Although many believed that demon cultivators were fiercer in battle than immortal cultivators at the same realm, every step forward became exceptionally difficult for demon cultivators in the later stages. Thus, those powerful figures of the demonic path began pondering whether they could seize an immortal cultivator's Immortal Seed and merge it into their own Demon Seed, achieving a body infused with both immortality and demonhood and forming an Immortal-Demon Seed.
Dreams were beautiful, but reality was cruel. Nearly every demonic expert who attempted to create an Immortal-Demon Seed had failed. Over time, the Immortal-Demon Seed became a legend that demonic powerhouses could only gaze upon from afar. It was said that experts of the demonic path who possessed an Immortal-Demon Seed had an exceptionally stable foundation, and the upper limit of their future achievements was beyond ordinary reasoning.
"Heaven has not forsaken me! By merging the Great Dao Heart Seed Demon Technique with the Great Reincarnation Technique, not only will he fail to notice anything amiss, he will also temper a body for me and lay the foundation for my Body Seizure! I have even formed the Immortal-Demon Seed that countless demonic experts dream of! This Immortal-Demon Seed has accumulated deeply before bursting forth. Though its early progress is not fast, its upper limit is naturally high."
The Undying Witch Demon muttered smugly to himself. Yet when he spoke of the many troubles the Immortal-Demon Seed would bring in future cultivation, he could not help frowning. Soon enough, however, his brow relaxed again.
Why think about so many troubles? I have not even carried out the Body Seizure yet! When the cart reaches the mountain, there will always be a road. If I can escape Immortal-Slaying Poison Valley, where I have not seen daylight, could cultivation possibly stump me?
Grow quickly. The day you sprout will be the day I seize your body and am reborn!
Still full of doubts, Qin Haoxuan inspected his Immortal Seed once more. After discovering that it showed no unusual changes after growing larger, the stone hanging in his heart settled slightly. He returned to the dormitory and prepared to cultivate his divine sense.
According to Elder Chu, immortal cultivators who had reached the level of the patriarchs all attached tremendous importance to cultivating divine sense. Not only could it be used against enemies, it could also be used to refine pills, make talismans, set formations, and much more. Such things were simply beyond the understanding of other disciples; they could not even imagine what divine sense was. But Qin Haoxuan, having tasted its benefits, paid it particular attention. Especially after walking more than a hundred steps into Immortal-Slaying Poison Valley the previous night and then finding himself unable to advance another inch, he cared even more about cultivating his divine sense.
Returning to the dormitory, he lay on his bed. It was deep into the night, and the other disciples were all asleep. Qin Haoxuan was therefore able to calmly attach his soul to Little Snake. Though he did not plan to visit Immortal-Slaying Poison Valley, he had discovered that attaching his soul to Little Snake was itself a form of divine-sense cultivation. He decided to cultivate for a while every day, so that the next time he went to Immortal-Slaying Poison Valley, he could reach the place where spiritual energy pulsed and see what treasure lay there.
Qin Haoxuan meditated and practiced qi until midnight, then possessed Little Snake to cultivate his divine sense until the fifth watch before finally stopping. He had barely closed his eyes for a short while when a rooster's crow woke him.
Qin Haoxuan reluctantly opened his eyes. If he had not planted corn in the Spirit Land yesterday, and if he were not so curious about how much faster the underground Spirit Spring would make it grow than everyone else's crops, he truly would not have wanted to get up.
After hastily eating breakfast at the dining hall, all the new disciples were gathered by Elder Chu and marched grandly toward the fields.
From afar, they could see that the farmland, barren only yesterday, was now covered in lush green shoots. Facing the morning sun, they brimmed with vitality, a sight that pleased the eye at a glance.
