Chapter 206: More Tragic Than Expected
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The spirit beast needed to be tied up for eighty-one days this time. Each day, it would have to consume a hundred spirit stones. That meant a total of 8,100 spirit stones.
Jiang Hao checked his storage treasure and confirmed that he had enough spirit stones before heading to the Spirit Herb Garden.
“Remember… don’t move around,” he said.
“Master, you can trust me with this,” said the beast with a mouthful of spirit stones.
Jiang Hao certainly didn’t trust the beast. He had already prepared to prevent such accidents. If the beast didn’t follow the procedure, he would lose a lot of spirit stones this time.
With his current financial situation, he couldn’t afford such losses.
After six days, Jiang Hao saw Cheng Chou in the Spirit Herb Garden. He had returned!
“Did you find anything?” he asked.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have any good news,” said Cheng Chou.
Jiang Hao sighed. Although he had expected it, he still felt a little sad. He had sent Cheng Chou to find out about Lin Zhi’s mother.
According to Lin Zhi, his mother was seriously ill and couldn’t afford treatment. After Lin Zhi entered the Heavenly Note Sect, he intended to save money to help his mother.
Although the chance of her being alive was slim, there was still hope.
“Tell me everything,” Jiang Hao said.
“Junior Brother Lin’s family is very ordinary. They rely on his mother to do odd jobs to make ends meet. His mother made great efforts to send him to a private school and taught him a few words. But his mother fell ill, so he dropped out of school and helped out at home. He has been working hard to earn money for the family, hoping to cure his mother’s illness. But no matter how many treatments they tried, there was no improvement. Later, when the sect started recruiting disciples, the village sent several children in a group. Lin Zhi was among them.”
“After sending Lin Zhi away, his mother started taking care of the housework. Some people said they saw her in good spirits and thought her condition had improved a lot. Occasionally, they would greet her and praise her. If Lin Zhi managed to become a senior disciple, their lives would finally get better. His mother always smiled at that. She cared for Lin Zhi and wanted him to have a quiet and peaceful life. She did some small chores, exchanging them for some grains and saving up some food. No one paid much attention to her until a month later, when the group that had gone to the Heavenly Note Sect recruitment drive returned. It was then that everyone realized that Lin Zhi had gotten into the sect.”
“Someone informed Lin’s mother. She smiled as she handed them some food, saying she could finally be at peace. The person who delivered the message didn’t pay much attention to it. The next day, many people came to visit. Those who knew about her illness brought along famous doctors from the city to check on her. However…”
Cheng Chou fell silent for a moment. “They realized that Lin Zhi’s mother had passed away. According to the examination by the doctor at the scene, she had long been terminally ill and beyond help. She had persisted solely by sheer willpower and waited for her child to become a disciple before letting go.” Jiang Hao was silent. He felt a little sentimental. “What about his father?”
“Not long after Lin Zhi was born, his father went hunting in the woods and never came back. Lin Zhi was raised by his mother alone. It must have been difficult,” said Cheng Chou sadly. He hesitated. “Should we inform Junior Brother Lin about his mother?”
Jiang Hao shook his head. “No need. He will find out when he returns. We don’t need to intervene.”
It had been over a year and informing him now would be of no use. It might only make him sad and affect his cultivation.
Jiang Hao gave Cheng Chou some Lifeblood Refining Pills.
“Refine your cultivation well. Soon, you can advance to the Foundation Establishment Realm.”
Upon hearing this, Cheng Chou was overjoyed.
“I’ve already prepared Foundation Establishment Pills. I’ll give them to you when you’re ready,” Jiang Hao said.
A Foundation Establishment Pill would ensure the success of advancing toward the Foundation Establishment Realm. Luckily, Jiang Hao had one. It had a mark on it so he didn’t risk selling it.
However, he could give it to Cheng Chou.
Jiang Hao then waited for Bai Ye’s arrival.
Three days later, the people from the Hundred Bones Forest arrived. This time, the one in charge of the handover of the spirit herbs was Lian Qin.
“I heard that the requirements have changed. If there is anything wrong, you can tell us. If you find something later, you can tell me about it then. We’ll wholeheartedly cooperate. Also, you don’t need to worry about spirit stones. We aren’t like a certain branch that likes to dupe people, after all,” said Lian Qin with a smile.
After the incident with the Candlelight Pill Pavilion, everyone liked to bring it up and mock them. However, there was an advantage to it. No one dared to pull something like that ever again.
“What are you talking about, Senior Sister Lian? How could our branch ever do something like that again? It was just a mistake last time,” said Lian Daozhi, who had come to handle some matters. He looked dissatisfied.
Lian Qin smiled sweetly. “I never brought up the Candlelight Pill Pavilion’s name.”
Lian Daozhi snorted and looked at Jiang Hao. “Junior Brother Jiang, are you free? We have a batch of spirit herbs that we need to plant in the Cliff of Broken Heart’s Spirit Herb Garden.”
“It was I who came first,” said Lian Qin.
Jiang Hao apologized and then roughly explained the arrangements and requirements to Lian Qin. He was wary of Bai Ye so he kept everything short and simple. He didn’t want to challenge them.
After designating an area to plant the Hundred Bones Forest’s spirit herbs, Jiang Hao turned to Lian Daozhi. “Senior Brother Lian, I’m very sorry to have made you wait this long.”
Lian Daozhi was in the Golden Core Realm. He had given Jiang Hao Black Lotuses to plant last time. Jiang Hao didn’t know what he wanted to grow this time.
“I have a batch of spirit herbs that I want to plant here for three months,” said Lian Daozhi. “But the difficulty of planting and taking care of these herbs is quite high. So, I wanted to ask you first before assigning it to you. Can you handle it, Junior Brother Jiang?”
“What kind of spirit herb is it?” Jiang Hao was quite curious.
If it was something expensive and valuable, he could even get blue bubbles from it.
He had planted some spirit herbs in his own courtyard for some bubbles, especially the Snow Lotus Flower. It was cracked so he had gotten it for cheap. However, it only spawned bubbles for a while and then stopped.
He couldn’t sell the flower because no one wanted to buv a damaged lotus. It was believed that it would bring bad luck. He had bought it for fifty spirit stones.
“It’s called Tomorrow Night Autumn Flower. It needs to be cultivated in a good spirit field and watered with spirit liquid every day. It requires a Foundation
Establishment Realm cultivator to handle the golden leaf worms on top,” Lian Daozhi said. “Our Spirit Herb Garden has encountered some small problems. It is difficult to plant them there. So, we had to find another Spirit Herb Garden that would be willing. Some other gardens have accepted some of them, but there are simply too many. The gardens couldn’t plant all of them.”
“I haven’t planted it before. You can give me a few at first,” said Jiang Hao. He didn’t refuse, but he also didn’t accept it. He wanted to see how valuable the Tomorrow Night Autumn Flower was..