Chen Changxuan held the set of array flags with visible excitement. If not for his未-healed injuries, he looked as though he wished he could start refining them on the spot.
"This thing is indeed very useful to me.""On the market, this formation set would go for around three thousand spirit stones.""But right now, I only have thirty-seven on me."
As he spoke, the old patriarch looked a little embarrassed and rubbed his hands.
"How about… I owe you the rest for now, and we make it up to you later?"
For no clear reason, Chen Nianzhi's heart trembled.
Over these years, in order to support the clan, the old patriarch had almost converted all his personal spirit stones into clan contribution points. Any magic tools or valuables he could sell, he had already sold off to cover clan expenses.
So much so that today, as one of only three late–Foundation Establishment cultivators in all of Yu County, all the floating wealth on his person added up to merely a few dozen spirit stones.
A Foundation Establishment cultivator poor to this degree—if you told outsiders, they probably wouldn't even believe it.
Chen Nianzhi's eyes stung faintly. He turned his head aside and swallowed, then said hoarsely:
"I'll sell this formation set to the clan treasury at the standard price of three thousand contribution points."
"Uncle-Grandfather, you may be short on spirit stones, but you have plenty of clan merit. There's no need for you to owe me anything."
"..."
By the time he left the spiritual spring behind the mountain, dusk was already settling. After briefly reporting the general details of his trip to the Third Elder, Chen Nianzhi left Qingyuan Mountain.
When he returned to Lingzhou Lake, he realized it was already late July. Nearly eight months had passed since he had left.
"Little Nianzhi, you're back."
As soon as he set foot by Lingzhou Lake, he spotted a familiar figure—it was his Old Grand-Uncle, Chen Changyan.
Chen Nianzhi froze for a moment, then quickly understood. During this period, the one who had taken his place guarding Lingzhou Lake was this old grand-uncle.
Thinking of that, he hurried over to support the old man's arm, frowning slightly.
"What was Uncle Qinghao thinking, asking you to travel thousands of li just to watch over Lingzhou Lake?"
Chen Changyan's old face stiffened.
"What, you think this old sack of bones can't get things done properly?"
"How could I dare?" Chen Nianzhi quickly put on a smile. "I'm only worried that at your age, such a long trip might harm your health."
"Now that sounds a bit better."
The old grand-uncle's expression softened, and a small smile appeared.
"I'm not like your Seventh Grand-Uncle. He left some dark injury in his body early on. Once his breath got stuck, he was gone."
"My body's still all right. I can hold on a few more years, help you juniors out where I can."
He led Chen Nianzhi across the surface of Lingzhou Lake toward the island at its heart, then said with a straight face:
"The main reason I came to Lingzhou Lake was to look after those two kids. They have good talent. If their cultivation homework were delayed, it'd become a lifelong regret."
"As for tending the spirit fields and spirit herbs—that's just something I do along the way."
Chen Nianzhi nodded.
This old grand-uncle had led the younger generation of the clan for decades—most of the cultivators of the Qing- and Nian-generation in the Chen Clan had walked their first steps on the path of cultivation under his guidance.
He was indeed more suited than Chen Nianzhi to be the one to enlighten those two siblings.
The two of them walked on, and soon arrived at the small courtyard where Chen Nianzhi lived. Out front, the spirit peach tree was already releasing a rich, sweet fragrance.
At the moment, the tree was heavy with fruit. With his current cultivation base, Chen Nianzhi could tell at a glance that the number of peaches this year was far greater than in years past.
"This peach tree…"
Looking up at it, Chen Nianzhi couldn't help but feel a spark of joy.
The old grand-uncle nodded.
"This spirit peach tree has broken through to mid-grade first tier. This year it bore one hundred and three peaches."
"I'm afraid this peach tree is no longer an ordinary spirit plant."
"It must have obtained a great stroke of fortune and transformed into what the legends call a spirit root. Its foundation is completely different now."
The old man had lived for over a hundred and ten years. His experience was far broader than Chen Nianzhi's, and he had seen far more.
There was a faint gleam of happiness in his eyes as he spoke.
From him, Chen Nianzhi finally got a rough understanding of what "spirit roots" actually were.
