Chapter 54: A Thousand Paths to Immortality

“The person who came was the favorite disciple of the Ancient Cloud Hall’s Master Guyun, a Thirtieth-Leaf Spirit Sprout Realm expert. He was widely acknowledged as the most talented full-seed disciple of his year. Before you and the other special seeds arrived, he was considered one of the most promising candidates for the position of Sect Master. Although with Unsurpassed Purple Seeds like you around now, he probably doesn’t have much of a chance, the gap between our cultivation levels is just too vast. I didn’t dare to offend him.”

“He came and said he was buying all the corn, then forced the price down to ten low-grade spirit stones! No one else dared to bid against him, and if I didn’t sell to him, no one else would have dared to buy. And frankly, I didn’t dare not to sell… so I had no choice but to sell all 11,000 jin of corn to him for that price.”

After speaking, Hao Shuai lowered his head, awaiting his punishment.

The Ancient Cloud Hall again? What is with that faction? Qin Haoxuan’s brow furrowed, but a warning bell sounded in his heart again. The law of the jungle in the cultivation world was even more vicious than he had imagined. The only reasons he had survived so far were Xu Yu’s help and his own ability to fight back. Otherwise, with Zhang Kuang’s desire to see him dead, he would have been killed long ago.

However, he recalled that Zhang Kuang hadn’t seemed particularly surprised to see him after he got out of the Nine Yin Ice Cavern. Could it be that the six waves of assassins weren’t sent by him? Unable to figure it out for the moment, he patted Hao Shuai’s shoulder. “It’s nothing. Next time, we’ll just go ourselves. We still got ten low-grade spirit stones, right? According to the standard price, we still made a profit of a thousand jin of Grade-1 corn.”

His magnanimity immediately eased Hao Shuai’s tension. His face flushed, and tears welled up in his eyes. He grabbed Qin Haoxuan’s hand, too moved to speak.

It was obvious that Qin Haoxuan was trying to let him off the hook. Everyone knew that Grade-1 corn was a niche product in the sect. Anyone with land good enough to grow it would plant something more valuable. The market for it existed, but it was small.

“Junior Brother Qin is generous and broad-minded. I, Hao Shuai, will never forget this!” he said with a deep, sincere bow. The other followers also looked at Qin Haoxuan with a newfound respect.

Xu Yu looked at him. “Are we just going to let it go?”

Qin Haoxuan sighed and spread his hands. “What else can we do? Find him and beat him up? Take it back? Even if you’re a Purple Seed, you’d still be punished. And he’s Master Guyun’s disciple. Are we strong enough to take him on? Ask someone else to help? We’d owe them a favor, and if they got punished because of us, how could we live with ourselves? If we did that, what would be the difference between us and Zhang Kuang?”

Xu Yu pouted, unhappy. She knew he was right, but it still felt bad to be taken advantage of, especially since she had been secretly planning to use the money to buy something for him.

“It’s alright,” he said, gently patting her on the back. “Next time we go to Yixiantian, we’ll go ourselves. I can stand up to the pressure. And besides, you’re an Unsurpassed Purple Seed. No one would dare to strong-arm you, right?”

Xu Yu rested her chin in her hand and began to think. She could have someone find that guy and tell him that the corn he’d bought belonged to a Purple Seed. If he was smart, he’d pay the difference…

Seeing her plotting, Qin Haoxuan flicked her on the forehead. “What are you thinking? Are you planning to use your status to pressure him? This matter is over. If you get used to using your status like that, it’s not good for your cultivation. A Purple Seed shouldn’t be coddled. That would weaken the tempering of your heart.”

Xu Yu nodded. Qin Haoxuan, meanwhile, wondered if the sect didn’t have a good method for training Purple Seeds because they had never had one before. From what he had seen, their methods for new disciples were well-established, but their handling of the Purple Seeds seemed… clumsy.

He quickly shook his head, laughing at himself. He was just a new apprentice. The sect’s leadership must have their reasons, just as a villager could never guess what an emperor eats for dinner.

“Of course, we’ll still remember the grudge,” he added. “We’ll find out his name, and one day, when our cultivation is strong enough, we’ll go and strong-arm him right back. We’ll show him how it feels and teach him how to be a decent person.”

Xu Yu, who had been gloomy, finally clapped her hands, happy again.

As they left the lecture hall, the sky was overcast, and a cold, howling wind swept through the valley, making the weaker disciples shiver and adding to the desolation of the winter night. The crowd quickly scattered, running back to their dormitories to find warmer clothes.

In the dining hall a short while later, everyone, including the newly sprouted Zhang Kuang and Xu Yu, was wearing thick winter robes. Only Qin Haoxuan was still in his thin autumn clothes, looking perfectly comfortable in the biting wind.

“Brother Haoxuan, you should put on more clothes. It’s cold, and our cultivation is still weak.”

At her concern, he smiled warmly. “Did you forget I just came from the Nine Yin Ice Cavern? Compared to that place, this is downright balmy.”

Xu Yu rolled her eyes. She could hear the sound of frost crunching under her feet.

“Junior Sister,” he asked, “why is Grade-1 corn in such high demand?” This question had been circling in his mind for a long time.

His question was overheard by Elder Chu, who was just leaving the dining hall. He shot Qin Haoxuan a disdainful look and sighed. “I already explained this in class. But you wouldn’t know, would you? You either meditate or sleep. Do you really think you can reach the Great Dao by just sitting there like an idiot? In your dreams!”

“This disciple was wrong,” Qin Haoxuan said with a sheepish smile. He had skimmed those parts of Xu Yu’s notes, but he had thought, it’s just food, what’s there to know? He didn’t want to waste time on what he thought were boring details. He couldn’t very well explain that the only reason he slept was because of the One-Leaf Golden Lotus’s power.

After scolding him, Elder Chu left. A nearby disciple, seeing an opportunity to get on their good side, hurried over. “It’s like this, Senior Brother Qin. Grains can be used for alchemy and for feeding spirit beasts.”

“Please explain in detail,” Qin Haoxuan said, looking at him seriously.

“Yes, yes!” The disciple, flushed with excitement at the chance to lecture a Purple Seed, cleared his throat. “Grade-1 corn isn’t very useful for senior disciples, but it’s the best food for many spirit beasts during their infancy. The higher the grade of corn they are fed, the greater their future potential will be. So, many disciples with good spirit beasts have to set aside a portion of their own high-grade fields to grow it, which is a huge waste for them. When you bring Grade-1 corn to a place like Yixiantian, of course it will be snatched up instantly.”

“Besides feeding spirit beasts, it can also be used in alchemy.”

This surprised Qin Haoxuan.

“Normally, it’s best to use spiritual herbs for alchemy. But nowadays, herbs are rare and take a long time to grow. Furthermore, many ancient pill formulas have been lost or are incomplete. Using pure herbs makes the pill’s power too volatile and difficult to control. So, only the elders and the Legacy Disciples can do that.”

“In the current cultivation world, with its lack of master alchemists and rare herbs, crops are indispensable. For some very high-level pills, you might need 10,000, or even 100,000 jin of Grade-1 corn as a base to neutralize the medicinal power.”

“I see. So, grains are actually very useful.” Qin Haoxuan nodded to himself. The Taichu Sect’s crops were divided into nine grades based on their spiritual energy content. Corn was the lowest, Grade-9. The others, in ascending order, were sweet potatoes, radishes, soybeans, peanuts, sesame, wheat, millet, and rice. If Grade-1 corn could fetch such a good price, then the higher-grade grains must be worth even more.

Although getting high-grade seeds was impossible for now, with the spirit stone they had, getting something better than corn wouldn’t be a problem.