Chapter 101: Significant Progress

More than a month later.

In the nursery of Spirit-Perching Rice, quite a few tender green shoots had already emerged.

However.

Qin Ming's brows were furrowed into the shape of the character 'Chuan'.

Because, under his powerful affinity with plants and trees, although he discovered that this batch of spiritual seeds had begun to sprout.

The majority of them, however, presented a sickly and languid state.

They were nearly at their last gasp; if no method was found to remedy them in time, it was estimated that a large patch would die off.

Qin Ming immediately consulted several books on spiritual plants and discovered this was a rare spiritual plant disease named 'Spirit-Locking Syndrome'.

The books only recorded its symptoms but offered no corresponding cure.

At this moment, Qin Ming suddenly understood; the reason Spirit-Perching Rice was so difficult to cultivate and plant was most likely because this disease accompanied it during the seedling stage, making survival difficult.

Just as Qin Ming was at his wit's end.

A flash of inspiration struck his mind.

The Wood-attribute 'Ancient Wood Longevity Art' he cultivated contained the essence of flora, the clear spiritual Qi of heaven and earth, possessing vigorous vitality and healing effects.

It should have an effect on spiritual plants as well, right?

Thinking this.

Qin Ming activated the 'Ancient Wood Longevity Art', and behind him, the green illusory figure of his Supreme Wood Dharma Body manifested.

In an instant, specks of plant essence, like a flowing tassel, followed Qin Ming's guidance and merged into those sickly seedlings.

In that very moment.

Within Qin Ming's perception, waves of joyful and exultant emotional feedback came from the Spirit-Perching Rice seedlings.

And they gradually began to recover their vitality.

"It's working!" Qin Ming's face immediately lit up with joy, and he continued to increase the output of plant essence.

Under the continuous healing of the Longevity Art, all the Spirit-Perching Rice seedlings fully recovered their vigorous vitality.

And the 'Spirit-Locking Syndrome' was eradicated.

In the days that followed.

Under Qin Ming's day-and-night unremitting irrigation with the Advanced Spiritual Rain Technique.

The spiritual seeds of Spirit-Perching Rice had been successfully cultivated by him.

And the survival rate reached as high as ninety percent.

In the nursery before his eyes, three golden entries had also refreshed.

【Name】: Spirit-Perching Rice 【Entry】: Magic Power Crystal x5 (Maturity 1%)

【Name】: Spirit-Perching Rice 【Entry】: Space-Time Leaf x5 (Maturity 1%)

【Name】: Spirit-Perching Rice 【Entry】: Beast-Taming Sutra (Maturity 1%)

It actually refreshed the Beast-Taming Sutra? It seems the matter of raising spiritual beasts must be put on the agenda.

Subsequently.

He transplanted all the Spirit-Perching Rice seedlings into the paddy fields.

Next, Qin Ming went to a nearby lake, caught several dozen spiritual fish, and released them into the spiritual rice paddies.

However, they were not the legendary Azure Dragon Spiritual Fish.

But rather common, low-grade spiritual fish.

Previously, Qin Ming had also attempted to catch an Azure Dragon Spiritual Fish, but unfortunately, he had never had the fortune to encounter one.

Since he could not catch an Azure Dragon Spiritual Fish, raising Rice-Flower Spiritual Fish for his Spirit-Perching Rice might offer a unique flavor.

After doing these things.

Qin Ming went to tend to the Spirit-Gathering Shen Shen Cha trees and the Purple-Gold Bamboo spiritual fields.

In the two spiritual plant fields, four entries had also refreshed: 【Name】: Spirit-Gathering Shen Shen Cha 【Entry】: Soul Power Crystal x5 (Maturity 5%)

【Name】: Spirit-Gathering Shen Shen Cha 【Entry】: Space-Time Leaf x5 (Maturity 6%)

【Name】: Purple-Gold Bamboo 【Entry】: Qi and Blood Crystal x5 (Maturity 7%)

【Name】: Purple-Gold Bamboo 【Entry】: Space-Time Leaf x5 (Maturity 8%)

Qin Ming looked at the lush green scenery before him and nodded slightly.

He now felt confident in his heart.

With so many 【Space-Time Leaf】 entries.

Even if he could not gather all three main ingredients required to refine a Foundation Establishment Pill, as long as he found one or two seedlings, or even spiritual seeds.

He could force them to mature.

Just as Qin Ming finished tending the spiritual fields and was about to enter his cave dwelling to cultivate, the formation outside transmitted a sensing fluctuation.

He immediately released his divine sense to investigate and discovered it was actually Shopkeeper Liao from the Mirror Jing Xue Ge who had arrived.

Qin Ming promptly lifted the formation restrictions and welcomed him inside.

The moment he entered.

