Spirit Plant Entry: Immortality Begins with Farming

When Chen Yuan opened his eyes again, the sun was already setting in the west.

He was still sitting by the pile of rubble, his right hand still holding the piece of vine.

But the vine was different—it shrank back to a three-inch-long bud shape, its color fading from dark purple to bluish-green, only now its surface had countless fine, dark gold lines, the direction of which was completely consistent with the veins of the tree-shaped mark on his palm.

Entry view emerges:

[Bloodthirsty Spirit Vine (Contracted)]

[Status: Deep symbiosis, subject to growth laws]

[Ability: Bloodlust Summoning (Beginner)]

[Effect: The host can consume their own essence and spiritual power to summon a spirit vine (or projection) at a designated location within a ten-zhang radius to perform entanglement, piercing, and life-draining attacks. Current summon strength: Qi Refining Level 7 (lasts ten breaths).]

[Limitations: Maximum of three summons per day; each summon consumes essence blood (cannot be replaced by ordinary blood); excessive use may trigger the "Bloodlust" side effect.]

[Growth Potential: Can absorb more flesh essence or wood-attribute rare and precious materials to increase its strength and duration.]

Chen Yuan let go.

The tender bud trembled slightly, its two tips brushing against his fingers like a tamed little animal. The raging network of roots underground lay docilely, echoing the mark on his right arm.

He became.

He transformed an ancient, evil vine into a controllable skill within his body.

But the price was clear—the blood vessels on his right arm had spread to his shoulder, completely merging with the blood ginseng mark and becoming inseparable.

Each time "Summoning with Bloodlust" is used, it consumes one's own essence and blood.

Essence and blood are not ordinary blood and qi; they are the foundation of life. Excessive consumption of these can shorten lifespan and damage the body's foundation.

"Others cultivate immortality using spirit stones," Chen Yuan smirked, the curve more painful than a grimace, "I cultivate immortality by bleeding myself out—wouldn't that make me the first spirit plant master in history to use self-harm as a cultivation technique?"

He stood up, his legs weak—he had lost too much blood and his spiritual energy was almost depleted. But the weight on his heart had been lifted for the time being.

As I approached plot number seventy-three, the Ghost Flower still stood quietly. After pollination, its petals had deepened in color, and the pale light in the center of its stamen had faded, replaced by a tiny, translucent ovary the size of a grain of rice.

The results are in.

The bet still has a chance.

Chen Yuan turned around, preparing to return to his thatched hut to recuperate. After taking only two steps, he suddenly stopped and looked back at the tender sprout on plot number seventy-five.

A thought subtly stirred within me.

A heat emanated from the mark on his right arm, and a wisp of essence blood flowed along his meridians to his fingertips. He raised his right hand and lightly pointed at a rock about half a person's height, three zhang away.

"Bloodlust has brought this."

There was no earth-shattering fanfare.

Only the soil beneath the rock bulged slightly, and the next second, three thumb-thick, dark blue vines burst forth from the ground! The vines were covered with fine blood vessels and dark gold patterns, like serpents coiling around the rock, their tips turning into bone spurs, and with three "plop plop plop" sounds, they pierced deeply into the stone!

The rock surface cracked with spiderweb-like patterns at a visible speed, and its color quickly turned gray—the vines were frantically drawing out the essence of the soil and rocks (though far inferior to flesh and blood, it was still edible).

Three breaths later, the vines retracted into the ground.

The rock shattered into pieces with a "crash," its cut surface dry as if weathered for a hundred years.

Chen Yuan's face paled even more, and a wave of empty pain shot through his right arm. But as he looked at the pile of rubble, a faint, bloody smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"Books can eat people," he said softly, as if telling a joke, "and so can vines. But right now—I'm the one eating the vines."

He paused, looking at the intertwined vine marks on his palm, and lowered his voice: "Cultivating immortality, cultivating immortality, in the end, is it man cultivating immortality, or immortality cultivating man? My own flesh and blood have been cultivated to understand this by these 'external things' first."

The skill was acquired.

Three hours later, the Bloodthirsty Spirit Vine was fully mature. However, the two "Blood Spirit Fruits" that should have triggered a bloodthirsty frenzy ultimately failed to form—all the energy and laws were refined into the "Bloodthirsty Summoning" skill.

Chen Yuan returned to the thatched hut, closed the door, and sat on the edge of the bed to regulate his breathing.

Outside the window, dusk was settling in.

One by one, the lights in Medicine Valley came on, and the distant sounds of disciples returning from their evening lessons drifted over. Everything seemed peaceful and normal.

