Chapter 174: Doing Nothing, Yet Nothing Left Undone

After the two Seven-Star Golden Toads each swallowed a plump, fat bug, they seemed full; they opened their mouths to let out a burp, spat out a puff of cyan Qi, and then crawled back into their nests to lie down, close their eyes, and doze off, motionless.

Not bad, they're full after eating one or two; they seem quite easy to raise.

Xu Chen breathed a sigh of relief, stood up, and prepared to carefully inspect the Medicine Garden again with his naked eye, in case there were other changes he hadn't noticed.

However, just as he was about to leave, he suddenly felt his ankle being wrapped by something again.

Looking down, it was that elusive, dog-like, snake-headed monster plant again.

One head was wrapped around Xu Chen's leg, while the other two heads were raised high, looking at Xu Chen with eager eyes; although the situation looked terrifying, Xu Chen's state of mind was calm as could be.

From start to finish, he hadn't detected any malice from this snake-headed monster plant; it just looked creepy.

Every time Xu Chen came to see the Seven-Star Golden Toads, it would always emerge silently and wrap around him, its goal being to beg for a Taiyuan Soul-Entering Pill to eat.

Xu Chen had already taken out the medicine bottle, but a strange thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.

The medicinal ingredients for the Taiyuan Soul-Entering Pill were all very ordinary, all First Stage Spirit Medicines, and their value was not high; relative to the origins of these strange plants, they certainly wouldn't have much appeal, so what must attract it most was surely the white Qi within the Spirit Pill.

What would the effect be if he fed this snake-headed plant a little bit of white Qi directly?

Xu Chen's eyes suddenly lit up, and he decided to try it immediately.

So Xu Chen squatted down, pressed his finger onto a plump, snake-head-like leaf, and with a pull of his Divine Sense, guided a wisp of faint white Qi from the Blue Light Treasure Bottle in his Sea of Consciousness onto the snake-head leaf.

In reality, Xu Chen's Divine Sense could not penetrate the bodies of these strange plants at all, so he only saw a faint white light flash slightly on the snake-head leaf; the three snake heads trembled violently and then suddenly tangled together, as if twisted into a rope, and the three snake-head-like leaves really did open their fist-sized mouths like snakes, competing to suck in this wisp of white Qi.

"Whoosh—"

The soil across the entire ground fluctuated and churned instantly; the snake-headed plant actually grew significantly taller from the soil, and cyan, gold, and red spirit light flickered, surging from the three snake heads down the leaf stalks to the roots; in the blink of an eye, a root section resembling a mushroom stalk was exposed by a large margin.

And in Xu Chen's Divine Sense perception, the aura of the snake-headed plant also increased sharply, and its colors seemed to become much more vivid and clear in an instant.

It took a full half-cup of tea's time before the snake-headed plant slowly hid back into the soil, leaving only the three snake-head-like leaves exposed, but they remained tangled together, shaking their heads and wagging their tails, constantly emitting spirit light, just like they were drunk.

Xu Chen was both suspicious and delighted.

It seems this strange plant was indeed interested in the white Qi refined by the Blue Light Treasure Bottle.

Since the snake-headed plant could do it, could other plants do it too?

These strange and peculiar plants had been growing in the Medicine Garden for over half a year; although they had consumed a large amount of Spirit Stones and were constantly growing, Xu Chen had no idea when they would actually grow to maturity.

At present, the tallest grapevine had already covered the Soul Returning Wood, and its lush, leafy appearance looked very pleasing, but in reality, there were no signs of flowering or fruiting at all, and it was still growing non-stop.

As for those plants that looked like corn or grain, it was the same; the stalks had already grown taller than a person, but they were still continuing to grow, with no intention of heading or bearing fruit.

If it were only like this for half a year or a year, Xu Chen would still have the interest and confidence to keep raising them.

But if it stayed like this for three or five years, he feared he would slowly lose interest.

However, this sudden whim of an experiment today seemed to have allowed him to find a new method to quickly ripen these plants.

Therefore, Xu Chen directly released his Divine Sense to cover the entire Medicine Garden, and then with a pull of his Divine Sense, a wisp of thin white Qi landed on every plant.

And this move was like poking a hornet's nest.

The plants in the entire Medicine Garden began to shake violently, as if a group of Demon Beasts were swallowing clouds and spitting mist, breathing heavily; many plants even whipped their branches, leaves, and vines around, their leaves fluttering as if they were fighting—it was a terrifying scene of demons dancing in a frenzy.

Xu Chen was dumbfounded.

Damn it, these plants could actually move.

He had always thought these plants were similar to ordinary plants, and that only the three-leaf snake-headed plant was an exception.

But he was wrong; these plants were just putting on an act, and in reality, they were monsters through and through.

