Chapter 71 - 70: Watching Your Wild Behavior After Drinking 1
The two Herbalists of Hundred Herbs Hall eventually did not choose to take the risk, and each sold their diseased second-grade spiritual plants at a low price to Lu Xuan.
Lu Xuan received a total of fourteen diseased spiritual plants this time, twelve of which were first grade, and two were second grade.
These fourteen spiritual plants cost him a total of fifty-six spirit stones. If coupled with the twenty spirit stones handed over to Manager He as a reward, a total of seventy-six spirit stones were spent.
His wealth has now depreciated to under three hundred spirit stones.
However, Lu Xuan was confident in being able to earn even more.
He took the diseased spiritual plants and returned to his courtyard.
First, he controlled the formation to isolate the diseased spiritual plants with the spreading fog. Then, he went on to plant each one.
For those about to die, or those that required high conditions for recovery leading to his own loss, Lu Xuan directly burned them on the spot.
In the end, eight useful spiritual plants were left, seven first grade and one second grade. The other second-grade plant had a certain chance of success yet required an excessive amount of spirit stones and energy, so Lu Xuan weighed in and gave up on it.
After busying for half a day, the root cause of abnormalities in these eight spiritual plants were cleaned up. Now, all that was needed was a little effort to cultivate them to maturity.
Due to the severe damage to the spiritual plants themselves, even careful cultivation would not increase their grade in the short term. Lu Xuan let them grow in the spirit field, and every once in a while, he would perform a large-scale Spirit Rain Technique to nourish them evenly.
In the blink of an eye, five days passed.
Over the past few days, Lu Xuan stayed home, cultivating spiritual plants and nurturing spirit beasts.
The Three-Tailed Red Whisker Carp was growing fatter under the daily feeding of spirit rice. It’s long, thin red whiskers were trailing far behind its body as it swam in the water.
A small bud emerged from the immaculate leaves of the first-grade Pure Snow Lotus within the Spiritual Spring Pool. Nourished by the Spiritual Spring, the white bud emanated an aura of sanctity.
There was still a little bit of Azure Water Python Blood left from what snake catcher Yu Jie brought. The Flood Dragon Vine, well-watered in snake blood, no longer looked withered as when it was first planted. Each day it remained plump and hydrated, its vine black and shiny.
Lu Xuan carefully noticed that the vine had grown about half an inch longer.
“Cultivating third-grade spiritual plants isn’t easy, a big bottle of second-grade Azure Water Python Blood only promoted such a little growth.”
He sighed inwardly.
The Phantom Smoke Fruit, also of the third grade, was somewhat easier to satisfy—it simply hid in the smoke it emitted, making it hard to find.
Among the several types of spiritual plants close to maturity, the first-grade Blood Jade Ginsengs became more and more violent. If Lu Xuan was even slightly inattentive, they would move towards each other, demonstrating a mad look as if they’d dry each other out.
Lu Xuan had to circle their area every half an hour—even at night.
He had no choice. To ensure the grade of the mature Blood Jade Ginseng, he had to firmly make the twenty Blood Jade Ginsengs stay alone for their entire life.
The second-grade Sword Grass and Dark Marrow Mushroom were much easier to manage.
As the Sword Grass approached maturity, the sword intent on its straight body gradually converged, and only the dense, tiny sword marks in the spirit soil indicated its previous sharpness.
The Dark Marrow Mushroom had a completely different way of growth. The wooden shed that Lu Xuan had specifically created for it was already entirely occupied by the dark red mycelium it produced. It was like a closely woven giant web of tiny blood vessels.
Lu Xuan was not impatient. He kept his own pace, did his best to improve the grade of the spiritual plants, and then waited quietly for them to mature.
In his free time, he would visit Wu Wenjing, who lived nearby and loved drinking, to have a cup of wine together.
For the courtyards nearby, since Wang Shan was eradicated by the Enforcement Hall cultivators, his courtyard has been vacant.
Lu Xuan, who rarely ventures out, seldom encounters the few other places, only knowing that those neighboring cultivators are either diligently cultivating or seeking opportunities outdoors.
Only they two, one free from desires and peacefully enjoying their retirement, and another obsessed with planting due to the reward of the light cluster. Seeing each other back and forth frequently, they naturally developed a little bit of camaraderie.
In Wu Wenjing’s home.
“The world is getting tougher, even living peacefully in the market in your later years is impossible.”
The old man put down the white jade wine cup in his hand and sighed.
“I have no hope of advancing in cultivation, so I bought this house in Linyang Market. I brew spiritual wine from time to time to make a living. But even this small wish is hard to fulfill now.”
“Those useless ones in the Enforcement Hall, I have no idea what they do with so many spirit stones. The demon envoy sneaked into the market and they haven’t solved it for such a long time.”
“Indeed. Whenever anything out of the ordinary happens, we, the loose cultivators, are the ones that get hurt the most. We’re like wild grass, unable to withstand the slightest turbulence.”
Lu Xuan was deeply sympathetic. If he hadn’t had the white light cluster in his Spirit Field changing his fate, he would’ve been silently eliminated in this world.
“I heard that the market’s spiritual energy and spirit bugs are polluted, causing quite a few spiritual plants to mutate. Are the spiritual plants in your Spirit Field alright, Friend Lu?”
The old man surnamed Wu asked with concern.
“They’re alright. I found one a while ago and promptly rooted it out and destroyed it. It didn’t affect the other spiritual plants.”
Lu Xuan randomly bluffed.
“I heard that the Wang Family has already sought help from their family disciples who cultivated in the sect. Soon, someone will come to the market to look for the demon envoy hidden in the corners.”
“Really? If sect monks are dispatched, those demon envoys indeed have nowhere to hide.”
Lu Xuan nodded his agreement. The old man before him had been staying in the market for decades, with a wide range of connections and various sources of information.
It’s not that it’s difficult to deal with the demon envoy hiding in the market. After all, there are Foundation Establishment cultivators stationed in the market, and jointly dealing with a demon envoy should not be a problem.
But the demon envoy is elusive and hard to detect, which is why it has been dragging on up to now.
However, the sect monks, brimming with talents, have specialized formula methods, treasures, and spirit beasts to discover and investigate demon envoys. They have specialized in their crafts.
“Seems like there won’t be many opportunities to buy diseased spiritual plants anymore. I’ll try to snatch up more in the next couple of days.”
Lu Xuan thought to himself in secret.
He had anticipated this. The influential families and powers in the market will not allow the demon envoy’s infringing scope to expand further. The problem with the diseased spiritual plants will be solved as a result. He’s already grateful to make quite a bit of spirit stones.
He stayed at the cultivator surnamed Wu’s place for a while, then excused himself to leave.
The spiritual wine that the old man brewed didn’t seem so potent at first, but the aftereffect was strong. Lu Xuan’s face turned slightly flushed, and he arrived in the Spirit Field in the backyard with a bit of a drunken vibe.
“Other people get disorderly after drinking, but I’m watching you get disorderly after I drink. Haha, all of you better split up.”
Lu Xuan utilized the Earth Pulling Technique, separating the blood jade ginseng whose roots had intertwined.
“Hm?”
Suddenly, he noticed that the maturity progress bar of blood jade ginseng had been filled to the brim, and his consciousness instantly became a lot clearer.
He took a deep breath and carefully dug out the mature blood jade ginseng from the spirit soil..