Half a lifetime of purines, if you would not disdain me

Jiang Zhu had traveled thousands of miles precisely to find Ancestor Ginseng.

The northeast had three treasures, and ginseng was foremost among them. Since ancient times, countless ginseng hunters had scoured the lands beyond the pass, and ginseng had been the favorite tribute of emperors throughout the ages.

Nowadays, there was plenty of cultivated ginseng, almost as common as giant radishes. But truly exceptional wild ginseng was still expensive, with prices easily starting in the millions.

Naturally, the ginseng Jiang Zhu sought was no ordinary specimen. It was a true spiritual ginseng, one that could even be called a Half-Divine Medicine, more precious than a Medicine King eighty or ninety thousand years old.

It was said that this ancient ginseng was the Ancestor Ginseng of Changbai Mountain, and of the entire northeast. Though it could not merge with the Dao and soar through the heavens or burrow through the earth like an Immortal Divine Medicine, it could move using the earth's energy. From ancient times to the present, no one had ever managed to dig it up.

Jiang Zhu entered the world of ice and snow and headed toward an uninhabited region. It was certainly no place an ordinary mortal could venture into: utterly primeval, with ancient trees thousands of years old everywhere.

The power of the dragon veins beneath this terrain was still relatively vigorous. Ancestor Ginseng might once have taken root here.

After traveling stealthily for hundreds of miles through this old forest of unknown breadth, Jiang Zhu discovered several pits beneath the accumulated snow.

"Sure enough, these are ginseng pits. He was here once. There's even some fragrance left."

This was indeed the fragrance of a spiritual medicine almost impossible to find anywhere in the world, surpassing even a Medicine King. The lingering scent alone seeped into the heart and soul.

Jiang Zhu continued tracing the earth veins along the ginseng pits and soon discovered a Primordial Killing Array. He stood a short distance away to observe it, not daring to enter. The array was extraordinarily intricate, with murderous danger at every step. Though no one was operating it, a careless intrusion could still leave him dying here in bitter regret.

This Primordial Killing Array could unquestionably trap a Saint Lord. Even a Severing the Dao Practitioner might meet a bitter end with the slightest lapse in caution.

Unable to enter, Jiang Zhu tried stirring Changbai Mountain's dying dragon vein, commanding it to turn over underground. Snow-covered mountains shook above it, and avalanches thundered down in many places with terrifying force.

But the expenditure was enormous. His divine power poured out like floodwater through opened sluice gates, soon draining him dry. Jiang Zhu had no choice but to refine the precious blood inside the Demon-Refining Pot to replenish his divine power.

The precious blood was continuously refined into divine power, and for a time, the power within him became as vast as an abyss.

Unwilling to waste it, Jiang Zhu transformed into a fire vine, connecting his roots to the earth's dragon vein. He sensed all the life and vitality underground as he searched for Ancestor Ginseng, while also releasing his own aura.

Suddenly, he sensed an astonishing mass of light containing boundless vital essence. It was a radiance of undying divinity, almost equivalent to half an Immortal Divine Medicine.

At the same time, Ancestor Ginseng sensed the fluctuations of dragon energy and fled far away in an instant. Soon, however, it returned to its original position and followed the fluctuations toward Jiang Zhu.

With a flash, a mass of immortal divine light appeared, carrying a fragrance that filled the air. A ginseng revealed his upper body, precious radiance flowing over him. Like a little old man hiding underground, he poked his head out and glanced around, sneaking about like a cat.

After observing for a while and finding no one nearby, only a fire vine, he approached Jiang Zhu and tapped his vines with a ginseng rootlet.

This ancient ginseng really did resemble a person, with faintly discernible facial features.

He studied Jiang Zhu curiously, while Jiang Zhu examined his ginseng body in turn.

So tempting! Who knew how many tens of thousands of years this ancient ginseng had lived? Vital essence curled around its entire body, and its fragrance filled the air. It was already a Half-Divine Medicine; a single breath of its scent could make one feel as though one were floating into immortality.

Ancestor Ginseng kept circling Jiang Zhu, extending its rootlets to "point and gesture" at him.

At the same time, a vague thought reached him. "What connection do you have to that peerless divine being? Why do you feel so similar?"

Over these endless years, he had witnessed many strange tales and secrets, even laying eyes on a legendary divine being himself.

Jiang Zhu froze. Who could I resemble? Did I have a younger sister too, who had prepared a Dao Integration Flower to guarantee my ascent to Great Emperor?

