Green Origin Water Grass

Beneath the murky river water, It was pitch dark.

Shen Changchuan's figure searched and probed along the riverbed.

Nearly a month of continuous heavy rain had churned up silt and mud upstream, sweeping it into the river and turning the once-clear water into an incredibly turbid mess.

This severely obstructed the vision of Shen Changchuan as he moved along the river floor.

Fortunately, the Spirit Eye Technique, mastered to 100% completion, granted Shen Changchuan vision far exceeding the ordinary, along with a keen perception of spiritual energy and demonic aura; otherwise, he could forget about searching for any spiritual treasures in this riverbed.

Shen Changchuan searched the uneven riverbed section by section.

Occasionally, large broken branches, leaves, and other debris swept past him, carried along by the surging current.

From time to time, he could see large fish darting through the water, as well as water weeds swaying, stubbornly growing on the riverbed despite the impact of the rainy season's floodwaters.

However, half an hour passed, and although Shen Changchuan had searched almost a long stretch of the riverbed, he had found nothing at all.

There wasn't even a trace of spiritual energy or a spiritual glow, as if there were no natural treasures here whatsoever.

Could I have guessed wrong? Perhaps the Crocodile Demon didn't possess some natural treasure, but rather inherited a powerful bloodline, which is why it mastered so many spells and possessed intelligence far beyond that of a common demonic beast?

On the riverbank, having found nothing after a long while, Shen Changchuan had temporarily ceased his search, climbed onto the bank, and sat in meditation to restore his mana.

Yet, he felt somewhat dejected.

Recalling the process of searching the riverbed for half an hour only to come up empty-handed, Shen Changchuan could not help but knit his brows.

Strictly speaking, it wasn't a total loss.

At the very least, it had allowed him to familiarize himself with the terrain of the riverbed, and he had discovered that the water vein essence of this Dawan River was quite abundant.

In the silt at the bottom of the river, there were quite a few "deposits" formed by the combination of water vein essence and earth vein essence.

These "deposits" should be quite beneficial for the growth of spiritual grain.

If he could dredge them up to increase the yield of his spiritual grain, it would count as a form of wealth.

But the problem was, these had nothing to do with Shen Changchuan's original goal!

What he had set out to find was not some silty deposits, but the natural spiritual treasures related to the Crocodile Demon!

However, half an hour of finding nothing

forced Shen Changchuan to doubt his own hypothesis.

"No, that's not right!"

"The water vein essence in the river is not poor, and there are many deposits on the riverbed. In a river like this, even if there aren't many quasi-spiritual items like spiritual grain, there should at least be one or two!"

"But there is nothing in the river! Even the water weeds seem somewhat sparse!"

"This is abnormal!"

Shen Changchuan suddenly realized this, and his eyes narrowed involuntarily.

Something was fishy!

He decided to keep looking.

And so, once his internal mana was fully restored, Shen Changchuan entered the river once more.

This time, he expanded the scope of his search, scouring inch by inch toward even more distant areas.

Finally, hard work pays off, and a quarter of an hour later, as Shen Changchuan ventured into the deeper reaches of the riverbed, Under the gaze of his Spirit Eye Technique, he finally caught sight of a flickering spiritual glow emanating from a hidden hole tucked away within a sunken trench on the riverbed not far ahead!

"Found it!"

Shen Changchuan could not help but beam with joy.

He swam toward the direction of the dark hole.

However, Shen Changchuan did not let joy cloud his judgment or cause him to abandon his vigilance.

He first paused to carefully observe the surroundings, and only after confirming there was no danger did he cautiously enter to investigate.

The dark hole was not deep.

It looked much like a bridge tunnel built deep into the riverbed.

"Hm?"

There appeared to be traces of manual excavation, and Shen Changchuan's gaze involuntarily sharpened.

However, after a thorough inspection, he did not discover anything else.

What he could confirm was that this place had likely been a natural dark hole widened by someone ten or twenty years ago, and there were faint remnants of a formation left behind.

Along with marks left by the Crocodile Demon.

It seemed, This was indeed the lair of the Crocodile Demon!

Shen Changchuan felt a surge of joy in his heart.

Without further observation, he swam toward the front of the dark hole.

Very quickly, Shen Changchuan came to a halt.

His gaze locked onto the front.

