"Lu, my young brother, it's been a while! How have you been lately?" Zhang Hong greeted Lu Xuan with a hearty laugh.
"Thank you for your concern, Brother Zhang. Everything is going well. I should also congratulate you on returning safely from the wilderness," Lu Xuan replied with a smile.
"Haha, I was lucky. I only got a few minor injuries and managed to find some treasures," Zhang Hong said. "I also want to thank you, Lu. My wife told me that our home had a pest problem, and it was all thanks to you that it got resolved."
"And that little rascal, when he came back, he couldn't stop bragging about how he can now earn spirit stones and is even thinking of using them to support the family!" Zhang Hong chuckled as he recalled Zhang Xiuyuan's proud demeanor.
"Brother Zhang, there's no need to be so polite. You’ve helped me a lot before, so what I did is nothing," Lu Xuan said. "As for Xiao Yuan, he saved me a lot of time and trouble, so giving him some reward is only fair."
"He's just a kid; what can he do?" Zhang Hong laughed. "But you surprised me this time, Lu. I thought you would just be quietly farming, but I didn’t expect you to have such skill with the sword technique."
"With that ability, you could easily surpass many cultivators at the third level of Qi training," Zhang Hong praised.
With the Concealment Technique hiding his true cultivation level, Lu Xuan wasn’t worried about Zhang Hong discovering his actual strength.
"My spiritual field was one of the first to encounter pests. It cost me nearly seven spirit stones to hire a mid-level Qi training cultivator to deal with it," Lu Xuan explained. "To prevent this from happening again, I decided to invest heavily and bought a first-grade sword technique. Surprisingly, even though my usual progress in cultivating spiritual energy is slow, I found I have some talent for practicing this sword technique."
"The technique progressed quickly, and I was even able to use it to deal with pests. I thought I could earn some spirit stones back to cover the cost of buying it," Lu Xuan fabricated a story to explain how he managed to solve the pest problem with the Gengjin Sword Art.
Zhang Hong believed him without suspicion.
As they chatted, the conversation naturally shifted to Zhang Hong's recent experience in exploring a secret realm.
"The Wang family's formation master broke two formations. According to those mid-level Qi training cultivators who entered the depths of the secret realm, this new secret realm is not smaller than Linyang Market Town, and there are countless spiritual plants and medicines inside," Zhang Hong said. "We scattered cultivators at the second and third levels of Qi training can only operate on the outskirts; we don’t have the ability or qualifications to go deeper."
"I mainly followed a team of scattered cultivators to collect spiritual plants and clear out some low-level monsters," he continued. "Even though there were powerful cultivators from the Wang family leading the way, the casualties were still significant—about thirty percent."
"Our little team was fairly lucky. We only encountered two dangerous situations. Once, while collecting spiritual plants, we came across a mutated spiritual plant that was extremely aggressive and good at camouflage. Two people were unfortunately sacrificed."
"Another time, we faced a special monster—a spider with a human face on its back. It was incredibly fast, and we could barely see its figure. One scattered cultivator was cut in half by it. Thankfully, a high-level Qi training cultivator arrived just in time to eliminate it."
Thinking about these encounters, Zhang Hong's face turned pale, showing that the memories still haunted him.
Lu Xuan listened with great interest; after all, he didn’t have to experience it himself, so hearing about it was quite enjoyable.
"Are you interested in going for a walk, Lu? The first exploration of a new secret realm has the highest rewards but also the greatest risks. As time goes on, the risks decrease," Zhang Hong invited, noticing Lu Xuan's curiosity.
"No, no. My cultivation is low, and I'm not good at fighting. I also don’t have any artifacts or talismans with me. I think I’ll just stick to being a spiritual plant cultivator," Lu Xuan replied with a smile.
The spiritual energy he had accumulated from the White Light Orb wasn’t enough to provide him with useful artifacts, talismans, or pills. If he rounded it off, it could be said he had 'none.'
Zhang Hong only mentioned it casually and moved on.
"By the way, Brother Zhang, did you find any unknown wild spiritual seeds during your trip to the wilderness? If so, I can buy them with spirit stones," Lu Xuan changed the subject.
"Unknown wild spiritual seeds? Wild spiritual seeds are already rare, and unknown varieties are even scarcer," Zhang Hong replied. "I didn’t come across any myself, but I heard that some scattered cultivators found a wild spiritual seed in a desolate area of the secret realm. I can ask about it for you."
"However, since the type of spiritual seed is unknown and the planting methods are also unclear, if you want to plant it, the risk is quite high. You might end up wasting time and spirit stones," Zhang Hong cautioned Lu Xuan.
"I just want to experiment a bit; I’m not trying to gamble on a tiny chance of success," Lu Xuan said. "If it fails, I can still gain some experience in cultivating spiritual plants and broaden my horizons."
Lu Xuan found a reason to brush it off.
"Alright! I’ll help you inquire!" Zhang Hong nodded.
He was efficient, and two days later, he brought back good news.
In the Zhang family courtyard, he introduced Lu Xuan to a bald mid-level Qi training cultivator.
"This is Daoist Long, a powerful cultivator," Zhang Hong said. "This is my young brother Lu, who has some talent in planting spiritual plants. He wants to learn about the unknown spiritual seed you have."
Zhang Hong introduced them, and they quickly got to the point.
"This spiritual seed was found by me in a desolate area on the outskirts of the secret realm. At that time, I discovered more than ten wild spiritual seeds, and the Wang family steward rewarded me with one," Daoist Long explained. "I haven’t figured out exactly what type it is, but judging by where I found it, it should be at least first-grade."
"If you want it, five spirit stones will do," Daoist Long said directly.
Lu Xuan took the spiritual seed from him and examined it carefully.
The seed looked like a small mushroom, dark red in color, with what appeared to be veins on its surface, slightly oozing a thick substance.
"Five spirit stones isn’t too expensive; that was the price for the Red Cloud Pine," Lu Xuan thought. "However, given how strange this seed looks, its grade and rarity must be at least equal to the Red Cloud Pine. If I knew its exact type, the price would surely be much higher."
Quickly making a decision, Lu Xuan said, "Daoist Long, I’ll take this spiritual seed."
"Lu brother is straightforward," Daoist Long replied.
They exchanged spirit stones for the spiritual seed, both smiling.
Daoist Long was pleased to get five spirit stones for an unknown wild spiritual seed, while Lu Xuan was excited about adding a rare spiritual plant to his spiritual field.
More importantly, the mature spiritual plant would bring him more White Light Orbs.
Back home, he used the Earth Summoning Technique to clear a small area in his spiritual field and planted the dark red mushroom.
As he focused his mind, detailed information about the spiritual plant flashed through his mind.
"Dark Essence Mushroom, a second-grade spiritual plant. Once matured, it can be used to refine certain body-strengthening pills or taken directly to enhance a cultivator's physique."
"This is a spiritual plant that grows in the dark; it doesn’t need light or spirit rain and prefers to stay in shadowy places, accompanied by decaying spiritual wood."
(End of Chapter)