For a moment, Xu Chen felt a strange, inexplicable hint of nervousness in his heart.

But soon, his curiosity completely swept away this hint of nervousness.

Ever since his Soul merged with the Blue Light Treasure Bottle, he rarely felt fear or dread; no matter what situation he faced, he had a sense of confidence that it was nothing more than this.

In common parlance, his cultivation realm was trash, but his guts were huge.

Although these plants were mysterious and demonic in origin, he had never felt any hostility from them; even if they were demonic, compared to the terrifying Mysterious Water Nether Lotus from before, they were just like well-behaved babies.

So Xu Chen directly silently operated the Demon Refining Art, and instantly, thunder light exploded at the bottom of the Blue Light Treasure Bottle; a large amount of white Qi gushed out from the bottle's mouth and, guided by Xu Chen's Divine Sense, permeated the entire Medicine Garden.

At this, all the plants became even more restless and frantic; as they danced wildly and greedily devoured and absorbed the white Qi, waves of incomparably vigorous life force surged upward, and their sizes also increased rapidly; in the blink of an eye, the entire Medicine Garden seemed to explode, with colorful spirit light soaring into the sky, rolling and flickering within the white mist.

The grape-like plant vines desperately wrapped and climbed onto the Soul Returning Wood like pythons.

The grain that looked like corn also kept shooting up, with new leaves constantly appearing.

Even the snake-headed monster plant that had been in a state of intoxication was awakened, crawling back out from the soil; its three snake-head leaves shook wildly in all directions, like pythons tossing and growing, and soon its height exceeded one zhang.

And those bugs that had been gnawing on the leaves also stopped eating; they also raised their heads to swallow the white Qi, and while their bodies grew larger, their colors changed constantly, and soon some bugs began to spit silk and spin cocoons.

The area around the Medicine Garden moved without wind, and a large amount of Spirit Qi began to gather toward the Medicine Garden; within the permeating white mist, cyan Spirit Qi began to condense and churn, actually turning into wisps of spirit mist that wrapped the entire Medicine Garden within it.

"Ribbit~ Ribbit~"

The two Seven-Star Golden Toads that had already eaten their fill were also stimulated by this abundant Spirit Qi and white Qi to become restless, emitting deafening croaks.

Xiaobai hid behind Xu Chen, its pair of red eyes staring intently at the changes before it, while also opening its mouth to breathe deeply, its snow-white fur trembling like waves.

"Wuya~"

In less than ten breaths of time, the little fox let out a weak cry, and then *thump*, it collapsed to the ground.

Xu Chen was startled and immediately realized what was happening; he hurriedly stopped the Demon Refining Art, the released white Qi stopped instantly, and then he used his Yuan Qi to scoop up the little fox and the two golden toads, taking them out of the Medicine Garden to watch from far away by the waterfall pool.

As the white Qi dissipated, the commotion in the entire Medicine Garden soon subsided.

All the plants stopped moving, and it seemed as if everything had returned to its original state.

But in reality, after this round of white Qi infusion that lasted no more than ten-odd breaths, all the plants had grown nearly double in size.

The Medicine Garden, which usually looked quite spacious, was now packed full of these colorful, strange plants.

The entire Medicine Garden was shrouded in cyan Spirit Qi, and the spirit mist that had gathered into a mass did not dissipate, but instead became thicker and thicker.

A powerful aura broke through the air, and in an instant, a thin, tall old man with gray hair and beard stood beside Xu Chen.

"Master!"

Xu Chen knew that such a large commotion certainly couldn't be hidden from the sect, but he hadn't expected Xuanhe Zhenren to arrive so quickly.

"What happened? What are these things?"

Looking at the bizarre changes in the Medicine Garden, Xuanhe Zhenren was completely bewildered and shocked.

Xu Chen also knew he could not explain it clearly, so he could only shake his head and say he did not know either, only stating that ever since the Soul Returning Wood died, the Medicine Garden began to grow these strange, colorful plants; wanting to figure out what these plants were, he often used Spirit Stones as fertilizer to nurture them, and today he had simply used a few more Spirit Stones, never expecting it would cause such a huge commotion.

At this moment, on Zhaoyang Peak, one after another, Escape Lights came whistling in, and soon the Second Senior Sister, Third Senior Brother, Fifth Senior Brother, and a group of other senior brothers and sisters—excluding Zhao Xuan who was in seclusion—all arrived.

Although the Medicine Garden had grown many strange plants, in reality, only Xu Chen, Zhao Xuan, and the Seventh Senior Sister Qu Mei knew about it.

Everyone was usually busy with their own cultivation, and with nothing to do on ordinary days, no one ran to the already abandoned Medicine Garden.

The sounds of chickens and dogs are heard, yet they live and die without visiting one another.

This is a portrayal of the relationship between villages among the common folk.

