Spirit Plant Entry: Immortality Begins with Farming

Gu He sat cross-legged next to the unconscious Wu Xiaoshuan, with three dark gold needles inserted into a vital acupoint on his chest, the needle tips trembling slightly.

Without even raising his head, he placed his filthy fingers on Wu Xiaoshuan's wrist pulse: "His pulse is as chaotic as a pot of boiling porridge; the evil poison is drilling into his heart meridian. The golden needle can only seal it for another quarter of an hour at most. After that, unless there is a lotus seed of the Pure Heart Lotus to stabilize his heart meridian and dispel the evil, even if a Great Immortal came, he could only prepare a coffin for him."

"Senior Brother Chen!" Zhou Ming squeezed through the backyard, his face pale, and lowered his voice, "Should I go to Xinglin Garden to find Master Su? Use your jade token..."

"No time," Chen Yuan interrupted him. The fastest round trip from here to the Apricot Grove Garden deep within the Medicine Valley would take at least half an hour. Not to mention, Su Wanqing might not even be in her cave, and even if she were, the Pure Heart Lotus seeds, though a basic spiritual medicine, weren't readily available. "What about the market?"

"I already asked!" Zhou Ming stamped his foot anxiously. "Manager Liao of 'Bai Cao Tang' said that the Pure Heart Lotus seeds are delicate and difficult to store. The batch he received last month is already sold out! 'Duo Bao Ge's' Jin Bu Huan might have some, but that's stock reserved for the inner sect's alchemy department, not sold separately. Even if they did sell them..." His voice lowered further, "one seed costs at least five low-grade spirit stones! Three seeds would be fifteen! We... we don't even have enough of the broken spirit stones we collected today to make a fraction of that!"

Fifteen low-grade spirit stones. For a rogue cultivator in the mid-stage of Qi Refining, this is a huge sum of money.

Chen Yuan remained silent.

The shattered spirit stones in the money box jingled, as if mocking him. Could he come up with this money? Yes. The harvest from the eight acres of land in the shantytown, plus his previous savings, would barely be enough. But this was his family's lifeline, the foundation of "Yuancaotang's" operations; now was not the time to think about that.

"I have a way to get the money," he said steadily. "But this is priceless merchandise. Even if they're willing to sell, it will take time to get it immediately. In ancient times, a quarter of an hour is too tight."

"Tight?" Gu He finally looked up, a strange light flashing in his cloudy eyes. "Kid, do you think my title of 'medicine fanatic' is just for show? You might not find Pure Heart Lotus seeds in the market, but you'll definitely find them in the Medicine Valley's alchemy room. But would those old men really open their vaults for medicine just for the son of a miner in a shantytown, or for a poisoned mess? By the time you get approval from all those layers, it'll be too late!"

"However... I do know that there is a 'medicinal guide' nearby that is more effective than the lotus seeds of the Pure Heart Lotus."

Chen Yuan's heart sank: "What kind of medicinal ingredient?"

Guhe did not answer immediately, but his gaze, like an invisible probe, slowly swept over Chen Yuan's entire body, finally landing on the jade pendant at his waist. Then he looked away and gazed at the east end of the shop, at the field of golden thread grass that shimmered softly in the morning light, and further away, at the dilapidated thatched hut that was almost completely covered by weeds.

"The medicinal ingredient..." Gu He said slowly, each word as if he were weighing his options, "It depends on fate, and also on the person, whether they dare to use it."

Inside the thatched hut, Bai Zhi huddled in the deepest shadow of the corner, her hands tightly covering her mouth, her whole body trembling uncontrollably.

She heard it.

Every word felt like an icicle, piercing her ears.

"Burning the Yin Veins", "Purifying the Heart and Purifying the Lotus", "Medicinal Guide"...

And then there's Furukawa's seemingly casual yet terrifyingly precise gaze sweeping across the room.

He knew. He must have sensed something. This disheveled old man possessed an aura that instinctively terrified her—not the filth of demonic energy, but something else entirely, a cold, inquisitive desire that seemed to see through all pretense and dissect all living beings.

What should I do?

Escape? But there are so many people outside, including the cultivators from the Enforcement Hall. She can barely stand up straight now, where could she possibly run to? The pursuers from the Demon Realm might already be on their way…

If she doesn't escape, what happens when that old man finds her, recognizes her Pure Lotus Spirit Body, and then what? Is she used as a "medicinal ingredient"? Is she handed over to the Enforcement Hall? Is she sent back to the place she desperately escaped from?

Fear, like cold vines, tightened around her heart. She hugged her knees, her nails digging deep into her arms, the wounds stinging, but unable to suppress the chill in her heart.

outside.

"Old man, speak your mind." Chen Yuan's voice came through, still steady, but Bai Zhi could detect a hint of tension.

