Chapter 123: The Dumbfounding Second Round
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor:
Mo Wuji’s hand had yet to fully recover. At this point, he was extremely worried that he needed to purify another difficult spiritual herb. Even though the possibility of that was low, but if it did happen, he would immediately be eliminated.
The grounds were completely silent; there was only Pill Master Ming Ning’s voice, "...I believe that among those who wish to enter the Five Elements Desolate Domain, 90% of you are searching for the Flower of the True Gods. The Flower of the True Gods is a peerless treasure which can give a cultivator at the Nihility God Stage of the Earth Realm, to actually ascend into the Heaven Realm’s True God Stage…"
Hearing Pill Master Ming Ning touch upon the Flower of the True Gods, Mo Wuji immediately controlled his breathing and concentrated on listening. His understanding on the flower was shallow. On the scenario where he wasn’t able to find the Immeasurable Soul-forging Crystal, he could try to find the Flower of the True Gods and offer it to Granny Linglong. Maybe she might still choose to help him out.
"...The Flower of the True Gods requires 100,000 years to mature. It could be said to be the spiritual herb with the longest maturation period. Perhaps some of you might question me: There are countless of spiritual herbs which are more than 100,000 years old. And some of these herbs are only in Tier 4 or Tier 5. So why is the Flower of the True Gods the herb with the longest maturation period?"
Pill Master Ming Ning’s speech enraptured Mo Wuji. He truly did not know the answer to her question. Furthermore, he was just thinking about how the 100,000 year old pine pulse was a mere Tier 4 spiritual herb, what made the Flower of the True Gods so amazing?
Pill Master Ming Ning continued, "This is because the Flower of the True Gods can only be used when it reaches 100,000 years old; a 99,999 year old Flower of the True Gods is completely useless, it’s only as good as wild grass."
Mo Wuji finally understood; in all the spiritual herbs he had interacted with, the age didn’t affect whether the herb could be used or not. It only affected the grade of herb and the quality of its medicinal properties. However, this Flower of the True Gods was truly unique; if it was below 100,000 years old, it would be as effective as any ordinary flower. It’s no wonder why Pill Master Ming Ning claimed that the Flower of the True Gods had the longest maturation period, it’s also no wonder why the flower was so valuable. It simply could not be grown. After all, who would be able to live for 100,000 years? If a pig could live that long, then you could call it a true god too.
"At the same time, there's a characteristic of the Flower of the True Gods which many people do not know. Just like cultivators’ spiritual roots, every single flower has its own elemental affinity, albeit the five elements, or the unique elements - Wind, Ice and Lightning. So for a cultivator at the Great Circle of the Nihility God Stage who wishes to ascend into the True God Stage, he can't casually pick a random Flower of the True Gods. He needs to obtain a flower which matches his own spiritual roots’ elemental affinity, then would he have the opportunity to ascend…"
Pill Master Ming Ning’s speech was no longer confined to the topics of the competition, as she now extended to sharing this cultivation knowledge.
As everyone was engrossed with her words, Pill Master Ming Ning's tone suddenly changed, and she continued in a higher volume, "Today, our second round is to grow a Flower of the True Gods…"
Astonished gasps could be heard; even Mo Wuji inhaled coldly.
Grow a Flower of the True Gods? 100,000 years? Was Pill Master Ming Ning crazy? Even if she wasn't looking for a fully matured flower, growing a flower is not something that can be done within one or two days ah...
Pill Master Ming Ning used her hands to calm the rousing crowd, "Everyone, calm down. The Flower of the True Gods may require 100,000 years to mature, but it only needs a short time to germinate. Under a suitable condition, a Flower of the True God can sprout and flower in a single day. If we complement this with rich spiritual energy and human interference, the time required would be much shorter…"
Hearing this, the crowd came to understand the situation. So it's only a case which required one to two days, this was something acceptable. After all, cultivators would also take a few days every time they close their doors to cultivate.
"During the first journey into the Five Elements Desolate Domain, someone found a batch of seeds of the Flower of the True Gods, which numbers in the hundreds. There are all the various affinities of seeds here. Each pill refiner will obtain a Flower of the True Gods seed, as well as a compatible elemental spirit stone and ten Xuan grade spirit stones. May all pill refiners pick the seeds and spirit stones you need and wait for the round to begin."
Mo Wuji was not a total stranger to the idea of elemental spirit stones and Xuan grade spirit stones. Spirit stones can be classified as elemental and non-elemental spirit stones. Most of the time, people use non-elemental spirit stones on cultivation and trade. Elemental spirit stones can take the affinity of the five elements - Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth - or the unique elements - Wind, Ice and Lightning. Their value far exceed the non-elemental ones.
Mo Wuji had also heard about the grading of spirit stones. The grades were: Huang, Xuan, Earth and Heaven. Some people would call Huang grade spirit stones as low grade spirit stones, and Xuan grade ones as intermediate grade spirit stones.
Usually, the spirit stones used in transaction, unless specified, were non-elemental spirit stones.
As Pill Master Ming Ning finished, ten service disciples carrying wooden trays walked down from the round altar.