Only Chen Yuan himself knows that some things have changed forever.

He raised his right hand and looked at the entwined vine mark on his palm, as if he were looking at a contract of servitude.

“Every road has a price,” he said to the empty room, his voice as soft as a sigh. “Some prices are out in the open, some are hidden. I’ve chosen this one—pay now, settle now, it’s quite straightforward.”

Night was falling.

Beneath the pile of rubble at plot number 75, a tender green shoot swayed gently in the moonlight.

On the underside of the leaf, dark gold patterns glowed faintly, like a half-open eye, silently watching the world with which it coexists.

Deep within Chen Yuan's sea of ​​consciousness, the light of that emerald star shone brighter than ever before.

[Growth Laws: Communication with Spiritual Plants (Activated)]

[Current number of deeply symbiotic plants: 1/3]

[Next stage goal: Environmental mimicry (not yet unlocked)]

The road ahead is long.

As the morning light pierced the thin mist above the medicine valley, Chen Yuan pushed open the door of the thatched hut.

The mark on his right arm was still faintly burning, like the aftershocks of last night's frenzied resonance. Reaching the edge of plot number seventy-five, he habitually glanced at the pile of rubble—and then stopped.

The three-inch-long, dark green bud had disappeared.

It wasn't uprooted, it wasn't buried, it was... withered to the extreme, completely turned into dust.

Where the tender shoots once stood, only a small clump of grayish-white powder remained, mixed among the gravel and soil, easily overlooked if one wasn't paying attention.

Chen Yuan squatted down and picked up a bit of powder with his fingertips.

It feels dry to the touch, devoid of any spiritual energy, like burnt incense ash.

Glossary entry overview:

[The remains of the Bloodthirsty Spirit Vine (completely withered)]

[Status: All of the body's energy and laws have been transferred to the "Bloodlust Summoning" skill mark]

[Residue: No active residue, no possibility of regeneration]

[Land Status: Slight blood gas contamination (expected to dissipate naturally in three days)]

really.

Last night, when he refined the spirit vine into a skill within his body, he felt a sense of being "emptied" – not only the energy, but also the very foundation of its existence, was transferred from this land to the mark on his right arm.

Now that the skills are mastered, the vines here have become rootless duckweed, quietly dissipating before dawn.

Chen Yuan clapped his hands, and ashes fell through his fingers.

He looked around the pile of rubble. The stones that had been pushed aside yesterday by the rampant growth of the spirit vines still remained in a disordered state. But the bloodthirsty root network that had once made his heart pound underground was now completely undetectable.

Within a radius of ten zhang, the soil returned to its usual coolness and hardening.

Yeah.

Without this malevolent plant that could potentially turn on you at any moment, plot number 75 was actually clean.

Even if Wang Mo or the court officials came to investigate, they wouldn't find any evidence of "illegally planted or prohibited plants"—the roots that devoured Zhao Kui's flesh and blood last night, along with all traces of growth, had vanished without a trace with the skill transformation.

Chen Yuan stood up, his gaze falling back to the barren, bare soil in the center of the rubble.

Qingyuan vine...

The remains of the seven spirit vines that sacrificed themselves for him are still in the soil. As previously mentioned, they are ancient "spirit vines" with degenerated bloodlines, and if properly cultivated, they may be able to restore some of the characteristics of "living spirit stones".

The rampant growth of the Bloodthirsty Spirit Vine, while exhausting the soil's resources, also dispersed some of the essence from Zhao Kui's flesh and blood into the soil—these nutrients were food for the Bloodthirsty Spirit Vine, and perhaps the final catalyst to awaken the life force of the remaining roots of the Azure Vine.

Chen Yuan walked to the back of the thatched hut, took out the half bag of humus that was left over from yesterday, and scooped up a ladle of spiritual spring water.

He squatted back down beside the pile of rubble and gently pried away the hardened clods of soil with both hands, his movements as if he were digging up some fragile treasure.

Three inches below, my fingertips touched a few dry, brittle roots—the main roots left behind after the Qingyuan Vine destroyed itself, as thin as hair, grayish in color, as if they would crumble at the slightest touch.

Chen Yuan held his breath, carefully spread the humus around the roots, and then slowly poured in the spiritual spring water.

Water seeps into the soil, making a soft "sizzling" sound.

He stretched out his right hand, palm down, hovering half an inch above the soil.

With a slight thought, the emerald green growth law starlight shone faintly in the sea of ​​consciousness, and a wisp of warm wood-attribute spiritual energy flowed out along the meridians, silently falling like spring rain through the palm imprint.

Unfortunately, no miracle occurred.