Chapter 72: Trial Planting (Part Two)

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Chen Feng pulled out the cork from the small porcelain bottle and carefully poured a tiny seed into his palm, then plugged the cork back in. He gently placed the seed into the small hole. Guan Yu quickly scooped out a spoonful of purple chaos essence from the bamboo tube and added it to the hole. Chen Feng swiftly covered it with soil, while Guan Yu ladled a spoonful of water from the bucket beside them and poured it on top.

After completing these steps, both men exhaled and subconsciously wiped their sweat-free foreheads, slowly standing up. All four pairs of eyes, including White Fox’s, stared intently at that small patch of water-soaked earth.

For a long time, that small patch of ground showed no reaction. This was somewhat abnormal. Chen Feng and Guan Yu looked at each other in confusion. Yue Qianchou frowned and said, “How can this be? During all this time you’ve been planting flowers, have you noticed anything unusual about the purple chaos essence and the water here?”

Chen Feng shook his head, “No.”

“Look quickly, there’s a reaction!” Guan Yu cried out in delight.

Several cracks quietly appeared in that moistened patch of earth. Everyone stared at it with excitement, but after waiting a long time, they only saw a little more reaction – a small white sprout poked its head out, then began growing at an extremely slow pace. This speed was almost negligible compared to the growth rate when planting flowers.

“The speed is too slow. How can this be?” Yue Qianchou frowned. “Is there any way to make it grow faster?”

“Yes,” Guan Yu replied, staring at the tender sprout. “Add more purple chaos essence – that should speed things up. Boss, should we add more?”

Yue Qianchou sighed, “Add it! There are still nine more seeds. At worst, we’ll waste one.”

Guan Yu nodded and pulled out a thin bamboo tube from his belt. Yue Qianchou took a closer look and noticed it was a piston bamboo tube made using the principle of syringes from his previous life. He couldn’t help but smile. ‘It seems these two guys have gained experience from planting flowers and must have frequently accelerated flower growth.’

With Chen Feng’s help, the bamboo tube was filled with purple chaos essence. Guan Yu knelt down and carefully inserted the thin end into the soil beneath the white sprout, then slowly pressed down the wooden handle on the other end. As all the purple chaos essence in the tube was injected, the tender sprout visibly trembled, as if it had eaten its fill, and its growth speed noticeably accelerated.

Guan Yu pulled out the bamboo tube, quickly covered the hole in the ground with soil, and after standing up, looked at the tender sprout and nodded. “Boss, it looks like it can take another injection. Should we give it one more?”

“Failure is the mother of success. Don’t be afraid – go ahead and do it,” Yue Qianchou agreed.

Guan Yu and Chen Feng worked together to give the tender sprout another injection. The effect was very obvious. Although it was still much slower than flowers, it was quite fast now. Guan Yu marveled, “Spiritual herbs are indeed spiritual herbs – truly extraordinary. We’ve already used dozens of times more purple chaos essence than for flowers, yet it still grows slower than flowers.”

What grew from the tender sprout wasn’t very attractive. Although it was still growing, it was only palm-sized and quite black – it really didn’t look like a spiritual herb at all. Neither Guan Yu nor Chen Feng had seen it before. Yue Qianchou smiled and said, “Chen Feng, this is ‘Impurity Cleansing Grass,’ one of the essential spiritual herbs for refining Foundation Building Pills. I’m entrusting this bottle to your care. From now on, you’ll be responsible for cultivating this ‘Impurity Cleansing Grass.’ Remember to collect plenty of seeds and don’t let the seed line break – if it breaks, there’s nowhere to get more.” Chen Feng nodded vigorously.

Before long, several flower stems emerged from the ‘Impurity Cleansing Grass,’ topped with flower buds that slowly rose upward. When they reached a certain height, the buds pushed pale white flower buds out from their black wrapping leaves. When the flower buds began to open slightly, a faint, almost imperceptible fragrance wafted out. This barely detectable floral scent completely overwhelmed the fragrance of the surrounding sea of flowers.

“It really is a spiritual herb! Just this flower fragrance alone suppresses the aroma of thousands of flowers here,” Chen Feng couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.

