Why is my territory in a 2D anime art style?

Chapter 143 Blood Crystal Bodhi Matures

According to the old-world holidays, January 1, 1826, is New Year's Day.

However, this custom had long since disappeared in the old days. Everyone was struggling to survive, and while their lives were not exactly secure, they were far from living in peace.

Perhaps, some older generations in Jiangcheng will still cook a sumptuous meal at home to commemorate this occasion.

But Sui An clearly wasn't in the mood for that at the moment.

Because the Blood Essence Bodhi seeds will be ripe around today!

"According to the growth information I found in the book about Blood Essence Bodhi seeds at the trading company, it takes about twenty days for the seed to turn red and become covered with patterns. It should be ripe today!"

Wang Zhen stood under the vines and examined each vine one by one, certain that they would ripen today.

Zhao Feng's eyes lit up as she looked at the vibrant red Bodhi seeds. She repeatedly wiped her mouth with her hand, afraid that she would drool: "If I eat four or five of these, my physique might reach the level required for advancement to level five."

"I've been stuck at this crappy Level 4 for over seven years, and my physique still hasn't reached its limit. It's so frustrating, I don't even want to stay here another day!"

"Really!" Sui An was pleasantly surprised. He hadn't expected that Aunt Zhao's progress was already close to level five. Speaking of which, it had been a long time since Aunt Zhao broke through to level four.

"Aunt Zhao, are you about to advance to level five so soon?"

Hearing Sui An's words, Zhao Feng glared at him fiercely: "Are you mocking me? If it weren't for the fact that I really had no opportunities, with my physical talent, I would have reached level five long ago!"

Sui An wasn't sure about other professions, but there really was a talent for physical abilities in combat professions. Even with the same arduous training, some people's physical tempering was naturally faster.

Some people have different abilities to absorb the medicine, and the same medicine can produce vastly different tempering effects.

Zhao Feng suddenly said with a touch of melancholy, "Back then, your parents and I awakened around the same time, but I was the first to advance to level three!"

Sui An asked curiously, "Aunt Zhao, how long did it take you to go from level 1 to level 4?"

Zhao Feng thought for a moment and said, "It probably took about thirteen years. Our situation was different back then. Even a safe life was a problem. We wasted too much time in the early stages. Although some people with good opportunities have already reached level six, and even level seven, many people with worse opportunities are still at level three."

"Yes, and there are also those already buried in the ground."

"The best resources were already mostly looted by the first wave of invaders who awakened back then. By the time we reach that age and awaken naturally, we can only pick up scraps. The spoils from each adventure are barely enough to make a living."

"Unlike you now, Jiangcheng is becoming more and more stable, and many life professions have risen. The great lords can even obtain a lot of basic resources through artificial training, which is why the price of your basic cultivation potions has been driven down."

"Otherwise, how could those two lads, Wang Zhen and Erhu, have caught up with me so quickly!"

Erhu pouted and said, "Aunt Zhao, Lao Wang and I are considered geniuses in our year. Apart from those second-generation college students, we are really not inferior to others."

"He's definitely a little genius!" Zhao Feng smiled and reached out to pat the back of Erhu's head, full of elder's care.

"But once Tiger catches up with you a year from now, you'll understand how I feel right now."

Sui An chimed in from the side, "Tiger should be strong enough in another month at most, and he'll catch up with me soon."

Hearing Sui An's shameless words, everyone fell silent and rolled their eyes.

After all, this guy is probably the one who got promoted the fastest here.

Seeing that everyone was looking down on him, Sui An coughed lightly and steered the conversation back to the Blood Crystal Bodhi.

"Will this thing, when it matures, be like in old novels, where rare and precious materials are born, attracting a bunch of source beasts to fight over it?"

"That's actually quite possible!"

Fang Si glanced at the compass on the ground; at this moment, no source beasts had come within a hundred meters.

Fang Si and Er Hu hadn't been staying here for nothing for the past ten days or so. They cleared out all the source beasts they could find in the vicinity and used them to water the Blood Crystal Bodhi, which made it mature a little faster.

"If it were in the wild, the fragrance of a fruit with such obvious special effects when it ripens could indeed attract many nearby source beasts, but the range wouldn't be as exaggerated as in the novel. At most, it would spread to a hundred meters."