At the end of the dark hole, on the murky riverbed, grew a spiritual herb that shimmered with a faint blue glow, surrounded by a concentration of spiritual energy!

Shen Changchuan swam to the side of the water grass, his eyes wide, watching every leaf and every inch of the veins of this spiritual herb under the gaze of his Spirit Eye Technique.

"This is... Green Origin Water Grass?!"

Shen Changchuan recognized the spiritual herb, And could not help but exclaim aloud.

This thing, He had read about it in the miscellaneous books during his two and a half years at the Shen Family Estate!

It was an extremely precious treasure of heaven and earth that could only possibly grow in conditions where the water vein essence was abundant!

How precious was it?

Roughly speaking, the value of all twelve acres of spiritual fields in Dawan Village combined could not compare to this single stalk of Green Origin Water Grass!

Its function, Was to temper a person's body with abundant water elemental power, thereby slightly improving their cultivation aptitude.

Furthermore, it could enhance the power of the soul to a certain extent!

Without a doubt, Either one of these two effects, Was enough to cause its value to skyrocket!

"To think such a good thing exists at the bottom of this river; no wonder that Crocodile Demon possessed such high intelligence and mastered multiple innate spells!"

His previous doubts were completely resolved at this moment.

Demonic beasts and heaven-earth treasures often coexisted, Allowing the beast to gain significant benefits as the Green Origin Water Grass exhaled water vein essence and released spiritual energy.

Perhaps it was precisely because of this that the Crocodile Demon was so extraordinary.

Shen Changchuan's heart was filled with joy at this moment.

Because the appearance of this Green Origin Water Grass was, for him, nothing short of a windfall from heaven!

"It is a pity that it is still in the seedling stage; if only it were mature, the effects of a mature Green Origin Water Grass would be even stronger!"

After carefully observing this incredibly precious Green Origin Water Grass, Shen Changchuan thought greedily to himself.

If it were a mature Green Origin Water Grass, Its value could have soared another tenfold or even a hundredfold!

But even as a seedling, it was still a massive harvest for Shen Changchuan.

Moreover, given the vital essence of the Dawan River's water veins, it likely could not support a Green Origin Water Grass in its mature stage at all.

Shen Changchuan had no choice but to suppress his lingering greed.

He happily produced a jade box from his robes, carefully plucked the Green Origin Water Grass, and sealed it within the box.

Although this Green Origin Water Grass was of immense value, with countless cultivation clans and great families in the outside market offering heavy bounties to acquire such a heaven-sent spiritual treasure to refine the cultivation aptitude of their direct descendants, Shen Changchuan did not intend to sell it.

The logic was simple:

the value of this Green Origin Water Grass was too high, so high that a mere ant like him at the fourth level of Qi Induction could never hope to protect it.

Even if he sold it for a massive sum of spirit stones, without the protection of sufficient strength, it would sooner or later belong to someone else.

Not to mention that First Madam in the backyard of the Shen Family Estate—

Forget it.

It was a bit of a loss, but fortunately, what was in his hands was secure.

Shen Changchuan planned to swallow and refine it the moment he returned, turning it into his own foundation.

After tucking the jade box containing the Green Origin Water Grass away securely, Shen Changchuan prepared to leave.

However, at that moment, he was struck by a sudden impulse to sweep the area around the Green Origin Water Grass with his Spirit Eye Technique.

It was meant to be a casual glance to see if he had missed anything, but it truly led him to discover something amiss.

Under the perspective of his perfected Spirit Eye Technique, the soil at the bottom of the river was essentially the color of wood ash.

That was the reflection of the earth vein's energy as seen through the Spirit Eye Technique.

However, at this moment, against the backdrop of the grey-white soil behind the Green Origin Water Grass, there was a square, perfectly neat, book-sized patch of emptiness!

"What is that?"

Shen Changchuan swam over, puzzled, and carefully began to dig beneath it.

After digging down about a foot, a wooden box made of black timber appeared before Shen Changchuan's eyes.

Using a gold needle to cast the Gold Thorn Technique, he carefully picked the bronze lock on the wooden box.

He opened the box with caution, and Shen Changchuan saw, resting quietly inside, a palm-sized White Jade Token, white all over.

He picked up the token, noting the intricate, layered patterns carved around its edges.

And in the center of its face, a large character, "Xiang," was engraved.