Chapter 144: Planting a Golden Lotus in Fire
"This is the trial for advancing to a second-tier upper-grade spirit planter: the Grade-A Plant Illusion Realm."
"Requirement: Within ten years inside the illusion realm, cultivate the legendary third-tier spirit plant—the Fire-Baptized Golden Lotus."
"The illusion realm provides only eight spirit seeds; if these eight are exhausted and the spirit planter still fails to grow the Golden Lotus, it signifies the trial challenge has failed."
"No wonder the difficulty is rated Grade-A, and no one has ever succeeded; it actually requires a second-tier spirit planter to successfully cultivate a third-tier spirit plant."
That was far from an ordinary level of difficulty.
Qin Ming stepped forward into the world outside.
Before him stood a stone pedestal, upon which rested quietly a withered yellow lotus pod, inside which were embedded eight golden lotus seeds brimming with astonishing spiritual rhyme, surrounded by a swirling aura of Dao.
"These are the spirit seeds of the Fire-Baptized Golden Lotus!"
Qin Ming picked up the lotus pod, carefully sensing and observing it; everything within the Plant Illusion Realm felt remarkably close to reality.
Fortunately, he had studied the inheritance of third-tier spirit planters.
Relevant information regarding the 'Fire-Baptized Golden Lotus' automatically surfaced in Qin Ming's mind.
The Fire-Baptized Golden Lotus is a third-tier lower-grade spirit plant, extremely rare, and one of the two main ingredients required to refine a Jin Dan.
Of course, the true main ingredient must be over five hundred years old; the ten years of the illusion realm trial merely suffice to initially cultivate the spirit plant to success.
Such a rare heavenly treasure is almost never seen throughout the entire Wei Kingdom Immortal Realm.
This Golden Lotus has extremely high requirements for its spiritual vein growing conditions; it not only needs a third-tier spiritual vein environment but also requires nourishment from the essence of heavenly fire, growing only within the intensely hot Core of Molten Fire.
Ordinary spirit plants, let alone growing in such an environment, would turn to ash merely by approaching it.
Qin Ming stored the spirit seeds in hand and flew toward the distant Flame Mountain Range, landing there.
He first needed to find a suitable location of molten fire before he could begin his planting plan.
After searching within the illusion realm for over half a month, Qin Ming finally found a lava cave halfway up a mountain range, where a small pool of magma churned continuously, surrounded by scattered specks of fire essence drifting in the air.
The moment Qin Ming entered, he instantly felt temperatures far more terrifying than outside.
Fortunately, his physical body was incredibly strong, and his Glazed Treasure Armor possessed the property of repelling laws, capable of isolating such scorching heat.
For ordinary spirit planters, let alone entering to plant, those with slightly weaker cultivation would simply be unable to withstand this roasting heat.
Next, following the cultivation method from that spirit planter inheritance, Qin Ming first took out a clump of black spiritual soil, which he had obtained from the nearby Flame-Heart Mountain.
Called 'Central Yellow Spiritual Soil,' this spiritual soil was quite unique, difficult for ordinary cultivators to distinguish, with its greatest function being the ability to harmonize yin and yang.
The Golden Lotus spirit seeds were still very fragile at the beginning; if placed directly into the molten rock, they would be instantly incinerated.
Therefore, during the initial cultivation phase, Central Yellow Spiritual Soil was needed to protect the spirit seeds and ensure their growth.
With everything prepared, Qin Ming wrapped one Golden Lotus spirit seed in the spiritual soil and began his first attempt at cultivation and planting.
He used his divine sense to manipulate the spiritual soil, placing it into the Core of Molten Fire.
Boom! A burst of crimson flames shot up, and a cloud of gray smoke erupted from within the spiritual soil; Qin Ming's mouth twitched, his expression turning somewhat ugly.
After preparing for so long, he hadn't expected to fail the moment he started.
He hurriedly withdrew the spiritual soil, and upon prying open the spiritual earth, he saw that the Golden Lotus spirit seed inside had already been burned to ash.
Even if he wanted to use the 【Regenerate Spirit Seed】 attribute to revive it, it was clearly impossible now. "Where exactly did things go wrong?"
