Born with immortal seed

Chapter 3 Predecessor's Cave
"As my uncle said, refining weapons and alchemy require huge initial investments, and even more so, the guidance of a master. It might take five or six years of trial and error to even get a real grasp of the basics, let alone make a living from it. But after observing the spiritual plant mastery today, I see great potential in it, so let's start with that!"

Because of the Xuanmo Bamboo, the Bai family attaches great importance to spiritual plants, and there are no fewer than a hundred books related to spiritual plants within the clan.

In particular, there are complete cultivation methods for various types of spirit bamboo, including multiple methods for stimulating the spirit bamboo to advance its level.

Once an ordinary black bamboo becomes a low-grade first-tier Xuanmo bamboo, a complete plant can be sold for thirty-five spirit stones. And if it is cultivated for more than ten years, there is a very small chance that the Xuanmo bamboo will be upgraded again and become a mid-grade first-tier spirit plant, in which case a single plant can be exchanged for one hundred and fifty spirit stones.

The reason is simple: first-grade mid-level Xuanmo bamboo can already be used to refine the lowest-grade flying swords, so its value has naturally skyrocketed.

Even though the ink bamboo swords are considered low-grade among first-tier flying swords and have the disadvantage of being relatively fragile compared to metal flying swords, they are still the best-selling specialty of the Bai family, without exception. Many Bai family cultivators use ink bamboo flying swords themselves.

The most ordinary flying sword magic weapon sells for around five hundred spirit stones in the market shops set up by the Qingfeng Sect.

If it were an ordinary rogue cultivator, there would be many who, by sheer luck, managed to reach the late stage of Qi Refining but would be reluctant to purchase a flying sword.

Above the first-tier mid-grade Xuanmo Bamboo, there is still a one in ten million chance that this spiritual bamboo will mutate, but in the Bai family's hundreds of years of cultivation, it has only happened a few times. Five times it became first-tier high-grade Tortoise Shell Bamboo, and two times it became second-tier mid-grade Sacred Sound Bamboo.

With so many cultivators in the Bai family, who have cultivated and planted crops generation after generation, and with auxiliary spells like the Yi Mu Qing Shen Technique, the number of recorded mutations is only a handful.

First-grade high-quality tortoise-shell bamboo is one thing, but second-grade spiritual plants and first-grade spiritual plants are not the same thing. Don't be fooled by the small difference in grade; their value is worlds apart.

Moreover, Sacred Sound Bamboo is a rather rare spiritual bamboo, which can be used as the main material for both refining flying swords and spiritual weapons.

One of the two mutated Sacred Sound Bamboos that appeared in the history of the Bai family was auctioned off at the market as the final item, fetching a sky-high price of four thousand spirit stones.

The remaining plant was kept as a family heirloom by the Bai family and has been planted safely in the central area of ​​the clan's territory where the spiritual energy is most abundant.

"Two spirit stones a year, four thousand spirit stones, it would take a full two thousand years to earn that much on welfare. Hmm, being a spirit plant master is quite a lucrative job!"

A scroll lay open before Bai Zichen, the very manual for cultivating the Yi Mu Qing Shen Technique. Originally, it contained only a few hundred words and a few illustrations, but the margins were filled with dense annotations added by later generations—the cultivation insights of Bai family elders who had read the manual. These tiny annotations, totaling no less than ten thousand words, practically covered the entire margin.

Strangely enough, the Yi Mu Qing Shen Technique, such a unique and magical auxiliary spell, although it does not benefit cultivation or combat in any way, is obviously helpful in the cultivation of spiritual plants. Over time, many families in the surrounding area have become covetous of it and have used all sorts of means, both openly and secretly, to try to obtain the secret manual.

As the saying goes, there are no secrets that stay hidden forever. With soft methods like marriage alliances and hard methods like kidnapping and assassination, the secret manual of the Yi Mu Qing Shen Technique was inevitably leaked.

However, it is said that no matter how many people the family that obtained the Yi Mu Qing Shen Technique tried to cultivate this technique, they could not find a way to master it.

Either they couldn't even get the basics right, or they spent a lot of time trying, but the effects of the Yi Mu Qing Shen Technique were far less than expected, completely failing to deliver the miraculous results expected by members of the Bai family. After much thought, they could only conclude that this unique spell could only be successfully mastered by members of the Bai family.

This situation is rare but not unheard of. There is a legend that there is a bloodline magic that can only be practiced by the bloodline descendants of the founder.

After this incident, these families began to adopt a conciliatory approach, regarding Bai family daughters as highly sought-after, and came to propose marriage or recruit Bai family sons as their sons-in-law.

