Obtaining the Primordial Purple Spirit Grass
The Spiritual Energy in Luoxia Valley was sparse, and most of the plants Yan Qingyan brought back turned out to be weeds.
But she didn’t throw them away. Instead, she made them all into specimens and placed them in the collection cabinet of the wooden house in her Space.
She had a bit of a collecting habit. If her Space could truly expand infinitely, she hoped that one day, it would be filled with every kind of Spiritual Plant in the world.
Life in Yujiang Village moved at a slow pace. Here, Yan Qingyan found a sense of peace she hadn’t experienced since the apocalypse, and day after day, she became somewhat immersed in this leisurely rhythm.
Yet time in Yujiang Village also seemed to pass quickly. In the blink of an eye, another twenty days had gone by.
The Weiling Flowers and Tougu Grass in the Spiritual Field had matured. Yan Qingyan went to the village chief and hired two villagers with some spiritual rice to help with the harvest, piling everything up in the courtyard.
Ling Mochen had already prepared the iron pot, ready to brew the Weiling Paste.
It was the only iron pot in the kitchen, the one used for cooking.
Ling Mochen used to have a mid-grade Yellow-tier Magical Artifact—a medicine cauldron—which he had used to refine Weiling Paste before.
Unfortunately, before he left the Ling family, he couldn’t find this cauldron no matter how hard he searched. It was most likely taken by Ling Yaozu.
After all, an iron pot was just a mundane object. At first, Ling Mochen was a bit rusty and wasted over ten batches of materials before finally refining the first batch of Weiling Paste.
"So this is Weiling Paste," Yan Qingyan said, propping her chin in her hands and watching with great interest.
She thought to herself that it looked quite similar to the snow cream she used to apply in her previous life.
Ling Mochen took out the iron boxes he had prepared in advance and carefully filled them with the brewed paste to cool.
These iron boxes had used up all the silver he had left, and he was counting on selling them later to recoup the cost.
The two of them were now practically penniless, their pockets emptier than their faces.
Without money, Ling Mochen felt uneasy. That’s why he was particularly meticulous in brewing the paste this time. Once the refined paste was sold, they would have money again.
Yan Qingyan, on the other hand, wasn’t worried at all. Her Space stored many valuable items, and she could sell a few precious Spiritual Plants for money at any time.
After the first box of paste had completely cooled and solidified, Ling Mochen handed it to Yan Qingyan.
"I’ll go test its effectiveness!"
As soon as she got it, Yan Qingyan played with it for a while before excitedly turning and running to the backyard.
Ling Mochen was startled. "Hey? This is a medicinal ointment. How are you going to test… its effectiveness…"
He watched as Yan Qingyan found a chicken, made a cut on its leg with a knife, and gently applied the paste from the box.
In no time, the bleeding stopped, and the effect was surprisingly good.
Ling Mochen: …
Using a chicken to test it—he had truly learned something new.
"Excellent! If we refine all this batch of Weiling Flowers and Tougu Grass into paste, we can sell it for quite a few spirit stones!"
Yan Qingyan counted on her fingers. The three mu of land produced about eight hundred jin of Weiling Flowers and a thousand jin of Tougu Grass, which could yield around two hundred boxes of Weiling Paste. At ten boxes for one low-grade spirit stone, wouldn’t that mean they could earn twenty low-grade spirit stones?!
Yan Qingyan clicked her tongue in amazement. Having a skill was truly a good thing. If they sold the Weiling Flowers and Tougu Grass separately, they wouldn’t even earn one low-grade spirit stone in total.
In the Tianxuan Realm, mortals mostly used gold and silver as common currency. However, when it came to items related to Cultivation, spirit stones became the universal currency. Mundane objects without Spiritual Energy could only be exchanged for gold and silver and could not be traded for spirit stones.
The Weiling flowers and Tougu grass cultivated by Yan Qingyan, along with the Blue Fragrant Grass, Huilan Fruit, and Water Tang flowers grown in Yujiang Village, are all Spiritual Plants. However, their grade is too low, making it difficult to exchange even for a single low-grade spirit stone. Except for families who are determined to send their children to pursue Cultivation, most people only use them to exchange for gold and silver.
The purchasing power of gold and silver for ordinary goods is still quite high, but the amount spent each year on buying spiritual plant seeds alone is hardly sufficient.
Ling Mochen said, "It will take me about three days to finish refining everything."
"Alright, I'll go to town first to buy a pot and get the next batch of seeds ready." Additionally, the Blood Ginseng in her Space had finally been nurtured to a hundred-year maturity.
Yan Qingyan drove the carriage alone to the town.
Today was a bright, sunny day, and the undried rainwater on the ground shimmered under the sunlight like a sea of stars.