"Could the steps be incorrect?"
The second cultivation attempt began.
This time, Qin Ming did not rush to place the spiritual soil directly into the molten rock; instead, he expanded his divine sense to capture the fire essence drifting in the air, then injected it into the spiritual soil.
Subsequently, he used another 【Enhanced Adaptation】 attribute, releasing it onto this spirit seed.
He closed his eyes to sense it; within the spirit seed, a wisp of crimson-gold spiritual sprout was greedily absorbing fire spiritual energy.
Gradually, it began to grow.
Qin Ming's eyes brightened, and his entire spirit was invigorated.
"It's working!" Following this, he copied the same method, continuing to capture fire essence to continuously cultivate this spirit seed.
One year later.
The Golden Lotus spirit seed had devoured a massive amount of fire essence, emitting a crimson-gold halo, and had fully adapted to the surrounding high-temperature environment.
Subsequently, Qin Ming placed the Golden Lotus spirit seed, wrapped in spiritual soil, back into the Core of Molten Fire.
This time, the spirit seed was not incinerated but gradually began to autonomously absorb the nearby fire essence.
The spiritual sprout inside also began to slowly emerge; seeing this, Qin Ming hurriedly activated the
Absorbing the plant essence transferred by Qin Ming, the Golden Lotus spirit seed began to take root within the spiritual soil.
Using this method, Qin Ming successfully cultivated all the remaining spirit seeds.
Subsequently, he planted them onto the Core of Molten Fire.
Time within the illusion realm flowed slowly.
In the blink of an eye, another five years passed.
With such an excellent opportunity for practical simulation of spirit planting, Qin Ming did not use the 【Force-Ripen】 attribute to forcibly accelerate the Golden Lotus's maturity.
Instead, throughout this process, he continuously explored, researched, and learned, which added considerable experience and realization to his future path of spirit planting.
By the sixth year, amidst the molten rock before Qin Ming, the Golden Lotus wrapped in Central Yellow Spiritual Soil began to form flower buds.
From its lotus leaves to its stem, the Fire-Baptized Golden Lotus displayed a fiery crimson-gold hue, with the entire spirit plant exhibiting a translucent quality.
After such a long period, Qin Ming had successfully cultivated a total of five spirit seeds.
Countless strands of fire essence, forming a vortex, poured into the spiritual soil; the Golden Lotus flower buds began to loosen, on the verge of blooming.
Qin Ming's expression also began to grow tense.
Just then.
Boom! The five Golden Lotus spirit plants suddenly ignited spontaneously, turning one after another into piles of black ash.
A look of astonishment appeared on Qin Ming's face.
Immediately, something came to his mind, and he murmured, "Rebirth in fire!"
The moment his voice fell.
Amidst the black ashes, five crimson-gold points of light emerged; surrounding them, fire spiritual energy like red mist, resembling tassels, plunged into them.
The points of light constantly expanded, taking root and sprouting again at an extremely rapid pace; as if shedding all superficial glamour, stalks of crimson-gold spiritual lotuses deeply rooted themselves into the molten rock below and began to grow vigorously.
At this stage, Qin Ming knew he had successfully cultivated this Fire-Rebirth Golden Lotus.
All that remained was waiting for maturity, which was merely a matter of time.
Feeling it was about time, he immediately used one 【Ripen】 entry; in the next instant, the five spiritual lotuses grew wildly, blooming into five crimson-gold lotus flowers.
A swirl of colorful, rosy light enveloped the entire molten cave space, and soul-seizing spiritual energy spread out in an instant.
"Second-tier, upper-grade, Class A plant illusion realm; assessment passed!"
A notification sounded in Qin Ming's mind.
Immediately, his face lit up with joy, and he prepared to receive the Mother Qi of Ten Thousand Trees as usual.
However.
Within the plant illusion realm, an anomaly began to occur!
At the same time.
Inside Yunze Xiancheng, at the location of the Spirit Planter Guild, the ancient wooden array left behind from remote antiquity began to tremble.
From the wooden stele representing Qin Ming's entry, a brilliant radiance emanated, piercing the sky and forming the shape of a peculiar lotus spiritual plant in the heavens.
(End of Chapter)
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