Chapter 92 Chapter 92 Merit
Because of these small gourds, Lin Xinghuo kept postponing his trip to the flea market to find Tan Yuemei to admire her precious collection.
Fortunately, the two small green and purple gourds at the back brought more surprises: a mountain-shaped green seed poured out of the green gourd, and directly sprouted in Lin Xinghuo's palm with the help of her pure wood spirit, and it turned out to be a "Chi Mu"; and in the purple gourd that greedily ate several small thunder dragons of Wu Nian was a "Thunder God Tendon" as thin as a silk thread.
As the saying goes, "A dragon cannot ascend to heaven without a ruler-wood tree." While the ruler-wood tree is a spiritual object, it's actually an exotic plant. While it's highly useful to spirits like Longjia, who possess a trace of true dragon blood, it's less useful to other demonic and human cultivators. The ruler-wood tree hatched from the gourd was only of the upper Huang rank, still some distance from the Xuan rank. However, exotic plant grading can't be completely categorized by cultivator, and the ruler-wood tree's relatively low rank means it grows faster. After being transplanted to the prime spiritual field in the backyard, the ruler-wood tree quickly grew into a squat, mountain-like bush, its branches forming the shape of several overlapping hills.
A leafless and flowerless sapwood tree, its branches stained like ink, stood in a corner of the spiritual field, resembling a series of crested mountains, one upon another, a truly fascinating sight. Wu Nian, carrying a flower hoe, passed by, ignoring the red dragonfly grinding against the sapwood tree. He casually broke off a few tender, mountain-like branches and, expressionlessly, stuffed them into his mouth, chewing them like biscuits, a crisp, crunchy mess.
Longjia's wings trembled twice. The tentacles on his head had already begun to keratinize. Originally, they were merely forked tentacles, somewhat resembling deer antlers. Now, thanks to Chimu, who honed them daily, never retreating even when his tail curled in pain and bleeding, they had finally transformed into dragon horns. However, since his dragon blood had become more refined, the look in the eyes of their village chief, Wunian, when he looked at his "horns" had become increasingly terrifying. Whenever Wunian offered Chimu branches as a snack, Longjia felt that what he really wanted was his newly formed "dragon horns."
It remembered that when Wu Nian transformed, it threw its shed tentacles into the furnace to help the caracal, but it instead aroused the caracal's ferocity and almost cost it its life... Long Jia trembled again. It felt that Wu Nian might not be talking nonsense. He might really be the descendant of the legendary mythical beast, the rabbit-shaped beast, which is small in size but can kill dragons and eat them!
But every other spirit beast believed Long Jia's guess. They all thought that Wu Nian must be a thunder beast, otherwise he would not like to eat thunder tendons so much.
The Thunder God Tendon is a threadlike vine that grows from the smallest purple gourd. Despite its small size, it can soak in water and produce a purple vegetable that wouldn't even fit in a water tank. This spiritual plant isn't found on Lin Xinghuo's wooden plaque, nor in the heritage of other spirits. Despite Lin Xinghuo's natural affinity for spiritual plants, her identification skills are surprisingly useless against a single one. Only Wu Nian recognized it. It seems to be a spiritual vegetable cultivated by their clan in ancient times specifically for their children.
This thing is very difficult to maintain, and can only grow and survive in thunder and lightning, not in soil or water. Fortunately, a fingernail-sized piece of vine can be pinched and soaked in spiritual water to make a pot of it, which can provide Wu Nian with a large appetite. The denser the thunderclouds, the more intense the lightning, and the faster the thunder god tendons grow, Lin Xinghuo has left the task of raising the thunder god vine to Wu Nian himself.
During this time, they also discovered a secret about the small gourds on the treasure gourd vine: these gourds ignored their rank and could accept any spiritual object of the same attribute. For example, the purple gourd contained thunder, the yellow gourd contained spiritual earth, and Lin Xinghuo could store pure wood spiritual energy in the green gourd.
As for the largest and best quality orange gourd, it was cracked by the Soul-Returning Tree's budding growth and can now only be used as a gourd. However, this orange gourd also possesses the most unique ability. It possesses the attributes of water and fire, and although water and fire are mutually exclusive, the orange gourd is worthy of being the precious gourd that can nurture the Soul-Returning Tree. It possesses a trace of chaotic energy, surprisingly containing both pure water and fire spiritual energy.
That's right, gourds can not only absorb spiritual objects of the same attributes, but also purify their quality. Now, Zhu Longdan has been clinging to Lin Xinghuo's natal spiritual vine for half a day, and has been nestling in half of the orange gourd to nourish himself.
