Chapter 21
The fertilizer pill Wen Chengyi had fired was the next best in color. It had no patterns and was simply pitch-black.
The fertilizer pill another cultivator had fired was lighter still, a somewhat mottled grayish white. Its structure was not compact, and it looked as though it would crumble at the slightest touch.
Anyone could tell at a glance whose fertilizer pill was good and whose was a little inferior.
The cultivator whose pill had turned out poorly sighed. "Now I know why. My technique wasn't as refined when I fired it. Unlike young friend Shan, I couldn't strike the spiritual power nodes accurately every time to form the structure. When young friend Shan puts ten parts of spiritual power in, the fertilizer pill retains all ten. When I put ten parts in, it retains seven at most."
Wen Chengyi said, "We're also a little worse at proportioning the materials. The finished product came out a bit better when I fired it using the raw materials young friend Shan had fermented. I don't have that keen intuition for proportions."
Another cultivator added, "I reckon spiritual power has something to do with it too. Young friend Shan has a Chaos Spirit Root, right? Old Wen, you have a Metal Spirit Root, and A Qing, you have a Water Spirit Root. Your Spirit Roots all have an affinity, so naturally the fertilizer pills you fire have an affinity for one of the five elements and aren't as balanced."
After some discussion, they concluded that, aside from practicing their firing techniques to make them more accurate, there was nothing they could do about fine-tuning the proportions of the materials or the attributes of their spiritual power.
Shan Heyuan had a chance of firing perfect fertilizer pills. They would be doing well to fire top-quality ones.
Talent was the sort of thing they could envy but could never acquire through envy.
The cultivators were all third-grade cultivators and Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators, much older than Shan Heyuan and long past the age of soaring ambition.
Now that they knew they were not as good as Shan Heyuan, they had no negative thoughts about it.
On the contrary, everyone was quite happy to have seen a more refined technique.
Wen Chengyi was closer to Shan Heyuan, and before they parted, he asked to buy some fertilizer pills from him, offering ten times the outside price.
Hearing this, the other cultivators also said they were willing to pay that many spirit pearls.
Something as obscure as fertilizer pills was hard to come by. Even if they had no use for them, they could stockpile them to trade with others later.
Shan Heyuan hadn't expected the fertilizer pills to be so popular. He was about to agree when an idea suddenly struck him. "I'm not particularly short of spirit pearls. Seniors, do you have any Foundation Establishment-grade spirit seeds? I'd be willing to trade fertilizer pills for them."
His words took everyone aback.
They were all cultivators, and none of them lacked spirit seeds. Each of them had at least some Foundation Establishment-grade seeds.
Still, Foundation Establishment-grade spirit seeds were hard to come by in a small place like this.
They hadn't expected him to have already begun growing Foundation Establishment Realm Spirit Plants while he was still in the Qi Refining Realm.
Wen Chengyi was a little closer to Shan Heyuan and spoke first. "All right. How would you like to trade, young friend Shan?"
Shan Heyuan estimated the prices of Foundation Establishment-grade spirit seeds and fertilizer pills in his head. "What spirit seeds do you have, Senior Wen? Shall we trade based on their market prices?"
Wen Chengyi took out three jade boxes. "I have seeds for Remaining Tranquility Grass, an Iron Lotus Flower, and a Soul-Extinguishing Tree. Make me an offer."
Shan Heyuan opened the boxes.
Preservation formations had been engraved inside the jade boxes. The dry seeds lay quietly within, having lost almost none of their vitality.
These were fresh seeds from within the past ten years.
After examining them carefully, Shan Heyuan looked up and named his prices. "I already have Remaining Tranquility Grass, so I don't need any more for now. The other two spirit seeds are both very good quality. I'll offer three hundred fertilizer pills for the Iron Lotus Flower and four hundred and fifty for the Soul-Extinguishing Tree. How does that sound?"
Shan Heyuan was clearly giving Wen Chengyi a favorable deal at those prices.
Wen Chengyi readily agreed. "We'll do it at the prices you named."
Shan Heyuan immediately counted out the fertilizer pills and exchanged them for Wen Chengyi's seeds.
The other cultivators saw that he was generous and only wanted seeds he didn't already have. Without further hesitation, they all spoke up to trade.
Shan Heyuan treated them all equally, trading with each cultivator for two Foundation Establishment-grade seeds.
From the five cultivators, he obtained ten seeds in all, trading away more than half the fertilizer pills he had newly refined that day.
Seeds were hard to come by. If he wanted more fertilizer pills, he could simply gather the materials and refine them again.