"Speak frankly? Heh heh." Gu He's laughter was hoarse. "Kid Chen, you have a smell on you, very faint, but my nose is sharp. It's not the smell of blood, not herbs, it's a kind of... excessively clean, so clean that it clashes with the stale air of this shantytown. Also, that patch of grass to your east end is growing strangely well, and its spiritual energy is strangely stable. This can't be explained by 'secret techniques' alone."

He leaned forward, his eyes sharp as needles: "Have any 'special' people come to the shantytown recently? Or have you acquired anything 'special'? Like... some kind of 'spiritual object' that naturally abhors filth and can spontaneously purify the spiritual environment?"

Jiang Tian frowned: "Old Gu, what kind of riddle are you speaking in?"

"A riddle? It's obvious!" Gu He suddenly raised his voice, with a kind of obsessive excitement. "The core of the Burning Vein Yin Sha is 'Yin Sha' and 'blood poison'! The reason why the Pure Heart Lotus Seed can counteract it is because of its innate spirituality of 'purifying the heart and cleansing impurities,' which can neutralize Yin Sha and purify blood poison! But the lotus seed is, after all, an inanimate object, and its medicinal properties are mild and slow! If there is a living, higher-grade 'medicine' as a guide, the effect will be more than doubled! Saving Wu Xiaoshuan is a sure thing!"

He pointed sharply to the grassy field at the east end: "The unusually stable spiritual energy in that field is proof! There must be something there, spontaneously and continuously radiating purifying power! Chen Yuan, the medicinal ingredient is in your hands, or perhaps it's in your field! Am I right?"

The air froze instantly.

Guhe's cry of "medicinal guide" fell into the air like a venomous snake hissing.

Jiang Tian's knuckles turned white as he gripped the sword hilt.

All eyes—surprise, greed, fear, scrutiny—were fixed on Chen Yuan, then swept over the silent golden grass field to the east and the almost forgotten dilapidated thatched hut.

Inside the thatched hut, Bai Zhi stopped breathing.

She shrank into the deepest shadows, her nails digging into old wounds in her palms, the stinging pain keeping her conscious to the last vestige of her senses. She couldn't go out… going out meant death, or something worse…

"Chen Yuan!" Jiang Tian's voice shattered the silence. "Is what the ancients said true?!"

Chen Yuan had his back to the thatched hut. He could feel a faint tremor coming from there.

"Senior Brother Jiang." He turned to face Jiang Tian, ​​his voice unusually clear in the tense silence, "The fields are my fields, the grass is my grass. If it grows well, it's because I tend to it day and night, plus some ancestral, albeit clumsy, methods. As for 'something special'..."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over Gu He's dirty face, contorted with excitement.

"Old Gu is a senior from Medicine Valley, with vast knowledge. But speculation is just speculation." He spoke calmly, but emphasized the word "speculation." "If I had a 'spiritual object' that could spontaneously purify spiritual energy, why would I toil away cultivating these eight acres of Golden Thread Grass, earning spirit stones one by one? Wouldn't it be more worthwhile to offer it directly to the sect and exchange it for an inner disciple status?"

A murmur of agreement rippled through the crowd. "Yeah, why not keep your treasures to yourself, or exchange them for spirit stones? Are you stupid?"

Gu He chuckled softly, a fox-like glint in his murky eyes: "Kid, don't speak too confidently. Some 'spiritual objects' can't stand the light. Or rather... they themselves are 'light,' too bright, too hot to handle. Hand them over? To whom? To those fools in Danxia Palace who only know how to follow instructions blindly? Or to those madmen in the Array Court who want to confine everything into a grid?"

He took a half-step forward, lowering his voice so that everyone around him could hear him: "Hiding things is to save your life. But right now, you have more than one life." He gestured towards Wu Xiaoshuan on the ground, "This scoundrel's life may be cheap, but he's now holding your innocence, this shop, and this whole family hostage."

His voice lowered further, almost a whisper, carrying a seductive, venomous quality: "That 'thing'... is it alive? I smelled it. In that 'spiritual aura,' there's a frightened, raw, fishy odor. Is it injured? Or... sick? Let it out, show it what it can do. It can save people, and... give itself a chance to survive. Under my watchful eye is better than it being 'accidentally' discovered by some people and 'dealt with' as ​​a spy from the demon realm or an evil spirit. What do you say?"

Jiang Tian frowned. Although he didn't fully understand Gu He's riddle, the words "living thing," "shady dealings," and "spy from the Demon Realm" made his eyes suddenly sharpen like an eagle's as he locked onto Chen Yuan again: "Chen Yuan! What exactly are you hiding?!"

It exploded like a burst of pressure.