After Qingji, who had benefited from the Soul-Returning Tree and reached a higher level, used his innate magical powers to "cast a spell" on the other gourds and successfully gave the yellow, green and purple gourds the spatial attribute, the orange and blue gourd that broke into two halves was even more regrettable.
As a result, Lin Xinghuo was also caught in a "sweet dilemma". It was known that the gourd produced by this treasure gourd vine, whose species is now unknown, can give birth to ancient spiritual plants, and the spiritual objects inside need to be "watered" with spiritual energy before the gourd matures: if too little is given, for example, the ruler wood, which comes out of the gourd is just a seed. If Lin Xinghuo is a pure wood spiritual root, and he did not make a prompt decision and spared no wood spiritual energy to make it germinate the moment the seed saw the light of day, I am afraid that this one ruler wood seed would have quickly turned black and died; if as much as possible is given, it will be like the Soul-Returning Tree and the Thunder God Tendon, and the spiritual plants will have begun to germinate and grow in the gourd. The Thunder God Tendon did not burst the purple gourd because of its small body, and the orange-blue gourd that was broken in two by the Soul-Returning Tree was a normal situation.
Too much spiritual energy would damage the gourd, while too little could cause the spiritual seeds to quickly die after being exposed. After all, these plants grew in ancient times when spiritual energy was abundant, so it was normal for them to be unsuited to the thin spiritual energy that had just been revived. The spiritual plants growing in the gourd were always more vigorous and resistant than the spiritual seeds.
But it is extremely difficult to make the golden moss grow just like the one in the yellow gourd. This is also due to the fact that Wu Nian's thunder spirit root is formed by water and soil. Therefore, his earth spirit energy is not pure, which is why he accidentally made the golden moss just sprout.
However, it's too early to worry about this dilemma. Since the gourds matured, the treasure gourd vine has entered a 'hibernating' recovery phase, similar to the Jinglian after it blooms and sets seeds. This time, the gourd vine dropped a small grade, from the ultimate Xuan-grade to the upper grade, but the main vine grew three feet and one inch. Clearly, it will produce even more gourds next time... While the gourd vine hasn't developed any intelligence, Lin Xinghuo, with his affinity for wood, can sense some of the situation. Knowing the gourd vine is safe, he carefully nurtured it with wood spirit energy, Jinglian water, and Xuan-grade soil. When it regains its grade, it will be time to produce fruit again.
That would take at least eight to ten years, right? Lin Xinghuo pondered. Ever since she began cultivating, her time had been stretched and shortened at the same time. For example, it was normal for spiritual plants and creatures to grow a leaf every eight to ten years. Yet, countless things reminded her of the brevity of time, such as Tan Yuemei's invitation, which she had turned down several times, and Wu Nian's upcoming college entrance examination in 1977 or 1988.
This exam left Lin Xinghuo no time to ponder those fruitless questions: What is a gourd vine? Why can a gourd nurture a long-lost ancient spiritual plant? How did she come across such a rare gourd vine? What merit did she have to cultivate this treasure?
The more she comprehended, the more bewildered she became. Just as Lin Xinghuo finally let go of these groundless concerns, her long-struck state of mind unexpectedly improved. Her mind felt clearer than ever before, and the breakthrough she had experienced during the Nine Days and Nine Nights Minor Realm unexpectedly attracted a thunderbolt. This thunderbolt wasn't a thunder tribulation; it was relatively common and easily resisted by cultivators. Generally, it struck when one refined an elixir or artifact, or achieved a perfect breakthrough within a minor realm. This type of thunderbolt generally rewarded and benefited the cultivator and their artifact. But the thunder Lin Xinghuo had summoned was a five-elemental thunderbolt with a specific attribute, fire. That day, amidst the pouring rain, fire descended upon the West Garden. The thunderbolt resembled the glimpse of the celestial-destroying red lotus of karmic fire that Wu Nian had been fortunate enough to glimpse in his bloodline inheritance. It nearly incinerated Lin Xinghuo's pure wood.
That night, Xiyuan was completely unprepared. Fortunately, Wu Nian and Lin Xinghuo had a contract, and he absorbed most of the damage for her, allowing Lin Xinghuo, whose soul was struck by the fire catastrophe, to achieve nirvana in the rain and flames. Fortunately, Lin Xinghuo's heart was pure and practical, allowing her to grasp a little bit of obscure spiritual light as her blood and bones melted: merit!
