The morning sun was just rising, and a gentle spring breeze blew, causing more peach blossoms to burst into bloom on Qingtao Mountain.
Lin Shiming awoke from his cultivation, feeling spirited and exhaustion gone.
The persistent power of the Qing Mu Art had an advantage in terms of adjusting and nourishing the body.
With abundant energy, Lin Shiming also practiced the spells he had mastered over the years, such as the Wood Vine Technique, Wood Spear Technique, and Wood Shield Technique.
Of course, he also knew the Fireball Technique and Golden Sword Technique, but since he cultivated Wood Attribute Techniques, these spells were significantly less powerful, so Lin Shiming preferred to have a few extra fire and metal Spirit Talismans.
After practicing his spells, he then released the Golden Winged Mantis, feeding it a large chunk of spirit monkey meat and two bowls of Spirit Water.
"Eh, Shiming, this Spirit Insect of yours is quite unusual, and it's rather pretty too!" Lin Shiqi had also emerged from her room at this time and kept observing the Golden Winged Mantis.
As far as she knew, most mantises were green in color, and even the ones with gold only had a thin layer.
When Lin Shiming bought this mantis egg, many in the Lin Family knew about it, but they all thought it was a green-winged mantis and advised him accordingly.
"It really can eat a lot; it's nearly eaten me out of house and home," Lin Shiming responded with a slight smile and a bit of a complaint.
"Since it can eat so much, why don't you sell it to me? I promise to give you a fair price!" After circling around and inspecting the Golden Winged Mantis thoroughly, Lin Shiqi's eyes clearly showed her fondness for it.
If not for the Golden Winged Mantis waving its golden scythe-like legs and making angry chittering sounds, Lin Shiqi probably would have touched it right then.
"Ahem!" Lin Shiming couldn't help but cough a few times. He really wanted to tell his third sister she couldn't afford it, but after thinking about it, he decided to change the subject.
"Third sister, we should transplant the Spirit Peach Tree back as soon as possible so it can absorb more spiritual energy from the Spirit Vein and bear more Spirit Peaches!"
"Alright! If you ever change your mind, you can always find me!" Lin Shiqi replied, clearly reluctant to drop the topic.
The distance from Qingtao Mountain to Da Niu's home wasn't far, and in less than half an hour using Flying Swords, they arrived at their destination.
The Spirit Peach Tree was the same as it had been two days ago, its branches dotted with pink buds, none of them blooming or withering.
"We're really lucky we came early. With the scarcity of spiritual energy here, blooming once and bearing fruit might be its limit, and at most, it could only produce around twenty spirit peaches!" Lin Shiqi walked under the peach tree, expressing her relief.
In that moment, she was undeniably confident. As a rare Spirit Plant Master with innate talent in the Lin Family, this was her pride.
As she finished speaking, she pinched a magic formula and pushed her palm out slightly with practiced ease. Wood Attribute spiritual energy surged, and a dazzling green light flowed into the peach tree.
"Shiming, for us cultivators of Wood Attribute Techniques, infusing some pure Wood Attribute spiritual energy before transplanting helps reduce the damage caused by the loss of spiritual energy during transplantation. Don't be like some Loose Cultivators, who rely on brute force and end up damaging many spirit plants!" Lin Shiqi said with a hint of pity.
Lin Shiming agreed wholeheartedly, as often in the markets, one would see spiritual medicines whose value had plummeted. Vendors always thought that merchants were pressing down prices and exploiting Loose Cultivators.
Little did they know the spiritual medicine was irreversibly damaged by the cultivators themselves.
After the infusion of spiritual energy, whether it was an illusion or not, Lin Shiming felt that the peach blossoms on the Spirit Peach Tree shivered slightly, as if they were about to bloom at any moment.
"With the infusion of spiritual energy complete, the next step is to ensure the roots are not damaged," Lin Shiqi said as she twirled her hand and took out a small Jade Bottle from her Storage Ring.
Lin Shiming was familiar with the liquid inside; it was the Nurturing Spirit Liquid that worked miracles like the Nurturing Spirit Formation, the former promoting the nurturing of Spirit Beasts, and the latter, the growth of Spirit Plants.
