Confession

Wen Xu did not even need to pretend to look naturally surprised. "What is a Qi Sea?"

"It's inside your Dantian. You can feel it, right? Little whirlpools, one after another—that's the sign that you've entered the Qi Refining Stage. Don't play dumb with me."

"Here?" Wen Xu focused his senses carefully and found that there really was one. Though tiny, there truly was a small vortex. "How is that possible?"

Bian Chunchou: I couldn't have run into an idiot, could I?!

"But I truly was only a mortal before. If my benefactor had not mentioned this Qi Sea, I surely would never have discovered it." Wen Xu could not suppress his delight. He had a Qi Sea—did that mean he, too, could become a cultivator? Though he did not know exactly what sort of status a cultivator held, judging by his benefactor's ability to bring the dead back to life with a wave of his hand, it was surely far more interesting than taking the imperial examinations.

With that thought, much of the gloom in Wen Xu's heart dispersed at once.

"Really?" Bian Chunchou still found it hard to believe. Although he had an outsider's soul, opening a Qi Sea in a mortal was no simple matter. If it could be done so casually, the Cultivation Realm would probably have long since been packed to the rafters.

"Of course it's true. Didn't you want to pick fruit for the Preliminary Trial, benefactor? I promise not to take a single one. They'll all be yours."

Bian Chunchou grew even more suspicious. "You're giving them all to me? What about yourself?"

"I wandered in here by mistake and know nothing of this place's rules. My eyes are also impaired, so I must wait until after we leave before discussing what comes next. If you do not believe me, I can swear an oath."

Could this be some foolish sweet innocent? With things already said to this extent, Bian Chunchou's conscience faintly ached. It felt a little like deceiving an upstanding young man, but when he saw the Red Pearl Fruits hanging thick upon the branches, he decided this haul was in the bag!!!

Red Pearl Fruits! Second-grade spirit fruits, and fine specimens could reach the quality of third-grade spirit fruits. With this many, he was rich, rich!

"Benefactor, have I been of help to you?"

"Ah, why call me benefactor? My name is Bian Chunchou—spring rain like a boat."

"My name is Wen Xu."

Bian Chunchou was stuffing Red Pearl Fruits into jade boxes. Luckily, Yonglu Mountain had provided the jade boxes; otherwise, with his assets, he could never have afforded a storage bag large enough for so many Red Pearl Fruits. "I know. Your courtesy name is Bu Jing, too. Should I call you Wen Bu Jing?"

Yet Wen Xu shook his head. "My adoptive father gave me that courtesy name before he died. It means to remain unruffled by favor or disgrace, calm and composed. I do not have much use for it now."

If he was not taking the imperial examinations or entering officialdom, why should he still abide by all those cumbersome rituals of scholars? Wen Xu was enough.

"Huh? All right, Brother Wen Xu, you really don't want even one?"

Wen Xu shook his head. "Mm. Brother Bian, are you done picking? Earlier, I smelled a strange fragrance of vegetation. It has grown increasingly dense, and even carries a sense of flowers blooming into rot. Do you know what kind of spirit plant gives off such a scent?"

Bian Chunchou actually knew nothing about spirit plants. He had merely crammed more than half of the Spirit Plant Compendium before the exam. "Describe it more carefully. What kind of vegetal fragrance?"

Wen Xu tried hard to describe it. The more Bian Chunchou listened, the more excited he became. He did not even care when he fell from the tree, simply dusting off his clothes and running over. "You didn't smell it wrong?"

"I could not have. My sense of smell has always been three parts keener than other people's."

Bian Chunchou thought that he had truly struck it rich. Could Heaven have heard his prayers? "Go, go, go! While the Preliminary Trial still hasn't ended, let's pick Fragrant Elixir King Grass!"

Confession

Pill-Fragrance Herb and Fragrant Elixir King Grass differed by only one word, yet their values were as far apart as heaven and earth.

Pill-Fragrance Herb had not originally been called that. Because its scent resembled the first fragrance released when an elixir was newly formed, it received that name. Pill-Fragrance Herb sounded impressive, but its medicinal properties were ordinary, and it was not picky at all about where it grew. So long as there was soil, it could grow. It was everywhere in the Cultivation Realm, and it could not fetch a price even when sold as firewood.

But Fragrant Elixir King Grass was different. Any spirit plant with the word "King" in its name was anything but ordinary. Bian Chunchou remembered clearly that when Fragrant Elixir King Grass grew to maturity, it would be accompanied by an exceedingly rich vegetal fragrance. The closer it came to maturity, the stronger the scent became. Like a ripening durian, it would eventually carry the odor of rot and decay—but in truth, it was merely fragrant to an excessive degree.

Aside from its fragrance, Fragrant Elixir King Grass looked no different from Pill-Fragrance Herb. In other words, King Herb should grow amid a huge patch of Pill-Fragrance Herb, because the reason King Herb could grow was that it gathered the strength of every Pill-Fragrance Herb surrounding it.

Bian Chunchou thought, I should have realized it sooner. So much Pill-Fragrance Herb grows in the Cloud-Breaking Secret Realm—Yonglu Mountain couldn't possibly have failed to notice. But since they let it grow wild, they were probably creating the conditions for Fragrant Elixir King Grass to grow and mature.

It was worth mentioning that Fragrant Elixir King Grass had one utterly infuriating trait!

"Is the fragrance still there? Hurry, hurry, hurry, walk faster! If it loses its scent, that means it has matured!"

Wen Xu knew nothing about spirit plants, so he asked curiously, "Isn't maturity a good thing?"

"It is, but once it no longer smells, it looks exactly like every other Pill-Fragrance Herb growing there. Can you tell them apart? Are we supposed to pick all the Pill-Fragrance Herb in that area and bring it back to try our luck?" How blessed would one's lucky little red hand have to be to pick it?

"That sounds very interesting."

Bian Chunchou: ...What kind of devil are you?!

The two hurried as fast as they could and finally reached the site. Then—

"Holy crap, did there have to be this many?!" Of course Bian Chunchou knew King Herb was not easily cultivated and required an enormous number of Pill-Fragrance Herbs to nourish it, but he was still stunned by the sea of Pill-Fragrance Herb covering the mountains before him.

This mountain and that mountain were joined into one vast stretch. Looking up, he could not see the end of it at all. No wonder Yonglu Mountain had opened it for Qi Refining Stage cultivators who had yet to enter the sect to pick from.

No exaggeration, even if every examinee came here, they still would not find it after searching for a year.

Keeping up his blind-man persona, Wen Xu tilted his head in confusion. "A lot?"

"Super, super, unbelievably many. And lots of people are already searching. I thought I'd get to pick up a leftover bargain." Still, a person could not be too greedy. With those Red Pearl Fruits, passing the Preliminary Trial should not be a problem. "But since we're already here, it doesn't hurt to look around."