Blazing Sun Flower Pollen

"Junior Brother He, please follow me!"

Wang Dun led He Pingsheng out of the Mountain Cave where Withered Wood True Person lived.

After walking for a little less than half an incense stick's time, the two returned to the patch of fiery-red Blazing Sun Flowers.

"Let me give you a quick explanation!"

Wang Dun looked at He Pingsheng, then pointed at the sea of flowers beside them. "These Blazing Sun Flowers are second-grade spiritual plants!"

In the Cultivation World, spiritual plants, also known as immortal herbs, were divided into grades.

They ranged from first grade, second grade... all the way to ninth grade.

Likewise, pills were divided into grades.

First-grade spiritual plants could only be used to refine first-grade pills, while second-grade spiritual plants could be used to refine second-grade pills.

And so on, following the same pattern.

These were second-grade spiritual plants of the fire attribute. They originally grew where Earthfire emerged and needed to absorb fire-attribute energy to grow.

Of course, that was not an absolute rule.

For cultivated Blazing Sun Flowers, supplying fire-attribute spiritual power through a formation worked just as well when no Earthfire was present.

The requirement was a stable source of fire-attribute energy.

Fire spirit stones would work, but the unrefined spiritual power within them was quite impure. Although it could supply the formation and the Blazing Sun Flowers, it could easily cause the flowers to die off in large numbers.

Their survival rate was very low.

Apart from fire spirit stones, the other option was nourishing them with a cultivator's own fire spiritual power.

Fire spiritual power refined by a cultivator was pure and stable, providing the Blazing Sun Flowers with a continuous supply of fire-attribute spiritual power.

That was why they had to find a cultivator who primarily cultivated a fire spiritual root.

"See this stone?" Wang Dun pointed at the stone they had just used to test the concentration of He Pingsheng's fire spiritual power. "This is the energy hub for the entire formation!"

"I'll tell you again. This stone has four colors: crimson, yellow, gold, and purple!"

"Later, pour all the spiritual power in your body into it!"

"If it's crimson, that means the spiritual power will only last one day, so you'll have to replenish it every day!"

"If it's yellow, you can leave it alone for three days. The energy inside will last that long!"

"If it's gold, one replenishment will last seven days!"

"Understand?" Wang Dun's voice was rather loud.

He Pingsheng nodded and repeated, "Understood. Red means one day, yellow means three days, and gold means seven days!"

"Correct!" Seeing how readily He Pingsheng caught on, Wang Dun smiled. "All right... now you can ask me anything you don't understand!"

He Pingsheng asked, "Then how many days does purple last?"

Wang Dun's face darkened at once. "Forget about purple!"

It was not that Wang Dun was unwilling to tell him. When Withered Wood True Person had given Wang Dun his instructions, he had only explained up to gold and said nothing about purple.

"Oh..." He Pingsheng nodded.

Wang Dun continued, "Besides supplying this formation with fire spiritual power, you have one other job: collecting pollen from these Blazing Sun Flowers!"

He Pingsheng was taken aback. "Pollen?"

I'm not a little bee...

"That's right, pollen!" Wang Dun said firmly. "Of course, the pollen won't fall off on its own, and you don't have to collect it every day. Once every three to five days is enough!"

"You may not know this, Junior Brother He, but the most useful part of the entire Blazing Sun Flower is its pollen!"

"Once the Blazing Sun Flower pollen has been collected, it's ground into powder and mixed with beast blood to make talisman ink."

"Talisman ink?" He Pingsheng had heard another unfamiliar term. "What's that?"

He felt he had been rather talkative today.

But if he did not ask, he would not be satisfied.

Wang Dun was friendly enough, answering each of He Pingsheng's questions in turn.

Talisman ink was something cultivators used to draw talismans.

Blazing Sun Flower pollen was one of the main ingredients for drawing the second-grade Blazing Fire Talisman, and it was extremely expensive.

Of course, the pollen also came in four grades: low, middle, high, and supreme. They were easy to distinguish by color, which corresponded almost exactly to those of the stone: red, yellow, gold, and purple.

"Come... let's take a look over here!"

A short distance directly opposite the patch of Blazing Sun Flowers stood a cliff, with a round entrance carved into it by some unknown person.

Wang Dun pointed at the entrance. "Because of the risk of fire in the spiritual herb garden, no halls or houses may be built here. Everyone lives in Mountain Caves, including Withered Wood True Person!"

"Don't worry. The Mountain Cave is spacious, and there's a fire-attribute spirit stone inside to keep it dry all year round. It won't get damp!"

"The disciple who tended the Blazing Sun Flowers before you used to live here. Now it belongs to you!"

"Follow me!"

He Pingsheng followed Wang Dun into the Mountain Cave.

It was indeed very large inside.

There were three interconnected rooms alone, each with a stone door.

It was quiet and comfortable, too.

High on the stone wall in the center of the main chamber, a red spirit stone the size of a jujube flickered with a faint glow.

Waves of heat drifted down from it.

Just as Wang Dun had said, there was no dampness in the cave, and it was quite comfortable to live in.

"These are the tools for collecting pollen!" Wang Dun pointed at the jade bottles on a shelf in the room.

The jade bottles looked much like those used to hold pills.

"Under normal circumstances," Wang Dun said, "you can collect ten bottles each month!"

"After collecting the pollen, you also need to grind it here... grind it into powder!"

"All the pollen you obtain must be handed over to Withered Wood True Person. You mustn't keep any for yourself, or you'll get a vicious beating if you're caught!"

"All right, that's everything!" Wang Dun said. "You'll have to sort out your own meals, but if you're short on grain, I have plenty. I can also give you thirty jin of spirit rice each month!"

"Take care of yourself!"

With that, Wang Dun left.

He Pingsheng did not start work right away. Instead, he first familiarized himself with his surroundings.

This place seemed to be at the very back of the valley, far from where Wang Dun lived.

It was not too far from Withered Wood True Person, though walking there at a leisurely pace would still take half an incense stick's time.

It was fairly peaceful, with no one to disturb him.

After familiarizing himself with the surroundings, He Pingsheng finally went over to the spiritual field of Blazing Sun Flowers.

He reached out and pressed his hand against the stone.

Rumble...

The fire-attribute spiritual energy within He Pingsheng surged out like a torrent of water, pouring into the stone.

Light blazed from the stone in all directions.

It first turned crimson, then yellow.

When He Pingsheng had poured roughly eighty percent of his spiritual power into it, the stone finally turned gold.

"Whew..."

He Pingsheng took a deep breath and withdrew his magic power.

That was enough.

It had actually turned gold!

Of course, he did not know whether he could make the stone turn purple, but even if he could, He Pingsheng had no intention of trying.

Exposing that would do him no good.