Born with immortal seed

Chapter 160 Shopping Plan
Bai Zichen held a three-inch square piece of millennia-old ice jade in his hand, its bone-chilling cold penetrating straight to his lungs.

Moreover, this chill not only affected the physical body, but also the sea of ​​consciousness, slowing down the flow of divine sense.

"Millennial ice jade is extremely brittle and cannot be used as a material for refining weapons, but it is the best cultivation resource for cultivators who have practiced ice-type techniques."

The piece of millennium-old ice jade in his hand was naturally obtained through the Wanbaoge Pavilion.

Qinghe took this matter very seriously and used her connections at Wanbaoge headquarters to bring over a piece in no time.

Even with the discount for VIPs at the Thousand Treasure level, such a small piece of millennium ice jade would cost six thousand spirit stones.

Those who cultivate ice-based techniques can directly absorb the cold energy contained within the millennium-old ice jade to enhance their cultivation.

Moreover, unlike taking pills, there is no need to worry about drug resistance, erysipelas, or other factors.

This has resulted in the price of millennium-old ice jade remaining consistently high.

Especially for cultivators with ice-type unique spiritual roots, as long as they have enough millennium ice jade, they will not encounter any bottlenecks before forming their core, and their cultivation speed can be comparable to that of cultivators with heavenly spiritual roots.

This results in the fact that although the Ice Soul Palace produces a considerable amount of millennium ice jade every year, only a handful flows out, and most of it is consumed internally.

During these three years, all the fire poison generated by Bai Zichen's cultivation of the Fire Dragon Returning to Origin Scripture was absorbed by the Thousand-Year Ice Jade.

This eliminated the hassle of constantly taking the Zhu Guo Purifying Heart Pill, indirectly making his cultivation efficiency faster.

However, a corner of the thousand-year-old ice jade has already been stained with a layer of rust-like dark red.

"At this rate, a piece of thousand-year-old ice jade will be enough for me for twenty years... Its absorption of fire poison also has an upper limit. It needs to rely on the cold air it contains to resist the fire poison. Once the two forces reach a balance, it will no longer be effective."

Bai Zichen did the math and concluded that buying this third-tier thousand-year ice jade was still a worthwhile investment.

The fear is that as one's cultivation level increases, the fire poison will intensify, and the effectiveness of the Millennium Ice Jade will decrease accordingly.

When he emerged from seclusion last year, he made a special trip to the Transmission Hall to exchange all the remaining eight levels of the Fire Dragon Returning to Origin Scripture.

To avoid the situation where, when you break through to a higher realm, your subsequent cultivation techniques can't keep up.
Each floor cost 200 sect contribution points, totaling 1,600 contribution points for him.

After entering the Foundation Establishment stage, apart from those with Heavenly Spiritual Roots and Extraordinary Spiritual Roots, other cultivators need decades of cultivation time for each minor realm.

Bai Zichen now feels that choosing to switch to cultivating the Fire Dragon Returning to Origin Scripture was the wisest choice he could have made.

If I had chosen the Thick Earth Five Virtues Technique, I would not have achieved my current cultivation progress.

"I have no shortage of pills, and I can reach the peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage in three or four years... The spiritual liquid in my Qi Sea is one-third full, and the next step will be the middle Foundation Establishment stage."

During the Foundation Establishment stage, each minor realm bottleneck requires several years of refinement, except for those favored by the Great Dao and darlings of heaven and earth, such as Ancestor Ge Cang, who possesses a Heavenly Spiritual Root. Even those with a Different Spiritual Root must pause and hone their skills.

However, Bai Zichen was fully confident that once he reached the peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage, he could directly advance to the middle Foundation Establishment stage.

"Uncle Bai, the Lan family has sent someone to deliver gifts again... This time, Uncle Lan Ding wrote the letter personally, and along with the letter was a jade slip as an apology."

Cai Heng now shuttles between the two places, spending most of her time handling general affairs as Elder Bai's attendant disciple and a small portion of her time managing matters related to the spirit fields.

Fortunately, there are now people helping him with the burden in Lingtian.

Otherwise, they would be overwhelmed and unable to manage it all.

After receiving guidance from Bai Zichen, Hou Kehai returned to the mountain gate and practiced the Bone Refining Body Technique to strengthen his bones and heal the hidden injuries left by his broken leg.

