Eight hundred li of Great Marsh Lake.
Mist and ripples stretched vast and boundless; the lake's surface was smooth as a mirror, without a single wave.
Even though it had once again encountered an age of chaos, Great Marsh Lake was still the same Great Marsh Lake!
"Though you and your names shall both be extinguished, the rivers shall flow on for ten thousand ages..."
"I, Hu Hansan, am back!"
Aaron steered the Iron Leaf Boat straight onto a deserted island, muttering to himself.
He still had something of a homesick streak—or rather, people simply felt safer in the places they knew best.
"And... Great Marsh Prefecture isn't bad either. Every few decades, a spirit fish is born in the lake... That means the spiritual energy in the lake is at least denser than in mortal cities... Suitable for growing herbs!"
Aaron had already begun his grand plan of cultivating medicinal herbs.
Before even arriving at Great Marsh Prefecture, he had already selected people in several other mortal cities and sent them into remote mountains and ancient forests to establish spirit-herb gardens for him.
Among them were honest, dutiful herb farmers whose families had worked the land for generations, vicious bandits who roamed the rivers and lakes, and even refugees and scattered defeated soldiers...
Naturally, Aaron had no intention of indulging them. He had given every last one of them safeguards such as an extended-duration Five Insect Heart-Eating Pill.
Against mortals, ordinary poison was enough. He had not revealed any cultivator methods, merely displayed his Transformative Force and beaten them into complete submission.
After that, he gave them some ordinary spirit-herb seeds and offered a few pointers, telling them to try planting them and tend them carefully.
Aaron knew that, at the beginning, many spirit herbs would inevitably fail to