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 carefully sensed it, and there really was one. Though tiny, there was indeed a small vortex of qi. "How is that possible?"

Bian Chunchou: Surely I haven't run into an idiot, have I?!

"But before this, I truly was only a mortal. If you had not mentioned this Qi Sea, benefactor, I certainly would never have discovered it." Joy surged uncontrollably in Wen Xu's heart. He had a Qi Sea—did that mean he, too, could become a cultivator? Though he did not know what status cultivators held, judging by his benefactor's ability to bring the dead back to life with a flick of his hand, it had to be far more interesting than taking the civil service examinations.

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

"Really?" Bian Chunchou still found it hard to believe. Though he had a soul from another world, opening a Qi Sea for a mortal was no simple matter. If it could be done so casually, the cultivation world would likely have been packed to the brim long ago.

"Of course it's true. Aren't you picking fruit for the Preliminary Trial, benefactor? I promise I won't take a single one. They'll all be yours."

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

"I stumbled in here by mistake and do not understand this place's rules at all. On top of that, my eyes are impaired. I will have to discuss what comes next after we get out. If you do not believe me, I can swear an oath."

Could he be some foolishly sweet innocent? Bian Chunchou's conscience gave a faint twinge after Wen Xu had put it that way. He felt a little like he was deceiving a decent young man—but when he saw the Red Pearl Fruits hanging thickly from the branches, he decided this haul was in the bag!!!

Red Pearl Fruits! Second-tier spirit fruits, and those of good quality could reach the standard of third-tier spirit fruits. With this many—he was rich, rich!

"Benefactor, did I help you?"

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

"My name is Wen Xu."

Bian Chunchou was packing the 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?"

But Wen Xu shook his head. "My adoptive father gave me that courtesy name before he died. It means to remain unshaken by favor or disgrace, calm and unhurried. I do not really need it anymore."

He would neither take the examinations nor enter officialdom, so why should he still observe all those elaborate formalities of scholars? Wen Xu was enough.

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

Wen Xu shook his head. "No. Brother Bian, are you done picking? Earlier, I caught a strange fragrance of vegetation. It is growing stronger now, and there is even a sense of flowers blooming until they rot away. Do you know what kind of spirit plant gives off such a scent?"

Bian Chunchou actually knew nothing about spirit plants. He had only crammed more than half of the Spirit Plant Compendium before the examination. "Describe it in more detail. What kind of vegetal fragrance is it?"

Wen Xu did his best to describe it. The more Bian Chunchou listened, the more worked up he became. He did not even care when he fell out of the tree, simply dusting off his clothes before running over. "You didn't smell it wrong?"

"I could not be mistaken. My sense of smell has always been three parts sharper than other people's."

Bian Chunchou thought he was truly going to strike it rich. Had the heavens heard his prayers? "Come on, come on, come on! Before the Preliminary Trial ends, let's go 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 was not originally called that. It had earned the name because its scent closely resembled the first fragrance that rose when an elixir was first refined. The name sounded impressive, but its medicinal properties were ordinary, and it was utterly undiscerning about where it grew. As long as there was soil, it could grow. It was everywhere in the cultivation world, and even sold as firewood, it would fetch no price.

But Fragrant Elixir King Grass was different. Any spirit plant with "King" in its name was extraordinary. Bian Chunchou remembered clearly that when Fragrant Elixir King Grass grew to maturity, it would be accompanied by an intensely rich fragrance of vegetation. The closer it came to maturity, the stronger the scent became, much like a ripening durian. In the end, the fragrance would carry a rotten, foul smell, when in truth it was simply fragrant to an excessive degree.

Aside from the scent, Fragrant Elixir King Grass looked no different from Pill-Fragrance Herb. In other words, the King Grass should grow amid a great mass of Pill-Fragrance Herb, because it could only grow into King Grass by drawing upon the strength of all the Pill-Fragrance Herbs surrounding it.

Bian Chunchou thought, I should have realized sooner. So much Pill-Fragrance Herb grew in the Cloud-Breaking Secret Realm; Yonglu Mountain could not possibly have failed to notice. Yet they had allowed it to grow wildly, likely to create the right 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 scent still there? Quick, quick, quick, walk faster! If it loses its smell, that means it has matured!"

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

"It is, but once it stops smelling, it looks exactly like every other Pill-Fragrance Herb growing there. Can you tell them apart? Are we supposed to harvest all the Pill-Fragrance Herbs in that area and try our luck?" What kind of lucky little red hand would it take to pick the right one?

"That sounds interesting."

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

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

"Damn, do there have to be this many?!" Bian Chunchou knew, of course, that King Grass was difficult to grow and needed an enormous number of Pill-Fragrance Herbs to nourish it, but the sight of the herbs carpeting the mountains before him still stunned him.

This mountain and that mountain stretched together in one continuous expanse. Looking up, he could not see where they ended. No wonder Yonglu Mountain had opened this place for Qi Refining Stage cultivators who had not yet entered the sect to gather from.

No exaggeration, even if every examinee came here, they could search for a year and still fail to find it.

Maintaining his blind-man persona, Wen Xu tilted his head in confusion. "That many?"

"Super, super, unbelievably many. And lots of people are already searching. I thought I was going to pick up someone else's leftovers." But one could not be too greedy. With those Red Pearl Fruits, passing the Preliminary Trial should not be a problem. "Still, since we're here, there's no loss in looking around, right?"