A year later, he successfully broke through to the next level and became a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator.

He then pressed on with his efforts and raised his Spirit Plant Master skills to the peak of the first tier.

Hou Kehai kept his promise and, despite being recruited by Lingtiantang and promised a managerial position the following year, returned to Baiyulou to manage Lingtian for Elder Bai.

Seeing that he was diligent in his work and knew how to be grateful, Bai Zichen basically entrusted him with the management of the spirit field.

In addition to the basic salary for spirit plant masters, managers were also given a bonus of spirit stones.

"The Lan family?"

Bai Zichen took a letter, leaving a trace of magic power at the seal so that the recipient would know that the letter had not been opened.

The letter unfolded, revealing a strong, vigorous handwriting, beginning with simple pleasantries.

Lan Ding expressed his admiration for Bai Zichen, a rising star, and said that the Transmission Hall was planning to hold a grand ceremony for inner disciples and had specially invited Elder Bai to attend.

At the end of the letter, it was mentioned that one of the younger generation, Lan Lun, was a good-for-nothing clansman who had offended Junior Brother Bai.

He had already severely punished Lan Lun, sending him to the mines to do hard labor for five years.

I hope Elder Bai has the magnanimity to let him off the hook.

The jade slip that was sent with the letter contained a record of a spirit-slaying sword technique.

It's likely that Lan Ding knew Bai Zichen was famous for his flying swordsmanship, so he specially sought out this sword technique.

After glancing at it twice, Bai Zichen casually tossed it aside.

This so-called Spirit-Slaying Sword Technique consists of only a few fancy sword moves, and it stops at the most basic skills.

Any sword technique randomly selected from the Wuzhen Sword Art is ten or a hundred times better than the Zhanling Sword Art.

Offering such swordsmanship as an apology would be a miracle if Bai Zichen even noticed it.

"Go and find out what punishments the Enforcement Hall gave to disciples Tian Kang and Lan Lun back then."

Bai Zichen pondered for a moment and then gave Cai Heng a task.

He had long forgotten about that trivial matter and had no time to pursue the Qi Refining disciple.

However, the Lan family persisted, with three people writing letters to apologize and express their intention to reconcile.

Could it be that someone in the Enforcement Hall is still holding onto this matter and wants to hold Lan Lun accountable?
Lan Ding is the current head of the Lan family, with a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivation level, and is an elder of the Transmission Hall.

Lan Hong, who had a conflict with Bai Zichen and harbored a mysterious grudge against him, also came from this Lan family.

She is the most outstanding member of the younger generation of the Lan family. Recently, there have been rumors that she has become acquainted with the acting sect leader, Gu Xisheng, and the two intend to become a couple.

"If you really want to express your apology and reconcile, you should at least show some sincerity... If you can't even come to my door, what's so tempting about giving me a place to attend a religious ceremony?"

The ritual ceremony is held at the Chuan Gong Hall and takes place only once every few years.

For inner disciples and a few outstanding outer disciples, elders from the sect known for their expertise in teaching and imparting knowledge are invited to attend and answer the disciples' questions.

Being invited to attend is certainly an honor for a newly promoted elder, as it signifies recognition of their abilities.

But for Bai Zichen, this halo is no longer needed.

Moreover, if he were to enter the Five Halls, his first choice would be the Hall of Law Enforcement.

Bai Zichen put the Lan family matter out of his mind and prepared to return to the mountain gate to settle the matter of the Dragon Tooth Rice Spirit Seed.

After the first harvest of those 500 acres of second-tier spirit fields, some people subtly inquired about the spirit rice seeds.

Fortunately, he was famous enough that the elders at most sent a letter to inquire about it, and no one dared to be so tactless as to directly ask him for it.

However, it was discovered that during the second harvest of Dragon Tooth Rice, a plant master attempted to secretly hide the spirit seeds.

However, last month Liang Yu personally wrote a letter about the Dragon Tooth Rice, which made him take it seriously and make a trip there in person.

Sitting on the colorful white cloud-patterned robe, Bai Zichen still had time to plan his shopping trip.

After suddenly becoming rich, I felt uneasy if I didn't spend the spirit stones.

"With the Sound Bamboo Sword and the Heavenly Xin Sword, there's no need to consider offensive spiritual weapons... As for defense, although my physical body is already equivalent to a low-grade defensive spiritual weapon, I can't always use my own body to block attacks. The defensive effect of the Bell of All Beings is not keeping up with my pace."