The Ginseng Ancestor said that tens of thousands of years ago, that divine being had attained the Dao and become an emperor. The entire universe had trembled beneath his aura, yet the Ginseng Ancestor had felt a sense of kinship in it. Jiang Zhu now gave him much the same feeling as that divine being.

Jiang Zhu understood. The divine being he spoke of was the first Great Emperor of the post-desolate ancient era-the Azure Emperor.

The Azure Emperor had taken form from the Immortal Medicine known as the Chaos Green Lotus, which had rooted itself on a piece of green copper in the Immortal Transformation Pool. Later, he severed his own Immortal Divine Medicine traits and became a cultivator, attaining the Dao in the post-desolate ancient era as a Demon Great Emperor.

The Azure Emperor could have been the Great Emperor with the easiest path into the Road to Immortality. As an Immortal Medicine Transformation who had attained the Dao as a Great Emperor, his imperial lifespan was incredibly long.

At the proper time when the Road to Immortality opened, he would still have been in the prime of his imperial life. As a peerless Great Emperor comparable to Wushi and Ruthless, he could have fought his way onto the Road to Immortality with ease.

Unfortunately, unable to enter the Immortal Domain, he concluded that there were no immortals in the world. With peerless boldness, he sought to create an immortal world within the mortal realm where eternal life would be possible. He entered the Desolate Pagoda, intending to evolve an Immortal Domain himself.

Then things went miserably wrong for him. Only an Immortal King could create a world, draw in Chaos Origin, refine longevity substance, and nourish that world in return.

The Azure Emperor stood at the very pinnacle of the mortal domain, but no matter what he did, he could not evolve an Immortal Domain. Without evolving an Immortal Domain, he could not become an Immortal King; without becoming an Immortal King, he could not evolve an Immortal Domain.

His one-track mind had landed him on a road blocked at both ends.

Still, Jiang Zhu was delighted to hear Ancestor Ginseng say that he resembled the Azure Emperor.

As for where the resemblance lay, Jiang Zhu had a rough idea. Both were spiritual plants capable of cultivation, though the gap between their cultivation levels was rather large, as was the gap between his current Fire Vine body and an Immortal Medicine.

But beneath these heavens, Jiang Zhu and the Azure Emperor might be the only two spiritual plants to have cultivated the Dao. Even the Azure Emperor's descendants no longer possessed a pure spiritual-plant bloodline.

One could say that Jiang Zhu now resembled the Azure Emperor more than the Azure Emperor's Descendants did.

Before Jiang Zhu could speak further, Ancestor Ginseng had already understood why he had come. With a flick of an arm covered in rootlets, he sent a stream of five-colored blood essence flying onto Jiang Zhu's vines.

Five-colored radiance flowed through this blood essence, its rich fragrance seeping into one's very bones. It was truly divine liquid.

Jiang Zhu stared, dumbfounded, at all that blood essence. Just like that? I haven't even said anything yet!

Half a lifetime of purines, if you would not disdain me?

After giving away the divine liquid, Ancestor Ginseng's aura grew weak and listless. Then it vanished in a flash into the depths of the earth veins, disappearing from sight. Jiang Zhu did not know what to say. He could only bow deeply in the direction Ancestor Ginseng had gone, then take out a large quantity of precious blood and leave it there.

Once the Demon-Refining Pot had absorbed enough divine liquid, Jiang Zhu put away the rest. This was supreme divine medicine that could revive the dead and put flesh back on bare bones. A single drop was enough to make Saint Lords and mighty experts nearing the end of their lives fight to the death.

As Ancestor Ginseng's blood essence was refined, two leaves near the roots of the Nine-Leaf Sword Grass true spirit totem lit up.

This was only a Half-Divine Medicine. Who knew what an Immortal Medicine would produce?

Moreover, the Ancestor Ginseng Divine Liquid contained an immense quantity of wood essence. Jiang Zhu had already perfected his Sea of Bitterness Secret Realm, and now he could begin breaking through into the Dao Palace Secret Realm.

For the Dao Palace Realm, he still chose to cultivate the Dao Scripture. Conveniently, he possessed its first two volumes.

As for the Western Empress Scripture, acclaimed as the strongest ancient scripture for the Dao Palace Secret Realm, he did not have it yet. He would have to go to Big Dipper for a chance to obtain it.

Besides, if one could cultivate a single imperial scripture, who would be so stuffed with food and idle enough to seek out the supposedly strongest imperial scripture for every realm? Weren't they afraid the conflicting methods would make them explode?

Even Ye Fan had only made that choice out of necessity, because he had lacked a complete imperial scripture to cultivate at the start.