Spirit-Infused Mutant Rice

Just as Zhou Xuan was feeling uncertain, Zhou Ye, standing beside him, shook his head and whispered a denial: "Brother Xuan, this isn't Spirit Rice."

"It isn't?"

Zhou Xuan was taken aback. He looked at the grains again, carefully examining them. Whether by their appearance or the spiritual energy they radiated, they were identical to the descriptions of Spirit Rice found in the classics.

"Definitely not."

Zhou Ye's tone was extremely certain.

"Although I've never seen real Spirit Rice, I've heard people talk about it. If it were real Spirit Rice, how could the people in the Herb Garden bear to throw it away? They would have treated it like a treasure and kept it under lock and key; there's no way they would have sent it to us."

This reasoning made a lot of sense.

Zhou Xuan frowned slightly. He picked up a jade-colored grain, the size of a peanut, from Zhou Ye's cloth bag and examined it closely at his fingertips.

Following the accidental opening and strengthening of his soul, his perception was now far beyond what it used to be.

He sank a sliver of his consciousness into the grain, carefully sensing the structure of the spiritual energy within.

Soon, he discovered what was wrong.

Although the spiritual energy contained within the grain was refined, it was abnormally manic and unstable.

It was like a pack of wild horses forcibly locked in a cramped cage, rampaging about, filled with a violent and destructive aura.

As for the grain itself, while its material structure had been rendered crystal clear by the infusion of spiritual energy, its foundation remained that of a mundane object.

It possessed none of the properties required to hold or harmonize spiritual energy; it was like a fragile clay vessel that had been forcibly filled with high-proof liquor far beyond its capacity, ready to shatter at any moment.

This was no naturally occurring spiritual treasure; it was more like a failed product of some artificial attempt at forced cultivation.

A thought stirred in Zhou Xuan's mind, and he immediately issued a command to the system.

"System, scan this object."

[Ding! Spirit-Infused Mutant Rice (Failed Product) detected!]

[Item Description: A product created by using mundane rice as a base and forcibly infusing it with spiritual energy through a special array, attempting to induce a spiritual mutation. Because its mundane nature cannot support the spiritual energy, the internal structure is chaotic and violent. It is not suitable for direct consumption and is harmful to a cultivator's body.]

[Can be absorbed and converted into Gold Touch Value. Conversion value per grain: 0.01~0.03 points.]

Sure enough!

Looking at the detailed information on the system panel, Zhou Xuan understood everything in an instant.

Spirit-Infused Mutant Rice—the name was certainly fitting.

He immediately understood why this stuff had been dumped at the Miscellaneous Affairs Department.

Rice with such violent internal energy—let alone improving one's constitution—if an ordinary person were to eat even a single grain, the violent energy would likely crush their internal organs on the spot, causing them to explode and die.

Even a cultivator in the Body Tempering Realm would never dare to try it lightly.

To everyone else, this thing was lethal poison.

But to Zhou Xuan, who possessed the system, this wasn't poison at all—it was piles of glittering gold!

One grain could be converted into 0.01 to 0.03 Gold Touch Value!

This number seemed insignificant, but the sheer quantity was staggering!

Zhou Xuan's eyes lit up instantly. He looked up at Zhou Ye, his breathing becoming somewhat rapid.

However, before that, he still had one major doubt.

Who was so whimsical as to try and artificially cultivate ordinary mundane rice into Spirit Rice?

The cultivation system of this world had developed for countless millennia, and there was already a mature set of theories regarding the planting and cultivation of spiritual plants.

Spirit Rice is Spirit Rice, and mundane rice is mundane rice; this was a distinction at the species level, just like the difference between humans and demonic beasts—they were two completely different life forms.

The difficulty of trying to cultivate mundane rice into Spirit Rice was no less than trying to make a piece of common iron grow into Mystic Iron through watering and fertilizing.

This completely defied the common sense of this world.

This line of thinking was too strange, filled with the flavor of some kind of scientific experiment.

Could it be that there was another transmigrator in this sect?

As soon as this thought emerged, Zhou Xuan's heart skipped a beat.

