Jiang He, who was rather dispirited at first, promptly became motivated.
A random soul treasure?
Taken literally, it meant that the soul treasure could be a blade or a sword, or of some abnormal sort…
Of course, its grade would be random as well.
Striding toward his yard, he used his own hands to dig a small hole and planted the soul treasure seed he was holding before redeeming a pack of Living Soil of the Nine Heavens as fertilizer.
With that done, he called Dumbo to him and asked, “How many immortal crystals do you have left, Dumbo?”
Dumbo held up its paw to count seriously, but Jiang He stopped it just as it was about to say something. Speechless for a moment, he then said, “Forget it, you don’t have to say a thing… I almost forgot that you don’t understand math, dog.”
Yip-yip!
Dumbo whined, looking very upset as it said in grief, “Master, I’m already immortal—doesn’t that mean I would easily learn how to count? Moreover, I’ve been studying with Trumbo, even learning seven or eight foreign languages.”
“Oh?”
Jiang He was quite surprised.
Still, that was not exactly unexpected.
After all, Dumbo, a full-fledged Mahayana dog, possessed powerful spirit, so it naturally would not have difficulty learning such things.
A smug look appeared on Dumbo’s dog face when it noted Jiang He’s reaction, laughing as he reported, “Master, there are around sixty thousand immortal crystals left of the ones you gave me, while Trumbo and the Seven Bottle Gourd Brothers still have two hundred thousand altogether. The Wise Rock Monkeys don’t have many left in comparison.”
As it spoke, it rolled its eyes and clenched its teeth as it complained, “Those monkeys are actually belittling me because they are immortals and stronger than I am. They would always steal ahead of me to plant immortal crystals whenever they could.”
Jiang He was speechless.
Did they have to go so far just over planting crystals?
He made a head count and noted that there were less than three hundred thousand immortal crystals.
He could plant ten thousand immortal crystals for each batch and they would be ripe in two and a half hours on average… at that rate, he could plant nine batches in one day and finish planting them in three days.
“After all the immortal crystals are planted, the Farm Points we earn would be enough for me to improve my Secret Art of the Chaos Thundersword to full-fledged Grand Luo tier as well. When that happens, I could more or less have the ability to fight evenly against the antiques who are too old to die…”
“Yes!”
“If this is so, I could level up my farm three days later.”
After resting in the farm for a while and harvesting another batch of immortal crystals, Jiang He went to the soul treasure seed and found… nothing happening at all.
“The soul treasure seed might be high grade, just like the Golden Immortals’ corpses I planted… there would be difficulty planting them based on the level of the Farm right now, but I could use the special energy that appears when I level up the farm three days later to grow out the soul treasure seeds and the Golden Immortals’ corpses.”
After leaving the Farm, Jiang He returned to his mansion for a bath and played around with his maids for a while. Then, he turned on his notebook to study more wuxia novels, recording any inspiration with pen and paper to complete the martial arts cultivation he was about to create.
***
The skies were barely bright the next morning when Jiang He, still asleep, heard his dog barking from outside.
Dumbo’s scolding then followed. “Why do you immortals not know how to behave?”
“Coming to bother my master early in the morning?”
“What?”
“You’re going to ask my master to help strengthen and reforge your immortal items?”
“Are you disturbing my master’s sweet dreams over such a trifle?”
In that very moment, Dumbo was being utterly harsh and unreasonable.
It was standing on its rear legs and outside Jiang He’s doors, with its paws placed on its hips even as it glared at the immortals standing before it.
There was a total of nine immortals present. The ones with the weakest cultivation were three True Immortals, ranging from True Immortal-intermediate to full-fledged. The other six were all Golden Immortals, and the one leading them was Lü Dongbin, in his usual robes and carrying a longsword over his back.
Of course, there was one other person beside the nine immortals—Jin Sidao, who was glowing with good health.
Seeing that the other nine immortals were getting angry, Jin Sidao promptly communicated through acoustics, “Please calm down, my lords. That dog is Jiang He’s pet—having always received his spoiling and backing, it became arrogant and bossy… everyone should just let it be.”
