Raising Medicine with Living People
After dinner, the sun had already set, leaving only its afterglow to illuminate the earth.
Instead of returning to his residence, Song Wen pretended to take a walk to digest his food and headed towards the west side of Clearpeace Mountain.
To the west of Clearpeace Mountain lies a spiritual field covering several hundred acres, from which most of the spirit medicine produced by the Su Clan originate.
Song Wen has been at the Su Clan for over half a month, but has never been to the spirit field.
Perhaps for safety reasons, the Su Clan located Lingtian at the foot of Clearpeace Mountain.
Amidst the undulating mountains surrounding the area, the presence of this nearly thousand-acre flat plot of land, Lingtian, seems somewhat out of place.
Around the perimeter of the spirit field stand tall stone towers, with figures moving about on them – the guards of the Su Clan stationed there.
A few miles from the spirit field, Song Wen stood by a small pond, looking up as if admiring the sunset. In reality, he had already sent out all six Sacred Beetle Gu.
With the help of the Sacred Beetle Gu, Song Wen had a complete view of the entire spirit field.
Lingtian is said to cover several hundred acres, but in reality it's just a plot of land less than two miles in circumference.
Even though they were several miles apart, the entire spiritual field was within Song Wen's Divine Sense detection range.
In the center of Lingtian, there is a row of low wooden houses. The houses are somewhat old and look like ordinary houses used by farmers for temporary rest in the fields.
There are ten low-rise houses in total. In four of them, a Foundation Establishment cultivator is hiding, meditating and cultivating cross-legged.
One person in the Foundation Establishment Late Stage, two people in the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, and one person in the Foundation Establishment Early Stage.
These four are the true force protecting the sacred field; the guards on the outer towers serve more of a vigilant role.
As for this row of old wooden houses, they are used to deceive people. If thieves sneak into the spirit field, they can easily be misled by the old appearance of the wooden houses and think that there is no danger inside. They will lower their guard and not be aware of the danger inside.
The spirit field is located next to Clearpeace Mountain, Su Clan still sends four Foundation Establishment cultivators to guard it long-term, which shows how much the Su Clan values the spirit field.
Sacred Beetle Gu also discovered that a cliff 100 meters high had been carved out of Clearpeace Mountain on the side adjacent to the Spirit Field.
On the cliff face, there are more than ten neatly arranged Cave, each about ten feet high.
Each Cave entrance is protected by a protective array, making it impossible for anyone to discover anything inside.
Although his Divine Sense couldn't penetrate the cave, Song Wen still keenly sensed that a faint trace of corpse energy remained at the cave entrance.
The fact that there is still residual corpse energy despite the isolation provided by the array can only mean that the array is frequently activated, and the corpse energy is leaked out when the array is activated.
Leaving two Sacred Beetle Gu on the stone wall outside the Cave to monitor Cave, Song Wen turned and headed back to his residence.
Under the melon field and plum trees.
Although this place is still several miles away from the spirit field, staying here for too long will inevitably arouse suspicion.
Around midnight, one of the Sacred Beetle Gu returned to Song Wen's residence.
Sacred Beetle Gu informed Song Wen that the array barrier in the Cave had disappeared.
Because the distance from the spirit field to their residence was nearly twenty miles, exceeding the range of their Divine Sense, the Sacred Beetle Gu could only make one trip to return and report back, while the other Sacred Beetle Gu took the opportunity to crawl into the Cave.
Upon receiving the news, Song Wen took advantage of the darkness to leave his residence and head towards Lingtian.
When they were a few miles from the spirit field, in front of a dense forest, Song Wen suddenly stopped.
He suddenly remembered that Su Shan had mentioned that there were many formations hidden in the dense forests of Clearpeace Mountain, which were used to trap and kill enemies. Once you fell into one of them, even if you were not killed by the formation, you would still be exposed and attract the attention of the Su Clan cultivators.
There are hidden formations in the dense forests of Clearpeace Mountain, and there are likely also hidden formations in the dense forests surrounding the spirit fields.
Flying directly across the dense forest would certainly not escape the sight of the guards on the high tower at the edge of the spirit field.
