Translator: Cinder Translations
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TL Note: Clear Heaven (Translated from Lingtian) is the water-field where Rainbow herb is planted.
On this day,
Guo Tao suddenly knocked on Song Wen's door.
"Junior Brother Ji Yin, the tide of miasma is receding, and we will inventory the Rainbow Grass in Clear Heaven tomorrow."
Hearing this, Song Wen knew that the disguise of Clear Heaven should have been prepared long ago.
He couldn't help feeling a bit at a loss. He didn't know how to handle the upcoming inventory.
If he continued to let the Yan family manipulate him, although he could survive and leave the Yan family for the time being, he would temporarily save his own life.
But if the problem in Clear Heaven couldn't be discovered, once the problem was exposed, he would definitely be implicated, and the sect would certainly investigate his negligence. Facing the punishment of the sect, he might end up in a dilemma.
Just thinking about the terrifying punishments of the Corpse Demon Sect, Song Wen felt a chill.
"Should I defect from the sect?"
Before the problem with Clear Heaven was discovered by the Corpse Demon Sect, fleeing from the sect might be the only option Song Wen could think of, with a slim chance of success.
But could he really escape the endless pursuit of the Corpse Demon Sect?
As Song Wen was lost in thought, he arrived at the door and opened it.
Seeing the smiling Guo Tao, when he noticed Song Wen's uneasy expression, he pretended to show concern.
"Junior Brother Ji Yin, what's wrong? Why do you look so worried?"
Song Wen suddenly realized that he seemed to be overthinking things, and his poorly managed expression had been noticed by Guo Tao.
With mountains and rivers blocking one's way, another village appears after darkness lifts from the flowers.
No matter how bad the situation is, there will always be a way out. Song Wen reminded himself in his heart.
After figuring this out, a smile appeared on Song Wen's face. This time it wasn't fake; he believed that step by careful step, he would find a breakthrough.
"It's nothing. Lately, my cultivation progress hasn't been smooth, so I'm a bit worried."
Song Wen made up a nonsense excuse.
"On the path of cultivation, obstacles are many and patience is key," Guo Tao said.
"Thank you for your guidance, Senior Brother Guo. I understand," Song Wen said.
Guo Tao continued, "Tomorrow, after we complete the inventory of the Rainbow Grass, we can return to the sect."
"Everything will be arranged by Senior Brother Guo."
...
To Song Wen's surprise, Yan Zhengping, as the head of the Yan family, actually participated personally in this inventory.
Under Yan Zhengping's leadership, three Qi Refining stage later cultivators from the Yan family, thirteen mid Qi Refining stage cultivators, along with Song Wen and Guo Tao, a total of nineteen people, boarded a large ship.
This ship seemed to be specially made, and who knows what kind of array was inscribed on it. The ship had a very shallow draft, floating lightly on the water's surface like a weightless leaf, capable of navigating through the swamp.
The poisonous swamp wasn't very deep; in shallow areas, it was only about half a meter deep. Only such a specially made ship could navigate through the swamp. Ordinary ships would risk running aground as soon as they entered the water.
Yan Zhengping flipped his hand, revealing a jade bottle.
"Come, everyone take the Miasma Detoxifying Pill first."
This Miasma Detoxifying Pill was made by the Yan family specifically to resist the toxicity of the miasma, each pill capable of protecting against miasma for about four hours.
"Song Wen took the medicine without hesitation.
In the current situation, the Yan family had no reason to kill him.
Moreover, even if the Yan family wanted to kill him, they wouldn't resort to poison.
He also noticed that among the group of nineteen people, including Yan Zhengping, there were four Qi Refining stage later cultivators who hadn't taken the medicine.
This was because the Yan family practiced a poisonous technique where they would refine various toxins into their bodies during cultivation, giving them much higher resistance to poisons than ordinary people.
These Qi Refining stage later Yan family cultivators clearly had profound cultivation and, due to long-term cultivation in the miasma, could already resist the toxicity of the swamp miasma with just their physical bodies.
The large boat meandered through the swampy forest, and after about half an hour, the boat finally stopped.
Throughout the journey, Song Wen silently recorded the ship's route in his mind.
Fortunately, Chen Yi had provided him with a rough map of the entire swamp in the jade slip, which allowed Song Wen to roughly judge his position.
He initially thought that Clear Heaven should be in the central area of the swamp, but upon his calculations, Clear Heaven was not in the central area but rather about two and a half miles away from the edge.
This area was rich in miasma and spiritual energy, making it extremely suitable for the cultivation of Rainbow Grass.
However, there was no solid land around Clear Heaven, only water, which was unsuitable for human habitation. This was probably why the Yan family didn't establish a residence nearby.
"Dear young friends, ahead is the Rainbow Grass cultivation field in Clear Heaven," Yan Zhengping said to Guo Tao and Song Wen.
Looking ahead, they saw dense trees everywhere, almost obscuring the sky, suddenly opening up.
A dozen miles wide water area unexpectedly had no trees, which was very strange.
Of course, there might have been some trees that were cleared away by the Yan family.
In the central area of the open water area, there were thick grass patches floating on the surface of the water. From afar, it looked like a thick green carpet laid out on the water's surface.
This was a kind of grass called Ghost Spirit Grass that formed these grass patches. Ghost Spirit Grass had extremely long roots that could penetrate up to one meter into the mud below the water surface, while the stem and leaf parts floated on the water surface, forming thick grass patches.
The patches of grass were trimmed by the Yan family into one zhang wide and several zhang long grass patches, with each patch of water grass being one zhang high. Between each patch of water grass, there was a distance of about one zhang.
Looking around, rows of neatly arranged grass patches floated on the water surface, extending as far as the eye could see, quite spectacular.
On the water grass patches, every one to two meters, there was a colorful Rainbow Grass about two chi tall. This was the Rainbow Grass.
Rainbow Grass was like a parasitic spiritual plant that relied on absorbing spiritual energy from Ghost Spirit Grass to survive, quite mystical.
Rainbow Grass of various ages was distributed on the water grass patches, ranging from single-color ones less than ten years old to those with all seven colors and over seventy years old.
In the central area of Clear Heaven, Song Wen also noticed many Rainbow Grass plants with black stripes on the edges of their leaves, which were probably over a hundred years old spiritual medicines.
Yan Zhengping pointed to the grass patches ahead and said proudly, "Guo Tao, Ji Yin, please look. This is the water-based Rainbow Grass cultivation field painstakingly built by countless predecessors of my Yan family, after enduring countless hardships and sacrifices of many predecessors."
"On the left side are these fifty patches of grass, mainly cultivating low-aged spiritual medicines. Although the value of individual spiritual medicines is not high, the advantage lies in their quantity, bringing considerable annual income."
"On the right side are these forty patches of grass, mainly cultivating seventy-year-old spiritual medicines, which can be used to refine profound qi pills."
"The thirty patches of grass in the middle are mainly used to cultivate spiritual medicines over a hundred years old, but cultivating spiritual medicines over a hundred years old is very difficult. Many Rainbow Grass plants wither halfway, resulting in significant losses."
"In addition, the sect regularly harvests some hundred-year-old spiritual medicines each year, so currently there are only 113 hundred-year-old spiritual medicine plants in Clear Heaven."
"The main task for you two in this inventory mission is to inventory the seventy-year-old and hundred-year-old spiritual medicines. As for the spiritual medicines below seventy years old, their quantity is too large to be easily inventoried one by one."
(End of the Chapter)