Chapter 14: Mist-Hidden Tea and Fish (Requesting Votes)

Watching the Iron-Clawed Eagle fall, Song Changsheng retrieved his treasure gourd and took a swig of wine. After a brief recovery, he boarded his small boat and gave chase.

This Iron-Clawed Eagle had truly made his teeth itch with annoyance; only by roasting and eating it could he soothe the hatred in his heart.

Due to its injured wing, the Iron-Clawed Eagle had essentially lost its mobility. By the time Song Changsheng arrived, it was lying in the bushes, gasping its last breaths.

Seeing Song Changsheng in pursuit, a flicker of despair appeared in its eyes. It could only release a series of wind blades as a final act of resistance.

These posed no threat to Song Changsheng at all. With a flick of his finger, a burst of spiritual energy instantly pierced through its skull.

"Spirit fish are good, but they have owners. Be a bit smarter in your next life." Song Changsheng shook his head. Just as he was about to collect his spoils, his footsteps came to an abrupt halt.

His nostrils flared slightly. After taking a few deep sniffs, he said with surprise, "What is this scent? It feels refreshing just to smell it. Could there be some kind of treasure nearby?"

Song Changsheng expanded his divine sense and began a carpet-like search, inch by inch.

After wandering around the area, he actually found something. Beneath a dirt slope, a tea tree no more than a foot tall swayed in the breeze, emitting a peculiar, exotic fragrance.

Song Changsheng was greatly astonished. He moved closer to observe it carefully and discovered that faint white mist was steaming around the tea tree. It had one fork, with over a dozen deep green leaves on each branch, and newly sprouted buds at the tips.

The leaves were oval-shaped with serrated edges, and the veins on the leaves resembled clouds in flight, looking quite extraordinary.

"This... could this be a Mist-Hidden Tea Tree?" Song Changsheng said with considerable pleasant surprise.

He reached out, plucked a leaf, and chewed it carefully. A bitter taste instantly flooded his mouth, followed by a strange sensation.

Song Changsheng could clearly feel a unique power nourishing his soul.

"It really is Mist-Hidden Tea! I never expected to encounter such an opportunity here." Song Changsheng was overjoyed, his eyes seemingly glowing as he looked at the tea tree.

Mist-Hidden Tea is a rare spirit tea. Brewing its leaves in water has the effect of nourishing the soul and purifying spiritual energy.

The power of a cultivator's spells is not only closely related to their cultivation realm, but the purity of their spiritual energy is also a very important condition.

Furthermore, once spiritual energy becomes purer, the total amount of spiritual energy in the dantian also increases, allowing for longer durations when using large-scale spells. For Song Changsheng, this was truly a dream tea.

"However, most places where spirit objects grow are guarded by fierce beasts. Why is it so quiet around this Mist-Hidden Tea?"

Song Changsheng looked around and discovered a clue in the nearby bushes. He pushed the bushes aside and found a giant bird's nest, and the aura upon it was, surprisingly, that of the Iron-Clawed Eagle.

At this moment, everything suddenly became clear to Song Changsheng.

He had always been curious why this Iron-Clawed Eagle kept hovering around this area, and why it insisted on returning even after being wounded by him.

It turned out it was waiting for this Mist-Hidden Tea Tree to sprout. The leaves of the Mist-Hidden Tea are not only effective for human cultivators but even more so for demonic beasts.

If a demonic beast can consume the tender buds of the Mist-Hidden Tea Tree, its soul will receive tremendous benefits, which will accelerate the evolution of its intelligence.

And intelligence is a key factor for a first-rank demonic beast to advance to the second rank. That was why, even while injured, the Iron-Clawed Eagle was unwilling to leave.

And today, as the tea tree sprouted, it wanted to drive away the threat that was Song Changsheng. Unfortunately, Song Changsheng’s cultivation had broken through, and he had killed it directly, leaving the treasure it had guarded so painstakingly to be snatched by him.

