'Artifact Refining and Alchemy, besides the huge initial investment my uncle mentioned, require guidance from a master teacher. If I try to figure it out myself, I might spend five or six years and still not even be a true apprentice, let alone make a living from it. On the other hand, from what I've seen today, being a Spirit Plant Master has great potential. I'll start with that!'
Because of the Profound Ink Bamboo, the Bai Family placed particular importance on the discipline of spirit planting, and the Clan possessed no fewer than a hundred scrolls on the subject.
For all kinds of Spiritual Bamboo in particular, they had a complete set of cultivation methods and had even documented multiple ways to stimulate the Spiritual Bamboo to induce it to advance in grade.
Once a common Ink Bamboo became a Tier One Low Grade Profound Ink Bamboo, a single complete stalk could be sold for thirty-five Spirit Stones. With over ten years of cultivation, there was a very small chance for the Profound Ink Bamboo to advance in grade again, becoming a Tier One Mid Grade Spirit Plant. That single stalk could then be exchanged for one hundred and fifty Spirit Stones.
The reason was simple: a Tier One Mid Grade Profound Ink Bamboo could already be used for Refining the lowest quality of Flying Swords, so its value naturally skyrocketed.
Even though the resulting Ink Bamboo Swords were considered Low Grade among Tier One Flying Swords and had the disadvantage of being relatively fragile compared to metal flying swords, they were still the Bai Family's best-selling specialty, bar none. Many Bai Family Cultivators even used Ink Bamboo Swords themselves.
After all, even the most common Flying Sword in the shops at the Market established by the Qingfeng Sect sold for around five hundred Spirit Stones.
For the average Loose Cultivator who was lucky enough to make it to the Late-Stage Qi Refining, there were many who couldn't bear to purchase a Flying Sword.
Beyond the Tier One Mid Grade Profound Ink Bamboo, the Spiritual Bamboo had a one-in-ten-million chance of mutating, though this had only happened a few times in the Bai Family's several hundred years of cultivation. Five times, it became the Tier One Top Grade Turtle Shell Bamboo, and twice it became the Tier Two Mid Grade Sacred Sound Bamboo.
Despite so many Bai Family Cultivators planting and nurturing it for generations, and even with a Support Technique like the Wood God Skill, these few instances were the only mutations on record.
The Tier One Top Grade Turtle Shell Bamboo was one thing, but a Tier Two Spirit Plant and a Tier One Spirit Plant were entirely different concepts. Though separated by only a single minor tier, the difference in their value was like that between heaven and earth.
What's more, the Sacred Sound Bamboo was an exceptionally rare type of Spiritual Bamboo that could be used as the main material for Refining either Flying Swords or Spiritual Artifacts.
Of the two mutated Sacred Sound Bamboo stalks that had appeared in the Bai Family's history, one was sold as the final item at an auction in the Market for the sky-high price of four thousand Spirit Stones.
The remaining stalk was treated as a family heirloom by the Bai Family, and was kept safely planted in the central area of the Clan Territory where the Spiritual Qi was densest.
'Two a year... It would take two thousand years to earn four thousand Spirit Stones from my stipend. Hmm, being a Spirit Plant Master seems pretty profitable after all!'
A scroll lay open before Bai Zichen. It was the secret cultivation manual for the Wood God Skill. The original text was only a few hundred words with a few illustrations, but the margins were filled with dense annotations added by later generations—the cultivation insights of Bai Family predecessors who had read this manual. The various tiny notes, adding up to no less than ten thousand words, covered nearly every empty space in the margins.
It was strange, though. The Wood God Skill was such a unique and miraculous Support Technique. Although it provided no benefit to one's Cultivation or Combat prowess, its assistance in the discipline of spirit planting was obvious. Over time, many surrounding Clans grew covetous and used all sorts of means, both open and secret, to try and obtain the secret manual.
As the saying goes, secrets never stay secret for long. From soft methods like marriage alliances to hard methods like kidnapping and assassination, all sorts of tactics were employed, and inevitably, the secret manual for the Wood God Skill was leaked.
But according to rumor, no matter how many people in the Clans that obtained the Wood God Skill tried to cultivate the technique, none of them could figure it out.
They either couldn't grasp the basics at all, or they spent a vast amount of time only to find that the effects of the Wood God Skill were far from what they had imagined, completely failing to replicate the miraculous results it had in the hands of the Bai Family. After much thought, they could only conclude that this unique technique could only be successfully cultivated by members of the Bai Family.
This kind of situation was rare but not unheard of. Rumor had it that there was a type of bloodline magic that could only be cultivated by the descendants of the founder's bloodline.
After this, these Clans began to adopt gentler tactics. They started to see the women of the Bai Family as a hot commodity, flocking to their door to propose marriage, or recruiting Bai Family sons to be live-in sons-in-law.
Since the Wood God Skill was considered an incredible technique in the eyes of all the Cultivation Families, Bai Zichen certainly wasn't going to enter a treasure mountain and return empty-handed. He immediately decided to make this technique the foundation of his path and planned to spend the years before adulthood studying it diligently.
