Yan Tianhen and Lin Xuanzhi knew nothing about the outside world’s situation. They were currently in the soul space.
In a short period of one month, the grass-swallowing worms had already cleaned up ten acres of land which allowed them to start planting spiritual plants properly.
Yan Tianhen approached the fertile field, bent down, and touched the soil. He couldn’t help but lick his lips, “Dage, the soil is really rich. I can feel the spiritual Qi overflowing from it.”
Lin Xuanzhi stood behind Yan Tianhen, “This is only natural. For thousands of years, the space in the soul plate has been nurtured with forged stones and spiritual stones. Every inch of land here contains spiritual Qi that cannot be matched outside. Otherwise, the spiritual plants would not grow so easily.”
It turned out that some of the spiritual seeds experimentally planted by Yan Tianhen before had grown now. In two or three days, they could be collected and used. Moreover, judging from the quality of the spiritual herbs, the grade of these spiritual plants was definitely not lower than those outside. If they were put into medicines or made into pills, they would definitely improve the medicine or pill’s grades.
Seeing this, Yan Tianhen was overjoyed. He hurried to collect a lot of rare spiritual herbs from the spiritual herb fields outside before cramming them into the space of the soul plate. He couldn’t wait to produce them in large quantities at a high speed.
At first, Yan Tianhen thought of pulling weeds in the soul plate every day, but since he found out that the efficiency of the two grass-swallowing worms was much higher than his, and they could produce small grass-swallowing worms too, Yan Tianhen gave up this very laborious task.
Yan Tianhen looked at the grass-swallowing worms toiling in and out of the spiritual herb field. He then stretched out his finger and started counting them. A look of surprise crossed his face, “There are six more grass-swallowing worms than there were at the beginning!”
Lin Xuanzhi stood with his hands behind his back, “The shopkeeper of the Yuan Family gave us one male and one female grass-swallowing worm. Therefore, they gave birth to little grass-swallowing worms to divert the aura in their bodies. The time in this space goes by too fast, the day rises and night falls, and the lower the grade of the species, the greater the impact. Therefore, it’s normal for the worms to give birth to so many little worms in one month.”
As they conversed, two more grass-swallowing worms emerged from the black mud. Their fat bodies rolled several times on the ground and even released a few eggs!
It was Yan Tianhen’s first time to see a worm give birth to baby worms. He couldn’t help but be captivated.
He walked to the thumb-sized eggs and squatted down.
Perhaps it was because the speed of time in the space dimension was so fast. In a short amount of time, a small grass-swallowing worm broke out of its egg and crawled out. This worm with the length and thickness of a finger rolled over the black mud a few times and then lazily began to drill into the ground. Its body was almost transparent and it looked chubby and lovely.
Yan Tianhen was ecstatic, “Dage, the time for them to have babies seems to have shortened. Maybe the soul plate’s space can become a grass-swallowing worm farm!”
One should know that grass-swallowing worms were expensive and few in number. Another reason was that it took at least three years for them to produce the next generation.
This wouldn’t be considered long in a world full of cultivating immortals. It would take more than ten to a hundred years to nurture a spiritual plant. However, for the growth rate of weeds, the one-every-three-years reproduction speed of a grass-swallowing worm was too slow.
If they could raise a lot of grass-swallowing worms and sell them, it would produce a big income.
Lin Xuanzhi laughed. Rather than saying that Ah Hen was a businessman, it was more accurate to say that he was a money grubber through and through.
Lin Xuanzhi replied, “Now, it takes about ten days in the outside world for grass-swallowing worms to produce little ones. We might as well buy more grass-swallowing worms and let them create larva. Then, we will sell the little grass-swallowing worms. What do you think?”
Yan Tianhen nodded vigorously, “That’s great. If you can reduce the price of grass-swallowing worms and increase their lifespan, it’ll be more convenient to plant spiritual herbs in the future.” So the two men did not remain inside and did as they said. After coming out of the soul plate’s space, they went down the mountain together and went straight for the Yuan Family’s spiritual herb shop.
As soon as the shopkeeper heard what they wanted, he couldn’t help but sigh, “I knew those little worms were useless. It has only been a few days but they no longer work. If you ask me, you’d better hire some laborers to take care of the spiritual plants instead of those grass-swallowing worms.”
Lin Xuanzhi didn’t explicitly say that the grass-swallowing worms were still alive. He calmly replied, “To tell you the truth, we’re now trying to prolong the lifespan of grass-swallowing worms and increase their reproduction speed, so we need a large number of grass-swallowing worms in the early stage.”
The shopkeeper frowned and thought Lin Xuanzhi’s idea was too extraordinary, “Grass-swallowing worms have always been breeding at this rate. It’s a waste of your talent to spend your time on it.”
Yan Tianhen blinked and smiled, “My Dage won’t waste his time. I want to play with it. Please sell it to us.”
The shopkeeper looked at Yan Tianhen’s expectant eyes and his heart grew inexplicably soft. He exclaimed with a wave of his hand, “All right! Go ahead and buy it, but don’t blame me for not warning you in advance.”
Business was business, no matter the customer.
The shopkeeper gave Lin Xuanzhi six pairs of grass-swallowing worms and kindly urged him, “If you can’t do it this time, don’t try again in the future. Our family’s head said that your business has just started and it’s not easy to make money. You still have a large family to support, you can’t treat it lightly.”
Lin Xuanzhi thanked him and tucked the grass-swallowing worms away.
