The sect master of the Green Fog Swamp sect was caught off guard by the sudden call to his name, as he was busy scheming and wildly panicking about the supposed poisonous fungi that could very well be decimating his sect while he was here filing a complaint against his cow. The ridiculousness of it all wasn't lost on him as his face reddened slightly in shame.
He quickly cleared his throat, collected his thoughts, and puffed up his gait to try and make himself look regal and authoritative. But it went wrong as he almost slipped on his right foot when he tried to pull off that look. The irony, though, was that in trying to put his best foot forward, he almost lost it.
He swiftly regained his balance and deftly pretended nothing had happened. Yang Qing and the rest all went along with it, as no ripple of emotion could be seen on their faces.
"My name is Cheng Yuan, and I'm the current sect master of the Green Fog Swamp sect. Our sect's foundation has been built on the cultivation of spirit herbs and alchemy. The herbs that we mostly deal in are upper-tier, Earth-rank herbs.
However, we've also had a bit of success, albeit very small, in cultivating a few herbs at the Sky rank, low-tier level, and on rare occasions, middle-tier. This has been beneficial to the sect and its growth. It was also due to this success that we were able to help Wen Chang activate her radiant emerald cow bloodline." Cheng Yuan paused for a moment to calm himself. Blood would fill his throat whenever he thought of the ungrateful emerald-leaf cow.
Though what drove him even madder was that some of the sect elders had even turned to support the cow, and worse, the cow—who just years ago he would have been debating which 1,000-year-old wine and herbs to pair her with—almost beat him black and blue, so much so that he had to use sect treasures just to fight her to a draw. A couple of Earth-rank treasures ended up being destroyed by her hooves.
In the Blue Origin planet, spiritual metals and herbs were classified in the same order.
Their rank in ascending order was: mortal rank, earth rank, sky rank, monarch rank, ascendant rank, saint rank, and lastly the origin rank.
Origin-rank treasures were virtually nonexistent around the planet. The only proof of their existence was old scrolls, ancient ruins of a bygone era, some mystical realms, and exaggerated tales and rumors shared amongst drunks. Origin-rank treasures just like their name, were rumored to have been formed at the same time as the planet was formed, and as such were believed to contain monstrous abilities and likely to be as timeless as the earth itself.
If it did exist, leveraging its abilities, a rank 5 organization had a real shot of becoming a Holy Land.
In terms of comparison to cultivators: a mortal rank treasure or equipment was equivalent to the power display of a Qi refinement cultivator, while Earth rank was equivalent to a foundation establishment cultivator, Sky rank to a core formation expert, and so on till the saint grade that was equivalent to a soul formation expert. As for the origin, since it has never been sighted, there was no reference as to its ability other than the assumption it was beyond the bounds of what a saint-grade treasure could do.
The sect master of the Green Fog Swamp sect had lost over a dozen Earth-rank weapons in his fight against the emerald leaf cow. For a sect of their rank to lose that much was a substantial hit to their foundations, and it would take a while to recover. The situation was further exacerbated by Wen Chang reneging on her end of the bargain.
Without her emerald milk to offset the loss, they would be living in the red for quite a long time. Cheng Yuan would have to make cuts again, which would stagnate the development of the sect. His eyes flashed with unconcealed anger every time his gaze fell on Wen Chang. Her selfishness and greed had undone everything he had been striving for.
Once Cheng Yuan had his emotions in check, he continued, "You see, Judge, seventy years ago when the monstrosity you see before you was just a young calf, we started feeding it— ahem, I mean her," Cheng Yuan paused, to sardonically correct himself. His cynic remark went unnoticed by the target who was excitedly preoccupied by the transmission ball between her hooves
"We fed her leaves from a young radiant twig Earthwood. The leaves had an astronomical effect as they managed to awaken faint, THIN traces of her radiant emerald cow bloodline." Cheng Yuan said, unwilling to give up on his taunts, which yet again went ignored.
"The leaves and other Earth-rank herbs we added to her daily diet helped her awaken more of her bloodline, and we also assisted her in parts of her cultivation and meditation techniques. We even went as far as seeking guidance from other local rank-four beast-tamer sects in the area to help us formulate a plan for her growth.
