"That's hard to say. Do you still remember that jade barrel?" I said as I took out the jade barrel. The Earth Immortal Fruit inside was still soaking in water filled with tiny insects. It seemed unchanged, but it had clearly withered quite a bit. It was very likely that its insides had already turned into seeds. The reason was simple: the seeds had absorbed the nutrients of the Earth Immortal Fruit.
"Insects? Th-this is impossible! How did you find insects that could reproduce the Earth Immortal Fruit?" Xue Qingcheng asked in horror.
"Heh heh. Your father had tried every possible method to poison these insects to death, but he never expected the power of nature to let them survive. As the saying went, 'Wildfire cannot consume all the grass; the spring breeze brings it back to life.' See? Heaven itself refuses to let them perish." I waved my hand and took out the Immortal Music Flute, then played a tune according to the growth state of the Earth Immortal Fruit that I had read.
As my cultivation advanced, I no longer felt my spiritual power rapidly draining whenever I played the flute. This allowed me to play with much greater steadiness. Sure enough, the Earth Immortal Fruit quickly shriveled under the flute's music, while the insects in the water were affected as well, scurrying back and forth even more frantically. They gathered part of the Earth Immortal Fruit's nutrients for themselves to build nests, and in the process indirectly helped pollinate the fruit. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Once the Earth Immortal Fruit had completely shriveled until only a skin wrapped around a number of seeds remained, I took one of them out and split it open. There were seven or eight seeds inside.
"These are the seeds