Chapter 175: The Test
Hou Chunyu explained the key points of cultivating the Taiyi Evergreen Sutra to Gu Mo, then handed him a jade slip containing his personal insights into the technique.
Although Hou Chunyu hadn't cultivated the Taiyi Evergreen Sutra himself, with his late Nascent Soul level cultivation, he was more than qualified to provide guidance to Gu Mo.
"Thank you for your guidance, Grandmaster!"
Gu Mo bowed as he accepted the jade slip. With someone to guide him, it truly made a difference—many of his previous doubts were instantly resolved with clear, authoritative answers.
Now all Gu Mo needed to do was cultivate step by step, which just so happened to be his strong suit. As long as he had enough Solar Essence, he could improve his cultivation quickly.
However, before that, he had to plant the Sunflower.
"Looks like it's time to carry out the test plan," Gu Mo murmured to himself. Without first understanding the attitude of that fifth-rank ancient tree, he didn't dare to expose the existence of the Sunflower.
After all, Shennong Valley was literally built upon that fifth-rank ancient tree. The moment Gu Mo used Solar Essence, it would surely be noticed by the tree.
Before putting his plan into motion, Gu Mo took the opportunity while asking questions about cultivation to inquire about the origins of the fifth-rank ancient tree.
Hou Chunyu didn't find Gu Mo's question strange; nearly every disciple of Shennong Valley was curious about the massive tree.
Without hesitation, Hou Chunyu shared all he knew about the tree. These details weren't considered confidential within the sect.
"Grandmaster, you're saying… that fifth-rank tree doesn't have a spirit?" Gu Mo asked in disbelief after hearing the explanation.
Even the third-rank Xiao Hua Martial Aunt had already taken on a human form. How could a fifth-rank ancient tree not have developed sentience?
"That fifth-rank tree was cultivated by the sect's founding ancestor as the foundation of Shennong Valley. If it had developed a spirit, then all the secrets of everyone in the sect would be exposed to it. So, when the ancestor raised the tree, he deliberately prevented it from forming any sentience," Hou Chunyu explained.
Every cultivator has secrets—some small, some significant—but no one wants their private matters known.
Besides, disciples of Shennong Valley had built caves on the tree, absorbed its spiritual energy, and moved freely across its body. If it were a spiritual plant demon emperor, even if tamed, over time it would inevitably develop resentment.
So the safest approach was to prevent the tree from ever developing intelligence and use it as a mere tool.
"The founder of the sect was truly bold and brilliant."
After learning the origin of the fifth-rank tree, Gu Mo was quietly in awe. Cultivating a fifth-rank spirit plant was a testament to staggering skill as a spiritual plant master. Still, the fact that the tree had no spirit was actually good news for him.
Even so, for the sake of caution, Gu Mo still intended to test things. But after Hou Chunyu's explanation, he felt more confident—he could afford to be a bit bolder.
Returning to his leafy courtyard, Gu Mo took a deep breath and retrieved a portion of Solar Essence from the Black Mist Space. After waiting for a moment, he began refining it.
In the span of a single breath, a portion of third-rank Solar Essence was completely refined. Gu Mo then extended his spiritual sense to cover the courtyard and quietly waited for any reaction.
Time passed.
Everything remained the same—the fifth-rank ancient tree showed no response at all. Just to be certain, Gu Mo took out another portion of Solar Essence, but this time, he didn't refine it. Instead, he simply held it in his hand and waited for it to dissipate naturally.
Once Solar Essence was extracted from the Sunflower, it would gradually disperse—only storage in the Black Mist Space could preserve it for a longer period.
One day later.
The Solar Essence in his hand had completely dispersed, but there was still no sign of reaction from the ancient tree. Nor had any high-level cultivator from Shennong Valley detected anything unusual.
At this point, Gu Mo was nearly certain the fifth-rank ancient tree lacked sentience. He had secrets, and so did the Nascent Soul elders in the valley. They clearly wouldn't want their secrets exposed either, so it made sense that the ancient tree was spiritless.
Of course, the sect master of Shennong Valley likely had some means of controlling the ancient tree. But active surveillance and passive awareness were two very different things.
Active surveillance would be sensed by the Nascent Soul elders, giving them time to prepare. But if the tree had sentience, it could passively perceive everything occurring on its body without anyone knowing.
Now that he was confident the ancient tree wouldn't uncover his secrets, Gu Mo could safely begin his farming endeavors.
"Little Mo Martial Nephew, your Martial Aunt has come to visit!" came the cheerful voice of Martial Aunt Xiao Hua.