"Ha ha, my corn sprouts have emerged!" a weak-seed disciple shouted from afar, immediately earning countless eye-rolls and looks of contempt. Apart from Qin Haoxuan's group of three in the farthest corner, hidden from view behind waist-high weeds, green shoots stretched as far as the eye could see. Every field had seedlings about an inch tall. Zhang Kuang, Li Jing, and Zhang Yang's fields had seedlings an inch and a half high, while the two Spirit Lands Elder Chu had secretly planted for Xu Yu and Murong Chao had green shoots nearly two inches high.
After envying Zhang Kuang and the others for a while, someone began a guessing game.
One person asked mysteriously, "How tall do you think the corn seedlings of Qin Haoxuan's group of three have grown?"
Another tilted his head and thought for a long time. Remembering that Qin Haoxuan's group had also carried quite a bit of Spirit Spring water for irrigation yesterday, he figured that even if the soil was barren, the Spirit Spring water should have produced at least some growth. He spoke while gesturing. "This tall."
He held out a finger and indicated the height of a fingernail.
This immediately sparked roaring laughter. The others also began gesturing, but most of them, Elder Chu included, firmly believed that Qin Haoxuan's fields would still be completely bare. Even with Spirit Spring water, without spiritual energy to nourish them, it would be no more than a cup of water against a cartload of firewood.
"Why make wild guesses? We'll know if we go take a look."
At one disciple's suggestion, even Elder Chu was tempted. He took the lead in following behind Qin Haoxuan's group of three, while Li Jing, Zhang Kuang, and the others followed Elder Chu. Seeing that everyone had gone to watch the excitement, the remaining disciples also followed.
Ever since Xu Yu and Murong Chao had refused him yesterday, Elder Chu had been brooding over it. Those two special Immortal Seed disciples had ignored him and instead blindly trusted the nonsense of a weak-seed disciple who slept through class. It made him extremely unhappy.
In Elder Chu's experience, soil this barren would be hopeless even if each plot were watered with a hundred shoulder-poles of Spirit Spring water. Without spiritual energy to nourish it, how could land worse than ordinary soil possibly grow crops?
Thinking of this, a narrow smile appeared on his face. Imagining Qin Haoxuan's group of three being mocked by the other disciples until they wished they could disappear into a crack in the ground made him feel as delighted as if he had eaten a ginseng fruit.
Hearing all the chaotic discussions, Qin Haoxuan's expression remained unchanged. Exhausted from possessing Little Snake the night before, he walked toward his Spirit Land. Xu Yu and Murong Chao, following behind him, were nowhere near as confident as Qin Haoxuan. Their hearts beat like little drums as they imagined how they would face the others if no crops had sprouted, especially Elder Chu's mocking gaze.
As special Immortal Seed disciples, if they were ridiculed to their faces by weak-seed disciples, it would be more than they could bear.
When they reached the weed-covered plot, Qin Haoxuan, who was walking at the front, suddenly stopped. His mind had wandered throughout the journey, and he suddenly recalled that he had not yet checked how everyone else's crops had grown. He paid particular attention to the two Spirit Lands planted by Elder Chu, smiled, then silently turned around and continued leading the way.
Elder Chu really was competing with him. Those two plots he had planted were clearly meant for Xu Yu and Murong Chao. Yesterday, he had used the Spirit Rain Technique, equivalent to watering each acre with a hundred shoulder-poles of Spirit Spring water. The corn seedlings there had grown two inches high. Qin Haoxuan's fields had been nourished by an underground Spirit Spring all night, so they should be even better than Elder Chu's Spirit Rain Technique, no matter what.
In Elder Chu and the others' eyes, Qin Haoxuan's behavior was a sign of guilt. Each of them wore an amused smile as they followed closely behind Xu Yu and Murong Chao, ready to watch the three make fools of themselves.
The few lackeys of Li Jing whom Qin Haoxuan had chased away yesterday trailed far behind. They had already prepared their mocking words, merely waiting for the trio to embarrass themselves.
Past the weeds lay a sight of vibrant, dewy green. Every corn seedling seemed to have been meticulously carved from the finest jadeite. Their color alone far surpassed those in Zhang Kuang, Li Jing, and even Elder Chu's fields. Moreover, every corn seedling stood three inches tall, far taller than the corn grown by any of them. Even Elder Chu was so shocked by the sight that he stood agape.