"However, it's always safer to have a few more people watching over things!"

"That makes sense!" Wang Zhen nodded. "That's why I asked Aunt Zhao to come over. Today is New Year's Day, so it's easier for Aunt Zhao to say she's coming to see her son without arousing people's curiosity."

Erhu looked at the roots of the vine and said, "Speaking of which, how often does this thing bear fruit? It shouldn't wither after this harvest, right? If possible, we should come and bury some source beast meat here and there from time to time. We need to take good care of it."

"According to the information I found, it takes about two years for the plant to prune after bearing fruit once before it will bear fruit again, and each time it will produce between ten and twenty fruits."

Wang Zhen glanced at the sky above the secret realm outside: "This fruit doesn't seem to be affected by the season or the climate, but it takes about six months from the beginning of fruiting to full ripeness."

"However, all of this is based on the premise of abundant source energy and sufficient soil nutrients. It has a very high demand for external nutrients. If there are insufficient nutrients, it will not bear fruit and may even wither. Source beast flesh and blood are indeed useful, and many source energy plants can use source beast flesh and blood as basic nutrients."

"This precious stuff is only harvested every two years! I thought it would ripen every three to five years!"

Erhu was extremely surprised. He had thought that this thing would have a much longer growth cycle, but now that he heard it only took two years, he immediately said with a smile, "Then we'll have to bring some source beast meat every time we come. We'll all need this for our advancement to levels four, five, six, and three."

Sui An patted the erhu and said with a smile, "Once I upgrade my territory to an intermediate level, I'll get an intermediate-level nursery building blueprint and transplant this Bodhi vine into my territory. It might grow even faster."

Erhu shook his head vigorously: "Even after you advance to level four, the energy concentration in your territory is probably still much lower than that of this secret realm. Move out and don't let this thing kill you."

Sui An waved his hand: "I naturally have a way. It would be best to speed up the process, but I don't know if any planters know how to transplant this thing, or cultivate new root vines to expand the planting scale."

"Among us, we're still missing a planter we can trust, otherwise this secret realm would be such a waste. Do you have that kind of connection?"

Everyone looked at each other and shook their heads. The planter profession lords had more contact with, while the life professions they encountered most often were the three ace life professions: alchemist, alchemist, and blacksmith.

Seeing that no one had any connections, Sui An could only put the matter aside for the time being and see if he could recruit some reliable people later.

This secret realm is a natural planting area. The concentration of energy here is probably only on par with the core area of ​​a great city lord's territory.

The five people were getting a little bored squatting in the cave, so Erhu simply took out the playing cards he was carrying and the group sat down to play, while waiting for the Bodhi seeds to ripen.

But as time went by, it was already past noon, and the last bit of the lines still hadn't fully grown in.

It always seems like there's still something missing before one can truly mature.

About two or three hours later, the last bit of texture was slowly filled in like pixels, and the original red Bodhi color instantly turned dark red. An extremely rich fragrance suddenly burst forth and spread from the top of the mountain.

"Wow, it smells amazing!"

"And this stuff seems to act like a stimulant."

"Cultivation novels really lived up to their reputation!"

Everyone gasped in amazement; they couldn't get used to the sudden burst of fragrance, even though they had been near the fruit all day.

If there were source beasts nearby, they simply wouldn't be able to withstand it.

Especially for someone like Sui An, who was physically weak, his face turned completely red, as if he were drunk.

"This thing is really strong! You guys need to take it off and put it away quickly, or something bad might happen!"

Sui An's reminder broke the scene of everyone's reverie. Wang Zhen quickly took out the sealed box that had been prepared in advance and began to pick the fruits one by one.

The other three quickly left the cave and went to the entrance to be on guard. The fragrance of this thing was indeed far beyond their expectations. Even without any special phenomena such as a pillar of light reaching the sky, it might attract some source beasts from further away if things went wrong.

Wang Zhen acted quickly, picking all seventeen Bodhi seeds and placing them into the specially made sealed medicinal herb box. The box contained a soft cloth made of special materials, which could effectively prevent the fruit-type medicinal herbs from being damaged during transportation.

Once the lid was sealed, the originally exciting aroma disappeared and gradually dissipated.

Wang Zhen quickly shouted, "It's installed!"

"Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!"

