In a corner of the Spiritual Field, Lu Xuan picked the nearly healed mutated spiritual plants and stored them in his bag. He had twelve first-grade mutated spiritual plants and four second-grade spiritual plants he had bought earlier, which still needed some time to mature.
Since he didn't receive the reward of a white light orb and the plants were quite damaged, Lu Xuan didn't bother trying to improve their quality; he just wanted them to mature enough.
In his bag, he also had eleven first-grade Blood Jade Ginseng. He took his Cloud Stepping Leopard and headed to the Hundred Herbs Hall.
Upon seeing Lu Xuan, Steward He showed a hint of joy. "Young Lu, what spiritual plants have matured this time?"
"Some of the mutated spiritual plants we bought last time have healed, and I also have over ten Blood Jade Ginseng that matured from the ones I bought half a year ago, so I came to handle that."
"Of course, mainly to see you," Lu Xuan said with a smile as he accepted a cup of spirit tea from a medicine boy, thanking him.
"You're pretending to care about me, but you're really after my spirit stones. Come on," Steward He said with a chuckle.
Lu Xuan took out the twelve healed mutated spiritual plants and placed them on the counter. Steward He carefully assessed their quality. They were mostly of low to ordinary quality, so the price was a bit lower than normal first-grade spiritual plants. Lu Xuan received nearly two hundred spirit stones in exchange.
"And I have eleven Blood Jade Ginseng," Lu Xuan said, waving his hand. Eleven Blood Jade Ginseng appeared on the counter, each one looking like a translucent red jade, radiating a rich and pure spiritual energy.
"This is..." The thin old man had been handling spiritual plants for many years and immediately recognized the exceptional quality of these Blood Jade Ginseng. He held them carefully, examining them closely.
"Top quality, quite rare. Many spiritual plant cultivators have never managed to cultivate Blood Jade Ginseng of this quality," he said.
"Good quality, not bad."
"And there's even one of perfect quality?" Steward He couldn't help but glance at Lu Xuan, who was lazily sipping tea beside him. He found it hard to believe that this young man could cultivate a first-grade spiritual plant of perfect quality.
While Lu Xuan had previously brought several perfect quality Spirit Firefly Grass, growing a first-grade spiritual plant of perfect quality was much more difficult. Steward He focused and organized the Blood Jade Ginseng on the counter.
"Among the eleven Blood Jade Ginseng, six are of good quality, four are of top quality, and one is of perfect quality."
"Good quality is twenty-five spirit stones each, top quality is twenty-seven, and the perfect one is thirty. What do you think?"
"Sounds good, you can decide," Lu Xuan waved his hand, indicating he trusted the old man’s judgment.
"Totaling two hundred eighty-eight spirit stones. Here you go," Steward He quickly calculated and handed over all the spirit stones to Lu Xuan.
Lu Xuan smiled as he accepted a small pile of spirit stones and placed them in his bag. With the over two hundred spirit stones from the twelve first-grade mutated spiritual plants, his wealth had now exceeded eight hundred spirit stones. Among loose cultivators, that was quite a fortune.
"I never realized you had such a natural talent for cultivating spiritual plants. You managed to grow a first-grade spiritual plant of perfect quality," Steward He remarked.
"No wonder you exchanged for the method to refine spirit seeds from the young lady a couple of days ago. Looks like you have big ambitions," he teased.
"What ambitions? I'm just an ordinary spiritual plant cultivator who spends day and night growing plants," Lu Xuan replied with a grin.
"The only ambition I have is to cultivate more and better spiritual plants."
"Ah, you're young but have given up on cultivation, not competing with others for opportunities, and focusing entirely on spiritual plants. I don't know whether to call you pure-hearted or just stubborn," the thin old man sighed.
"However, with your talent for cultivating spiritual plants, even if your cultivation level is average, many forces will still want to recruit you. You'll be quite popular in their eyes."
After chatting for a while, Steward He suddenly said, "After I returned to the hall with the young lady last time, she instructed me that if there are any good spirit seeds or young spiritual plants, you should be given priority, on the same level as the spiritual plant cultivators directly trained by the hall."
Lu Xuan nodded, understanding that as a free cooperative cultivator, he wouldn't have as much selection power as those in the Hundred Herbs Hall. Good spirit seeds and young plants would first be considered for the hall's garden and only then sold at a low price to free cultivators.
According to the old man, while his cooperation with the Hundred Herbs Hall remained unchanged, his rights to select spirit seeds and young plants had increased a bit.
"Do you have any good recommendations, Elder He?" Lu Xuan asked.
"I have several first-grade spirit seeds of good quality. You can choose according to your needs. Also, I happen to have a few second-grade young spiritual plants called Copper Bone Bamboo. What do you think?"
Lu Xuan pondered for a moment. He didn't need many first-grade plants right now; he already had over a hundred Spirit Firefly Grass and wanted to try growing Blood Jade Ginseng himself. Since there wasn't much area left in his spiritual field, he decided to focus on quality rather than quantity.
"Then please, Elder He, get me those second-grade Copper Bone Bamboo."
Before long, the old man brought out five small purple-red bamboos. The surface of the bamboos gleamed like metal, with dark golden joints.
"This is the second-grade Copper Bone Bamboo. It's excellent material for crafting artifacts, especially flying swords. When ground into powder, it can also be added to some special pills," Steward He explained.
"If you buy Copper Bone Bamboo seedlings elsewhere, it would cost about forty to fifty spirit stones each. Since you have a cooperative relationship with the hall, you can take them for thirty-five spirit stones each."
"Great, I'll take all five," Lu Xuan said generously, feeling wealthy.
He handed Steward He one hundred seventy-five spirit stones and received the five second-grade Copper Bone Bamboo seedlings.
The Hundred Herbs Hall wasn't far from his home, so moving the Copper Bone Bamboo seedlings wouldn't affect their vitality much. Plus, since the third-grade life bags were quite noticeable, Lu Xuan simply put them in a cloth bag, said goodbye to the old man, and headed home.
At the Wang family.
"Father, according to the news from the new secret realm, our family's cultivators have begun to access the core area of the realm, but the restrictions inside are too strong, making progress slow."
"Also, a very troublesome evil spirit has appeared in the secret realm. It can wear the skins of dead cultivators and disguise itself, making it indistinguishable from ordinary cultivators, causing many unnecessary casualties."
The handsome young man, Wang Chong'an, reported to the head of the Wang family.
"It seems the family can't monopolize the secret realm. Spread the news and invite other families and forces in the market town to join in, so they can work together to break the restrictions and share the benefits."
"As for those evil spirits, don't your two spirit beasts excel at detecting and tracking them? Go invite them to explore the secret realm together and clean up those evil spirits along the way."
"Understood," Wang Chong'an replied respectfully.
(End of Chapter)