"Wonderful! Fellow Daoist Zhang, your divine skill leaves us sincerely impressed and ashamed of our own inferiority!"
Renxiao Divine Venerable accepted the seed. Feeling the surging vitality and distinct imprint of spirituality within it, he flashed and arrived in the verdant bamboo grove outside the pavilion.
He chose a spot with the richest spiritual energy and finest soil, then carefully planted the seed.
Immediately afterward, Renxiao Divine Venerable turned solemn. His hands formed intricate seals as he muttered an incantation. A pure, vast power of eternal creation, brimming with life, descended like sweet dew upon the newly planted Dao Seed.
"Life begets life, and all things flourish!"
With his sharp cry, a miracle occurred!
The seed broke through the soil at a visible speed and sprouted! The tender shoot rapidly grew into an emerald bamboo sprout. Its stalk rose joint by joint, spreading branches and leaves... In no more than a dozen breaths, a Hollow Valley Clear-Song Bamboo, roughly thirty feet tall, its entire body jade-like and its branches and leaves lushly green, radiating an ethereal, tranquil aura, stood gracefully amid the bamboo grove.
Compared with the surrounding bamboo, it was more elegant and upright. A faint treasure light flowed across its stalk, while its leaves moved without wind, producing rustling sounds that refreshed the spirit and seemed capable of cleansing the soul.
Every branch and leaf of this newborn Hollow Valley Clear-Song Bamboo gently swayed toward Zhang Shuai, who sat atop the jade platform within the pavilion, as though reverently worshipping the deity who had granted it new life and intelligence.
"Its intelligence has awakened, and its origin has revived!" Renxiao Divine Venerable threw back his head and laughed, his laughter filled with boundless relief and joy. "Good! It truly succeeded! From now on, it need only steadily absorb