Aksai opened his eyes, blinking as he adjusted to the light.
Immediately, he began to sense something new, something he hadn’t experienced before. It was hard to describe, but thankfully, his neural link fabric provided clarity.
[Unknown energy is being poured into the host’s soul.]
[Unit of measure undefined.]
[Unknown energy harvested per plant per hour: 0.00001.]
The neural link fabric displayed a series of spectral prompts that Aksai had never seen before. It had adapted to the knowledge shared by Yelia and found an algorithm to quantify the mysterious energy Aksai was now harvesting from the plants.
With approximately 10,000 plants inside the Everwood Farm, Aksai was receiving 0.00001 units of this unknown energy from each plant per hour. According to the neural link fabric, this meant he could harvest 1 unit of unknown energy per hour cumulatively.
Of course, Aksai knew he couldn’t harvest this energy around the clock. The plants had sleep cycles, during which they wouldn’t contribute energy. Factoring this in, he estimated he could gather about 10 units of unknown energy per day from the plants inside the Everwood Farm.
10,000 (plants) x 10 (active hours) x 0.00001 = 1.
Aksai immediately received a spectral prompt showing him the total amount of unknown energy he had accumulated so far.
“[Cumulative total energy: 0.0004.]”
The neural link fabric quickly deduced that energy gain wasn’t uniform throughout each hour, but the variation was minimal.
“What is this energy?” Aksai murmured as he felt the mysterious force accumulating within his soul. He considered checking his Mind Palace for any abnormalities but decided to hold off and hear Yelia’s explanation first.
“Origin Energy,” Yelia responded.
“My lord, this Origin Energy is incredibly special. It’s the most fundamental form of energy that supports the creation of the boundless cosmos. From this energy, worlds are born—stars, planes, planets.
Since it’s the origin of everything in existence, it’s called Origin Energy. It’s extremely precious. Only beings that are part of the Creation can stir this energy.
It will not only help increase your cultivation base quickly but also enhance your chances of successful breakthroughs into the higher Spirit realms.
There are other ways to use Origin Energy as well, but I’ll explain those another time,” Yelia said, her tone filled with reverence for the energy’s potential.
Yelia then started to tell Aksai about how the Origin Energy could be harvested. She told him that the best way to harvest the Origin Energy with maximum efficiency was to stir the emotions of the subjects under one’s sphere of influence.
For example, the corrupted druid captured half of the population inside the Devil’s Den and turned them into tree devils. He then made them feel despair with his acts, enabling him to harvest the negative emotions in abundance.
Aksai needed to be actively seeking to stir such emotions within the consciousness of his subjects. He needed to make the plants feel a variety of emotions by cultivating them the right way.
Plants having emotions might sound strange at first. However, Aksai knew that even in his previous world it was proven that the plants had emotions. It was just that they didn’t have the active outlets to express them. At least not most of them. Furthermore, the range of emotions the plants felt was different from the range of emotions of other sentient beings.
According to Yelia’s explanation, humanoid beings were the best batteries for intent-based cultivation techniques. This was because they had a higher range of emotions and the intensity of those emotions was also very high. Therefore, the amount of Origin Energy one would gain from harvesting the emotions of humanoid beings was much larger compared to plant-based harvesting of emotions.
However, the harvest of plants’ emotions also came with its own set of advantages. First of all, these emotions did not have a strong sense of Individuality within them. It meant that these emotions and the Origin Energy that was stirred because of them could be easily claimed by someone with the right set of tools and environments.
Secondly, unlike the humanoid beings, the Origin Energy output generated by the plants was much more uniform throughout the span of their active consciousness. The humanoid beings felt emotions to the extreme, reaching lows and highs at the short span of time before returning back to normal. Plants on the other hand felt the emotions in an uniform manner.
What did it mean?
If a certain plant was “happy” on a certain day, this emotion would be felt by that particular plant for as long as there are no external factors that make it change that emotion. Of course, the definition of “happy” for a plant and humanoid beings was completely different.
Furthermore, the plants couldn’t identify who was the reason for this happiness on a conscious level. At least most couldn’t. As such, these emotions were sort of like free-to-take for everyone who came in contact with them.
