Lin Ke held the pitch-black, oval Root Carving and slowly probed it with his spiritual sense.
A faint glow shrouded the Root Carving, making it look like some extraordinary spiritual treasure.
But once his spiritual sense entered it, he realized it was merely an ordinary piece of wood coated in powdered spirit stone.
After probing it once more, Lin Ke could not help frowning.
Wood!
No matter how he examined it, it was wood!
Just an ordinary chunk of wood coated in powdered spirit stone!
Still, that made sense...
If something like this could be identified so easily with spiritual sense, how would he ever have gotten his hands on it?
His special advantage was his Niwan Palace, after all. Ordinary cultivators could not open one-only mighty experts could.
With that in mind, Lin Ke decided to explore it further once he returned to his lodging.
One spirit stone for a treasure that stirred his Niwan Palace-what a bargain!
Losing interest in browsing any further, he hurriedly bought some formation materials for building a greenhouse and headed back.
Back in the wooden cabin, Lin Ke sat cross-legged and brought the Root Carving straight into his Niwan Palace.
"Whoosh, whoosh..."
The next instant, the gas within his Niwan Palace flowed toward the Root Carving in his hand for several seconds. It absorbed the surrounding gas like a sponge soaking up water.
Both the gas and the soil within his Niwan Palace were unusual, though Lin Ke had yet to discover exactly how.
As for the Root Carving in his hand?
Lin Ke had thought it was some sort of spiritual plant, something he could grow inside his Niwan Palace.
Who would have thought that, after absorbing the gas from his Niwan Palace, the Root Carving would slowly turn to black ash and fall away, leaving only a completely black, round object in his hand?
"This is..."
Lin Ke raised his hand to examine it, but could not immediately tell what it was.
An insect egg?
A seed?
An ore?
He could not tell.
It felt like stone, pitch-black and utterly opaque, even giving him the impression that it could suck in light itself.
Anything capable of stirring his Niwan Palace was certainly no ordinary object.
He brought it beside the Blackgold Silkworm and the bee, intending to leave it in his Niwan Palace, then withdraw and wait for those two things to undergo further changes.
But just as he brought the object in his hand near the golden egg, something unexpected happened.
A thin, slender root suddenly sprouted from the black pebble in his hand and stabbed toward the insect egg.
Startled, Lin Ke immediately pulled his hand away.
The root was only as long as his little finger. Once Lin Ke moved away from the insect egg, it could only wave through the air, conveying a sense of ravenous thirst.
A seed!
It really did seem to be a spiritual plant!
His expression grew grave as he prepared to take the seed out of his Niwan Palace.
That insect egg was his trump card for the sect tournament, after all, as well as his hope of completing his sect mission!
Although the black seed appeared to have far greater potential than the Blackgold Silkworm egg, he could not make such a decision lightly.
The future was the future, and the present was the present.
Potential was only potential. The mission due in a month was his pressing concern.
Yet the next instant, a sense of longing also emanated from the Blackgold Silkworm egg.
The two seemed to be drawn to each other.
Mutual attraction? Lin Ke frowned in thought, then finally decided to give it a try.
If the relationship between the seed and the insect egg was like a traveler desperate for water after a long trek through the desert, Lin Ke would not necessarily give the "water" to the "traveler." After all, that would make the "water" disappear.
But what if the water wanted to be drunk, too?
Generally speaking, such a mutual reaching-out benefited both sides.
At worst, he could expend another of his few remaining Blackgold Moths to cultivate a new egg later.
And so, he carefully placed the two together.
"Pop~"
The black seed split open, revealing several tiny roots that wound around the golden insect egg. One central root even pierced into it.
Then the seed dropped toward the ground, with the golden insect egg below and the black seed above. Its roots sank into the soil of his Niwan Palace.
In an instant, Lin Ke felt his brain grow heavy, as though a massive stone weighing hundreds of pounds had appeared inside his head and was pressing down on it.
Yet his body felt no burden or encumbrance. Instead, he felt the satisfying weight of a harvest, along with joy.
As though he had eaten his fill.
"An unexpected windfall!"
The seed took root and sprouted within his mind, while Lin Ke opened his eyes, unable to hide his excitement.
A heavenly treasure!
Treasures came in many grades.
For instance, the low-grade spiritual flying swords the sect issued to its disciples belonged to the Spirit Tier.
As far as he knew, above that was the Origin Tier. The silver hat suspended high above the Yi-Wa Market today was an Origin Tier treasure, also known as an Origin Artifact.
And above that?
The original owner of his body had not known what lay above that tier, but he had known of things called heavenly treasures, which far surpassed the Origin Tier.
That was also what the original owner had guessed the Mysterious Bead that opened his Niwan Palace to be.
The Mysterious Bead was a heavenly treasure, and this seed was probably not far off.
An unexpected windfall!
Lin Ke took several deep breaths, even circulating the sect-bestowed cultivation technique, the Miaojiang Gu Art, before he finally calmed his breathing.
Feeling the abundant ninth-level Qi Refining spiritual energy within his body, along with the spiritual sense faintly radiating from his eyes, Lin Ke found the weight on his shoulders considerably lighter.
Brimming with energy, he immediately began preparing the greenhouse.
The things he had originally gone to the Yi-Wa Market to buy were greenhouse materials for the Blackgold Silkworms and mulberry trees.
He had not bought plastic, of course. As far as he knew, this world had no such thing.
What he had bought was a formation!
But choosing where to set up the formation also required care.
He toured several mountains within the Green Mulberry Garden, then stopped on the mountain closest to his wooden cabin.
This mountain received ample sunlight, and its natural conditions were ideal for mulberry trees and Blackgold Silkworms.
He began setting up the formation.
The sunlight shone brilliantly, while the spring breeze was damp and chilly.
After dealing with the mysterious seed, Lin Ke went to the neighboring mountain and took out the things he had just purchased at the Yi-Wa Market.
A thin, pale-purple dragonfly wing over a meter long, the dried shells of five rhinoceros beetles with crimson armor, and ten pounds of inkfly compound eyes.
These were the main materials for his greenhouse, all processed by formation masters.
The formation was called the Earth Cicada Warm Sand Formation!
First, he buried the five dried rhinoceros beetle shells at the foot of the mountain in the prescribed arrangement. Then, at the summit, he ignited the ten pounds of inkfly compound eyes with a fireball spell and slowly channeled his spiritual energy into the dragonfly wing.
"Humm-"
The air trembled faintly, and the dragonfly wing instantly shattered into powder. Rather than scattering in the wind, the powder hovered in the air, then slowly descended in a particular pattern under the influence of the materials below before sinking into the soil.
"Boom!!!"
The fiercely burning inkfly compound eyes exploded together, and dark-green firelight instantly illuminated the entire mountain.
Yet, like iron filings drawn to a magnet, the firelight clung tightly to the mountain, covering it like a dome.
It worked!
Watching the green light envelop the mountain, Lin Ke felt a pang at the expense.
The original owner had only saved a little over a hundred spirit stones. Now that Lin Ke had spent several dozen on this formation, he had little money left.
But after searching high and low, he had found the Earth Cicada Warm Sand Formation to be the most suitable formation for raising mulberry trees and Blackgold Silkworms.
As long as he could increase the yield of Blackgold Silkworm silk, it would all be worth it!
Standing at the summit, Lin Ke felt the air around him gradually grow warm and humid, and his heart was surprisingly calm.
An hour later, the light dispersed, and the great formation had stabilized.
Lin Ke then went to the cabin at the foot of the mountain.
The farmers, men and women alike, were gathered there, waiting for his instructions.
"It's finished. Let's get to work!"
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