Originally, Shopkeeper Liao's face wore a smiling expression.

But upon seeing Qin Ming, it turned stunned.

"Fellow Daoist Qin, what is this? Has your cultivation broken through again?"

Because Shopkeeper Liao's divine consciousness probed the magic power fluctuations on Qin Ming's body.

Yet it was like crashing headlong into a mountain range; he simply could not perceive the depth.

"I broke through by luck." "Shopkeeper Liao, has there been news regarding the spiritual materials for refining the Foundation Establishment Pill?"

Qin Ming smiled slightly and spoke; he had already roughly guessed the other party's intention.

"Fellow Daoist Qin, a True Person truly does not reveal themselves!"

"I never expected you to have left me so far behind; it truly makes me sweat with shame."

"However, given Fellow Daoist Qin's attainments in pill refining and spiritual planting, reaching this step is only logical."

Shopkeeper Liao first flattered Qin Ming for a while, then continued speaking:

"Indeed, under Fellow Daoist Qin's commission,"

"our Pavilion Master mobilized all available connections in the surrounding areas and gradually gathered a portion of spiritual materials, totaling eighteen types of auxiliary materials and two types of main materials."

"However, the age of those two main material plants is insufficient."

"I fear they cannot be used for refining pills."

"Yet since Fellow Daoist Qin specifically instructed us, we gathered them all the same."

"As for that single main material, the Jade Marrow Ganoderma, it grows only within several secret realms controlled by major sects; it is completely monopolized and nearly impossible to find traces of outside."

Upon hearing this, Qin Ming was immediately overjoyed in his heart.

He never expected the Mirror Jing Xue Ge's gathering efficiency to be so fast that they had even managed to obtain two types of main materials.

"Shopkeeper, please convey my thanks to Fellow Daoist Gu on my behalf; just continue to keep an eye out and gather the remaining materials for me."

"I will also think of a way to obtain the Jade Marrow Ganoderma."

Afterwards,

Qin Ming invited Shopkeeper Liao to sit for a while in his cave dwelling.

But when he saw that within the spiritual fields outside the cave dwelling, the Spiritual Perch Rice, Shen Shen Cha, and Purple-Gold Bamboo, all second-tier mid-grade spiritual plants, had already taken root and survived,

presenting a scene of thriving prosperity,

waves of shock surged within his heart, and his expression became extremely strange.

After taking leave of Qin Ming,

Shopkeeper Liao immediately mounted his flying artifact and rushed back without stopping to report.

The news Shopkeeper Liao brought this time truly exhilarated him immensely.

In this way, more than half of the materials needed to refine the Foundation Establishment Pill had already been gathered.

The path to Foundation Establishment lay right before his eyes!...

Qin Ming was in high spirits and immediately walked toward his innate spiritual plant, preparing to begin cultivation.

Yet he discovered with surprise

that his nest of four-winged Yin Yi Shuangfeng, under the influence of the Longevity Vine, had undergone earth-shaking changes once again.

The color of the entire bee swarm had turned into patterns of interwoven purple and black, extremely similar to the purple runes on the Longevity Vine.

They had all advanced to become first-tier mid-stage spiritual insects.

The stingers at their tails had also all transformed into void poison stingers,

extremely similar to the thorns on the vine.

And that queen bee caused Qin Ming even greater astonishment.

Unknowingly, it had actually broken through to the first-tier late-stage level! Its body size had grown another circle larger, and the wings on its body had become six wings.

Furthermore, a twisted purple rune had appeared on its forehead.

It looked majestic and imposing.

Qin Ming reached out and summoned; the queen bee immediately appeared before him.

He carefully observed this spiritual bee and discovered that it, too, emitted a mysterious light identical to that of the black vine.

"Could it be that, influenced by the Longevity Vine, it has also gained the attribute of being impervious to water and fire?" Qin Ming exclaimed in shock.

Immediately, he formed the hand seals for a basic Fireball Technique and brushed the flame against the six-winged queen bee's body.

As he expected,

the queen bee neither dodged nor avoided; the flame burned upon its body, yet it remained completely unharmed.

These spiritual bees clearly already possessed a certain degree of spell-defying capability.

However, it was not as terrifying as that of the Longevity Vine,

which feared not even the scorching of second-tier spiritual flames in the slightest.

But as time passed and development continued, perhaps their spell-defying ability would further improve.

Qin Ming was just about to return the queen bee to the beehive

when suddenly his nose twitched.

A sweet, strange fragrance drifted into his nostrils.

He immediately looked toward that clump of black beehive, which now measured one zhang in diameter.

Purple-black spiritual bees were circling around it, buzzing as they worked.

Qin Ming widened his eyes.

"Could it be..."

"Don't tell me it's royal jelly?"

(End of Chapter)