“Were you and the other newly appointed Immortal Plant Official brought in by Mu Xuzhi?”
Ye Miaomiao was infusing pure wood-attribute immortal energy into his hands, restoring the damaged Winter Ling Grass in the spiritual field. Hearing the question, he nodded and replied, “Responding to Immortal Official Tong, that is indeed so. It is just that this humble immortal did not know earlier that Immortal Official Mu was the manager of the Spring Plant Garden, so my manner of address must have caused some offense.”
The manager of the Winter Plant Garden—Tong Xue—couldn’t help but chuckle charmingly upon hearing this. “What kind of talk is that? You and I are both immortal officials, so where does offense come into it? You’ve only just entered the Immortal Realm; in time, you’ll get used to it. In the Immortal Realm, we place no importance on titles or forms of address. Even if it’s the Realm Master, calling him ‘fellow immortal’ wouldn’t be improper.”
Ye Miaomiao choked slightly. “Calling the Master of the Heavenly Realm ‘fellow immortal’?”
Seeing him like this, Tong Xue laughed even more heartily. “The Master of the Heavenly Realm is named Tian Qian. If you see him and call out ‘Fellow Immortal Tian,’ he will definitely respond to you.”
Ye Miaomiao felt rather speechless. “Immortal Official Tong, please stop teasing me…”
Seeing his reaction, Tong Xue finally put away her joke and straightened her expression, saying, “You mentioned earlier that you had a question to ask. What was it?”
Ye Miaomiao had been keeping this matter in mind. Seeing her bring it up on her own initiative, he hurriedly said, “This humble immortal wanted to ask about the Immortal Plant Official who was dismissed—what offense did he commit?”
Tong Xue nodded. “So you wanted to ask about that foolish Chang Kuan. Listen, and I shall tell you all about it.”
The actions of that previous Immortal Plant Official named Chang Kuan could be summarized in just four words—corruption and lawlessness. Chang Kuan was originally the managing immortal official of this Winter Plant Garden. Using the convenience of his position, he embezzled many immortal plants from the garden. The Immortal Plant Garden was so vast that originally no one noticed when he embezzled a few. However, greed knows no bounds; he actually dared to direct his mind toward immortal plants he shouldn’t have touched.
Tong Xue spoke with dramatic cadence, and Ye Miaomiao couldn’t help wide-eying as he listened. “What did he touch?”
Tong Xue didn’t answer right away, but instead asked him in return, “When you first ascended to the Immortal Realm, did any immortal official tell you about that one golden, golden rule of the Immortal Realm?”
Ye Miaomiao nodded hurriedly. “Naturally I was told! Though I don’t quite understand it, this humble immortal has already engraved it in my heart!”
The only golden rule in the Immortal Realm—The Little Young Master is noble and precious.
Although he still didn’t understand its meaning, Ye Miaomiao remembered it firmly. With Tong Xue taking the initiative to ask now, he naturally seized the opportunity: “May I ask Immortal Official Tong, who is this Little Young Master?”
This time, it was Tong Xue’s turn to widen her eyes. “You don’t know?”
Ye Miaomiao shook his head blankly. “After entering the Immortal Realm, this humble immortal focused entirely on seeking an official post, and hasn’t asked around about other matters yet.”
Tong Xue nodded lightly to express her understanding, then continued, “In this Immortal Realm, only the Little Young Master alone must not be discussed recklessly. Therefore, it isn’t convenient for me to tell you too much. You only need to firmly remember ‘The Little Young Master is noble and precious.’ Once you’ve stayed in the Immortal Realm longer, you’ll naturally come to know everything you ought to know.”
Ye Miaomiao nodded hastily to agree. Turning the thought over in his mind, he asked again, “Immortal Official Tong, you mentioned earlier the offense committed by Chang Kuan—from the looks of it, was it related to that personage?” After being told this by Tong Xue, he didn’t even dare to utter the three words “Little Young Master” anymore.
Seeing him like this, Tong Xue couldn’t resist chuckling again. “You don’t need to be quite so cautious. You’re right. That Chang Kuan had insatiable greed, to the point where he actually went and messed with the immortal grass planted in the Immortal Plant Garden by the Little Young Master.”
