Her mom doesn’t have a Taoist root, which is for Lin Luoran to accept. She is not in the mood of reading Chronicle of the Nine Provinces, nor is she in the mood of cultivation. Having trouble sleeping, she feels restless and goes into the space.
The space seems to expand again. Lin Luoran assumes that its size may be connected with her ability. Apart from this, she has got another assumption that sapling is of fire nature and ice grass is of water nature. Is there a connection between their natures and the nature of awaken Taoist root inside her and the size of the space?
Lin Luoran has no way to prove this assumption. She makes a decision to herself that she needs to pay more attention to spirit plants of the other three natures — it might take another object at least at the same level with the sapling and ice grass to trigger another change of the space.
What’s more, when will the log cabin covered by the inhibition be opened?
Will the golden pattern in her dream be hidden inside the cabin？
That mysterious power — is it able to solve the problem of her mom’s Taoist root? Shaking her head, Lin Luoran puts all the problems aside and starts to reorganize the space which appears to be messy.
Lin Luoran checks what she has gained from the trip into the secret land:
Eight jars of monkey fruit wine neatly placed under the peach tree;
Three pots of Luminous Sand that she risked her life to get in the bat cave. She is sure that the white one is millenary, but she doesn’t know about the yellow one or the golden crystal one.
Two Monkey Mushrooms, the guiding ingredient of Foundation-laying Bolus, given by the old monkey. Of course, one of them belongs to Li Xi’er.
A lot of “weeds” found at the cave of the black bear… This kind of weed with seven light-spots glittering in the dark is called “Seven Stars Grass” and it is not just a main herb of Foundation-laying Bolus. Many other boluses need it as well.
If she didn’t find this large amount of Seven Stars Grass, Lin Luoran would not determine to look for the Luminous Sand. It’s a pity that the Seven Stars Grass is very dry, or she will be able to plant some in the space and it will be inexhaustible.
There are also several kinds of spirit herbs alongside with a bag of seeds. Lin Luoran feels that all the herbs and seeds are enough for her whole family in a century.
Among all the main and subsidiary ingredients mentioned in the formula of Foundation-laying Bolus, there is only one ingredient, “Butterflybush Flower”, which Lin Luoran has not found yet. She is, however, not worried at all. Huaxia cultivators that went into the secret land have all agreed that they can exchange what they have found in the secret land after getting out. Lin Luoran hasn’t found the “Butterflybush Flower”, but someone else may have found it.
These are all material objects. Actually, the most valuable thing for her is getting the chance to meet White Fairy.
Moreover, she gets a complete version of Introduction of Swords with the final parts that Wen Guanjing didn’t have the chance to read. She assumes that maybe the only complete version is in her hand.
She has also learnt the Sword-riding Spell. Therefore, she can fly on the Sword of Bright Snow and save a lot of air ticket money… Kidding. There is a collection of water spells of sword as well. She guesses that it is a personal collection of White Fairy. The spells recorded are very powerful. Lin Luoran only cast a “Frost’s Descent” and that Japanese cultivator was killed.
For Lin Luoran, the most useful object right now is the memory bead of White Fairy before she went asleep. The memory bead is like an encyclopedia of Bearing Essence. Even though she hasn’t laid foundation yet, there are still a lot of helpful information in it.
She has got another great creature, Goldie. White Fairy told her that it is a “golden hawk” and it has a lot of potentials. Lin Luoran will spend more time training it.
Ice grass comes from the Arctic. It is a gift from the trip to the secret land.
Apart from all above, Lin Luoran also gets a messy space, just in front of her —
The vines of fleece flower are entangling the ginseng. Under the pepper grows the spirit herb named “jade grass” and there are several clumps of bright-colored “flower mushroom”, which are very rare, growing between chives.
In a word, the reorganization of the space is pressing!
The space has doubled its size and it fits Lin Luoran’s planting scheme. The peach tree is a must as Lin Luoran wants to make wine herself but she cannot grow grains to make wine. Fruit is a better choice.
There are several peach trees in the space. Lin Luoran plans to keep two of them in the space and transplant others out. They can be transplanted in the backyard of the Villa or the house downtown as there is enough space.
Fortunately, when Lin Luoran planted the peach trees, she had a plan. Around the pool, all peach trees are planted at the periphery and they are near the cabin. There is no need for transplanting right now. No matter if the space will expand or not in the future, the size of the periphery will not change, so it will be kept for fruit trees.
Lin Luoran not only arranges a place for fruit trees, she also saves a place for tea trees. She is targeting at the tree of Dahongpao tea, the best kind of Wuyi tea.
After that, she starts the arrangement of vegetables. Vegetables grow very fast, so she doesn’t have to plant much of every kind and it will be enough for the family and close friends. However, there are only some kinds of common vegetables and there are no mushrooms here. Lin Luoran believes that if spirit mushroom can grow here, ordinary mushrooms should be the same. Therefore, she is thinking about adding more “species”.
Bamboo shoots occur to her. Is it possible that she can plant a few bamboos and eat the bamboo shoots? The size of the soil in the space is more than half mu, but bamboo needs a large space to grow. She decides not to grow bamboos for now. Putting this thought aside, Lin Luoran starts to transplant the medicines.