After all, a flower wouldn’t care if you are ugly or beautiful, thin or fat, male or female. It would exude fragrance to everyone who was present near it. Although the way of the intent-based harvest was a bit more complicated than the analogy, it wasn’t far from it.
It meant that Aksai didn’t need to actively stir the emotions of plants within his vicinity. As long as the emotions of plants present within his vicinity weren’t claimed by another druid with the same ability, he would not face any problem in claiming the Origin Energy generated.
That being said, Aksai could promote a healthy growth of his plants inside the Everwood Farm if he wanted to increase the efficiency of the intent-based harvest.
He could use Spirit spells and participate in the growth of the plants in an active or passive level to make a sizable gain per day.
***
A few hours later.
Aksai slowly opened his eyes inside the inn room, blinking away the grogginess that came from sitting in meditation for so long.
His body felt oddly refreshed, yet his mind still buzzed with lingering thoughts about everything Yelia had told him. Glancing around the small room, he noticed how the early light of dawn had started to filter in through the thin curtains.
He stretched, shaking off the stiffness in his legs, and stood up. With purposeful steps, he made his way to the window and drew the curtains aside.
The sun had just risen, casting a golden glow over the town.
“I am not far from Haan Di’s core zone,” he murmured to himself.
Aksai realized that he had been immersed in his meditation until the dawn of the next day. Time seemed to have flown by without his notice.
Feeling a sense of clarity, he dressed quickly and left the inn. His first stop was a local emporium known for its variety of cultivation resources.
This was the best part about Haan Di. There were shops for all kinds of cultivation resources readily available everywhere. No wonder this city-state was called a holy place for all the drifting Spirit cultivators.
As he entered the shop, the smell of dried herbs and rare minerals filled his nostrils. The shelves were lined with all sorts of treasures: jars filled with Spirit plants, powders, and mysterious glowing crystals.
Aksai walked up to the counter, nodding at the shopkeeper who greeted him with a knowing smile. “You’re back, I see. Need more resources for your alchemy?” the shopkeeper asked, clearly remembering him from past visits.
Aksai grinned. “Yes, I’ll need quite a few things today.”
Aksai wanted to check his alchemy hall inside the Everwood farm. As such, he decided to gather some resources.
He spent some time browsing through the shelves, carefully selecting a variety of cultivation resources. He picked out rare herbs and roots, which would be crucial for his upcoming alchemy experiments. Some of them were known for their healing properties, while others had potent effects on spiritual enhancement.
As he gathered everything he needed, the shopkeeper tallied the cost with wide eyes. “Quite the haul today,” he remarked, impressed by the collection.
Aksai simply nodded, knowing that what he was buying would be well worth the investment. After paying, he packed his goods into a spatial pouch and prepared to head out.
Next, he made his way to another part of the market, where traders and merchants were always eager to purchase rare Spirit plants. Aksai approached a particularly well-dressed merchant who specialized in second-order Spirit plants.
“Ah, you again,” the merchant said, a shrewd smile on his face. “Hehe. Brat, what treasures do you have for me today?”
Of course, Aksai had kept his cultivation level hidden and changed his appearance. As such, even the local vendors dared to address him casually. Aksai didn’t mind.
He pulled out a few carefully preserved second-order Spirit plants from his spatial pouch. The merchant’s eyes widened in awe at the sight of the vibrant, glowing plants.
“These are excellent specimens,” the merchant said as he carefully examined them. “Where did you even find these?”
Aksai simply shrugged. “They’re hard to come by.”
Even though the possession of 2nd-order resources was rare, it wasn’t extraordinary in Haan Di’s markets. This was because the Spirit cultivators who roamed here had the capabilities to protect themselves.
Of course, nobody particularly tried to dig deep into the origin of things that were bought and sold in local markets. As long as they were good, they could be bought and sold without any problems.
The negotiation was brief but favorable. The merchant, eager to acquire such rare goods, offered Aksai a hefty sum of Spirit stones and additional cultivation materials in exchange.
By the time the deal was done, Aksai had made a significant profit.
He pocketed the Spirit stones, feeling the weight of his earnings in his pouch, and couldn’t help but smirk at the outcome.
Aksai then started to repeat the process across various stalls and shops– buying and selling various things.
He wanted to hoard as much cultivation resources as possible so that he wouldn’t feel bored en route to the Eternal Beast Dynasty.