "saw" the soil structure beneath the Soul-Nourishing Soil, "smelled" the spiritual energy within the soil, and "heard" the distant pulse deep within the earth's veins.

They also "tasted"... the "hunger" of the blood ginseng.

That's not a hunger for water or fertilizer.

It is a hunger for "completeness".

The yin body is in the Well of Rebirth, while the yang body is here. The pain of their souls being torn apart is like a wound that can never heal, bleeding every moment.

Chen Yuan closed his eyes.

He stopped resisting.

Let the fibrous roots grow freely, let the blood and qi permeate, and let your palm completely merge with the blood ginseng.

The fusion stopped after ten breaths.

Chen Yuan opened his eyes and raised his right hand.

His palm was still his palm, and his fingers were still his fingers, but his skin had turned dark red, with a texture like tree bark. He could vaguely see dark golden veins flowing beneath the skin—that was the juice of the blood ginseng, which was also his blood.

The blood ginseng in the soul-nourishing soil no longer oozes juice from the cracks in its head. The amber tear is still there, but its color has faded.

All eight leaves withered and fell off, leaving only a bare ginseng head and half a stem.

But it "came to life".

It is not life in the sense of plants, but "completeness" in the sense of the soul.

Although the Yin body is still a hundred miles away, and although it is still incomplete, its soul has been temporarily stabilized through Chen Yuan as a "bridge".

It will never wither again.

It won't grow any longer.

It will remain in this state forever—half-dead, half-human, half-ginseng, coexisting with Chen Yuan until one of them dies.

Chen Yuan withdrew his hand and clenched his fist.

The bark on my palm felt rough, but my grip strength remained the same.

Dark golden veins flowed beneath the skin, bringing a strange, pure blood energy that flowed into the dantian along the meridians.

His cultivation level... increased slightly.

Although the increase was negligible, it did rise.

"Senior Brother Chen..." Zhou Ming's voice trembled, "Your hand..."

"It's nothing." Chen Yuan lowered his sleeve, covering his discolored palm. "It's just... completely bound together."

He turned to leave, then stopped and looked back at Zhou Ming.

"Don't tell anyone about what happened today."

Zhou Ming nodded vigorously.

As Chen Yuan walked out of the herb garden, the stinging pain in his right arm had completely disappeared. In its place was a warm, slowly flowing sensation, like an extra vein in his body.

He raised his hand and looked at it in the sunlight.

Beneath the cuffs, along the edges of the dark red skin, one could vaguely see the purplish-black patterns of the earth vein markings—the two intertwined, like the roots of two trees entwined together.

I can't tell which part is the ginseng and which part is him.

Perhaps, they shouldn't have separated in the first place.

He recalled Su Wanqing's words: "If you want to fight desperately, go fight somewhere else."

Now, he's giving it his all.

I'd trade an arm for the peace of half a ginseng's soul.

Is it worth it?

he does not know.

But he knew that the moment the blood ginseng's ethereal root pierced his flesh, as the tearing pain at the soul level lessened, the blood ginseng emitted a faint, almost imperceptible...

gratitude.

But it was enough for him to feel that it was worth it.

---

At noon, in the side hall of the Deacon Hall.

Wang Mo put down his teacup and looked at Chen Yuan standing below: "I heard that yesterday in the herb garden, in order to save that half-blood ginseng, you forcibly extracted the earth's vein energy, causing the earth's vein imprint to worsen?"

Chen Yuan lowered his head: "Yes."

"Nonsense." Wang Mo's voice was calm, but tinged with coldness. "The earth veins are the foundation of the sect. How dare you extract them at will? Moreover, the blood energy contamination mark—do you know that this violates the ninth prohibition of the sect, 'Unauthorized alteration of the earth vein attributes'?"

"This disciple knows his mistake."

"You admit you're wrong?" Wang Mo smiled. "Chen Yuan, you don't just admit you're wrong, you knowingly commit a crime. Su Wanqing is protecting you, and Elder Liu from the alchemy room has high hopes for you, but you think you can cross the line?"

He stood up and walked to Chen Yuan: "But rules are rules. The blood and qi pollution of the ley lines must be removed—otherwise, the pollution will spread and affect the ley lines of the entire Medicine Valley."

Chen Yuan looked up: "How do I remove it?"

"Two methods." Wang Mo held up two fingers. "First, I will ask the elders of the Array Court to forcibly remove the mark from your arm—but during the removal process, 70% of the meridians in your arm will be destroyed, making it difficult to make any progress in your future cultivation."

"And the second one?"

"Secondly," Wang Mo stared into his eyes, "you go to the forbidden area in the back mountain and meditate for three days beside that blood-refining vein, using pure vein blood energy to 'wash away' the pollution. But the forbidden area is dangerous, the vein is violent, and with your Qi Refining Level 5 cultivation, it's easy to go in, but coming out... is hard to say."

Chen Yuan remained silent.

"Choose," Wang Mo said, sitting back in the main seat. "Is it losing an arm, or gambling with your life?"

The hall was quiet.

Birds flew past the window, their shadows sweeping across the ground.

Chen Yuan slowly raised his right hand and rolled up his sleeve.

Arms tinged with dark red and purplish-black were exposed to the sunlight.

Wang Mo's pupils contracted slightly.

"Senior brother," Chen Yuan spoke calmly, "this mark of mine... has already fused with the blood ginseng. Removing the mark is equivalent to removing the blood ginseng. And the blood ginseng was saved for me by Master Su—shouldn't you ask Master Su first before you touch it?"

Wang Mo's face darkened.

"As for the forbidden area in the back mountain," Chen Yuan lowered his sleeves, "this disciple is willing to go. But not to wash away the pollution—it's for cultivation."

He looked up at Wang Mo: "Since this mark has become a channel for blood energy, instead of forcibly removing it, it's better to refine it completely. Refining the earth's veins with blood in the forbidden area will be a good help to me."

Wang Mo stared at him for a long time.

Then he smiled.

"Good," he said. "You've got guts. In three days, I'll arrange for you to enter the forbidden area. But let me make this clear—late-stage Qi Refining cultivators and early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators have died there. Once you go in, you're on your own."

"Disciple understands."

Chen Yuan bowed and left the side hall.

Wang Mo watched his figure disappear outside the door, picked up his teacup, and took a sip.

The tea has gone cold.

He muttered to himself, "Su Wanqing, the kid you picked up... he really isn't afraid of death."

Outside the window, dark clouds obscured the sun.

It is going to rain.