Medicines mentioned here are Chinese herbs in the secular world, such as Niuxi and Fuling. Although they have been advanced by the space, it will take a long time before they become spirit medicines. Lin Luoran feels herself connected with them as they have been grown here for a long time. Besides, they are not useless at all. As a result, Lin Luoran decides to grow the medicines between vegetables and spirit herbs, which can work as a buffer.
The remaining space is about 200 m2 large, and it is arranged for spirit herbs and spirit drugs.
Ginsengs, which she planted first, grow best of all. Lin Luoran planted them in autumn last year. Eight months later, it is now early summer. Since one day in the outside world is one year in the space, these ginsengs will be 250 years old in a couple of days.
Ginsengs becomes ripe once every century and she has harvested ginseng seeds twice. Lin Luoran plants some seeds to see if there is any difference between the first generation and the second generation.
Fleece flowers are younger. They are all descendants of the original one she picked up at the vegetable market. There are hundreds of fleece flowers and they occupy most of the places arranged for spirit herbs.
Their “mother” has already become the “Skin Beauty Boluses” that have successfully brought back youthfulness for her parents as well as Wang Miao’e. These fleece flowers are about one hundred years old and Lin Luoran is wondering what to exchange with the special department. She decides to keep some seeds and exchange the rest.
One day in the outside world is one year here. Lin Luoran doesn’t want to pull them out now, so she transplants them closely and decides to pull them out right before the exchange.
The land is cleared. Lin Luoran plants ginsengs and other spirit herbs and mushrooms again. They are placed orderly. The place is used to the extreme. What’s more, Lin Luoran also plants some commonly used spirit herbs.
Lin Luoran has extraordinary physique today, yet she feels tired after such meticulous and continuous work.
Looking at the neat space with spiritual herbs in order and smelling the fragrance of vegetables and fruits, however, Lin Luoran feels that her hardworking is worthwhile.
Grass under the peaches trees is native in the space. Lin Luoran planned to weave some cushions a long time ago, but she has never actually done it. Now that she thinks of it, she decides to do it today. Therefore, she takes out a lot of grass with her.
The room is still quiet. She can see the shadow of trees and hear the croak of grogs. Moonlight illuminates the desk and the book Chronicle of the Nine Provinces is still lying on the ground.
Weaving a cushion is not difficult for Lin Luoran. She can do the work with her flexible fingers without looking at them. Her hands are occupied, but her eyes are not. Lin Luoran picks up the book and opens it on the desk.
The cover of the book is discolored, but the pages are not broken thanks to the careful preservation.
Lin Luoran opens the book carefully. On the front page, there is nothing but a short paragraph: “Being 480 years old, I still cannot break the boundary of the later stage of Bearing Essence, that is to say, it is nearly impossible for me to step into Gathering Vitality… I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life in vain, so I travelled to the nine provinces for twenty years. I keep the book as a record of what I have seen and heard during my trip. Hopefully, future generations will find the book interesting.”
The date signed below is 1508 and the name signed is “Nanling Resident”.
So… This is a travel book written by a cultivator in the later stage of Bearing Essence. Why did he choose to record his experiences on paper rather than on jade?
Lin Luoran becomes interested. As she weaves the cushions, she opens this Chronicle of the Nine Provinces, which is thicker than a brick.
The more she reads, the more interesting she finds the book is. For example, in chapter fourteen, Nanling Resident became curious about the blue pearl popular among female cultivators named “mermaid’s tear”. He wondered why there was no new arrival for centuries, so he decided to find the mermaids, who were said to be able to change tears into pearls.
After searching around the East Sea, he finally found a skeleton which seemed to belong to neither a human nor a fish… At last, Nanling Resident was unable to tell if the existence of mermaids was true, or was it just a story in the world of cultivation.
Another example is that, in chapter fifty-three, Nanling Resident was watching the tide on the top of Yueyang Tower. The weather was good at first but suddenly, it changes rapidly. At that time, a golden carp jumped out of the water and the waves were forming the shape of a gate tower. Nanling Resident suspected that he had witnessed the legendary scene of “golden carp jumping over dragon’s gate”. As he was enjoying the view, he saw a black cloud appeared in the sky and the water in the Dongting Lake started rolling wildly. The golden carp was then hit by a lightning and it sank into the water, and it was never able to jump any more.
The “gate tower” gradually disappeared and Nanling Resident felt sorry about it. As he was about to search the golden carp again, however, he found it already disappeared.
A commentary is written in red under the main body of this chapter, “Is there a Dragon Palace under the Dongting Lake?” Lin Luoran doesn’t know who wrote down the commentary, but it makes her yearn for the scene as well — do dragons, the legendary creature of Huaxia, really exist?
Nanling Resident’s handwriting and writing style are both very good. The story book is very pleasant to read. Busy with the cushions, Lin Luoran knows for sure that she cannot finish reading tonight. She casually flips to the final chapter with the title of “Mount Penglai Overseas”.
Mount Penglai is said to be the island for immortals ever since ancient times. However, if Nanling Resident wrote about it, the story is definitely not an everyday story. Lin Luoran reads it carefully. Gradually, she stops weaving and holds her breath—
“I met a foreign cultivator and we had some good time together. One day when we were drinking together, he told me about a mountain for immortals named ‘Penglai’ overseas. He said that true immortals there are as powerful as gods, and they can build Taoist root for ordinary people and help them cultivate…”
Build Taoist root?
It that’s true, her mom…