Immortal grass planted by the Little Young Master naturally had a restrictive formation set up around it. Chang Kuan triggered the formation without realizing it, and was caught red-handed by the Little Young Master on the spot. Having caught the perpetrator, the Little Young Master casually investigated and thoroughly exposed all of this fellow’s past misdeeds. It was only a pity for these Winter Ling Grasses, many of which were damaged by that fellow Chang Kuan while he was fleeing.
Tong Xue: “Thus, Chang Kuan was dismissed from his post.”
Hearing the full story, Ye Miaomiao said indignantly, “Merely being dismissed from office is too light a sentence! If it were in a mortal cultivation sect, he probably wouldn’t have survived!”
Seeing him so filled with righteous indignation, Tong Xue smiled and said, “Cultivation is no easy task; how could one lightly take his life? However, Chang Kuan was also banished from the Immortal Realm and handed over to the Master of Demons to be dealt with.”
Hearing this, Ye Miaomiao couldn’t help but nod repeatedly. “Clear distinctions between rewards and punishments—only this can be considered true justice.”
Tong Xue laughed in her charming voice. “You certainly are righteous.”
Behind the spiritual fields of the Winter Plant Garden lay the forest lands. Ordinary immortal grasses were all cultivated within the spiritual fields, while tall immortal plants like immortal trees were planted in the forest lands at the rear.
The immortal plant planted by the Little Young Master that Tong Xue had mentioned earlier was planted right here. At this time, the restrictive formation beside the immortal plant remained, and because of Chang Kuan’s incident, an additional layer had been added. A pale green figure stood before the formation—it was none other than Shi Chu, who had taken the lead earlier.
It was unknown whether Shi Chu had stood here by chance or design. He stared fixedly at the immortal plant inside the formation for a long while, and then with a movement of his body, he actually stepped directly into the formation. Remarkably, the formation did not undergo any changes due to his unauthorized entry, and even up until he stood right in front of the immortal plant, no one ever appeared to stop him.
At this moment, if Ye Miaomiao were present, he would feel that this immortal plant looked somewhat familiar. A pitch-black trunk, bright gold branches, and transparently luminous leaves—if it wasn’t a Xuanchu Tree, what else could it be? It was just that this Xuanchu Tree was countless times smaller than the previous one, being only the thickness of a finger and the length of a forearm. Yet, small as it was, it looked full of spirit and vitality.
Shi Chu walked a circle around this small Xuanchu Tree, examining every inch closely. After confirming there were no issues whatsoever, he reached out his hand, lightly tapping his index fingertip against the heart of the top leaf. A flash of seven-colored auspicious light flickered past, merging into the entire Xuanchu Tree in just an instant. Afterward, the Xuanchu Tree surged upward by an inch at a speed visible to the naked eye, and even its stem grew a bit thicker.
Seeing this, Shi Chu nodded lightly with satisfaction, flicking his fingers gently against the translucent leaves, muttering to himself, “Grow a bit faster. This Young Master is waiting to use you…”
Having completed his day’s task, Ye Miaomiao prepared to leave the Immortal Plant Garden to return to his residence. As he left, he looked around and didn’t spot Shi Chu’s figure in the spiritual fields. After thinking briefly, he was just about to head toward the forest lands to look for him when he saw a pale green figure appear at the nearby entrance to the forest lands—it was undoubtedly Shi Chu.
Perhaps because his gaze was too intent, Shi Chu raised his head to glance at him. In the next instant, he teleported right in front of Ye Miaomiao and asked, “How went today?”
Ye Miaomiao hastily gave a brief summary of all the tasks he had performed today. Just as he was about to ask, “How was Fellow Immortal Shi’s day?”, he saw Shi Chu nod lightly in approval after listening, saying, “You are far better than that fool before. Maintain it well, and you will certainly encounter no small opportunities in the future.”
With that, he lightly flicked his sleeves and exited the Immortal Plant Garden in the blink of an eye. Ye Miaomiao couldn’t react in time. It wasn’t until Tong Xue called out to him as she left that he snapped back to his senses, unable to resist marveling once more at the commanding presence of this Fellow Immortal Shi Chu.
Over the next ten immortal days, Ye Miaomiao worked conscientiously and diligently every day, devoting his heart and soul to restoring the immortal plants in the spiritual fields. Surprisingly, he completed the task in just eight days. When immortal officials completed tasks assigned by the Immortal Realm, rewards would be handed down. Generally speaking, these consisted of a certain quantity of immortal stones and immortal materials related to the task.
