Chapter 39: Eye of the Spirit Vein

After sharing the news with the others in the mutual aid society, everyone was delighted; after all, it was a rare opportunity to gain experience in tending to low-grade Tier 1 spiritual herbs.

Only a few expressed concern, fearing they might not care for them properly and cause this alchemy apprentice to lose his entire fortune.

Lin Donglai spoke up to dispel their worries, stating that if any problems arose, he would take full responsibility, but if they earned spirit stones, he would distribute a portion to them, provided they were willing to listen to him and put in the effort.

Since Xiao Yi said at least sixty Zongmiao Flowers were needed, he would bring at least one hundred seeds.

The spiritual fields in Spirit Field Valley were mostly unranked, with only a few being low-grade Tier 1. Therefore, the planting distance would certainly need to be wider, requiring meticulous care that Lin Donglai could not manage alone.

However, Lin Donglai did not know much about the Zongmiao Flower, but fortunately, the *Green Wood Hundred Herbs Classic* contained records of it.

The Zongmiao Flower is a flower of passion, a primary ingredient for refining aphrodisiac pills, but its essence is actually to stimulate blood and qi, and it thrives on Yang energy.

Cultivation requires the setup of a Yang-Gathering Array; otherwise, it is difficult to provide sufficient Yang energy. Alternatively, a spiritual farmer practicing the Flame Light Yang-Gathering Technique could attempt to grow them.

Because the Zongmiao Flower is used to refine passion pills rather than to increase cultivation, its demand for spiritual qi is relatively low, and it only requires medicinal wood ash as fertilizer.

After reviewing the information, Lin Donglai thought to himself, "With a Yang-Gathering Array, it might actually be easier to tend to than the Xiasheng Flowers."

However, a single Yang-Gathering Array required six Yang-Gathering Flags and one Yang-Gathering Array Plate. Buying them would cost seventy to eighty spirit stones, so he would have to leave that for Xiao Yi to resolve; otherwise, Lin Donglai would be like a skilled cook unable to cook without rice.

Two days later, Lin Donglai had barely mastered the Spiritual Eye Technique. After using a Jianmu spiritual leaf to carry the technique, it transformed into an extremely profound vertical eye rune that merged with the leaf veins.

By using the Spiritual Eye Technique himself, Lin Donglai could see the spiritual light on others to judge their cultivation, and he could also observe the vitality or deathly aura of spiritual plants—vitality appearing pure white, while deathly aura appeared black.

In this view, all spiritual plants seemed to have nowhere to hide from him.

But when Lin Donglai used the Jianmu Dao Seed to cast this spell...

A cyan-gold pattern appeared between his brows, followed by a throbbing pain, as if an eye were about to grow out of thin air.

Then, the myriad colors of heaven and earth appeared; everything turned into the form of qi, multicolored and dreamlike. But following this came a massive spiritual pressure brought by seeing, knowing, and understanding the truth—it felt as if the world were an ocean and he were merely a speck of dust at the bottom.

After only a single breath of this vision, Lin Donglai felt a sharp pain in his mind. The Spiritual Eye dissipated, and he felt as if he had just woken up from drowning. His vision returned to normal, leaving only a dull ache between his brows to signify that what he had seen was real.

"Just now, was I observing this world through the perspective of the Jianmu?"

After recovering, Lin Donglai let out a long sigh and gently massaged his brow.

"It seems I should stick to comprehending the runes on the spiritual leaves that carry the spells. Otherwise, if the level of the spell is too high, it becomes a form of oppression to my own body."

Fortunately, after experiencing this glimpse into the truth of the world, Lin Donglai's Spiritual Eye Technique skipped the "Small Success" stage and reached the "Great Success" stage.

In addition to seeing the spiritual light on people and the vitality or deathly aura on plants, he could now faintly see the flow of spiritual qi, though it was very blurry and felt more like an intuition.