Among the bustling crowd, the vast majority were mortals, much like those in Yujiang Village. Occasionally, a few individuals with an aura distinctly different from their surroundings could be seen—likely Cultivators at the Qi Refining Stage.
Carrying a bundle, Yan Qingyan drove the carriage through the streets with a natural expression, showing no signs of caution.
Looking too tense could easily arouse suspicion that one was carrying treasures, and incidents like robbery were not uncommon here.
For now, she was just a mortal. Apart from her Space and special ability, any other means would be of little use against Cultivators.
But she didn’t want to rely too heavily on her Space for survival. The lesson from her death in her previous life must be firmly remembered in this life.
She also didn’t want to reveal her special ability too early. Its ability to rapidly increase the age of Spiritual Plants was far too extraordinary.
In Yujiang Town, there were branches of the Yan family’s trading house, as well as those of the Ling and Chen families. There were also numerous medicinal herb shops and pawnshops.
After careful consideration, Yan Qingyan chose the Yan Trading House.
If her family found out she had obtained a hundred-year Blood Ginseng but sold it to someone else, it would undoubtedly lead to trouble.
As soon as she entered the trading house, Yan Qingyan presented her identity token and stated her purpose.
"A hundred-year Blood Ginseng?! What a treasure." The trading house manager’s eyes lit up as he saw the Spiritual Plant in the wooden box, his voice filled with awe.
Assigned to this godforsaken place, he had thought he would never see anything valuable in his lifetime.
Lowering his voice, the manager probed, "I never expected Miss Qingyan to have such a treasure. This seems freshly unearthed—would it be convenient to share its origin?"
As expected of a trading house manager, his eye was sharp. This was indeed something she had dug up just yesterday.
To make it appear as if it had been unearthed twenty days ago, she had even spent the whole night fanning it, Yan Qingyan thought to herself.
Yan Qingyan repeated the story she had prepared in advance.
"Luoxia Valley? Miss Qingyan is quite fortunate." A glint of suspicion flashed in the manager’s eyes. Luoxia Valley didn’t seem like a place that could produce Blood Ginseng.
"Haha, I really was lucky." Yan Qingyan replied with an expression of sheer serendipity.
"Why did Miss Yan think of going to Luoxia Valley? That place is teeming with wild beasts and lacks valuable Spiritual Plants or Spirit Fruits. If not for Miss Yan mentioning it today, I would have almost forgotten about that place." The manager’s tone carried a hint of inquiry.
"When arriving in a new place, I just wanted to familiarize myself with the surroundings. Haha, it was just a spur-of-the-moment decision." Yan Qingyan chuckled lightly and waved her hand.
The two exchanged pleasantries in a roundabout manner. Yan Qingyan wore a smile on her face, but inwardly, she was growing impatient.
"These two century-old Blood Spirit Ginsengs can be exchanged for forty low-grade spirit stones." Finally getting to the main topic, the business manager did not try to lower the price. As fellow members of the Yan family, there were always considerations to be made in their dealings.
Who didn’t have relatives and friends? It was said that although Yan Qingyan’s Dantian had been destroyed, even the family’s steward had come to see her off before her departure. Her parents had also left behind many friends and sworn brothers during their lifetimes. If she were to lodge a complaint against him, it would be enough to cause him significant trouble.
This was also one of the reasons why Yan Qingyan chose the Yan family’s business. Those assigned to this place likely had lower status and background within the family than she did.
Yan Qingyan also got to her main point. She asked in a low voice, "Do you have Primordial Purple Spirit Grass here?"
The business manager looked somewhat surprised upon hearing the name of the herb but answered without the slightest hesitation.
"Naturally, we do," the business manager affirmed.
Yan Qingyan pointed to one of the century-old Blood Spirit Ginsengs and said, "I’d like to exchange this directly for a Primordial Purple Spirit Grass. The older the better."
The business manager smiled meaningfully. "Miss Qingyan, the highest grade of Primordial Purple Spirit Grass we have here is only ninety years old. It may be of no use to your situation."
"No matter. Then I’ll exchange it for a ninety-year-old Primordial Purple Spirit Grass."
The business manager nodded and did not try to dissuade her further. "The difference can be made up with two low-grade spirit stones. Would you like to exchange the remainder for silver?"
"Just exchange for one."
Yan Qingyan left the Yan family’s business carrying a freshly acquired Primordial Purple Spirit Grass, twenty-one low-grade spirit stones, and one hundred taels of silver.
As soon as she entered the carriage, she eagerly planted this Primordial Purple Spirit Grass into the Spiritual Field within her Space.
Looking at this small purple Spirit Grass, Yan Qingyan grew fonder of it the more she gazed. She carefully nurtured it with her Wood Element Ability, hoping it would evolve quickly.
"Next, I need to think of a way to earn spirit stones."