Chapter 28

The “Blood Servant Technique” used the spiritual planter’s own blood to nurture and stimulate highly aggressive spirit plant seeds. The spirit plants would then be raised like spirit beasts, kept at one’s side as servants to be commanded.

However, spirit plants grew very slowly, and their intelligence was far inferior to spirit beasts or demonic beasts. Moreover, practicing this technique required extremely high comprehension and mental control from the planter, as well as strong ability in nurturing spirit plants. Because of this, very few people had ever successfully cultivated the Blood Servant Technique.

Even those who succeeded could raise at most two or three spirit plants as servants. Raising more was simply impossible.

Furthermore, once this technique was mastered, the spirit plants raised would grow by absorbing their master’s spiritual power and blood, which was completely different from spirit beasts. Therefore, even if people discovered this technique, very few were willing to try it themselves.

According to Liu Ting’er’s memories, someone from their town who once practiced this technique had later abandoned it and switched to another method.

But for Chun Chou, this technique might actually be possible.

Since it required blood to nurture the plants—and for Chun Chou, his greatest cheat at the moment was precisely his own blood.

In fact, in order not to appear too strange, Chun Chou even had to dilute his blood before using it to stimulate growth or save dying spirit plants.

Holding the peanut-sized seed of the man-eating flower in his hand, Chun Chou played with it for a moment before making up his mind.

Following the contract formation described in the Blood Servant Technique, he chose an empty room. Biting his right index finger, he carefully drew the formation with his blood according to the instructions in the book.

Of course, before that he had practiced drawing it several times on paper with a brush before finally succeeding in drawing it with his own blood.

When he finished the final stroke, the lines drawn in blood across the room began faintly emitting a red “blood light.”

Chun Chou: “…”

This looked a bit eerie and terrifying… Could this be some evil cultivator’s technique?

He scratched his head and thought about it. Right now, with sects and great families monopolizing most resources, it was impossible for him to obtain any good cultivation techniques anyway. In that case, he might as well continue practicing the Blood Servant Technique.

Following the instructions, Chun Chou placed the man-eating flower seed into a bowl that had never been used before. He sat across from it.

According to the book, the master should bleed until the entire bowl was filled, completely submerging the seed.

But considering that his blood was unusually special, Chun Chou didn’t dare fill the whole bowl with it. Instead, he only filled one third with his own blood and used spirit spring water for the rest.

If it didn’t work, he could always bleed again tomorrow night, he thought.

Then Chun Chou placed a spirit stone at the eye of the formation. As the formation activated, the red light intensified, continuously emitting a faint bloody glow. Chun Chou sat cross-legged in his designated position and began cultivating.

Downstairs, Ling Wuji suddenly opened his eyes.

He immediately used his spiritual sense to control himself to move outside, activating both the defensive array and the isolation array of the residence.

Only then did he “stand” in the courtyard and look up toward the room on the second floor.

The blood-red light seemed to penetrate the windows and walls, glowing faintly and giving off a slightly sinister atmosphere.

But upon closer sensing, the aura leaking from the room was not the abnormal power used by evil cultivators, but the pure spiritual energy of orthodox cultivators.

Moreover, that spiritual energy was extremely pure and clear.

Standing in the courtyard, Ling Wuji fell into thought.

After all, Chun Chou indeed had mixed spiritual roots, yet his cultivation speed had never been slow. The techniques he used were also noticeably stronger than those of others.

Was Chun Chou really someone with the most unsuitable mixed spiritual roots?

Canglan City – City Lord’s Mansion

The City Lord of Canglan City, dressed in white, was lying casually on the highest rooftop of the mansion with her hands behind her head, looking up at the moon.

Rarely, she was not drinking today.

When Ling You climbed up onto the rooftop, he was so frightened his heart almost stopped.

Seeing his cowardly appearance, the City Lord snorted lightly.

Ling You felt aggrieved but didn’t dare say anything.

He carefully walked across the rooftop toward her. It took him nearly a quarter of an hour before he reached a spot three steps away from her, where he hurriedly stopped, not daring to get closer.

“Aunt, why aren’t you cultivating again? Why are you up here looking at the moon? Here, I brought you some spirit wine—um, I took it from your storehouse. The steward said you like this one.”

The City Lord took the wine gourd but didn’t drink it. She continued staring at the sky and said casually:

“Who told you I was looking at the moon? I’m looking at the sky.”

Ling You was even more confused.

“What’s so interesting about the sky? Everyone says that with your talent, Aunt, if you cultivated properly, advancing to the Nascent Soul (or even higher) stage would only be a matter of time. Why don’t you go into seclusion to cultivate? As for Canglan City, it’s already a city that’s been abandoned anyway. There’s nothing worth guarding here.”

The City Lord simply replied:

“I’m waiting to see when the sky collapses.”

Ling You: “…”

He truly couldn’t understand what the City Lord was thinking.

Fortunately, she didn’t expect him to understand either. She simply continued playing with the wine gourd and looking up at the moon—or perhaps the sky.

Scratching his head, Ling You then told her about his interactions with Chun Chou earlier that day.

First, he asked her to help register both him and Chun Chou for the Guiyuan Sword Sect competition.

Second, he genuinely couldn’t understand how Chun Chou had managed to advance as a spiritual planter. The things Chun Chou did didn’t resemble the usual methods required for spiritual planters’ cultivation at all.

“…So, Aunt, should I keep following him to learn? If I keep learning from him, can my spiritual planter rank really improve? If not, wouldn’t I just be wasting this period of time?”

The City Lord finally gave him a glance and said lightly:

“If you don’t follow him, can you improve your spiritual planter rank?”