The few lackeys of Li Jing whom Qin Haoxuan had driven away yesterday saw Xu Yu, Murong Chao, Zhang Kuang, Li Jing, Elder Chu, and the others standing frozen, and assumed their expressions meant that Qin Haoxuan's group had nothing growing in their fields. In their minds, soil as hard as stone slabs growing crops would be stranger than seeing a ghost.
Unable to hold back, they unleashed their mockery. "I told you nothing could grow in such a rotten field! Elder Chu's and His Highness's fields have seedlings at least an inch and a half, even two inches tall. Even ours have grown about an inch! Poor Xu Yu and Murong Chao worked all day for nothing, didn't they? That is what you get for refusing to heed Elder Chu's advice!"
Their words immediately made the disciples behind them, who likewise knew nothing of the situation, burst into laughter. Some disciples began flattering Elder Chu, Zhang Kuang, Li Jing, and even Zhang Yang, lavishly praising how well the crops in their fields had grown.
The louder their flattery rang, the more it was like slapping Elder Chu and the others across the face...
"Shut up!" Seeing that they would not stop, Elder Chu, so ashamed he wished he could burrow into the earth, let out an angry roar. He formed a hand seal, turning spiritual power into countless fireballs that struck each flattering disciple precisely on the mouth, scorching them until they wailed for their fathers and mothers.
Only then did those kings of flattery sense that something was wrong. When they crowded forward to look, they saw the three-inch-tall corn seedlings in Qin Haoxuan's fields, exquisite and beautiful like jade carvings. Each of them froze, unable to utter a word.
Even setting aside the fact that they were a full inch taller than the corn seedlings in Elder Chu's fields, their quality alone was far beyond anything his seedlings could match!
If the corn seedlings in Qin Haoxuan's fields could only be called ordinary, then the seedlings in Elder Chu's fields did not even qualify as crooked melons and split dates. As for those in Zhang Kuang and Li Jing's fields... they could only be considered weeds.
This... how could this be possible? This question flashed through everyone's mind, Elder Chu included.
Beneath those jade-carved corn seedlings lay dry, black, hard soil. This land, which looked inferior even to the lowest-grade soil, had somehow produced corn seedlings beyond even the finest Spirit Land.
The crops in Qin Haoxuan's fields had grown even better than Elder Chu's. While this won him a wave of envy, it also stirred up even more jealousy.
If crops in the fields of purple-seed disciples like Li Jing and Zhang Kuang grew well, everyone would consider it only natural. After all, they were purple-seed disciples. But Qin Haoxuan was merely a weak seed. How could his crops grow better than everyone else's, even surpassing Elder Chu's?
The disciples were not the only ones unable to understand it. Even Elder Chu himself, his face full of shame, was as baffled as a monk standing ten feet tall. Could there be something unusual in these fields?
Elder Chu looked at Qin Haoxuan, whose face showed neither favor nor disgrace, as though looking at a monster. He wondered how Qin Haoxuan had found these three plots. Could it be that Immortals had appeared in his dreams while he slept through class?
Facing Elder Chu's gaze, sharp as a blade piercing straight into one's heart, Qin Haoxuan remained as calm as ever. It was as though his crops growing better than Elder Chu's was nothing rare, nothing worth mentioning. The aftereffects of possessing Little Snake struck, and waves of sleepiness washed over him. Ignoring the astonished looks around him, he lay down on the ridge between the fields and fell asleep.
Still burdened with pent-up frustration, Elder Chu quietly left the scene. He summoned several other elders from Spirit Field Valley to study the mystery of these three plots together. The group even argued until their faces were red and their ears hot. After spending a full hour examining the nearby mountain terrain and dragon veins, they finally reached a conclusion: there was actually a remnant Spirit Spring beneath the ground.
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