Trial Planting (2)

Chen Feng uncorked the small porcelain bottle, carefully poured a tiny seed into his palm, and then replaced the cork. He gently placed the seed into the small pit. Guan Yu quickly scooped a spoonful of purple wonton from the bamboo tube and added it to the pit. Chen Feng swiftly covered it with soil, while Guan Yu scooped a spoonful of water from a bucket nearby and poured it over the seed.

After doing this, the two exhaled, subconsciously wiping their dry foreheads, and slowly stood up. All four pairs of eyes, including the white fox's, were fixed on the small patch of ground that had been soaked by water.

After a long while, the small patch of land still didn't react, which was a bit abnormal. Chen Feng and Guan Yu looked at each other, Yue Qianchou frowned and said, "How could this be? Have you noticed anything unusual about the purple chaos and the water here while you were planting flowers?"

Chen Feng shook his head and said, "No."

"Look, there's a reaction!" Guan Yu exclaimed in surprise.

Several cracks quietly appeared on the small patch of ground that had been moistened, and everyone watched with delight. But after a long wait, they saw a slight reaction: a tiny white sprout emerged and began to grow very slowly. This speed was almost negligible compared to the growth rate of flowers.

"It's too slow, how could this be?" Yue Qianchou frowned and said, "Is there any way to make it grow faster?"

"Yes," Guan Yu replied, staring at the tender sprout. "Adding more purple chaos should speed things up. Boss, should we add some?"

Yue Qianchou sighed and said, "Add! There are still nine seeds left. At worst, we can just waste one."

Guan Yu nodded and pulled a thin bamboo tube from his belt. Yue Qianchou took a closer look and saw that it was a piston-shaped bamboo tube made using the principle of a syringe from his previous life. He couldn't help but smile. It seemed that these two guys had gained experience in growing flowers and must have done a lot to accelerate their growth.

With Chen Feng's help, purple chaos was poured into the bamboo tube. Guan Yu knelt down and carefully inserted the slender end into the soil under the white sprout. Then he slowly pressed down the wooden handle at the other end. As all the purple chaos was poured into the bamboo tube, the sprout visibly trembled, as if it had eaten its fill, and its growth rate also increased significantly.

Guan Yu pulled out the bamboo tube, quickly covered the hole in the ground with soil, stood up, looked at the tender sprout, nodded and said, "Boss, it looks like we can make another tube. Do you want another one?"

"Failure is the mother of success. Don't be afraid, just go for it." Yue Qianchou agreed.

Guan Yu and Chen Feng worked together to give the sprout another injection, and the effect was very obvious. Although it was still much slower than the growth of fresh flowers, it was still quite fast. Guan Yu exclaimed, "A spiritual herb is indeed a spiritual herb. It is truly extraordinary. It has already used dozens of times more purple chaos than fresh flowers, yet it grows even slower than fresh flowers."

The sprouts weren't very attractive; although they were still growing, they were only a small clump the size of a palm, and still black—not at all like a spiritual herb. Neither Guan Yu nor Chen Feng had ever seen one before. Yue Qianchou laughed, "Chen Feng, this is 'Cleansing Grass,' one of the essential spiritual herbs for refining Foundation Establishment Pill. You're entrusted with keeping this bottle. From now on, you'll be responsible for cultivating this 'Cleansing Grass.' Remember to collect plenty of seeds; don't let the supply run out, or you won't be able to get any more." Chen Feng nodded vigorously.

Before long, several flower stalks emerged from the 'Cleansing Grass,' each topped with a flower bud that slowly rose upwards. Once it reached a certain point, pale white buds emerged from the black leaves. As the buds began to open slightly, a faint fragrance wafted out. This subtle scent completely overwhelmed the aroma of the surrounding sea of flowers.

"It really is a spiritual herb! Its fragrance alone overshadows the aroma of all the other flowers here," Chen Feng couldn't help but exclaim.

The white fox gently fluttered its nose, moved gracefully, and took a deep breath, as if it also liked the fragrance very much.