This technique was not graded by tier. According to Bai Jiu'an, even Early-Stage Qi Refining Cultivators could cast it three to five times a day after mastering the basics. The effect depended on the depth of one's Magical Power and their level of mastery over the technique.
Bai Zichen held the thick scroll and studied it for three to five days straight. He went from being completely baffled to slowly gaining a sliver of understanding. Following the explanations and annotations in the manual, he began to get a feel for the circulation of Magical Power. A faint, emerald glimmer flickered at his fingertip, but unfortunately, it vanished in an instant.
'Could it be that I have a talent for cultivating Magic?'
Bai Zichen's spirits soared. If he could master the Wood God Skill within seven days, he would rank among the top three in all of the Bai Family's history, and his chances of cultivating an advanced Spirit Plant in the future would increase dramatically.
Unfortunately, his subsequent progress didn't allow his joy to last for more than a few days. The faint emerald glimmer persisted for over ten days without any change. He just couldn't take that final step to truly master the Wood God Skill, and Bai Zichen's expectations sank lower and lower.
By the twenty-seventh day, he even began to wonder if it was because of his transmigration. Maybe because his soul wasn't a descendant of the Bai Family Ancestor, he was fundamentally unable to learn this Spirit Plant Assistance Technique.
"Brother Chenn, hurry! Something big is happening in the Clan! Stop hiding at home!" a chubby boy yelled at the top of his lungs as he ran up to the house.
"Bai Ying, what's with all the shouting?"
Bai Zichen walked out of the house with a frown. It had been over a month, and he still hadn't mastered the Wood God Skill. He was filled with pent-up frustration and was in no mood to be cheerful. The initial thrill of succeeding at Qi Refining had long since faded.
In his previous life, he thought Cultivation was about things like Sword-Controlling Cyan Nether and plucking stars from the sky, not getting bogged down and vexed by a mere Support Technique.
If he didn't have the soul of an adult living in his body, he would have long since been like the chubby kid, wasting his days away catching fish and chasing dogs. He never would have had the patience to study it so arduously.
This chubby kid, Bai Ying, was about the same age as Bai Zichen. His parents were both Mid-Stage Qi Refining Cultivators, so after his Spiritual Root was detected, he too came to live within the Clan early on.
The large-scale Spirit-Guiding Ceremony to test Mortals for Spiritual Roots hadn't started yet this year, so there weren't many kids of the same age in the Clan. Bai Ying, who loved a lively atmosphere, ran over to Fufeng Ridge every other day and quickly got to know everyone.
"Brother Chenn, this is really, really big this time! Come with me to the main peak to watch the excitement! My dad came back yesterday and said the Clan Leader is going to call a clan-wide assembly in the next two days!"
Chubby's father was in charge of one of the Clan's merchant caravans. He was mainly responsible for the annual procurement of large quantities of mundane goods, as well as trading some of the Bai Family's products with other Cultivation Families. At the same time, he also had to frequently go to the Qingfeng Sect's Market to buy and sell goods. So, it wasn't strange that he was well-connected and could hear important news in advance.
"A clan-wide assembly? Could it be that an Elder is going to try to break through to the Foundation Establishment Stage? Or has the Clan produced another Turtle Shell Bamboo?"
Hearing about a clan-wide assembly, Bai Zichen's expression turned serious. It was normal for Qi Refining Cultivators to enter secluded cultivation for months or even years at a time, so an assembly that required more than eighty percent of the Clan's Cultivators to be present wouldn't happen even once in several years.
In any case, from the predecessors' journals he'd found on the bookshelves, he had read that they were basically only held when a major event occurred that would affect the direction of the Bai Family for decades to come.
The two possibilities he mentioned were both positive, but it was equally possible that the Clan had run into major trouble.
"Neither! My dad said that last month, a few Loose Cultivators discovered an ancient Cave Mansion in the mountains. From the layout of the Arrays, it was left behind by at least a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, and might even be the Cave Mansion of a Golden Core Great Cultivator! Right now, all the Cultivators in Black Mountain County are rushing over there. It's going to be a tremendous opportunity!"
"An ancient Cave Mansion!"
Bai Zichen's eyes lit up. The Bai Family Ancestor had been able to reach Foundation Establishment thanks to the resources left behind by a Loose Cultivator who had passed away several hundred years prior. Stories like this were common in the Black Mountain Range, but they were mostly just rumors. However, for it to reach the point of calling a clan-wide assembly, it was clear the Clan had already verified the truth of the matter.
Cultivation Techniques!
Treasures!
Elixirs!
Every time a similar event occurred, it would throw the entire Black Mountain County into turmoil. Countless Cultivators would fight and kill each other, with only one or two lucky individuals emerging in the end.
What's more, this was a Cave Mansion suspected to belong to a Golden Core Great Cultivator, and it was only a five or six-day journey from the Bai Clan Territory. No matter what the Bai Family thought, it was impossible for them to stay out of it now.