Hearing this, Gu Mo rose and went outside to welcome her in. He found this adorable Martial Aunt quite likable.
Besides, using plant sense and accelerated growth techniques on a unique spiritual plant demon like her would help sharpen his spiritual plant mastery.
"Hmm? Little Mo Martial Nephew, it smells so good in here! Were you sneaking some delicious treats?" Xiao Hua's nose twitched as she sniffed around with her big, curious eyes.
It was clear she had been drawn by the lingering scent of the dissipated Solar Essence.
"Do you have any more of that yummy stuff? Let your Martial Aunt try a little! I'll trade you some petals for it," she pleaded, unable to find the source of the scent and now staring eagerly at Gu Mo.
"There's none left. I'll save you some next time," Gu Mo sighed at her pitiful expression. But he didn't immediately give her more Solar Essence—he planned to wait until a more suitable time.
That "suitable time" would be when he found a way to hide the Sunflower's existence. Gu Mo didn't intend to keep it a secret forever—there's no such thing as a leak-proof wall. But he could build a false wall to conceal the real one.
Just like back in Qinglu Sect, Gu Mo had used the spirit sunflower to disguise the Sunflower. He believed there must be a similar plant in Shennong Valley, which he could use to hide the Sunflower's presence.
"Really?"
Upon hearing Gu Mo's promise, Xiao Hua beamed and reached out her hand. "Pinky promise!"
After sealing the promise, Xiao Hua gleefully pounced onto Gu Mo's bed, happily basking in the lingering scent of Solar Essence.
Seeing this, Gu Mo shook his head helplessly and left Xiao Li behind to play with Martial Aunt Xiao Hua while he went off to claim his Inner Sect benefits.
The Inner Sect benefits mainly consisted of various cultivation resources, which Gu Mo didn't really need. But there was one thing he did want—Woodstep Techniques.
Derived from the Wood Escape Art, these were rare and precious movement techniques outside the sect, on par with Windstep Techniques. But in Shennong Valley, they were available for free.
Almost every Shennong Valley disciple had learned the basics of the Woodstep Technique, allowing them to move swiftly within the sect grounds.
Now that Gu Mo was preparing to plant Sunflowers in his personal five mu of spirit fields, mastering Woodstep would allow him to shuttle quickly between his leafy courtyard and the fields.
Since all disciples cultivated these techniques, there was an abundance of experience to draw from—this greatly accelerated Gu Mo's understanding.
"Let's go!"
Gu Mo formed a hand seal, and in the blink of an eye, he vanished into the leaf beneath him—only to reappear over a hundred li away in his spiritual field.
"Now this is convenient."
Gu Mo looked around at his spirit field, a satisfied smile on his face.
Next, Gu Mo got to work. First, he set up a Nut Formation around the spiritual field. Although there was already a formation surrounding the land, it hadn't been set up by Gu Mo himself—it was provided by the sect, and he merely had control access.
The benefit of this kind of formation was that it was incredibly powerful, as it was tied to the sect-protecting grand formation. As long as that main formation remained unbroken, the field formation would remain intact.
The downside, however, was that the formation provided by the sect came with a master key held by the sect's upper echelon. While the senior members of the sect would never intrude into a disciple's spiritual field without cause, one could never be too careful. At least for now, Gu Mo didn't want anyone entering his field. Once he figured out a way to conceal his Sunflowers, he wouldn't need to worry anymore.
He planted the entire five mu of spiritual farmland with sunflowers. Over a thousand sunflower plants shimmered with a faint golden glow under the Solar Yang, forming a golden sea that lifted the spirit and calmed the mind.
The only downside was that most of these sunflowers were only at Tier 1 or Tier 2; there weren't many Tier 3 ones yet. But Gu Mo planned to gradually improve their grade over time.
Not only did the sunflowers need upgrading—the field itself did too. At the moment, this five-mu field was only Tier 3 low-grade. Gu Mo's target was Tier 4.
He was genuinely eager to see what effects Tier 4 sunflowers would produce once they started generating Sun Essence.
However, obtaining a Tier 4 spiritual field required a considerable amount of sect contribution points. The main way to earn these was by completing sect missions, and the sect offered a wide variety of them.
Most were related to spiritual agriculture, and many were actually posted by cultivators from other sects.
As the topmost sect of spiritual plant cultivators in the Heaven origin Realm, whenever a cultivator encountered issues involving spiritual plants, they would turn to Shennong Valley for help. For example, a cultivator might explore a secret realm or ancient ruin and come across unidentified spiritual plant seeds, and would then request assistance from Shennong Valley to cultivate them.