White Fox’s delicate nose twitched lightly as she moved closer with graceful steps, taking a deep breath as if she too was very fond of this scent.

Six flowers had fully bloomed, their pale white petals hiding several golden short stamens – quite beautiful indeed. Yue Qianchou called out sternly, “Yunzhang, balance yin and yang – pollinate the flowers! We can’t waste a single seed.” He had already brought several beehives in, but because of the purple chaos essence, the flowering period was too short, obviously not allowing enough time for bees to pollinate.

“Got it.” Guan Yu moved with light, quick motions to cross-pollinate the six flowers. Unlike with ordinary flowers, he didn’t pluck one first before pollinating – wasting even one spiritual herb flower would mean losing many precious seeds.

After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the harvested seeds were already in Chen Feng’s hands. This flower was strange – each bloom produced exactly six seeds, and the six flowers yielded exactly thirty-six seeds, no more, no less. Everyone happily examined the harvested seeds. Unfortunately, due to the purple chaos essence, that ‘Impurity Cleansing Grass’ plant didn’t last long before withering.

However, the success of the ‘Impurity Cleansing Grass’ gave the three men considerable confidence. Yue Qianchou proceeded to trial plant the other eight bottles one by one. They discovered that ginseng was the easiest to grow. After the roots formed underground, no matter how much purple chaos essence they added, it would only rapidly increase the plant’s age without causing it to wither. The seeds were even easier to collect – basically, it would flower and fruit once it reached a certain age, and seeds could be harvested repeatedly many times.

They also discovered some problems. It turned out that Vajra Fruit was a vine plant that didn’t grow well on flat ground – it needed trees to climb around. Each plant only produced twelve fruits, and the fruits truly lived up to their “vajra” name – even striking them hard with a sword would only leave white marks.

The most troublesome was the lingzhi mushroom. When they opened the porcelain bottle, they found only powder inside, not seeds at all. The three were immediately dumbfounded. Yue Qianchou hadn’t encountered this thing in Mulberry Grass Garden either and didn’t know how to plant it. He regretted not asking Furong clearly – perhaps she would have known.

Fortunately, White Fox came to their rescue. Having cultivated in deep mountains and old forests, she had seen plenty of these things. Under her explanation, the three finally understood. Lingzhi mushrooms had no concept of seeds – when crushed, they naturally became seeds. No wonder the porcelain bottle contained only powder. This reminded Yue Qianchou of some knowledge from his previous life – this lingzhi should also be a type of fungal plant. Finally, under White Fox’s guidance, they successfully trial planted it near the base of a large tree.

After succeeding with each one, Yue Qianchou finally breathed a sigh of relief and distributed the nine porcelain bottles between Guan Yu and Chen Feng.

“In three days, I plan to start refining Foundation Building Pills. I need one hundred portions of each of the nine spiritual herbs. Can you two grow that many?” Yue Qianchou looked at the two men.

The two looked at each other. Guan Yu asked, “That many?”

Yue Qianchou nodded solemnly, “I want to refine enough Foundation Building Pills in one go. I refuse to believe that with a pile of Foundation Building Pills, the three of us still can’t successfully establish our foundations!” Actually, he was asking for so many portions because he had never personally refined pills before and had no confidence at all. He was prepared to use spiritual herbs in bulk, believing that even with luck alone, he could successfully refine a batch or two.

Hearing that they could refine enough Foundation Building Pills, Guan Yu and Chen Feng immediately became so excited their eyes seemed to glow green. The two looked at each other and nodded. Guan Yu emotionally patted his chest and guaranteed, “Don’t worry, Boss! Even if we don’t eat or sleep for these three days, we’ll help you grow those hundred portions.”

Yue Qianchou said happily, “Good! When we have enough Foundation Building Pills, I believe we’ll definitely succeed in foundation establishment.” He suddenly frowned again, “Don’t just focus on meeting the numbers while ignoring the quality of the spiritual herbs. Especially the ginseng and lingzhi – they must be at least a hundred years old, or they won’t count as spiritual herbs.”

This was a matter related to whether they could successfully establish their foundations. The two immediately made repeated guarantees again. Yue Qianchou hurried back – he was still thinking about finding Yan Zixia these next few days to improve his pill refining skills.