Spirit Plant Entry: Immortality Begins with Farming

"Yuancaotang" is a small shop located at the intersection at the west end.

It used to be a mud-brick house that had collapsed halfway, but now the walls have been repaired, the doors have been replaced with wooden ones, and a rough wooden sign hangs above the door.

It wasn't even midday, the busiest time, yet the shop was empty. Several wicker baskets sat on the counter, filled with roughly the same size yams, a few bunches of fresh lamb's quarters, and a small basket of plump Qingyang rice.

Behind the counter, Ping An was standing on tiptoe, wiping a jar with a damp cloth.

"Peace," Widow Li called out.

The child turned around, saw Chen Yuan, and his eyes widened: "Uncle Chen!"

He threw down the rag and ran over, but stopped abruptly in front of him, clutching the hem of his clothes, looking somewhat flustered.

Chen Yuan reached out and rubbed his head; the hair was a little prickly.

"Little Stone, you've grown taller."

"If she ate it, how could she not grow?" Widow Li walked behind the counter, took out a rough earthenware jar from underneath, and placed it on the counter. "Take a look at this."

The jar was sealed with oil paper. She opened it and found half a jar of dark red powder inside, which had a faint burnt and bitter smell.

Chen Yuan dipped his finger in the ash and rubbed it between his fingers. "Edelweiss ash?"

"Hmm," Widow Li lowered her voice, "following your recipe, I dried the chopped leaves and burned them to ash. I tried mixing some into the stove ash and scattering it along the edge of the vegetable patch—guess what?"

She turned around and took two sweet potatoes from a basket in the corner, placing them on the table. The two were about the same size, but the one on the left had smooth skin with a healthy light brown color; the one on the right was darker in color and had a few small scars on its skin.

"The ridge on the left was sprinkled with ash, but the one on the right wasn't," Widow Li pointed out. "There are far fewer pests here, and the ones dug up here weigh half an ounce more than the ones on the right."

Chen Yuan picked up the one on the left, his gaze sweeping over the entries:

[Ground potato (slight fire resistance)]

[Entry: Mild Insect Resistant (Edelweiss Ash Residue)]

Condition: Fresh

"That's interesting." He put down the potato chunks. "How long can the ashes burn?"

"There are still two baskets of dried leaves left, enough to burn for two or three months." Widow Li resealed the jar, a little hesitant. "But...can we really use them indefinitely? Won't they dry out the ground?"

"If you use the right amount, there won't be any problems." Chen Yuan glanced around the shop. "How's business?"

"Not bad." Widow Li took out a coarse cloth ledger from the drawer of the counter, opened it, and said, "For the first half month, we mainly sold yams and gray leaf vegetables. Later, when the rice came in, we sold them together, and more people bought them. Now we can collect a dozen or twenty spirit stones a day, and after deducting the cost, we make a net profit of seven or eight."

She turned to the next few pages and pointed with her finger: "As you said, deposit 'whole money' every ten days. It's recorded here: one hundred and twenty-seven spirit stones, which were exchanged for a low-grade spirit stone and stored under the jar in the inner room."

Chen Yuan glanced at the crooked handwriting and scratches on the ledger and nodded. "The accounts are clear. However, exchanging broken spirit stones for whole low-grade spirit stones is a loss."

Widow Li: "Ah? The sign at the entrance of 'Huitong Store' at the west end of the market says that one hundred broken spirit stones can be exchanged for one low-grade spirit stone. Our broken ones are all small and fragmented, so they asked us for a 'premium'. In the end, it cost one hundred and twenty-five broken spirit stones to exchange for one whole one."

Chen Yuan shook his head: "The listed price is just a bluff. The spiritual energy of broken spirit stones dissipates quickly, and they come in all sizes. The shops have to melt them down and purify them, which results in a lot of losses. If you bring a hundred standard broken spirit stones, they'll give you at most 80%, maybe even 70%. If you exchange your 125 fragments for one, it looks like you're getting a discount, but in reality, you'll get less than 75%."

Widow Li was dumbfounded, instinctively clutching the drawer where she kept her money: "This...this is so shady? Aren't we just going to keep losing money?"

"The people below are all so exploited." Chen Yuan's tone was calm, yet tinged with coldness. "Spirit fragments are the leftovers from sects, mines, and cultivators after they've used up their spiritual energy, or they're sifted from slag. In their eyes, this isn't money, it's just trouble. So, don't rush to send any loose spirit fragments to the store."

He tapped the ledger: "Keep them. If you accumulate too many, you can either exchange them for something of real value on the black market, or wait for me to come back and deal with them. I can tell which spirit stones still have some real value left, so I'll lose less when exchanging them."

He paused, looked out the window at the eight acres of land stretching out in a row, and said firmly, "Once these eight acres are completely harvested, whether it's rice or vegetables, the land will be completely empty. Don't plant anything else on it."

Widow Li was truly shocked this time: "Eight mu... all empty? Chen Yuan, this... this is all our grain and income right now! It's all gone, how are we going to survive...?"

