Chapter 30: Mysterious Seed
Chapter 30: Chapter 30: Mysterious Seed
Spring arrived.
Some of the Spirit Plant Cultivators around the Ancient Dust Marketplace had already begun sowing their seeds. Next door, Xiao Changhua had also scattered his seeds into the earth, quietly waiting for them to take root and sprout. Because Chen Mo had been practicing the Qi Crossing Technique, he was delayed by a few days. At this moment, his five acres of Spirit Fields were still freshly tilled. People had secretly approached to observe, wondering if he had died and thus left the land barren.
Naturally, their expectations fell flat.
Early the next morning, Chen Mo tucked the five catties of Spirit Seeds he had bred into his clothes and set off for the Marketplace once again.
The journey was very peaceful. The death of the Tribulation Cultivator hadn’t caused any ripples, and even at the site of their battle, there was no trace of a corpse. Since practicing the Spirit Snake Body Technique, Chen Mo’s running speed had more than doubled. What was originally an over one hour journey took him less than an hour to arrive at the Marketplace.
His goal this time was very clear: first, go to the Yi Er San Grain Station to sell the five catties of Spirit Seeds; then, head to Niu’s Shop to retrieve his one and a half catties of seeds. He had no other choice. Since the seeds were already paid for, it would be a waste not to take them.
Weaving through a street specifically designated for street stalls in the Marketplace, Chen Mo hadn’t walked far when a voice suddenly called out to him. He turned to look. It was a Cultivator with thick eyebrows, a square face, long hair, and a full beard. His eyes revealed a sense of sincerity, making him look like a good person. For a moment, Chen Mo felt he had seen this man somewhere before, until the other party spoke.
"Fellow Daoist, I can see you must be a Spirit Plant Cultivator. I have top-grade Spirit Rice Seeds here. Would you like to take a look?"
Spirit Rice Seeds?
Chen Mo frowned slightly. He remembered that at the end of the year before last, during his first visit to the Marketplace after transmigrating, this exact person seemed to have stopped him. Back then, because he couldn’t distinguish between real and fake seeds, he had simply ignored the man and walked away. He never expected that after a year and a half, the man would still be here selling Spirit Rice Seeds.
He wondered if this person was really a Breeder like him. If he really was a Breeder, would the Marketplace allow him to snatch away business right here? Harboring these doubts, Chen Mo took a couple of steps forward.
The middle-aged man sat on a wooden chair behind a bamboo table. On it sat a small white grain bag filled with Spirit Seeds. From the looks of it, they were not Spirit Yellow Rice.
"What kind of seeds are these?"
Faced with the inquiry, Yi Tingsheng’s interest was immediately piqued. He gently scooped a small handful into his palm, offered them to Chen Mo, and spoke with confidence. "These are no ordinary Spirit Plant Seeds! I discovered them in a Tooth Cave deep in the back mountains of Purple Cloud Peak. I wandered in there by mistake, and when I was starving, I ate a Red Fruit growing inside. Guess what happened?"
Chen Mo’s face darkened. He hadn’t expected the man to start spinning tales just to make a sale. If this guy were to livestream e-commerce, he would probably rack up decent sales figures!
Seeing that the other party wasn’t too interested, Yi Tingsheng’s description became even more vivid. "Guess what happened?! After eating it, my entire body burned hot. I originally had almost no Spirit Root, but it felt as if I possessed a Metal Spirit Root. When I cultivated Gold Attribute Techniques, my speed more than doubled!"
As he spoke, he rolled up his sleeve. The next moment, a dark gold ripple cascaded across his arm. In the blink of an eye, it was covered in gold.
Chen Mo took a step forward, gently scooped up a handful, and placed it in his palm to sense it carefully. He had originally thought the man was bluffing, but he was suddenly startled! That was right. He could actually sense fetal movement within these Spirit Seeds! If he hadn’t practiced the Qi Crossing Technique, he wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference between Spirit Rice and Spirit Seeds at all. But now that he had cultivated the Qi Crossing Technique to the Proficient Realm, distinguishing real seeds from fake ones was a piece of cake.
