Yet among his cohort, although Zhang Wan was neither the most famous nor the one with the highest cultivation, he was the student most skilled at cultivating spirit plants.
He was famous not only among the students of his cohort.
He even had a certain amount of fame among the martial arts instructors at the academy.
By selling pseudo-spirit plants every year, Zhang Wan had genuinely woven a sizable network of connections throughout the academy.
Especially among the academy's martial arts instructors.
Quite a few of them had once been fellow disciples with members of the Spirit Planter Hall.
Through them, Zhang Wan had already gotten to know some senior brothers and sisters from the Spirit Planter Hall while he was still at the academy.
From those senior brothers and sisters, Zhang Wan gained a deeper understanding of the Spirit Planter Hall's inner workings.
He also learned that even without graduating, it was not impossible to join the Spirit Planter Hall ahead of time.
The Spirit Planter Hall's rules were simple. As long as one was a disciple of the sect and could pass the Spirit Planter Hall's assessment, one could become a member of the Spirit Planter Hall.
And the entrance assessment for the Spirit Planter Hall was not particularly difficult.
For Zhang Wan, who had now memorized and mastered the entire Extreme Spirit Planter inheritance, it was practically a piece of cake.
Being able to join the Spirit Planter Hall early and secure a position in the sect's logistics department was naturally something Zhang Wan longed for.
That way, he could avoid any unexpected changes along the way that might disrupt his grand plan of developing steadily.
After finding a suitable time, Zhang Wan took three days off and boarded a rune horse-drawn carriage bound for the sect.
While on the road, Zhang Wan opened the panel.
Host: Zhang Wan (thirteen years old) Realm: Second Level Postnatal (107/120) Realm Bottleneck: None Cultivation Techniques and Martial Skills: Bronze Iron Body, Sixth Level Postnatal technique (30/114, Second Level Postnatal formula comprehended), Stacked Force Palm (49/155), Bone Piercing Finger (103/103, 14/46), Nine Step Movement Technique (51/127), incomplete version of Vitality Catalysis Technique (89/89, 11/11)+, incomplete version of Extreme Growth Technique (83/83, 10/10)+, Spirit Planter knowledge (20/20)+ Available Experience Points:
"More than ten thousand experience points. Just looking at them is truly pleasing to the eye. What a pity that I'm still far from my provisional goal." Zhang Wan's eyes flickered. There was a number in his heart. Once his experience points accumulated to that number, it would be time for him to spend them freely.
Before then, wantonly squandering experience points was not impossible, but the uncontrollability it brought was too great. Zhang Wan did not want to take the risk.
He would first develop quietly and accumulate enough experience points, then rise powerfully within a short period and catch everyone off guard.
That was far safer than recklessly spending experience points from the very beginning and earning a reputation as a genius.
Whether he was a genius or not, Zhang Wan did not care much. In this world, geniuses who failed to grow and died were as numerous as carp crossing a river—far too many to count. Zhang Wan had no desire whatsoever to become one of those dead geniuses.
As his thoughts raced, Zhang Wan arrived at the mountain gate of the Jade Bone Sect once more.
Without entering through the mountain gate, Zhang Wan found an unoccupied house in the outer disciples' residential area to use as a foothold, then made a trip to the Dust Bone Branch.
Branches of the Spirit Planter Hall like the Dust Bone Branch held assessments regularly. Anyone who wanted to join the Spirit Planter Hall could participate.
Zhang Wan went over to ask, and just as the senior brothers and sisters from the Spirit Planter Hall had told him, the next assessment was tomorrow.
That evening, Zhang Wan rested and gathered his strength. The next day, he went to the Dust Bone Branch to participate in the assessment.
The assessment was simple. The branch's members randomly selected several spirit plants that the sect cultivated in the greatest quantities but which had developed problems, then handed them to the disciples taking the assessment. The disciples had to write down solutions, or completely resolve the problems afflicting one particular spirit plant.
For example, if it was malnutrition, they had to formulate the appropriate fertilizer.
If it was an infestation, they had to kill the pests and diseases plaguing the spirit plant.
If another kind of illness had appeared, they had to cure the spirit plant's condition.
The former primarily tested how thoroughly the participants had memorized their spirit plant knowledge, while the latter tested their practical abilities more heavily.
Neither posed any difficulty for Zhang Wan.
Zhang Wan had cultivated all the Postnatal low-grade spirit plants most commonly grown by the Jade Bone Sect, and he understood their habits and the problems that could arise during cultivation quite well.
After observing carefully, Zhang Wan took up paper and brush and listed the problems afflicting each spirit plant, along with their solutions, one by one.
He was among the first batch to hand in his answers, though quite a few others submitted theirs alongside him.
Clearly, Zhang Wan was not the only person accomplished in the way of spirit planters.
It was just that Zhang Wan was the youngest among those who had written their answers the fastest.
He attracted quite a few gazes.
The papers were submitted on the spot, and the branch members reviewed them immediately. After confirming that everything was correct, they again asked Zhang Wan whether he wanted to join the Spirit Planter Hall. Upon receiving an affirmative answer, they entered Zhang Wan's name into the Spirit Planter Hall's roster.
However, Zhang Wan had not yet graduated from the academy, so the Spirit Planter Hall would not assign him missions before his graduation.
Others were different. As soon as they were added to the roster, they were immediately assigned cultivation tasks.
By joining the Spirit Planter Hall and becoming one of its members, they enjoyed the benefits it provided, but they also took on the responsibility of cultivating spirit plants for the sect.
Seeing the Spirit Planter Hall's mark appear on his disciple token, a smile touched Zhang Wan's eyes. With this, after graduating from the academy, he could at least spend more than ten years developing safely in the rear.
After finishing the assessment, Zhang Wan went to meet the senior brothers and sisters from the Spirit Planter Hall whom he knew, strengthening their ties.
Those senior brothers and sisters had all spent ten or twenty years in the Spirit Planter Hall, and their cultivation was at the Fifth or Sixth Level Postnatal. Although they had no hope of breaking through to the Innate realm, they were all old hands in the Spirit Planter Hall and understood its various circumstances quite thoroughly.
Their experience was extremely valuable to Zhang Wan.
It could save him from taking many unnecessary detours in the Spirit Planter Hall.
Of course, the Spirit Planter Hall was not without its unsavory sorts. But Zhang Wan was not truly a young innocent either. Without prolonged contact, he might have difficulty discerning what kind of people they were, but he could easily tell whether their words and deeds were setting a trap for him.
With that safety net, even if someone hid their true nature, they could forget about tricking him.
Among the senior brothers and sisters he befriended, Zhang Wan clicked best with two people.
They were Li Sanjian and Wan Xing'er.
The two were much older than Zhang Wan, but they were old in years without being old at heart, while Zhang Wan was young in years but not immature. By keeping in touch often, they developed a rather good relationship.
Zhang Wan had a very favorable impression of the two.
They were both excellent people. They taught him quite a bit about spirit plants and also told him many of the Spirit Planter Hall's unwritten rules.
Although Zhang Wan did not believe everything and planned to verify each matter later,
the fact that they were willing to tell him these things meant that, if he later confirmed they were not lies, Zhang Wan was willing to accept this favor.
After chatting with Li Sanjian and Wan Xing'er near the spirit fields for an entire day and strengthening their ties, Zhang Wan boarded a rune horse-drawn carriage back to the academy on the third day.
As soon as he returned to the academy, Zhang Wan heard some unexpected news.
Elder Wu, the sect's Innate expert, had passed away in meditation several days earlier.
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