The same applied to Ye Miaomiao; the rewards were issued directly through his Immortal Token. He received one thousand low-grade immortal stones and ten stalks of high-grade Winter Ling Grass. Immortal stones were the circulating currency of the Immortal Realm and could be used to exchange for all kinds of items, making them extremely practical. The Winter Ling Grass could be kept for personal use or sold and traded, also possessing no small value.
However, none of these were the main point for Ye Miaomiao. He stood frozen in place for a long while at this moment because, aside from the immortal stones and Winter Ling Grass, the Immortal Token had also issued him a “Spiritual Field Numbered Token”! The function of the Spiritual Field Numbered Token was extremely simple: by finding the spiritual field corresponding to the token, one could gain ownership of that plot.
In other words, the Immortal Realm had granted him a plot of spiritual field! He could cultivate it freely and use it as he pleased—though naturally, it could not be transferred to others. Tong Xue had mentioned this type of reward to him before, stating that only plant-cultivating immortal officials who performed outstanding meritorious service would receive such generous treatment. He had been envious for quite a while at the time.
Following the Spiritual Field Numbered Token, Ye Miaomiao found his assigned spiritual field. Stunned for a long while, he suddenly recalled the words Fellow Immortal Shi Chu had spoken days ago—Maintain it well, and you will certainly encounter no small opportunities in the future. It was just that this “future” had come a bit too quickly, hadn’t it?
Concealed beneath dense immortal trees, an immortal tree roughly the height of a seven- or eight-year-old child grew exuberantly. Compared to more than ten days ago, this Xuanchu Tree could be said to be vastly different. Its pitch-black trunk was now as thick as a forearm, its branches sturdy and its foliage lush. Most astonishing of all, at the very top of the tree canopy, nestled among a cluster of leaves, two small, ink-black flowers had actually bloomed.
These flowers had only three petals each, with no visible stamens. Their entire bodies possessed a jade-like texture, harboring a restrained shimmer like dark jade under the light. They had formed buds two days ago and only bloomed slowly this morning, with a bloom period lasting a brief quarter of an hour.
At the moment the flowers reached full bloom, a pair of jade-white hands reached over, slender fingertips lightly tapping above the blossoms. A seven-colored glow flowed forth from the fingertips, gradually enveloping the two dark jade flowers. Soon after, visible changes began to occur in the two dark jade blossoms.
The jade-like petals closed gently and gradually shriveled away, while the base of the flowers swelled and grew. From dawn to dusk like this, the seven-colored glow at the slender fingertips never ceased for a single moment, finally yielding two nail-sized, ink-black fruits at sunset.
Shi Chu exhaled softly. After taking a brief moment to catch his breath, he guided the seven-colored auspicious qi once again to pick the two ripened fruits, then carefully placed them into a dark jade box. He had stood for an entire day, using the seven-colored auspicious qi all day to forcibly ripen a Xuanchu Tree that would normally take a hundred thousand years to bear fruit, leaving him inevitably a bit exhausted. Just as he prepared to retrieve a few immortal pills from his storage bracelet to replenish himself, the Immortal Token hanging from his waist suddenly lit up.
He rarely had occasion to use the Immortal Token—or rather, very few people ever used the Immortal Token to contact him—so he reasoned it shouldn’t be anything particularly important. He simply proceeded to pick out a qi-replenishing immortal pill from his storage bracelet and swallowed it, after which he casually flicked his finger toward the Immortal Token at his waist across the air.
It was a voice transmission. Shi Chu paused, recognizing it as belonging to the First-Grade Immortal Official named Ye Miaomiao whom he had just met recently.
Ye Miaomiao: “Immortal Friend Shi, I heard that the Master of the Earthly Realm is visiting today, and many fellow immortals have gone to wait at the Realm Gate, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Realm Master’s true face. This humble immortal is currently heading to the Realm Gate; shall I hold a spot for you?”
Shi Chu: “…” He can come if he wants, but why make such a ostentatious scene! He tapped the Immortal Token, sending Ye Miaomiao a reply of “No need,” after which his mind shifted slightly, and he vanished from the spot in the blink of an eye.