After unsealing the bottle, Lin Shiqi poured the Nurturing Spirit Liquid around the base of the Spirit Peach Tree, forming a ring of liquid spanning four to five meters.
Despite the small size of the Jade Bottle in Lin Shiqi's hand, it was an Inferior Grade Magic Artifact capable of holding several dozen pounds of liquid.
"All set, Shiming. Now you just need to dig it out and seal it in a Jade Box!" Lin Shiqi, not forgetting her promise to teach Lin Shiming, explained the process to him word by word and demonstrated each step.
And just then, Lin Shiming suddenly saw another prompt before his eyes!
"Please follow the footsteps of the Spirit Monkey, and you will find the tribe of the Spirit Monkeys!" Lin Shiming was somewhat surprised, as the system prompt left him baffled.
So much so that he became distracted, instantly encountering Lin Shiqi's disdain.
"Little Seven! If this is your attitude toward learning, you might as well not study Spirit Plant Techniques. Spirit cultivation may not be profound knowledge, but it requires meticulousness, seriousness, and dedication!"
"Of course, if you're willing to hand over that little mantis to me, I can overlook your bad habit!"
Lin Shiming simply rolled his eyes at him.
Then, without paying any further attention to Lin Shiqi, he released his divine sense as far as possible, covering the dense forest on top of the mound.
As a Qi Cultivation fifth-layer cultivator, Lin Shiming's divine sense could extend to a diameter of one hundred meters. Of course, if focused in one direction, it could reach about two hundred meters but at the expense of accelerating divine sense consumption several times over.
Normally, Lin Shiming would not do such a thing, but the system prompt made it clear to him that there was a yellow-furred monster monkey nearby, likely from the same tribe as the one he had encountered before.
Moreover, the system's prompt reward also puzzled Lin Shiming.
When the divine sense extended over two hundred meters, it already covered the depths of the forest on the hill.
Atop a thick and towering pine tree, Lin Shiming once again spotted a monster monkey at a glance.
It was the familiar Ge You layback posture, still eating some unknown fruit, scratching its head from time to time and then peeling the tree bark, its green eyes rolling around, peering in Lin Shiming's direction.
More accurately, it was staring at the Spirit Peach Tree behind Lin Shiming!
"Is this the same yellow-furred monster monkey you killed last time?" Lin Shiqi also realized and sent her divine sense over.
Though as a Qi Cultivation fourth-layer cultivator it was quite strenuous for her, causing large beads of sweat to form on her forehead, she still spotted the monkey.
"Big Sister, you go ahead and take the Spirit Tree back to Qingtao Mountain!" Lin Shiming suggested.
"What about you?" Lin Shiqi immediately countered.
Without waiting for Lin Shiming to respond, she spoke again, "You haven't really fought one before, let's go together."
"The Spirit Tree is important, and I also have the Spirit Talisman from Great Grandfather!" Lin Shiming shook his head, his intention was to track, not to hunt alone.
Moreover, in the jungle, the yellow-furred monster monkey was as comfortable as fish in water, and Lin Shiming was not necessarily its match.
"Fine, but be careful," Lin Shiqi added, then retracted her divine sense and began transplanting the Spirit Peach Tree.
She released a snow-white mid-grade magic artifact longsword.
Although this sword, like Lin Shiming's, was also a mid-grade magic artifact, its power and emanating sword light were much weaker than Lin Shiming's.
As Lin Shiqi chanted and formed seals, the snow-white longsword transformed into a giant sword and chopped down fiercely, slicing along the circle previously outlined with Nurturing Spirit Liquid, uprooting the entire tree, soil and all.
As the jade box in her hands opened, the Spirit Peach Tree turned into a stream of light and fell into the jade box.
"Roar roar!" Just as Lin Shiqi put away the peach tree, the distant monster monkey clearly became agitated.
It screamed, leapt down from the pine tree, and ran towards Lin Shiming and the others, clutching a thick, hard tree branch it had snapped off at random.
The monster monkey was incredibly fast, reaching Lin Shiming in the blink of an eye.