After several busy days, the planting of mountain ginseng was complete. A few Qi-Boosting Fruit and Qi and Blood Trees were also transplanted into the spirit medicine garden. In the plots closest to Chen Changsheng’s courtyard, the herbs, including the mountain ginseng, were planted most sparsely.
The men kept absolutely silent about the Red Blood Ginseng, Celestial Cyan Grass, and Blood Coagulation Flower.
Chen Fang knew how to cultivate ordinary herbs, but he certainly had no idea how to grow spiritual medicine.
Following the planting instructions from Medicine King Valley to the letter, the group carefully sowed seven Red Blood Ginseng seeds, ten Celestial Cyan Grass seeds, and fifty Blood Coagulation Flower seeds.
Starting that very day, the seven men organized shifts to guard the fields. Each shift lasted three Hours, with three shifts a day, allowing one person to rotate out and rest.
They didn’t dare let outsiders handle the watering, fertilizing, weeding, or pest control; these tasks were done entirely by whoever was on duty.
Late at night on the second day, during Chen Changsheng’s shift, he returned to the spot where he had planted a mountain ginseng seed a few days prior.
Through the darkness, his eyes could clearly see that the mountain ginseng had sprouted!
Overjoyed, he quickly crouched down for a closer look.
The two spoon-shaped cotyledons, still tightly clasped together in the shape of a heart, had just pushed through the soil. They slowly grew upward, soon revealing the stem.
The stem was densely covered in ochre fuzz, with dewdrops condensing at the tips. As it trembled in the gentle breeze, the dew slid off with soft, rustling drips.
The remnant seed coat at the tip of the bud hung like a thin veil slipped down to the ankles, exposing the translucent, tender green texture beneath. In the dark earth below, the roots had already woven a network of silver threads.
When the stem reached half an inch in height, an anomaly suddenly occurred.
In the blink of an eye, the mountain ginseng grew frantically in the night wind.
Chen Changsheng could even visibly notice the soil surrounding the herb rapidly drying out. The earth, previously stained black by artificial fertilizer, quickly turned yellow.
Twenty breaths later, the mountain ginseng stopped growing, and the surrounding soil had completely cracked.
Since it was only a test subject anyway, Chen Changsheng didn’t worry about the consequences and dug up the mountain ginseng with his hoe.
A three-inch-long ginseng root was revealed before him, already taking on a rather distinct human shape.
Relying on the original owner’s memories, Chen Changsheng could tell at a single glance—it was twenty years old!
He had finally figured out how to use the spiritual fertilizer!
Spiritual fertilizer had no effect on seeds!
It only worked on living, sprouted plants!
After delivering the mountain ginseng back to his own courtyard, Chen Changsheng returned to the spirit medicine garden. There, he planted two Red Blood Ginseng seeds, two Celestial Cyan Grass seeds, and two Blood Coagulation Flower seeds.
A moment later, Chen Fusheng’s voice rang out from atop the enclosing wall.
"Chang Sheng, go get some sleep!" This chapter was copied from novelping.com without permission.
Chen Changsheng greeted him in return, then used a Flying Sweep to head back home.
For the next several days in a row, Chen Changsheng practiced his martial art at dawn, taught the three children in the morning, helped out in the spirit medicine garden in the afternoon, and then took his guard shift.
It wasn’t until the sixth day of the fifth lunar month, during his shift, that Chen Changsheng saw six of the earliest planted Red Blood Ginseng seeds finally sprouting. His heart instantly surged with excitement.
The inch-high stems were covered in dragon-scale-like protrusions. From every crevice between the scales seeped an amber-gold sap, condensing under the moonlight into tiny, blood-amber beads.
The curled, tender shoots at the top resembled a baby’s clenched fist, yet hundreds of microscopic crimson threads burst out from between the "fingers," dancing gently in the breeze.
After pondering for a moment, Chen Changsheng decided against using spiritual fertilizer to accelerate the growth of these six plants. Instead, he ran over to check on the two Red Blood Ginseng seeds he had secretly planted himself.
They hadn’t sprouted!
At dusk, Chen Shuisheng, who was on duty, called Chen Fusheng to the spirit medicine garden.
It turned out that out of the previously planted ten Celestial Cyan Grass seeds and fifty Blood Coagulation Flower seeds, eight stalks of Celestial Cyan Grass and forty-three stalks of Blood Coagulation Flowers had sprouted and pushed through the earth.
Didn’t they say there was only a five percent survival rate?
In the dead of night, the rest of the group rushed to the spirit medicine garden. Upon seeing the scene before them, they couldn’t help but dance with joy, shouting and cheering at the top of their lungs.
Clan Leader Chen Xuan, a man decades old who was usually as steady as an old dog, couldn’t help but exclaim in a low voice, "The ancestors are blessing us! This survival rate is insanely high!"