Bai Zichen summarized the various spiritual artifacts on his body. The Bell of All Beings was both offensive and defensive, and its crafting technique was exquisite.

In the hands of 99% of early Foundation Establishment cultivators, it would be a handy low-grade spiritual weapon.

But against ordinary opponents, he doesn't even need to use defensive magical artifacts; with a flick of his sword, he can take their heads.

If you're going to engage in positional warfare, be careful of defensive attacks, as they are mostly cultivators at the late Foundation Establishment stage.

Faced with opponents who have built their foundations over many years or come from powerful sects, the Zhong Sheng Bell appears too weak.

"Either we can find the Three Lives Wish Stone, integrate it and refine it again, and have a chance to upgrade the All Beings Bell to a high-grade spiritual artifact. Otherwise, we will have to buy another defensive spiritual artifact, a treasure that can be used even in the late Foundation Establishment stage or the Perfect Foundation Establishment stage."

Bai Zichen secretly noted down that he needed at least one high-grade defensive magical artifact.

"In addition, if there is an opportunity, we can add another spiritual artifact to protect the sea of ​​consciousness... Divine sense attacks are rare, but once encountered, they are the most insidious and impossible to defend against."

His spiritual strength far surpasses that of others of the same level, and he has also mastered the Soaring Dragon Mantra, a secret technique for controlling spiritual power.

Naturally, it's clear what role having an absolute advantage in spiritual awareness can play in a battle of wits.

Even without using a flying sword, attacking an opponent's sea of ​​consciousness with a dragon formed from divine sense can instantly make a Foundation Establishment cultivator's vision go black and cause dizziness, making it an easy victory.

But as I said before, if the opponent is a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, his spiritual strength will no longer be an advantage, but rather a disadvantage.

Since one's spiritual sense cannot grow rapidly in a short period of time, a spiritual artifact that protects the sea of ​​consciousness and resists attacks on spiritual sense becomes essential.

……

"It seems that Junior Brother Bai's cultivation has improved again after some time..."

A glint flashed in Liang Yu's eyes as he vaguely sensed a subtle difference between this Junior Brother Bai and the one he had met last time.

Logically speaking, newly promoted Foundation Establishment cultivators spend the first few years consolidating their foundation and are unlikely to make much progress.

But the person in front of me is a prodigy who comprehended sword energy and thunderous sound in his early twenties, and cannot be judged by ordinary standards.

"The main reason I invited you here is about the Dragon Tooth Rice. Junior Brother Gu came to me asking me to persuade you to donate the Dragon Tooth Rice seed to the sect."

There was no need for formalities between the two; after sitting down, Liang Yu spoke frankly and directly.

"He also said that if half of the sect's second-tier spirit fields could be replaced with Dragon Tooth Rice, it would bring huge benefits."

"What does Senior Brother Liang think?"

Bai Zichen picked up his teacup and took a sip of the fragrant Silver Needle Spirit Tea.

Not every grain of Dragon Tooth Rice can serve as a spirit seed. Only when it has just matured in the ground, and a second-tier spirit plant master casts a spell to gather the spiritual energy of the entire ear of rice, can a spirit seed be condensed.

This is the third time that Dragon Tooth Rice has been harvested and sold to various cultivation families. Others can roughly estimate the yield.

Every year and a half, they have a stable and substantial income, which must make all the elders extremely envious.

It's not impossible to offer the spirit seed directly to the sect. If others want to plant it, they can ask the sect for it.

Once the scale expanded and there were enough spirit seeds to distribute, Bai Zichen harvested two more rounds of Dragon Tooth Rice.

Even if production increases significantly in the future and Wanbaoge's purchase price decreases slightly, it will not have a major impact on him.

"That is impossible. Whether or not a disciple donates what he has gained is entirely up to his conscience."

Liang Yu's expression was serious as he spoke: "Today, Junior Brother Gu asked you to donate Dragon Tooth Rice because it is of great benefit to the sect. Tomorrow, he will ask you to donate your flying sword because it is of great use to the sect. If this precedent is set, there will be endless troubles in the future."

“It’s not a critical moment for the survival of the sect. As an acting sect leader, he has absolutely no authority to make such a decision.”

(End of this chapter)