After discovering that she could freely control her eye and hair color, Tang Muxi let out a deep sigh of relief. She no longer resisted and even occasionally changed colors on purpose, standing in front of the mirror to admire herself, leaving Jiang Yin speechless.
The spiritual rain that day almost covered the entire mountaintop. Although not much news leaked out, the spiritual plants and trees on the mountaintop became increasingly lush. It was clear that autumn had just passed, with leaves turning yellow and falling, yet after the cleansing of the spiritual rain, it was as if time had reversed, and new leaves sprouted on every tree.
But the most significant change was on Floating Immortal Island.
Floating Immortal Island was Tang Muxi’s medicinal garden, not only storing a hundred acres of Hunyuan Purple Soil but also cultivating many precious spiritual plants. Among them, the Purple Cloud Vine Fruit and Hunyuan Tree were both young seedlings, which should have taken a long time to thrive, with a very low survival rate. Unexpectedly, after being bathed in a spiritual rain, all these seedlings survived.
The mother tree of the Purple Cloud Vine Fruit was short, only slightly taller than a decorative potted plant. When fully grown, its branches and leaves were soft like willows, producing purple vine fruits every year. However, the fruits were often unripe and required a long time to mature.
The Purple Cloud Vine Fruit was a low-grade earth-level fruit that could enhance comprehension and accelerate cultivation. Eating the fruit alone would not produce side effects, but many cultivators, driven by greed, mixed it with other spiritual plants to refine it into Tianyan Pills. The effects were greatly enhanced, even allowing any late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator to reach the Transformation stage, but the corresponding cost was also extremely high.
Although Tang Muxi had Hunyuan Purple Soil to accelerate the growth of spiritual plants, the Purple Cloud Vine Fruit was still an earth-level fruit with a very low survival rate, so she didn’t have high hopes. Thus, she planted an entire bag of seedlings, thinking that how many would survive depended on fate.
Unexpectedly, during a breakthrough, a spiritual rain fell, and over a hundred mother trees of the Purple Cloud Vine Fruit all survived, with nearly half growing trunks as wide as three fingers! It was worth noting that the mother trees were less than a foot tall, which meant they grew one-fifth of their height overnight.
The Hunyuan Tree, being a heavenly-grade plant, was a full tier above the Purple Cloud Vine Fruit. Although it did not respond as dramatically to the spiritual rain, it still sprouted delicate seedlings.
With the seeds returned by her master, she planted a total of eight. Originally, the survival probability was one in a million, but now all of them had sprouted. Given time, her medicinal garden would have a total of eight Hunyuan Trees, which was even more than what the entire cultivation world possessed.
Tang Muxi was extremely excited.
She could hardly imagine such immense wealth falling from the sky, leaving her dazzled and disoriented. Every night as she slept, her dreams were filled with countless spiritual fruits and purple crystals swirling around her.
The first thing she did upon waking up was to rush to Floating Immortal Island, fearing that something might go wrong with the seedlings.
Jiang Yin was deeply helpless about this. Seeing her almost falling into a money pit, he could only help her reinforce the formation again.
Almost every part of Floating Immortal Island thrived with the arrival of the spiritual rain, except for the desolate island.
The desolate island was used to cultivate the drought demon and was intentionally transformed into a place filled with malevolent energy. It was a place of extreme yin and evil, combining Soul Jade Marrow and corpses.
That day, Jiang Yin was in such a hurry that he forgot to seal off the desolate island, resulting in the spiritual rain falling there.
Compared to the first time, this spiritual rain was even more powerful, and in just a few moments, it nearly washed away all the malevolent energy within the desolate island. If Jiang Yin hadn’t controlled it in time, even the fierce souls trapped within the demonic cultivators would have been exorcised.
A calamity from the heavens, nothing more.
Months of hard work turned to nothing. In the future, not only would nurturing the drought demon be difficult, but even cultivating with the malevolent energy would be a challenge.
Jiang Yin was filled with regret.