"How did you get these seeds to produce fetal movements?" Chen Mo asked in return.
"Fetal movements?" Yi Tingsheng looked at him in bewilderment. He wondered what fetal movements meant. Having a baby? He had never even heard of such a thing!
"Aren’t all seeds the same?" the man retorted.
Chen Mo rolled his eyes at him. "Try planting freshly harvested Spirit Yellow Rice in the ground and see if it sprouts!"
"Ah? What did you say? I’m not a Spirit Plant Cultivator, so I don’t quite understand." Yi Tingsheng scratched his head in embarrassment.
At this moment, Chen Mo seemed to have guessed the man’s situation. These seeds looked like Spirit Seeds, but ordinary Spirit Plant Cultivators would never buy them. They had no way to tell the real from the fake, and if they bought fake seeds, their entire year’s harvest would be ruined! As for Breeders like him, they most likely wouldn’t pay attention to hawking street vendors. Thus, even after a year and a half, this middle-aged Cultivator was still selling these Spirit Seeds of unknown origin!
"How long have you been selling these seeds?"
"No one bought the last batch from last year. I was afraid they would go bad, so I just boiled and ate them all. This batch is what I just gathered from the Tooth Cave."
"Where is the Tooth Cave?" Chen Mo asked.
"I can’t tell you that! That’s my gold mine!" Yi Tingsheng wasn’t stupid. If this guy went there, picked all the fruit, and sold it to others, how would he make a profit? After all, there weren’t many seeds in a single fruit!
Chen Mo placed the Spirit Seeds back into the cloth bag. After a moment of thought, he asked, "How much is here?"
"About two taels."
"I’ll take it. How much Spiritual Sand?"
"Fifty taels!" Just as Yi Tingsheng held up five fingers, Chen Mo turned his head and walked away.
He wouldn’t even entertain it! Asking him to spend fifty taels on some unknown Spirit Plant? He had to be crazy!
"Forty! Thirty! Twenty! Ten taels! Sold!" Yi Tingsheng slapped the table repeatedly with one hand as he fired off prices. Before Chen Mo could even react, the exorbitant price of fifty taels had been slashed to the bone by the seller himself.
"Five taels! Sold for five taels!"
"Final offer, sold for five taels!"
Chen Mo turned back around, took five taels of Spiritual Sand from his Dou, placed it on the bamboo table, and casually tucked away the bag of Spirit Seeds.
Seeing that someone had finally paid for this batch of Spirit Seeds, Yi Tingsheng was in a great mood. After the buyer had walked far away, he reached into his robes and pulled out another bag of Spirit Seeds out of thin air! One had to know that the clothes he was wearing couldn’t possibly hide such a large object!
Naturally, Chen Mo had no idea that the man who sold him the seeds was a powerful Cultivator possessing a Storage Magical Artifact. He toyed with the unknown Spirit Seeds in his hand as he walked. Just now, at the moment he decided to buy them, he had already formed a plan. He decided to clear a separate plot of land near his wooden cabin to try cultivating this unknown Spirit Plant. As for whether he would harvest the Red Fruit the man claimed could strengthen a Metal Spirit Root, that remained to be seen!
Chen Mo’s original body only had a Mixed Spirit Root. The five elements didn’t emerge, and its characteristics were unapparent, which was why the attribute panel hadn’t even included Spirit Roots in its stats! For him right now, planting these few seeds wouldn’t be a burden at all.
Heading further inside, in less than half a cup of tea’s time, Chen Mo arrived at the Yi Er San Grain Station. Mei Hua, who had been bored out of her mind, saw him, and her eyes instantly lit up. She trotted over to greet him.
"Fellow Daoist, your visit this time..."
Chen Mo lowered his voice and said, "Do you want seeds?"
"You really are a Breeder?!" In a flash, Mei Hua jumped up in excitement!