The immortal’s rage calmed considerably at Jiang He’s ‘spoiling and backing’, with Lü Dongbin himself studying Dumbo from head to toe in surprise, muttering, “It does not seem that this dog had a long history of cultivation. Moreover, its bloodline is average, and it had still cultivated to this level?”
“Curious, curious… it truly is!”
Those words were flattery since Lü Dongbin spoke it.
Any normal cultivators or daemons that heard it would have been secretly delighted… but Dumbo was different, and he instead felt that this doggone thing was insulting him.
Glaring, it pointed a paw at Lü Dongbin and barked, “You there, don’t speak if you’re not good with words—or what, are you looking down on me?”
“Leaving aside the fact that I’m my master’s first pet and had cultivated one whole year to reach full-fledged Mahayana, I’m at least much stronger than Golden Immortals like you who have cultivated for thousands of years!”
Dumbo snorted coldly, its eyes filled with disdain.
“Brother dog, please hold back… your master has asked me to invite these people here to talk about a partnership later…” Jin Sidao promptly said.
Dumbo then glanced at Jin Sidao.
Using my own master against me?
Fine.
One must say that it was a useful trick.
Dumbo snorted coldly at that and stopped its rant, and extended a paw before saying, “Bring it out!”
“…”
The immortals were all baffled.
Bring what out?
“Weren’t you people going to ask my master to strengthen your immortal items? A mere trifle—do you even have to bother my master’s sleep? Now give the items you want strengthened to me, and I’ll help you handle it.”
Lü Dongbin was dumbstruck.
He took a long look at Dumbo and then at Jin Sidao, who was even more baffled.
What the hell is going on?!
Is Jiang He’s dog a master of item refinement too?
That was when Jiang He stepped out of his yard and scolded with a chuckle, “Go away and play in a corner, Dumbo. Stop fooling around.”
Naturally, Dumbo retreated a corner when it saw Jiang He.
After having some small-talk with Lü Dongbin and the others, Jiang He cut to the chase and said, “Brothers, I’m sure you know about my offer… anyway, I’ll make it clear. All immortal items passing through my hands would definitely be upgraded by one tier. Though that might not be certain for acquired soul treasure, but I can assure you it would be upgraded by half a tier?”
The immortals became even more shocked at those words, with a True Immortal even asking, “Lord Jiang He… What does that mean?”
“What it literally means.”
Jiang He explained with a smile.
The True Immortal’s gulped a mouthful of spit and soon muttered rather distractedly, “What about premium-grade immortal items? Does that mean it would be upgraded to acquired soul treasure?”
Jiang He nodded.
The True Immortal’s eyes narrowed and he was about to ask more, only for Jiang He to wave and stop him, saying, “Alright, stop asking that. Just bring out the immortal items you need strengthened.”
The immortals all took out their own items.
Aside from a set of superior-grade immortal items, the three True Immortals each had a premium-grade immortal item as well, which made them one of the richer True Immortals.
The six Golden Immortals were naturally even richer.
They at least had one premium-grade immortal item and multiple superior-grade immortal items. In fact, Lü Dongbin alone took out a premium-grade immortal armor, premium-grade immortal boat, and several complete sets of immortal items.
There was a total of thirty-six immortal-grade flying swords, and most frighteningly, all thirty-six were premium-grade immortal weapons.
Jiang He was stunned…
Was this fellow that rich?
After all, Jiang He himself only had over a hundred premium-grade immortal items, with over twenty flying swords. When it comes to quality alone, some of Jiang He’s swords were better than Lü Dongbin’s.
However…
Lü Dongbin’s was a full set.
Jiang He could naturally tell that the whole set of words came from the same origin, and once wielded in tandem, it was hard to imagine how powerful it would be.
Lü Dongbin appeared a little embarrassed after noticing Jiang He’s stare and laughed dryly. “Brother Jiang He, these sets of flying swords are forged after I emptied out my savings and sold of two other soul treasures I had… I wonder if you could strengthen it, Brother Jiang He?”
“Not a problem.”
Jiang He answered, saying, “But, as for my reward…”
Looking at Lü Dongbin, he said, “I could strengthen the entire set of flying sets to the grade of acquired soul treasure… but can you afford it, Brother Pure Yang?”