"Fortunately, Grandfather Fifty-Three is advanced in age and shouldn't exert himself too much. Otherwise, with his peak Qi Refining cultivation, he would surely have discovered this tea tree while chasing that Iron-Clawed Eagle. My good fortune indeed."

Song Changsheng was in a great mood, but how to transplant this tea tree troubled him. He was not a spirit planter and was not skilled at tending to spirit plants; a single mistake could damage the roots.

After much thought, Song Changsheng took a dharma sword from his Qiankun bag and dug out the entire patch of soil within a three-meter radius of the Mist-Hidden Tea Tree.

In an instant, a large pit appeared on the dirt slope.

Song Changsheng carried this large block of soil back to the island in the center of the lake. Using the same technique, he dug another large hole, placed it inside, and filled in the surrounding gaps. The Mist-Hidden Tea Tree was transplanted in this simple and crude manner.

To promote its growth, Song Changsheng also buried a few low-grade spirit stones around it.

Currently, this tea tree was at the high-grade first-rank level. As long as there was sufficient spiritual energy, it would soon be able to advance further, and the effects of the tea leaves would be even better.

"Let's try these new buds first." Song Changsheng plucked all the newly sprouted tender buds and carefully stored them in a jade bottle.

He took out a porcelain cup, placed a tender bud inside, and added boiling spirit spring water.

A fragrant aroma was immediately released. As the steeping time increased, the tea leaves gradually dissolved into the tea soup, turning it a faint, pale green, with thin mist vaguely steaming from the rim of the cup.

"It truly is a rare spirit tea. Even just smelling it makes the soul feel joyful." Song Changsheng looked intoxicated.

Once the tea leaves had completely dissolved into the soup, he didn't fear the heat and drank it all in one gulp. As the fragrant tea soup flowed down his esophagus into his stomach, a burst of pure energy erupted from his Zhongwan acupoint.

Song Changsheng immediately sat cross-legged, focused his mind, and gathered his energy, using all his concentration to refine this power.

During the refining process, this energy split into two: one part rushed into his sea of consciousness, nourishing his soul power.

The other part entered his dantian, beginning to purify the spiritual energy within...

A day and a night later, Song Changsheng slowly opened his eyes. His hands quickly formed a series of seals: "[Water Tornado]."

A water tornado several zhang long immediately formed on the lake surface in front of him, its power astonishing, turning the once-calm Mirror Lake upside down.

Fortunately, Song Changsheng had not forgotten that this was family property, and he dispersed the spell after only a few breaths.

Watching the water tornado vanish into nothingness, he said with joy on his face, "The power of the spell has increased by at least thirty percent, and the consumption has also decreased. It truly is worthy of being Mist-Hidden Tea."

This was a tangible increase in combat power. If he had possessed this level of strength back then, he would certainly not have been in such a sorry state when facing that group of demonic cultivators, and might even have been able to turn the tables and hunt them down!

"It's just a pity that this Mist-Hidden Tea has the greatest effect only the first time you drink it. Before it advances to the second rank, its effect on me will likely be minimal."

Song Changsheng looked at the remaining tender buds in the jade bottle and began to calculate their uses.

According to family rules, these belonged to him privately. He could completely use these tea leaves to exchange for cultivation resources.

But after a second thought, he decided to keep them for now. After all, this tea tree only sprouted once every few years and was incredibly precious.

Keeping them on his person was a great choice, whether for trading with others or as a favor.

Just as he was about to put the tea leaves into his Qiankun bag, a series of "gurgling" sounds from the shore caught Song Changsheng's attention.

He followed the sound to the shore and found a slender, silver spirit fish constantly blowing bubbles at the water's edge, its green-bean-sized eyes staring fixedly at him.

Song Changsheng was greatly astonished. It was actually the largest of the three top-grade fish kings in this lake. It had always deliberately avoided him; why was it seeking him out on its own initiative now?

He looked down at the jade bottle in his hand and suddenly realized, "You want these tea leaves?"

...