This was a peach tree, just looking withered. In early spring, it only adorned the branches sparsely, looking rather unimpressive.
But after this drop of water fell, the peach tree visibly became stout, its branches became strong and vigorous, extending in all directions—how could a peach tree in the mortal realm grow like this? And not long after, the peach tree blossomed all over, almost bending the branches with its abundance, then as if reversing the seasons, after the flowers bloomed, the peach branches swayed, the fragrance filled the air, and then quickly withered. Peaches grew rapidly, soon becoming large like adult fists.
And it wasn’t over yet.
Those peaches ripened quickly, falling from the tree like raindrops, and upon hitting the ground, they instantly turned into peach puree, while the once verdant tree dried up. However, in the next moment, it regained its verdant appearance, bloomed again, the flowers withered again, and the peaches formed again… This repeated seven times, before it transformed back into a robust peach tree, full of colorful flowers, dazzling and beautiful.
Ye Shu reached out to touch the peach tree trunk, feeling the warmth, and the peach blossoms seemed to have a spirituality as they trembled.
This Hunyuan Water is indeed well-deserved of its reputation!
However, the power contained in this substance seemed exceedingly formidable, even capable of reviving dead wood. If used to irrigate fields, it would need to be diluted with water.
With these thoughts in mind, today’s water had already been used up.
Ye Shu pondered for a moment, then picked up a few stones nearby and walked towards the woods a little further away.
His body was still very weak, and if he wanted to replenish his vitality, he probably needed to eat some meat…
…
Ye Shu walked through the mountains for a while, encountering many snakes, insects, mice, and ants along the way, all of which he avoided without paying much attention to. After a while, he saw wild rabbits darting quickly through the grass, as well as several wild chickens flapping through the bushes, disappearing into the distance.
Having surveyed the area, Ye Shu had a good idea of what was around. He glanced around and then threw the small stones in his hand in different directions. Some stones landed in the grass, some at the base of trees, all of them disappearing in the blink of an eye. At the same time the stones vanished, the areas where they had been thrown seemed to take on a strange quality.
Then, Ye Shu leaned against a large tree and waited quietly.
After a moment, a mountain sparrow flew down from the treetops. However, when it landed on a bush, it suddenly seemed startled and began to panic, darting around wildly. Eventually, it collided with the thickest nearby tree trunk and fell down stunned.
About the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, one or two rabbits also dashed out, spinning around wildly in place before crashing into a tree trunk and fainting. Similarly, there were seven or eight pheasants and squirrels, all initially panicked, then knocked unconscious under the trees.
Seeing that it was almost enough, Ye Shu flicked out another stone.
In an instant, the strange sensation in that area disappeared.
He approached, picked and chose, stringing the wild chickens and rabbits onto a vine, while discarding the squirrels and sparrows, which didn’t have much meat. Then, he headed back towards the mountain hut.
Upon reaching the thatched hut, Ye Shu tied the various wild animals to a pillar, only killing one wild chicken, plucking and washing it before tossing it into the pot. He added some salt to the water and cooked it before eating. The taste was still not great, but since he wasn’t skilled in cooking, he had nothing to complain about.
After finishing his meal, Ye Shu climbed onto the wooden bed in the room and sat cross-legged.
He pondered that the Hunyuan Pearl had brought him here, presumably not just to live an ordinary life. There must be spiritual roots in this physical body, but he wasn’t sure how many.
For practitioners, apart from diligent practice and seizing opportunities, the most important thing was talent.
Generally speaking, talent could be seen from three aspects:
Firstly, spiritual roots;
Secondly, spiritual meridians;
Thirdly, bone structure.
Spiritual roots gather the essence of heaven and earth.
Without spiritual roots, the essence of heaven and earth cannot be gathered or introduced, making cultivation impossible. The more diverse the spiritual roots, the poorer the aptitude, and the purer each spiritual root, the better the aptitude. However, to measure accurately, one needed the assistance of a spiritual measuring stone, which Ye Shu currently lacked.
Spiritual meridians are the channels for absorbing qi.
Without spiritual meridians, one cannot communicate with heaven and earth or absorb the essence of heaven and earth, making cultivation impossible. However, spiritual meridians can be opened using various heavenly materials and earthly treasures to achieve a virtual meridian. Although not as good as natural spiritual meridians, virtual meridians are sufficient.
As for bone structure, it is the least important of the three.
The so-called bone structure aptitude refers to touching the spiritual bones. Having spiritual bones indicates better aptitude, but lacking them doesn’t pose much of a hindrance, except for a smoother path in cultivation. Even with poor bone structure, if the spiritual roots are good, they can compensate.
In his previous life, Ye Shu suffered from disabilities, making cultivation difficult even with an eight-point single metal spiritual root. Therefore, he spent years studying in the library, becoming quite knowledgeable about cultivation and miscellaneous matters. Now that he had obtained the “Hunyuan Mystery Arts”, he didn’t need much contemplation. He recited the secrets from the book and began absorbing the essence of heaven and earth.