But in the world of immortal cultivation, this situation is actually even more pronounced.

Let alone between sects, even among fellow disciples, everyone usually focuses on their own cultivation and their own affairs, rarely visiting one another.

Not to mention that Taiyuan Sect had been plagued by one major or minor event after another over the past half-year; the Black Wind leakage and the Soul Beasts alone were enough to keep people busy and overwhelmed.

Furthermore, the most incredible thing was that while these strange plants looked odd to the naked eye, they actually had the function of shielding Divine Sense; if one observed them with Divine Sense, one would basically see no difference, as there were no fluctuations of Spirit Qi, and naturally, one could not tell them apart from the surrounding plants, and since Divine Sense cannot distinguish natural colors but only Spirit Light, this large patch of bizarre plants had grown in Taiyuan Sect for over half a year without a fourth person ever discovering it.

However, just now, under the stimulation of the white gas, the Spirit Light surged and flickered amidst the violent growth of these plants, and coupled with the massive amount of Spirit Qi suddenly converging from all directions, it caused intense Spirit Qi fluctuations, so the entire Taiyuan Sect naturally discovered the commotion very quickly.

At this time, the senior brothers and sisters who arrived one after another were likewise so shocked by these strange plants in the Medicine Garden that their mouths hung open, and they asked Xu Chen one after another what exactly had happened.

Xu Chen had no choice but to take the words he had just used to deal with his Master, Xuanhe Zhenren, and repeat them several times.

After listening, the group of senior brothers and sisters felt it was even more incredible and began to discuss and speculate about the origins of these bizarre plants.

"Sect Leader, do you think these things might be poisonous?" the Third Senior Brother asked, filled with suspicion and uncertainty.

Xuanhe Zhenren's head was also buzzing, and he dared not draw any conclusions.

Because he had already carefully inspected these plants with his Divine Sense, and apart from discovering that they possessed a powerful life force and faint Spirit Light that occasionally flickered and flowed like liquid light within their branches and stems, he could not sense any threatening aspects.

But even so, based on his hundreds of years of experience and knowledge, he felt that these plants were definitely extraordinary and belonged to the category of things that could not be easily defined or explained.

Therefore, after his expression shifted for a long time, Xuanhe Zhenren said: "This matter still requires observation; everyone must not spread this outside for now. I will first set up a Concealment Array for the Medicine Garden to avoid it being discovered by outsiders."

Having said that, Xuanhe Zhenren took out an Array Disk the size of a palm from his Storage Bag, tapped it lightly with his finger, and the Array Disk turned into a five-colored radiance that fell into the Medicine Garden; then, he formed hand seals and pointed into the air around the Medicine Garden several times, the eyes of the crowd blurred, the light and shadow of the array faded, and the Medicine Garden, which had been full of colorful and bizarre plants, instantly turned into an ordinary, desolate slope covered in trees and weeds.

However, this was only what was seen with the naked eye; if one's Divine Sense were strong enough, one could still discover that this was merely an ordinary Illusion Array.

Compared to the area of over a hundred miles across the several mountain peaks of Taiyuan Sect, this two or three mu of desolate slope would certainly not be noticed, unless it were the all-penetrating, powerful Divine Sense of a Danyuan Realm expert or a Spirit Realm Great Cultivator who could discover the difference.

But this was inside Taiyuan Sect, which had a simple mountain-protecting array that could shield Divine Sense, so generally speaking, no experts dared to casually use their Divine Sense to peek or run wild in Taiyuan Sect at the moment.

And cultivators at the Zhenyuan Realm and below could not break an Illusion Array set up by a Danyuan Realm expert.

Of course, except for that freak, Xu Chen.

He could basically ignore the shielding effect of this array; in his eyes, there was no difference, at most it would just consume a little bit of Divine Sense and vital energy.

Xu Chen was actually very clear that the changes in the medicine field would sooner or later be discovered by people in the sect.

And what surprised him was that this matter had only been discovered by his Master today, which was truly quite incredible.

After all, this was right under the noses of his Master and the Supreme Elder, Xuan Chen Zhenjun.

It shows how dull and simple the lives of immortal cultivators are; any external affairs or objects, as long as they have nothing to do with oneself, can be ignored and disregarded entirely.

Just like how he had been on the mountain for six years and still did not know about the past matters between the Seventh Senior Sister and the Fourth Senior Brother, nor did he know about small gossip like the Eldest Senior Brother liking the Seventh Senior Sister.

A heart without desire finds its own peace; only those whose lives are sufficiently simple and pure can have a sufficiently transparent and tranquil inner self.

Thus, the Dao Scripture says: In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired. In the pursuit of the Dao, every day something is dropped. Drop and drop again, until one reaches non-action. By non-action, there is nothing left undone.

(End of this chapter)