Coming out of his room, Yu saw sunlight streaming into the courtyard. A smile spread on his face. Today would be a good day, he could feel it.
Right as he walked out of his room, he saw a youthful woman sitting in the pavilion in the centre of the garden of their courtyard. It was his mother, Fu Huiyue
She looked to be in her mid twenties, carrying an air of otherworldly charm and giving everyone around her a calm aura, with a maturity far beyond what her looks seemed to reveal.
When she turned to Muyu, her eyes softened and a gaze of motherly affection was revealed behind a worried look.
"Did it fail again?" she asked with a sigh, "Don’t be discouraged, you should at least try drawing it one thousand times. Even if you fail in every try, you’ll have learned a bit more about inscriptions, which can be beneficial for spiritual planting!" she consoled as she considered her son’s talisman drawing.
Indeed, in nature, inscriptions could be found in everything containing spiritual power. They were marks of the dao, and understanding them was a requirement to become a true Spiritual Planter, elevating oneself from a simple farmer. Only by understanding them can you gain control over them, your hands and mind becoming heaven and earth that can nourish all things, instead of only being able to tend to plants.
"Mother," Muyu softened too when he saw her gaze. Having a mother was truly a gift of endless love. He had never experienced it before, but now that he did, he really didn’t know how he would have come along in this life without his mother.
She was extremely talented and yet still worried about him! In the cultivation world this was a taboo, and yet she didn’t care at all and would have given him all her cultivation resources if it wasn’t for clan rules.
"Hmm, your aura is steady and your mind is calm. Drawing talisman might be your path."
Just as Muyu was about to explain that he was fine, he felt another cultivator approach—
"Grandpa!" Muyu walked over and cupped his hands in greeting. This was his grandpa, Fu Chunfeng, a ninth-stage Qi Refining cultivator and peak first-stage spiritual plant master!
"Mhm, Muyu, how did your drawing go? Are you confident you can draw a talisman in 1.000 attempts?" Chunfeng nodded and sat in the main seat of the pavilion, gesturing for him to also sit down as he asked.
Huiyue looked at him worriedly, hoping her son’s dreams could come true.
"I don’t need 1.000 attempts, at most 500 and I’ll be able to draw this talisman," Muyu said confidently. Although it was only a Cleansing Talisman, practically worthless, successfully drawing it meant one ’entered’ the Dao.
This wasn’t a meaningless saying. When you enter a Dao, your perception will change, and from then on, you’re no longer an outsider but someone who explores the dao, allowing you to more easily comprehend subsequent talismans. At the very least, it’s proof that you can indeed draw talismans, and that everything only depends on effort and insight.
"500? That’s good, you’ll at least be above average," Chunfeng nodded, this was a good result. "How are your spiritual plant studies?" he asked, putting the matter of talismans aside.
Their Fu Clan was a vassal clan of the Sun Glow Sect, guarding the Green Glow Lake 70.000 kilometres away from the sect. They lived on the shores around the lake, and because of the lake’s strong wood power, they gradually developed into a spiritual planting immortal clan.
Cultivating plants here is at least 10% faster than elsewhere, which is why among the two ancestors of the clan, one was a guardian ancestor while the other focused on planting and had established the Spiritual Planting Hall in the family, where various clan elders regulated and taught the clansmen how to plant.
Besides the hall, there were the Three Gardens, stationed at key points around the lake! And his grandpa, Chunfeng, controlled one of these gardens! His mother Huiyue assisted his grandpa because she was also a late-stage spiritual plant master.
Two generations above him were spirit plant masters, how could Muyu not learn the craft? But in fact, it was quite good to learn planting. Planting was one of the two productions in the creation arts dao—cultivators aren’t animals who only wander around searching for resources, they grow resources, which is why the art of planting and herding emerged!
Planting masters held the monopoly over raw resources and didn’t need to rely on others, it was others that needed their help. What, you say that pills are better than raw fruits? So what? With a fruit tree home, would you need an alchemist who would transform pure fruits into pills full of impurities?
Muyu had been influenced by this idea and agreed that resource dependence wasn’t as good as being self sufficient. Talismans were also made of paper and ink—learning planting had virtually no disadvantage!
"Grandpa, I’ve achieved the Minor Accomplishment stage in the Wood Nourishing Spell and have also progressed in the other four Plant Growing Spells, but I haven’t quite grasped the Wood-Fire Curse..." he explained as he recounted his understanding.
His wood root was the strongest, so his talent in planting was evident. Unfortunately, compared to the talents of his mother and grandpa, his talent was mediocre, not even reaching the stage of a planting master, only hovering around farming. If he didn’t spend many years practicing, then without an opportunity, becoming a planting master would be difficult.
But as his mother said, by learning talismans together with planting, the higher comprehension of inscriptions might indeed allow him to enter the dao...
"That’s good, your talent isn’t too bad." Chunfeng said, not embellishing his grandson’s talent, "Combining arts is common. Planting requires years of patience, so we have more time and usually learn a second art to support planting, or do both at the same time.
Muyu, you’ve reached the third stage now, and completion isn’t far away.
The clan stipulates that once a cultivator has reached the middle stage or become twenty years of age, they are no longer to be supported by their immediate family and should instead walk their own path.
This rule is to ensure cultivators don’t neglect their own cultivation to assist their descendants, which is quite good. Your mother would ignore cultivation if it wasn’t for this rule, and there’s even been cases of clan members failing their talents and becoming useless just to assist their descendants, which is a grave mistake!" Chunfeng eyed his daughter when he said this, shaking his head slightly.
Of course he was happy that he had a grandson, but he couldn’t help but feel sad that his daughter neglected her cultivation for several years!
Turning back to Muyu, he continued, "Although we can’t support you soon, we can still support you before reaching that stage. Giving you more pills or items for the stage beyond the early stage is also against the clan rules, but we can give you the tools to assist your path!
The clan has a second-stage Spiritual Planting inheritance passed down from the Sun Glow Sect—not only is it about planting, but it’s a Creation Cultivation Art! Such arts are extremely rare and we only have it because our clan’s ancestor was an inner disciple of the sect, exchanging for this right before leaving.
This cultivation art can be practiced with any spiritual root but fits best for those with wood roots, and the core contains the method of cultivating an Innate Plant! Are you willing to cultivate it?"
Muyu’s eyes widened in surprise when he heard this—his clan had such an inheritance?!