Chapter 47: Earth Spirit Pill

In Linglong’s residence, Su Che stared at the Flowing Cloud Golden Chalice in silence. Linglong stood nearby, waiting anxiously, having no time to ask where he had gone earlier.
There were over a dozen slender, pale golden leaves scattered in the flower pot. Although the Flowing Cloud Golden Chalice usually had more than a hundred leaves, such a loss was still quite severe!
After discussing the situation with Lao He in his mind, Su Che said to Linglong, “There’s no need to worry too much. I think this is an instinctive reaction—its way of automatically removing the most withered leaves as a form of self-protection.”
“Is it really okay?” Linglong was still uneasy.
“It should be fine,” Su Che nodded with a smile and suggested, “But these days are crucial. It’s best to bring it to my place so I can take care of it at any time.”
“That’s good.”
After thinking for a moment, Linglong agreed. Then she asked, “Where were you just now? Why couldn’t anyone find you?”
“Weren’t they able to find me in the end?” Su Che replied with a smile.
Linglong remained silent, but her gaze still held a questioning tone. As the inspector of the entire herb garden, she wasn’t easy to deceive.
Su Che knew that without a reasonable explanation, she might start to suspect him unnecessarily. So he explained, “I was practicing in a secluded place. The essence of the plants there is quite strong, making it perfect for my cultivation method… To be honest, my relationship with spirit herbs is even closer and more complex than you imagine. It’s because of this that I’m able to save this Flowing Cloud Golden Chalice.”
The explanation sounded mysterious, but Linglong nodded in agreement. After all, only he could save her spirit herb, which meant he was special. If he was special, having a bit of mystery about him was acceptable.
At that moment, Lao He was cursing under his breath in the Immortal Prison, “This worthless herb really knows how to pick the worst time to cause trouble. The first time we went to the secret cave, it caused such problems.”
“You’re just trying to shift blame,” Su Che thought to himself with a smile. “Without it, how could we have reached the second floor of the herb garden so smoothly, let alone found the secret cave…”
After that, Su Che took the Flowing Cloud Golden Chalice to his thatched cottage, claiming it was so he could take care of it at any time. In reality, he already had fifteen spirit herbs, so he didn’t need to frequent the second floor of the herb garden anymore.

That night, they added some Immortal Prison Warm Currents to nourish the Flowing Cloud Golden Chalice. Lao He was confident that this spiritual herb was developing in a positive direction and there was no need to worry. So, early the next morning, Su Che found an excuse to leave the spiritual herb garden and return to the residence area for outer disciples, where he met Lei Xiao.

In the pavilion in the air at the edge of the cliff, as soon as Lei Xiao saw Su Che, he asked, “Where have you been these days? I’ve looked for you several times, but you weren’t there.”

“I’ve been taking care of the plants in the spiritual herb garden,” Su Che replied softly.

“You’ve become the steward disciple of the herb garden?” Lei Xiao was shocked. Even he and his cousin hadn’t managed to get that position!

Seeing Su Che nod, Lei Xiao became even more curious about his background. Perhaps his backers were even more powerful than the Lei family.

“I need your help with something,” Su Che said in a low voice.

“Go ahead,” Lei Xiao nodded. “If I can do it, I’ll definitely give it my all.”

“I want to exchange mid-grade spiritual herbs that are five hundred years old for ‘Earth Spirit Pills.’ Do you have any good ideas?” Su Che asked.

“How many do you want to exchange?”

“The more, the better!”

Lei Xiao lowered his voice and asked, “So, you can provide more than one spiritual herb?”

Su Che nodded gently.

“You’re really resourceful!” Lei Xiao widened his eyes and said exaggeratorily, “Mid-grade spiritual herbs that are five hundred years old can fetch at least five thousand spirit stones. Brother, I get it now—you’re the real wealthy one!”

Su Che shook his head with a smile. “I’m just a messenger. The real owner of those spiritual herbs is an elder in the herb garden. But this matter must remain a secret; that’s why I came to you for help.”

“Understood. It’s normal for such things to happen.” Lei Xiao gave him a look that everyone understood—he truly thought Su Che’s elder must be some important figure in the spiritual herb garden who was taking advantage of his position for personal gain.

The “Earth Spirit Pills” mentioned by Su Che were high-grade pills. Generally, cultivators in the Foundation Establishment stage wouldn’t dare use such expensive pills in their regular training, only in critical moments.

Not only did these pills have an extremely significant effect on enhancing cultivation power, but they also had another advantage: their medicinal power was pure with few side effects, and long-term use wouldn’t affect future Foundation Establishment. That’s why Su Che was determined to use these pills to assist his cultivation. Though it was an extremely luxurious act, even the true disciples of Tianxuan Sect couldn’t enjoy such treatment for long.