Just as he started practicing the cultivation arts, Ye Shu felt a clear energy entering from the top of his head, and the acupoints emitted a faint whistling sound – indeed, he had spiritual meridians!
However, after the essence of heaven and earth entered his body, he furrowed his brows slightly.
It was because, while absorbing and expelling the energy, Ye Shu found that three types of spiritual energy were particularly close to him.
So, he had three spiritual roots.
Ye Shu, with his cultivation experience, could discern that they belonged to the categories of metal, fire, and wood.
Having three ordinary spiritual roots, while not ideal among cultivators, didn’t necessarily hinder his progress if he had enough resources. However, having three spiritual roots, each not entirely pure, would undoubtedly affect his path. Fortunately, during his previous cultivation, he didn’t feel much slower in absorbing spiritual energy than before. With this in mind, his three spiritual roots should be at least seventy percent pure.
With seventy percent spiritual roots, the hope of forming a golden core was within reach. In the future, with more opportunities and efforts to advance to the Nascent Soul, his path would be much smoother.
After pondering thus, Ye Shu continued to practice the cultivation arts incessantly, vigorously absorbing and expelling the essence of heaven and earth, compressing it and sending it into his dantian. However, the location of Mingshan City was in the realm of ordinary mortals, where the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was extremely thin, and most people here knew nothing about cultivation, focusing instead on martial arts. Ye Shu’s cultivation naturally progressed very slowly. But born hundreds of years ago, aside from other aspects, his patience was excellent. Even if his progress was extremely weak each time, he spared no effort, never allowing himself to relax even a bit.
Unknowingly, several hours had passed, and the sky had darkened.
Ye Shu exhaled a long breath and stood up.
He had spent this time merely transforming a small amount of innate true essence. To nurture a hint of yellow sprout, establish the foundation of Dao, and enter the threshold of cultivation, it was not something achievable in a day.
At this moment, his pause was only due to a rumbling in his abdomen.
…This mortal body truly couldn’t be relaxed.
Ye Shu killed another mountain chicken and cooked it with the greens, finishing his meal.
As evening fell, he naturally resumed his cultivation, continuously absorbing and expelling the essence of heaven and earth, extracting what he needed, expelling the useless qi, and refining the former into the innate true essence… This process repeated almost tirelessly.
Until the midnight hour, he stopped again.
This time, it wasn’t because of hunger, but because a new drop of Hunyuan Water had already dripped into the bamboo tube.
Ye Shu had already filled a tub with water, and now he dropped the Hunyuan Water into it.
In just an instant, the water in the tub changed from clear to a faint gray color. It seemed less transparent than before, but if one were to look closely, they would notice a faint glow shimmering within, quite beautiful to behold.
After a moment of contemplation, Ye Shu scooped up a bucketful and went outside to water the fields again.
Perhaps because he had already begun to draw qi into his body, although he hadn’t achieved anything yet, the absorbed spiritual energy nourished his body, making him feel slightly stronger. Therefore, doing this task felt different from getting soaked through during the day; he only broke a light sweat.
After finishing this task, Ye Shu finally returned to his room to sleep.
The practice during the day had left him quite exhausted. As soon as he lay down, he fell asleep.
The next day, as the dawn began to break, Ye Shu opened his eyes, got out of bed, and walked towards the fields—the usefulness of mixing Hunyuan Water with a tub of clean water would soon become apparent.
In the dim light, the previously thin and weak lettuce leaves were now plump and verdant, emitting a sweet fragrance that tempted one to pick and taste them.
Ye Shu indeed plucked some leaves and chewed on them.
Not bad, the taste is tender and crispy, and the juice is as sweet and refreshing as it smells.
If such vegetables were taken to the city for sale, they would surely sell out quickly.
However, Ye Shu did not make a living by selling vegetables, so he wouldn’t have done that. However, that acre of lettuce yielded over two thousand catties, which he alone could not consume. Allowing them to rot would have been wasteful, so he needed to think of a solution. As for the future… he could have divided that vegetable field into several plots, using some for vegetables and others for planting herbs. With Hunyuan Water at hand, those herbs should have grown well too, allowing him to exchange them for silver from the old doctor and buy rice, flour, oil, salt, and other necessities.
As the respected young patriarch , he had never had to worry about such matters in his previous life, but now he had to calculate everything like this—it’s quite pitiful. If not for his strong will, he might not have been able to endure it long ago.
After carefully considering how to sustain his livelihood in the future, Ye Shu looked back at the field.
The water used yesterday was still potent, although not as much as before. These vegetables may not have grown seven times like the peach tree, but they have grown twice. It seems that the use of Hunyuan Water requires careful experimentation day by day.