"Finally home."
Lu Xuan stood in front of the gate of his courtyard, filled with emotions.
"Fortunately, there are still good people in the cultivation world who brought me back to the market town."
After encountering the first three cultivators, he met two more groups, each one friendly and insistent on giving him their storage bags.
It was only after meeting the fourth pair of cultivators that they agreed to take Lu Xuan back to Linyang Market Town.
On the way back, without the second-tier Iron Feather Eagle to ride on, their speed slowed down a lot. It took Lu Xuan and the others four or five days to reach the market town.
With a creak, the gate opened, and a familiar aura of spiritual energy filled the courtyard. Lu Xuan took a deep breath, feeling at peace.
"Lu Dao You, you’re finally back."
A familiar voice came from not far away.
Lu Xuan turned to see Wu Wenjing standing at the door, his eyes a bit glazed as he looked at him.
"I heard you went to that new secret realm. I was worried I’d lose a drinking buddy! It’s good to see you back safe."
The old man said with a smile.
"I had no choice; the Wang family cultivators invited me, and I had to agree."
Lu Xuan replied helplessly.
"There were indeed a few small incidents in the secret realm, but thankfully, nothing serious, and I returned safely."
"By the way, Wu Dao You, while I was away, did anyone come by my courtyard?"
Wu Wenjing shook his head to clear it and thought for a moment.
"A boy with the surname Zhang came by to play, and the old steward from Hundred Herbs Hall came by almost every day. Other than that, I didn’t see anyone else."
"Good, thank you, Wu Dao You. Let me tidy up in my room first, and then I’ll come find you for a drink."
Lu Xuan smiled as he thought of Zhang Xiuyuan and Steward He.
Entering the courtyard, he didn’t have time to sit down and rest. He headed straight for the spiritual field.
In the spiritual field, mist swirled around.
The straw puppet noticed someone intruding and turned its large gray head to look.
After sensing Lu Xuan's presence, it froze for a moment, then resumed its patrol, moving with a noticeably lighter step.
Lu Xuan scanned the entire spiritual field. Everything seemed normal, and he finally felt relieved as he approached the spiritual spring pool.
In the clear pool, four young Iron-Claw Crabs occupied their corners, blowing transparent bubbles.
After more than ten days without feeding, Lu Xuan noticed that the crabs’ abdomens had flattened quite a bit.
The most lively one, with bulging eyes, noticed Lu Xuan's upper body leaning over and raised its large, scissor-like claws, snapping them defiantly.
"Very good, you’re still the same Iron-Claw Crab as before, not a bit changed."
Lu Xuan looked at the crab that was challenging him, feeling very pleased.
In the center of the spiritual spring pool, surrounded by a mudstone wall, the Pure Snow Lotus had quietly grown a pure white lotus pod in the past ten days, and he could faintly see the shape of lotus seeds inside.
"This is a pleasant surprise."
Lu Xuan focused on the Pure Snow Lotus and saw that the progress bar was only a small distance from being completely filled, making him very happy.
Before he left, he had harvested all the Spirit Firefly Grass and put the third-tier Phantom Smoke Fruit and Flood Dragon Vine into the life bag. So, aside from the first-tier Pure Snow Lotus, he only had three second-tier Pure Wondrous Teas and five Copper Bone Bamboos.
Additionally, there were four previously acquired mutated second-tier spiritual plants in the corner.
After more than ten days without proper nurturing, the Pure Wondrous Teas and Copper Bone Bamboos were not in great condition.
Lu Xuan quickly scooped a bowl of spiritual spring water from the pool and poured it over the old roots of the Pure Wondrous Tea. He then took a handful of fine iron powder from his storage bag and sprinkled it around the Copper Bone Bamboo.
After tending to the spiritual plants in the field, Lu Xuan opened the life bag, and the Cloud Stepping Leopard jumped out onto the ground with a solid thump.
"Roar..."
It stretched its limbs and let out a soft sound.
During the trip to the secret realm, it had spent most of its time in the life bag, and its joints felt stiff.
Lu Xuan took out the Phantom Smoke Fruit and Flood Dragon Vine from the life bag.
Having been in there for so long, both still had plenty of life left.
He replanted them in the spiritual field, focusing on these two third-tier spiritual plants.
The Phantom Smoke Fruit quickly released white smoke from inside, expanding and hiding the misty spiritual fruit.
As for the Flood Dragon Vine, Lu Xuan sensed its strong craving for snake blood from its vines, so he quickly took out some Blood Python blood and poured it generously over the dark vines.
The vines eagerly absorbed the mixed red and green Blood Python blood, and before long, the previously withered vines slowly came back to life, moving like a venomous snake. The surface of the vines showed red and green patterns, adding to their strange allure.
After nurturing the spiritual plants, Lu Xuan returned to his room to tally up the gains from this trip.
This time, he went to the secret realm to help the Wang family identify and separate spiritual plants. Although there were some unexpected events along the way, he gained a lot.
One of the biggest gains was the five Ghostface Stone Mushrooms that had fallen into a dormant state.
To get five third-tier spiritual plants all at once was great, but he still needed to crush them and refine them to wake them up.
The appearance and cultivation method of the Ghostface Stone Mushroom hinted at something sinister, but Lu Xuan didn’t mind much.
After trying to feed it some spiritual fruits to discover its true nature, he thought that if given the chance, he might even want to raise a small evil spirit.
Additionally, there were dozens of Dragon Whisker Grasses that had been initially processed, likely hiding many mutated plants, and he still needed to separate the mutated strands from the normal Dragon Whisker Grass.
Lu Xuan had long had a complete method for identification and separation, allowing him to quickly filter out the normal Dragon Whisker Grass.
Second-tier spiritual plants could be exchanged for a good number of spirit stones.
Speaking of spirit stones, he had received part of the payment from the Wang family, which was one hundred spirit stones, and there were over two hundred spirit stones in Li Jianfeng's storage bag, along with more than two hundred spirit stones from several other cultivators. Lu Xuan's wealth had just barely crossed one thousand spirit stones.
In addition, there were two second-tier artifacts, several storage bags, various first-tier talismans, first-tier pills, and a pile of low-grade monster materials, spiritual herbs, and medicines.
There was also that strange sword sheath, which seemed to have been attracted by the Xun Thunder Sword Pill inside him. It hadn’t made a sound in the past few days.
However, the fact that it could attract both an evil spirit and a foundation-building cultivator meant it was likely a remarkable treasure.
Finally, there was the so-called Qingyun Order left for him by the cold female cultivator, which would allow cultivators to join the Heavenly Sword Sect more easily.
"No wonder so many loose cultivators are eager to explore secret realms and compete for opportunities; the benefits are just too great."
"But there are also significant risks hidden within. Evil spirits can invade, and there are cultivators with ulterior motives, so one careless move could lead to danger."
"It’s better to quietly nurture spiritual plants."
Lu Xuan couldn’t help but sigh.
(End of Chapter)