He immediately looked around vigilantly, as if a pair of eyes were watching him from the shadows.

But soon, he shook his head and dismissed the speculation.

It was unlikely.

The cultivation world was fraught with danger; if a transmigrator didn't have a golden finger, the starting difficulty was hellish.

Even if the other person really was a transmigrator, he must never act rashly or expose himself without concrete evidence.

Moreover, this line of thinking—crossbreeding, mutation, cultivating new varieties.

In Zhou Xuan's mind, a cold and beautiful figure involuntarily surfaced.

Liu Ruyan!

He suddenly remembered that back when he was still in the mundane world and had yet to step onto the path of immortality, when Liu Ruyan was admiring and currying favor with him, he had told her many things from his previous life.

Among them was the concept of hybrid rice and increasing grain yields.

Back then, Liu Ruyan had listened with extreme focus, even following up with many questions about the details.

Could it be her?

Once this thought emerged, Zhou Xuan felt the possibility was extremely high.

That woman would stop at nothing for the sake of the Great Dao and to become stronger.

Since she had learned such inconceivable knowledge from him, given her personality, it was entirely possible that she had sought an opportunity to experiment with it after stepping into the Immortal Gate!

"That woman really is a genius; she wants to learn everything and dares to try anything."

Zhou Xuan cursed inwardly, feeling both that it was absurd and that he had to admire her drive.

However, she probably never imagined that these failed products she had gone to such great lengths to create would end up benefiting him.

Zhou Xuan forcibly suppressed these chaotic thoughts; now was not the time to dwell on them.

His mind was currently filled with that 0.01 to 0.03 Gold Touch Value.

He looked at Zhou Ye, his eyes burning as he asked, "Zhou Ye, you just said you discovered a batch of waste materials transported from the Herb Garden?"

"Yes, yes!" Zhou Ye nodded repeatedly.

"Is there a lot of this rice?" Zhou Xuan pressed.

Seeing Zhou Xuan's uncharacteristically excited appearance, Zhou Ye was confused but answered honestly.

He scratched his head, trying hard to recall, "When I found them, they were packed in several large burlap sacks, piled in a pit. I reckon there must have been two or three cartloads."

Two or three cartloads!

Zhou Xuan's heart gave a violent thud.

If one cart is calculated at a thousand catties, how many grains are in a catty? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands?

Two or three cartloads—how much would that be? Ten thousand? Twenty thousand?

He felt his breathing become difficult; happiness had arrived so suddenly that he felt a bit dizzy for a moment.

This was practically a gold mine!

With this batch of Mutated Spirit Rice, let alone breaking through to the Qi Refining Realm, he could probably scrape together most of the ten thousand Gold Touch Value needed for his next Spirit Root upgrade!

"Where is it? Take me there, quickly!" Zhou Xuan could no longer restrain himself; he grabbed Zhou Ye by the arm, wanting him to lead the way.

"Brother Xuan, Brother Xuan, don't be so impatient!" Seeing him like this, Zhou Ye was actually startled and quickly held him back.

"What is it?" Zhou Xuan frowned; he didn't want to wait even a second longer.

A look of hesitation and lingering fear appeared on Zhou Ye's face. He lowered his voice, leaned into Zhou Xuan's ear, and said in a strange tone, "Brother Xuan, that place is a bit eerie."

"Eerie?"

"Yeah."

Zhou Ye nodded vigorously, his face turning pale.

"The rice itself is fine, just piled there, but next to those sacks, there were many other discarded plants thrown about. They look like the failed products created alongside that rice."

"And then?" Zhou Xuan asked.

Zhou Ye swallowed hard, his voice dropping lower with a hint of a tremor, "Then, when I wanted to go back today to pick up more of that rice and got a bit too close..."

"Those plants, they move!"

"They move?" Zhou Xuan was stunned.

"Yes!"

Zhou Ye said, still shaken.

"One of them looked like a vine. As soon as I got close, it sprang up like a snake and almost whipped me in the face!"

"There were also some plants that looked like flowers; they would open their mouths and try to bite people!"

After hearing Zhou Ye's description, Zhou Xuan was completely dumbfounded.

Plants that bite people?