Out of the door, Yan Tianhen asked doubtfully, “Where do we have a big family that needs to be fed?”
Lin Xuanzhi thought for a moment, “If you include Ah Bai and Hu Po, as well as Ah Gu and Maomao, it’s indeed a big family.”
Yan Tianhen couldn’t help nodding, “That’s right. Apart from Ah Gu who doesn’t spend any money, Maomao spends 20 pieces of gold a day. The demonic delight fruits of Ah Gu and Hu Po are not cheap either. It’s really a big money-spender family.”
“Who said Ah Gu doesn’t spend any money?” Lin Xuanzhi glanced at Yan Tianhen.
Yan Tianhen was puzzled.
Lin Xuanzhi happily informed him, “The clothes on Ah Gu, the shoes on his feet, the hairpins on his head, and the magic tools keeping away his evil aura are all money. Moreover, I recently planned to find a way to forge a red tasseled spear for Ah Gu but I haven’t found a satisfactory material for the weapon yet. At that time, won’t it be another sum of money?”
Yan Tianhen, “…”
His heart was beating a little too fast!
………….
After returning home, Yan Tianhen put the six pairs of grass-swallowing worms into Lin Xuanzhi’s space. At the same time, he also bought many seeds and seedlings of spiritual herbs and planted them in the dimension space.
Of course, most of the spiritual herbs planted were the ones he extracted from Huai Yu’s spiritual herb fields.
At first, Yan Tianhen felt guilty for being secretive. He then thought that when the spiritual herbs grew, he would plant the original seedlings back into Broken Sword Peak’s spiritual herb fields. However, as time went on, Yan Tianhen became a skilled worker, and when he saw any spiritual plants that he liked, he would stuff them into the soul plate.
A few days later, on a rainy day that showered the sky and ground, the long-lost Esteemed Huai Yu finally came back while braving the rain.
He returned on his sword and was drenched from head to toe, which was absolutely impossible for a cultivator who was at least at the peak of Profound Realm!
At that time, Yan Tianhen was meditating and practicing alchemy in the bamboo house. The storm outside did not bring him any influence. On the contrary, when Esteemed Huai Yu suddenly appeared, even if he had not seen himself, Yan Tianhen’s heart jerked, causing him to waste his entire furnace’s worth of pills.
Yan Tianhen quickly stood up and opened the bamboo door to walk out. At a glance, he saw Esteemed Huai Yu standing outside in a daze and he gawked at the sight of him soaked in the rain.
Yan Tianhen got a fright and rushed into the rain to pull Esteemed Huai Yu away, “Master, what are you doing? Come in and take shelter quickly!”
Esteemed Huai Yu wiped his face and a pair of beautiful eyes looked at Yan Tianhen with bewilderment. He opened his mouth, then suddenly collapsed in Yan Tianhen’s arms.
Yan Tianhen hurriedly held Esteemed Huai Yu’s body but he was extremely anxious.
After placing Esteemed Huai Yu on the bed, Yan Tianhen first examined Esteemed Huai Yu’s pulse and found that the spiritual Qi in his body was running around wantonly as if they were going to burst out of his body immediately. Suddenly, he felt uneasy in his heart.
Yan Tianhen’s fingers shook as he opened the storage bag and took out the bottle of medicine that Lin Zhan left him. He also gave the last white jade-colored pill to Esteemed Huai Yu. Yan Tianhen looked at the rain outside, then began running down the mountain.
He didn’t know what had happened to Esteemed Huai Yu, but he knew that he couldn’t handle the situation himself.
On Sinking Sword Peak, it was fortunate that Esteemed Lan Yue and Lin Xuanzhi were there. Upon hearing what happened, the two men hurried along with Yan Tianhen.
Esteemed Lan Yue approached the bed, reached out, and checked Esteemed Huai Yu’s pulse. Esteemed Lan Yue’s clear and elegant face suddenly looked worse.
“I’m going to heal him,” Esteemed Lan Yue spoke in a low voice. “You two, go outside and protect the area. No matter what happens, you must not come in.”
Lin Xuanzhi took Yan Tianhen’s hand and nodded. “I understand.”
The two of them went out of the bamboo house together and sat under the wide eaves, looking at the pouring rain outside.
Yan Tianhen was nestled in Lin Xuanzhi’s arms. Although Lin Xuanzhi used a magic tool to get rid of the rainwater on Yan Tianhen, Yan Tianhen still felt cold.
“Dage, I was really shocked by Master just now.” Yan Tianhen rubbed his arms and spoke with lingering fear, “He didn’t say anything. He just stood there like he had lost his soul. As soon as I reached him, he passed out. His face looked like a corpse. If he hadn’t breathed, I would have thought he was dead.”
Lin Xuanzhi stretched his arms and tightened his hold on Yan Tianhen. He soothed him with a gentle voice, “Your master will be fine. He has gone out for so many days; we don’t know what he has experienced.”
Yan Tianhen asked in confusion, “Dage, didn’t you say before that there is basically no one in the Five Continents who could beat my master? How could this happen?”
Lin Xuanzhi frowned slightly, “In principle, no one should be his opponent.”
Yan Tianhen took a deep breath and closed his eyes, “I was really afraid of something happening to Master.”
Although Lin Zhan didn’t die, the scene of his escape had also left a strong psychological shadow on Yan Tianhen, leaving him scarred when he remembered it.
Lin Xuanzhi patted Yan Tianhen on the shoulder, “It will be alright.”
Yan Tianhen stared at the curtain of rain and remained silent.
—
