However, as Yun Sheng collected more golden-yellow sand from the pearl, he began to ponder its purpose.
His first impression was that this sand should be an Advanced Spiritual Soil for planting, otherwise, why would it require fifty hours of sunlight and moonlight to be produced?
But he couldn't directly take this golden-yellow sand to the spiritual fields in the valley below for experimentation.
Because he had taken the time to inspect the spiritual fields and medicinal gardens in the valley below, and the soil there was black-red; his golden-yellow sand would be easily discovered if it appeared.
So, he wanted to get a Spiritual Plant seedling and conduct an experiment himself.
And the experiment location, well, it would be in that rock hollow; that spot was just right, very secluded.
To get a Spiritual Plant seedling, he could only find a way in the medicinal garden. At this point, Yun Sheng planned to apply to oversee the medicinal garden.
Then, he would secretly get a small seedling, plant it in the golden-yellow sand, and observe its growth.
Without delay, Yun Sheng arrived at the General Affairs Hall and handed his token to a Qi Refining cultivator.
"Senior Brother, I want to apply for the job of overseeing the medicinal garden."
This Disciple, who was likely at the fifth level of Qi Refining, glanced at Yun Sheng, then shook his head and said,
"Junior Brother, the positions for overseeing the medicinal garden and spiritual fields are currently fully staffed, and before you, there are ten other Fellow disciples who have applied."
"If you are not in a hurry, I can record your application and notify you when it's your turn."
Yun Sheng was surprised to hear that the seemingly ordinary job of overseeing spiritual fields and medicinal gardens was so popular.
There were no vacancies, and ten people had applied before him.
Actually, this was not Yun Sheng's fault, because the Yun Family's Cultivation resources were quite scarce; even the jade bottles for holding Pigu Pills were recycled.
It could be imagined that the Yun Family Disciples would fight tooth and nail for a job that paid one Spirit Stone a year.
Shaking his head, Yun Sheng took back his token and walked out of the General Affairs Hall, disappointed.
If he couldn't oversee the medicinal garden, he certainly couldn't secretly get a Spiritual Plant seedling.
If he frequently wandered around the medicinal garden in the valley, the Qi Refining Disciples overseeing it would surely be very wary.
On his way back to his living quarters, Yun Sheng decided to continue letting the pearl receive sunlight and moonlight.
The excess golden-yellow sand would be hidden in that hollow, wrapped in clothes so it wouldn't be discovered.
But this was not a long-term solution; he still had to find a way to get a Spiritual Plant seedling to experiment with.
Otherwise, if this sand wasn't some kind of Spiritual Soil, he could at least conduct other experiments.
In the following days, Yun Sheng attended classes on the mountain peak, learning the content of the fourth to sixth layers of the Golden Jade Art.
After memorizing it, he delved into the Library Hall to see if he could find a book describing the shapes of Spiritual Plants and spiritual fruits.
Since he couldn't secretly pick from the medicinal garden in the valley, he would search on Yunlan Mountain.
He didn't believe that this small mountain, five hundred zhang high and ten li in size, would have been thoroughly explored by the Yun Family Disciples.
He believed that in certain corners, Spiritual Plants might still remain.
Then he would secretly dig them up and transplant them into the golden sand.
Once they grew, he could sell this Spiritual Plant to the General Affairs Hall, and thus, he would have Spirit Stones.
It was with this idea of making money that Yun Sheng spent several days in the Library Hall, almost flipping through all the books.
Finally, he found a description of the appearance of a Spiritual Plant.
polygonatum.
This item is common in the secular world and also used in the Immortal Realm, but its age has requirements.
Only polygonatum aged thirty years or more can be used as raw Materials for Medicinal Pills for Qi Refining cultivators from the fourth to sixth layers.
Moreover, polygonatum was widely cultivated in the medicinal garden in the valley, and some of the earliest ones were even dug from Yunlan Mountain.
Seeing these descriptions, Yun Sheng decided to look for polygonatum on Yunlan Mountain.
He directly skipped small paths or places frequently visited by Cultivators.
Fortunately, he had previously roughly explored Yunlan Mountain to find secluded spots.
Now, he followed those small paths that hadn't been walked in decades, searching through the jungle.
He hoped to find a polygonatum plant or a polygonatum seedling.
Yun Sheng set himself a three-month deadline; if he couldn't find it, he would think of another solution.
Now, he even stopped Cultivating and letting the pearl receive sunlight and moonlight, dedicating himself entirely to the great task of finding the plant.
He started searching from the peak downwards, layer by layer, of course, stealthily.
However, the Yun Family had established their sect here for over two hundred years, and this mountain peak seemed to have been searched countless times.
Yun Sheng searched for a full two months, not even seeing a trace of polygonatum.
Now, he was only seventy or eighty zhang from the foot of the mountain.
Leaning against the trunk of a eucalyptus tree as thick as an adult's arm, Yun Sheng looked at the sky through the gaps in the leaves.
To be honest, he regretted it a bit now.
He had searched for over two months with no results.
He planned to quickly finish this round of searching and then think of another method.
He stood up and grabbed a tree trunk, preparing to go down this slope, which was covered with a thick layer of decaying leaves.
Suddenly, the tree trunk he grabbed was too thin, and the leaves underfoot, soaked by rain, were very slippery.
Yun Sheng slid down the slope, hanging onto the small tree's trunk.
Fortunately, he stopped sliding less than five feet down, because Yun Sheng had grabbed the fork at the top of a small, curved, almost broken tree.
Then, he braced his left foot against the root of a small tree, temporarily stabilizing his descent.
Just as he was about to grab the small tree with both hands and climb back to his original position, he noticed that his feet had slid over a large area of decaying leaves.
And the decaying leaves were completely pushed aside, revealing the ground of the slope.
Yun Sheng, with his sharp eyes, noticed that about three inches next to where his footprints had slid, a tender seedling had broken through the soil.
The seedling was too shallow and had not been broken by the sliding decaying leaves.
And when Yun Sheng checked the roots of this seedling with his Divine Sense, he found a root system the size of a little finger underneath.
Looking at its shape, it somewhat resembled the description of a polygonatum root system.
So, Yun Sheng first climbed up from the side to stabilize himself, then found a few dry branches.
He then used the branches to push aside the decaying leaves on the slope, dug out a few footholds in the ground, and slowly descended to the suspected location of the polygonatum.
Yun Sheng thought that whether or not this seedling was polygonatum, he was going to try planting it in the golden-yellow sand, because he really didn't want to keep searching.
He first dug a circle around the seedling with a dry branch, then gradually extended it towards the root system.
He wanted to preserve more root hairs, otherwise, this seedling might not survive the transplant.
It took almost the time it takes for an incense stick to burn for Yun Sheng to dig out the seedling, and then he carefully climbed up to rest.
He still had to wait until after dark before daring to emerge from the woods onto the stone steps, then turn towards that rock hollow.
When the moon was high in the sky, Yun Sheng slowly moved to the side of the stone steps, observed for a while, then quickly darted out and ran up along the edge of the steps.
Arriving at the hollow, he first dug away the soil inside the pit, carefully moving out the golden-yellow sand wrapped in his clothes.
Then, he made a small indentation in the sand with his finger, placed the seedling into the indentation, completely covered it, leaving only a small part exposed.
After thinking for a moment, he then used his small hand to collect a few handfuls of mountain spring water from beside the rock and dripped it into the golden-yellow sand wrapped in his clothes.
Then he lay in the hollow, leaning his back against the rock to rest.