Seeds (Please Bookmark)

Lu He looked around. As far as the eye could see, there were densely packed heads.

At a glance, there seemed to be tens of thousands of people.

These people were dressed much like him, mostly in coarse cloth garments. Every now and then, figures carrying weapons could be seen mixed within the crowd, their expressions either calm or brimming with ambition.

At the very front of the crowd.

Lay a vast open space, with earth piled into a stone platform at its center, where one hundred and three prayer cushions had been placed.

Below the stone platform stood twelve azure-brick arenas, each nine zhang long and wide. Beside every arena was planted a golden standard embroidered with a different number, spiritual light flowing over it as it snapped in the wind.

Lu He used his iron hammer to force a path open, squeezing forward bit by bit and drawing waves of complaints.

"Who is it? What are you pushing for? What if you hurt someone?"

"Exactly! If you crush these old bones of mine, let's see what you'll do!"

"If you came late, then stay in the back—"

Some people indignantly turned around to see who the culprit was, only for their view to be completely blocked by an enormous black iron hammerhead the moment they turned.

Gulp—

He swallowed hard, obediently shut his mouth, and did not dare continue.

What sort of person came here carrying a weapon at a time like this was self-evident.

And such a huge iron hammer... He truly feared that if this man gave it the slightest shake, he would be bruised black and blue.

Seeing this.

The other cultivator tenants who had arrived late immediately followed suit, shoving their way forward with brute force.

Half an incense stick later, Lu He finally struggled through the sea of people.

Only then did he notice that two clearly distinct groups of people were sitting cross-legged on the ground ahead.

The group on the left was visibly older. Even the youngest among them was over forty, and all of them radiated powerful blood qi. Whenever their gazes met his, it made the hairs on his body stand on end.

"Are they all cultivators nearing the limits of the Body-Shedding Realm, or even already in the Intent-Shedding stage?"

Lu He's heart tightened.

He vaguely sensed traces of Scarlet Horned Dragon True Intent among them.

Unable to resist, he turned to look to the right.

More than thirty people sat scattered there. They appeared younger, mostly under thirty. Their auras were generally weaker than those of the group on the left, yet their bearing was not inferior in the slightest.

Some sat with their eyes closed, resting their minds. Some constantly surveyed their surroundings. Others let their gazes wander among the twelve great standards...

Wait—

The next moment, Lu He's gaze sharpened.

Among the group on the right, he seemed to spot a familiar figure. Whether it was the small eyes or the thick brows that nearly joined into one line, both were unmistakably distinctive.

Their eyes met.

"Haha, Brother Lu!"

Zheng Jingren raised his brows and immediately waved repeatedly.

"Come over here quickly. I'll introduce you to some friends."

As soon as he spoke, quite a few people followed Zheng Jingren's gaze, their curious or appraising eyes falling upon Lu He.

As though he felt none of it, he merely smiled at Zheng Jingren.

"Alright."

Then, shouldering the enormous iron hammer, he walked out of the crowd.

The moment he sat down.

"Brother Zheng, who is this?"

A crisp and pleasant voice suddenly sounded beside him, lively as a lark.

Lu He looked toward the sound.

The speaker was a pretty young woman of around twenty-one or twenty-two. Her features were delicate and her skin fair. Perhaps because she cultivated the Scarlet Horned-Dragon True-Origin Visualization Diagram, her gentle temperament also carried a wild, primordial ferocity.

"This is Brother Lu He, a genius I only met yesterday."

Zheng Jingren grinned, then turned to Lu He and introduced her directly.

"Brother Lu, this is Miss Su Lingchan. She's at the late Body-Shedding Realm. Her whip carries a force of a full two thousand four hundred jin. It hurts like hell when it strikes someone."

"Greetings, Miss Su."

"Greetings, Brother Lu."

After that, Zheng Jingren continued introducing Lu He to several other people nearby, both men and women. All of them were at the late Body-Shedding Realm. Even the weakest possessed a force of sixteen or seventeen hundred jin.

Lu He clasped his fists to each of them in greeting.

At first, perhaps because Zheng Jingren had introduced him, these people were fairly warm toward Lu He.

But once they heard that Lu He had only just entered the late Body-Shedding Realm and that his strength had yet to reach eleven hundred jin, their attitudes subtly shifted, growing faintly distant.

They began chatting among themselves.

"I wonder how many slots we can snatch from those old fogeys this time. It can't possibly be worse than last year, can it?"

"Why think so much? I've already comprehended the mysteries of Scarlet Horned Dragon True Intent and condensed one-third of a Red Qiu True Talisman. My strength can increase by thirty percent. At the very least, I can secure a slot."

"Hiss—one-third of a Red Qiu True Talisman?"

"You secretly improved again?"

"..."

Beside him, Zheng Jingren seemed to notice something, and a helpless, amused expression surfaced on his face.

"Sorry you had to see that, Brother Lu."

He lowered his voice.

"It's nothing."

Lu He waved a hand.

Having lived two lives, he would not get angry over something so trivial.

But—

"Speaking of slots," he looked at Zheng Jingren with some confusion, "Brother Zheng, what did they mean just now by fighting for slots?"

Lu He had also come today to fight for a slot.

Yet he could clearly tell that the slots those few people had mentioned were not the sort of overlooked opportunity he had imagined. Rather, they would likely have to be seized in a real fight from—

At that thought.

He could not help looking toward the somewhat older tenant cultivators seated on the other side.

Clearly, the targets these people had set their sights on—or rather, their opponents—were them!

Seemingly knowing what Lu He was puzzled about.

Zheng Jingren immediately explained with a smile.

"Brother Lu, the slots they mentioned specifically refer to steward positions ranked in the top fifty. These stewards are the strongest, each managing more than a thousand mu of spirit fields."

He paused, then continued.

"Of course, this is also a requirement set by the stewards themselves. They are not allowed to compete for positions below the fiftieth rank."

Why would the stewards make such an unreasonable demand?

Lu He frowned.

Across from him.

Seeing Lu He's expression, Zheng Jingren knew that he must have misunderstood something and could not help chuckling.

"Because most of us are seeds who receive additional resources from the stewards, we naturally have to produce results worthy of them."

"Brother Lu, you need not do this. Just pick the best opportunity ahead and step up when the time comes."

"..."

After chatting for a while.

"The annual window period. Older-generation tenant cultivators and seeds heavily nurtured by the stewards, forced into direct confrontation... Are they whetstones?"

"Generation after generation, honing true geniuses until they can enter the Inner Garden?"

Through this set of rules, Lu He seemed to peer through layer upon layer of curtains and catch a glimpse of Azurehold Herb Garden's true face.

"Selecting geniuses?"

Lu He's eyes narrowed slightly.

Just then.

Another toll of a bell rang out.

Cries of alarm rose from the crowd, which immediately scrambled aside and opened up a broad path.

Figures wrapped in spiritual light raced over from the depths of the Medicine Garden, leaving white streaks in the air. In the blink of an eye, they crossed several hundred zhang and arrived before the crowd.

Once the stewards' figures came into view.

The thunderous boom of air being torn apart arrived right after them.