Top-tier resources were controlled by powerful factions, which was why everyone wanted to join them.
Currently, the Three Great Sects of the Jiangwu Domain were the Liuyun Sect, the Shangyang Sect, and the Shenmiao Sect.
The Ten Great Clans were the Lin, Mu, Mo, Xiao, Ji, Chu, Su, Yun, Yan, and Lu clans.
These major clans were interconnected through a complex web of marriages.
This was no ordinary marriage alliance. Rather, talented disciples of the clan, regardless of gender, would remain within their clan to find a partner and propagate offspring, while their partners were often much weaker in strength.
Of course, unions between two powerful individuals did occur, but it was simply very difficult for two highly cultivated and talented cultivators to conceive life.
The Jiangwu Domain was covered in mountains and dense forests, with spiritual plants and herbs scattered everywhere. The largest of these forests was the Star Forest.
Located in the eastern part of the domain, it was hundreds of thousands of li away from her current location. However, the other dense forests and secret realms also held plenty of resources.
She would definitely visit the Star Forest one day, but that would have to wait until she was strong enough to explore it.
Jiang Lu put down the last book. As she walked back, she organized the massive influx of information in her mind.
Her current cultivation required a vast amount of spiritual energy. While others might reach the third layer of Qi Condensation with a certain amount of energy, she might only reach the first layer. Therefore, she needed an immense amount of resources, making it essential to explore various secret realms and dense forests in the future.
But first, she needed sufficient self-defense capabilities.
Among the hundred paths of cultivation, the five primary arts were the Sword Dao, Elixirs, Talismans, Formations, and Forging, which were also the most widely practiced.
Now that she was in the Medicine King Pavilion, she could put refining elixirs on her agenda. Next would be self-defense. She planned to practice the Sword Dao; compared to other magic treasures, a spiritual sword was the easiest to control, and there was a wide variety of sword techniques available.
Most importantly, she had come across a sword technique manual in the Library, which she could put to use immediately.
Inhale...
Exhale...
The sound of her steady breathing gradually faded as Jiang Lu slowly opened her eyes.
The spiritual energy around her gradually settled. After finishing all the books in the Library, she had told Master Wen that she wanted to live in the herb garden to better care for the spiritual plants.
Aside from the days when herbs were collected, few disciples ever came here. It was just her and Master Wen tending to the spiritual plants all day, which was perfect for her cultivation.
After so many days of cultivation, she would have to be incredibly dense not to realize how unique her spiritual root was. She had seen Senior Sister Yue Ying and Master Wen cultivate; both were at the mid stage of Qi Condensation, yet their speed of absorbing spiritual energy was incredibly slow, not even a tenth of hers.
Yet, she could clearly sense the changes in their strength.
In contrast, her absorption speed was dozens of times faster than theirs, but she only felt her dantian filling up. Whenever she felt close to advancing, it always seemed to lack that final spark. However, she was certain this was a good thing.
This was because while handling the spiritual plants, she noticed her affinity with them was steadily growing. She could even process several types of spiritual plants faster than Master Wen.
It was only because Master Wen was always busy that he hadn't noticed.
Jiang Lu did not know the true identities of Chi Li and Cang Chen, nor did she know they had already seen through her spiritual root.
Meanwhile, Chi Li and Cang Chen felt that since Jiang Lu cultivated so steadily and acted so cautiously every day, she must have already known her spiritual root was extraordinary.
Thus, a perfect misunderstanding arose between them.
“Master Wen, we're here to collect this month's spiritual plants.”
Two disciples dressed in dark blue robes walked over from a distance. They were disciples from Alchemy Courtyard No. 1.
“Ah, you're here. Girl Jiang has already sorted everything. You can go straight over,” Master Wen said as he stepped out of the herb garden, greeting them and pointing toward the courtyard where Jiang Lu currently lived.
He didn't know how the girl's mind worked, but she had pointed out that having one person harvest and process the spiritual plants at the same time was too inefficient.
She suggested that one person harvest while the other processed. Now, their speed had increased significantly, leaving him with much more time for cultivation. Naturally, he was more than happy with this arrangement.
“Understood.”
The two disciples nodded. Having been here twice before, they naturally recognized this new apprentice. However, Master Wen had always guided her in the past, but now she was handling things directly. Did she possess some sort of talent in this area?
When the two entered Jiang Lu's courtyard, they saw her sorting spiritual plants. Unlike before, these spiritual plants were sorted according to their medicinal properties, eliminating the need to categorize them again during refinement.
One of them couldn't help but pick up a spiritual plant from the table, examining it closely before looking at Jiang Lu. “Did you sort all of these yourself?”
Hearing this, Jiang Lu turned around and saw the two standing before the baskets of spiritual plants. She quickly replied, “Yes, Senior Brother. Is there a problem?”
The disciple shook his head and set the spiritual plant down.
“Help us count the spiritual plants for Alchemy Courtyard No. 1.”
He paused for a moment before adding, “You did a good job sorting these. Keep doing it this way from now on.”
Jiang Lu nodded. “Yes, Senior Brother.”
She was secretly pleased. Judging by their attitude, her method of sorting was indeed correct. Different qualities of spiritual plants would yield elixirs with vastly different medicinal properties.
According to the elixir recipes, when processing spiritual plants, one had to carefully remove the damaged parts. Some spiritual plants did not require wood spiritual energy to extract certain properties, while others did.
She had already mastered the first step of sorting; the next step was to learn extraction.
She watched as the two disciples stored the spiritual plants in their storage bags, registered the information, and departed.
Jiang Lu turned her gaze to a basket of spiritual plants she had kept for herself, carrying them into her room to process when she had time tonight.
The spiritual plants that matured each time varied. After delivering the fixed quota to the respective courtyards, they could keep the rest for themselves.
They could either sell them or use them for their own elixir refining. This was an unspoken rule of the herb garden; as long as one wasn't too blatant about it, there wouldn't be any issues.
To refine elixirs, one needed to be at least at the third layer of Qi Condensation; otherwise, it was easy to run out of spiritual energy during the process, leading to failure.
Since she was currently only at the first layer of Qi Condensation, she could buy an elixir cauldron first and wait until she reached the third layer of Qi Condensation to start refining. However, even the cheapest elixir cauldron cost two hundred medium-grade spirit stones, which she currently couldn't afford.
“Junior Sister Jiang, we're here to collect the spiritual plants for Courtyard No. 2.”
Before long, two more people arrived. Since a portion of their batch had not yet been fully sorted, Jiang Lu said apologetically, “Please wait a moment, Senior Sisters. I'll have them ready shortly. You can double-check the other quantities first; those over there are for Courtyard No. 2.”
The two nodded without any blame. Waiting was a common occurrence when collecting herbs. After all, the spiritual plants were harvested on the same day, so it was only natural that the quantities hadn't been fully verified yet. Looking at the baskets of spiritual plants nearby, they noticed the process was actually much faster than usual.
“Senior Sister Dan, don't we have a batch of cauldrons in our courtyard that need to be disposed of?” the female cultivator on the left remarked.
Rate on N.U.