Lei Xiao certainly didn’t expect that the Earth Spirit Pill was meant for Su Che to take himself. It would be more plausible if the big shot from the Spirit Herb Garden had such a need. After pondering for a while, Lei Xiao said, “A single Earth Spirit Pill is worth about 200 spirit stones. I think one medium-grade spirit herb with a 500-year-old medicinal spirit can exchange for at least 30 Earth Spirit Pills. Anything less would be a loss for you.” “Thirty in exchange—acceptable,” Su Che nodded. “If this ratio is acceptable, I believe our Lei family can provide dozens of Earth Spirit Pills. More would require time to gather,” Lei Xiao said. “As you know, even cultivators in the Foundation Establishment stage only take Earth Spirit Pills during their breakthroughs and don’t keep many on hand.” Su Che calculated that dozens of Earth Spirit Pills would suffice for his needs for a year, so he nodded and said, “Alright, let’s exchange for two first.” After saying that, he pretended to take out two spirit herbs from the herb bag, but in reality, they were taken from the Immortal Prison. The appearance of these two herbs left Lei Xiao stunned—they weren’t harvested herbs but living plants still covered in soil! “They’re still alive. How about that? Fresh enough?” Su Che smirked oddly. “Fresh? Truly fresh!” Lei Xiao shook his head, his expression complex. “Just dug them up from the garden?” “Of course!” Su Che laughed. “I’ve left them with you. Let me know once you get the Earth Spirit Pills.” “Okay.” Lei Xiao nodded, appearing calm on the surface but secretly moved. These two herbs were worth 10,000 spirit stones—a huge fortune for any outer disciple. Many would go to extreme lengths, even kill, for such wealth. Yet Su Che trusted him so much, leaving them there without even asking for a written receipt. Such trust might not be earned even after decades of friendship… “Well, for his trust, I must do this job perfectly!” Lei Xiao thought to himself. … Just two days later, Su Che received 60 Earth Spirit Pills from Lei Xiao. Both parties were satisfied with the deal. Lei Xiao also suggested that in three months, the Lei family wanted to trade again, hoping to obtain two Silver Beard Herbs that were at least 500 years old. Silver Beard Herbs were also medium-grade spirit herbs. Although there weren’t any in the Immortal Prison, Lao He remembered clearly that there were a few in the Secret Herb Garden. However, no such herbs had been transplanted yesterday.

Meeting Lei Xiao’s request, Su Che returned to his thatched cottage in the herb garden and immediately took a Earth Spirit Pill, a Bone Cleansing Pill, and a Qi Condensing Pill, then sat down on the cultivation array to begin practicing. The Earth Spirit Pill had pure medicinal power that did not conflict with the effects of other pills, so the Bone Cleansing Pill and Qi Condensing Pill could still be taken as usual. However, since the Earth Spirit Pill was a high-grade pill, Su Che’s cultivation level was too low; it would take him five to seven days to fully digest and absorb its effects after taking just one. Thus, sixty Earth Spirit Pills would be sufficient for him to use throughout the year. Such an extravagant cultivation method yielded surprising results—after just one night of practice, Su Che had absorbed a fraction of the power from one Earth Spirit Pill, yet he could already feel a significant improvement in his cultivation level, equivalent to the effect of practicing for five or six days in a row! “Lao Hei, see? This is what speed really looks like!” Su Che was excited. “With the Earth Spirit Pill, our previous cultivation speed was as slow as a turtle crawling.” “Yeah, this speed is much more satisfying now,” Lao Hei said, also delighted, though still a bit greedy. “It’s a shame we can’t refine pills. Exchanging spirit herbs for pills isn’t very cost-effective.” Su Che replied, “It’s obvious that refining pills oneself is the most cost-effective. But the problem is that only high-level alchemists are qualified to work with the high-grade spirit herbs in this secret herb garden. If one isn’t skilled enough, producing useless pills would be an even greater waste.” “It would be great if we could capture a high-level alchemist and lock them in the Immortal Prison,” Lao Hei said dreamily. “Stop dreaming,” Su Che said dismissively. “High-level alchemists are at least at the Foundation Establishment stage. They could kill us with just a spit. How could we possibly capture them?” “It’s good to have dreams…” Lao Hei prayed to the heavens. “May heaven bless me with an alchemist who’s severely injured, on the verge of death, and completely unable to resist, so we can capture him and lock him in the Immortal Prison… Oh, and the higher their alchemy skills, the better…”