Buying Orange Tree Saplings

After leaving the pharmacy, Su Ye found a nearby hotel and checked into a room alone.

After locking the door behind him, Su Ye flashed into the Immortal Spirit Space.

Looking at the ginseng and Solomon's seal in the corner, he saw that some of the ginseng had mutated. Their roots had turned faintly red all over and contained pure spiritual qi.

"They wouldn't turn into spirits, would they?" Su Ye murmured as he looked at the ginseng.

Then he selected an unmutated one, carefully dug it up, and left the space.

In the south of Lingnan County lay a sprawling expanse of villas. More than eighty percent of the county's wealthy residents lived here, and even some wealthy outsiders and the like owned detached villas here. Lingnan was warm in winter and cool in summer, making it ideal for vacations and relaxation, so land for the villas here was worth its weight in gold.

At that moment, inside the largest villa in the neighborhood, an old man, a young woman in her twenties, and a beautiful woman in her thirties seemed to be talking about something.

"Dad, could that grandmaster in his early twenties you mentioned be a fake? You can count the innate experts in a place like Lingnan on one hand. Is there really a grandmaster?" the beautiful woman in her thirties asked.

"Oh, Auntie, how could we lie to you? It's true. He casually caught Uncle Ziliang's punch, used true qi to protect Grandpa's heart meridians, and even said he'd treat Grandpa's illness," Xiao Xitong told her aunt.

"That's right. I felt that young friend's true qi, and it was incomparably pure. I'm afraid he's no ordinary grandmaster," Xiao Qiujun said.

This was the villa of Xiao Qiujun's youngest daughter, Xiao Xiao.

Xiao Qiujun had three sons and one daughter. His eldest son, Xiao Zhentong, was in politics; his second son, Xiao Fengyang, was in business; and his third son, Xiao Zhiyan, was good for nothing and spent his days fooling around outside. Even so, thanks to the Xiao Family's prestige, people on both sides of the law had to show him respect.

His only daughter was named Xiao Xiao. She had gone out on her own to start a business after graduating from university and had since founded a jewelry company. By now, she could be considered somewhat successful.

As a career woman, however, she had extremely high standards for a partner. She looked down on many scions of prominent families in the provincial capital, and now, already in her early thirties, she still lived alone. Xiao Qiujun had worn his heart out worrying about her marriage prospects.

The Xiao Family was a distinguished clan in the provincial capital. It was said that Old Master Xiao Qiujun had once been a general who had fought on the battlefield and rendered great service to Hua Country. Later, he had been forced to retire because something had gone wrong with his health.

"Xiao Xiao, make the arrangements. Young friend Su is going to help treat my hidden ailment tomorrow, and I plan to invite him to the house for a meal," Xiao Qiujun said to Xiao Xiao.

"Dad, I understand," Xiao Xiao replied.

Meanwhile, inside the Immortal Spirit Space, Su Ye took out the jade slip containing records of arrays. He had decided to study the Spirit Gathering Array first.

Su Ye looked over the ordinary Spirit Gathering Array and the version Qinghua had improved. The latter was more than ten times as complicated as the former.

The ordinary Spirit Gathering Array had relatively simple functions, and the materials it required were fairly basic. Spirit stones could even be used in their place.

That was because the ordinary Spirit Gathering Array merely gathered spiritual qi. When it gathered the spiritual qi of heaven and earth, spirit stones used as the array cores could also supply their own spiritual qi to the array, so it was relatively simple.

Qinghua's improved Spirit Gathering Array, which produced spirit stones, gathered the spiritual qi of heaven and earth into the array, then condensed it into spirit stones once the concentration reached a certain level. It required more advanced materials and could not use spirit stones in their place.

That was because, if spirit stones were used in the improved Spirit Gathering Array, some spiritual qi would be lost as the array absorbed it from the stones. Ten spirit stones used as array cores might yield only nine or even eight, making the loss outweigh the gain.

Su Ye extended his spiritual sense, slowly allowing it to penetrate the jade slip as he began studying the Spirit Gathering Array.

Early the next morning, Su Ye grabbed a quick breakfast and headed for the commercial street.

He stopped at a seed shop and bought some vegetable seeds before heading to the flower and bird market.

Lingnan's flower and bird market was quite large, with a ceaseless stream of people coming and going. All kinds of flowers, plants, and trees lined both sides of the street. Throughout the market, birds sang and flowers filled the air with fragrance, while the sights dazzled the eyes and left visitors scarcely able to take them all in.

Su Ye stopped in front of a fairly large shop for a look, then went inside and pointed at a type of orange tree sapling. "Boss, how much are these orange trees?"

The owner was a middle-aged man in his forties, with a close-cropped haircut and a black tracksuit that gave him an energetic appearance.

As soon as he saw Su Ye enter, the owner warmly came forward to greet him. "Come in and have a seat, young man. There are many kinds of orange trees. The ones you just asked about are the most common four-season oranges. If you're buying a lot, I can let you have them for eighteen yuan each."

"I'm looking to buy around 2,000. Can you make it any cheaper?" Su Ye asked. Allowing three to four square meters for each orange tree, 2,000 trees would cover roughly ten mu.

"2,000? That many? The lowest I can go is fifteen yuan each," the owner said after some thought.

"All right, then get them ready. I'll come back for them shortly," Su Ye said.

After leaving, Su Ye went to a vehicle rental shop and came back with a rented truck.

Once he had paid the 30,000 yuan, Su Ye drove off with the orange tree saplings. When he reached a deserted place, he put the saplings, which were sixty to seventy centimeters tall, into the Immortal Spirit Space. After that, he went and returned the truck.

It was nearly noon when Su Ye, having eaten lunch, finally made his way slowly to the park with the medicinal herbs in hand. What he didn't know was that a young woman in her early twenties had been waiting there for him for almost three hours.

"Is that bastard Su Ye not coming?"

"Damn it, how dare he stand me up!"

"I've never waited like this for anyone in my whole life!"

"I don't even have his phone number. He's not really going to stay away, is he?"

The young woman cursed under her breath with her head lowered and her lips pursed. Just as she was about to fall apart, Su Ye finally showed up.

"Su Ye... Grandmaster Su, you're finally here!" When she saw Su Ye, the young woman was as excited as someone walking through a desert at the sight of an oasis.

"Huh? Aren't you Xiao Xitong? Why are you here alone? Where's your grandfather?" Su Ye asked. Indeed, the young woman was Xiao Xitong.

"Grandpa and the others have been waiting for you at my aunt's house for a long time. He sent me to pick you up," Xiao Xitong said.

"Oh, never mind all that. Let's hurry!" Xiao Xitong took Su Ye by the hand and led him out of the park.

Before long, a new pink Maserati sped away from the park with Su Ye aboard, heading toward the villa neighborhood.

"Slow down. Don't hit someone else's car!" Su Ye said, speechless as he watched Xiao Xitong drive.