The crowd was visibly excited and quickly began to retreat from the mountaintop. Fortunately, no source beasts followed their scent along the way, allowing them to escape the secret realm safely.

Erhu looked up at the west and exclaimed, "Wow, the sun is almost setting! We've wasted so much time!"

"It's fine, you can stay at my place for the night if you don't feel comfortable," Sui An said nonchalantly.

"The four of you shouldn't have that much of an impact on me right now. Even if a blood moon descends, I can handle it. Besides, this thing is too precious, so don't let anything unexpected happen on your way back."

Wang Zhen looked around while holding the box: "Alright, you've been holding back for a long time without triggering the rift."

Seeing that no one was around, the group returned to their territory.

When the box was opened again, seventeen dark red blood crystal bodhi seeds were once again revealed to everyone.

Even Wang Hu and Fang Nian, who had never seen fruit before, came over and looked at it curiously.

"Is this the treasure you were talking about that can enhance body tempering?"

Sui An patted Wang Hu on the shoulder: "Yeah, doesn't it smell good?"

Wang Hu nodded frantically: "It really smells delicious!"

"Unfortunately, you can't take this stuff right now. Even if you have a physical talent, you probably won't be able to withstand its effects at level two."

The sound of an erhu came from the side, seemingly with a hint of schadenfreude.

Zhao Feng pulled Wang Hu to her side, rolled her eyes at Erhu, and said, "Stop with the nonsense, let's talk about how to divide the fruit."

"I'm not participating, you four can share it!" Sui An stated directly. Although this stuff was good, it was just a resource to him. Although it was a rare resource, he couldn't eat it all.

As for keeping them for his future trusted confidants, these are his core group of confidants.

Erhu frowned, not daring to speak for a moment, while Fang Si took a step back, indicating that she was fine with anything.

Even Wang Zhen remained silent at this moment, clearly this thing was too important to them and no one wanted to take the initiative to propose a distribution method.

After all, having one more could save one or two months of arduous training, so it's impossible not to be tempted.

Although there are exactly four level-four professionals, Erhu and Fang Si have been guarding the dangerous secret realm for ten days. It seems unfair to give each of them four directly.

Not to mention, it was Sui An who killed that level six Azure Feathered Eagle. He said he wouldn't participate, but others can't really ignore it.

According to the rules of cooperative expeditions, no one would say anything if he took 90% of it by himself.

"Since no one is saying anything, then Sui An, you can make the distribution!" Seeing that everyone was silent, Zhao Feng was even more decisive and pulled Sui An over directly.

"After all, you obtained this from killing a level 6 source beast, and since this place is now centered around you, you'll be dealing with these kinds of things more often in the future. It's a good opportunity to train you."

"Shall I?"

Seeing the approving looks from everyone, Sui An scratched his head and didn't hesitate: "In my opinion, the four of you can split the sixteen, and I'll buy the last one and keep it for Hu Zi."

"This thing should last for a month or two, by which time Tiger will most likely have broken through to level three. With his physique, he might be able to try to reach level three."

"Or, I can keep it for now, and if Aunt Zhao is still a little short of reaching level five, then I can give it to you as a token of my respect."

"I also contributed, so I'll keep one for myself. I don't think you'll have any objections, right?"

Everyone shook their heads, clearly no one was refuting Sui An.

Sui An continued, "As for the contributions of Erhu and Fang Si in guarding the place, let me make this clear in advance. They have made contributions, and I'll calculate their wages for them. This stuff won't be included in the distribution."

Zhao Feng gave Sui An a deep look: "Although this thing is only blue quality, it's still a top-grade item among blue quality medicinal herbs. It's a priceless treasure. You're really willing to split it equally?"

"Aunt Zhao, you said you considered this item as something I got from killing it, so why would I be reluctant? Stop arguing."

Sui An simply stood up and took matters into his own hands, taking out the pills one by one and distributing them to the four people. He kept the last one for himself.

After making the distribution, he looked up at the sky. The sun had already reached the distant mountaintops, and the fiery red clouds were dazzling.

"You all shouldn't leave either. Just eat the fruit here with me, so that no one will find out and covet it."

39

"Brother Zhen, give me your car keys. I'll go pull it over to the side of the road. I don't want it to get wrecked if there's a blood moon tonight."