A service disciple brought a wooden tray in front Mo Wuji. Mo Wuji saw all kinds of crystal clear seeds, each seed was about the size of a broad bean. At the same time, he also saw energy rich spirit stones.
When choosing a Flower of the True God seed, naturally, one must pick a seed with the same elemental affinity in order to speed up its growth. However, Mo Wuji was clear about one thing, he did not even have spiritual roots.
If he didn't have spiritual roots, how would he choose a seed?
"Sir pill refiner, please choose a seed…" Seeing Mo Wuji stand unmoving, the service disciple got anxious and interjected Mo Wuji's thoughts.
"Sure, sure…" Mo Wuji forced himself to randomly pick a seed followed by ten Xuan grade spirit stones.
This was the first time Mo Wuji saw Xuan grade spirit stones. Previously, he had only used low grade spirit stones, AKA Huang grade spirit stones. As he held the Xuan grade spirit stones in his hand, he could truly feel the spiritual energy density and purity. A low grade spirit stone truly could not compare to it.
"Sir pill refiner, please pick an elemental spirit stone as well," the service disciple reminded.
Mo Wuji's gaze landed on the elemental spirit stones by the side; their colors were different from the usual white non-elemental spirit stones. There were all kinds of different colors; Fire affinity stones were red, wood affinity stones were green…
Just as Mo Wuji was wondering about the elemental affinity of the seed he picked, his eyes landed on a blue spirit stone. Within the spirit stone, there was even flashes of lightning.
That's a lightning spirit stone? Mo Wuji's heart suddenly trembled. He immediately placed the seed he picked back into the wooden tray as he laughed to the service disciple, "I picked the wrong one."
Without waiting for the service disciple’s reaction, he immediately picked a seed which also contained traces of lightning. The Flower of the True Gods seeds were truly easy to identify, and the lightning affinity seed looked especially unique.
After picking the seed up, Mo Wuji hurried to pick the lightning spirit stone before saying, "Many thanks, I have already chosen carefully."
The service disciple looked at Mo Wuji speechlessly before moving on to the next pill refiner. In his wooden tray, there was only this one lightning spirit stone, and he was sure that no one would actually pick it. To think that someone would actually choose it. Did this fella actually want to fail? Even a service disciple life himself knew that the difficulty in growing Flowers of the True Gods with unique elemental affinity was more than several times higher than the usual five elements.
Mo Wuji suspected his own senses as he felt Pill Master Ming Ning looking at him again. But when he turned towards her, it seemed like that wasn't the case. It didn't matter whether Pill Master Ming Ning was paying attention to him, Mo Wuji could not care that much.
Mo Wuji never had spiritual roots, but he had been using lightning to open his meridians for a long time, and his spiritual energy actually contained traces of lightning within. Perhaps it was due to this small possibility that Mo Wuji chose the lightning affinity seed and spirit stone.
After another half an hour, almost all the competitors had received their seeds. This was when Ming Ning continued, "All the pill refiners have picked their seeds, the round will now begin. The time given is 20 hours, and the round will also be graded upon 100. After this round, the scores from both the first and second round will be added, and the bottom 150 with the lowest scores will be eliminated."
Following Pill Master Ming Ning's announcement, almost all the pill refiners started arranging the soil within the medicine bed. At this moment, Mo Wuji finally understood the purpose of the medicine bed: it was actually to plant the seeds.
The medicine bed was a square with sides of 1 meter. By the side, there was even a bucket of clear water.
Even though Mo Wuji was a Tier 3 Mortal Pill Refiner, he had never grown spiritual herbs before. The only plants he grew were his medicinal herbs back on Earth. To think that the first spiritual herb he would grow would actually be the Flower of the True Gods. This truly left him speechless.
Mo Wuji glanced at his surroundings; some pill refiners crushed the spirit stones before infusing them into the soil. Thereafter, they planted the seed and started to water it.
There were also refiners who placed the spirit stones in the water before watering the plants. There were even some who simply held both the spirit stones and the seed in direct contact within their hands, as though they were directly passing spiritual energy.
Regardless, these pill refiners’ actions were fluid and honed. Clearly, it wasn't their first times growing a seed.
Mo Wuji hesitated briefly before finally deciding to use his methods back on Earth. He dug a small hole within the soil, placed the seed within it, covered it up, then gave it some water.
Pill Master Ming Ning, who had been concentrating on Mo Wuji, looked at his actions in shock. Ultimately, she could not help but laugh out loud. Was this fella growing the Flower of the True Gods like an ordinary bean sprout?
"Puchi!" Qu Wan’Er, who was always worried about how she was going to face Mo Wuji, could not help but laughed out loud too.
Even though she wasn't familiar with the Pill Dao, and didn't know anything about about growing spiritual herbs, she did know that it definitely wasn't what Mo Wuji was doing. He was simply treating it like a typical bean sprout seed. If he could actually win like this, they might as well get some farmers to compete in this competition.
By her side, the black bearded elder shook his head; he did not know whether this Mo Wuji was still acting or he truly didn't know how to grow spiritual herbs.