Spirit Root was a collective term for a special class of heavenly materials. They were broadly divided into three kinds:
Innate Spirit Roots, Acquired Spirit Roots, and Heaven-and-Earth Spirit Roots.
Innate Spirit Roots needed no explanation. They were truly peerless treasures—even in the legendary Immortal Realm, they would be the kind of core artifact used by top-tier forces to suppress their luck and fortune.
Acquired Spirit Roots were also known as Immortal Stocks. They were inferior to Innate Spirit Roots, but still treasures coveted by immortals from beyond the heavens. Within the entire Ziyin Realm, there was only one such thing:
The realm-suppressing treasure—the Ziyin Divine Tree.
It was said that every three thousand years, the Ziyin Divine Tree would drop a single divine fruit. That fruit could assist a Nascent Soul–realm cultivator in shedding their mortal body and taking on an immortal shell, breaking through into the deathless ranks of true immortals.
Heaven-and-Earth Spirit Roots were a clear step below Acquired Spirit Roots.But even so, within the Ziyin Realm, they were still exceedingly rare—almost always monopolized by the great sects and powerful clans.
After the old grand-uncle finished explaining, Chen Nianzhi couldn't help but show undisguised joy.
"So this tree might really be a Heaven-and-Earth Spirit Root?"
"All I know about spirit roots is from the occasional notes I saw in old texts," Chen Changyan said, shaking his head slightly. "But the legend does say that once a spirit plant ascends into the ranks of Heaven-and-Earth Spirit Roots, its growth rate will be astonishing before it reaches the fifth tier."
"It's said that such a tree will reach the second tier in ten years, hit the third tier—Purple Mansion level—in fifty, and even reach fourth tier, Golden Core grade, in only two hundred years."
"All we have to do is watch whether it advances to second tier within ten years. That will tell us most of what we need to know."
Hearing this, Chen Nianzhi calmed down a little.
"In that case, Lingzhou Lake will need to be kept more secret going forward. We can't let too many clansmen come in contact with this place."
The old grand-uncle nodded in agreement.
"Heaven-and-Earth Spirit Roots can transform spiritual qi."
"If this really is such a spirit root, then once it breaks through to the second tier, the spiritual vein here at Lingzhou Lake will gradually be raised to second tier as well."
"At that point, we'll have the patriarch lay down a second-tier killing formation here. That should be enough to ensure this place's safety."
The two of them chatted for a while, both wearing smiles they couldn't hide.
Whether this spirit peach tree truly was a Heaven-and-Earth Spirit Root remained to be seen. But their harvest this year was very real.
With one hundred and three spirit peaches, that was over five hundred spirit stones in value.
Once the tree advanced to high-grade first tier, the annual yield would increase by sixty or seventy percent again. At that point, the yearly income could reach around eight or nine hundred spirit stones.
With such a bountiful harvest, Chen Nianzhi was in very good spirits. He personally picked several fully ripened peaches to host a small feast for Chen Changyan.
The old man was a bit reluctant. He only took a single peach, and even then, he merely ate one small bite before slicing up the rest and feeding it to the sibling pair, Xianling and Xianyan.
As he fed them, his face was full of a gentle smile.
"They say that precious spirit trees are all heavy assets. Many immortal clans can rely on just one such tree to remain prosperous for generations."
"In the past, I always thought that was an exaggeration. But after seeing your peach tree, I finally understand that those words aren't false."
Chen Nianzhi could only smile wryly.
"Old Grand-Uncle, there's not much else here at Lingzhou Lake, but spirit peaches truly aren't lacking."
"You rarely come by. Please have a few more. Just treat it as me repaying you for teaching me the Dao."
Since coming to this world, Chen Nianzhi had spent over nineteen years here.
And the two people he was most grateful to, deep down, were precisely this Old Grand-Uncle Chen Changyan and his Seventh Grand-Uncle, Chen Changqing.
Seventh Grand-Uncle Chen Changqing had always treated him extremely well. The three treasures he had left behind—the Greenleaf Sword, the Golden Armor Talisman, and the Crimson Flame Talisman—had helped Chen Nianzhi survive more than one desperate battle.