Chen Fusheng fiercely pounded the hillside. Amidst the sound of tumbling rocks, he let out a deep, roaring laugh.
"Good, good, good! Hahaha!"
Chen Chusheng’s mouth was twisted into a wide grin. He spoke triumphantly, "Word has it that even in Holy Land Tongtian Peak’s spirit medicine garden, the survival rate of spirit medicine seeds is only eighty percent!"
Chen Changfeng’s burly frame was trembling. He couldn’t resist chiming in, "And our survival rate here is over eighty percent!"
Chen Changqing gave Chen Changsheng a tight hug and burst into laughter. "Haha! None of us have ever been to Tongtian Peak, but here in Danyang Commandery, Chang Sheng’s garden absolutely boasts the highest survival rate for spiritual medicine!"
"Speaking of which, shouldn’t we use the surrounding hillsides to grow herbs as well?"
"Let me think about it. Let’s wait a couple of years. Once the family has a few more martial artists, we won’t have to fear the barbarians invading from the south or the mountain bandits attacking. Then, we can test out where spiritual medicine can be grown nearby and plant it everywhere!"
"Haha! Our Chen Family Village is going to become a martial arts noble family in the future!"
"Isn’t it a bit too early for that? Without an Innate Realm Grandmaster holding the fort, we wouldn’t even qualify to apply as a Ninth Grade noble family!"
Although Chen Changsheng had his suspicions early on, the facts now proved that this hillside genuinely possessed the properties of a spirit medicine garden. He was thrilled inwardly, but he managed to maintain his composure.
He didn’t laugh at the others’ reactions. After all, if you thought about it:
Here were four martial artists infinitely close to the True Qi Realm. The year after next, they could use his Celestial Cyan Grass to finally break through to the True Qi Realm. After more than two decades of grueling martial art training, who could possibly restrain their emotions? Visit g.com for the full chapter.
And then there was the Clan Leader, whose dantian had been injured for twenty years!
And Chen Fusheng, an ordinary True Qi Realm martial artist from a remote mountain valley who normally took a decade just to cross a small realm. Now he had a sliver of hope to break through the year after next. How could anyone expect him to stay calm?
After a long time, the group gradually calmed down. The gazes they directed at Chen Changsheng grew increasingly complex.
Initially, everyone had thought Chen Changsheng was a fool for trading fertile farmland for a barren mountain!
But now, that barren mountain had transformed into a spirit medicine garden! Its value had increased by far more than a thousand times!
Let alone an eighty percent survival rate—even if it were only fifty percent, if word ever got out, the Court, Holy Land Tongtian Peak, Eight Directions Trading Company, and others would undoubtedly flock here in droves.
Two more days passed. During his night shift, Chen Changsheng squatted beside the two newly sprouted Red Blood Ginseng plants, his heart racing with overwhelming excitement.
A speck of spiritual fertilizer flew out from his cauldron and landed on the fist-like leaves. The Red Blood Ginseng began to sway and grow frantically.
Twenty breaths later, the Red Blood Ginseng stopped swaying. Its entire appearance had undergone an earth-shattering transformation.
It was now one foot and three inches tall, with a dark green stem and leaves tinted with a mix of green and red. The flowing crimson threads resembled little red pythons, dancing on their own without any wind.
Chen Changsheng dropped another speck of spiritual fertilizer onto it. This time, the Red Blood Ginseng didn’t shoot up crazily in size.
Instead, its color shifted rapidly, and wisps of a faint, dark red glow began flowing through its stem and leaves.
In twenty breaths, the Red Blood Ginseng stopped transforming, settling into a half-green, half-red hue.
The third speck of spiritual fertilizer fell. Twenty breaths later, the Red Blood Ginseng turned completely red, and its crimson threads began emitting a hazy red light.
With the fourth speck, its color deepened even further.
When the fifth speck dropped, the entire plant turned a deep, purplish-red. Shining with the intensity of daylight, it radiated a dazzling light that dyed a thirty-foot radius in a brilliant crimson.
Chen Changsheng added no more spiritual fertilizer. With a single swing of his hoe, he dug up the Red Blood Ginseng by the roots.
The main body of the ginseng was scarlet, and its roots lashed wildly at Chen Changsheng like a nest of writhing snakes.
Infusing his palm with True Qi, Chen Changsheng tightly gripped the Red Blood Ginseng and used a Flying Sweep to hurry back to his courtyard.
Only after binding the Red Blood Ginseng with iron wire did he return to the spirit medicine garden.
The second Red Blood Ginseng stalk soon pushed through the surface as well. Finding it hard to believe, Chen Changsheng tossed three more specks of spiritual fertilizer onto it.
The Red Blood Ginseng quickly matured to sixty years of age, and Chen Changsheng decisively dug it up.