Once the trades were done, the cultivators took their leave.
Shan Heyuan saw them off, yawned, and tidied up briefly, preparing to go home as well.
Shen Duheng sat cross-legged to one side with his sword laid across him, having said very little the whole time.
Shan Heyuan's thoughts had been occupied with refining fertilizer pills and trading for spirit seeds, so he hadn't paid much attention to Shen Duheng either.
Only now, when he had time to tidy up the clearing, did Shan Heyuan notice that something was a little wrong with him.
Shan Heyuan's heart gave a jolt. "Brother Shen? What happened to you?"
Sword intent that Shen Duheng hadn't managed to restrain clung to him, more biting than the cold wind.
Besides the sword intent, Shan Heyuan also smelled a faint scent of blood on him.
This was the first time Shan Heyuan had seen him injured since they had met. "What hurt you? Are you all right?"
Shen Duheng shook his head. "I reached Core Formation today and underwent a tribulation. I was struck by the tribulation lightning."
Shan Heyuan's eyes widened in shock. "C-Core Formation?!"
Hadn't he said last time that he was still a step away from Core Formation? He had reached it so soon?
Shan Heyuan carefully sensed the broken sword in his Dantian. It was still just a short fragment, unchanged from before.
Did a sword spirit not even need the spirit sword itself to reach Core Formation?
Shan Heyuan bent down to help him up. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Shen Duheng said, "Hadn't you made an appointment with those cultivators?"
"We could have changed the time even if we had! Your Core Formation is such a major event-" Shan Heyuan said anxiously.
Shen Duheng said, "You couldn't have withstood the Core Formation tribulation lightning. I was afraid you'd get caught up in it if you came close."
Shan Heyuan was taken aback. "I really couldn't have helped," he said glumly.
Shen Duheng patted his shoulder reassuringly. "You'll be able to help in the future. You're a genius cultivator, after all."
Shan Heyuan thought sadly that it wasn't necessarily so. Cultivators didn't have much fighting power.
Shen Duheng put an arm around his shoulders. "Don't be down. I reached Core Formation, and you refined new fertilizer pills. Both are good things—a double blessing at our door. Let's go home first."
Shan Heyuan said, "All right. I'll look at your injuries in a bit."
Chapter 21
Shen Duheng had been struck by tribulation lightning while undergoing his tribulation, leaving burns and wounds all over his body.
Shan Heyuan silently bandaged his wounds, sadness in his eyes.
Seeing Shan Heyuan avoid his gaze, Shen Duheng said, "Sword cultivators have always been tough. Now that I've reached the Core Formation Stage, my body is much better than it was before. I'll be healed in a couple of days."
Shan Heyuan said, "No matter what, it still hurts now."
Shen Duheng said, "It's just a little pain. It's nothing."
Shan Heyuan didn't argue. He finished applying the wound medicine, then took out a healing pill and gave it to him to take before putting everything away and returning to his room.
The next day, Shan Heyuan went to the village and bought a chicken. He specifically picked two nourishing spirit herbs from the courtyard, washed them, and took them to the kitchen to stew with the chicken into soup for Shen Duheng to drink.
Shen Duheng looked at the pot of plump chicken and spirit herbs and stood by the stove for quite a while.
Once, he could have taken any treasure in the world at will, yet none stirred his emotions as much as a pot of chicken soup.
Shan Heyuan had been working hard lately. After improving his planting methods, he was growing his Spirit Plants even better, and the bitter cold had not affected them at all.
On the contrary, set against the crystalline snow, the lush green Spirit Plants looked even more vibrant with life.
That day, Shan Heyuan went up to the Supreme Harmony Sect, first checking the Spirit Plants' growth against the planting records, then watering them.
The Spirit Plant garden had a highly developed irrigation network, so watering was no trouble.
This time, however, Shan Heyuan did not draw water from the irrigation network. Instead, he used Spring Breeze Turns to Rain, a move from the Spring Transformation Art he had newly practiced, directing the spring water to turn into a fine mist that slowly rained down into the Spirit Plant garden.
The mist, as fine as ox hair, fell on leaves, stems, and soil, mingling with Spiritual Qi to form a refreshing Spiritual Qi mist.
Qi Yuanbai followed Shan Heyuan, breathing deeply of the Spiritual Qi mist. "I feel like every time I come into the Spirit Plant garden now, it's like I've had a whole recuperation session."
Shan Heyuan laughed. "Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration?"
Qi Yuanbai said, "Would I lie to you? When you're not here, several of our martial uncles use this place as a meditation room. They come over to meditate whenever they have time."