Cyan Rock

Ye Qin once again used his spiritual sense, intending to move the grains of sand into the Floating Island. To his surprise, he failed. The ordinary grains of sand could be moved out of the Floating Island, but strangely, they could not be moved back in.

A trace of bewilderment appeared in his eyes as his thoughts raced, turning over one deduction after another.

The little Dew Grass needed to eat in order to grow.

They could eat light.

Then surely they could also feed on nutrients in the soil.

Medicinal herbs grew in the earth, after all, and relied on sunlight to grow!

Ye Qin suddenly understood and smacked his forehead.

Good grief, after all that thinking, he hadn't considered this. Perhaps he should dig up some soil and let them have a proper taste.

He hurriedly dug up several handfuls of rich soil from among the rocks and weeds atop the mountain. Then he tried moving it into the Floating Island. But once again, he failed. This soil looked incredibly rich, yet none of it could be moved into the Floating Island—not a single grain.

What was going on?

Ye Qin was at a loss.

The problem didn't stump him for long. He soon remembered that he had gathered the Dew Grass from a rocky outcrop on the rear cliff, near the eagle's nest, and the soil that had gone into the Floating Island with the Dew Grass had also come from that outcrop. The soil there must be able to be moved inside.

The sun had only recently risen; it was still morning.

Ye Qin acted as soon as the idea came to him. He took two coils of rope, a small herb basket, a small hatchet, a little iron spade, and a herb-gathering knife, then headed to the rear cliff and climbed down, following the thick rope.

The Grey Eagles circling the mountain still posed a serious threat, so he had to be extra cautious.

Half an hour later, Ye Qin reached the rocky outcrop on the cliff and got his footing. He glanced around and saw that several more eagle nests had appeared on the nearby cliff face. He couldn't help laughing to himself. He had destroyed all the nests here before, yet they had been built again.

Two or three Grey Eagles spotted him in the distance. They cried, "Kree!" and flew over, but abruptly stopped halfway, keeping their distance as they circled anxiously and called out.

Ye Qin had already gripped his hatchet, ready to kill the eagles. Seeing that they didn't dare approach, he relaxed a little. Could these be the same Grey Eagles he had encountered before? Had they recognized him? Those feathered beasts certainly had good memories.

That saved him some trouble.

Since the Grey Eagles wouldn't come near, Ye Qin quickly switched to his iron spade and began digging at the edge of the outcrop, where the Dew Grass had once grown. Before long, he had dug up a good amount of soil.

Ye Qin grabbed a handful, rubbed it between his fingers, then puzzledly brought it to his nose and sniffed. He couldn't see how it differed from ordinary soil on the mountaintop, except that it felt unusually pure. There seemed to be nothing special about it.

He tried using his spiritual sense to move it into the Purple Mansion Floating Island.

Huh!

Most of the soil vanished from his hand, leaving only a little sand behind.

Ye Qin was almost dumbfounded. He couldn't believe he had actually succeeded. In an instant, a surge of joy welled up inside him. The soil here really could be moved in. That meant the little Dew Grass growing on the Floating Island now had nutrients it could absorb.

He didn't dare immediately sink his spiritual sense into the Floating Island to check what had happened. After all, on this dangerous mountain cliff, the Grey Eagles could ambush him at any moment—and those creatures could kill him.

He dug up more soil and packed it into his little herb basket, then climbed back to the mountaintop.

Only after reaching the open-air campsite beneath a boulder at the summit did Ye Qin set aside all his herb-gathering gear. He sat cross-legged and sent his spiritual sense into the Purple Mansion Floating Island in the endless void.

On the Floating Island in the void.

A dim little white orb of light, now a tenth brighter than it had been a year ago, quickly drifted out of the halo surrounding the Life Primordial Spirit Stele. It impatiently flew toward the place where the little Dew Grass grew.

The large handful of light, airy soil he had moved into the Floating Island lay beside the five little Dew Grass plants.

As an orb of light inside the Floating Island, Ye Qin's spiritual perception was even more sensitive. He could clearly sense a faint trace of spiritual energy in the soil. It wasn't rich, but he was certain of what he sensed.

He moved the soil to the roots of the five little Dew Grass plants.

The moment their roots touched the soil, they suddenly began to move, rapidly burrowing into it. Then they began to grow at a speed visible to the naked eye: flowering, bearing fruit, and sending out seeds that sprouted and grew into new little Dew Grass plants.

The spiritual energy in the soil quickly vanished, leaving behind utterly ordinary grains of sand.

Ye Qin didn't even dare blink as he watched the entire process. He could barely contain his joy. His guess had been right: with enough "food," the little Dew Grass could be cultivated and grown extremely quickly on the Floating Island.

At last, everything that had puzzled him was explained by what he had just witnessed. The reason the original little Dew Grass had become five plants was entirely due to this soil. Now that he had solved the problem of cultivating Dew Grass, quickly practicing the Sitting-in-Forgetfulness Sutra's Sitting and Forgetting Selflessness was no longer impossible.

Over the next few days.

Every day, Ye Qin climbed down the cliff to dig up spiritual soil from the rocky outcrop and move it into the Floating Island to cultivate the little Dew Grass.

The outcrop on the cliff was hard, but even it couldn't withstand his digging. It began to shrink at a visible rate. Its outermost layer was soil, but the deeper Ye Qin dug, the more astonished he became: farther inside, it was all Cyan Rock. The Cyan Rock seemed to be excellent for growing the Dew Grass, which flourished even more in it.

Especially at the center of the Cyan Rock, Ye Qin found a small piece of Cyan Rock Marrow, about the size of his thumb. It was pure green and brimming with spiritual energy.

He took a great liking to it and stored it away in the Floating Island, rather than using it to cultivate spirit herbs.

It took Ye Qin three days to move all the Cyan Rock that could be transferred into the Purple Mansion Floating Island. After searching the entire mountain and finding no more Cyan Rock, he finally left and headed elsewhere, gathering herbs and cultivating along the way.

And so Ye Qin began cultivating in earnest amid the thousand-mile stretches of deep mountains and old forests in Zhuqi County.

He moved all the little Dew Grass and Cyan Rock to the very center of the Purple Mansion Island. Around the Life Primordial Spirit Stele, he set aside a plot of herb garden one zhang across for small-scale cultivation, planting over a hundred stalks at once. Their lush green glow filled him with delight.

Ye Qin didn't use up all the Cyan Rock. He piled most of it nearby, saving it for cultivating herbs in the future.

At last, a small patch of vivid green appeared on the Floating Island, suspended in the endless, gray-hazed void.

Ye Qin no longer felt so bored on the Purple Mansion Floating Island.