We definitely can't go into the dense forest.
Then we can only find a place to hide and use the Sacred Beetle Gu to find out everything in the Cave.
Song Wen looked around and his gaze fell on the small pond he had visited at dusk.
The pond wasn't deep, less than three meters, but it was enough to hide one's figure.
Song Wen submerged himself in the pond and, through the Sacred Beetle Gu inside the cave, sensed everything within.
At this moment, the formation at the Cave had not been reopened, and the entrance remained open.
After walking a hundred meters along the cave entrance, a huge cave covering more than ten acres came into view.
The ground inside the cave emitted an extremely faint fluorescent glow.
If you look closely, you can see that the fluorescence is emanating from some palm-sized Ganoderma lucidum mushrooms.
These Ganoderma lucidum mushrooms did not grow on the ground, but on human heads.
Beneath each Ganoderma lucidum was a complete human skeleton, with the Ganoderma lucidum growing in the left eye socket of the corpse.
These Yellow Essence Fungus mushrooms were the very ones Song Wen had been searching for.
The stench of decay that Song Wen discovered at the Cave entrance was emanating from these corpses, along with a strong stench of rotting flesh.
The degree of decomposition varied among the corpses; some still showed blackened, rotting flesh, while others were reduced to bones.
Inside the abdominal cavity of those white bones was the skeleton of an infant, about the size of a bowl, not yet fully formed.
These corpses used to cultivate Yellow Essence Fungus were all pregnant women!
The age of the Yellow Essence Fungus parasitizing the corpse also varies.
The age of Yellow Essence Fungus is determined not by its size, but by its color.
Newly sprouted Yellow Essence Fungus is yellowish-white. As it ages, its color gradually deepens, turning from yellowish-white to yellowish-brown. At this point, the Yellow Essence Fungus has reached ten years of age and can be used as spirit medicine herb to refine elixirs.
As the medicinal plant ages, its yellowish-brown color turns into dark brown, then dark red, and finally it can grow into jet black, a color that only medicinal plants aged over a thousand years can achieve.
There are over a thousand Yellow Essence Fungus plants in the cave, but they are generally not very old, only about ten to thirty or forty years old.
Considering that these Yellow Essence Fungus were carefully cultivated by the Su Clan, their medicinal age must be longer than their actual growth period. In other words, the Su Clan's cultivation of these Yellow Essence Fungus is most likely a recent development within the last ten years or so.
Moreover, Song Wen also discovered that these Yellow Essence Fungus were not exactly the same as the three he had obtained from the man with the mustache.
These Yellow Essence Fungus possess a unique vitality that other common Yellow Essence Fungus lack.
This glimmer of life is like the vibrant energy of the rising sun, full of vitality. It's also like the first tender sprout breaking through the frozen earth in early spring, brimming with life.
Inside the cave, six cultivators from the Su Clan, all at the Late Qi Refinement Refining, were casting the Clear Wind Technique in various corners of the cave.
A gentle breeze blew through the cave, dispelling the stench of corpses and bringing in fresh, clean air from outside.
Seeing this, Song Wen understood the purpose of the dozen or so openings in the cliff face: to ventilate the cave.
Yellow Essence Fungus parasitizes human corpses, but it cannot withstand prolonged exposure to the stench of the dead; otherwise, it will rot and wither away.
About fifteen minutes later, the murky, foul-smelling air in the cave was completely replaced by fresh, clean air, and the six cultivators stopped casting spells.
They began to check the growth of Yellow Essence Fungus.
One of them used his spiritual power to lift a weathered skeleton. His movements were very gentle, as if he were afraid of accidentally breaking the fragile skeleton.
Of course, he wasn't worried about breaking the bones, but rather about damaging the Yellow Essence Fungus that was parasitizing them.
The Yellow Essence Fungus that parasitized this skeleton was about twenty years old.
The roots of the Yellow Essence Fungus are connected to many white mycelia, which are like the roots of a vine. They are exceptionally developed, intertwined, and tightly wrap around the entire skeleton, as if trying to squeeze out the last bit of nutrients from it.