Ling You: “…”

That hit too close to home.

The City Lord returned to gazing at the moon.

“Since you can’t improve anyway, you might as well try following him. It’s only a few months at most… Hmm?”

She suddenly sat up and looked toward a certain direction in Canglan City.

Then the familiar red blood-light disappeared, as if it had only been her imagination.

The City Lord frowned slightly and calculated with her fingers.

Unfortunately, she still couldn’t divine anything.

Just like the past seventeen years.

The City Lord sighed softly. Forget it—if that person wanted to hide something or someone, how could they possibly find it? Although she was the City Lord of Canglan City, if she truly tried to search, she might have one or two chances of finding it. But that might not be what that person wanted.

Since that person wanted to keep it hidden, then let it remain as they wished.

The City Lord lay back down again and looked up at the sky.

She wanted to see exactly when the sky would finally collapse.

Beside her, Ling You saw nothing and noticed nothing. He scratched his head again. He felt that his aunt’s words also made sense. With his own comprehension, he might not advance to a second-rank spirit planter even after another ten or eight years. It would be better to follow Chun Chou for a while. If he advanced, that would be great; if not, he wouldn’t really lose anything either.

The next morning, Chun Chou finally finished his cultivation.

Looking at the man-eating flower seed in front of him, he could already sense it. He could feel that the seed was excited and was very close to him.

Chun Chou was slightly surprised. He took out the Blood Servant Technique again and checked the records inside. According to the book, the seed shouldn’t react this quickly. At least three days were needed before there would be a faint response, and half a month before a true connection could be felt. Only after three to five months of nurturing could one confirm whether the spirit seed had truly become a blood servant.

Chun Chou: “…”

So his blood really was a cheat after all?

The corner of his mouth twitched. Looking at the seed, which seemed to have turned slightly red, he thought that since it had soaked in blood all night, this was probably normal. He stopped worrying about it, went downstairs to check his other spirit plants, check on his boyfriend, eat breakfast, and then go to work.

Chun Chou: “…”

Although he loved raising spirit plants, the thought that he also had to raise spirit plants at work suddenly made it feel less enjoyable.

The spirit plants raised during work seemed to carry a certain “work smell.”

Ling Wuji’s injuries recovered very quickly.

Chun Chou was quite surprised when he saw it.

Ling Wuji himself had a few guesses. One reason was that he had taken a bath yesterday. The other was what Chun Chou had been doing while cultivating last night.

After closing the arrays last night, Ling Wuji had also cultivated just like Chun Chou. He faintly felt that the spiritual energy in the air yesterday had been more abundant and solid than usual. Even now, it was still far more abundant than normal.

Looking at Chun Chou, who seemed completely unaware, Ling Wuji thought to himself: could it be that his Chun Chou had some kind of special constitution? His spiritual roots were poor, but perhaps his physique compensated for it.

Chun Chou, however, had no idea what Ling Wuji was thinking. After checking Ling Wuji’s wounds, the two of them ate together, and then Chun Chou went to work at the City Lord’s Mansion.

Sure enough, for the next few days Ling You followed Chun Chou everywhere. He didn’t even manage his own spirit fields anymore. Instead, he simply hired Chun Chou to perform the three farming techniques on his fields every day so he could watch one more time.

Chun Chou: “…”

Well, since he was earning spirit stones, this arrangement wasn’t bad.

On the seventh day, Chun Chou faintly felt that the man-eating flower seed had become quite different from before. When he tried to sense it, the seed responded to him, saying that it seemed to have mutated and could become even stronger. Its master just needed to wait a little longer.

Mutated spirit seeds were extremely rare, so Chun Chou was naturally willing to wait.

That day was also the last day Ling You followed Chun Chou.

Ling You felt quite disappointed because although he had followed Chun Chou for several days, he still hadn’t found any “shortcut” to advancing to a second-rank spirit planter.

Chun Chou thought that Ling You had treated him very well these past few days. Ling You had said he would only give him the spirit-plant books after everything was finished, but in reality he had already been bringing them over little by little, claiming that his storage pouch was too small and he had to move them slowly.

Today Ling You even gave him the jade token confirming their successful registration for the Guiyuan Sword Sect competition.

After thinking for a moment, Chun Chou said to Ling You:

“I really don’t have any special trick. But I think spending time with spirit plants in the fields might also be helpful. When I go home every day, I also use… the growth-stimulating technique on my own spirit herb field. Even the plants in my courtyard are spirit plants.”

Ling You immediately caught the key point.

“Growth-stimulating technique?”

Chun Chou nodded.

“Normally in our work, the growth technique is enough. The growth-stimulating technique consumes far too much spiritual power. Using it once is equivalent to using the growth technique, metal technique, and rain technique together. But the first technique I learned was the growth technique, and my family lacked spirit stones. So when I was at home, I would still use it on my small herb field, hoping the herbs would grow faster and sell for a good price. If there’s any ‘secret’ I can tell you, it’s probably just this.”

Ling You listened and suddenly felt like he had discovered the difference between himself and Chun Chou. Delighted, he said:

“That must be it! Chun Chou, you’re so nice to tell me this! Here—these are all copies of books related to spirit plants. Take them!”

He threw down a storage pouch and immediately ran away.

Chun Chou didn’t even have time to stop him.

Such a lively young boy reminded him of his younger brothers and sisters.

And it also reminded him of his past life.

Back then he had been an orphan, but he had no burdens. He could do whatever he wanted by himself, lively and carefree.

Thinking about it now, those days didn’t seem so bad either.

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