Fortunately, there was some good news: the Soul Jade Marrow successfully advanced to the heavenly grade with the help of the spiritual rain and produced a considerable amount of soul jade, successfully compensating for the lost assets.
However, Jiang Yin was still not satisfied; the wasted time had to be accounted for.
“You tell me, Senior Sister, how should I punish you?” After analyzing the losses on the desolate island one by one, Jiang Yin spoke casually.
The advancement of the Soul Jade Marrow was deliberately kept from her.
Tang Muxi turned pale at the words, trembling and lowering her head, not daring to make a sound.
“Speaking of which, last time we agreed to punish you, but I haven’t had the time. Why not settle old and new accounts together? And my ten magic pills, the losses at Tianji Gate, which you promised to repay, have gone unaddressed.”
Jiang Yin slightly curled her lips, counting on her fingers one by one.
Tang Muxi panicked: “Last time, last time’s account was offset, wasn’t it!” Jiang Yin was deceiving her, and she remembered it clearly.
“Who said offset? Senior Sister didn’t agree.” Jiang Yin smiled, “Besides, while it was wrong for me to deceive you last time, you already made me lose face in front of Bai Ling and humiliated Senior Sister. Doesn’t that count as punishing Senior Sister?”
Tang Muxi was about to retort but then heard the big boss say, “If that doesn’t count, then regarding the humiliation of Senior Sister, shouldn’t I… seek justice?” This time, Tang Muxi was completely at a loss for words, swallowing hard, feeling trapped.
In any case, no matter how she argued, she couldn’t win against the big boss, so it was better to accept it honestly. Tang Muxi recalled the last time the big boss asked her for a storage ring, calculated her current assets, and reluctantly said, “How about I compensate Senior Sister with four Hunyuan Trees?” There were only eight in total, and just like that, she was giving away half. Tang Muxi felt a pang of heartache, as if a piece of her flesh had been cut away.
The Celestial-level Spirit Trees were priceless treasures. Although they were not yet mature, growing in Hunyuan Purple Soil meant maturity was just a matter of time. No matter how she calculated, it felt like a loss.
Jiang Yin was somewhat surprised, not expecting her to be willing to give away half. However, having spent years in high positions, she was naturally cunning. Seeing Tang Muxi compromise so easily, Jiang Yin knew she could extort more. “Just Hunyuan Trees?” She remembered that there were many treasures in the medicinal garden.
Now, Tang Muxi’s little treasury was far more valuable than her meager soul jade. The act of robbing the rich to help the poor couldn’t be called robbery; they were all Senior Sisters, after all.
Tang Muxi, feeling anxious as Jiang Yin continued to ask for more, exclaimed, “Those are all Celestial-level!” Aside from them, there were hardly any in the entire cultivation world! Jiang Yin remained silent, leisurely pouring herself a cup of tea, blowing on the steam, and sipping it delicately.
After a moment of silent standoff, Tang Muxi finally conceded, her face full of heartache: “Then, how about I add some Purple Cloud Vine Fruits?”
“Some?” Jiang Yin asked.
“Twenty plants.” Tang Muxi felt like her heart was bleeding.
“Xuan-level spirit plants also require a third.”
Tang Muxi choked, tears welling up as she replied, “Okay.” Her voice trembled as she spoke. The little money she had just received was halved by the big boss’s words.
Just a few days ago, she had been so joyful, and now she felt nothing but regret. If she had known better than to be so complacent, perhaps she wouldn’t have caught the big boss’s attention.
Jiang Yin was very satisfied and even poured her a cup of tea: “From now on, I’ll need you to help take care of the spirit trees for Senior Sister.”
Not only was she asking for money, but she also wanted help looking after them, which felt like a stab to the heart. Tang Muxi felt frustrated; they weren’t even her own children, yet she had to take care of them.
This was too much! Absolutely excessive! This grudge would not go unpunished! Tang Muxi silently noted it down in her little notebook.
Seeing her full of resentment, Jiang Yin couldn’t help but chuckle. But then she suddenly recalled the brief moment of stillness from yesterday, and her smile lost some of its warmth.