The stronger she grew, the more it became apparent we were beyond our depths in her care and growth. We know plants, what to do, what not to do, what to look out for, but animals.. it's something else. There's never a day that has gone by without me wishing she was just a plant. Things would have been much easier."
Sect master Cheng Yuan got lost in his thoughts, going off on a tangent, raving endlessly about the pros of having an awakened plant as opposed to an animal. The cost, dignity, and ambiance. He even went down into his ancestry, speculating that one of his ancestors may have been a spiritual plant due to his deep sense of affinity to plants.
Yi Jie had to interrupt him to tear him away from his impassioned speech. It seemed he had been giving the whole plant thing a great deal of thought. Even Wen Chang, the emerald leaf cow, was surprised by the sect master's speech.
"I didn't know he loved plants this much. Explains the veiled hatred I always detect in his eyes every time they bring those second-rate herbs to me. Turns out I was eating his kin. I'll make sure to apologize later." The emerald leaf cow made a silent mental note to herself as she looked at sect master Cheng Yuan with unconcealed pity in her eyes. This resulted in a confused look from Cheng Yuan.
"Huh, is that pity in her eyes? Hmmph, she must think she's so powerful just because she got a few hooves in during our fight. If those meddling elders hadn't held me back, does she think it would've ended in a draw?" Cheng Yuan gritted his teeth in silent anger before forcing himself to refocus on the matter at hand.
"Once she broke through to the foundation stage, we formed an agreement with her. She'd supply us with emerald milk, and we'd continue providing her with the resources needed for her cultivation. It was mutually beneficial—and honestly, even more favorable for her, considering how costly her upkeep was.
Judge, regular cows eat a lot, but imagine the costs of a spiritual cow that's cultivating. It was astronomical. We had to sell off a few high-grade Earth-rank herbs, spend countless days and nights concocting potions, and even take loans from merchant organizations just to keep the sect running.
We stopped activating some of our formation arrays to cut costs, and even then, part of her milk supply had to go directly toward paying off our debts. And still, we were barely hanging on.
"The cost of her upkeep only kept climbing as she grew stronger. But we endured it, believing that once she broke through to the core formation realm, the sect would finally see a return on our efforts.
With her milk, we'd be able to recoup all we'd invested—and then some. Milk from a core emerald leaf cow is a prized ingredient for alchemists everywhere. Beyond its unique ability to harmonize ingredients with opposing properties, it can purify meridians and stabilize foundations for alchemists plagued by pill poison—a common hazard of their trade.
This could have opened doors for us within the alchemy community, securing connections and resources, including rare herbs for her cultivation. She was the ultimate cash cow, set to propel both herself and the sect to new heights." Cheng Yuan's voice softened, his tone briefly overcome with agitation as he looked down, almost wistful.
"For a while, I thought she wanted this too," he murmured, a hint of dejection darkening his face before his expression hardened once more with simmering anger.
"But all that changed the moment she broke through. She became temperamental, either from hubris or something else... The amount of milk we'd agreed upon was suddenly reduced by two-thirds. She claimed her qi channels were blocked—an excuse she didn't think through, considering we monitored her condition closely. As far as milk production goes, qi channels aren't even a factor.
Then she started stealing herbs from the sect, going as far as bribing some of the elders to help her. The final straw came when she asked to eat the leaves of the Tupelo tree. That tree is the heart of our sect's ancestry, our heritage, our saving grace." Cheng Yuan's voice dropped, soft but smoldering with restrained fury, sharper and deeper than before.
"The reason the sect exists is because the Tupelo tree created a safe sanctuary for us in an environment where we would have had no chance of surviving a week, let alone the nine thousand years we have been there. I vehemently refused her utterly outrageous and disrespectful request.
Words were exchanged, things got heated and that's when the fight broke out. A part of the sect was left in shambles because of it. Now, the sect is nearly in ruins because of her. Some of our possessions may even get repossessed by those merchants because of the millions we owe in medium-grade spirit stones. All BECAUSE THIS COW COULDN'T KEEP HER WORD AND GOT GREEDY!!!!" Cheng Yuan's voice grew louder, his tone growing wilder toward the end. The veins in his forehead stood out, and his bloodshot eyes narrowed as he pointed toward the emerald leaf cow, his hand trembling with anger.