For instance, looking at Spirit Field Valley, he could vaguely see that because previous generations of spiritual seedlings had mixed spirit stone powder into the fields, combined with the large-scale Spirit Gathering Array covering the entire sect, a low-grade Tier 1 spiritual vein had been born through this coincidence of fortune.

This spiritual vein was not large, only about three or four feet long. Under the Spiritual Eye, it appeared as a phantom-like qi form, breathing in and out like a large, sleeping silkworm.

Lin Donglai walked toward that spot, which was the center of Spirit Field Valley, though no disciples were farming there; it was already wasteland.

Perhaps due to the spiritual vein's self-protection, the soil energy here was actually barren, and the concentration of spiritual qi was no different from other areas.

Placing his hand on the ground, Lin Donglai activated his Great Success Spiritual Eye Technique. He saw that around this large silkworm-like spiritual vein, a web of spiritual qi threads, much like a silkworm spinning silk, covered the entire Spirit Field Valley.

It was these spiritual qi threads that, following the breathing of the silkworm vein, transmitted spiritual qi to the surroundings.

The essence of these threads... was actually used, blank spirit stone powder!

"So this is how it operates?"

Lin Donglai thought of Sang Qiao from his own county. She possessed middle-grade wind, earth, and soil spiritual roots, and upon entering the sect, she had been pre-selected as a disciple by the sect's only Tier 2 Earth Master Elder.

"Does this mean I have become a spiritual vein Earth Master? Perhaps, besides learning farming, I should also learn some knowledge regarding Earth Masters?"

"Speaking of which, I am the successor of the Earth Immortal lineage. Once the Blessed Field grows a bit larger, I wonder if I can create a spiritual vein within the Inner Landscape Blessed Field."

"If there is a spiritual vein in the Inner Landscape, wouldn't that be equivalent to having a spiritual vein as a reserve of magical power?"

The more he thought about it, the more feasible Lin Donglai felt this method was.

However, he certainly could not touch the spiritual vein in Spirit Field Valley. He could only find ways to learn Earth Master knowledge so that if he encountered an ownerless spiritual vein in the future, he could try this idea.

...

On the second day after mastering the Spiritual Eye Technique, Xiao Yi brought one hundred and twenty Zongmiao Flower seeds.

Lin Donglai then introduced the other members of the Spirit Field Mutual Aid Society to Xiao Yi one by one.

Xiao Yi was socially adept; he brought out some small medicinal pills he had refined and gave them to them directly. Each had different effects, which made the members of the mutual aid society very happy.

Lin Donglai said, "Brother Xiao, I checked, and these Zongmiao Flowers thrive on Yang energy. A low-grade Tier 1 Yang-Gathering Array is required for successful cultivation."

"A set of this array costs seventy to eighty spirit stones. If we can solve this problem, we can grow the Zongmiao Flowers."

"That is not difficult. Buying an array is expensive, but renting one is cheap. I know a senior in the Array Hall; renting a set from him would only cost three spirit stones a month. Renting for four months would only be twelve spirit stones."

"Then there is no problem," Lin Donglai said. "Additionally, we need four hundred catties of medicinal wood ash, two hundred catties of fire-attribute spiritual beast manure, and two hundred blank spirit stone powders."

Lin Donglai had included some of the fertilizer needed for the Xiasheng Flowers in the list, but since he only grew twenty-four Xiasheng Flowers, it was only a fraction of the Zongmiao Flower requirement and wouldn't be used much.

"Alright, leave it to me!"

After Xiao Yi hurried away, Lin Donglai organized the group to go to the area around the spiritual vein to level a patch of land suitable for planting the Zongmiao Flowers.

"Everyone, once we have successfully grown these Zongmiao Flowers, I will invite Senior Sister Huang from the Spirit Plant Hall to come over again. This will definitely be enough for us to pass our assessment. Please, make sure to put your heart into it!"

(End of Chapter)