Or, if a sect's spiritual fields had issues they couldn't resolve on their own, they'd likewise send for disciples from Shennong Valley to deal with it.
Aside from that, if a Shennong Valley disciple successfully cultivated an entirely new species of spiritual plant, they would also receive rewards from the sect.
However, these kinds of spiritual plant-related missions were highly competitive. The majority of Shennong Valley's disciples were spiritual plant cultivators, and everyone was eager to earn contribution points. As a result, whenever a good mission appeared, many disciples would rush to grab it.
Gu Mo's foundation in spiritual plant arts wasn't weak, but compared to disciples who had trained in Shennong Valley since childhood, he was clearly at a disadvantage. For instance, at present, Gu Mo had only mastered the most basic Spirit Farmer Techniques, whereas many Shennong Valley disciples had already learned secret techniques, or even secret arts, derived from them.
That said, Gu Mo had already cultivated the five major Spirit Farmer Techniques to perfection. Once he acquired the advanced versions of these secret techniques, he would be able to grasp them quickly. Once he patched up this shortcoming, Gu Mo believed he could catch up to—or even surpass—most of the other disciples in Shennong Valley.
For now, though, Gu Mo decided to focus on earning contribution points through non-agriculture-related tasks—like pill refining.
As a cultivation sect, Shennong Valley had an enormous demand for pills, and refining the pills required by the sect was another way to earn contribution points. Moreover, the number of pill refiners in the sect was relatively low, which meant these missions generally offered generous rewards.
Many of the non-spiritual-plant missions in Shennong Valley came with extra bonuses, as the sect deliberately subsidized them. The goal was to ensure the survival of other professions within the sect—lest any of them disappear entirely, making the sect vulnerable to other factions. Among the six major orthodox sects of the righteous and demonic paths, all top-tier sects were comprehensive and multi-disciplinary.
"I'd like to take on a pill refining mission."
Gu Mo arrived at the Sect Mission Hall and looked for a task involving the refinement of a Tier 3 pill. He intended to register for it. To someone like him, who could already refine (Condensed Gold Pill), making ordinary Tier 3 pills posed no difficulty at all.
With the aid of the Torch Tree Stump and Iceflame Tree Stump, his efficiency and cost-effectiveness far surpassed those of other pill refiners, meaning Gu Mo could earn more from each mission.
If he really pushed it, he could gather a batch of Sun Essence, bite the bullet, and upgrade the Torch Tree Stump to Tier 4—at which point, he could even attempt to refine Tier 4 pills.
"Senior Brother, you haven't yet been certified as a pill refiner, so you're not eligible to take on pill refining tasks," explained a Foundation Establishment cultivator in charge of registration at the mission hall.
Though Gu Mo was new to Shennong Valley, his Golden Core cultivation made him a high-level cultivator within the sect.
"Then how do I get certified as a pill refiner?" Gu Mo asked.
A moment later, Gu Mo left the mission hall and flew toward one of the branch paths connected to the sect's central Fifth-Tier Ancient Tree. That path was home to Shennong Valley's Pill Refining Division.
To take on pill refining tasks, he first had to pass a certification. Only after earning his official title could he begin taking missions in that profession.
The same applied to all other professions.
Strictly speaking, Gu Mo wasn't certified in spiritual agriculture either, which meant he wasn't qualified to accept spiritual plant cultivation tasks at the moment.
However, for spiritual agriculture certification, he could go straight to his grandmaster for it.
Even so, Gu Mo wasn't in a rush to pursue the spiritual plant certification. That could wait. His plan was to first earn a batch of contribution points through pill refining, then redeem the advanced secret techniques of the Spirit Farmer arts. Once he filled in his weaknesses, he'd get certified. Otherwise, if he applied for the certification now and was found lacking, it would be downright embarrassing.
"Senior Brother, is Elder Liu in?"
Arriving at the Pill Refining Division, Gu Mo spotted a Golden Core disciple and immediately stepped forward to inquire. For the Tier 3 certification he needed, the division head of the Pill Refining Branch personally had to oversee it.
"You're looking for my master? What's the matter?" asked Qian Tao, giving Gu Mo a curious once-over. A Golden Core cultivator this young? He didn't recall seeing him before.
"I'm here to apply for certification as a pill refiner," Gu Mo replied straightforwardly.
"You're a pill refiner?" Qian Tao stared at him in shock. As a disciple of the Pill Refining Division, he was familiar with nearly every refiner in Shennong Valley—but this young man in front of him was a complete stranger.
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