It was as if the heavens whispered in her ear, saying that the good fortune she had received today was the result of her merit, and that great merit would bring karmic rewards... The chatter, the clamor, the sound of incantations and the chanting of Buddhist scriptures were endless. Lin Xinghuo almost lost herself in it, and as she grasped the contract with Wu Nian as an anchor to pull herself back, the only word she remembered was "merit."
For cultivators, earning merit is neither difficult nor difficult. If one were to retreat to the mountains, it would naturally be extremely difficult, but if one were to live in seclusion in the city, the more people one interacted with, the easier it would be to gain merit. For cultivators like Lin Xinghuo, who had integrated the immortal path with ordinary life, merit was not a big deal; they just had to avoid any negative consequences.
On July 20th, when Lin Xinghuo was waiting outside Wu Nian's examination room, a small golden dot of merit floated slowly from the horizon in the direction of the examination room. This weak golden light was actually the merit given to Wu Nian by the heaven in return for his participation in the college entrance examination?
Lin Xinghuo didn't know what to say. She also got a little bit when the college entrance examination results were announced last year, but it was not as big as Wu Nian's.
"Perhaps Lin Beiguo can also gain some merit by going to school?" Lin Xinghuo thought in a chaotic manner. She seemed to have grasped some rules, and there was a hint of something in the fog.
The ringing of the bell for collecting papers quickly interrupted her thoughts. Men, women, young and old, who were waiting at the gate like her, all rushed to the gate, anxiously waiting for their husbands, wives, children and even parents to come out of the examination room.
Lin Xinghuo had to lift up Lin Beiguo, who was running around with her neck stretched out in her arms. The chubby Lin Beiguo was wearing a small straw hat with a flower edge woven by her father. Her little white and glowing face was like an indicator light. She waved her fat hands excitedly to wave to Wu Nian.
Two, three, and three other foxes were nestled in the small, rectangular bag she slung across her chest. This bag, similar to the basket on Lin Xinghuo's bicycle, looked small, but it could hold the chubby fox cubs. Wu Nian and Lin Xinghuo went to great lengths to keep the little foxes together, ensuring they stayed together.
When Lin Beiguo noticed her panic, she immediately grabbed the small bag on her chest with her little hands so that her sister and brother who were inside could see it.
"Oh, why are you giving your child mice to play with?" A tall man nearby noticed that there seemed to be two mouse-sized things looking out of the little baby's small bag, and he immediately took two steps away, causing the people around him to complain.
Due to the laws of space, the things in the storage box appear to have shrunk from the outside. The two fat cubs, Fox Two and Fox Three, staying inside look like two little mice.
Lin Xinghuo quickly took the child back into his arms. Hu Da hugged his small schoolbag tightly. The two similar pairs of eyes, one big and one small, looked at the big guy vigilantly, as if they were afraid that he would snatch it away.
The man snorted, thinking to himself, "I think it's dirty, but I'm not afraid of getting sick by letting my child play with it." But he was a kind man, and with a quick turn, he used his strong arms to wave away the two little lepers who were taking advantage of the women in the crowded crowd.
The man had noticed the mother and daughter stood out in the crowd, their brightly dressed and decent-looking. He was worried the thugs mingling with them would take advantage of them, so he leaned over and shooed away the flies. But it was clear the thugs were being discerning about their status, not wanting to make a move on a woman who was clearly well-connected. He sweated profusely, and was even startled by the rat in the kid's bag.
"Fourth Brother Chang! Over here, over here, my cousin is over here!" Lin Xinghuo heard a familiar voice. It was Tan Yuemei calling.
The big guy responded with a voice like thunder.
At the same time, Wu Nian also came up to them. He clasped his hands together to create some space for the mother and daughter.
"How did you do in the exam?" Lin Xinghuo asked directly.
Chang Si stopped as he was about to squeeze out and turned to look at this inconsiderate person. How could he ask this at this time?
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The author has something to say: Do you remember Boss Chang from the black market in Selangor Province? Xinghuo bought the gourd from him.
Note:
Chimu: "A dragon has an object on its head, shaped like a mountain called Boshan, called Chimu. Without Chimu, a dragon cannot ascend to heaven."
"Lun Heng: Long Xu" says that a dragon ascends to heaven from a tree. Those who wrote short books, ordinary people, saw that when thunder and lightning struck, a dragon rose with it. When the thunder and lightning struck the tree, the dragon happened to be beside the tree with the thunder and lightning. When the thunder and lightning disappeared, the dragon followed and rose up. Therefore, it is said that it ascended to heaven from the tree.
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