Chapter 3760 — Beginning the Cultivation
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
As for the rewards tied to the assessment points, at the end of the day they amounted to no more than a single Foundation-Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pill, and one of merely ordinary quality at that. If Wei Zhao had a mind to, he could casually refine a dozen of better quality without even batting an eye.
Compared with the Foundation-Establishment Golden Pill, the materials needed to refine the Barrier-Breaking Pill were far less troublesome, requiring at least no rare spirit medicine like the Heart-Devouring Exquisite Herb; so long as one had spirit jade on hand, a little effort would procure them all.
Of course, though the Foundation-Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pill and the Foundation-Establishment Golden Pill were both fourth-grade pills, their true worth could hardly be mentioned in the same breath as the latter, and the gap was all the more stark for Wei Zhao, himself an alchemist.
The difficulty of the Foundation-Establishment Golden Pill lay precisely in the Heart-Devouring Exquisite Herb, which was why Wei Zhao had resolved to take all forty spirit-herb seeds.
And the reason he had asked for the spirit-herb seeds of Xiao Che and Qiao Hongcai, and afterwards those of Zhong Yongliang and Li Zhengming, was partly to do them a favor while he was at it, but chiefly to see whether among the seeds they had drawn at random there might be a Heart-Devouring Exquisite Herb seed; if there was, then naturally he would accept it with pleasure.
Still, though today's spirit-herb trial assessment had brought Wei Zhao a great and unexpected delight, one point about it left him rather regretful: as that effeminate steward of the spirit-herb garden had just mentioned, this batch of seeds, being mass-cultivated, suffered from one very great flaw.
Even if these spirit-herb seeds were successfully raised into seedlings, they could only survive as individual plants; they could not be further propagated or kept for seed.
Otherwise, Wei Zhao could simply have planted them in the jade-pendant space and cultivated them generation after generation, and never again would he have to worry about the Heart-Devouring Exquisite Herb.
But then again, the worst vice in life is insatiable greed; push everything to its limit, and fate's allotment is bound to run out early. To have obtained a single Heart-Devouring Exquisite Herb seed in this assessment was already an unexpected joy that left Wei Zhao well content; and if among the seeds drawn by Xiao Che and the others he could find another, that would be joy upon joy.
As for keeping the Heart-Devouring Exquisite Herb for seed and cultivating it generation after generation, that was no more than a passing fancy; Wei Zhao did not insist on aspiring to it.
Once each had received their spirit-herb seeds and cultivation vessels, the next step was to observe and learn the method of infusing true qi into the seeds. This method, plainly put, was simple enough: one merely controlled the outward release of true qi, letting it soak through the seed's outer skin into the interior, wrapping and warming it, for a continuous half-hour each day throughout the cultivation period.
Spirit-herb seeds were treasures of heaven and earth; to them, the true qi within each person's body could not only supply what they needed for growth just as the natural spirit qi of heaven and earth did, but, being more stimulating, acted like an artificial hormone, hastening and altering their growth cycle so that within fifteen to twenty days they would take root and sprout, putting forth seedlings.
However, since the vitality of spirit-herb seeds was exceedingly fragile, when infusing them with true qi one had to keep the concentration within a certain range and maintain a continuous half-hour each day; one must not crave speed and go beyond this, nor crave economy and fall short of it.
Otherwise, either the stimulation would fail to take effect, or it would be too strong and stimulate them to death outright.