"The future is yet to come," Chen Yuan interrupted her, his voice low but steady. "This little bit of food we have now won't feed us, but it'll never turn our lives around. These lands, especially the four best acres, have already been fertilized with 'medicinal residue,' making them far more potent than other people's spiritual fields. I'm going to use them to do something big."

"Something big?" Widow Li nervously gripped her apron.

"Plant things that are truly worth spirit stones. It might be precious medicinal herbs that require specific soil conditions, or it might be spirit trees that need the nourishment of the entire earth to survive." Chen Yuan didn't elaborate, but the certainty in his eyes slowly calmed the anxiety in Widow Li's heart. "When the land is empty, you take Ping An to thoroughly till the field twice, clearing away all old roots, weeds, and pebbles, leaving nothing behind. I'll figure out how to get rotten soil and real spirit fertilizer."

He looked at Widow Li: "Will the stock in the shop and the remaining spirit stones be enough to get through this lean period?"

Widow Li quickly considered the options in her mind, then gritted her teeth: "If we tighten our belts, we can manage for six months. But...we're all counting on what you bring back next time?"

"Hmm." Chen Yuan nodded. "It's all up to us. If we succeed, we'll not only have the money for the spiritual root test, but also the money for you to move out of this shantytown. If we fail..." He didn't finish his sentence, but the meaning was clear.

Widow Li remained silent for a while, then let out a long breath, her gaze refocusing: "I understand. I've cleaned the floor spotless for you, and I've kept everything. I'll wait for you to come back."

"Regarding the matter of Ping An testing his spiritual roots," Chen Yuan added at the end, "remember this. These eight acres of land are left vacant so that we can give him, and us, a future where we don't have to depend on others anymore."

Widow Li nodded emphatically, this time without the slightest hesitation in her eyes: "...Alright!"

"I'm leaving." Chen Yuan patted Ping An on the shoulder. "Study hard and don't make mistakes in the account book."

"Uncle Chen, when are you coming again?" Ping An asked, looking up.

"We'll see." Chen Yuan stepped out the door. "Take good care of the land. If anything seems amiss, go to the foot of Medicine Valley Mountain and find Zhou Ming. Just tell him I sent you."

"Zhou Ming?"

"A drunkard." Chen Yuan waved his hand. "You'll recognize him when you see him."

He walked back along the dirt road. After walking a dozen steps, he looked back.

The signboard of "Yuancaotang" looked old under the afternoon sun, but it was hung upright.

Widow Li stood at the door looking at him, while Ping An tugged at her clothes and waved in their direction.

Chen Yuan turned around and continued walking. The buzzing and creaking sounds from the shantytown gradually faded away behind him.

As I walked down the slope and was about to turn onto the path leading back up the mountain, a person suddenly appeared from behind an old locust tree.

He was a lean, middle-aged man, wearing a worn blue jacket and carrying an empty burlap sack, as if he had just finished gathering firewood. He saw Chen Yuan, paused for a moment, then grinned, revealing a row of yellow teeth:

"Hey, isn't this Brother Chen? I heard he got promoted in the sect. Is this... a trip back to check on his business?"

"Uncle Liu," Chen Yuan nodded, "Gathering firewood?"

"Ah, yes, yes." Liu San rubbed his hands together, but his eyes darted behind Chen Yuan. "I just saw you go to 'Yuancaotang'? That shop... is it yours?"

"Just checking on a friend." Chen Yuan's tone was very casual. "Uncle Liu, is something wrong?"

"No, nothing!" Liu San quickly waved his hand. "Just asking casually... Um, I heard your crops are growing exceptionally well. Any secrets? You could share with us old neighbors, right?"

Chen Yuan looked at his wandering eyes and suddenly smiled.

"The trick is..." he trailed off, "Water your plants more, weed more often, and don't always covet what other people are eating."

Liu San's face stiffened.

Chen Yuan ignored him and stepped onto the path. Even after walking quite a distance, he could still feel the gaze following him from behind.

---

By the time we returned to the foot of Medicine Valley Mountain, the sun was already setting.

Chen Yuan didn't go straight back to the thatched hut. Instead, he went around to the edge of the edelweiss and took a look. The crimson light swirled, and the area where the spirit was gathered seemed to have widened by half a step.

He squatted down and touched the leaf with his fingertip.

"You seem to be having a good time," he said in a low voice. "I'm dealing with one problem after another, while you're making a fortune in silence."

The leaves trembled slightly, as if in response, even though there was no wind.

Chen Yuan got up, dusted off his hands, and went back into the house.

Once the door was closed, even the last ray of sunlight was blocked outside.

He sat cross-legged on the futon, without adjusting his breathing or practicing any exercises.

I just sat there, listening to my own breathing and the insects outside the window gradually starting to chirp.

In the sea of ​​consciousness, the five-colored stars hung silently. The pale golden one seemed to have a slightly more solid halo than in the morning.

0.1%.

It's a tiny bit of progress, but it's progress nonetheless.

The night is still long.

He closed his eyes, his thoughts sinking into the silent, faint starlight.