Since the Yi Mu Qing Shen Technique is considered a remarkable technique by many cultivation families, Bai Zichen naturally wouldn't leave empty-handed after entering a treasure trove. He immediately made this technique the foundation of his cultivation path and planned to spend the last few years before adulthood studying it thoroughly.

This technique is not ranked. According to Bai Jiu'an, even if a Qi Refining cultivator can use it three to five times a day after entering the initial stage, the effect depends on the depth of their magical power and the degree of their mastery of this technique.

Bai Zichen held the thick book and studied it for three to five days. He went from being completely confused at the beginning to gradually gaining some understanding. He started to get the hang of the magic power circulation by following the annotations in the manual. A faint green light flickered at his fingertip, but unfortunately it went out in an instant.

"Could it be that I have a special talent for magical arts?"

Bai Zichen was greatly encouraged. If he could master the Yi Wood Azure God Technique within seven days, he would rank among the top three in the Bai family's history, greatly increasing the probability of cultivating advanced spiritual plants in the future.

Unfortunately, the progress made his joy last only a few days. The faint emerald light remained unchanged for more than ten days, and he was still unable to take the final step to truly master the Yi Wood Azure God Technique, which made Bai Zichen's expectations lower and lower.

By the twenty-seventh day, he began to wonder if it was because of the transmigration that his soul was not a descendant of the Bai family patriarch, which was why he was unable to learn this spiritual plant-assisted spell.

"Brother Chen, come quick! Something big has happened in the clan! Don't stay cooped up at home!" A chubby boy rushed outside and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Bai Ying, what are you shouting for?"

Bai Zichen walked out of the house with a frown. It had been more than a month since he had mastered the Yi Mu Qing Shen Technique, which made him feel frustrated and his mood was not good. The initial excitement of successfully refining Qi had long since dissipated.

In his previous life, he believed that cultivating immortality meant soaring through the heavens on a sword and plucking stars from the sky, not getting bogged down in a single auxiliary spell.

If it weren't for the adult soul residing in my body, I would have been like the chubby boy, spending my days catching fish, chasing dogs, and generally playing around. I wouldn't have had the patience to ponder this so deeply.

Bai Ying, the chubby boy, is about the same age as Bai Zichen. Both of his parents are cultivators in the mid-stage of Qi Refining, so after his spiritual root was detected, he also moved into the clan early on.

The large-scale spirit-guiding ceremony for testing the spiritual roots of mortals this year has not yet begun. There are not many boys of the same age in the clan. Bai Ying, who likes excitement, runs to Fufeng Ridge every few days and quickly becomes familiar with them.

"Brother Chen, this is a really big event. Come with me to the main peak to see what's going on. My father said yesterday when he came back that the clan leader is going to hold a clan meeting in the next couple of days!"

The chubby old man was in charge of a merchant caravan within the clan, mainly responsible for purchasing large quantities of ordinary goods each year, as well as some of the Bai family's products, for trade with other cultivation families. He also frequently traveled to the Qingfeng Sect's market to buy and sell goods. Therefore, it's not surprising that he had a wide network of contacts outside and could know some important information in advance.

"A clan-wide assembly? Is it because one of the elders is attempting to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage, or has another Tortoise-Shell Bamboo been born in the clan?"

Upon hearing that a clan-wide assembly was to be convened, Bai Zichen's expression turned serious. It was normal for a Qi Refining stage cultivator to go into seclusion for months or even years at a time, so a clan-wide assembly that required the attendance of more than 80% of the clan's cultivators would not occur once every few years.

Anyway, from the notes he found on the bookshelf, he saw that these meetings were only held when something major happened that would affect the direction of the Bai family for decades to come.

He mentioned two possibilities, both of which could be positive, but they could also mean that the family is in big trouble.

"No, that's not it. My father said that last month, a few rogue cultivators discovered a cave dwelling in the mountains. Judging from the array setup, it was at least left behind by a Foundation Establishment cultivator, or even possibly by a Golden Core cultivator. Currently, cultivators from all over Black Mountain County are rushing there. It's going to be an extraordinary opportunity!"

"The cave dwellings of our predecessors!"

Bai Zichen's eyes lit up. The Bai family patriarch was able to establish his foundation by relying on resources left behind by a rogue cultivator who passed away hundreds of years ago. Such stories often occurred in the Black Mountain Range, nine times out of ten they were true. But the fact that a clan-wide assembly was being held showed that the clan had already verified the authenticity of this matter.

Kung Fu!
treasure!

Pill!

Every time a similar event occurs, it stirs up the waters of Black Mountain County, with countless cultivators fighting and battling, ultimately producing one or two lucky individuals.

Moreover, the cave dwelling suspected to be the site of a Golden Core cultivator is only a five or six-day journey from the Bai family's territory. No matter what the Bai family thinks, they can no longer remain uninvolved in this matter.

(End of this chapter)