The six flowers were in full bloom, their pale white petals adorned with a few short golden tendrils, a truly beautiful sight. Yue Qianchou shouted, "Yun Chang, harmonize Yin and Yang, pollinate the flowers! Not a single seed can be wasted!" He had already brought in several swarms of bees, but because of the flower's purplish-chaotic nature, its blooming period was too short, clearly not enough time for the bees to pollinate it.

"Understood." Guan Yu lightly and quickly pollinated the six flowers together, unlike ordinary flowers where one flower is picked first before pollination. Wasting even one of these spiritual flowers would mean wasting a lot of precious seeds.

After a short while, the harvested seeds were in Chen Feng's hands. This flower was strange; each bloom produced six seeds, and six blooms yielded exactly thirty-six seeds. The group lingered happily to examine the seeds. Unfortunately, the 'Cleansing Grass,' due to its purplish-brown hue, withered after only a short time.

However, the success of the 'purifying herb' gave the three a lot of confidence, Yue Qianchou then tried planting the other eight bottles one by one. The results showed that ginseng was the easiest to grow. After the ginseng grew from the soil, no matter how much purple ginseng was added, it would only increase its age quickly and would not wither. The seeds were also easy to collect. Basically, it would flower and bear fruit once a year, and the seeds could be collected repeatedly.

Some problems were also discovered. It turns out that the King Kong Fruit is a vine plant, which does not grow well on flat ground. It needs to be in a place with trees so that it can easily twine around. Each plant only produces twelve fruits. The fruits that are produced truly live up to the name Diamond. Even if you try to chop them with a sword, you can only leave a white mark.

The most troublesome thing was the Ganoderma lucidum. When the porcelain bottle was opened, all they saw inside was some powder, not seeds at all. The three of them were immediately dumbfounded. Yue Qianchou had never come into contact with this thing in the Sang Cao Garden and didn't know how to plant it. He regretted not asking Furong for clarification, as perhaps she knew.

Thanks to the white fox, who had cultivated deep in the mountains and forests and was familiar with such things, the three of them finally understood. Lingzhi doesn't really have seeds; crushing it creates the seeds, which explained why the porcelain bottle contained only powder. This reminded Yue Qianchou of some knowledge from his previous life; lingzhi must be a type of fungus. Finally, with the white fox's guidance, they successfully planted it near the roots of a large tree.

After succeeding one by one, Yue Qianchou finally breathed a sigh of relief and distributed the nine porcelain bottles to Guan Yu and Chen Feng.

"Three days from now, I'm going to start refining Foundation Establishment Pill. I need one hundred portions of each of the nine kinds of spiritual herbs. Can you grow them?" Yue Qianchou asked the two of them.

The two looked at each other, Guan Yu asked, "So much?"

Yue Qianchou nodded and said solemnly, "I want to refine enough Foundation Establishment Pill in one go. I don't believe that the three of us can't successfully Foundation Establishment by Foundation Establishment Pill." The reason he submitted so many pills was that he had never refined them himself and had no confidence at all. He planned to use spiritual herbs to pile them up, believing that he could still manage to refine one or two batches by sheer luck.

Upon hearing that they could refine enough Foundation Establishment Pill, Guan Yu and Chen Feng's eyes lit up with excitement. They looked at each other and nodded. Guan Yu patted his chest excitedly and promised, "Don't worry, boss. Even if we don't eat or sleep for the next three days, we will help you grow those one hundred portions."

Yue Qianchou said happily, "Good, when we have enough Foundation Establishment Pill, I believe we will definitely be able to Foundation Establishment successfully." Then he frowned and said, "You two shouldn't just focus on making up the numbers without considering the quality of the spiritual herbs, especially the ginseng and lingzhi. They must be at least a hundred years old, otherwise they can't be considered spiritual herbs."

This was crucial to their success in Foundation Establishment, so the two immediately reassured each other again. Yue Qianchou hurried back, still planning to spend the next few days seeking further guidance from Yan Zixia to improve his alchemy skills.

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