“Junior Sister, don’t you dare default on your debt.”
Having extorted the wealthy junior sister, Jiang Yin felt quite satisfied and began to plan how to extort Wen Mingyu next. Although the junior sister had money, most of those spirit trees were still immature and would take some time before they could be used. Wen Mingyu was different; as the daughter of the Western Demon King, the future Demon King, and the owner of the widely spread Treasure Pavilion, her wealth was incomparable to the junior sister’s spirit trees.
Coincidentally, the deserted island was about to be redecorated again. Relying solely on blood and souls to cultivate the drought demon was far too slow; it would be better to directly ask for a magic vein to place there.
The drought demon was extremely yin, and just having a magic vein wasn’t enough; it would be best to also get some Yellow Spring Water. This would not only speed up the process but also facilitate her own cultivation in the future.
With so many soul jades in hand, she could afford to part with some to exchange for things beneficial to herself.
After that day, Tang Muxi suffered a significant loss of assets. Every day, when she thought about how nearly half of the spirit plants in the medicinal garden no longer belonged to her, her enthusiasm for visiting the garden diminished greatly.
She no longer needed to run to the Sky Island every day, so she began to immerse herself in cultivation and study once again.
After realizing her own principles not long ago, Tang Muxi had yet to attempt refining Earth-level Dan patterns. She spent her days in the alchemy room, but her supply of Earth-level spiritual plants was limited. She could only take out one Hunyuan Spirit Fruit, along with some spiritual spring water and a piece of the root of the Qinglong Ginseng, as well as some precious spiritual plants she had obtained from Senior Sister, to concoct the Immortal Yuan Dan.
The Immortal Yuan Dan was a high-quality Earth-level pill, and because its main ingredient was the Hunyuan Spirit Fruit, it was extremely precious, primarily used to extend one’s lifespan. In the cultivation world, a Nascent Soul already had a lifespan of five hundred years, and upon reaching the Transformation stage, it increased to a thousand years. However, it seemed that a thousand years was the limit; no matter how one broke through afterward, their lifespan would not increase significantly.
Even upon reaching the Great Ascension stage and becoming the pinnacle of a realm, one would only have a lifespan of one thousand five hundred years. Even the long-lived demon races would not exceed two thousand years. In this world, only a few could be called “coexisting with the heavens,” such as the divine beasts like dragons and phoenixes.
Unfortunately, true dragons and phoenixes had not appeared in the cultivation world for a long time; most were merely pseudo-dragons and pseudo-phoenixes with divine beast bloodlines, such as the Jiao Dragon, Golden Dragon, and Qing Luan. The Wen Mingyu clan was of the Qing Luan, a demon race that revered bloodlines and divided social classes. Thus, the Qing Luan with phoenix blood could rule over the ancient domain for generations but could not be called an emperor.
The higher one’s cultivation, the harder it was to break through. On one hand, it was due to the profound and mysterious talent for understanding the Dao, and on the other hand, it was due to the fleeting lifespan. In such circumstances, pills and spiritual plants that could extend lifespan were particularly precious.
The Immortal Yuan Dan could extend one’s life by a hundred years, but anyone could only consume it once; the second time would not be effective. For cultivators, a hundred years was not considered long; it could be said to pass in the blink of an eye, but the Immortal Yuan Dan had no side effects.
If one could spend money to buy life, no one in the world would refuse. An Earth-level high-quality pill was just a step away from a Heaven-level one. This step represented the difference between heaven and earth.
For her first attempt at refining an Earth-level pill, she should not have chosen such a difficult one as the Immortal Yuan Dan. She should have started with low-quality Earth-level pills and gradually worked her way up; even the proudest genius would take it step by step.
But Tang Muxi’s principles were those of a monarch. In her eyes, there was no difference between low-quality and high-quality Earth-level pills; one was simply of lower status, while the other held power and authority. No matter how noble it was, it was ultimately a subject that should serve her.
